Craving the Sun

I took this picture a week or so ago when we had one of those gloriously sunny days. I love everything about it. It's the way I feel when the sun starts showing itself again after a cold, gray wither. I just want to be in the middle of it where it's all warm and bright. Like this:

She was so content to let the sun warm her while she played with her shadow. Tomorrow is the first day of March. I hope it brings many more days like this! Hurry up spring!

The Last Basketball Game

Yesterday was our last round of games for a while. We don't do any spring sports so I always look forward to this breather! Sports are fun, but they keep us so busy that it's hard to do other things. And other things are good too!

We left the house at 7:30 for Brandon's game. Yes, his last game was at 8:00. Another thing I won't miss ;) He has worked so hard this season but still hadn't made a basket during a game.

 Until yesterday! He played great! First basket during a game! He's very excited to say the least :)  (That's not a picture of his basket. He made an attempt in that picture but it didn't go in. I didn't get a picture of his basket. I was busy holding my breath screaming in my head, "SHOOT!" It was very exciting.)

Most of my pictures turn out like this:

Crazy-blurry. This is one of the good ones. They just move so fast. I can't tell you how many I have of nothing. Here he got the ball and was making a crazy-fast run down the court. Exciting! The final score was 25-26 Brandon's team won. He was doubly pleased that his basket made such a difference.

Megan's game was next. She's been making baskets during practice, but during the games she gets very distracted. She likes playing with the girl guarding her ;) and turning in circles ;) But not yesterday! There was some amazing focus going on!

 And guess what? She got her first basket yesterday too! I think they entire room cheered. That was pretty funny. The picture above is a picture of her making her basket but you can't see her! She's on the other side of all those girls. But that's her ball going in!

She didn't make this shot but it's a better picture of her ;)

 Check out her dribbling skills!

Nick's game was last. He also hadn't made a basket during a game. Talk about pressure! At this point we were 2/3 for kids getting their first game point, now it was Nick's game. And he did it!

 The above picture was it snapped a second too soon. The below picture was a good attempt but didn't quite make it.

I still like it :)

So it was a very exciting day for us! 3/3 kids getting their first game point in basketball! They all worked so hard this year and improved so much. It was the perfect way to end the basketball season :)

Fridays

Our Fridays have had a different pace. Todd doesn't schedule patients that day so even though he still goes into the office for some behind-the-scenes kind of work, he's around here more. We still get our schoolwork done, but our pace is different...slower. Especially in the morning. He makes the most of the fact that we have schoolwork and gets some of his own studying done for the new metabolic work he's doing at the office, but he often pops out for some quality time with whoever isn't currently immersed in work with Mama ;) Sometimes he steps in and helps with a certain someone who likes to push my buttons ;) but mostly he joins them in some sort of activity; one he came up with or one they are already working on.

Megan was working on her Draw Write Now book. On each page is a picture with four simple sentences underneath. On the page across from the picture are step-by-step directions on drawing whatever the main part of the picture is. Todd walked through our school room on his way to the coffee pot ;) and this is what happened:

 Some great Daddy time!

Another Friday moment:

Nicholas was working with his snap electronics and it turn into an entire lesson on electronics from Dad :)
(That's Brandon's knee in the picture. They were both hanging on every word their dad said :))

Brandon's Outdoor Ed class at co-op was working on making their own spoons from wood. They made the bowl of the spoon in class last session then the teacher told them to finish it on their own at home. Since they were starting with a pretty good size piece of wood, their teacher told me we could trim some of that down with a saw if we want so they aren't whittling for months so that was another great project for Todd ;) He and Brandon went outside with power tools and a wonderful lesson as well as time together followed. Of course, I didn't go out there with my camera, it was freezing!, so I don't have that time recorded, but I have the aftermath of a lesson on knife safety given by Dad:

 Our weekends have been taken over by basketball, so this bit of extra time on Fridays has been extra precious this winter. We are so very lucky :)

Having a Ball

Our kids have really enjoyed basketball season. In my opinion, the skills required to play this sport are many and not always the easiest to practice either. You definitely need a basketball hoop to practice shooting for example, so while I have many pictures of Todd outside playing football with the kids giving them advice on throwing and catching, our chances at practicing basketball are much more limited, especially this time of the year ;) There is a hoop in our cul-de-sac, but I'm pushing for one in our own driveway this summer :)

Since the main goal of Upward is not to make athletes out of our children, they only practice once a week. At this point in our lives, if it had been more than that we would not have been able to participate so I'm very grateful for that! But even though these teams are only meeting once a week, their progress has been amazing!! The boys' teams are running plays and learning the positions as well as dribbling, passing, and shooting. Megan's team has worked on plays too but mostly they work on dribbling, passing, and shooting ;) It has really been fun to watch our kids improve their skills! At practice this week, Megan made nine baskets! I'm not kidding! During games, it would seem that she'd rather play with the girl guarding her though ;)
Here are some pictures from our season.

