Swimming for the Reunion

We spent a couple days down in Richfield playing around for our reunion.  On one of the days we went swimming with everyone.  All the kids loved it and it was nice to take a dip in the pool with all the hot weather we were having.

Here's Kenna going down the slide.

Railey was a little nervous at first to go by herself.  But after about 3 times she was a pro and doing it all by herself with out anyone catching her.

All the big boys went down to the other end and practiced their diving and flips and belly flops and such.  This one is Seth

Here's Damen.  He has always hated jumping off the diving boards he doesn't like the water getting in his ears.  But he perfected the dive on this trip and isn't quite as scared to dive off anymore.  Good Job bud!

Utah Program

During 4th grade the kids spend most of the year learning about the state that they live in.  They also have to do a report on one of the counties.  Damen was responsible for reporting on Emery County.  He did a great job and we all learned lots about places I haven't been to in years and he has yet to go.  Well towards the end of the year they do a program with songs and a bit of dialogue for the parents.  They had the kids dress up in costume (I whipped out a vest for Damen the day before and he loved it-good thing no one looked too close).  They did a great job and he and the girls are still singing the songs, weeks later.

 

 

Dynamite-Damen

We are only posting this for future wedding luncheon blackmail. But seriously I'm starting to wonder if we should put him in dance. He's always loved it and either he's good or needs some serious help. Can't decide which. But he can stick to the rhythm pretty good. I guess.

The ALL Program

Back in November Damen was tested for an Accelerated Learning Program (it used to be the gifted and talented program). When I picked him up he said it was kinda hard and he really didn't know how well he had done. Well we waited and waited until the first part of March to find out how he did. We got a letter in the mail inviting him to be part of the program. The letter said that of those accepted into the program he had scored anywhere from 2-5 point higher than the average. I knew we had a smart kid! But now he had a decision to make.

We talked to him about the pluses and minuses of being in the program. Minuses would be he would have to go to another school, meet some new friends, leave Seth behind and have more homework. But pluses were he would finally be pushed and leave the program with a greater knowledge and experiences than he would get in a normal 5th and 6th grade classroom. We knew this could be a very spiritual experience for him to go to Heavenly Father and ask what he should do. We read a couple section in the Doctrine and Covenants with him and then later after all the kids were in bed and asleep he came up and prayed with Steve and me. It was such a neat experience. We each said a prayer. Damen was the last to pray and he just pleaded to know what he should do. We gave him a hug and sent him to bed to think and ponder. The next day he said he still hadn't received an answer but went down later that night to pray again. 10 minutes later he came up with a grin on his face. We asked him if he had his answer and he did. He was going to do it! He told me later that he told Heavenly Father that he thought he should do it and wanted to know if that was the right choice and he had a really warm feeling come over him and he knew he was supposed to do it.

I am so proud of Damen. Not necessarily because he'll be going to this program but because he learned just how real prayer is and he learned that he, Damen James could receive an answer and that Heavenly Father cared about him enough to answer him. Those are lessons that no schooling will every teach him, nor will he learn them just because of his smartness, but he learned it because of his humility and his desire to know what Heavenly Father wanted him to do. I'm so proud of you Damen and I know that you will do well, because we didn't make the decision for you, but you made it for yourself with your Heavenly Father's help and I know that you won't disappoint. Love you bud!!!

Basketball

Basketball has come and gone and I was an awful mother and never posted about it. I did, however, take lots of pictures and videos this year. Maybe that's what has been intimidating me and causing me not to blog because I really hate uploading things pictures and especially videos to the blog.

We had a great year though with Basketball. The kids learned lots and grew a bunch in their skill levels. We had decided that Steve wouldn't coach this year because all the games were going to be on Saturday and last year they all interferred with the temple. But they called last minute and asked him to coach Damen's team. Luckily all the games were in the morning. But he ended up missing a bunch of Seth's because his were in the afternoon.

Damen got really good at doing layups and everyone on his team really looked up to him and thought he was all that which he was of course! Half the team was good, half weren't and struggled to even bounce the ball on the floor and not their foot, but there was a vast improvement over the season with all the kids.

Seth is just a go getter. He goes a hundred miles down the court at full speed and throws the ball up to do a layup at the same speed but gets frustrated that it would bounce back at him. Our theme for him throughout the year was "light fluffy pillows." By the end of the year he was doing much better and gently putting the ball up. But he was a great defender. He must get that from me. That was about the only good thing that was ever said about me playing ball is "she's good at defense." The people he would defend would just get so frustrated. It always made me laugh, even if sometimes he was so focused on defense that he was still playing it when he should have been playing offense.

Why not start with the last picture of the season. Here Damen is with his medal and his coach.

