jr. jazz

With soccer over for the winter, Jeff once again decided to sign up of Jr. Jazz Basketball. He claims it keeps him occupied while he waits for soccer to start up again in the spring. And, I really can't disagree. This boy is always on the go, always doing something. He’d go out in the pouting rain or a snowstorm if I’d let him.

Which I won’t. And he pouts at me, ha.

This season, he has a few new teammates to play with. One is boy whose family moved into our neighborhood, and two are twins from his teammate’s school. I think it makes it easier to create a team dynamic when the kids know each other.

They had their first game today and played well. There are some things they need to practice, but overall, I think they did well.

They won, but I don’t remember the score. Does it really matter? I’m going to say no, ha.

Ryan is also playing this season. He and several of his friends put a team together and asked his best friend’s dad to coach. He agreed, but he managed to convince Scott to be his assistant coach. I thought it was hilarious considering Scott loves watching the sport but not coaching; I guess there really is a difference between yelling at a tv screen and actually coaching. Hmm.

Side note: Ryan (#11) dyed his hair blonde because of a student government charity event. A lot of the blondes on the team are also student body officers who had to dye their hair as well. It was interesting to see how different their hair turned out on each boy.

They both have games on Saturdays, Jeff in the morning and Ryan at night, so that makes it easy for us. Or me. Mostly me, I’ll be honest. Fibromyalgia doesn’t exactly make spectating really comfortable. But, the boys are both off to a good start, so we’ll take this season one game at a time.

Happy Birthday, Scott!

This hunk of a man celebrated his birthday today!

We love him so much! He makes life fun and happy, and we're so grateful for his hard work to provide for us. He blesses our lives everyday with his patience, love, and strong, unwavering faith, and we can't express enough how much we love him.

Unfortunately, my parents were out of town, so the poor guy had to endure my bad cooking skills. It was up to me to cook his favorite meal and bake his cake.

We're also not a musically inclined family, so here's our attempt at regaling the birthday boy with our well wishes (complete with birthday dance by Jeff).

Happy Birthday, Scott! 

thanksgiving 2017

I'm not exactly sure how it happened, but Scott and I ended up hosting Thanksgiving at our house. It's a funny thought considering I don't (really) cook and Scott has never cooked a turkey. When Thanksgiving was at my house, my parents cooked.

This year, my parents and siblings went to Arizona to cater my cousin's wedding, so we were planning on just a small Thanksgiving dinner for just us. Luckily for us, Marie Callendar's offered an already cooked feast that we could pick up before the big day; all we needed to do was reheat everything. Everything was set.

And then, I got a text from Scott's sister that had moved to Arizona.

Apparently, she and her family were coming to Utah to visit family and friends for Thanksgiving, and after talking to her mom, discovered everyone had their own plans. She was disappointed, as was her mom (my MIL), and I started to feel bad so...

Well, I think it's apparent what happened, lol.

I called Scott and he agreed that we'd host Thanksgiving. Since it was still a week before Thanksgiving, it was easy to order more food, plus gather everything else we'd need. Say what you want about bulk buying, but at that point, I was glad we lived just five minutes away from a Sam's Club. ;-)

We picked up the food we ordered from Marie Callendar's Wednesday evening, and that was an experience. Since closing all but one restaurant here in the Salt Lake City area, you can imagine what the scene was like on pick up day.

Long lines of people in the parking lot, waiting for their orders.

Luckily for us, those lines were for the restaurant's pies. Off to the side, in another tent, was the pick-up site for Thanksgiving dinners. So we were in and out with our food in about ten minutes.

All we had to do was heat up the food Thanksgiving morning, and although we did have a few small hiccups, we were able easily do that. And, with perfect timing, too: just as we were plating all of the food, our guests arrived.

All in all, we had 16 people (including us) to celebrate with. Not a bad number, I think.

And, because I'm lame, the only pictures I got of the day were of the food, lol.

We got a few pies that came with the meal from the restaurant, but the kids requested my pumpkin cheesecake, and Vanessa and I got adventurous and we made an apple pie from scratch. My mom also made ahead a custard pie for Scott's dad, as well as a sheet pan of pumpkin pie.

I would say Thanksgiving Day was a success, but I'm not sure if I'd ever host another one. There's so much planning and work that goes into it, which gives me stress and anxiety. It sure does make me more thankful for my parents who do this every year!

Hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving!

he's 18!

