Lexi's Junior Jazz team this year

 Lexi is playing Junior Jazz with a few girls from her school.  

Champions Prayer

 I saw this sign at a place Alegra is doing some speed and agility at, thought it was a good message:

Ski Afternoon

 Cruz, Alegra, Shawn, and I went skiing yesterday afternoon. Usually by 2:00 p.m. the crowds have cleared out, but yesterday it was packed.  It was fun to get up on the hill.  Lexi skied with Ezra all day on Friday (we let her skip school to do a lesson with Ezra), had a basketball practice Friday early afternoon, a practice Saturday morning, and a game right after practice, so her legs were tired.  

Date Night - Work Party

 Friday night Shawn and I went to Shawn's James Bond Themed Work party.  It was a gambling night. It was fun to go out!

Luckily Shawn could fit into Cruz's Christmas jacket.  He looked very fitting for the night.  

So much snow this week!

 We got pounded with snow this week!  They were calling for a big storm Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, but I kinda didn't believe the weather people. I swear, usually when they call for a big storm it petters out and then we get these sleeper storms that really turn into something, but not this storm. IT WAS BIG!  We started getting snow Tuesday night.  By 10 p.m. they had cancelled school for Wednesday. Cruz invited about 8 boys over to spend the night and to try to ski on Wednesday. We had decided to let him do this even before school was cancelled because of the snow totals they were projecting.  The canyon was closed on Wednesday morning. The boys got up and I fed them french toast and then at about 8:45 they decided to go try and wait at the end of the neighborhood for the canyon to hopefully open.  Andrews car got stuck 2 times just in our culdesac because we hadn't been plowed. There was probably 18 inches of new snow.  The boys got out of the neighborhood and literally the canyon opened the minute they were out so they could just head up LCC. The timing was insane.  I was so glad Cruz and his friends could have that memory. They had a great time skiing. The girls did their online school and I cleaned the house and washed sheets.  It was a nice cozy day at home.  Lexi also played with Deegan and Jane in the neighborhood which was a ton of fun for her!  

Watching America Idol (recorded) Tuesday night!

The boys at breakfast

The boys trying to get Andrews car unstuck!

This picture doesn't do all the snowfall justice, we have a lot. Which is so good for our water problem.  

Mesquite Tournament for Presidents Weekend 2023

 Alegra, Lexi, and I picked up June and her mom Erin on Thursday morning February 16th.  We drove down to Mesquite.  We checked into our Airbnb and then went to Walmart to get a few groceries.  We came back to rest before having a team meeting at our place and then the girls played their first game at 8:15 p.m on Thursday night.  They played the team right above them, the black team.  They lost to them 2-1. It was a good game.  On Friday morning they had a game at 10:45 a.m.  They played a really good team and ended up losing 0-5.  The first half they were down by 4 so they played much better the second half.  The consolation took place on Saturday morning at 9:00 a.m.  The girls and moms kinda hung out and relaxed in the afternoon on Friday and then we went to watch the black team play on Friday night.  Once we were done playing games on Saturday we decided to drive to St. George to eat and hang out at Paradise Village where Ruki's family had rented a spot.  The moms played pickelball and the girls swam.  We drove back to Mesquite to sleep and then we packed up Sunday morning and headed home.  The tournament ended up being kinda a bummer.  We played really good teams which is good for the girls but there are always tough moments with tournaments.  It was nice to be home today and relax and unwind before the week starts.

The complex in Mesquite that they played at was very nice. Turf and set in a pretty setting. Mesquite was in a cold snap so the games were all pretty cold!

The girls doing Alegra's hair after one of the games

Team photos!

Swimming after the tournament was over!

We ended up picking up Fran and Lucy in St. George to take back to SLC so the girls had to smoosh in the back! Luckily they like each other.  

Lexi worked on cleaning her basketball shoes on her day off today!  

Valentines Day 2023

 

Pictures loaded backwards so I start with the end of day.  We had cheese and chocolate fondue for our Valentines Dinner.  Cruz had to work both last night and Valentines night at La Caille. I have barely seen the kid.  

Lexi (re-used) Valentines box that Alegra used in 5th grade.  

