Sadie's Christmas Dance Performance

Sadie had her Christmas Dance Performance this last weekend.  Her troupe group performed 3 numbers and then the whole troupe of about 60 kids performed a finale that was over 11 minutes long.  It was amazing.  It is fun to watch all of these girls grow up together and improve their dance technique each year.  They are a fun group of girls!  The white costume is their lyrical dance and the other group photo is their circus dance with tight rope walkers, lions, and ring masters.  It was a really cute dance to music from the movie Water for Elephants.

Carson Getting Down!

Found this picture of Carson getting down at the ward Valentines dance.  The girls look impressed.  It makes me laugh.  I wasn't there to see the show but Carson has always loved to dance!

Update at the Weston Home

Kids are so fun!  I have had some good chuckles at my kids the last couple of weeks.

One night I go into Kailey's bedroom while she is in the shower.  I notice this note on her desk which was written by Sadie (made to sound like Kailey wrote it to herself):

If you can't read it from the picture it says:

Dear Me,

Remember to wake up Sadie (your wonderful, pretty, sweet sister) at 7:00!  Also make sure to be pretty for all boys (including Lucus).  Make sure to have fun at basketball!  Have a wonderful day!

Sincerely, ME

I had to laugh and take a picture of it!  

In other news, Jordan has taken up a new hobby (crocheting).  I can't get him to put it down.  Yesterday his buddies rang the doorbell to see if he would come outside and play.  Usually he jumps right into his boots and out he goes.  Not this day.  He says "I'm really busy right now so I can't come out."  His friends ask him what he is really busy doing and he tells them he is crocheting a scarf for his sister.  You should have seen the look on his friends faces!  Crocheting over street hockey????

This morning I couldn't get him to eat his breakfast.  "Just 5 more stitches mom!"  Darcy and Carson are a little concerned about this new hobby and I just keep telling them that it is good for JJ!

Another funny comment from JJ.  I'm tucking him into bed and he says, "Mom, I think the hairs in my cochlea got shortened today." ?!?!?!?!

I had to think about this one for a minute and asked him what he was talking about.  I knew he was talking about his inner ear.  He had played in a basketball game where 2 games were going on at the same time and whistles were blowing all over the place and it was really loud.  He informed me that when you are surrounded by loudness the hairs in your cochlea, which is part of your inner ear, get shorter and that is how you become hard of hearing.  Apparently he felt like his hairs were getting shorter.  And did you know that once those hairs are damaged they never grow back!!  I asked him if he was going to be a doctor when he grows up and he said "No I'm going to be an architect!"

And then there is Carson and Kailey.  It is time for them to start earning their own spending money and the best way for them to do that is to run up and down the basketball.  (Not that they don't do enough of that already!)  They reffed their first couple games last Saturday and did a really good job.  Kailey even called a great offensive foul on one of the players.  Their evaluator that was watching them from the CMBA refs was really impressed with their reffing skills.

They make a pretty mean team of refs on the court and definitely kept the game going smoothly, teaching the kids as they went.  One of the games they reffed was Jordan's game and Darcy said that they were the best refs we have had this year for JJ's games.

The Christmas music is playing and the decorations are up.  Chocolates are being dipped and Christmas is on its way!  We have a busy month of December but are looking forward to Christmas Holidays!

Got Refs?

YUP!  WE GOT THREE OF THEM!

Carson, and Kailey took the referee course this year and are starting to ref basketball games to earn some money.  Darcy took the course with them even though he has been a ref for years he decided to go brush up on the new modified FIBA rules they are playing these days.  Plus it helps him when coaching - he usually knows the rules better than the refs do!  In fact the last few games he has had the refs coming up to him and asking him questions because they now know he is a ref.

WHISTLE!  That is a travel, a block, and . . . 

Did we call that???

JJ Plays REAL basketball!

Jordan is so excited to be playing Calwest basketball this year!  He has spent his whole life so far watching Carson and Kailey play on Calwest teams and now it is his turn!  Even though he is a year too young to play Calwest Minis he was tired of playing tykes and wanted to play the real game so we let him try out for minis.  There were 8 teams of mini boys and we thought it would be great if Jordan could make the 7 or 8 team just so long as he could play real game situations.  He was the littlest, shortest, youngest kid in the gym and the little stinker went into tryouts and made the #3 team!  The funny thing is that he is playing with kids that are Sadie's age, in fact 3 or 4 of the boys on his team are in Sadie's class at school.

 Jordan doesn't let his size bother him one bit. 

Look at how big this kid is that he is playing defence against!  

Jordan plays really good defence and is quick on his feet.  

(You've got to be when you are the smallest player out there)

I love this picture.  It makes me laugh every time I see it.  (Not just because of the kid in the saran wrap uniform) The team is in an intense time out and Jordan is busy looking at the muscles  of the basketball player on the door.  Good thing his coach didn't notice he wasn't paying attention!! :)  Notice who the coach is!