Brrrthdays and Other Winter Fun

February at our house is pretty much party month.  It starts off with Grant's birthday!

  Grant turned 15 and cannot wait to start practicing his driving skills.  I, on the other hand, am not in a hurry for my child to be behind the wheel.  So, off to the drivers license division soon to get that permit...eek!!

Grant is old and cool and just requested gift cards,  clothes and shoes.  

It was actually really fun to watch him open his Nike Air Force shoes...

He even had an inkling they were going to be part of his day, but the excitement was still genuine.  It was so fun! Grant has been busy with swim, working at Brick Oven-handing out that pizza like a pro, and snowboarding-his most favorite thing to do.  For his birthday, we let him miss a day of school and head up the canyon with his cousin Michael for some legit boarding.  It was the perfect day for him... and me.  I would have just fallen down every run he goes on now.  He has far surpassed any snow skills around these parts.  We love that he enjoys this winter sport so much!!  

Just a few days later, we held Brenna's very special celebration shin-dig...

The little red headed lady has been planning and counting down to her Golden Birthday for ages.  I mean, 10 on the 10th-it can't get more exciting for your first double digit year!  Double digits hit me like a double punch in the gut.  I feel like that's the hump for transition to big kid and tween just around the corner.  I would think that Brenna might hang on to the kids side of the slope, though, because she must have spread the word about her lack of boy barbies because nearly each of her buddies wrapped up a male counterpart to any Barbie she owns. 

So, thanks to Kate, Keira, Kloee, Emree, Brinsley, Lilly, Kinley, Sami and Natalie for fulfilling her dreams of pairing up each Barbie and then spending the day swimming at the rec center.  It was such a fun party-swimming in February is a unique treat! 

We wanted a turn to celebrate the double digit lady with a dinner at home with family.  We ate, opened gifts and indulged in angel food cake after she blew out the candles.  

She was so enamored with her planner and colored pen set that we could hardly get a word out of her.  

It was not surprising that Brenna was so engulfed in organization-that is her life.  She is crazy about things being in their place and I love that I never have to worry about her room being a mess! Actually, she drives some family members wacko because she is always following behind them picking up.  She has big aspirations for being a CEO of an organization company and can't wait till I let her loose on my closets and cabinets.  I have no doubt she will be a million times better than me at getting things in order.  Brenna is loving dance and could be there all day, everyday.  It seems like she is sometimes.  She is at the studio 7 hrs a week.  She is great at piano and school and so driven.  We adore her.  

Valentines Day is always special-not just because we get to be all mushy and the kids just LOVE that (not!) but because we get to commemorate the fateful day Dave and I met over a cup of orange juice.  We skipped our annual Valentines breakfast though to head to Island Park with friends to stay at their heavenly cabin!!  Thinking of this winter wonderland,

it was a no brainer to join them!  It didn't hurt that we got to miss making those dang Valentine boxes for elementary school parties!  YES!! We spent the most glorious weekend snowmobiling (Grant, to Katelee's chagrin was included on the adult run-guess he is ready to drive after all!  All the kids (except for the 6 year old, of course, took a loop around the flat meadow, so she did get to drive a little). 

We frolicked in the snow...

were blown away by the gorgeous surroundings, sledding, 

and spent the time hanging with our friends.  Huge thank you to Jill, James, Jesi and Brett McAree.  Nothing like throwing a southerner, a gal from Columbia, a Scotsman and some crazy kids together for fun.  Harrison's exclamation of "I saw it with my own eyes" shouted in a western drawl while playing cards will forever be a perfect catch phrase between us.  

We made chocolate fondue for Valentines Day, had yummy food and lots of time playing games.  We loved every single minute.

 Basketball season is in full force here.   Dave and I went to a BYU cougars game with our friends the Gowens and sat right by the head football coach.  Dave wanted me to snap a quick photo.  Sitake was so friendly and turned around and chatted with us for a bit after this too.  When we sent the picture home for Katelee to show the littles, Harrison was so impressed.  He is such a sports obsessed wacko.

Harrison is a super fan of the Rockets...it is quite unfortunate.  ESPN is constantly on and logos are printed daily so he can come up with games and potential scores.  We have a tiny little tikes hoop that our little guy practices on since its too cold to go outside.  Daily slam dunks are in order.  It is hours of entertainment-for him and me, honestly.  He sported his James Harden jersey at the jazz game.  Wow.  He got down close to the court when the Rockets were warming up and felt pretty dang cool. 

He wanted to continue the smooth feel with his basketball photos...The little dude told me that he wanted to look cool and that this is how the basketball players look when they are trying to be cool.  Judge for yourself...

Maybe I am more for the preppy vibe-must be, I mean look at Mr David McArthur himself.  That must be in Harrison's heart somewhere, because I walked into my room and found this the other day...

