February

At the beginning of February Jenna went to the first big ballroom competition of the year at Thanksgiving Point. Her team fell apart this year, so Jenna competes in 2 different open competitions for individual couples with 2 different partners. She dances American Rhythm with Aiden and Standard with Kade. We are lucky that she even has partners to dance with. It's slim pickings in her company right now and these are the only 2 boys left that can actually dance.

Jenna and Aiden action shot

Jenna and Kade

AJ's long awaited birthday FINALLY arrived and he couldn't have been more excited. Birthdays are a BIG DEAL for AJ and he talks about it constantly throughout the year.  He turned 5 years old on February 6th.

The next day we had a friend party and invited all of his friends. Mostly girls live around us so the party was split 50/50 between girls and boys.

I love that Jenna was able to calmly read a book while chaos surrounded her.

It was pure chaos, but the kids had a great time. Adam had them all go downstairs and play "Paw Patrol" hide and seek.  I had my doubts but went along with it. Oh my goodness, it was a raging success! The kids loved it so much that even though they all hid in the same 5 places for the entire 12 rounds they thought it was the best game they had ever played.  5 year olds are absolutely hilarious when you put them in the right setting. 😁

The girls and I got season tickets to Hale Center Theater for Christmas and our first show was Bright Star. We knew absolutely nothing about the play beforehand so it was kind of fun to show up and be surprised. We loved it. HTC always does an amazing job. There is a LOT of talent right here in our state!

This was the first year that Jameson participated did Jr Jazz after doing Riverhawks basketball in Nov and Dec. He has been practicing twice a week with some boys at a friends house so his skills are coming along. I think he enjoyed being able to score quite a few points for his team during the season.  They were on a smaller court so there wasn't as much running back and forth involved.

Britton really enjoyed being part of the cast for the high school musical "Once Upon a Mattress" which was performed at the end of February. He is quite the thespian and did a great job! He really likes to try new things and get out of his comfort zone.

We had a lot going on the weekend of the musical so we all took turns going to see it. Adam, Korinne and Jenna went on Thursday night, I went on Friday night while Adam and Jameson were in Manti for the wedding of our nephew McKaid.  Then Jenna and I went to the Utah Classic Ballroom competition that Saturday. 

Jenna and Kade dancing in the Standard Open final

Kade, Jenna, Grandma and Grandpa P

Jenna was excited to place 3rd in the event. Great job Jenna!

The next day we celebrated Jenna's 17th Birthday!!

AJ still wanted it to be all about HIM, of course, so Jenna was gracious enough to share the spotlight. 😁

We only had "Birthday Boy" bags, but Jenna didn't mind.

On her actual birthday she got to go to a Jazz game in a suite with Adam. He was offered 2 tickets from the company that was trying to recruit him so I gave up my seat so that she could enjoy an experience that doesn't come around very often for people without connections. 😀 It was a pretty sweet suite! Ha!

Later that week Britton and Jenna sang in the choir concert.

AJ has discovered he is pretty good at coloring. His favorite color is BLUE so he pretty much colors everything blue. This time he got a little wild and crazy and added a little splash of red and green before returning to different shades of blue.

I always make a video for the kids' 5th birthdays and here is the link to watch AJ's: AJ's First 5! It shares a little bit about his adoption journey and his bigger than life personality.