February and March

After those two birthday parties, Leo became obsessed about how far away his birthday was, as usual. So I made him a chain to count down to his birthday. It's always such a tough wait for him! As I looked through my camera roll I also found a bunch of selfies of Boston that are too cute. He is my buddy these days, a mama's boy through and through, and we spend all our days together. He loves hanging out in my room! He also really enjoyed when I made heart shaped pancakes for breakfast on Valentine's day and gave everyone a chocolate rose (really all I did for V-day this year!). 

The kids had a week off school in February and we had no plans to go anywhere. I actually really enjoyed our time at home together getting lots of things done and doing things we don't usually have time for. We went to see Moana 2 at the movie theater one day, which is getting to be a really fun activity with the family these days, now that they all sit pretty still. Boston is great if he has lots of treats! We brought some cousins along to make it more fun too. Bentley was able to get her hair cut (and curled super cute!), and we had some play dates. One day I invited a friend for everyone and made a bunch of muffins, a tray of fruit and just let them play! Bentley had a sleepover with Scarlett and learned about workout videos, so she started doing them at home and all the boys joined in. Boston did still have preschool so I made sure we didn't forget that. He even had a Hawaiian day and wore the cutest shirt to school. He came home with a lei he had made!

My parents came home from a month long vacation in Antarctica, among many other places. The family dinners resumed and one day when we were at their house they showed us a bobcat in their neighbors yard. Apparently it kept going back and forth between their yard and the neighbors. It's a little scary, but the kids kept going out to peek at it. My parents also took Bentley and Deacon out to lunch for their birthdays on their week off and they both really enjoyed that. 

Jeff and I snuck in a date to the Rec Room for Trevor's birthday. The food at the restaurant there was way better than I remembered and we had a good time. I also snuck in a date with Bentley one Friday night. I saw that there was a show called "The Story of Taylor Swift" by Charity Eden at the Jubilee and I asked her if it was something she might want to do. I thought it might be interesting, but we didn't realize it was basically a replica of the Era's tour! We dressed up in whatever Taylor Swift outfit we could find and actually had a great time. Bentley was so fun to hang out with - even if she insisted on getting McFlurries after to relive the after concert experience in Toronto when we went at 2am! We were both very surprised at how good Charity was at sounding like Taylor Swift and we actually really enjoyed it. It was longer than we thought it was going to be, but we did just fine. 

On March 1st we popped over to Cobb's bread and the kids played "hot cross buns" on their recorder to get a free bun! Then the end of community basketball season commenced. Basketball took up a lot of time in these months and it was so fun!

Bentley has really enjoyed her team and coaches this year. They started out a little rough, losing most of their games. As the year went on though, they started winning most of them. They ended up playing a very intense and hard fought game to get to the gold medal game! Bentley was so happy, considering last year she didn't medal at all. The last game was tough and they ended up with a silver. It was exciting though because they made it to Provincials! The following weekend they had 3 games. They won the first 2 fairly easily playing against Edmonton. The last and final game for gold was a tough one as well. The coach and his daughter were not there, but they still fought hard. They started out so strong and were winning, but ended up losing by 10 in the end. Bentley was such a good sport about it though, and so happy she got a silver and a t-shirt! I really liked her attitude about the whole thing. She had a great weekend.

Deacon's team has always been really strong, winning almost every game. They were bumped up a division and ended up getting to the gold medal game as well. A similar situation happened and they lost, giving them a silver medal, which is still so great! He enjoyed having Jeff as an assistant coach alongside 2 others, Lee Stanford being the head coach. Since he was so young, he was in a lower division (9), so they didn't go to Provincials. I'm sure he will be there next year!

Poor Boston fell asleep on me for one of the games. He gets dragged around a fair bit to all the games. The Provincials one had balloon swords for them to play with though, so that was fun! The grandparents are also great at showing up to watch and support the kids. Onto Spring Ball now!!

In March, we also got a new van! We've had ours for 9 years, so it was time to get a new one before everything started breaking on it. Bentley was especially sad about our van and thought she'd miss it, so she took lots of phots of it. Some of us took a selfie in it together after school one day. The funny thing is, we got the exact same van, only the new 2025 edition! It is really nice and we all enjoy a lot of the new features now. Our old van went to Don and Cindy, who gave it to Brent. 

This year (and a few month of last year) we've had the missionaries over once a month, and gone to the temple once a month. It's been a lot of fun and felt like a really big accomplishment in our busy schedule! It's also great for the kids to talk to the missionaries and get a lesson from them, and to see us making the temple a priority.

I also wanted to mention how obsessed I've been with F45. It is the best place to work out! I just love all the trainers and the people that go there. They all make it so much fun! I go with Tamara and Lee lots, but I've also made some other friends. I hit my 100th workout on March 7th and got to sign the 100 club board and bring home a free t-shirt. I am going about 5 times/week and I've never been so consistent before. It really puts me in a good mood and makes me feel good about myself and ready to conquer each day! Not to mention, I've taken a few body scans and have gained 4 pound of muscle and lost 4 pounds of fat since I've started! I'll take that. After my 100th, I treated myself to sushi!

On March 31st, the kids had a PD day. I had the crazy idea of swimming at the Wingate hotel because we love that pool. We did just that, and invited Scott and Kellie's kids to join us. They all swam for 4 hours!! They only stopped to eat pizza that we brought in poolside. I enjoyed the hottub as well, and we all had a blast. The 3 older kids and I decided to stay the night there, eat their breakfast in the morning, and then head to school. It was a lot of fun!