Only a McArthur man would find it comfortable to be lounging about in a sports jacket and instinctively strike a pose.  

Many people don't love cold and snow and winter-but those aren't the kind of people that live at our house!  We love our winter and cold brrrthdays! 

20/20 Vision

We started off the new year with some new  experiences- Brenna got to accompany Dave on a work trip 

to Georgia to hang out with Aunt Anna while her dad was busy in the day.  

They shopped, got nails done, ate yummy food and played with Uncle Curt too!  Brenna was in heaven.  

We volunteered at a new place (The Good Samaritan House) where we packed and prepared sack lunches for home less people.  

Everyone worked really hard-slappin on that salami and ham, spreading sauce, wrapping and packing. It felt good to be there. We definitely want to go back...even if Katelee looks like she has been possessed in the picture below!

Harrison has continued his slightly bizarre, yet endearing desire to dress up like people from the past for holidays.  He donned his revolutionary war get up for President's Day. 

 He also created quite the picture-one side of the paper for The British with General Howe, Benedict Arnold and King George up against Washington, Lafayette and another random patriot.  We maybe have been listening to Hamilton!  

So, many of our days are spent printing off sheets and sheets of college logos for him to create game score sheets.  We also do that for NBA teams.  Now, we print off flags and historical locations occasionally.  It's nice to be so well rounded.  ha!  He wants to have a war birthday so his friends can dress up like red coats and others patriots.  I'm sure they all have their costumes ready to go.  haha!

Harrison was on his very first basketball team as well.  He is quite intense and was a super star.  He had one game where the ref had to tell him he could only steal the ball from whichever kid had the same color wristband he did.  

He made so many baskets and would just dribble down and shoot.  Passing is not so natural, so some of his teammates liked to ignore he was open because there was no chance he'd be giving that ball to anyone else...that will be something to work on!  He is so much fun to watch and talk to about sports.  He wants to play on a professional sports team eventually, so he can have a lot of money he says.  For now, when I asked him what he's saving his money for, he explained a couple of goals-a mansion and to get out of here (our house)!  After a dramatic pause and a dropped jaw by me, he explained he meant college.  I'm not sure that's true, but I commend him on his aspirations. 

We've entered a new decade and there are lots of changes going on.  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is redoing their YW and youth program that sets goals for the YM/YW.  They actually rolled it out last fall, but the girls had through the end of the year (2019) to finish their personal progres. Katelee did it!  This was an amazing feat considering she did it all in one year!!!  Pretty awesome.  

And so we are in our new year- 2020.  It's pretty catchy, it's kind of iconic.  We think about our vision, our perspective.  It is often said that hindsight is 20/20, perfectly clear.  We can't have that clear vision when we are looking forward but we can trust in Him who has the perfect plan and perfect vision.  We are excited to keep trusting and hoping there won't be *too much to look back on this year and know we would have done it differently!  

We are loving the new Book of Mormon videos that the church has made to accompany us in our Come Follow Me lessons and personal Book of Mormon study.  We watched one the other day and Harrison was pretty passionately thrilled about it.  He was really digging Nephi's experience I guess, becuase he just jumped up and down as it wrapped up and exclaimed, "that video was AWESOME.  it was KILLING IT."  Well played Nephi, well played.  

Jolly Holiday Fun

True to December from, December 2019 was chock full of excitement, festivities and one tired momma! 

We had many performances...here is Brenna  looking stunning after her ballet recital....

The same weekend and an additional week of December was full of Katelee debuting as a young ape in Tarzan.  

She fit right in the jungle as a wild, unruly animal.  It was a fun show to watch especially when the half clad fella personifying the panther hopped on to Dave's armrest.  Dave had to look down, he couldn't even take how immersed he was, it was just too frightening for him, and too funny for me!  We love watching Katelee shine on stage, you can tell she has a great time.  

Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday Brenna has been heading to the school early to be in the elementary school band.  She thought she'd give it a whirl.  She has a had a fun time playing, but never ever practices at home, so it may be a one time thing.  We could not stop giggling and praising the band teacher's name as we sat through that concert.  That takes one special someone to teach young kids brass and other instruments at the same time and wrangle them in while attempting to make music.  Kudos to band teachers everywhere!

Harrison joined in the musical holiday celebration with his made up songs.  He made up all sorts of tunes about "that Starry Night"  We have thoroughly enjoyed each one! 

Not only did our family participate in cultural and sporting events, we also watched some others show their stuff! Brenna took her buddy Kate to a BYU basketball game where they ate, cheered, 

made it on the Jumbotron and hung out with Cosmo.  They had the greatest time. 

