Kenny closed one office and opened two others. It was bittersweet for him. They didn’t want to close the office but due to COVID they didn’t really have an option with that building anymore. He was sad to leave downtown after working down there for the past almost 20 years! His new offices are much closer to home though so I love it.
It snowed in Vegas and since kids were home doing school we got to go out and play. Kenny and Mike came home early to take the kids up to the mountain to play in it.
We thought it was a good amount of snow for us but then the next day we woke up to a beautiful winter wonderland with lots of snow! The whole neighborhood was out and the kids played most of the day! We love our occasional snow days and love that it doesn’t stay for days or months.
My neighbor took this picture. I love it! 
Trey made a snowman for Adelle’s yard. 
Trey lost his first tooth! We were driving home late one night and he yelled that he had a loose tooth! We were all freaking out and excited that he had his first loose tooth but he said, “no look!” He had actually lost his first tooth and was holding it in his hand. He had pulled it out just fine and we hadn’t even known he had a loose tooth.
We FINALLY had an excuse to go to Utah! It’s been so weird with COVID and vacations and knowing if you should go see people and so we hadn’t been to Utah in about 15 months which was really sad for us. We missed seeing Grandma and Grandpa and everyone up there so much! Thankfully, McKenna got married in February and invited all of us to come up so we jumped right on that! It was sooooo good to see everyone and we had a great weekend! The kids love seeing everyone too. We stayed in a hotel this time with Rachel and her kids and went swimming and the kids loved running around of course. We loved spending time with cousins and the reception was a lot of fun and so so cute. We also got lots of Sodalicious, went by BYU, went to Kenny’s Grandma Millie’s house, played at the park, had Sunday dinner at Grandma’s, and went by the Provo City Temple.
cousins 
These kids love Kayryn so much! 
These three played and danced all night. 
more cousins 
2nd cousins 
We spent Valentine’s Day making sugar cookies.
Beau has been playing flag football and he’s pretty fun to watch. Him and Bennett are the little 8 year olds out on the field playing with kids up to 11. They are little but good! Beau’s quick and determined and really good at stopping plays. He loves to grab flags and anticipates where the ball is going. He likes to rush the quarterback and can shut him down with his speed and getting in his way. He really loves defense but he’s good at offense too and it’s fun to watch him run the ball or catch long passes.
Scoring a touchdown 
Blocking the throw 
Ready to rush 
He also finished Learn to Play Hockey at City National Arena and man he was fun to watch there too. I could watch this boy play sports all day, every day. Every other week they would spend an hour scrimmaging in their Golden Knights gear and it was too fun! All of his years of playing street hockey have really paid off and he is great out there. We haven’t decided when we’ll continue on to the hockey leagues although he is begging to play and I’m sure he’d do great at it and love it. His plan is to become a professional hockey player of course.
Off-roading and roasting hot dogs and s’mores.
We took Trey to Build-a-Bear for the first time. One day he told me that all of the kids in his class have Build-a-Bears that they bring for show-and-tell and that he wants one. I kind of thought why haven’t we ever taken our stuffed-animal loving boy there?! (Well I know why-it’s expensive!) So for Valentine’s Day we have him a gift card to Build-a-Bear and then Kenny and I took him on his own special outing there and it was worth the money! He LOVED it and was so cute picking everything out. He went with a super cute bunny with a police uniform that he randomly but so quickly named Jackald. I loved every minute of watching him experience that! And he hasn’t set Jackald down all week. He is currently throwing him a birthday party and decorating our loft for the occasion.
The greatest and biggest news lately is that after a year of distance learning, the kids in our school district are finally, slowly going back to school! The boys returned this week hybrid (only PK-3rd grade returned and it’s only for 2 days a week). We were thrilled for ANY in-person learning. We were so excited to see Trey get to experience Kindergarten (even if under very unusual conditions with all the restrictions). He gets to go with his two best buddies and even became friends with a girl in his class the minute they met in person. We are so glad he gets to finish with Mrs. Buell in person. We got a shocking email last week that sent all of us into tears of joy… out of nowhere the district sent an e-mail that all elementary-aged kids would return full-time in person April 6. Full-time! In person! We DID NOT see that coming. We for sure didn’t think Kayli would return this year. The joy we experienced that day was seriously something else. For a year now, our kids have been denied the opportunity to go to school. We’ve watched other districts and states return to school some as early as last August. It’s been so sad to see the kids here struggle and miss out on in-person school. We were freaking out when we got the email. It was like we finally had earned freedom or something! We got to work getting Trey the perfect lunch box (had to have a sloth on it), perfect masks, school supplies, and backpacks (VERY heavy backpacks I might add-they have to lug everything back and forth each day). I could have cried watching the boys go to school for the first time in a year. It was so good to be at the school, see teachers, friends and administrators who were so thrilled to finally welcome students back to campus! The boys LOVED being at school. And we very much enjoyed our quiet day at home. Kayli was able to get all her work done with peace and quiet. I was able to take Sami to the park which hasn’t happened all year because I’ve had to be close to help the boys with school. We are so happy and looking forward to April 6 when all of our kids will be in school every day. They are more than ready for this!