There was a time when Ryan was almost 2 years old and he shied away from the camera. Everytime I pulled it out to take a picture, his little hands would cover his face and he'd shout out, "No, mama! No!" He developed an aversion to taking pictures or something, so I had to resort to being a ninja whenever I wanted to snap a pic.

As a result, I don't have too many pictures of Ryan during that age.

He eventually outgrew it and let me chase him around with the camera, and even when he started school, he'd still be willing to pose for me.

About 2 years ago, his aversion returned. He started hissing at me whenever I tried to take a picture and if he reluctantly agreed, he wouldn't smile. Having a smartphone makes it easier for those stealth shots, but he still hates it when I ask for a picture. Well, except when he was playing lacrosse; I could take as many as I wanted then.

His birthday wasn't much different. He didn't want a big to-do; in fact, he really didn't know what he wanted to do, although he was pretty adamant that he didn't want a party. So we ended up having take-out from Panda Express, then some pumpkin pie with whipped cream instead of a birthday cake. Then he just sat around with us watching Phineas & Ferb. Very quiet and relaxed.

Later that night, since it was a Friday, his friends picked him up and I assume they did something fun; don't really know. He didn't say much when we asked him the next day. But, he seemed fine, so I guess he got what he wanted in terms of celebrating.

But, yeah. He's 18 now.

He went from this...

to this...

 to walking...

and being kolohe (mischievous)...

to growing up...

and being not so little anymore...

I honestly don't know how I feel about my firstborn being 18; after all, I feel like he was starting kindergarten just yesterday. It's been an adventure with this kid, and I'm sad that he's not my little chunky baby anymore, but I am excited to see where life takes him from here!

18 Reasons Why I Love Ryan

  1. He's not afraid of acting like a dork. As part of his duties as Communications SBO, he makes videos for the school's morning announcements. The videos he's done so far have been absolutely hilarious!

  2. Family time doesn't annoy him as much anymore. At least he doesn't quietly sulk in his own corner now.

  3. He's kind and thoughtful, and puts others before him. The things he's done for his siblings and friends have made my mama heart proud.

  4. He's spontaneous; he likes to keep me on my toes with some of his ideas.

  5. Hard work isn't something he shies away from. If something needs to be done, he'll do it.

  6. He's still willing to pray with me every morning before he goes off to school.

  7. No prompting is needed when he tells me he loves me.

  8. I love when he comes and finds me, just to talk about his day.

  9. He's so intelligent; I know he'll do great things!

10. He has a testimony of Jesus Christ.

11. He treats his sister like a young lady. He's respectful and kind and gentle whenever he interacts with her, which means a lot since Vanessa can be a bit on the shy side.

12. I can trust him. Sure, we had some harrowing experiences, but overall, everytime he leaves the house, I know I can trust him to make good choices, do his best, etc.

13. Even though Jeff won't readily admit it, he admires Ryan. The two of them are so much alike in temperament and personality, it's no wonder Jeff gravitates towards his big brother.

14. He's patient with his siblings. Whenever he has some down time, I usually find him playing video games with Ethan, helping Jeff with basketball (or some sport), or talking with Vanessa.

15. He still roughhouses with Scott. Even though his Dad is still a bit taller (a fact that Scott likes to tease him about), Ryan will think nothing of just spontaneously trying to wrestle Scott to the floor.

16.  He's respectful towards others. Always. To this day, I'm still getting comments from his friends parents' about what a respectful, well-mannered kid he is.

17. He's very in tune with others' feelings. There have been times that he's been home late from school or leaves the house because someone needs him.

18. He makes life fun. His sarcasm, his smile, his laugh, everything that makes him Ryan, makes our lives fun and happy.

halloween 2017

It was Halloween business as usual this year; not much has changed with our tradition, but what can I say? Our family is pretty boring, lol.

We started the evening off with our pumpkin head pizza from Papa Murphy's.

It actually looked normal and not demented, like in years past.

We even set the table to match the mood.

This year, in honor of the new Stephen King movie IT, Jeff decided to be a creepy clown. He wanted to be Pennywise, but opted for this costume when he realized he'd probably have to wear some makeup, which he can't stand.

Vanessa was over the moon when we found this Eevee costume online. Eevee is her favorite Pokemon, so when when we saw this on Amazon, her mind was made up.

I don't have pictures of our jack-o-lanterns this year because the were already wilting and molding, unfortunately. We carved them too early and had them sitting out on our back patio, so that did them in. But, since it was dark, we put them out on the front porch anyway.

