Favorite Christmas Song

After reading Jen's blog over the past few weeks and her posting about some of her favorite Christmas songs, well it has gotten me thinking about what my favorite song is. Being a fan of more upbeat and contemporary music, some of the more traditional songs never have really stuck with me as "favorites". I always like hearing and singing any and all Christmas songs, however none of them really hit home with me as a favorite until a couple of years ago when I heard this song from Todd Agnew. It is called "In The First Light"and from my understanding it is not a new song but rather one that many artists have remade over the years. I have listened to a few different remakes on YouTube and none of them hold a candle to Todd's version. He has such an awesome voice that brings you right to the moment that he is singing about. Other than Todd's voice and the way he brings the song to life, the main reason why I love the song so much is that it brings a full circle of the the entire story of Christ and the purpose of his life, from his birth to his resurrection and second coming. In fact my most favorite lyric in the song is ..."But how much greater will our song be when he comes again...to rule... the earth."

Ahh, so awesome!

p.s. I am sorry that I do not have the song posted directly on my blog. Still not quite sure how to do that. So for now you have to just follow the link.

Wins All Around

That's the way...uuhh, uuhh...we like it..uuhh, uuhh!!

Yep that is right, ALL wins this past weekend. There was a total of 4 soccer game wins for Kyle and one hockey game win for Tyler. Kyle ended up with a total of 5 goals as well.

Way to go boys!!

Here is a picture of Kyle's team with their 1st place trophies!

Big Day

Today is another big day of sports here. As I posted in my last post (last night), we have two more soccer games to finish out this weekends tournament and in addition to that, Tyler has a hockey game today as well. It is going to be a busy day. I will try and post some more pictures here with all the updates on how everything goes. For now, it is time to get the day started!

2 wins for the team, 2 goals for the little man!

Kyle's soccer team played in the first 2 games of this weekend's soccer turnamnet today. They won their first game 4-2 and their second 4-0. Kyle played mostly defense in the first game and then scored 2 goals in the second game where he mostly played offense. It was a fun and exciting day. We will be headed back to the fields tomorrow to play in 2 more games. I hope they come away with some more wins.

Getting ready for his first game.

This was his second goal in the second game. Notice the ball in the net. Yea baby!

Recruited at my age? ...!!! What?

Yep, that is right. With our coed soccer season coming to a close this past week, many teams are already planning and preparing for the winter/spring season that is just around the corner. The biggest preparation is that of making sure that the teams have enough women registered on each team in order to sustain them through the entire season. It is mandatory to have and play at least 3 women on each team. So...with that most teams are usually on the hunt to fill their female spots as soon as possible.

Being with the same team now for years (not sure how many now), I have never even given thought to moving to another team...until now that is. The other day I was asked by another team if I would consider moving to play with them. After the initial shock wore off of another team wanting to have me on their roster, I actually gave it some thought. Being a loyal person like I am, I am having a difficult time making this decision. I am honored that another team would like to have me play with them, however I still really enjoy playing with my current team as well. Oh...Man... I am not sure what to do.

Kyle on New Club Team

With the start of a new season of club soccer play, Kyle was asked to move and play with a new team that is just getting started (within their club age bracket). This should prove to be a good move for him with some great opportunities down he road and much more added play time, too. We are excited to see where this "road" will take him. It is a very ambitious team so far. They have only had a week of practices and are already preparing to compete in a tournament this weekend. Wow! We shall see how they do in a few days.

Third Shut Out

Tyler had a hockey game yesterday. Not only did his team win, he also achieved his 3rd shut out!! Shut outs in hockey are hard to come by and, typically, very rare. Way to go Tyler! I think this win also brought their team up in the season standings from 3rd to 2nd place. Woo Hoo!

I came across a really cool web site and thought I would share. Some of you may have already heard of it or seen it. If you haven't, then take the time to watch a few of the videos. The guy has a lot of interesting view points and things to say...he'll keep you laughing, too.

The web site is called What You Ought to Know.
You can find it here:
http://www.whatyououghttoknow.com/

The end at last

This weekend marked the end of 3 soccer seasons and a much needed hockey break.

