Ethan got himself a mug from Star Wars land and one morning he grabbed it off the table and somehow dropped it. It shattered on the tile floor and he was visibly upset. Ellie noticed and a little while later she had this sitting on the table. She had taken the pieces out of the garbage and did her best to glue it back together for her big brother.
time with mom's phone
Ellie and I are both in Young Women at church now. We had a fun activity where the girls were to decorate a cake as a story from the scriptures. Each group had a different story and then some leaders had to try to guess the story based on the decor of each cake.
I have a whiteboard in my office that is basically Ellie's blank canvas for whatever inspires her.
Valentine's Tea at school.
The boys had the privilege of serving and cleaning up after the girls.
I had some allergy testing done. Basically I'm allergic to everything. This doesn't look too bad, but later it was all suppose to go away instead I was itching for hours.
Literacy night combined with parent teacher conferences.
Family Photobooth
Ellie's Valentine bag for school. Naturally it's a bunny.
Cooper loves rides in the Maverick
So does Ellie
Cooper and I on a walk with an unexpected visitor.
Still so weird for me to see him so independent.
Need I say more?
We got a call from the orthodontist's office that Ellie had won the guess how many contest at the office. She was delighted.
Every once in a while I pause and have to take a breath as I find myself in the present, acknowledging reality and at the same time yearning for the past when my kids were little and dependent on my for all their needs. This was one of those moments of realizing he's that much closer to leaving the nest.
"The days are long, the years are short"
Toward the end of the month, I took a day from work to get out and enjoy the sun and the beauty of the canyon. A friend of mine and Cooper went snowshoeing up Bunchgrass trail in Logan Canyon.
The fresh air, sun, and beauty were amazing. I was seriously all smiles and felt so much joy during and after.
The last week of February was soccer tryouts.
Ethan received this nice little surprise the first night.
Was this prophetic?
Ethan made the team last year. He played all season, joined a competitive last spring and played through the summer, fall and winter. He participated in all of the off season high school trainings and practices which include many Friday and Saturday nights. He never has put so much work and has shown a lot of improvement over the year. His coach said last year, everyone on the team just needs to come back better than the year before. We felt like Ethan had done that. As tryouts proceeded he made the first cut and then we waited into the evening to find out about 2nd cuts. It wasn't posted before I had gone to bed. (I don't know if Ethan saw before he went to bed that night). The morning after 2nd cuts I work up and checked for results and saw that Ethan's number was not posted. My heart sunk. Not because he didn't make it, but because of the worry of how this would affect him. I witnessed the time, work and energy he put into this sport. His dedication. I knew that he would have some friends who would probably have made the team. Yes, I was also sad for Kelly and I. We had grown to love watching the soccer games and were looking forward to another spring high school soccer team. But I was so worried about Ethan and how it would affect him.
It was difficult the first day or so, but it turned out that some friends made the team so did not (so that helped). There were even some controversial cuts to the team that surprised a lot of people. We realize that there are obviously a lot of other players who were better and so it was a tough life lesson to learn (we just wish he didn't have to learn it yet). We talked about how there will be more times in life where he may put his all in, work his hardest maybe harder than others and he may still not get the promotion, or job he is seeking. Oh, but what a lesson in parenting and knowing he will face even more difficult things in his life. It's hard to be a parent and watch your kids face challenges.
LEAP YEAR/LEAP DAY
an extra day in February. This day I took my run hiatus from the treadmill out to the road and it was fabulous.
Then that afternoon I managed to talk Ethan in going up the canyon on a snowshoe adventure. The snow and weather wasn't quite as good as a few days before, but it was still nice to get out and so much fun spending time with Ethan and Cooper.
The snow was so deep. I'm pretty sure we were not on the trail, but we made our own way around.
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