December has been full of basketball and the start of Christmas parties so far. Blake is doing really well and enjoys it. He seems to be on fire every other game. Kinda ho hum the next then fire and just goes the next. Not sure how to get that hustle in him for every game. His goal is to touch the rim by the end of the season. If he does he wrangled a bet out of Leah that he will get pizza. His coach is giving him tips and help. He is pretty close.
He had a tournament first week of December and ended up getting the tournament all-star award. We thought that was really neat andwere proud of him. A little extra cool was the fact that Cora had won All-Star her Grade 9 year at the same tournament and then Leah won it Grade 9 same tournament as well. Cora said she wants them all to take a picture in their shirts when she gets home.
The High School boys team is small this year and they asked Blake if he would be willing to come 'ride the pine' in one of their tournaments. Just in case someone got hurt or needed a short break from running. He was reluctant. He was pleased to have been chosen, but very nervous. He went to a practice with the HS team and after said it was so much fun. On the way to the tournament he was hoping he would not play all weekend. They put him in for a few minutes each game. One game he did quite well and again said it was so fun. Leah was very excited that he was asked because her boys were in the same tournament and usually played right after. So she got to watch all their games as well. :) But oh yes... support her brother as well. She has been busy coaching the JR high girls. One game they turned over to her and they won. One girl told her it was the first game in 3 years that they had won.
They really like her the head coach is always asking for help and info. Thanking her and telling her how much her knowledge and skill is useful. The other assistant coach, not so much. She does not like this 17 year old girl being there and undermines Leah a lot. But Leah is so happy to be involved somehow. She got her jersey for SR pictures this week and called crying. She said it just hit her that she never gets to wear the jersey on the court again. Tough moment for her.
She sent me this picture the next day, after tears were dried and ready for sr pictures. Leah enjoys reffing as well and gets paid for it so bonus, and does the scorekeeping for HS games.
Leah started having some stomach problems about 5/6 weeks ago. At first she thought they were really bad cramps. She gets cramps 3 out of the 4 weeks a month anyways and just thought they were worse than usual. But as the week progressed they got almost unbearable. So we started looking into it. I thought maybe it was appendix and we ended up taking her to a dr. He immediately scheduled a full ultrasound. A few days later we went to get results and he declared that she was 'unremarkable'. I totally started laughing. He looked at me a little odd and and when I said, "Leah, you are unremarkable how does that make you feel?" He laughed as well. As he talked to us more about how once in a while they let up and then really come back strong, we discussed ulcer and other things. There seemed to be a pattern of increased pain right before a test or big assignment due. In the end he said he thought it was stress. Apparently it is rare but that some people will have a very tight contracting of the stomach muscles when they are under a lot of stress. Which she certainly has been. He offered stomach relaxers and she declined and said we would try to work through it. We could come back if we felt she needed them. It is always so much easier to put up with pain when you know what it is. We were able to find an, almost affordable (but sometimes you just got to bite the bullet and do it) tutor for her. Leah has had a few sessions and it is helping immensely. She has two weeks of no early morning seminary, so she can actually get some sleep and she cantries to talk her way through the pain. When the Dr. was saying he could right her a RX he was saying he could do this med or that med or he could just write a note for her to drop English and Math. Hahaha
We went out to my parents for the Smith Christmas party. Bailey came and hung out with us as well. We had a good meal, white elephant gifts, games, puzzles, chats and then snacks as we watched the First Presidency Christmas Devotional. I swear that gets better and better every year. We then rushed home for Dave to feed cows.
Blake had his Christmas concert this week. He does so well with his trumpet. It is his last Christmas concert. They had some fun songs. The last two years they have had an advanced band option were they have extra band classes. He has enjoyed this. I don't know if he want to keep it up next year or not. He loves it but has other options he likes just as much. So we will see.
Both kids had their Christmas dinners at school and got to dress up for that. Got pictures with friends and exchanged gifts. Leah went to Emily's last night to make cookies and watch Christmas movies. There was about 5 of them. Leah and Emily had been invited to a big party but Leah was not feeling like she could be on anymore and needed to destress and just chill. Emily had other plans, but they got changed and they decided to just do something low key instead. It was just what Leah needed. Cookie making, singing, laughing, comfy clothes, blankets and good shows.
Tonight is our Ward Christmas party. Always good food there. We are looking forward to it. Leah was asked to be in charge of the program this year. She came up with an idea that she wanted to do more of the Hidden Talents. In our ward how we do the Christmas program usually is each organization is responsible for finding one number. E.I. Either the whole RS sings or the pres asks someone to play the piano etc. This year Leah wanted each organization to find someone that doesn't' usually perform. Find a hidden talent in their groups. She also wrote a funny skit for the youth bases on the short video of how RS sees EQ and vice versa. So how YW and YM see each other. The youth are pretty excited about it and I can't wait to see it. Leah found out last Sunday that the bishop was turning the whole night over to her. She is MCing the entire thing, dinner, Santa, getting prayers etc. She was like oh....ok :) Here she is busy texting presidents and making lists.
Lastly a cute gift Blake made for the lady he works for. He had wanted to make her something small and was looking at wood options when we came across this on pinterest. I think it turned out great.
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