Ouch!

Playing the piano can sometimes be a dangerous past time. I got a couple of piano books for my birthday and I was playing in one. I turned the page quickly and went to spread the page down when I caught my fingers on a staple in the middle of the page. It HURT!

I washed it off and insisted that Bryan put a bandaid on my owie. He protested because it wasn't bleeding and we always tell Courtney that she can't have a bandaid unless there is blood. It isn't my fault that I clot easily, blame it on "mutant genes." But I did feel better not having to see it.

Painting

Ethan and Bryan have been working on their Pinewood Derby cars. They now have them painted. They spent a lot of time on Saturday getting the axles ready and getting things set to put together. Monday night they are going to finish it all.

Making the Pinewood Derby Car

It's that time of year again....the pinewood derby is in a few weeks!! After Ethan's games, Bryan and Ethan began building their cars. Last week I bought a magazine at Michael's that gives a ton of tips on how to build your car and how to make it a winner. Ethan has been studying that magazine ever since. He made me a list of supplies, Bryan and I bought a kit at the scout store, and I found all the other miscellaneous stuff they needed.

One thing that the magazine suggested was that the dad and the son each build their own side-by-side. So Bryan demonstrates, on his car, what needs to happen and then Ethan does it himself on his car. That way the son is building his own car ALL BY HIMSELF.

After a quick run to HomeDepot to buy the right kind of saw (oops, my bad), they clamped their wood to the work table and began to saw their wood. Ethan loved this part because he said the huge saw made him feel "powerful!" Haha

Ethan had decided he wanted a simple wedge car. After he had the shape cut out, they taped sandpaper to the table and began to smooth it out. You can tell from the picture that Ethan is thrilled to be sanding. ;)
Here's Bryan inspecting Ethan's sanding job.
When Ethan finished sanding, he decided it was time for painting, but it was actually time for the boys to go to basketball practice. So they are taking a break but they will get back to the car and I will update the blog on their progress.

Snow Canyon Basketball

Ethan has his first games with the Snow Canyon Youth League this morning. He had a game at 9 a.m. and a game at 10 a.m. They lost both but Ethan made some baskets and played some good defense! But the best part is that he had a lot of fun.

Here are pictures from his first game.

Ethan is on the right in the green jersey:
These are from his second game.

Here, he is trying to get the ball in-bounds over Brennon (his best friend who was on the other team):

I just noticed that his face looks the same in both pictures of his second game. I guess that's his "game face." Hahahaha

He has 2 games each Saturday in February and on the first Saturday of March, so he'll get a lot of game time in. There are only 7 players on each team.

Basketball

Basketball season has begun again for us! Ethan has games with Ivins City on Tuesdays, Courtney has games with Ivins City on Thursdays and Ethan has games with Snow Canyon Youth Sports League on Saturdays. So it's a bit busy but the kids are loving basketball. Bryan is coaching their Ivins teams and Ethan's is pretty good this year. We have the same kids as last year (with the exception of 2 that moved and one new addition) so they have played together and are all in the neighborhood (with the exception of 2).

Courtney had her first game last night. They scrimmaged for about 20 minutes and then had a practice the rest of the time. She can shoot and dribble but she gets distracted and begins to twirl sometimes. But she loves playing so that's all that matters.

Here are some photos from her game yesterday. I will take my camera next week to Ethan's game so you can see him in action.

The Chore That Shall Not Be Named

You know how, in the Harry Potter series, they refer to Lord Voldemort as"he who shall not be named?" Well, in our house Ethan has a chore that we now call "the chore that shall not be named."

If I tell him in the morning that he needs to practice the piano, he will get so upset. He really doesn't like to practice. And it will make the morning go badly. But if I tell him that he needs to do the chore that shall not be named, he still throws a fit but he does it with a bit of a grin on his face.

New Years Eve!

We had some BYU Men's Basketball ticket vouchers. Bryan and I looked at our calendars and decided that life was about to get REALLY busy and we needed to use the vouchers soon. So we decided to make a quick Provo trip to see the Cougars play. I mailed the vouchers to BYU with a note to call me. When they did, we figured out the best seating and then we paid for one extra ticket. I decided to get 2 seats on one row with 2 seats right behind them. That made it easier to get closer to the court and closer to the center without too much of a problem.

Courtney had a birthday party Saturday morning so we didn't leave until 11:30 a.m. This is how Ethan likes to travel...under a blanket in the backseat.

We got to Provo in time to drive around (there have been a lot of changes since we were there last) and get some ice cream at the Creamery. The line was obnoxiously long so it took forever to get the ice cream but Ethan was thrilled. The girl who scooped his "small scoop" obviously didn't know what a single small scoop was because it was HUGE!!

Here it is after we have been trying to control it for a while and it's still HUGE:
Courtney got a "kids scoop" and was very happy with the size:
As we were eating our ice cream, we drove to the Marriott Center for the game. When we finally got there the kids were still eating their ice cream and so the guard made us stay outside until they had finished just so we could go in the Marriott Center next to the booth selling...wait for it...Creamery Ice Cream!!! Go figure that one. I gripped about that for a while. Urgh!

Our seats were high but it was a great game. The games have been broadcast on BYUTV so we have been able to watch them (we don't have cable). Because of this, we knew the names of all the players and Ethan could point them all out. It was great!

The girls:
The boys:
When the game was over (BYU won!), we bought a Little Caesars pizza to eat in the van and drove home. We arrived home around 10:30 p.m. and Courtney promptly went to bed. Ethan wanted to try and stay up but he fell asleep at about 11:30, face-down on his bed with his glasses still on (they were foggy because he was breathing into his pillow and it was fogging them up).

It was a fun day even if it was a quick trip!!