Finishing School and Starting Summer

May kept us hopping with lots of fun (and exhausting) activities!  Brenna continued her dance competitions and conventions.  She had a solo this year and a front aerial in a dance-both of those pushed her pretty hard.  Through blood, sweat and some tears she grew a lot!  

She had a lot of supporters at her recital, where we learned that Dave does not want Harrison to join Brenna's dance studio,

so good thing his interests lie elsewhere.  He's been playing hard with this group of boys.  

Grant left to try his hand at another round of summer sales, this time in Minnesota.  Thus far, he loves the land but not the people.  

We've been living lacrosse here and mostly loving it.  It was such a roller coaster ride the end of the season.  Katelee's team made history taking region and being ranked number one in state! 

But they had a huge heart break in the playoffs losing in the semi finals

 to a rival local team.  It was a hard one to swallow because there was some sketchy things that went down, but our girls had an amazing season and we loved watching them all, especially cute number 22!

Katelee even made the All State 2nd team, which was super exciting to see.  

She will play over the summer a little bit before she leaves for her HXP trip, so she can keep up those stick skills for senior year! 

The lacrosse gals all went to the girls choice MORP dance together following a game one Saturday.  Katelee took Bryson and had a great time with him.  

Cute cow folk looking swell.  

Finals, projects, presentations, reports, phew...we did it all.  Katelee had some tough classes and survived it all.  The cute caboose rocked his county report and 

designed these letters for his elementary school display.  The kid has some serious art skillz that are used not only for designing jerseys! 

We were all happy to start summer break...well, mostly.  Our man Harrison was teary on the last day of school.  He was reflecting on how fast he is growing up and feeling nostalgia laced with sadness because he says he can't remember being little.  He told me he wished he had just loved being little and understood how great it was.  

Our tender hearted deep thinker has to say goodbye to 4th grade, ready or not.  That pic was taken on a random spring Sunday when, unplanned, the kids were all matchy matchy for church.  

Our very first weekend of summer was a celebration for Caleb and Adri!

We loved getting to be there for their special day!  

It was too bad Grant was already in the midwest for sales, but the rest of us had a great time congratulating the newlyweds.

Brenna took her job as the soda barista very seriously.  She designed a menu and was a natural soda-rista.  She had one minor breakdown when she ran into the woods after she realized she forgot their Taylor Swift hand towels gift but she left the station in good hands with her assistant, Harrison.  

Yay for weddings! We were sitting in the sealing room, where the brides family and friends face the grooms family and friends, with the altar in the middle where the couple will come and kneel.  Toren, Rachel's husband leaned over and said, "we could take them."  I was pretty confident in that until I realized who would be on my team.  Our physical prowess is not mighty, but boy am I grateful for the steadiness and support of our families! 

While we had started the break, we still had at least one school related task to attend to-the ACT test for Katelee.  We had it scheduled and unfortunately, it was only being administered an early Saturday in the beginning of June and hour away.  We made plans for Katelee to go to bed early, make all necessary preparations etc and be calm for her exam.  

Well...then Katelee got invited to a concert- for free.  She wanted to go so badly and promised she'd be home early.  Was she?  Of course not.  Did she miss the last train home?  yes, yes she did.  So, Dave had to go pick her up and we just kept saying everything would be ok.  Her calculator, pencil, ID, confirmation paper, everything was ready to go, we would get enough sleep and zip up to the test early.  When she and I left the morning of the test, all seemed well.  I decided I would go to the temple while she was testing to burn time.  As we were about 30 minutes into the drive, I notice Katelee shuffling around on the ground in the car.  I inquired if she was ok and had everything.  Katelee hastily replied, 'yep, yep. I am good.'  I could tell something wasn't right, so I did a mental check list sure we had grabbed everything on the list.  But when I looked down, I just saw Katelee's cute feet in socks.  I said, "Katelee...where are your shoes."  She frantically emphasized she had grabbed them, then stopped in shock and slapped her hands over her mouth saying she put them on the car.  Whelp...those suckers were long gone.  I was going to have to let her use the sandals I was wearing to the temple and maybe I could borrow shoes from Rachel who lives not too far away from the school she was testing out.  But then I said, "Katelee, what shoes were they."  Yea, they were mine.  My adidas that I wear all the time. 

