Well I am really slacking! Here are the highlights from the past two months!
Josh and his dog:
Josh basically left for Utah right after we returned home from our Disney trip. He was down there for the whole month of February training with his new dog, who got a new name: Drax. The funny thing was the dog's original name was Pookey. Josh did not want to yell out, "Go get'em Pookey!" though so they changed it to Drax. haha So we went down to Utah over President's Day weekend to visit. Josh had a nice hotel room with two queen beds all to himself, so we crashed there for two nights and let the kids swim and then stayed with Chris and Holly (who were just days away from their twin babies arriving!) the other night. We visited the Utah capitol building in Salt Lake, visited Josh at his training center for the dog, took a tour of the conference center at Temple Square (see photo of our 2004 version versus 2018) went to Ikea, visited with Stacey, and just had lots of fun. Here are some pictures of that visit:
Avery's Dance performance:
Avery had her first dance performance of the year with Fuzion Dance studio (where she has been going since September.) They wore these little baker girl outfits and did a dance to the "Cake" song. It was really cute. It was just at a gym in Shelley and there were lots of other dancers and studios there. It was like a big dance showcase that lasted all day. Luckily we only stayed for about an hour! That was long enough for the boys! She has really improved even from nine months ago. Her class has about 10 girls in it and she is one of the younger ones, but she keeps up pretty well!
Valentine's Day: The main thing to note here is that Gabe got a special Valentine from a girl named Katelyn who lives across the street. He maintains the story that they are only friends.... we are not so sure. This is the second year in a row she has brought him a special Valentine... hmm...
Avery handed out her Shopkins Valentine's at school and I helped with her party with some relay games. Caleb had his Valentine's that he handed out at school too. He made a little paper pouch with Green Bay Packer's decorations on it. I wondered if Gabe would be too old, but he took some basic candy with a Valentine attached too for kids at school. Josh was gone so some neighbor friends took pity on me and brought me treats. I went out to lunch with my friend, Lauren, and then me and the kids "heart attacked" a lady I visit teach who is a single mom (that's where you put paper hearts and candy all over someone's door and run away.)
Caleb and Basketball:
Gabe decided not to do rec basketball this season because he was starting soccer practices indoors in January already it would've been too much. But Caleb did want to do basketball and he wasn't doing anything else. So in January-March Caleb was doing basketball and having games every Saturday and Gabe was just having soccer practices about twice per week. Caleb's team wasn't the best but they weren't the worst either. I think they won more than they lost. He had a lot of fun with it. Here is his team after their last game:
Gabe started soccer with his travel team. Since it is Idaho and it's cold and snowy they have to practice indoors. He is actually supposed to have his first game tonight in Idaho Falls but it is currently raining so who knows if it will happen! He is excited to play though! More pictures will come on that!
Freak Snow storm:
We really didn't get much snow in December or January or even February. Then the first week of March, when we were all finally accepting that maybe we actually were going to have an early Spring, it decided to SNOW! We took the kids out to sled at the sand dunes the first week in March. It was the first time there had been enough snow to even think about sledding since Christmas time!
Here are a few pictures! Then after that we had a couple more snow falls but it always melted pretty quick. Overall we got off really easy with this winter!
Gabe's Birthday!
Gabe turned 12 on March 23. I can't believe he is that old already. He wanted to just celebrate by going to pizza and a movie with his two closest friends, Noah and Porter. So our whole family plus Noah and Porter went out to pizza at Lucy's in Idaho Falls and then Josh took Caleb, Gabe, and the boys to the movie "Black Panther" while me and Avery went shopping for Spring clothes at Kohl's and Target. It was a nice, low key birthday. His big gift was a new bike and then we also got him a Lego set, a soccer ball, and a soccer sweatshirt with his name on the back and his number (7).
Now that he is 12, Gabe can attend the temple with us! It was a fun morning for him to be able to spend with me and Josh!
Mother Son Game Night:
Gabe had a Mother/Son game night at the Middle school in March too. We went with his friend, Porter, and Porter's mom, Debbie. We went out to dinner at Freddy's before hand and then went to the school and did some games. The reason that picture says "Date night number 2" on it, is because I had gone on a date with Caleb the night before. He was feeling neglected (as Caleb always is) and so we went bowling and out to ice cream on Thursday. Then on Friday it was me and Gabe's date night.
Josh's Continued Dog Training:
So now that Josh is back home, he still continues to need to train with his new dog, Drax. If he has time during his work day, he will stop at a park or have a friend (haha) put on a bite suit and have Drax practice attacking. (Good friends, huh? Maybe he should have people he DOESN'T like do that) But a lot of days he doesn't have time at work and he will go to the park across the street when he gets home and practice things with Drax. Overall, Drax seems like a pretty good dog. He really does look intimidating, but I think he's pretty calm. When he comes up to you he never barks or growls or anything. He just kind of gives you a long stare and sometimes even cocks his head to the side like he's thinking, "Hmm.... should I eat you? or not...?" But everything is a game to these dogs and so Josh will hold this rubber ball all the time and he'll just be so focused on getting that ball. That's like his reward for once he finds the drugs or takes down a person. Josh is working with him on things like sitting and staying for a long time, even as Josh walks away. He also has been having to work with him a lot on releasing a bite. He has no trouble chasing a person down and biting them on command, but when Josh yells "Release" or whatever the word is, he doesn't always want to let go! So he's been working on that!
Easter!
We went down to Utah again over Easter weekend and stayed with Stacey and Kamrie in their new, super nice townhouse. There was our church's General Conference, Josh had a missionary reunion (a lot of those guys he hasn't seen in about 18 years!), and it was Stacey's birthday earlier in the week so we celebrated that. I also went to Ikea again of course. I just needed a few things this time, so I probably spent the least I've ever spent there. (Spice containers, plants, measuring cup, paring knives... just little things like that.) We got to see Chris and Holly again at the mission reunion. They didn't bring their new baby twin boys though (they had a sitter with them back at home.) Hopefully next time we go down there I can see them! Then on Easter Sunday we dd a little egg hunt in Stacey's back yard for the kids. The Easter bunny had of course brought baskets (actually more like buckets) for the kids. Avery was the most excited. Hers had some Hatchimals toys in it which are her current favorite thing. They are like these little eggs that you break open and there's these little animal trinkets inside. (see picture below)
That is all for now!!
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