little wasp tournament

William had his Little Wasp wrestling tournament on Monday evening.  The tournament is the last match of the season, and the only one where they weigh in the boys, so it was pretty cool!

We were excited to see William put his practice to the test on boys that would actually be his size, and therefore competition for him.

He did awesome!!!  They don't have "pins" at this level, but if they did, I think William would have won 3 of his 4 matches.  He did so well.

He loves wrestling, and has had so much fun with it this season.  We are waiting to see if he wants to continue on practicing with the club team.  We are letting William decide.

At the end of the tournament, the boys got a medal.  William was thrilled!  He has always wanted a medal for something, and he was so proud of it!  He actually wore it all night, and all day the next day when he got home from school.  It was pretty awesome.

Way to go William!

first cheer comp.

Mary had her first Cheerleading competition with Tumble Central All Stars on Saturday.  Her team is awesome, and they definitely are a team to contend with.

Mary and her friend Alina got ready at our place.  Getting ready for these things is quite the undertaking.  It requires A LOT of makeup, A LOT of curling irons, and A TON of hairspray.  It was no joke.  Molly was mesmerized by it all, and loved that Mary and Alina let her wear some make-up and be a part of it.

Unfortunately, on the day of the competition, one girl had a broken foot and could not compete, two girls had Influenza Type B, and 4 girls had Strep throat. 

The team looked like death warmed over during warm-ups.  We were all just holding our breath.

Aside from a pretty significant drop of a stunt, the team nailed everything else!  All of Mary's stunts held strong.  They got hit hard with the scoring for dropping a stunt, but for how sick they all were, we were VERY proud of them.  It was obvious to everyone, that they are a really good team.

These were taped to the windows of the Building about every 10 feet.  haha!!!

Mary is on the left.  Ah yeah!

The girls were happy that they at least pulled off the performance with no one passing out.  They could care less that they dropped a stunt.  It was so proud of how positive and supportive the team and the coaches were of everyone.

Mary and Alina

LOVE!!!!

Laynee, Mary and Alina

This has been such an awesome experience for Mary so far.  She is learning a ton with teamwork, stunting, dancing, flexibility, flying and her tumbling is still improving too!

Go TCA!!!!

seattle

A few weeks ago, My mom, Kelsey, Mary and I had our first ever girls trip!!  It was so much fun it was ridiculous!

My mom, Mary and I flew to Seattle, where Kelsey picked us up at the airport.  She had the cutest little basket in her car set up for us.  It had treats, chocolates and matching bracelets in it for each of us.  How cool is that!

We grabbed lunch and drove straight to Leavenworth.  It was a good 2.5 hour drive, but TOTALLY worth it.  I have never seen such a magical town in my life.  It was unbelievable!  I felt like I was inside a snow globe.  To top it off, it was lightly snowing the whole time we were there.  Everything has a Swiss feel to it, and EVERYTHING has lights.  It felt like a whole different world!  The shops are adorable, the town is adorable, and everything is magical.  We had a blast there.

We drove back to our Hotel after that, and ate ourselves silly and crashed.  The hotel was awesome too!  The theme of the hotel was pineapple, and the décor was so cute, bright, and fun.  The blankets on the beds were the best I have ever felt.  We all snuggled into the beds and vowed to never get out.  We fell asleep watching Hallmark Christmas movies and eating chocolate.

The next morning we ate at this cute little breakfast café; in down town Seattle.  It was old, quaint, and perfect. It was so freaking good!  Best crepes ever!!

 

nutella hot chocolate, with a cute little leaf design in the cream

After breakfast, we headed to the Space Needle.  It was so cool to be able to look at Seattle from being up above it all.  It was absolutely freezing, but totally worth it. It is gorgeous City.

 

 

 

After the space needle, we headed to my Pikes Street Market.  I immediately fell in love with this place too.  WOW!  Best fruit, calamari, flowers, market, EVER!  It was so much fun.  We even visited the gum wall.  So gross, but cool at the same time.

Home of the best cheese curds and tomato soup ever!!!

 

Pikes Market was so fun.  We shopped, ate, watched the dudes throw fish, put gum on the gum wall, and ate the best fruit we have ever had.  It was so cool.

After the market, we went back to the hotel to get ready for the Nutcracker.

The Nutcracker was put on by a Professional Ballet Company, right in downtown Seattle.  I have never, ever, seen anything like it.  The costumes, the set, the live orchestra, the beyond talented dancers.  It was unreal.  Truly unreal.  We all had our jaws on the floor the whole time.  It was so cool!!!

