big buddy plays football

William just completed his first season of tackle football, and he LOVED IT!

William played right tackle most of the season.  He had some great quarter back sacks and some nice tackles as well.

William learned a ton about how the game works, and about how he can utilize his personal talents and abilities.

I have been wondering the whole season why William wasn't in a position to utilize his speed.  FINALLY, on the last practice, the team had a bunch of races, and the coaches realized that William was the fastest one on the team.  HELLO!  What has this momma been saying for months! 

He did great this season in his position though, and he had a great time.  I can't wait for next season when the coaches will utilize his strength AND his speed.  He will be a rockstar! Go Wasatch!

William up against a HUGE Xman

the birthdays

William and I had a pretty good Birthday.

I treated myself to a tortuous 14 mile run outside.  I ended up leaving later than I thought, and the heat almost killed me.  It was nice though, to help me still feel young enough and fit enough, to just go out and run 14 miles the day I turned 36. haha!

Mary was kind enough to make a pancake breakfast for everyone.  William loves pancakes, that is his favorite breakfast.

We all went out for snow cones when I got back from my run, and William opened his huge bow and arrow gift from the family.  He then played with his best friend.

I taught piano lessons and celebrated William.

That evening, I went to home depot and bought stuff to build our mound with.  I REALLY wanted to get that done for my Birthday. 

While I was there, Ben took William to the store to pick out his new bike.  William was so excited!

William had his donut cake, and I had cheesecake that evening.  Ben surprised me with the cement that night, and told me it would be done the next day.  It rendered me speechless. haha!

We sang, blew out candles, and wrapped up the day.

Overall, I hope it was a wonderful day for William.  He had his party earlier in the week, but I did my best to help him feel like the actual Birthday was special, unique, fun, and all about him.

I love my big buddy so much!

Fun facts about William:
He is a great friend, and has TONS of really good buddies in the neighborhood.
His best friend is Tyson Muhlestein and Stockton Paige
He loves to ride his bike, ride his motor scooter and play on his kindle
He is willing to try ANY new sport.  He loves sports and has a desire to try them all.  He is particularly good at wrestling and soccer at the moment.
His favorite color is blue and orange
His favorite food is pizza..without the cheese.  So, basically bread and pizza sauce..hahah!
He has the best laugh in the world. It is straight from the belly and is totally contagious.
He is a twinkle in his eyes when he smiles.
He is a happy kid.
He is our best reader so far.
He is very curious and asks lots of questions all the time.
He really, really loves Charlie, and he cries whenever we have to put Charlie in his crate our outside and Charlie whines. 
He has a HUGE heart and big feelings.
He is always warm, and is the best to cuddle with.

Happy Birthday William!  Love you to the moon and back!

william's party

William celebrated his Birthday with a party as well.  He has a TON of friends, so we knew that his party had to be outside.  I told him to just invite his closest friends, and he came to me with a list of 15 kids. haha!!!

I decided that now would be the perfect time to finally put in the fire pit that I had been wanting to do for the past several years.

Ben got a pick axe (because you absolutely cannot shovel here, the ground is river rock, for real)  He pulled up the rock, we shoveled that into the wheelbarrow, we dumped it on the side of the house, and did it again and again, until the hole was dug.

I drove to home depot and bought decorative stone, and bought a fire ring at Tractor supply, and by the end of the day, the fire pit was done!!!  I don't know who was more excited, me or William.

 We still need to get benches, but for now, camping chairs work perfectly.


William decided that he wanted to have a fire and do night games, so we started his party later in the evening.  It was a good thing, because of what ended up happening that day, but that will be in the next post.

I didn't get a lot of pictures, because it was dark during most of his party, but they had a ton of fun!!!  I put together a s'more table, where the kids could roast marshmallows and put s'mores together.  They did that, and played night games.  It was fun to see William smiling and having fun with his good buddies.