I had my champion playoff game on Friday night. Even though we did not win we still felt like we were successful. Due to winning the past 3 (or 4) seasons, playing in the recreation division, we were forced to move up to the competitive division. Let me just say that the start of the season didn't look to promising for us. However, as each week went by we stepped up to the challenge and in the end, somehow, found ourselves playing for the #1 spot again. Wow! We amazed ourselves at how we all stuck together and ended up, overall, in 2nd place. The team that we played for 1st place is a great team and was known for "taking no prisoners" with scores like 5-0 or worse. However, in the last game we held them to a 2-1 final score. So, in our minds we still won.

Tyler ended his soccer season as well this weekend with his last game on Saturday. The score was 5-0, with Tyler contributing one of the goals. Way to go Tyler. He is really becoming quit the soccer player.

Kyle's soccer team plays continuously through the year until about March, however his first round of play also ended this weekend. They played a double header against two local teams. They lost the first (4-5) and won the second (5-0). (They took first place overall for this season.) Kyle also contributed toward the overall goal count with 1 in his first game and 2 in the second. He plays forward and most of his goals are scored on break-aways. He is really fast and usually out runs all the other teams players. It is really exciting and very fun to watch him.

Hockey is not over but on a 2 week break until December. Tyler played in a very exciting game this morning. They played the #1 team in the league and kept it a really tight game all the way to the end. They ended up taking the loss with a score of 2 - 3, but only because of very bad officiating. I am really not being a whiner with this one...really!!

I have never in all my life, of watching sporting events, seen a coach talk a referee into making a call that should not have been called. Yep, that's right. It was a young referee being intimidated by the other teams coach. The other team took a shot at Tyler (he is the goalie) with the puck sliding right behind him from one side to the other (from post to post). When Tyler realized that he had missed it he turned around and saved it on the other side of him. The whistle blew and the play stopped. Right after that a time-out was called and during that time the other teams coach disputed the call and convinced the referee that it was a goal (when it clearly was not). (I know it wasn't. I was sitting right behind the goal watching Tyler and saw it clearly....all the while the other coach was way across on the other side of the rink.) So, when the time-out was over everyone was confused (even the other team players) because the only ones that knew about the change in the call was the other coach and the scorekeeper. Even Tyler's own coach had no idea what was happening and let me just say...you could almost see the smoke coming out of his ears. He was MAD! It was amazing and unbelievable. I have never seen anything like that. I guess there is a first for everything. After all we are all human and intimidation does happen. Oh well. I hope we don't have the same ref's next time.

All in all it was a good weekend. I am looking forward to Thanksgiving and the much needed break through the holidays.

Never Would have made it doing NaBloPoMo!

Jeeesh! Wow it has been a long time since I last posted anything. Where has the time gone? Not sure...I guess if I had to quickly look back on things...oh yea...Hockey and Soccer (that's our life right now). I am so glad that I did not commit to NaBloPoMo this November and put the pressure on myself. Actually, I have never done NaBloPoMo. Maybe next year...or maybe I might pick my own month to try and post everyday. If I do that then it would be like training for when next November comes around and I might be able to do it. hehe. aahhh we will see.

Yes, it has been a lot of hockey and soccer lately. Things should start to slow down. Let's see, 2 out of the 3 soccer teams will be coming to an end after this weekend. The other one will be on break until after Thanksgiving. And Hockey...well the end of the season is still a few months away.

We have had a lot of professional hockey and soccer happenings too. Last night we went to see the ECHL Roadrunners play. Tyler's hockey team was invited to play in a scrimmage during the 2 intermission breaks. They all got treated like royalty, got to sit in the special seating area up next to the glass and even got free popcorn and drinks. And then tonight we are going out to cheer on our local team in the NJCAA (National Junior College Athletic Association) Division 1 National Women's Soccer Championship games. It is going to be another late night, but should still be a lot of fun.

We got some great pictures and video of the kids last night at the hockey game. I will get more tonight at the soccer game and then I will post them for you to see.

Kyle's report

Kyle had to do a research report on Cocker Spaniels for his class at school.

Here is a picture that he used for his presentation of him with our Cocker, Sadie. He was so thrilled and actually learned a lot about the dog breed. I have to say I was pretty impressed.

