Bump, Set, Spike!

McKenna wanted to try something new this year, Volleyball! We signed her up for a rec team and things didn't start off too great. The rec center wasn't very organized (as usual...grrr) and the person they had as the coach didn't know she was the coach. However, she stepped up to the plate and took on the challenge. We didn't even meet the coach or the team until a few minutes before our first game! But these kids came together and killed it! They were a rag tag bunch of kids that didn't have much experience. I think only a couple of them had ever played before. As the season continued, they  just kept winning games and ended up winning the whole tournament at the end of the season!! McKenna learned a lot and really enjoyed it! She is looking forward to playing again in the Fall. The first half of the season she couldn't serve the ball over the net and by the end she was pretty consistent. We are proud of the effort she made and how much she improved!

McKenna serving...but I have to figure out why my video is so crummy.

Some lost Summer Pictures

I forgot about all the pictures I had on my phone and missed a few fun things we did this summer. Brooklynn took a Karate class and LOVED it!!

 

 

Lauren attended a Volleyball camp at the high school and absolutely LOVED it. She can't wait for volleyball season. She also had band camp during the month of June and is looking forward to playing the flute this year.

Um, I totally forgot that McKenna had a birthday way back in May. Oops! She turned 10 and we celebrated up in Malad with lots of family over Memorial day. She requested a "Hobbit" cake. She also got a real bow and arrow set that she had been wanting for a while...so she could be like Legolas from Lord of the Rings.

Tyler has been busy with football all summer long. I was at girls camp when they had their scrimmage but Chris said he did awesome! This video is of an interception he had. He is in blue and is the outside linebacker towards the top of the video.

Oh, and he finally got a haircut while I was gone!

BEFORE:

 AFTER:

Brooklynn and McKenna also took swimming lessons. They loved it and were sad that we only took one session.

Brooklynn (in the green skirt) above and pink goggles on her forehead below. She absolutely loved her teacher. She even wrote him a cute note telling him he was the best swim teacher ever!

McKenna is on the side just to the left of the lifeguard stand (in pink) getting ready to dive from a kneeling position. She really should have been at least another level higher because she was quite a bit more advanced than the rest of her class. My mistake. I just never know how much they will forget from year to year. McKenna is my little fish. Next year we'll do swim team for sure.

There has definitely been lots of other fun things going on but this covered some of the bigger things I forgot.

Field Day

Field Day - McKenna and Brooklynn both qualified for the finals. Brooklynn came in at 4th place for 1st grade and McKenna came in 5th place for 4th grade. 

 

 

2013 Track Season

This year Tyler and Lauren both decided to do Track. It wasn't in the plan that Tyler would be doing it because he was still working out with the football team and in the middle of the Wrestling season. It started out just going to practices for extra conditioning, then he made the Sprint team and had to commit. They both had a lot of fun and enjoyed it. Tyler ran the 100m, 200m, 400m & shot put and Lauren ran the 100m, 200m, long jump, high jump & shot put. She really enjoyed the high jump and always came in 1st or 2nd at meets and placed 6th at the District Competition. Tyler did great with shot put again this year always coming in 1st or 2nd as well. It was fun to watch them...a little crazy though with 2 kids participating in at least 8 different events. Sometimes they both were up at the same time! That and it was unbearably cold most of the time!

Here, Lauren is running the relay. Both her and Tyler were asked to run this race in the District competition right before and neither had ever even participated in it before. In fact, they were on the field just before the race trying to figure out the hand-offs and everything. They didn't place, but they both actually really liked this one. Maybe next year they will try it again.

January at a Glance

January has been a pretty interesting month to SAY. THE. LEAST! We started off with tons of this stuff:

 

 

Which meant the kids spent LOTS of time outside:

This one has spent lots of time obsessing over all things Harry Potter: 

Watching the movies, over and over and over...

Lauren had a choir concert at school:

She is smack dab in the middle, turned sideways with a long, blonde ponytail with her arms folded.

Which was probably the best one we've been to in three years.

Sorry the quality stinks but it was my phone and I was in the nosebleed section.

We checked out a new store in town (Scheels) and got silly with Abe Lincoln and a Bear but broke all the children's hearts when we refused to stand in line for over an hour, in the middle of the store, to ride the ferris wheel. Yes, we are mean like that.

 

 

 

 

 

We squeezed in a birthday party for this little cowgirl:

 More on that at another time.

Lauren was student of the day for her Jr. High:

 She will be so mad I posted this. It's a random drawing so she feels like there isn't any thing special about it. However, her name was on the marquee so I did what any good mom would do, I took video and posted it!

Sorry Lauren. :0)

We also spent a LOT of time in the evenings and nearly every weekend watching this:

 

 

And enjoyed some victories:

 

 

And no sport would be complete without a few of these:

 

 

 

Lots of free time at the tournaments led to this little accident:

 

(See Previous Post)

And now this guy is struggling with some health problems too...

more on that another day.

Whew! We made it through the month. And those were just the things I actually took pictures of. 

Here's to hoping February is a little calmer...it hasn't been looking to good so far though.