Damen had a boy on his team named Tyler. Tyler was a high functioning autistic boy. He was a year older than the rest of the boys but his mom had got permission to play him with the 4th graders. He loves basketball but things are starting to get competitive and they are starting to call traveling and double dribbling and all that jazz so who knows how much longer he'll be able to play, if at all. Steve really struggled at first knowing how to play Tyler, because as many know Steve has an extremely competitive side to him, but also a very sensetive side to him. Well he must have been inspired the first game because he started having the kids throw the ball in to Tyler because no one can defend anyone until the ball has crossed half court. So Tyler would dribble it down and then hand it off to someone else. He really never shot, maybe a couple of times but never scored. But he loved just being out there and feeling important.

The second to last game Steve held out all the good players on the team and put them in the 4th quarter with Tyler. They were all instructed that they could not shoot until Tyler had scored. They boys had many fast breaks, many rebounds and even stole the ball a few times but they had to wait for great big Tyler to make it down and then they would pass the ball to him and he would shoot. (By this time in the season we had played all the teams once before, so they knew about Tyler and they would not defend him but allow him to shoot if ever he got the ball.) There was one time that we rebounded and handed the ball back to Tyler 4-5 times and he missed everyone. This happened several times up and down the court and then finally he shot and scored. The entire gym, both teams, parents and players all cheered for Tyler. By this time the tears were already streaming down my face as I watched the unselfishness of our players as well as the other team. All competitiveness was gone. All just wanted to give Tyler a chance. He not only got that chance but went and scored again two posessions later. He was so excited and everyone was so excited for him. The next game, Tyler scored 10 points. Our team had learned that no one would defend him so they started passing the ball to him to shoot and it worked!

We worried about having him on the team at first but in the end it was a blessing to learn about what it's like to really work as a team. It was also worth it to see just how unselfish these 10 year old boys were and to see how they wanted Tyler to succeed just as much as their parents wanted to see them succeed. It was a great year with lots of lessons learned.

Here's one of Seth being the defender that he is.

Picture day for both boys

Seth with his medal and certificate.

Good job boys now we are on to soccer! No break, E.V.E.R

Skiing

As everyone in Utah and now around the country knows we have no snow. Steve has been wanting to take the kids skiing but when there is no snow it makes it a little rocky. But the resorts are doing their best and keep making it so over the break Steve took the kids up for half the day and let them ride the free lifts. He got a few photos and a few videos of them. I don't think this free thing is going to last past this year if that. Damen already went with the school and tried out other runs and loved it. Steve says they are ready to move on but are we ready for the bill that comes with that? I'm not sure!

Damen turns 10!

I still can't believe my baby is 10. Where has all the time gone? I seriously have the best kids in the world and it all started with Damen. He's so responsible and such a huge help to me. I know I never have to worry about the girls when they are outside because he has this natural protective instinct that is always aware of them and for Seth as well. No one messes with his siblings unless it's him (and he will on occasion). Damen is very intelligent and does so well in school. He loves to learn. He also knows the gospel well and surprises us with how much he actually does know. He was asked to bear his testimony in the Primary Program and did such a great job. He talked about a scripture he read to Seth before he was baptized and how when Heavenly Father came down after Christ was baptised and said this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased, that he felt that Heavenly Father was well pleased with him and his choice to be baptized as well. It brought tears to my eyes to see how strong my own sons testimony already is. Damen is close to the spirit and feels things strongly and I hope he keeps listening and learning and growing in those things. We sure do love you bud!

Here are a few pics from the day.


He didn't care what his cake was as long as it was a helmet. Good thing I found a way to do it online!

He came home from school and lets just say "He was well pleased with me"

Kenna felt it her duty to test it before everyone came over to the house for cake and ice cream

He really wanted a rip stick and not just any rip stick he wanted one of the smaller ones. Let's just say they are harder to find and just as expensive, but he sure does a good job on it.

Happy Birthday Damen. We love you!

Practicing Punting

Again during conference the kids were out playing. This time they were practicing their punting skills. Steve would hike them the ball they would catch it and the kick. Here's my camera doing the fast picture taking capturing the moments. Enjoy your kicks boys!

Flag Football

We are so busy this year coaching sports. Well maybe I should rephrase that. Steve is busy coaching I just send all the emails out to parents. But either way it has definitely taken up some time. We have soccer on Thursdays and football on Tuesdays and both on Saturdays. So far we've only had one rotten Saturday--granted it was the first.