Being sick is for the birds

For the first time in many many years I had to leave work early due to being sick (well the few years that I have worked in those many many years. hehe) . I could not believe that I had to do it. I work at a school and the last thing I wanted all the kids to see was me losing my lunch.

I am not sure what hit me but it was bad. I had a terrible headache and could not keep anything at all down. I am doing okay today, but after all that my body went through yesterday it is still trying to recover. I am very weak and sore. I am not used to being sick and it really sinks!!

I am going to try and play in my weekly soccer game this evening. I love playing so I am going to try. I will go and if it doesn't work then I can at least watch and cheer! We are down to the wire in the season and working our way through the playoffs. We won our last game so we are moving on to the next round, that game is tonight. We will see how it goes.

Time change on clocks...even in AZ...

Yep, that is right...we had to go around and change all the "time zone settings" on all our atomic clocks around the house. We always forget about doing that until we wake up the next morning and get all confused. We thought that we had an extra hour to sleep this morning until we realized we were looking at our atomic clock by the side of our bed. Opps! I had to get my wrist watch just to double check the time and make sure all the clocks were right. We have more atomic clocks than I thought!

Coyotes win again!!

Last night the Coyotes pounded the Penguins with a 4-1 win. Way to go YOTES!!

This was the only meeting that the Coyotes and Penguins will have all year and we had to miss the game. It was a real bummer, specially since we were offered tickets...right on the glass!!!! We had other commitments that we had to hold up to so we had to regretfully turn them down. Oh well. That's the way it goes. Being true to your word and fulfilling your commitments is more important than a game...right?

Dress Up?

Well, Halloween is only 2 days away and the boys still have no clue what they want to dress up as for the big day. When I asked them the other day they didn't know and even seemed not to care about it. I am sure that they will come up with something before night fall on Friday. They know that we are not big on the whole Halloween holiday so they never really have asked for us to purchase anything for them. They always seem to find something and make due with what we have. ...and that is the way we like it.

Halloween Already?

I can not believe that Halloween is already here. I have to say that it is not my favorite time of year. I will be glad when the week is over.

Our First Game of the Seaosn

Last week we went to see the Capitals play the Coyotes. I am very happy to say that the Coyotes won, 2-1. Yeah! We have so much fun together when we go the Coyote's games. I wish we lived closer and could afford to go to ALL of the them. :)

My hubby, being the smart person that he is, knows how to find the good seats for some awesome deals. Not sure how he finds them, but he does. For this game he found us seats right behind the "home" net. Way cool!! Nothing beats being close to the ice.

Let the Hockey Begin!

Ahhh...Yea, that's right...let the hockey begin.
The Coyotes have already played their first 3 games with a record of 2 wins and 1 loss so far. It is going to be an exciting season as the team has many new players this year. There are a hand full of new veterans on the team that were picked up through trades and such as well a few new starting rookies. The players that are going to be fun to watch, in my opinion, are the rookies. The NHL is expecting one of our rookies, Kyle Turris, to be one of the top in the NHL this season. They are already even picking him as one of the top contenders for the Calder Trophy Award which is the award for the top rookie of the year. He is definitely on track with 1 goal and 3 assists in only 3 games. Amazing!

The interesting story, for us, about Kyle Turris is when the Coyotes realized that they were not going to the playoffs last season they had Kyle come in and play in a few of the last games of the season. His very first NHL game that he ever played in was at the coyotes last home game of the season against the Dallas Stars. Well, being the last home game, playing against the Stars and it being a first game for a new rookie we thought..."ok, we are going to that game". All season long we had been promising Kyle (our son, Kyle) that we would get him his own player jersey with any player name that he wanted on it. So, with it being the last game Kyle got his jersey and he ended up choosing "Turris" for his name on the back. Well...after the game that night we were standing outside where the players were leaving the rink when a lady approached Kyle (our son) and asked if she could take a picture of him with his new jersey that he was wearing. Seeming kind of odd we reluctantly agreed. When we asked what her reason was she said that she was Kyle Turris' mother and it was the first time that she had seen someone wearing a jersey with his name and number on it. She, being a "mom", took the picture and told us that she was sending one to Kyle for him to see as well as putting one in his scrapbook. HEHE! Overall, pretty cool. So, I guess Kyle (our son) will forever be pictured in Turris' scrapbook as the first fan wearing his NHL name and number. I often wonder where that picture is today. Was it really used in his scrapbook? Hummmmm...Maybe someday we might have another opportunity with Ms. Turris to find out. :)

On the Maliboomer

The boys are the two on the far right.

