March

Brynn's last Utah competition was the first weekend of March.  Just one week after they swept the awards with first place and high point champion, they were feeling confident.  But you just never know in this sport, all it takes is one misplaced foot or grip and everything goes wrong.  And there's only one chance.  But they went out and hit everything spot it...scored even higher than the previous week.  They were so happy to get awarded first place and given champion jackets.  I don't think Brynn took hers off for the next few days.  This team has had ups and downs this year so it's so good to see them having success.  Now, on to nationals in April.

Brynn is in the front center

Lady Royal flyers: Ari Apostol, Claire Winsor, Brynn

*Justin has been a very supportive cheer dad and only missed the two-day competition.  I forgot to have someone take a picture of the three of us before he left to go get the car after awards.  It was a giant snowstorm and we were in a hurry to hit the road and get home.  I proudly wore my "Cheer Mom" shirt all season in support of Brynn.  I had a non-cheer mom tell me just the week before that she could never be a cheer mom and she doesn't know how I do it.  To which I responded that she would if it was her child's passion and brought her more joy than almost anything else.  And I believe that! Cheer is not a sport I would have ever dreamed of enjoying and embracing but I really do find a lot of joy watching Brynn grow and progress in this sport.  I hope my kids know that I am and will always be their #1 fan in the stands.

I finished reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets to Ivy.  Molly is always nice to let us borrow the illustrated versions (as if she has a choice).  Ivy's seen the movie a bunch of times so it was fun for her to hear some things in the book that are not in the movie.  Book > movie, always.  Now, on to the next one!

Here's the baseball update:  Tryouts were held the end of February, for a couple of days.  Way less intense than 10 hours of soccer tryouts.  I think Stockton was anxious but not too much.  I personally hate tryout week...but, not to worry, he made the freshman team and they told him he would get a lot of playing time.  Since then he has been on a baseball high (Justin's on the high as well, wink).  He loves the sport and is so happy to play so often.  He looks pretty good in his pinstripes, too!  Go Wasatch!

In the first couple weeks of March, they had their baseball banquet at the high school where they made a ton of money for the team and they also got to spend 5 days in St. George playing ball and hanging out.  It's so awesome for him to be part of this and I'm just really thrilled for him.

Wasatch Baseball 2024; Stockton is 5th in from left on the bottom row

Cheer pics, 2024.  Team "Lady Royal".  Tumble Central All-Star Cheer.

Oakley Keys, Brynn, Dani F.

Brook Moore, Abby Boyer, Abby Hansen, Claire, Brynn

with coaches McKinley, Ashley, Tavia

on the floor in the center

front and center!

I must document our first Sunday playing outside.  You can see the early, early spring grass and the patches of snow...but it was warm enough for the kids to kill a few hours out there playing baseball and croquet.  And a family flag football game after dinner.  We are so ready for spring!

big brothers are the best...don't worry, he didn't really hit anyone

On Brynn's third lesson with Kollin, she got her backhandspring up to full extension on one arm.  She amazes me.  Kollin told her to "never, ever stop partner stunting."  I wish I could sign her up for every week but we have to space them out a little.  But hopefully she'll have more opportunities to hone this skill because she is so good at it.

Justin's turn to have a birthday.  He turned 42 on March 14th.  We had to celebrate a little early since some of us were gone on his actual birthday but it's kind of all the same when you are a grown-up.  I made him bibimbap for dinner, yum, and twinkies for his birthday cake.  Stockton was in St. George with the baseball team so it was just us girls.

I made him eggs benedict for his birthday breakfast on the actual day and had the kids pick out his favorite treat.  Molly got him a Sympony bar with almonds and toffee, Stockton did cow tails, Brynn-licorice, Ivy-rice krispies.  Molly and I left that morning for a soccer tournament.  The kids were out of school so Ivy stayed home while Brynn went to cheer and a friends house.  Justin had the day off and his friend from high school, Nic Pfeiffer, was in town and drove up to visit for a few hours. So it was not a very exciting birthday.

Our ward does an "act out The Book of Mormon" night for one of their activities.  The kids like it enough that it is a repeat activity.  Each class/quorum takes a story out of The Book of Mormon, makes a script, and then acts it out.  I didn't go this year but Brynn was a sheep.  I can't remember who/what Molly was and Stockton was at baseball so he missed out.

Molly had a 4-day tournament in Las Vegas.  It worked out well that she had the days off of school already.  Justin was going to try to take her to this one since I did the last one, but it just didn't work with his work schedule.  So I got to go.  I love the one-on-one time with Molly and I love watching her play.  But I sure hate the drive to Las Vegas.  We stopped for a minute to see Stockton in St. George but we missed any games so it was a quick hello and then a stop for our favorite oranges that are sold out of the back of a semi at a specific gas station down there.  Then on to Vegas....such a long drive from St. George.  But we made it safe and sound.  I was thankful to being staying in Henderson with an acquaintance of Justin's who retired and moved down with his wife.  He was so generous to let us stay with him and it saved us a bunch of money!

Molly had two games the first day. Both were very closely matched and were tied 0-0 the entire game until the very end.  In the first game we got scored on in the final minute and in the second one, we scored in the final minute.  So a loss and a win.  Not bad.

Molly in white, doing the throw in

We got rained on the entire first day and the field was pretty muddy for that second game.  The city closed the fields for the second day so we waited around to hear if we were going to play or not...and then our game was cancelled.  Boo.  Molly and I did some shopping for some spring/summer necessities.

The sun came out and dried out all the fields so she was able to play her last game.  It ended in a tie.  We led most of the game but they got a sneaky goal towards the end.  Oh well.  All in all, it was a much better showing than the St. George tournament and gives me high hopes for spring season.  We left straight from the field and had the long drive home, finally making it around 9:30 that night. 

She had a few days to recover and then it was back to the field for the start of spring season.  She loves it.  Her coach is amazing and has done so much for her confidence on the field.  We love watching her.  I personally hate missing any games and will go to great lengths to arrange my schedule so I never miss.  Not an easy task on some days since all of her games are in Utah or Salt Lake County.  But so worth it.

Ivy came to one of Molly's games with us.  I had packed some food and she was excited about how big this strawberry was!

Brynn's cheer routine and theme for this year has been Hunger Games.  The music has references to the books/movies and they have a few moves that relate as well.  So it made sense to have a Hunger Games movie party at the gym one Saturday.  They played games, guessed baby pictures, and watched the movie a little.  I'm sure there was cheering and tumbling for fun in there as well.

Brynn is second in from right on the top

top right

Brynn's in the middle, to the right of the girl in the green tank

Ivy's friend, Raina, had a hot tub/Bluey birthday party.  They had pizza and cake, played pass the parcel, gave presents, and watched Bluey while they played in the hot tub.  It looked like a fun party with cute, nice girls!

Ivy's in the back with her hand up

Brynn's team is preparing for their next competition which is nationals in California.  They are expected to work hard and they are being pushed to be their best.  To make it a little more fun, they have had theme practices in the lead-up.  White lies (write a white lie on a white t-shirt, Brynn wrote "I'm the tallest on the team"), beach party, and cheer sister rhyming duo.

sixth in from left

We had Molly and Ivy home with us one Friday night.  I hadn't made anything for dinner so we went and got street tacos and free Quench-It's for the girls.

Brynn got her Valentine's date with Justin in March.  It was a quick date to Dairy Keen here in town.