Ethan spent most of his night down in the theater room, playing video games, although he did come upstairs to steal some candy from the candy bowl. And, Ryan was home, too, just relaxing in the living room, trying to edit a video on his laptop. He did end up going over to a friend's house later, but he was home for the most part, which was nice.

As for me, I was told by multiple trick-or-treaters that I had a very good selection of candy, so I'll take it as a sign that I did good, lol.

Happy Halloween!

busy saturdays

It’s inevitable to have busy weekends when you have kids; especially when half of the bunch are social creatures and into school activities and sports. In the past, our weekends have been hectic because of soccer and lacrosse; sometimes we had to split up because games overlapped. This fall hasn’t been to bad with Ryan deciding not to play fall ball because of his SBO duties, but it still makes it hard to get everyone together for family activities.

We decided today would be a good day to visit the pumpkin patch to hunt for pumpkins. We’ve dropped the ball on this particular activity in years past, so I wanted to make sure we at least did this one.

Unfortunately, Ryan had some prior commitments to attend to, and so it was just the five of us. :-(

We decided this year to hit the local family farm that’s relatively close: Petersen Family Farm. In addition to the pumpkin patch, they have a petting zoo, slides, a store, and some other fun activities.

The kids were uninterested in everything except the hunt for pumpkins, which was just as well, considering the activities cost extra. 

I did convince Jeff to go down the slide 

And even got him and Vanessa to pose for a picture.

I do have to say that the pumpkins were impressive. The smallest one we could find really wasn’t small at all, maybe what you’d consider a medium sized pumpkin.

Later this afternoon, Jeff had a soccer game.

Jeff played really well; he scored a goal and had one assist. He also had his coaches giddy and ecstatic on the sidelines with his crosses and outrunning his opponents. It’s always fun to see grown men get so excited about young soccer players. 😎

After such a busy day, we opted to carve our pumpkins another night, mainly because Ryan was still out and about with his friends, and we also have a bunch of jerk kids that run around our neighborhood smashing pumpkins. 😒

We’ll probably carve the pumpkins next weekend; hopefully Ryan will be free for us to torture him with family time, ha! Until then, we’ll call this a good day. 😁

the fire pig and double digits

How did this happen? My baby has hit double digits! 😱 He sure is a handsome kid, though.

And, he's spoiled. Scott didn't take the day off from work like he did last year, but he did come with us to IHOP for breakfast. Where Jeff got birthday cupcake pancakes with frosting, which put him on a sugar high for the rest of the morning.

Lucky us.

We also went shopping afterwards, a new tradition we've recently started. I really thought Jeff would buy another Lego set for Ethan to put together (he's our resident Lego engineer), but he ended up buying a Pokemon trainer box filled with lots of Pokemon cards.

Which ended up scattered on the living room floor, but meh. It's the Fire Pig's birthday, and the house was bound to get messy because of it.

We also took the day off from homeschool because who wants to do school when it's your birthday?

It ended up being a busy day anyway, considering Jeff had a soccer game later that evening. 

We love watching him play. And, he seems to be really enjoying himself in this competitive league.

For dinner afterwards, we took the family to Kneaders. Scott and I think it's interesting that Jeff likes it so much; he says it's because their ham sandwiches are really good, but I think the large sugar cookies that come with the kids meal has something to do with his affection, lol.

Sundays after birthdays are for celebrating at Papa & Tutu's. Jeff had one of his favorite foods for dinner (Korean Chicken) and then Tutu surprised him with this cake:

It matches the poop emoji shirt we found at Walmart for him and it made all of us laugh really hard because it was perfect for Jeff. Tutu is a genius!

Happy Birthday, Fire Pig! Thanks for filling our lives with laughter and smiles, and a whole lot of love!

10 Reasons Why I Love Jeff

  1. He's always on the go.

  2. He likes to steal Scott's side of the bed so he can snuggle with me.

  3. He makes up really good jokes to make me laugh.

  4. He's kind and thoughtful to others.

  5. He loves his siblings, even when he's trying to annoy them.

  6. His skills at soccer makes me proud.

  7. He's humble and soft-hearted.

  8. He likes to spend time with his family.

  9. His smile is infectious.

10. He's dedicated and loyal.

homecoming 2017

And, we are once again at that part of the year where dances are planned and high school kids are scrambling around under the cloak of night, ding dong ditching dance proposals while their parents's heads spin at the busyness of it all.

It all started on the night that we found this on our porch:

The funny thing is, we weren't home when this was dropped off, and neither was Ryan. Jeff happened to open the front door so he could go and put his bike away, and found it. So we took a picture of it and sent it to Ryan, who was pleasantly surprised. He said he really hadn't planned on going, but I guess someone had other plans.