Boys on Brother Bear Tire Zip Lines

Newport Beach

While we were in California we headed out to enjoy some time at the beach. This time we decided to check out Newport Beach! Oh it was so nice! I could easily live on the beach!!! It was great.




More pics...

Wish I owned one of those beach houses in the back ground. ;)

Watching the waves and the sunset.

Finding the seashells.

Watching the surfers.

Back to school after fall break

Yep, that is right, we are back to the grind!

Being on a year round school schedule we get a 2 week fall break. It was a most needed and relaxing time. The first week we spent at home doing absolutely NOTHING! It was great. I actually went a full 2 weeks without filling the car up with gas. That has not happened in a long time.

The second week of break we decided to hit the road and travel to our usual vacation destination...Southern California. This time in CA we headed to Anaheim to see Mickey! Yep, Disneyland! It has been a few years since we were there last so we thought...oh what the heck! :) It was a great time. They have opened a couple new rides since we were there last. The boys have grown since then, too, so we ALL got to enjoy a few rides together as a family. No more height restrictions anymore. Yea!! The one ride with the tallest height restriction is the Maliboomer and I can not remember how many times we rode that thing. Whew! It was fun but there are only so many times that you can be shot straight up in the air.

Here are some pics...

It's Halloween time ALL over at Disneyland!

One of the favorite rides...

Waiting for Autopia.

The boys discovered Pin Trading while we were there. Here is Kyle with his first 2 pins that he traded. He had many more by the time the week was over. I have to admit, it is fun!

The boys in the dog pound.

The boys with one of their favorite characters. (Chip or Dale...not sure which one it is.)

In the "O" of "CALIFORNIA".

On another one of the favorite rides...Big Thunder Mountain Railroad! ...in the back of the train of course!

1 Win - 3 Losses

...that was how our busy weekend of games ended up.

The only game that we came out with a win was Kyle's Arsenal club soccer game. It was a close one but still the win, 4-3. We'll take it!

Crazy Weekend Ahead

Let the craziness begin...

In just a few hours we will be on the run and going non-stop. It is going to be kind of hard to get going after, literally, doing nothing the past few days.

Let's see...we have 1 hockey game, 3 soccer games and soccer pictures. And...oh yea...church, too.

I will try and update with pictures and comments on how it all turns out.

Finally some nice COOL weather!

Well, it is finally cooling off here in the desert. I spent most of my time outside today and didn't really even notice the heat. That was really nice.

The morning started off with heading out in the back yard to groom the dogs. Yes, that is right...I wear the hat of "dog groomer" some times. It has been a while since I did it last and didn't realize that my clippers were really dull! So I spent most of my efforts using the scissors. Uugg! Boy, that was a long process. I guess it is time to invest in new clippers.

After all that, I decided I would take the kids on a nice bike ride...being a really nice day and all. So, we cleaned up, ate lunch, aired up the tires in the bikes and we were off. Not really knowing where we were going or what our destination would be, I thought "I bet the kids would love to ride to McDonald's and get an ice cream." And I was right. They thought it was an awesome idea...that is until my tire blew out about half way there. Uuttt ooooo! They were very disappointed and upset, to say the least. In fact one of them (I will not say who) asked if he could continue on his way and meet up with us later. HA! I was amazed. My first thought was "how selfish", but then again they are kids and they wanted their ICE CREAM!

So back home we went...walking! Most of the stretch from our house to McDonald's is farm land and walking/biking paths. However, there is a short distance that we have to share a busy road with cars. I get really nervous when having to share the road with vehicles and it is only worse when the kids are with me. At one point I yelled up to Tyler to move over off the road. He obeyed but in the process turned a little too hard, lost his edge and down he went. All was well until he realized there was blood. Oh my! I have to admit there was A LOT of blood and the funny thing is, the scrape was only about 2mm long. That is all! It was a good thing I brought along some hand wipes with me, otherwise I probably would have ruined the shirt I was wearing. It took forever for that thing to stop bleeding.