 I was hoping maybe they flew off in our hood and we would get them as soon as returned so I stayed calm, sent the girl off in my shoes and ended up walking the dirty aisles of Walmart for flip flops to wear to the temple.  The checkout lady would not help me cut the packaging so I moved on over to customer service hoping someone would have pity on me.  Good thing I know Jesus didn't care what shoes I ended up in at his house, I was there, it was an adventure  and no, we never found my shoes.  Bless this child and her speedy pace of life. 

This child continues to be our extra organized, structured woman.  She came in my room one night showing me the heatless curls she was trying and I busted up and had to snap a pic.

Brenna has an extensive bucket list for summer that I have to remind her do not have to all be accomplished, but it is a good list to give her ideas of what to do when she is bored. 

This giant cake was on the list...it was decorated with chow mein noodles, pretzels, raisins and nuts.  It was a sight to behold. 

Brenna did get to go to her first FSY with her friend Luella in June, starting her summer with something so fun.  She had a great time in the dorms and learned a lot!

Another bucket list activity was the drive in... 

Brenna, Harrison and I had a great time at Inside Out 2.  We snagged pizza and treats and had a perfect summer evening.  We made sure to do it when this guy

was at his YM camp because he does not enjoy the drive in movies.  He was having a great experience rock climbing and adventuring with our church young mens group.  

Dave was the only adult leader that made it to the top of the rock climbing/rappelling wall and he was rightly stoked about that.  

He was away for his birthday doing what he does not love at all (camping) but we made sure to celebrate him later.  

While Brenna was busy at FSY one day, I decided Harrison and I should venture out to explore.  We went to the Golden Spike monument, somewhere neither of us had ever been.  

It was a fun one and done location for us.  I had told Harrison we should go take the drive without any electronics for him...2 hrs there and 2 hours back (I didn't realize it would be that long!) and he survived.  It was a long day but we had fun and stopped at Maddox's for some delish food on the way home.  Bucket list item completed.  

We have still had some tournaments (lacrosse and basketball) and Harrison got to do the BYU basketball training camp which provided him with some swag he was stoked about.  Two camps down and a whole lot of fun so far!  Summer is sizzling!

All of April

 April was full of all the sports and all the stuff.  It gets so crazy busy, I am sure in a few years when the kids are all out of the house we won't even know how we did it all.  But we have had lots of good times.  

Katelee had prom with Grant.  

Junior Prom, her junior year. Obviously this is her friend, Grant, not Grant her brother.  Haha. 

She did have her bestie Izzy in her group, which is always an added bonus in the experience when you get to go with your gal pals.  They both are adorable.  

Brenna's in full dance comp/convention season.  I typically am the one to attend the dance events.  Dave and family go to a dance at a comp or two and always attend the recitals, but he rarely camps out for the full day.  He did get to attend a convention with her one weekend though...

Her dance fell on the same time as Harrison's hoe down and without one second of hesitation, when given the choice between the two...this dad chose watching dance.  

I was beyond happy because you know I wanted to line/square dance with my little cowboy.  It was all I ever dreamed a 4th grade western party could be.  

Two times a week we are hustling to Riverton's lacrosse games to watch our favorite midi play.  

This gal made varsity and was a player to watch according to the Deseret News.  So, since they said to, we watch her.  ;) She has been kind of sharing the position with our cute neighbor friend Britney, so we had to take a snap of the two halves that are one player.

 She did not want to miss her game against one of the rivals, 

so Dave had to change (for a second time)their tickets to Lizzy and Jaxson's wedding in Arizona.  (I had to stay for dance with Miss Brenna)

So, we had all the flights changed and started talking about the upcoming prom Katelee had been asked to for a different school.  She had told me she thought it was a certain day and then when I double checked with her, turned out it was indeed the day after the wedding.  So, for a third time, we had to rearrange the flight time for Katelee so she could get up at 3:30am to get in in Saturday morning for prom with Max from work.  

She insisted she couldn't cancel because he already had his tux.  She's lucky she has the dad she does who uses his travel credits freely for mismanaged prom schedules.

Missing the wedding was never an option, and good thing because this gal caught the bouquet.  

Dave's face relays how thrilled he was.  It was a glorious, blustery day in AZ, but we were so happy half of the family could be there to celebrate! 

Meanwhile at home, one of the greatest things happened.  Brenna came home from school and told me nonchalantly that she had to be the mascot at school for the special needs sports team.  