One of William's friends gave him "pass the pig" for his present.  You basically pass a pig around while a song plays.  When the pig farts, if you are holding it, you are out.  It was the PERFECT game for boys this age.  They laughed and laughed and laughed until I thought they would all pee their pants.  Boys!  William is absolutely dying laughing in this picture.  I love it!

Luke, William, Camden Deyer, Hudson Riddle, Logan Weeks, Tyson Muhlestein, Ryker Anderson, Stockton Paige, Samuel Welch, Kayden Kohler, Quinn Parks, Deakin Case

 

William is an awesome friend, and has so many great buddies.  He had blast at his Birthday party! 

little wasp tournament

William had his Little Wasp wrestling tournament on Monday evening.  The tournament is the last match of the season, and the only one where they weigh in the boys, so it was pretty cool!

We were excited to see William put his practice to the test on boys that would actually be his size, and therefore competition for him.

He did awesome!!!  They don't have "pins" at this level, but if they did, I think William would have won 3 of his 4 matches.  He did so well.

He loves wrestling, and has had so much fun with it this season.  We are waiting to see if he wants to continue on practicing with the club team.  We are letting William decide.

At the end of the tournament, the boys got a medal.  William was thrilled!  He has always wanted a medal for something, and he was so proud of it!  He actually wore it all night, and all day the next day when he got home from school.  It was pretty awesome.

Way to go William!

big buddy wrestles

A few months ago, William asked me if he could try wrestling.  For whatever reason, wrestling had never crossed my mind for William.  He enjoyed flag football, he was talented at soccer, and he loves snow skiing.  I figured that we would keep him in those sports and see which one he ended up gravitating to the most.  Thank goodness William spoke up about wrestling...I had no idea how perfect of a fit it would be for him...but I should have.  It is pretty obvious now that I think about it.

After William asked about wrestling, I looked into it, and found that there was a rec. club, called "Little Wasps" that practiced for an hour a week, and then had tournaments every Saturday morning.  It was cheap, it was not time consuming, and it was a good introduction, so I signed William up.

He literally asked me EVERY DAY for two solid months when wrestling was going to start.  He was so excited. 

He had his very first practice last week.  Ben took him, and he said that William just did what he knew, and he would just kind of body slam kids!!!  He ended up making a kid cry on his first practice.  Good grief!  He didn't try to hurt anyone, he just had no idea what he was doing, and they kind of just let the kids go at it.

William came home from that practice sooooo excited about wrestling.  He absolutely loved it!  He was begging for wrestling shoes.  Apparently, to him, that was the coolest thing ever. He also could not wait for his upcoming "Battle" on Saturday.  Yes, he calls his wrestling matches battles.  I LOVE it, and we haven't told him any differently.

I contacted my friend, whose husband coaches wrestling, about getting some wrestling shoes.  Not only did they have shoes for William, but her husband, Landon, really wanted William to come try out his wrestling team.  It is similar to Little Wasps, but it is more serious and competitive.  The kids are also older. It is more of a club wrestling.  The kids are more experienced and older, but he wanted William to give it a try.

So, on Thursday evening, Ben took him to Landon's practice.  William came home absolutely beaming!  He had on his wrestling shoes (which he slept in that night) and he kept showing me the move he had learned over and over again.  He was literally exploding with testosterone!

We have definitely found William's nitch.  I can't believe I didn't see it before.  He is big for his age.  He has always LOVED to wrestle his dad and his brothers.  All he wanted to do in football was tackle people and "smash people."  He is a great athlete. It is so perfect.

He had his first "battle" on Saturday.  They have about 4 different matching going on at the same time.  Basically, they just have the kids wrestle for three rounds of 30 seconds each.  They have about 3 different matches. No one wins, no one loses. They have a big cheer and get a sucker at the end of it all.
 It is definitely a little unorganized, but they do their best.  Williams first match was with a kid a little bigger than him.  Neither of them really pinned the other one, or really knew what on earth they were doing.  William loved it though!  He got this determined look on his face, and just went for it. Full force, brute strength.