All in all, it was an adventurous day! We even got to meet one of the many wild coyotes that are out here. Well, we didn't really stop and say hi but we were just a few feet from it. I have to admit, it did make me a little nervous. It was more scared of us...but still.

Now we have one more thing to add to the "to do" list..."fix tire on bike". Hopefully we will make it to McDonald's next time.

Jenny McCarthy's New Book

Jenny McCarthy has been in and out of the news media spot light for some time now as she takes a stand on autism and vaccines. She is back in the news with the recent release of her new book: Mother Warriors: A Nation of Parents Healing Autism Against All Odds .

I plan on getting this book and checking it out. I imagine that I will find stories very similar to ours through out this book. Should be good!

With the release of the new book she has been on various talk and news related shows. Here is a clip of her on CNN.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/health/2008/10/01/intv.mccarthy.cnn

Here is another clip of her on Good Morning America.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Books/story?id=5878229&page=1

Lazy Days

It has sure been some lazy days around our house this week. I LOVE fall break. It is wonderful!!

Is it going to be...

...Christmas in Arizona this year?

C'mon you know who you are... :) So, is it? hehe!!

I can not believe that it is already that time of year...even Tyler said today..."man, 2008 has gone by really fast. I can't believe it is almost over." Without thought, I said, "yes, it has." then it hit me...I was amazed that he (at his age) even thinks those thoughts or is aware of time and the calendar year and how fast it passes by. He is 10 years old, it should not surprise me, but it does.

First Shut Out Ever!!

Tyler earned his first shut out as Goalie, today.

With the new season comes a new team of players and a new team name. Tyler is now an Ice Dog! Go Dogs! A well known song came to mind today as the Ice Dogs skated to a Shut out victory..."Who let the Dogs out...Who...Who...Who...Who let the Dogs out"!!! Come on, I know you can hear it...Sing along... :)

At the end of each game the coach recognizes and awards one player from the team as "Player of the Game" and gives them a Game Puck to keep. Well today Tyler was the "Player of the Game" and got to bring home the Game Puck! He worked hard today and played one of his best games ever.

Wow! What a game! Way to go! I am so proud of you!



Congratulations Tyler!!



Save in action!

Final score board!

Celebration right after the final buzzer!

More celebration!

Player of the Game!

The Gecko's - Our new team name (for the next 9 weeks, anyway)

We have officially started another season of soccer. This season it is a family thing! We got it approved for Kyle to play on the recreation team that Tyler is on. So they are both playing soccer together again. And, not only are they playing together, but the hubby and I are coaching. The team came up with a team name of the Gecko's so I guess you can say we are all Gecko's now.



Here are some pictures from our first game.

Ahhh, Yea! Fall Break!

It is officially here...Fall Break! Yea!

Oh the joys of the small things in life...such as being able to turn off the morning alarms tonight!

YES!!!

Fall Break Already!

One more week until Fall Break...and counting...

Yep, we are already almost through our 1st quarter of the year. Wow! Time sure does go by fast.

Bragging rights

Ok, I thought that I would share a few stories with you that make me proud to be my boys' mom...

Tyler's Hockey Story

Toward the end of this past hockey season, the rink held tryouts and selected players to play on their competitive travel teams. We looked into letting Tyler tryout, thinking that he would have a pretty good shot at making one of the teams. After further investigation we discovered that the commitment level was more then we all could handle right now so we opted to stick with him playing in the house (recreation) league instead. One day when we walked into the rink we were approached by one of the hockey directors wanting to know why she didn't see Tyler at the tryouts. We told her that it was not the right timing and that maybe next season we would consider it again. About 1 week later we were getting ready to head out after a game and were approached by one of the travel coaches who wanted to personally ask Tyler (and us, as parents) if he would reconsider playing travel and offered him a position on his team. Regretfully, we still declined but I have to say we were blown away!!