Dave and I won the religious lottery and scored tickets to the Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert.  It is no easy feat so we were stoked to spend the evening downtown.  We met up with Shannon, dropped off our donations and toured the Candy Cane Corner site as we always do, walked through the Grand America

 

to see the Gingerbread House

and eat a treat.

We went to dinner and then Dave and I ditched the others for the concert as they enjoyed the Temple Square holiday lights.  

Everything was perfectly helping in our holiday spirit.  Grant and Katelee had a holiday choir concert that was fabulous.  Their middle school choir teacher is da bomb and has the greatest music program.  

Harrison had Grandparents day and Grandma was able to spend a bit of time in his kindergarten class after his adorable program. 

There pretty much is nothing better than 5 and 6 year olds singing 'All I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten' and 'Skinnamarink' ending with the anticipated blown kiss.  I love kindergarten.   He also had a VIP week just for him.  There was a bit of a drama one day when a substitute kicked him off of the special chair, it was pretty much heart breaking when he came home sobbing.  But, the day I got to go in and show his class his special pictures and talk all about Harrison was pretty special.   When he asked what he liked to do with his family, Harrison said he liked it when we are altogether and when we get along.  He followed up with "We don't get along very much"  So funny and also true!  Ha! 

The first few weeks flew by and we made it to Christmas Eve!  We went to Boondocks and had a game of laser tag and played some arcade games.  We think Christmas Eve laser tag may need to be a new tradition! We also wanted to do something kind and thought we would try and pay for someone's meal in a drive thru.  Turns out the fast food restaurants aren't hopping on Christmas Eve around 3pm. Ha!  But, we finally found one that looked a little busy, got in line, told the cashier we wanted to pick up the check for the car behind us and the car in front of us had already paid for ours!!  Bless that holiday cheer.  After a few attempts, we found success at Taco Bell, it was like their bells were Christmas bells ringing in the holiday with tacos.  

Christmas Eve at Grandma and Grandpa's house was delicious and delightful.  

We had our program, played the white elephant game, exchanged gifts and handed out pajamas.  

Grant did request another onesie so he could be toasty warm after snowboarding.  But, gauging his reaction to this baby blue Yeti outfit, not sure if it was what he expected.  Haha!

Our sports man was content with his jammies- he acted out and posed as a player for each sport represented.


Christmas morning was magical, like always.  Santa came through with the requests from the little kids.  They were the only ones that paid him a visit,

so I am not surprised he remembered their requests.

He remembered that Harrison really wanted a BYU helmet. Not only did he bring a helmet, but a jersey too.

I think he is set for all football.  He pretty much could play for the cougars tomorrow, if they asked him.  Unfortunately, I have told him he will have to wait until he is in college to play.  We will see if I can hold out on that.  He feels ready to tackle.


Brenna got a polaroid camera.  It maybe wasn't the desired color, but I'd say it's a win.


Everyone was so excited to get Lagoon season passes!  We also all took a turn zipping around on our mini-segueway.   Grant and Dave are a little bit of scaredy cats and tried  to balance but one try was enough.  We are going to enjoy rolling around in the house till the weather is warmer and then it will be an outside toy.  In the meantime, it will help me get all my chores done quicker, I am sure!

We played our new games-Sushi Go, Ice Cool and Cover Your Assets.  They were so fun!!  We pretty much do nothing on Christmas day, but somehow we are exhausted.


Cousin sleepover happened.  Grandma is a good sport to let the kids come over and "sleep" during the holiday break.


And it wouldn't be a McArthur December without someone getting sick the week after Christmas.  Harrison got a really bad illness-he woke up in the night struggling to breathe.  It was so sad.  Dave ran him to the Instacare in the morning and he had Croup and Influenza.   Poor kid.  He did a breathing treatment, got some steroids and kindly passed it on to Dave and me. 

We couldn't help but cuddle him when he was so under the weather, so no shocker that we got it too.  Because we were feeling icky, New Years Eve was low key with Harrison and Brenna.  Katelee and Grant weren't sick so they hung out with friends at parties and still rang in the new year with a bang.

And so we start a new year-here's to 2020.  After a December like that, I need to remember to take a moment...Harrison was totally in his room the other day "meditating"  I am not sure that I would typically describe the kid as being "zen".  He took a squirt bottle the other day and told me he was going to spray all around and then "just feel the peace." Wouldn't that be just wonderful if we just sprayed peace and it sprinkled on us whenever we wanted!    I appreciate when he can calm himself down, though.  After a bit of a rough day, loss of electronics and time in his room, Harrison got a hug from me and I told him I loved him.  He responded with "Can I tell you what I wanted to say?  I was going to tell you that you're the worst mom ever and I don't need you anymore.  Then you hugged me and I felt better and didn't need that."  

