March

March is full of fun, kind of made up, holidays. Some years we do a lot for them, some years we do a little. This year I thought it would be fun to send a holiday package to a friend from out of town. The Caldwells had been on my mind, so Chase helped me shop for little St. Patrick's Day themed gifts for each member of their family (stuff like green socks, green nail polish, green playdough, March themed bows for the baby Vivi, a rainbow candle, Mike and Mike's for Mike). We wrapped it up all rainbow themed and sent it off as a fun surprise for them!

Chase's basketball season has been a real highlight this winter! He has practiced so much this last year and improved a lot. Games were a little emotionally charged for him, with a couple games being really hard, and he learned a lot about positive attitude, cheering on his teammates, being a team player and working hard to the last second. I was so proud of him and how far he came this year!

Also, his team was full of his friends! Luca, Jaxson, Austin and Levi were all on his team! They were a talented little team and went into the tournament undefeated! They won their first game pretty easily. On the 2nd night they played again and were tied with almost no time left on the clock- the other team got the ball and a poor kid got confused and scored in Chase's teams basket! So Chase's team ended up winning under weird circumstances. We all felt so bad for that little boy! Chase was elated though because that meant they got to come back for the championship game later that night!

All season they only allowed one parent to watch each game, but for the championship game they let two come! We hurried and had my mom come down to babysit so we could both go and I'm so glad we did! Chase's little team played so hard- and the other team was so good! They were trailing by two baskets right up until the very end! They took the lead and held it for the last 30 seconds until the buzzer went off and won! I loved seeing them all jump and cheer when they realized they'd won the game! I may have teared up a little I was so happy for them!

One great thing about this little team is that there were so many good players and they truly learned to play as a team. Many of the other teams we played had 1 or 2 all-star players that scored all their points. On this team I feel like everyone carried their weight and although some were a little more advanced players, they didn't have one all-star who did all the work. It was so fun to watch them play. This year Chase realized what an asset he could be to the team in rebounds, and frequently scored a basket or two in games.

He was so proud of his trophy he carried it from room to room with him the next day. It sat on the piano while he practiced, it sat on the desk while he did his distance learning, at the table while he ate. He basked in the glory of the moment for a good while.

Oh Davis- I snapped this picture after we'd finished doing the sacrament at home one Sunday. We had pulled out our scriptures to do reading and he went and filled a plate with more bread, blessed it (almost word for word the actual sacrament prayer) and then proceeded to pretend to pass it to all of us, except he ate it all. Then he went and got water cups and repeated the whole thing with the water (but did demand we all drink from the cups). This is right where Ben sets up the sacrament when we do it at home. Our house didn't get struck by lightning and it was super adorable, if not a little irreverent.

Lila got a doll for her birthday from Papa Ray and Grandma and this baby stroller from Will and Kate, and they have been very loved! It's kind of funny to see these pink, girly toys around the house now after years and years of trucks and tractors and lightsabers.

Also, Lila is just the cutest in the tub. She flashes me the best smiles while she's playing away in there. I usually bathe her right after dinner, but sometimes when she's really grumpy we do a bath in the afternoon too.

Daddy and Lila dancing in the kitchen- she loved this! Every time he stopped she'd start waving her hands at him until he kept going. She's got him wrapped around her little finger.

St. Patrick's Day ended up being quite an eventful day. In my efforts to be a fun mom I made green muffins the night before and set the table with our green tablecloth. Lucky the leprechaun even stopped by a left a few notes for the boys.

It really did turn out to be our LUCKY day! Ben got a new job! 

A little background- Ben has been at RedList for 3.5 years and hasn't been super happy there. I mean, it's been okay, but not great. The hours are extreme. The pay isn't great. The expectations are unrealistic. The commute is long (1 hour with no traffic each way). It paid the bills and gave him good experience for sure, but he just wasn't loving it. A year ago he was seriously looking at other jobs and a few seemed really promising, and then Covid hit and pretty much everyone started a hiring freeze. He decided to just sit tight for awhile.

