ETHAN IS 13!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ETHAN!!!!


I'm sorry that I haven't posted in a while! I have a couple of seconds to post some pictures. It's been so busy around here..... Brandee and Scott came to visit for Hayleigh's baptism and spent the week. We went to Biltmore House on the Friday they were here and it happened to be the Festival of Flowers. It's even prettier than it was at Christmas time! Tim has been been working on the addition - we will be able to move in next week!!! Ben, Michelle and Baby Deegan came for a visit. It was so much fun to have an infant in the house again! We have 2 boys still playing in the State Cup - Ethan and Kyle. Both of their teams made Final 4!! Ethan plays at 8 AM and Kyle plays at 5 PM tomorrow in Greensboro. It would be nice if the games were the other way around though, since Kyle's prom is tomorrow night. Tryouts are next week and then we'll be done with soccer for the summer. (except for high school open fields - so we're not really done) I finally mailed Kyle's graduation announcements - we had the most awesome senior pictures taken of him! He is usually a very unwilling photo subject, so it was nice to see him cooperate and get some nice pictures. I will post more later and I will try not to let so much time go by between posts.

"Preg" Checks!

This is going to sound kind of strange - but it was so much fun to 'preg' check the cattle this morning. We were treated to the wonderful stories of our local 'senior' veterinarian and it was awesome to watch his satisfaction of the work that he does. It is a beautiful day - about 70 degrees and sunny (I ended up with a little bit of sunburn on my cheeks!). We found out that most of our cows are expecting - one in about 2 months - and 4 in about 4 months. That sneaky bull (who died last week) decided to be 'busy' when we had to stick him the other pasture with the girls during the annual Halloween barn dance. (We do hayrides and he was in the pasture that we ride through) The rest of the cows will calve in the late summer/early fall. Kirsten was such a good girl while we were working on getting the cows down the chute to the head gate! She sat on one of the tractors and said, "Yay!" everytime we got another locked up. The pictures I posted are not from today, but it will give you an idea of a cow in the head gate and also how much of a little farm girl Kirsten is.

Stereotyping

Sometimes we are guilty of stereotyping or 'pigeonholing' our kids. Sometimes it's not done on purpose, it's just one of those "if you had one word to describe this child, what would it be?" things. In our house, we could have the 8 dwarfs (and this is not in age order - I'm leaving it up to you to guess who is who!) - brainy, friendly, sporty, funny, moody, chatty, silly, and goofy.

I'm thrilled to announce that sometimes the child you have pigeonholed as NOT academic was inducted into The National Junior Beta Club yesterday because he maintained a high average the first semester of middle school!

WAY TO GO DALLIN!!!!!

We're proud of you!

Congratulations Ben and Michelle!

They are the proud parents of a baby boy! It's always so exciting when a new life is welcomed to the world! We can't wait to see him.....

5th try worked!

Keenan passed the learner's permit test on the 5th try! The officer was so happy, she gave him a hug! I don't know if he's actually driven yet, but he has shown alot of people the permit.

We've got a busy weekend ahead of us. Ethan is playing in an honor's band concert today and tomorrow - the other boys will be playing soccer tomorrow - Kyle in Fayetteville and Keenan, Tyler and Dallin in Charlotte. Then all 5 boys will be playing soccer on Sunday - Kyle back in Fayetteville and the others in Charlotte. It's raining really hard here today, so I know that tomorrow will be muddy. I'm sure I'll be washing soccer uniforms tomorrow night.

I finally put the Christmas pictures on the computer. Or I should say, Tim YET AGAIN showed me how to download them. Anyway, Kirsten had a unique way of looking at the tree. She would lay on the floor and scoot under the tree and look up at the lights. I remember doing that when I was little too.

Our new bathroom is pretty much done. We need a door and a shower curtain and some curtains for the window (and some little things - like a toilet paper holder and THE DOOR!), but it looks great! Tim has worked so hard on the addition these past years!

We have been a little sad this week. The President of our church, Gordon B. Hinckley passed away last Sunday night. He was the President for 13 years, guiding our church out of obscurity with the many media interviews he participated in. He ordered the construction of Temples around the world like no other President before him had. He lived an exemplary life for 97 years and endured to the end despite the death of his wife almost four years ago and recent cancer treatments. He introduced our family to the six "Bs:" Be Grateful, Be Smart, Be Clean, Be True, Be Humble, Be Prayerful. He will be thought of often in our family - mostly for his energy and optimism. He spoke many times of how grateful we should be that those who lived before us toiled so hard to give us the life that we enjoy now and that we should never take for granted all of our blessings. He always looked forward to what was coming next (whatever it might be).

Back to Soccer

Soccer practice starts tomorrow. Back to the rushed afternoons and the getting home late. Back to the fun time we have in the van on the way to practice - listening to music or books on CD or asking each other questions about homework. Back to being on a schedule and playing games on the weekends. Back to being physically active.

Brandee is enjoying college - even though it's been cold. If anyone would like her address, please email me or leave me a message here and I'll get it to you.

Kirsten is pretty much potty-trained. I don't really know which is worse - changing a diaper or RUNNING to bathroom every couple of minutes because as Kirsten says, "This is serious!!" (from Wonder Pets - her favorite show)

Kyle has had 2 days of work and would probably like it better if he wasn't sick right now.

Keenan is working on getting his permit. We went today and sat in line for 2 hours and he failed by a couple of questions. (not too many really!) We'll go back again tomorrow.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

The casts are off! Thank goodness!!

Tim pulled the doctor aside at the appointment and asked him to play a joke on Keenan and tell Keenan that he would need the casts for 2-4 more weeks. I wish I could've gotten a picture of Keenan's face! He was SO not happy!

Brandee leaves for Idaho this coming Friday morning. She is going to be so cold!! - it's been 'cold' here (like 50s) but I hear that it's a lot colder in Idaho.

We had a great Christmas - it even rained! I will post some pictures of Christmas soon, but in the meantime, here's a picture of Hayleigh and Kirsten.