My mom surprised us with bracelets too!  They were the same brand that Kelsey got for us!  How cool is that! 

We crashed that night after the nutcracker.

The next morning, we rode bikes to breakfast.  It was so fun!  It finally stopped raining, so it was perfect.  Riding Pineapple bikes through Seattle to breakfast...doesn't get much better than that.  Except for a little incident, where my mom fell.  :(

A big reason we did this trip, was to celebrate Mary's 13th Birthday.  Yup, she will officially be a teenager next week!
She was so much fun on this trip.  I love her fun-loving personality.  She kept us laughing and on our toes the whole trip. I am so glad I have such a great kid to share trips and experiences like this with. 

In the elevator

After Breakfast, we headed to the airport, and made our way home.

It was definitely a trip none of us will forget.  It was special and fun and magical in so many ways.  I am hoping that it will be the first of many Belnap girls trips to come.
Happy Birthday Mary girl!

24 hour book of mormon read

Mary got an idea from one of the Young Women in our ward to read the Book of Mormon in 24 hours for her value project.

Mary recruited her friend, Lydia Muhlestein, and they put a plan together.

The plan included me taking them to the Dollar Store, where they bought so much junk it was incredible!

The plan also included them dragging mattresses, shelves, pillows, blankets, speakers, and all of their junk food, downstairs, where they set up a huge "reading room."

I'm pretty sure the "set up" for this huge undertaking took as much time as the actual project.

the "pantry"

about 15 hours in

going a little looney...about 18 hours in

Once they were all set up, they opened the Book of Mormon and started reading.

They read and read and read.  They also listened to it and followed along. 
I was upstairs with the rest of the family, doing our usual stuff, but throughout the day...and night...I could hear them down there reading.

It was pretty cool how the whole feeling in our home changed.  There was an underlying feeling of an added measure of the spirit.  It was just a little more peaceful and comfortable.  It was really neat.

They read all through the night, and into the next day.
They came upstairs to use the bathroom and to eat an actual meal, and then headed right back down.

Lydia ended up having to home, with about 4 hours left of their 24.  It was 11:00pm by this time, and Mary was sooooo tired.  I went up to her room with her, and together, we finished.

I am so proud of Mary, and for her desire to accomplish such a huge goal.  I am really happy for her to have such a neat experience with the scriptures as well.  She definitely strengthened her testimony and her faith.  This is more important to me than any other thing Mary could do.

I am so proud of her....even if she does some pretty crazy stuff. ha!

thanksgiving 2017

Thanksgiving this year was here, at home.  Sometimes it is nice to just be together as our own family unit and re-connect with each other.  We are a very busy family, and even though I feel like we spend a good amount of time together, sometimes it is just nice to have time together where we can do whatever we want, and just have fun.  It is good for everyone.

Thanksgiving morning, we all did a Turkey Trot 5K in Midway.  The weather was amazing!!  This winter season so far has been unusually warm.  In fact, it is December 13th today, and we still don't have snow.  Not great for the snow skiers, but perfect for running a 5K with the family.

We did bikes, stroller, skateboard and running.  It ended up being a ton of fun! The kids had a great time, the scenery was pretty, and the race was really fun.  The race ended down a good downhill, and by that point, all of the kids, aside from Sam, were with Ben.  He piled all of them in the stroller, hopped on his longboard, and literally zoomed them down the hill.  ALL four kids were in the stroller!!  They flew so fast that they broke the wheel on the stroller.  Sam and I were already through the finish line, so we missed their grand entrance.  I would have loved to see that amazing Maynard spectacle for sure!

It was a great way to start Thanksgiving.

As usual, we made a show out of pulling the insides out of the Turkey.  It is so great to get the kids reactions.

 We had Thanksgiving Dinner, watched movies, and hung out the rest of the day.

The next day, decorated the house for Christmas, and then we headed to Salt Lake to see the movie Wonder.  It was awesome!!  Such an amazing movie.  We loved it.

Saturday we hung out, and then we got our Christmas tree.  Again, it was really warm, and it was so nice to let the kids run around the tree lot, and to take our time picking out the "perfect tree."  We decorated it that night and played games.

Sunday we went to Salt Lake to see the lights on Temple Square.  It was beautiful as always.  We had a really good time.

 

We watched the live nativity, looked through some of the church museums, enjoyed the lights and then called it a night. 

It was a really good Thanksgiving for all of us.  So grateful for my family.