Weekend fun!

Last weekend we decided to have a non-electronic weekend.  This is what happened.  We had a home camping experience.  Braxton pretty much put the tent up in the backyard by himself.  Isaiah helped set up camp by putting up the chairs and being the errand boy.  Brandon racked up the leaves and pine needles away from fire pit.  I spray painted tires (project will be posted at a later time).  It was well worth it and we really enjoyed each others company.  We hiked behind our house and got some ideas for a way to make a trail for the boys to explore the woods easier. 

Here are the boys sitting at the fire getting ready for hotdogs.  By this time the weather was starting to be cooler.  It was going to be 35 degrees that night.  Yikes!  We only had 2 mummy bags.  So two of us were going to be getting cold.  After dinner we got ready for bed and played uno.  When we woke up Brandon made breakfast and took us to the beach.  No pictures sorry.  It was pretty cold, but the boys managed to still get wet and be content. 

This is what Sally did while we worked.  She made a nest out of the newly piled needles and leaves.  By Monday she did have a tick.  Yay.  The bugs are back.

This is what 6:45am looked like at our house today!

School was canceled today!  This is what the amount of snow looks like when it gets canceled.  The snow that we have is snow covered in a sheet of ice.  But our boys haven't seen a lot of snow for a while and that is cool enough for them.  We were woken up this morning by Isaiah at 6:30am.  who told us that Sally was outside playing outside.  Then we heard the thumping around of the boys getting ready to follow.  This time isn't unusual for us to already be up, but when school has been canceled we were hoping to sleep in.  I guess 30 minutes extra is sleeping in right?

Braxton wasn't happy!  He told me that I was ruining their fun!

I didn't get very many of this little girl that turned out.  She wouldn't hold still long enough! But this is her first snow and she loves it.  Too bad it isn't snow that she can really play in.

Right before Sally decided to grab Braxton's glove off of his hand. Sally just loves gloves.  She always has.  At the bus stop in the mornings she even tries to pull the gloves off of the little kids waiting for the bus.

 

Isaiah and Sally with one of those pictures that just didn't turn out.

Basketball has begun!

Isaiah decided before we left Korea that he wanted to play basketball. We are proud of him because he chose this because HE wanted to and didn't do it because his brother was doing it. Basketball season started in December where the kids practiced during the month and learned a few things then in January the games began.  It is fun to watch him play.  The first game Isaiah was so nervous.  I think the entire team was.  It is so fun to watch because traveling is allowed, double dribbles are overlooked and the kids have a separate free throw line. They also don't keep score at his age, so it is very hard to keep track of who is actually winning, but at this age it is just about learning the game and having fun.   The kids also can't try to come and take the ball away after someone rebounds the ball, so Isaiah is often the rebounder and loves to take the opportunity to dribble the ball after the rebound because there isn't any competition.  During the last game Isaiah was so cute.  He started to skip while he was dribbling the ball down to his team with the biggest grin on his face.  He also had two free throws where he was able to make one of them and he sat there doing a celebratory dance while the ball was being taken down to the other basket.  We had to yell at him to get back into the game.  We love that he loves to play the game.  And he is also pretty good at it too. Shooting is his strong area.  Yes, his shorts are a little too small.  He has about three pair and these are his favorite, so he wears them often and they have turned into his game shorts.  The last game that we had Isaiah was the master blocker.  He discovered that they other team doesn't score very many baskets when he blocks.  He loves to be able to keep someone from moving around him and he is quite good at it.
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The little girl in front of Isaiah is his little buddy.  He always passes to her when they are on the floor together, she is taller than most of the other players and is quite a good shot.

Braxton's 12

Time has just flown by.  It seems like this young man was just a baby a little while ago.  Braxton had his 12th birthday just a few weeks ago.  We are so proud of Braxton.  He was just ordained a deacon in our church this past weekend.  I can't wait to watch him pass the sacrament tomorrow.  He decided that since we are back in the states again that he wanted to have his party the day of his birthday.  Braxton's birthday parties are getting easier and easier to throw together.  He wanted to have a teenage get together.  We had hotdogs and hamburgers, the kids played nerf gun battles and watched a movie.  They all had a great time.  We love Braxton so much and are so proud to have him as our son.

Football Season

Braxton has been playing football for about a month now and had his first game last weekend.  He is in his element and has been loving every minute of it.  He comes home from practice all pumped up about how many boys he had buried their faces in the dirt.   He has been telling Brandon that he would like to wake up at 5 am to exercise with him so that he can get better, and then turn around and practice for two hours that evening.  He loves this game and we can't be happier for him.  His first game the team played better the second half.  The score was 8 to 16.  I was proud of the coaches in how they handled the boys they told them that they were so proud of them and how well they played the second half.  They were so positive I don't think the boys could be disappointed in themselves after hearing their coaches.  Braxton has had to make a very difficult decision this week.  His Saturday game got cancelled due to a field conflict and so Braxton's game is on Sunday this week.  He decided that he wasn't going to play.  I know that he had to struggle with this and didn't want to let his team down.  He is one of the team's key players and he knows it.  But we are very proud of him and his little spirit.  What a great kid he is! His coach talked to him and told him that his decision wasn't going to effect his other games and that he would still be able to play and start.  He also told him that he is thinking about taking a coaching job at one of the middle schools close by and if Braxton was going to that school he would put him on the team.  His coach really likes Braxton and it shows.  I am so glad that he had a group of coaches like this for his first year playing.  What a great way to start off playing.  

Braxton is #1
Go Figure. We already knew that!!!

The Jaguars little cheerleading Squad.
 Don't look to closely at their bows.  They all have them on wrong.

In the middle.
 Braxton is the 5th one from the left of the kids in the center group.

 When they made their touch down.

Happy, Happy Happy!

The boys are back in school today.  I love them both dearly, but I am doing the happy dance today.  Braxton is starting middle school today:  6th grade.  And Isaiah starts 3rd.  I can't believe how old they are .  I sure have a couple of handsome boys.

Meet Sally!

 The boys have all wanted to get a dog since we have lived outside of Utah so Brandon and I decided that if we could get a fence put up and the boys could show us that they could be responsible that we could possibly get a dog.  Well, the fence will be started in a few weeks and so we thought that if we just looked at the pound to see what our options were maybe we may get an idea about the kind of dog that we were interested in.  Yeah right!  We showed up at the pound at 5 pm.  They closed at 5:30pm.  We adopted Sally at 5:33pm.  She was just the sweetest thing.  She is 3 and a half months old and weighs 17lbs 6 oz. She will be pretty big.  She is a mix German Shepherd/lab.  We were told that we couldn't bring her home until she had been fixed and because we adopted her right before the weekend happened she had to stay at the pound until Monday when they could take her to the vet.  Well, Monday happened and the vet called and told us that Sally wasn't well enough to get fixed, so we were able to bring her home for a few weeks as she was going to be taking medications to get well enough.  And then she well have her surgery in a few weeks.  The boys are on cloud nine and have been taking her all over.  She has been very sleepy, we think that either her illness or the two medications that she is on is making her lay around  a lot.  Today she is starting to be the Sally we met at the pound.  we bought her  a swimming pool and kind of forced her to take a swim with the boys.  We also gave her another bath, and she didn't quite appreciate all of it.  She has been such a quite dog and doesn't jump up on us very much.  So far she has only barked if she knows someone is in a dark room and can't figure out who it is.  She is getting very spoiled and can't stand being outside without company.  Hopefully we can change this as she will most definitely be an outside dog as Isaiah is getting some allergy symptoms since she has ben with us.