A few weeks ago, several recruiters started reaching out to him on LinkedIn. If the job seemed interesting he took the interview and just started casually interviewing- not really doing any prospecting or looking on his own. After a successful interview with a company called Eccovia, he noticed that he had a mutual friend, Anthony Booyse, with the hiring manager. On March 16 he did an interview with her and her boss, which he said went extremely well. He let her know at the end that he's good friend's with Anthony and would like to add him to his reference list. Anthony called Ben an hour later and told him he was pretty confident he'd get the job. We were kind of hopeful, but not banking on it. Stuff like this has happened before and something else has come up (hiring freeze, funding didn't come through, internal candidate surfaced, etc.).

The next morning (the 17th) they called at 9:00 am and offered Ben the job! All the details were just perfect- it was like all the stars aligned. It's totally work from home right now, with the possibility of 1-2 days a week in the office in the future. But even then, the commute is cut in half! The pay is significantly better. The company is much more established. They have a 401k program. Great insurance benefits. We couldn't ask for more... (except we did, Ben asked them to add a little bit to the already generous salary and they did!). We couldn't believe it! It was definitely an exciting day!

Baseball season is just around the corner, which has found our boys out practicing with their mitts and balls more often. Both of the big boys are really good sports at playing with Davis, even though he kept referring to it as his "soccer mitt". I can't wait for baseball season! Spending spring evenings at the ballpark watching my boys play is my favorite.

 These pictures were just before church one Sunday because they all looked so dang cute. Capturing a cute picture of the four of them together is no easy task. It was significantly easier without the baby :) Also, every time I go to take a picture of them, all three boys fight over who gets to hold Lila. She's one loved little sister.

Davis Turns 4

After two months of trying so, so hard to have a birthday, it was finally his turn! On March 4th Davis turned 4! He's the last birthday in "birthday season" at our house, and at this age it was a little agonizing to him. His big day came along and it did not disappoint!

The day before he got his special birthday date with Papa Ray and Grandma. This is such a fun tradition and the first time he's gotten to do this- he was ecstatic. I was in the middle of zoom parent teacher conferences when they came to get him, which was no problem. He bolted right out the door as soon as they pulled into the driveway. They took him to Target to pick out his own presents- which is possibly one of the best things that's ever happened to him. (And now I'm slightly nervous to take him back to Target...)

His birthday morning I had strung up some red crepe paper and wrapped all his presents in red. Also, not coincidentally, all his presents were actually red themselves. He got a new Spider-Man costume, which he mostly liked, and then went back to wearing his super worn out one. He spent the whole day playing with his new toys. Nana, Papa and Heidi came later that night to give him presents and it was basically the best day he could ever have imagined.

The night of his birthday was actually Chase's basketball tournament, but Davis didn't really care that we waited until the next night to do his cake. Lindsay really outdid herself on this one- I asked her if she could make it look like Bei Bei and it turned out so cute! As soon as Davis saw it he yelled "It's Bei Bei! Win-see! Did you make that for me?" He kept admiring it, talking about how it was Bei Bei and saying over and over "Win-see made that for Davis!" He talked about this cake for days and told everyone we saw about it. Hickman's stayed to sing and eat cake with us (it was delicious- it was a cookie dough cake with boiled milk frosting) and Davis loved running around with his brothers and buddy Will.

 At 4 years old:

• 41 inches (70th percentile) 35 pounds (50th percentile) 
• Knows his shapes, letters, colors and can count up to 20...then skips to 100
• He's super into avengers stuff and was so happy to get some new costumes for his birthday. Spider-man is his favorite.
• He picks three books that are his favorite for a few weeks at a time...they slowly rotate and morph into different books but we read the same books over and over again. He's got the current ones completely memorized.
• He loves to play with other kids. Every morning we go outside and he sees if Will or Ollie can play (most of the time we are watching Ollie, which has been so fun). He also loves to play with Mark and James Bacciocco. He's super social.
• He has the funniest, deep little voice. It's kind of raspy and so endearing.
• He's a champ at wearing masks- not that he wears it totally appropriately all the time, but he doesn't complain about it and puts it right on like it's no big deal.
• He asks for pizza for dinner every night. And sometimes yells/sobs that WE ARE HAVING PIZZA, even though we are not. He just really loves pizza.
• Totes Bei Bei around a lot. Sleeps with him every single night and nap. Refers to him as a member of the family. Bei Bei is looking pretty worn out at this point, but Davis doesn't mind one bit. We love that panda!