Yay for Kindergarten buddies! 
So happy these two get to finish the year in the same class! 
Mrs. Buell has taught Kayli, Beau, and now Trey in Kindergarten! 
They loved it!
Hearing that kids were going back to school full-time was a huge blessing since just a few days before Kenny was called to be the 1st counselor in the Bishopric. I was a little discouraged thinking that I had to do everything for school with kids all day (it’s been hard doing this day in and day out as most moms doing this will tell ya!) and then give up Kenny and do it all alone at night and Sundays too. We can do it and I would do it but that e-mail came as such a blessing to me right then! Kenny will be awesome. He is serving with an awesome bishopric and no doubt they will keep us all entertained.
Distance Ed has been rough and it’s not something I ever want to have to do again, but I take so many pictures of Trey throughout the day so that I never forget how cute he was navigating this crazy time of his life! One day he really didn’t want to to do his writing. It’s a fight most days. I came back and he told me he was done. He had down writing all write. His paper said, ” I hat this”. I told him it said hat instead of hate and that he needed to fix it to say hate which he did and we called it good. I took a picture because don’t we all hate distance education right now haha. I wanted to send it to the superintendent on behalf of all Kindergarteners in CCSD. A few weeks later I almost cried listening to the computer teacher telling his class that these little Kindergarteners are amazing because they have had to do something the past 6 months that no other Kindergarteners before them have been asked to do. And they’ve done it! It hasn’t been ideal, or fun, or easy but they have done it! So here are a ton of pictures so that I remember how strong he’s been through all of this!
And I can’t make this stuff up… I have found Trey in the dryer escaping school and Beau doing school on the top shelf of our hall closet! Usually I find them anywhere but at their desks doing school (can you blame them?). Trey also comes up with all kinds of food like the orange juice, a plate of syrup, or a bowl full to the top of cereal and milk.
Spy Beau?
The boys went and helped Taylor with building the bike track. They worked really hard!
Kenny is running a business, teaching a class online for UNLV, learning how to be a counselor in the Bishopric and taking care of the duties that come along with that, and next week will be Kayli’s soccer coach so he has a lot on his plate right now but somehow he does it all and still has time for us.
Other than counting down the days until April 6, haha, I’ve been getting up really early every morning to strengthen my knee and I’m getting there. The doctor said I’m probably at 80% recovery. Today I got out my bike that I haven’t been able to ride the past year and I rode it just fine! Doc said I no longer need to go to physical therapy since I’m doing it all at the gym. He told me to try and do things I’d like to do like sports and running but know my limits. I played pickle ball just fine and am anxious to do that lots now!
Kayli can do a back handspring! She’s been working really hard on this in her tumbling class. She’s trying to get her round-off back handspring perfect so she is always practicing and working hard. She’s also started babysitting a little bit for our cute neighbor. She watched him over here and she does a great job with him. She’s excited to be making money and is trying to save it. She loves making stop motion videos. She is about to play soccer for the first time! She surprised us when she said she was ready to play. Kenny is going to coach and she is excited to play! She also just up and sewed some doll pillows. She doesn’t get that talent from me!
Beau loves watching the Golden Knights games or at least the highlights and freaks out at about all the cool plays. He soaks it all in so he can be a pro one day 🙂 And he’s a goof as seen below. The girls were posing like this so then he did. He makes us laugh.
Trey loves playing with friends. He does what he wants and makes us laugh.
Valentine from Avery 
Birthday party for Jackald
Sami is still loving her tumbling class. I can’t wait until kids are in school full time and I can take her to do all the things and have lots of one-on-one time that she’s missed out on this year. She is technically a Sunbeam now but there’s no primary for the time being. The primary presidency dropped off the cutest sunbeam balloon and a bag full of goodies for her and she loved it so much that she carried it with her everywhere and slept with the balloon tied close by for a few days. She loves to scooter and play with her friends. She is always asking us if certain words rhyme. And they always do because she’s got rhyming down! I guess that’s a plus of distance learning… she’s picked up some Kindergarten stuff she’s overheard!
A few more pictures…
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