Family Updates

Joseph:
- Working. He's increasing production at his plant through various projects. One project is installing video cameras to monitor a truck unloading each day so an employee doesn't have to stand outside watching it. I told him to just install a video baby monitor and he nixed my idea. It was a lot cheaper than his plan.
- Fantasy football is over until the fall. He's pretty bummed about that.
- Planning house projects like painting the back of our house in all the free time he has.
-Taking the kids on bike rides.

Casie:
- Desperately trying to fulfill my calling as Young Women's president. Last June, I was called as the Relief Society president. Then our ward split in December and I was asked to be the Young Women's president in the new ward. It's been quite the juggling act in our family as Joseph serves as Young Men's president in the Spanish branch. But we see blessings through our service.

Ashton often accompanies me to youth activities. At one activity, the Bishop made duck tongue and I told Ashton it was chicken. She loved it and took a baggie home.

- Teaching for BYU-Idaho again. It's my sixth semester. I only have one class this semester so I enjoy a little more free time.
- Attempting to cut back on processed foods in our home. We'll see how that goes! So far, I miss the convenient kid snacks the most. I am realizing that we don't consume as much processed foods as I thought we did. But there's still room for improvement.
- Ran a half marathon. I haven't run that much distance since my full marathon over 8 years ago as a freshman at Utah State. It was fun to have a race to train for again. The half marathon is on the beach, which is definitely a different terrain than I'm used to.

Ashton:
- Finished up speech therapy for now. Ashton was going twice a week for speech since last September to help the habit of stuttering. The therapist and I felt Ashton had progressed as far as she could at this age. Each time they evaluated her, she was at about 70 percent fluency over most of January. This is a drastic improvement from where she started around 30 percent. We had a surprise party for her therapist on her last day.

- Completed her first on-her-own swim lesson class. She did alright. Now, she can swim around with just a noodle instead of her puddle jumper. The final day she was brave enough to put her head under water. I bribed her with ice cream and it worked.

- Enlarging her imagination! I love her reasons for things. The other day she saw a semi truck full of cars and I asked her how they got the cars on the truck. She said they use bridges to drive the cars up there.
- Has a few more ballet classes left. Before Christmas, one dance studio had a promotion for two months free with no requirement to continue past that. I thought that was a perfect way to see how Ashton did with dance. She now asks for gymnastics. We'll try that maybe in another year.
- Sad that River doesn't always want to play with her. If Ashton had her way, River would play catch and chase 24/7. I'm hoping the newness of the dog fades off soon as I am tired to telling Ashton to relax.
- Making sock puppets like crazy.

Tanner:
- Finding the joy in playing with toilet paper.
- Perpetually making messes. I don't why I even bother cleaning up one mess because as I do, he makes at least five more.
- I love this video of him laughing. He is typically a very happy kid!

- Learning the art of selfies.

- Climbing every possible surface. If there's a will, there's a way for this kid.

- Says "Dog" every time River comes by him.

Newest family picture.