Final game.

We've been working at basketball since early October, and Ben was our final kid and this was his final game of the season. They couldn't come all the way back from this game, but Ben was still feeling pretty good about it. He had 8 points, 5 blocks, and a million steals. They wrapped up the season with a .500! Woot!

Operation Hawaii!

My entire to-do list has been entirely aimed at prepping us for our epic Spring Break vacation! (Somehow, deep-cleaning the kitchen is essential to enjoying a Mai Tai poolside for some reason. I blame my upbringing.)

But finally, finally, we are down to hours away and we are packing snacks and flip flops, and I even ordered 20 pounds of floaties I gotta somehow fit in our carry-on luggage.

But, we are having a good time.

Sara's closet is uber-organized and I really enjoy watching her scale the shelves to get her summer hat on the top shelf, haha.

I cleaned Bath and Body out of tropical scents. We really need to get on a plane so I stop shopping for the trip! CANNOT WAIT!!!

Cutie!

So Sara's eyes seemed to be a little off, so we finally got her in for a check up and sure enough! One eye was at 20/20, but the other eye was so bad I wasn't sure what line she was reading from!

She got to pick out some pretty cute frames, and she is set up to get some contacts this weekend, cause the girl's gotta sport.

(I loved that she wanted to get her sister's opinion before picking something out, but sadly, Kayte was at track practice. She did pretty well on her own, even so!)

Drifting...

Joe needed a ride to work early one sunny morning, and so I had a whole lot of time to get in some shoveling on our drifts before I took the kids to school. I just love the snow so much! Glad it came back real quick before spring hits.

Mock Trial!

So...cross country wasn't even over yet and Kayte was locking down on her first mock trial season. With practices two or three times a week since then, we have been much-anticipating the first competition at regionals! It was such a fun and intense day! And they got second place, after only the Logos A team, winning 8 out of 9 ballots! So! They are on to state in exactly one month!

Kayte plays the defendant...and totally killed it!

Ava is a witness for the prosecution, and a lawyer for the defense, and won a witness award!

Joe and I and Kelly enjoyed a quick burger in the sunshine at Crafted.

So good!!

Winners!

We came home to 6-8 inches of new snow....a beautiful evening for a walk.

....the wind blew all night and the guys had to dig us out so we could get to church the next day. So beautiful!!

Celebrating Will!

 Will turned 14 on a very snowy Thursday! We had some donuts and opened some presents and then we dropped everyone off at school and took off to find some adventure.

 

Mostly we needed to get Will some summer clothes for Hawaii, so we planned to hit Spokane, but the roads were a little sketchy. So we headed to Ltown instead and had time for loads of shopping, some Costco pizza, and home to crash for some Olympics.

It was a busy evening! We went to Ben's basketball game at 5 and headed to Applebees for wings for dinner. And then it was Kayte's basketball awards dessert and some open gym.

I love love love hooky day with just Will. We had SO MUCH FUN!

Later that week, we finally got in some chocolate cake at grandma's house, and more presents! 

  I am so proud of this kid. He is so driven and disciplined. I can trust him to get a job done well. He has big dreams and I love to watch him work towards them. He has a teachable and tender heart. I just love him so much!!

Happy 14 years, Will! Thanks for spending your day with me!

More basketball.

How we feel about being creamed:

Bringing it anyway.

Snow & Sun!

The next day, the sun came out! Honestly, we haven't seen it that much this winter and it was so nice! 

Kayte and Ben took advantage of the gorgeous evening (and the extra little bit of daylight) to do some sledding with Piper. :)

Valentine's Day

The kids no longer do the little teeny Walgreens Valentines. No, no, no. We've entered into a whole different season. Now the JH and high school kids try to outdo each other in the gifting department.

It's kinda fun. :)

And Joe managed to surprise me with a blizzard which just carried me all day long! This is our first skiff since Christmas!

It landed on a busy Wednesday this year, and Joe and Kayte left before 6 for Mock Trial practice and work. Then after school, Sara had her final basketball game of the season and wrapped it up with a win. That's 5-1 for the season!

 

Coach!

We went home for a heart-shaped pancake dinner and some really great Olympics.

Joe and I took Friday to go out to Black Cypress to get our rib eye and cocktails...SO GOOD!

Little Henry Beiler

We headed up to CDA to celebrate the latest Dower addition in little Henry. So good to see family, and this kid was a charmer.

Kelly makes us lunch.

Basketball season keeps rollin'

 The younger two Casebolts are certainly holding their own on Team Casebolt. Ben's season currently is 4-2 and Sara's has only lost once.

Check out that form!

Up and out

Kirk is building a new road south of our house and over the hill to two more lots. He's naming the road Swede, in honor of his Swedish grandparents. Since our driveway links in to that road, we will soon be getting a new address! Time for a new stamp!

Game over.

So the girls lost their final game last night at districts. It was a long season, but we are looking at building up and getting prepped early for next year! We celebrated the season with boxes of donuts in the parking lot :)

Love these girls!