Lesson learned: peace comes through hugs,meditation, and tiny squirts of water 

It's All About the Food

It is kind of strange how so many of the conversations here at our house revolve around what we love to eat.  But, when it comes to the month of Thanksgiving, it just is a given for everyone.  It was the first thing Dave asked people when he found out we had a little rewards trip to Phoenix for work, "Where should Kara and I eat?!" He spent a lot of time researching good restaurants for our little getaway, but turns out we only went to one of the places because we used the trip to have a mini family reunion!  Thanks ADP!  haha!  

It's been many years since Dave qualified for a small trip, so we were really excited.  We spent a night going out with Brandon and Malia, having family dinner at Russell and Lisa's and visiting the temple to do sealing with Carl and Catherine.  

It was such a neat experience to be there with Dave's parents, especially because it was my first time being a witness.  That is something that meant a lot to me and I loved it.  We rarely have time alone, so it is good to remember we are married!  

School and other events keep us busy so it was nice to get away for a few days.  When we got back, it Dave let Harrison and a friend join him for a BYU basketball game.  Harrison wanted to bring a true blue cougar, so he asked our neighbor Sam to join.  They had a great time!!  

Apparently they were so overcome with excitement, they both passed out on the ride home...in the middle of the day!  Dave had to snap a photo, it was too funny.  

We got to celebrate Grant as the South Hills Tiger of the Month at a breakfast one morning.  We were pretty proud of him for being nominated and earning the award!  

A few weeks before the award ceremony, I got a phone call from Grant's math teacher.  When I answered and the teacher said, "is this Grant McArthur's mom?  This is Mr Larsen, his math teacher.  Do you have a few minutes I can talk to you about Grant."  Now, this kind of call maybe makes my stomach drop.  I was sure there was a problem. I prepared myself for the conversation and then listened as Mr Larsen said, "I cannot tell you how much I appreciate Grant and enjoy having him in my class.  He is such a great kid.  His A grade and H citizenship don't even describe him enough.  The other day I had to leave with a student in the hall to address a situation and when I came back in, Grant was at the front of the class teaching everyone how to do the next problem on their assignment."  After we hung up, I really just started laughing-laughing out of relief and unbelief.  Grant had the same reaction because him teaching the class was a total joke/dare, which sounds about right.  Regardless, we were happy to have a morning to celebrate Grant! 

Back to the food topic...every year at Thanksgiving, Dave requires a ham in addition to a turkey.  The Petrick side does not prepare a ham-that's never been a Thanksgiving staple.  But, finally, after being harrassed and asked every November where the ham is on the table, my mom told us to bring a ham!  HAHA!  We were happy to contribute.  

We loved spending the meal with our Utah family...

We had a lazy morning, well, I should say everyone else besides me had a lazy morning-I was cooking! After we got ready, we met for dinner and everyone went to Frozen 2.  We tried to split up so Grant wouldn't have to be tormented by the singing, but alas, he had to join everyone.  It helped that Caleb wanted to see the animated feature!

After we watched the movie we came back for pie and treats.

I've discovered that most people prefer cake to pie, but not me!  I am a pastry gal all the way.  So seeing this spread was like my dream come true...except I was way too full to try it all. 

We played games and had the typical great holiday.  I would say it was typical, except that we did have an unexpected visitor from history...

Harrison has loved learning about the Pilgrims so much that he told me he was going to dress up for Thanksgiving.  I didn't pay much attention, but sure enough Thanksgiving morn, he needed an authentic outfit put together.  So, we cut a wash rag, rolled up his dress pants, threw on Brenna's knee socks and had Katelee whip up a hat. I think he looks fetching.  It was the highlight of our holiday for sure.  It's nice to know school is having such an impact on Harrison.  He is also in turn, having an impact on his school mates...

The school was having a flu clinic at the same time as the book fair. We had already had our flu shots at Grant and Katelee's parent teacher conference.  But, while we were in the elementary gym walking around the book fair, we heard the most terrified and distressed scream.  We knew it had to be a child anticipating the flu vaccine.  Sure enough, we peek around to see Harrison's classmate, Adam.  I talked with Harrison and encouraged him to tell Adam how he had already had the flu shot and it turned out to be ok!  Harrison decided he did want to go encourage his friend, so we walked over to poor whimpering Adam.  His mom greeted us and asked Harrison if Harry had already had a flu shot.  I told her that yep, Harrison had and he wanted to talk to Adam about it.  So, sweet Harrison looked at his buddy and said, "Adam, I had my flu shot...and it hurt SOOOOO bad."  Oh dear...poor Adam started wailing and I ran out of there red faced. Harrison is indeed a memory maker and we LOVE all our Harrison stories!!