I was laughing immediately and begging for a picture so we tracked a couple down and can totally tell it's Brenna as the eagle.  Ok, I can't but it for sure makes me so happy.  

 

Back home after a quick sunny trip, and back to lacrosse and basketball for the traveling athletes.  

Katelee had a good showing of support at this game, but one of my favorite games was when she got her first yellow card. 

There is cute Katelee "shake and bake" McArthur crouching in the penalty box till her time was up.  The other team scored while she was out, but luckily our team still pulled through for the dub.  

We can't wait to see the rest of the season for lacrosse, of course with a little dance, basketball and hoe downs on the side!

A Golden Age

Spring has sprung and with all the fresh green and colorful flowers popping up, we had to focus on GOLD around here.  It was Katelee's GOLDEN birthday - 17 on the 17th!!

Katelee wanted make sure we knew what a special birthday this was because it only happens once in all the birthday years you get.  We tried to decorate with gold and make her feel special, because she is one fabulous gal.  

Katelee is a busy bee- she always has some fun social plans going on every night and is starting back up with lacrosse season- making the VARSITY team this year!  We are so excited to watch her play.  She is fun and adventurous and adds a little unique blend to this ginger nation we have going on at this house.  We love her so so much!  She and I went to see MJ at Eccles Theater and had a blast.  She is always a party to be with.  

Katelee has some seriously hard classes this year and is working so hard to stay on top of them.  In particular, she stays after school whenever she can to make sure she is understanding her math classes.  She enrolled in math 1050 and math 1060 so she will get college credit and she has the best teacher ever, Mr Murphy.  He thinks Katelee is the best student ever in return, because he chose her as his one pick of the year to be the student of the month!

Each teacher at the high school gets one turn a year to choose a student who they think should be honored.  He said many years it is hard to pick, but this year it was not a hard decision.  He was so complimentary of Katelee's work ethic and attitude and he said he wished he had a whole classroom of Katelees.  We loved driving by the school seeing her face as the marquis rotated...even if she said she didn't like the picture.  Mr Murphy said that he hopes everyone that drives by thinks the school is full of Katelee McArthurs.  The school would be one amazing place if that were true.  Super proud of this girl!

 

Our other gal, Miss Brenna is also rocking the gold, but just for one of her dances.  Competition season started beginning of March so she is performing and dancing all week and most of the weekends.  She is right in her element and loving every minute.  

At the end of March, we had our spring break.  It seemed a bit early for spring break, of course we are always happy with a little school reprieve, although later in the year is more ideal.  We decided to hit up our beautiful southern Utah for a couple of days.  

It was pretty chilly the first day.  We went to Deadhorse Point and discovered Brenna did not have hiking shoes for this hiking trip, so after a shoe snafoo and negotiations on who could wear what shoes, we were set for some hikes.  Canyonlands was  a big hit and Arches is always incredibly stunning. 

We decided to sleep in the next day so we wouldn't be hiking in 35 degree weather, once the sun got up it was motivation to be on the trails and keep moving to get some heat in our bones.  It ended up being lovely weather and good times.  

After time with nature, we went for the opposite feel...on to Las Vegas.  Harrison had recently expressed his desire to go places with 'extremes in precipitation' to quote him exactly.  While we didn't get the precipitation, we did have extreme temperature changes.  We walked the strip a little, stopping at Brenna's beloved Sephora and Lids for Harrison. The girls and Dave went to the Las Vegas temple to do baptisms.  Since Harrison is not quite old enough, he and I went to the Meow Wolf Megamart Art exhibit.  

We will need to bring the rest of the fam back one day for a trippy art experience.  We loved finding all the hidden gateways that take you from a funky grocery store exhibit to another dimension...

We found quite the hilarious products in the megamart...

We had a great night on the town going to a fancy Italian family style restaurant and to the Cirque de Soleil 'O' show at the Bellagio.  Those performances are always incredible and slightly disturbing!  Are people supposed to bend like that?!  Of course one of our favorite things to do on a trip is eat...and we put it away at the Wicked Spoon buffet.  Harrison told us he capped out at 10 pancakes.  That was just part of his meal-there was a whole lot of bacon going on at that table, mingled with ice cream and crab legs and all the goods.  