He needed to answer her but I have no idea how he went about it, so we'll just skip ahead to the pictures.

This is Aubrey, Ryan's fantastically cute date for Homecoming.

Their group of friends and dates spent about an hour taking pictures at Copperton Park. There were two cameras going (mine and another friend's), which was good because it was quite a large group. I got to download the ones on my camera the day after because Ryan was too tired from all the fun to do it himself...or something, lol.

Anyway, one dance down, only about a million more to go. ;-)

homeschool...begin!

One of the perks of homeschooling is that you can make your own schedule. That includes when you start your school year, what days you do it, and how long. Although we follow the traditional school year calendar, we don’t start until a week after. Why? Because Ethan’s birthday usually falls within the beginning of the school year and honestly, no one wants to do schoolwork on their birthday.

Like other first day of homeshool in the past, I went easy on them. Today was mostly a rundown of the schedule, plus a little testing, just to see where they are in certain subjects. I did have them do what we call "dailies" which are certain things we do everyday: entries for daily journals and gratitude journals, scripture study, and daily reading in a book of their choice. We also started up our devotionals again; we each take a turn saying the prayer or sharing a scripture. We like to start the school day that way to set the mood.

As you can imagine, the school day didn't take too long, but I guess it's going to take some time to get back into the swing of things, because the kids were constantly doing this:

Goofing off and joking around. Oh, well. They settle down when I tell them to, so it works out.

Here's to a brand new year of homeschooling!

he's 16!

Birthdays are always a mix of emotions for me; I love that the kids are growing up and becoming their own person, but at the same time I'm sad that they're not so little anymore. Such is the life of parents, I suppose.

Ethan turned the big 1-6 today; 16 years old, I really can't believe it!

He loves IHOP, so that was our first stop of the day; this kid loves his pancakes! Unfortunately, Scott couldn’t join us because he was out of town for business (Hawaii, no less!), but he comes home later this week.

Ethan decided to change it up with his usual order (he always gets a Rooty Tooty Fresh N’ Fruity) and ordered the New York Cheesecake pancakes with his combo, and ended up liking them. And, he ordered them himself instead of having me do it, like in the past.

He really is growing up.

Afterwards, we went for a spin in Walmart for some birthday shopping, but according to Ethan, their LEGO selection isn’t as impressive as Target’s. So off we went to the bullseye store.

It was funny because I told Vanessa and Jeff to bring their allowances in case they wanted to buy anything and Ethan thought it applied to him. So he was looking for a really cheap LEGO set. While we were in Target, I pointed out one of the bigger sets that he’d expressed an interest in, but he replied, “I don’t have enough money for that, Mom.”

His face lit up like a Christmas tree when I told him I would pay for it because it’s his birthday.

Love that kid. 😄

We got some Chick-Fil-a for dinner because Ethan wanted to wait until Scott got home from his business trip to eat at Red Lobster. So it was a quiet evening, with a content birthday boy finishing up his LEGO creation.

Couldn’t ask for a better kid to spend the day with. 😎

16 Reasons Why I Love Ethan

  1. I don't have to prompt him to tell me he loves me.
  2. He gives fantastic hugs!
  3. He's naturally curious about things.
  4. He loves to discuss things he sees or hears about in the news.
  5. He has his own opinion on things and isn't afraid to share them.
  6. He listens to other people's opinions and tries to see their perspective.
  7. He loves sharing jokes.
  8. He's nice to his younger siblings...when he wants to be, ha!
  9. He's thoughtful and kind.
10. When he finds something that interests him, he dedicates himself to it.
11. He likes hanging out with family.
12. His creativity with Legos knows no bounds.
13. He doesn't let his Asperger's restrict him.
14. He honestly doesn’t care what others might think of him because of his Asperger’s.
15. At the same time, he tries to be polite and kind to everyone around him.
16. He has a wicked sense of humor!

senior year, baby!

Well, it's happened: I now have a kid old enough to be starting his final year of high school.

Yep, Ryan is officially a senior in high school.

I wasn't able to take a cliche 1st Day of School picture, but that was only because he had to be at the school at 4:30am for the Senior Sunrise. As a student body officer this year, he was required to help out at the yearly school tradition, then head over to the school to get the morning announcements ready. So I really didn't see him until he got home from school that afternoon.

He said hi, I asked him how the day went, he said fine, and then he plopped down on the couch and took a nap.

What a way to start the year, I guess.