The second match he had was with a kid that totally knew what he was doing.  His dad was a coach, and he was telling the kid all of the moves to do.  He definitely was better than William, but William didn't care, he had a great time.

The third match, William was with a kid smaller than him.  Neither of them knew what to do. William would get the kid down, and then pin him with his hands, like he was doing CPR, and then he would laugh.

 It was sooo funny!  I finally told him to lay down on the kid, so he just flopped down on him until the whistle blew.  It was epic!

We did notice, however, that William has some great natural talent, and once he learns some moves and has some training, I think he is going to rock this sport!  He definitely has the passion, the drive, and the overflow of testosterone for it already brewing!

It was perfect for his very first experience with "battling."  I look forward to watching his tournament this next Saturday, after a couple more practices, and hopefully him learning some moves.

He loved the practice with the older, more experienced kids, so much, that we are going to take him there twice a week, and then let him do his Little Wasp "battles" on Saturdays.  Landon, the coach of the "club" wrestling, said that he thinks William will do great with it.
Once Little Wasps is over, he will then do the tournaments with Landon's group, if he feels ready. 

Go William Go!

new beginnings

Three kids started a new sport this month.  It has been exciting to see William, Luke and Molly try new things and join in the crazy fall sports schedule.  Fall is always extremely busy, but it is my favorite season, and I wouldn't change a thing. 

William decided that instead of soccer this fall, he wanted to try out flag football.  I missed his first game, because I was at another sports event (divide and conquer is our motto over here), but I made it to his second game. 

I love how in between each play, the teams huddle together, and the coaches actually teach them plays and strategy.

William's coach is awesome, and for each play, he lets the kids try a new position.  What a great way to let the kids try a little of everything, and see what is a good fit for them.

About half of William's team has already played before, and the other half, including William are experiencing their first season.

William is still trying to get the hang of it all, because it is a lot to learn and to grasp, but he is doing great!  His very first game, he ran the ball all the way down the field for a touchdown, but he stepped out of bounds, so it didn't count.  Rats!!  His game this week, he blocked the other player from getting the ball, and almost got an interception.

I can tell that once he gets the hang of the plays and the strategy, and can just play the game, he is going to do really well.

The most important thing though, is that he is having fun, which he is.  He is really enjoying it so far.  His only issue is that he just "really wants to be able to smash people."  ha!  Soon enough William, soon enough.

Miss Molly started gymnastics two weeks ago.  I think she thought the day would NEVER come.  The day I told her that I signed her up for "jump jump, " Mary gave Molly her leotard from when she was 3, and Molly put it on.  She was sooo excited all day! 

We walked into the rec center for her first class, and Molly got nervous.  Thank goodness Mary was with us!  She helped Molly get used to the idea of following the coach.  It was really neat to see Mary helping Molly.  It was 10 years ago, almost to the month, that Mary was her age, in her first gymnastics class.  Now, here she was helping her sister follow the same path.

Once Molly got over her nerves, it was all uphill from there.

Molly LOVED every second of the class.  She was so excited that she skipped to and from the different stations, and she was jumping in line while waiting for her turn.

When it was finally time for them to go to the trampoline, Molly looked at me and fist pumped the air!  I about died laughing.  It was great!

Molly had a blast, and is very naturally talented.  She definitely has a love for the sport, and some natural ability to go with it.

Luke had his very first soccer game this week.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect with him.  He is very athletic, and incredibly fast, but he can also hold back and be shy and not want to participate.  It could go either way.

He is the one that asked to try soccer though, so I was hoping that he would just go for it.

Within the first quarter of the game, Luke had stolen the ball three times, and had made several shots on the goal.  At his age, there is no goalie, but some kid on the other team was literally sitting in the middle of the little goal net, so there was absolutely no way to make a goal. It didn't seem to bother Luke though, so no worries there.

I didn't care about Luke making goals, or stealing the ball though.  I was just so thrilled that he was playing AND smiling and laughing!!  He was having a great time!

I love to see my kids being active, but even more so, I love to see them having fun doing something they like to do.

