Zach Basketball 2014

Ah basketball season, one of our favorite times of the year!  We love to go and watch the kids play.  This year we did triple duty with all 3 kids in some form of basketball and it was crazy!  First up is Zach.  He really is excelling at basketball and it's so fun to watch him have such a great time playing!

It's been fun to watch him grasp aspects of the game each season.

 

He really seemed to know what he was doing and would spend a lot of time under the basket to rebound.

In fact, one game he had over 25 rebounds.  He really seemed to understand and do well at rebounding.  In fact, most of the members of his team nicknamed him "rebound" because of how many he would pick up each game.

He was quick to get back and forth across the court.  5th grade basketball is the first year where they play full court.  It was a bit of a workout and he got really tired, but it sure made watching the game more fun and exciting.

He was always looking around and making sure every player on the other team was guarded.  It really showed how defensive-minded he was.

He would often grab the defensive rebound and run down the court.  It was so fun to watch him dribble and shoot it!

 Shooting foul shots.  As you can imagine, being one of the constant rebounders and under the basket alot, you are going to get fouled.

If I remember right, he made one of these - which for him is awesome!

I took quite a few videos, but I'll only attach two.  This first one is of him dribbling down the court and shooting.  Unfortunately, this time the ball didn't go in.

This second one is just after he has gotten the defensive rebound, ran down the court, and shot the ball.  He gets his own rebound and puts it back up - this time it goes in!

Yep, basketball season is definitely one of our favorite.  Especially when we have a son who does well and is so exciting to watch!  Way to go Zach, we are really proud of you!

Hailey's Baptism - January 4, 2014

Baptism Day!  One of the best things about turning 8.  Hailey has been looking forward to this day for the last couple of years since Zach's baptism.  She looked so beautiful in her pretty white dress!

Once we got to the church, we had her and her Dad hold still for a few pictures.

Luckily, there was also some in the foyer that snapped a family photo for us as well.

Both Zach and Tate are making crazy faces in both of these pictures - don't know why, but it's about on par for our family lately!  :)

I wanted to grab a couple pictures of her alone in her white dress.

Isn't it pretty?

 Of course, I think the girl wearing the dress is much more beautiful!

And here she is in her baptism jumpsuit.

The outfit isn't quite as beautiful, but the girl sure is!

And a couple of more of her and Jeremiah ready to go!

It sure was a special day.  We had quite a bit of family come, even though there was a blizzard between Lehi and Malad.  She sure felt special and was so darling!  We are so proud of you Hailey!  We are proud that your making good decisions and we love you so much!

Hailey's 8th birthday!

Well, my little girl turned 8.  How on earth did that happen?  She just keeps getting bigger and bigger every time I turn around.  But the end of 2013 came and so did the special 8th birthday.

Hailey decided that this year she wanted to have a friend party.  Usually our kids get the option of going out to dinner to a restaurant of their choice or having a friend party.  Since we usually don't go out to eat very often, the dinner out tends to win most of the time.  But this year Hailey was excited to have all her little friends over.  Ironically enough, we had a hard time getting the list of friends down to a reasonable party size.  Our little socialite has more friends than I do!  But she finally wittled it down to the essential people she couldn't live without and off we went planning the party for the Saturday before her birthday.

One of the first things she wanted to do was watch a movie.  So we all sat down and watched Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus.  I think it was difficult for 10 little girls to watch an entire video when there were presents, games, and cake to be had because it was a little difficult to get everyone to sit still.  But we finally made it through.

Next on the list was opening presents.  She got some many fun girly things!  Make-up, art supplies, candy, and a bunch of other fun things!

Next it was on to the cake.  She decided she wanted to try the cookie bowls I had see on pinterest.  Like most things on pinterest, they didn't turn out very well, but we were able to save a portion of the bowls so that she could have ice cream in them.

Next on the list was playing some games.  We had to split up into two groups.  One group played the headband game and ...

... one group played twister.  It was a lot of fun watching both and they must have had a great time because there sure was a lot of crazy noise!