It was nice having a little getaway together.  The kids don't love smooshing in the small car, but we love the prepaid gas situation and they were good sports about it.  We got back from our trip determined to jump in and finish the next couple months of school and activities strong.  We started seeing buds and flowers pushing up and Harrison came in one day after playing outside telling me, in a slightly disgusted tone, that we had beets.  He was relaying this like we had an infestation of these undesirable beets.  I was confused for a minute as he was telling me not to worry, because he pulled out everyone he could see.  It took me a minute to realize these 'beets' were the bulbs of my tulips.  Things don't always look great but with time and care, they become something beautiful, something that brings happiness, something that can be golden.  We salvaged what we could of the discarded bulb/beets and will see how things turn out. Of course, Harry felt bad, but who would have thought an ugly brown ball is the source of a beautiful flower...now he knows.  Don't discount the hidden beets-we've got something great about to pop in the right conditions!

 

Celebrating Sweeties

We started off the month of Sweethearts with Katelee's Sweethearts dance.  It was the first Saturday of the month, not right next to Valentine's Day but it kicked off the month with some cute snazz right away.

Katelee took her guy Talyn.  

They went up the mountains to tube for their day date.

After the photo shoot they had an interesting experience at the habachi restaurant they had made a reservation at. They tried to split their group and seat them at a table that they couldn't cook.  I mean why would you need a fire and grill when cooking and tossing shrimp?  It got worked out but it was a bit stressful for the gals.  

They are such a beautiful group of girls getting Valentine color schemed up.  It was fun to have a few neighborhood girls in the group together this time.  

After Katelee's Sweeties dance, we moved on to celebrate this Sweetie...

Grant is on his last year of teenage life.  I think that he seems older anyway, it's weird to think of him as a teenager, but technically that title is sticking for another year.   Grant is working hard at home and getting ready for another round of summer sales.  Target (and his friends/girlfriend) are enjoying his company in the meantime.  

It was Superbowl time again!!!  Our uber talented neighbor Taryn decked out her house for the annual Sanchez/McArthur football bash.  We eat way too much, play the grid game to win gift cards and I maybe danced to the Usher halftime show embarrassing my family and most likely making the kids of the host family traumatized for life.  But hey, it was memorable.  Harrison picked the 49ers...but, was not walking out with a win that day.  

This is how he felt about that....

Girlfriend Brenna turned 14! 

She took a couple friends out shopping and to dinner and had her angel food cake (as requested every year).

Brenna is the most driven and disciplined teenage girl on the face of the earth.  She has schedules and goals and does everything in her power to meet those.  We appreciate her organization and how she never complains about her crazy busy schedule.  

She's been babysitting more, which she has enjoyed.  My favorite recent story was when she was babysitting while a dad was working from home.  The kids she was watching wanted to play hide and seek and it was Brenna's turn to seek.  After counting and declaring 'Here I come...'  Brenna went about searching for the kiddos.  When she came to the bathroom door, she tried to open it and it was locked.  She knocked and said, "guys if I am going to find you, you can't lock the door!"  Turns out it was not a hiding child in the locked door- but a dad using the facilities and as soon as the door opened, it was a very embarrassed babysitter.  All are grateful for the locked door now!

Harrison had a vision for his Valentine's box this year and he executed it incredibly.  He wanted a box paying homage to a favorite football player- Nacua.  Nacua played for BYU and now is on the Rams, so Harrison wanted to display both.  He got a cereal box, designed a helmet with both logos.  I was thoroughly impressed. 

The rest of us didn't have valentine boxes, but we still had our love fest candlelight dinner- always a favorite McArthur tradition.  Love is not spoken enough here but we are working on it!

The older three kids have all been able to accompany Dave on a trip for work.  We figured it was Harrison's turn.  Dave had work commitments in Phoenix and we knew that was the perfect place for Harrison to stow away.  

Harry stayed with grandma when his cousins had school, but also spent lots of time with Jack and his sisters and their funny dog Jett. 

It was the kind of work trip Harrison would sign up for anytime.  

We've got snow and sweeties happening this month- a little hot and cold.  It kind of sums of life experiences, a bit of this, a bit of that, fire and ice.  Both can be beneficial, there can be positive in all, happiness and love doesn't come in one pre-designed package.  It is self designed with great effort and can be an unexpected masterpiece, just like Puka Nacua's Valentine box of honor.