A cute game I saw being played 

Shawn came into help with our last Elementary kids party.  

Valentines workout this morning.  Cupid also left the kids $20, a candy bar, and a pack of gum that I forgot to take a picture of.  It was a really nice Valentines Day!

Alegra and her legging contraption to get curly hair

 

Olive Selfies!

 

updates with Lexi

 Lexi has been practicing with a competitive 5th grade girls basketball team the last 2 weeks. They practice on Fridays from 4:00-5:30 and on Saturday mornings from 8-9:30.  She also plays with her junior jazz team but she really loves the competitive team.  Shawn bit the bullet and paid to join the competitive league. I hope she continues to love it!  

On Saturday Lexi had practice from 8-9:30 a.m, then a junior jazz basketball game at 10, and then running around to Alegra's indoor game and playing more basketball with Shawn there.  She fell asleep in the car on the way home from Alegra's indoor games, I can't remember the last time she fell asleep in the car. I love that she is working so hard!

This morning  Lexi and I left the house at 6:10 a.m.  She had an MRI scheduled at St. Mark's Hospital at 7 but they wanted us there 30 minutes early to do the check in stuff.  I was informed about a month ago Lexi failed her hearing test done at school.  They first tested her in the fall. They came back and tested in early December.  Her left ear failed the second test.  The school nursed suggested I take her to an ENT.  My friend (from the gym) husband is an ENT and we got into him last week.  They also performed a hearing screening and her left ear hears below average.  He suggested we do an MRI to see if something structurally is going on.  I really didn't know much about MRI's. I felt so bad for Lexi. They had to put an IV in and she balled when they stuck that into her tiny little arm.  Then she had to lay still in this huge machine with all these really different weird loud noises. I sat outside the machine and was able to put a hand on her ankle.  The radiologist was able to talk to her and tell her how long each little test was. Some were 1 minutes, some 4 minutes.  She did about 20 minutes of testing and he pulled her out and put the contrast into the IV. They he did about 10 more minutes of testing. Lexi was so brave!  I saw her little nostrils flaring like she was crying but she was able to hold still. My mama heart was breaking for her!  We will wait to see what the ENT says after looking at the results.  

But the best/worst part.  We were heading home from St. Marks.  Lexi had a school field trip to the symphony. We went to the appointment in our pjs because I didn't think it would take that long. The problem was it was snowing.   We got stuck in the ski traffic trying to get to our house for 2 hours.  From 9-11.  Lexi ended up missing her field trip, she wasn't too bummed about that.  We had stopped at McDonalds for an egg McMuffin before heading home. That ended up saving us because after sitting in the car for 1 hour only moving 5 feet Lexi turns to me with panic in her eyes telling me she has to poop right now.  She couldn't jump out of the car because there were cars all around and I didn't want to lose my spot. I was starting to say, just poop your pants when I turned around and saw the McDonalds bag. I told her to grab the bag and poop in that.  She did it perfectly, with no mess!  I carry wipes in the car so she was able to clean herself off.  We did have to put the windows down and spray the air freshener I keep in the car frequently.  I was able to get the bag home and get it in the garbage. It was pretty crazy!!!

Cruz Well Check

 I took Cruz this afternoon after early out of school (12:15) to grab lunch just the 2 of us at Lodestar and then over to Dr. Pete's for his well check. I used to take the kids to their well checks around their birthdays but with high school sports this has kinda got thrown off.  Cruz needed his yearly physical filled out for the lacrosse season.  We have done a few different assessments on Cruz to determine if he has ADD.  The questionnaires come back that he probably does have ADD but Dr. Pete is hesitant.  He believes some of it is developmental and learning to have a desire. I am torn.  I see Cruz struggle so much with being seriously drawn to any electronics and having no organization skills (thus not turning in assignments in school).  Cruz is a great kid. I love him so much. I just am torn on what to do to help him have the life skills to be successful in life.  At 15 years 8 months Cruz is 71 inches tall (84%), weighs 151 pounds (77%) and his Body Mass Index is 21.2 (60% for his age).  

Lexi

  At Sunday Dinner someone was saying that in Middle School there is no recess and Lexi replied, "Without recess, who am I?"  It was soooooo funny!