It was a blur

Josh's MLK Jr tribute.  "I dream...that everyone shall be able to set records and be able to be remembered for something, because not much people around the globe always get remembered for something." 

His self portrait -- very accurate, actually.  He wears his red Nike sweatshirt every day. 

While Mike was gone for 5 nights last week the boys either slept in Josh's room together or in my bed.  I love seeing these two sharing a bed...seems so little kid to me. 

I couldn't find them one evening after dinner...they were quietly playing Legos. 

Another sleepy boy shot.  they play so hard, it's sweet to see them sleep this hard too. 

Friday night at Kyler's birthday party -- that's 15 boys!!

The theme of the party was Minute to Win It.  Luke's sorting M&Ms here. 

And putting noodles onto a spaghetti noodle. Such concentration!

Josh with the noodle challenge.  

They took a break for Pizza.  Quite a crew!

Josh, Gabe and Ty were the Green team.  (I think they were the Green Packers) 

Saturday was a basketball day. We watched 2 games of Kyler's and one of Luke's.  

Saturday afternoon we did Science Fair stuff.  Luke's experiment is titled "Does the size of the ball affect my shot?"  Here he is shooting with the mini ball.  

Sunday we had a super fun family ski day!  The snow was perfect, and we had a great time together!  This is the boys and daddy on the lift together. 

Josh with his certification of recognition. He moved from Black to White, which is great.  White, then Purple, then you have graduated from the program. He's a good little skier. 

Luke moved up from Blue to Yellow, which he was thrilled about. He got to use poles today for the first time. He's really improving quickly too. He tries so hard to go wherever daddy and Josh go, it's really making him a better skier fast!

Late, but still cute

We got the professional photos from the Barnard Santa brunch, and I just had to post them even if they are a month late. 

His natural smile makes me so happy!  Doesn't he look so grown up? 

Cuddly smiles.  

Luke's first basketball game

Pregame smiles

Luke played his first basketball game Saturday.  He played great and had a ton of fun. Check out this shooting form! 

It's a K/1 league, and he's a big kid anyway, but there were a lot of tough match ups.  Poor kid just wanted to look around Luke. :) 

He played really strong defense,.  He had several steals, blocked shots and rebounds!

This could be my favorite picture.  I love the action in his feet and his cute eyes.

Have to laugh at him running down the court...he's got some crazy running form. 

He thoroughly enjoyed the entire thing!

Oh Yeah!!

Running down the court...he had great hustle if not great form.

Basketball Fever

Josh's intramural league is in it's last days, so we have been coming to watch his games. He fancies himself a point guard, fun to watch! 

Luke lost a tooth at school and got this awesome double gap smile to show for it!  He ran into a kid when he turned around  and knocked his head against the kid's forehead.  That just made the tooth wiggly, so he pulled it out in class (all over his math worksheet, according to his teacher!), and was so proud of it! 

Later this same night, after Josh's basketball frustration and homework battles, we decided we needed to make some cookies.  They were ready for some crazy time. 

This is a better try at a sweet smile.

Luke wrote this note to the tooth fairy.  It says "Dear tooth fairy, Do you smell like cotton candy?  Circle yes or no.  I pulled it out myself"  The pictures are of cotton candy, the tooth fairy (complete with a tooth bag) and of course a tooth with roots on the bottom.  She circled yes and wrote "How did you know?" back.  Luke was thrilled. 

That night he got too scared to sleep in his own bed and ended up falling asleep with Josh.  This is what the tooth fairy had to navigate...lucky she's nimble/they are pretty hard sleepers. 

Tuesday night Luke had his first ever basketball practice.  It's a K/1 league, so there are several kids who have never played, or not played much.  The coach is smart and has them work on fundamentals like passing. 

This is a random picture of a rebounding drill, but is only in here to show you how tall Luke is compared to his team!  

After practice, gotta hydrate. 

Wednesday Josh's league started a tournament, and daddy wanted to come to the game.  Luke was pretty darn happy to be hanging out with daddy at 4 PM on a school/work day! 

Josh's team played well but lost in a single elimination tournament.  He wears his penny like that, like a cape, on purpose.  He beats to his own drum. 

Later Wednesday night was the Pinewood Derby at Cub Scouts.  Josh's is the red Lamborghini in the middle row, and Luke is the black and red one next to it (with the one blue ticket on it).

This is what Luke thought of the races.  His car didn't get very many votes for Best In Show and  lost the first two races of a double elimination bracket.  He hung out for 2 hours for about 4 seconds of racing.  He's not a fan.

Josh's car did about the same as Luke's, but he somehow managed a better attitude about the evening. 

Tuesday night Luke started this ritual of sleeping with about 15 stuffed animals and 6 blankets.  He stacks them up strategically and then covers his body with a fuzzy blanket, then I place the other five blankets on him.  Then he asks me to turn on the fan because he's "steaming!" 

Josh thought it would be funny to hide under Mr. Cuddles.

Luke feels like the king of the castle. And his new signature move is to throw the deuces.  He's too cool.

This is how my boys go to school...with basketballs in hand. I love this!

Josh is lucky enough to be at his good friend Aden's cabin this weekend. He left Friday and Aden's dad sent this photo.  It looks like Aden's two brothers and two friends, all drinking root beer and eating chips. Josh must be in heaven! 

Friday night with just Luke we decided it was time to get his lacrosse gear.  He picked a red helmet so we could see him easier, smart kid!  They had junior ski poles on sale, so we bought him some. He declared it his lucky day because of that!

After gear shopping, we went to Cold Stone to top off the luckiest day.  He never gets to have the sprinkle waffle bowl, but seeing how it was his lucky day, we couldn't really say no. He was thrilled, as the smile shows. 

Quick Week

Josh lost a tooth Tuesday morning. He was bent to make sure he didn't go to school with a loose tooth, so he tried to  take it out with the nerf dart method. That didn't work, but he ended up prying this loose in no time!

Dad was in CA, and I was leaving Wednesday so I brought the kids into my bed Thursday night. I love their sweet snuggly faces 

This is our job in CA. We're building that overhead power line and I think it's so cool. 

This is one without the wire on it, almost done but not quite. 

Mike and I were in California together, so we took advantage of the situation and went for "the best dumplings on the planet." Mike had these dumplings in China last year, and so we just had to try them. This "mascot" was easy to spot and I think it's so funny that there is a chain that has restaurants in LA and Shang Hai! 

We had Lucky Buddha beers, because why not? 

Sunday morning traffic jam, Bridger Bowl Style.  I took us 45 minutes to go 15 miles, which is a travesty in MT!

We had a great day skiing and just as we were leaving, we saw Ty! Josh showed him all the runs they went on...they're so cute poring over the map together.