Just the other day the new house, recreation league began. When we showed up to the first practice you would have though, for a moment, that Tyler was a celebrity. The coach kept going on and on how he was thrilled to have Tyler on his team. He told him that he was the first player that he selected as well as the first overall goalie to be picked. (the coaches get to draft players in hockey, kind of like the professional sports and the NHL) I could not believe it. Wow!! Yes, I am a proud mom!! You Rock Tyler!!!

Kyle's Soccer Story

Back in April we decided to let Kyle go through the try out process for the local club soccer team. We were hesitant to let him go through with it as we had heard that it was a pretty intense process and we were not familiar with it enough to try and prepare him for it. The tryout process was broken up into two parts, or rounds. We told Kyle that we would let him go through the first round then see how things were. Kyle ended up doing great, however after the first round it was determined that there were not enough players in his age group to form a team. Because of this they gave the players the option to "play up" an age level and tryout for the team in the age bracket above theirs. I am not too sure but I think Kyle was one of the only ones that stayed and took the challenge of competing with the older players. Once the tryouts were over we were told that we would be receiving a call to let us know how the players did. A day or two later we got a call from the coach of the "A team" letting us know that Kyle made his team. We were thrilled but a little surprised at the same time. We had no expectation of what would happen when he started the tryouts, almost 2 months prior. I guess we should have known that once he started there was not turning back for him. So now he is playing on the top team in the age group above where he should be. Wow, Kyle!! You rock!! Keep up the hard work!

Catchin' Up...

Well, here I am again...it has been exactly 1 month since my last post and there has been so much goin' on here that I am finding myself posting yet another...Catchin' up post. Man, I hate it when so much time goes by and there is so much to post that I don't know where to begin. Why do I do this to myself? I am not sure. I will say that I have been so busy that I have been burning the midnight oil on a regular basis lately. Uhhh I hate it. So this may just be a "Catchin' Up part 1" with more to come later.

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*Both boys finished up their hockey season...They had a tough season but overall had a lot of fun.

*Tyler recently had the privilege of participating in a Skills Camp that was put on by the Phoenix Coyotes.

Here is Tyler and Kyle with Peter Mueller, one of the NHL's top rookie who plays for the Coyotes

This is Tyler with Sean Burke, one of the Coyotes former Goalies.

Here is Tyler in action at the camp.

*We recently found a goalie coach for Tyler. Here he is with his coach on the ice learning some new stuff.

*Kyle is in full swing with his soccer team. They just finished their indoor season, had their 1st tournament last weekend, and are now on to their fall (outdoor) season. They took first place in indoor and 2nd place in their 1st tournament of the year.

Here is Kyle with his team after winning and coming in 1st place in his indoor league.

Kyle with his team at half time.

Kyle's new number, #14 (he was #7 but since that number was already taken he chose #14, "double sevens")

*Tyler is also playing on a recreation soccer team this fall. And...oh yea, I am the coach once again. Tyler is really excited about it! He has not played on a soccer team in almost 2 years.

*My soccer season started this weekend.

* Hubby has been hard at work lately (more than usual) with more travel than he has had in a while.

*We volunteer at our church with highschoolers and lead a small group Bible study during the week with them.

*I am working a 5 day week this year at the kids school as a playground aide. This does not leave me as much time to get a lot done around the house but the kids like me being there everyday. I like it too, plus the little bit of extra $$ is nice (specially in this economy).

Happy Birthday, Jen!

Happy Birthday to my younger sis! I had a hard time finding a picture of just her so here she is with the family at her graduation ceremony for her masters degree. I am so proud of you Jen!!!

New Toy in the house

The boys had their b-day party recently and they both received enough money in gift cards to purchase Rock Band for the Wii. I have to say...it Rocks!! hehe.

Here we are after rocking out to a couple of songs. We rotated playing between the drums, the guitar and singing. It sure is a ton of FUN!!

Welcome to the blogging world, Beth!

A few days ago my niece decided to become a part of this wonderful world of blogging!

Welcome! I am looking forward to blogging with you.

Here she is with Kyle.