So I've said it before and I will continue to say it I'm afraid. Damen has a passion for football, he gets it from his Dad (well maybe not, Steve loves football and loves to play it but doesn't care to watch it every second of every day like Damen). Anyway Damen plays quarterback or receiver. He's learned a lot about trying to be a leader of the team and encourage everyone to do their best but so far he's also scored in 2/3 of the games a couple touch downs each game. I love how excited he is for every second of the game as well as how excited he is for his team mates. Often I will look over and when kids are out on the sideline they are picking the dandelions or are off messing around or wrestling the other kids that are out. Not Damen he is running up and down the field with the team yelling and cheering as loud as he can. He's so fun to watch.

Seth plays both defense and offense and does so well at blocking. One time he blocked so well that the kid just gave up and went down another time he had his arms a little high and actually got the kids neck (we had a little talk on that one). He continues to get more and more excited about the game as the weeks go on.

On our first game everyone was extremely confident that we were going to will, that we were going to score on the first drive of the game and be super amazing. Well we were all humbled that week. So much so that Steve was upset and stayed awake all night coming up with new plays and reevaluating the game plan. Damen came home saying "why doesn't my team trust me I kept telling them what was going to happen and they just didn't trust me." Then as he got in the shower the tears started to flow and though the water was loud and he thought we couldn't hear him, he was just a sobbing, (I told you he was passionate). Seth walked around for a minute with his head down because he thought he was supposed to and then gave up on that and went out to play.

I guess the game plan worked because they have just dominated the other teams since then. Their plays work their defense has been amazing and it has just been fun to watch and pleasant to live with. I was wondering after that first game why I had signed Steve up to be their coach, but ya know he gets frustrated if they aren't coached right so I would rather have him coach and be in control of that than get mad at the other parents, but now he feels so much pressure to perform. He does well though and the kids love all the high fives they get!

Here's Damen in the middle passing off to Seth whose behind him

Here's Damen trying to make some forward progress. Looks like I need to get some pictures of Seth. I know I have some from this last week. We'll get more up soon or at least of soccer

Tradition

Tradition! Well at least that's what we are hoping to create here. Last year Steve took Damen to a Broncos game over in Denver. He has talked about it ever since and tried to plan which stadium they would go to next. Also since taking that trip Steve and Damen have set a goal of attending an NFL game in every stadium (31 stadiums 32 teams). Why do their goals seem to cost so much? Well a couple of months ago Damen wasn't feeling well (or so he convinced me) and ended up staying home from church. Steve stayed too and while we were gone they started planning their next trip. By the time I came home 3 hours later they had it all narrowed down to Florida, Indiana, or Arizona. Not only did they have that narrowed down but they realized that if they went to a preseason game tickets are only about $5 -15 instead of $100-200. I liked those prices better and I really liked Arizona distance. So that's what they did, I might not have a say in what their goals are but I think I had a little say in the distance this time. Too bad we have hit all the close stadiums and now all that are left are over 12 hour drives.

They took off Wednesday after school and drove down to Mesquite NV to stay the night and then drove onto Phoenix the next morning. I don't know what all the pictures are but there are some cute ones.




I do know that once they got there they had fun going swimming and playing around before they headed to the game on Thursday night but guess what they called me on the way to the game and told me they had forgotten the camera. That's the only reason I had sent it was to document the fact that they had gone to the game. Those were some of the best pictures last trip. Oh well maybe someday we will get all high tech and all and get a phone that has a camera in it, Steve seems to remember his phone, most of the time (not guaranteeing we will be high tech any time in the near future--just saying).

They had a good time, I watched some of the game on TV which we realized had about a 5-10 sec delay, they kept calling to see if I had seen this or that play (which I hadn't because I was watching a movie and I would have to stop it and turn it over to the game and let them know that I was watching it--see I'm not into it as much as they were). But it's not about me. See Damen couldn't stand the Broncos until he went to their game last year and they lost by like 50 + points. But now he's a fan. So he went to the game wearing his Broncos hat and fully intending to cheer for them. Seth was the opposite. He cheers for whatever team Damen doesn't cheer for. Well lets just say Damen started cheering along with Seth after the Cardinals had scored and the score was 20-0. By the end though the Broncos scored in the last 4 minutes of the game which took Damen back to being a Broncos fan again. They did have a great time and I'm glad we had points on the card to allow the boys to go and spend time with their Dad. They are making memories and starting Father Son traditions.

The next morning they got up bight and early and headed for home. They decided to go by way of Lake Powell so they stopped and took a few pictures while at the visitors center there.

So they are already planning next years trip. I guess BYU will by playing Notre Dame in Indiana so they think they will go to that game and then either go down to Indianapolis and see the Colts or go up to Michigan and see Green Bay Packers. I just might have to tag along for that one. I don't care if I go to a game or not I just think it would be fun to see a few church history sights along the way. We'll have to start saving our pennies now. Ready. Set. Save!