Luke ran as fast as he could through the whole game.  He is very speedy and could catch up to whoever had the ball pretty quickly, if he wanted to. He definitely has some learning to do, as far as how to play the game, but dang, he is good little soccer player.

I hope he has a really fun season, and learns to have a great time doing sports.

Luke is on the yellow team.  Easy to spot with his white hair!

His coach is awesome...and he was William's coach last year.

So, basically, this fall, our week is something like this....after the hour of 3pm

Monday:  Sam soccer practice, Mary tumbling, mom teaches 4 piano lessons, homework, FHE
Tuesday: Luke soccer game, William flag football game, Mary cheerleading, yard work, homework
Wednesday: mom teaches 2 piano lessons, deep house cleaning day, mutual, scouts, homework
Thursday: Mary cheerleading, Molly gymnastics, Sam soccer practice, homework
Friday:  FREE DAY!!!!
Saturday:  Sam soccer game, Luke soccer game, William flag football game, mom had her long runs, dad does a biking session
Sunday:  try to rest, regroup, and fulfill church responsibilities.

It is pretty crazy, for sure, but I really do love it. 

(for real, as I was tying this post, Ben just asked where Sam is.  I started calling for him, and then realized that he is at soccer practice!  Yikes!  I totally forgot.  I just got back from picking Mary and from cheer, taking Molly to gymnastics, and trying to feed everyone dinner. Ben is rushing over there right now to pick him up...good grief!)

Welcome fall!!!

our birthday

As with every year around our Birthday, I give William the option of celebrating together on the same day, June 4th, or to have his own day, on June 3rd.

Of course, he loves the idea of having his Birthday one day sooner, so again, he choose June 3rd.  It actually worked out perfectly, because that was a Saturday, so we were able to do a party with all of his friends!

William has been so excited for his Birthday, and he has been begging for a motor scooter.  That is the only thing he wanted, and he REALLY wanted it.  Ben and I did a pretty good job of making sure he understood that it might not happen, even after we bought it.  :)  Makes it more exciting when it does happen...right??

Saturday morning, we all gave William good morning Birthday hugs and then we headed to Sundance to watch Ben do a bike race.  We went to the wrong finish line, so we missed seeing Ben come down the mountain, but we did catch up to him eventually.  He had a great race, and came in 2nd place!  He only missed 1st place by 1 second.  Pretty awesome!  He has been working really hard this season at endure racing as well as downhill.  Looks like it is paying off.

When we all got back home, William could wait no longer, so he finally got to open his present, a motor scooter! 

Soon after, all of his buddies came over for his party.  They played water kick ball, did a piñata, played water games, ate donuts (William's choice for his cake this year), and had a great time! 

top: Stockton Page, Deakin Case, Sam Welch, Tyson Muhlestein, William, Ryker Anderson, Logan Weeks
Bottom: Sam, Luke, Hudson Riddle

 After the party was over, William played with his new toys, we ate pizza, and just hung out as a family celebrating William.

William is a great kid.  He is very snuggly and warm.  He gives awesome hugs, and he loves to cuddle and have his legs rubbed.  William is very athletic.  He is powerful and coordinated, and he is a smart athlete.  William has a very tender heart, and often tells me I am beautiful, that he loves me, and other sweet comments.  He loves to wrestle and play very rough.  He has a laugh that comes straight from the belly.  You can't help but laugh when he laughs.  He lost three teeth this past week, so his smile is adorable!
William just finished 1st grade in the dual immersion program with Mrs. Bingham and Blanca ??
He loves to read and is a smart kid.
We love William with all of our hearts.  He is a big part of our family, and his big smile with his twinkly eyes melts our hearts.

Happy Birthday William!

The following day, on our real Birthday, we gave William a huge balloon boquet with a bucket of his favorite treats under it.

I woke up to cute cards from Ben and all of the kids.  We went to church where lots of friends wished us a happy Birthday, and we came home to a steak dinner, with the best cake I have ever had in my life for dessert.