On her actual birthday, Nana and Papa and Taylor and Amanda all came down to give presents and have more dessert.  She got quite a few more presents. 

One of her favorites was the art set from Nana and Papa.  Nana knows how much she loves to draw pictures and write stories, so this was perfect for her!

Her other favorite were the fun dangling rainbow earrings from Taylor and Amanda.  She really has been given some fun earrings and she loves them all!  She couldn't wait to wear them!

So of course she put them right in and had them for pictures with her cupcakes!  I have to admit they did look really cute on her!

Well, my little girl is getting more and more grown up!  But she sure is a cutie!  It was a really fun birthday and I think she was very happy!

Christmas 2013

Christmas came and went in December and it was a great time at our house!  I didn't take many pictures this year as I was busy watching the kids enjoy the season.  I am realizing that they are growing up way too fast and I'm spending way too much time behind the camera and only seeing life through the lens most of the time.  So I'm trying to take a few pictures and enjoy the experience without the camera plastered to my face.

A usual, the kids were thrilled with all of their presents this year.  Here is Zach's haul.  You can see he is moving from little boy to big boy as you his tastes in presents change.  He's into older things now like electric guitars, legos, and board games.

He was so excited to get this purple electric guitar, he wouldn't put it down for at least an hour!

He has also been begging for the Apples to Apples game and was so excited Santa brought it for him!

Here is Hailey's haul.  You can tell where her presents are because you can see quite a bit of pink when you glance in that direction.

She has grown so much the last year or so that her bike was way too small!  So she asked for a new bik and Santa decided she was good enough to get one!  She loves the bright pink, purple, and blue on it!  

She has also been into Lego Friends - legos for girls that are fairly new.  She got a set of Lego Friends and a nail art studio.  If you know her and how much she loves "paint nails" you know she loved this almost as much as anything else she got.

Both the older kids got microphones on stands as well.  They were so excited to have their own band - Zach on guitar and both of them on the microphone.  Jeremiah and I are wishing Santa had thought to bring us earplugs!  But they are having fun with them!

Here are Tate's presents.  You will notice quite a bit of different items this year.  He's getting bigger and you can see he's moving from the baby stage to the little boy stage.

One of this most wanted items was the Elmo train set.  He played and played and played with it and was just so happy to get it.

As he moved from nursery to Primary in January, we knew he would miss the toys at nursery - so we got him a home version of his favorite - the sit and spin.  He has been flying around on this thing ever since!

And of course we had to make sure Tate had his own microphone to sing into as well.  His came with a little boombox that plays songs for him to sing along with.  Needless to say the noise level here has been extremely high.  But all three of them are having fun singing and dancing with their microphones!

We definitely had a wonderful Christmas!  The kids were thrilled with all of their presents and that what makes us happy as parents!  

Random Pictures - A Bit of a Catch-up

I have to admit I'm way behind on blogging and I'm struggling to find time to catch up.  So I'm going to combine a few random pictures from the last few months into on post to save a bit of time on posting each of the separately.

Tate has been into building forts lately.  I'm not sure where this obsession came from, but he's been begging for one almost every day.  He likes to build it over in the corner of the room by the couches.

And we have to use every available blanket to cover every inch of space or he gets very mad!

Of course he loves getting into his little fort and spends quite a bit of time in there.

Nothing like a wink to make your day!

I decided to surprise him by crawling up to the little gap between the couches and surprise him! 

I reached in and tickled him and he laughed and laughed and laughed.  Then reached out to tickle me too!

Back in December, Hailey and her friend Rylee decided to build a snowman and fort out in the front yard.

They got a little ambitious with the size and didn't get more than a couple of rows of snow piled up before time to come in, but it was fun watching them work together to build their snow fort.

Reading time.  One Saturday morning I found the following scene as I went upstairs to put something away.  I'm not sure how much actual reading was going on, but they were sure having a fun time!

Just a few pictures to show some of the fun things going on at our house during the last few months.  Never a dull moment, that's for sure!  :)