Kyle's team wins again

Like I posted a few months back, Kyle made a top notch club soccer team this summer. Since it is SO HOT here right now, their coach decided to enroll them in an indoor league for the rest of the summer. They have played three games so far and have won everyone with Kyle contributing at least one goal and one assist in each of the games. He is the youngest on his team and is doing very well. I have to admit, I am really impressed. Kyle has really "stepped it up". He is responding and learning a lot from his new coach. I say this because when he first started he played like a one-man-team and tried to do it all on his own. Now, he is playing like a team player and it is really contributing to the team as a whole.

Here he is after scoring a goal in his game this past Saturday. If you look closely you can see the ball sitting in the back of the goal. :) Yes, I am a very proud mom! I have to say...He Rocks!!

Oh yea...the final score was 10-3.

KidStuff - August

Tyler participated in the first KidStuf performance of the season this evening. KidStuf is a song, dance and acting production that is put on at our church once a month and runs throughout the school year. Tyler participated in it last year and made the dance team again this year. (Yes, he had to try out for it.) He loves music and his body just starts moving whenever he hears a "beat" so it was not surprising to find out that he made the team again.

Each month takes on a different virtue (theme). This month the kids are studying and learning about "Honor - letting someone know you see how valuable they really are". The scripture verse is: "Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves." Romans 12:10

They have a huge set with a top level just for singers and dancers. Tyler was dancing on the very top level for this show. He likes being on the top. (you can see the top level structure bars running across the front of him which made it hard to get a good picture.) He is in the red t-shirt.

Here is one of the actors during part of the skit.

late b-day post

Well, as usual, I am late on wishing my youngest son a happy birthday. I guess, better late than never.

Kyle turned 8 years old yesterday, Aug. 9th.

Happy Birthday, Kyle!

Here is Kyle with his new shorts that "sport" his "game name" across the back (you know like all the popular cheer shorts all the girls are waring).

And yes, Tyler got some too.

Time to catch up....

Ok here I go again.... catching up on stuff.

There has been So much that has happened since my last post. I guess that is why you have not seen a post from me lately. I have been Buuusssyyyyyyy!

First Off I have to say a BIG belated HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my first born, Tyler! He celebrated his DECADE birthday on July 27th. He had a great time and still wishes it could be his b-day. (Then again, I guess every kids does.) Here is a picture of him with his new goalie hockey bag. I have to say...I don't think that he was too thrilled with the new bag. But he did need it. Doesn't that count?

He was most excited about his new gaming head phones that he got. I think he talked about these day after day until he got them. He was VERY excited to get these.





School STARTED here last week, too. Yep, our summer is officially over. Bummer! Even though it seems like we had a short summer, I am perfectly ok with it because come October we get a 2 week fall break. Tyler is now in 5th grade and Kyle is in 3rd. Here is their "first day of school" picture.



They both love their teachers. Tyler has another male teacher, Mr. Mattis. He is very funny and seems like he is going to make it a fun filled year of learning for him, and the class. Kyle has the same teacher that Tyler had for 3rd grade, Mrs. Johnson. She is wonderful and we are SO SO happy that she is teaching our child again this year. It should be a great year.

Well, with the start of school there also comes the start of my part time job. I work at the school part time as a playground aide. For some reason, this seems to be viewed as the low ranking job at the school. I am not sure exactly why that is, but let me just say that no matter what people think or say about it...I love it (most days, ha). I love being with the kids and getting to know them. Last year I worked 2-3 days out of the week, however it looks like I will be able to pick up more days.

Now for the hockey and soccer updates...Well, we are almost to the end of another hockey season. We have a few more games before we start the play offs. This season will officially be over at the end of August. It has been a rough season as we have not won many games. The last game we played was one of them that we did win. In fact, Tyler almost got his first shut-out. The other team was able to get a puck past him with only 11.6 seconds remaining in the game. It was a bummer, but we did still get the win. Way to go Tyler!!

Soccer has started for Kyle already. He has been practicing with his new team for about a month and is now playing on an indoor league with them too. This should be an exciting year for Kyle as it is his first year to be playing on a club team. Tyler and I will also be playing soccer again this fall season. We don't start until September.

Guess that is all for now.....I will finish catching up later.