It was a great Birthday for us.  I love sharing such a special day with such a special person.

me: 35  William 7
Happy Birthday to us

animal whisperer

 

 

 

 

 

William is our animal lover.

 

When he was 2 1/2, we were in the pet store getting food for our guinea pigs we had at the time and William went over to the cats.

 

One cat in particular seemed completely drawn to William, and William to the cat.

I could not separate them, in order to get back home.

 

I finally drug William out of the store, kicking and screaming that that cat needed him, and had to come home to our house.  The cat was also meowing like crazy and trying to get out of the cage in order to get to William.

 

The employees said they had never seen that particular cat do that before.

 

I felt terrible, but we really had to get home.  I buckled Luke in his car seat, and when I walked around the car to get William...he was gone.

 

I found him back in the pet store, with his fingers in the cat cage, and the cat literally had its paws wrapped around Williams fingers and it was purring.  William was whimpering and saying over and over and over again that we just had to bring the cat home.

 

Looooong story short, that cat has now been in our home for the past 4 years.  Her name is Penny, and she is actually the easiest pet we have ever owned.  She is great.

 

She sleeps on William every night, and if he ever sits down on the couch, she jumps into his lap.

 

Our cat is not the only animal that loves William.  It seems that all of the neighborhood animals love him.

 

Dogs and cats in particular.

 

Every single day, rain, snow, sleet or shine, William will get off the school bus, and the neighbors cat will be there waiting for him.  He takes off his backpack, sits on the grass, or snow lately, and give the cat lots of love.

 

 

He was crushed when we sold Maggie, the puppy we got last year for Christmas.  It has been a year, and he still asks about her every day.  He begs for a dog all the time.  We will for sure get a dog, just not right now.

I love that our sweet, big buddy loves animals so much, and even more, I love that they love him.

We have a true animal whisperer on our hands.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

all i want for christmas is my two front teeth

William finally got his first loose tooth this past month.

He wiggled it and tugged on it for weeks, but he was way too nervous to let anyone touch it or pull it out.

A few days before Christmas Eve, he was showing me how wiggly it was, and it just fell out right into his hand!!

It was pretty funny, and William was so excited!  His little toothless grin was so cute!

Sam had also lost a tooth about we week earlier, and they both decided to wait for Christmas Eve to put them under their pillows so that Santa and the tooth fairy could meet.  How adorable is that!!!

Sure enough, on Christmas Eve, both boys placed their teeth by their stockings.

The next day, the bags had money in them, and they also got a note from Santa saying that he met the tooth fairy. 

Success!!!

yummys for everyone

The Christmas season is always full of hustle and bustle at our house.  Naturally, it can get extremely busy for me, and for the most part I embrace it.  I love the excitement in the air, the planning and thinking about gifts for my family and friends, the decorating, the Christmas cards, the parties, and so on.

The one thing that seems to grow each your though, is the number of goodies that need to be handed out to teachers, bus drivers, friends, neighbors and ward members.

The more friends my kids make, the more engrained we become in the community and the ward, and the more people we get to know, the more names are added on the Christmas goodie list.

Each year, I try to find something that I can make a ton of, and that is fast and easy.  Each year it gets harder and harder to do.

This year we decided to go candy sleighs for the all of the boys friends (21 total),

the sleighs were a HUGE hit, and they were really fun and easy for the boys to make.  Pretty sure this treat will be a keeper for next year.

and caramel, chocolate dipped pretzels for everyone else (about 250 total).

Believe it or not, after making 250 of these pretzels, we still fell about 10 families short!    I love that this means that we are making more and more friends, but holy crap, I was totally pretzeled out by the time all was said and done. 

Guess I need to try to find something else for next year.

I did have the two cutest delivery boys every though.  William and Luke loved delivering the goodies to our neighbors and friends.  They laughed their heads off and grinned the whole time. 
And lets be honest....who wouldn't want some yummy pretzels delivered to you by Batman and a grinning boy in  snow boots and shorts!