 I just can't believe how much Megan has improved! When she started, she couldn't dribble more than a couple of bounces before it fizzled out. Now she can dribble and walk or run!

Nick spent some time last year playing with the guy who was guarding him too ;) This year, he's running plays and everything!

I don't have any more of Brandon than what I posted last month. His games are so fast and furious that all I ever see are the backs of boys heads. My mom joined us to watch the games this week and she couldn't believe how skilled (and tall!) the boys were in Brandon's game. Those boys are all over each other! I'll try harder this week.

Next Saturday is our last game of the season. I'll be happy to have my Saturdays back but it has been so much fun! We'll be a little sad to see it end :)

Racing

A couple of weeks ago, Nicholas had his first Pinewood Derby race. He was so excited for the chance to make his car! He came up with the design then Todd got out the power tools ;) It was a good time for them to spend together being all creative and stuff :)

There were eight races and Nick's car came in second a few times! He was thrilled!

Here he is with his car on weigh-in day:

 Yes, that an energizer bunny!

 I know this is blurry but his car is on the far left:

 The two creators:

I love that they could do this together. Nick was very involved and came up with the idea all on his own and did the painting, but he can't use power tools yet ;) that's where Dad took over ;) Yay for that! I really like all his fingers and toes :) One thing we found out is that siblings can participate as well. I think we'll have more than one entry next year :)

Bending the Rules

Megan does not like to go to bed. Seriously. She gets up so many times with various excuses every night. But the other night I peeked in on her and saw this:

Reading in bed with her little glow light....little cheater!

She's Not a Freshman Anymore

I took this picture of Kristen a couple of weeks ago as she was leaving for school. You know how when you're a freshman you get up every morning and "get ready" for school? How you want to make a good impression and look all put together? Yeah...well that wears off! At some point, you just start rolling out of bed, maybe change out of your pajamas and brush your teeth then it's out the door with your enormous bag of books and mom's homemade smoothies ;)

She's still cute though ;)

My Funny Valentines

This picture was actually taken last week on Todd's birthday but I thought it was perfect for today! My wonderful, crazy Valentines:

 They smiled pretty too ;)

Of course Brandon's eyes are closed....

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Catching the Sun

We finally got around to doing a Valentine craft last week! I've been trying to make a bigger deal out of some of these lesser-type holidays around here but really, it hasn't been going very well for me. They sneak up on me every time! Valentine's Day is one of those. It's right after Todd's birthday so I'm just not thinking about it until it's too late. My family gets an enthusiastic "Happy Valentine's Day!!!" from me and that's about it ;)

But the internet makes everything easier :) I follow a good amount of homeschool and crafting blogs so there's never a shortage of ideas it's just scrapping together the time to get it done. So I did!

I saw this Meg's blog (I love her!) and thought maybe even I could do that!

First, we cut hearts out of construction paper:

 Then a big heart. I used some scrapbook paper I had but you could use construction paper for this as well.

 We placed the big, empty heart on the sticky side of a piece of contact paper then went to work filling it up with the little hearts:

 You can put as many or as little as you want. When you're done, cover it with another piece of clear contact paper and trim excess:

 Cute, little sun-catcher! And cute, little crafter!

We made one for the kitchen window too:

 

I may leave them up for the rest of winter. You can never have enough hearts ;)

For Aunt Willa and Those Who Miss Her

Last week, our family suffered a loss. After a month and a half in the hospital fighting for her life, my Aunt Willa left this world to be with her Heavenly Father.

She is terribly missed.

These are the last pictures I have of her. They were taken at our family reunion last fall (which I didn't post, but am very determined to get those pictures of my wonderful family posted here and on my facebook). Family was so very important to Aunt Willa. She was at every event she could attend: birthdays, movie nights, dinners, whatever.

Aunt Helen, Uncle Roger, my mom, Aunt Doris, Uncle Raymond, and Aunt Willa (sitting).

 One with just the siblings:

 My mom and my Aunt Willa were the closest in age and always horsing around ;)

 A couple pics with the spouses. Uncle Ralph and Aunt Doris married into this family before I was even born! I love them.

 Mom and Aunt Willa horsing around again :)

 Finally, everyone smiling and looking at the camera! They're as bad as children!

Aunt Willa with her daughter, Krista, and her granddaughter, Kayla. She loved them so much. Aunt Willa has two granddaughters but Lindsey couldn't make it.

Aunt Willa died on January 30th which also happens to be her birthday. She will be in our hearts and memories forever.

Today is a Special Day

Happy Birthday to the most wonderful husband, loving father, and best friend a girl could ever ask for!

Top Ten Things I love about Todd:

10. handsome
9. so very funny
8. a great dancer (yes, we actually used to go dancing ;))
7. knows the best card tricks
6. is creative
5. can make anything
4. is the best doctor ever
3. loves that we homeschool and is an amazing homeschool daddy
2. takes our kids fishing

And the number 1 thing I love about Todd.....

1. He was made for me and is my hearts desire...

Todd, you are loved more than you'll ever know :)  I hope your day is amazing!