The next day I asked if I could take a picture and he didn't hesitate to agree.

"I figured you'd want one after yesterday," he told me, grinning a little.

I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, so I quickly snapped the picture and sent him on his merry way.

And here's my handsome senior.

 And, just for contrast or comparison, here's a side by side of him.

The left is his 1st day of 1st grade since we homeschooled for Kindergarten. Gosh, that brings back memories! And makes me a little sad at how grown up he is now.

But, I'm also really proud of him and everything he's done to get to this point. He's a great kid and I hope he makes this last year of high school his best!

2017 comp soccer

Today was an exciting day for Jeff, and not just because of a solar eclipse.

Yep, Jeff's first game of his competitive soccer league was today. Unfortunately, Scott was out of town on business, so he missed it, and my brother borrowed my DSLR camera to document the solar eclipse. So I didn't take too many pictures.

I did manage to take a pic right before the game started, and the one above to send to Scott. Afterwards, I sat back and enjoyed the game.

You would think that after all this time with my other kids participating in sports, I would have a beer understanding of soccer. Unfortunately, that hasn't happened. Basketball I get, thanks to my brother Fred, but soccer, football, and lacrosse? I'm still learning.

Anyway...

This pic was taken after the game. Their coaches are congratulating them on their first win and reviewing what they did well, and what they needed to work on. All in all, they did well for a brand new team still getting to know each other and learning to work together.

They're off to a good start, though.

Go, Copper Mountain!

adding another teenager to the mix

The day Scott has been dreading has come to pass: Vanessa is now officially a teenager!

It's been a bit disorientating for us to realize that our little princess is no longer "little." I mean, she's just an inch or so shorter than me, for crying out loud! And, okay, that's not hard to beat considering I'm only 5'2" but still.

At least she's not too old to still take pictures with her daddy.

I think this has just become one of my most favorite pictures.

Since family tradition dictates dinner at a restaurant of the birthday person's choosing, we had a whole day to kill. Vanessa wasn't interested in anything other than her new art stuff she got as presents, but I did manage to get her outside of the house when Jeff decided he wanted to go swimming. Surprisingly enough, Ethan agreed to a swim, and since Vanessa didn't want to be home alone (Ryan was at work), she tagged along.

This picture is an attempt to get the 3 of them in one shot. That's Ethan attempting to drown Jeff in the far right side of the pic. ;-)

Vanessa insisted on Nielsen's for dinner, since she wanted their famous frozen custard instead of a birthday cake.

Ryan was nice enough to fix his schedule so he would be done with work in order to join us. I don't know if it was because it was his sister's birthday or because of the food, but it was nice to have him there...even if he did glare at me every time I tried to take a picture.

At any rate, it was really nice to have the entire family together to celebrate. Time is winding down for these opportunities, considering Ryan will be a senior this year and graduating, then heading off for a mission soon after that. The kids are growing up!

13 Reasons Why I Love Vanessa

  1. She still loves to give me hugs.
  2. She's creative and loves to create art.
  3. She works hard at improving her drawing.
  4. She still gets so excited (and loud) at things that interest her (Pokemon, video games, etc.).
  5. She's learned to not care what others might think of her.
  6. She loves her brothers.
  7. She enjoys family time and hanging out with us.
  8. She's not picky about clothes.
  9. She likes to learn new things.
10. She likes to talk to me about EVERYTHING.
11. She's not in a hurry to grow up.
12. She's loyal and kind to her friends and family.
13. She cares about others and tries to make them happy.

competitive soccer

After almost 5 years of playing soccer for the recreational league, Jeff decided to take the plunge and play competitive soccer. His coach from spring sent us a text, inviting Jeff to try out for the team he'll be coaching and Jeff didn't hesitate to say yes.

The tryouts were held on June 1st and quite a few kids showed up.

It wasn't unusual, considering the coaches had invited the kids from their rec teams to try out, so there were a few kids that Jeff recognized from playing with and against.

There was a burst of rain for a hot minute, so they had to seek shelter in one of the park's pavilions, but it was right back to drills as soon as the downpour stopped.

And we got this as a result.

The very next Wednesday, I got the call that Jeff had made the team. I was in Hawaii at the time, so I had to call Scott back home with the news. Jeff wasn't home at the time, but Scott later reported that he couldn't stop smiling after he told him.

Love that little Fire Pig of mine.

So, here's to a new adventure; rec and comp soccer are two entirely different things, so I'm sure there's going to be so much new things for Jeff to learn. We're so excited!