New Smile

Jaxon got his braces off.  He was counting down the days until they were finally removed.

 Before.  As you can see, he was quite anxious for me to get the picture taking over so he could get those puppies off!  (Come on Mom!)

After.  So smooth and straight.  That is one happy kid!  Thanks Dr. Nord!

Mountain Ridge Champions!

We had an exciting weekend!  After a week long district basketball tournament, McKay's Jr. High team made it all the way to the championship.  McKay was SO nervous!

McKay on the bus with JT on the way to the game.  That is one serious game day face.

I have to admit, I was pretty nervous too.  The big game was Friday night.  His school team and coaches had made it to the championship game four years in a row but had not won.  This is the first year in school history that Mountain Ridge won the Championship Trophy!  It was a great night!

This is the program that they handed out at the door Friday night.  It has the bracket of the tournament and the line-up for each team.  As you can see, the team that we played against was an underdog team that made it to the tourney.  It was a great accomplishment for them.  They also played great Friday night and made the game a tough win.

McKay started the game that night.  Here is the starting line-up:

The final score was 58-50.  It was pretty exciting!  We were so proud of McKay.  Here is the trophy ceremony:

 The students rushed the floor after being awarded the championship trophy (Jaxon--at the top-- included).

Champions!  McKay is in the middle holding the trophy.
 

After the team photo, they brought out a ladder and the team and coaches got to cut down the net.
 

 

 McKay taking his turn.
 

 Hooray!!!

 Coach Scholle taking a turn cutting the net.  He was the assistant coach this year.

 Coach Smith cutting down the last little bit.

 It was quite the celebration!

 Coach Smith and Coach Scholle with the championship trophy and the rest of the game net.

 McKay showing off his trophy and piece of net.

McKay (32) with his buddies JT (33) and Koby (34).

 McKay has one proud family!

 After the game the team went and celebrated at Pizza Pie Cafe.

 No better way to celebrate than by having all you can eat pizza!  

I have to give a shout out to Pizza Pie Cafe.  McKay's team showed up to Pizza Pie 10 minutes before closing, but nonetheless they threw more pizza in the oven and let the team stay an extra 30 minutes past closing time.  Then they sent all the leftover pizza home amongst the team.

 McKay with the Championship Trophy.

 The next day we went and picked up an ice cream cake to continue the celebration.

McKay will have this fantastic experience to remember for the rest of his life!  What a great basketball season!

Lucky Teacher

Kadyen drew a couple of pictures for his teacher at school. She loved them so much she took a picture of them and emailed them over to me.

 

The top one is of him riding on a dolphin like he did this last summer.  The other picture is of his teacher riding on an airplane.  Can you see a resemblance?

Kayden's teacher. 

I can see why she liked his pictures so much.  How lucky she is to receive his art work as a gift!

Night Skiing

Jeremy took Joshua, Jaxon and Jaxon's friend Bennett night skiing. They had a great time and really enjoyed themselves.

Josh took a spill on one of the runs.  Josh asked Jeremy to give him a second, but Jeremy couldn't help but take a picture as it looked like Josh was in a position that made it look like a chalk outline of himself.

Josh riding the lifts.  All is well!

Jaxon, Joshua and Bennett.

Christmas 2014 Festivities

I love the holidays. They are full of tradition and a time where many family memories are made. Here are a few highlights of our holiday season 2014 version:

 

 The elementary school's Christmas sing-in is one of my favorite traditions.  Each grade sings two songs.  I smile at each one and feel Christmas cheer with every song I hear.

We were given 4 tickets to see the Mormon Tabernacle Christmas Concert.  We drove up to the Conference Center on a Sunday.  McKay and I watched the broadcast from the Tabernacle as we were not able to make it into the Conference Center.  We all enjoyed the concert very much!

School got out and we started in on the festivities right away.  Our cousins came from Houston for a couple of weeks.  We had a lot of fun with them.  One thing we did was build gingerbread houses.  It took a great deal of concentration and skill but the houses turned out great.

McKay has very proud of the success he had making the walls of his house stand on their own.  However, with a lot of frosting and maneuvering, his house took a tumble.  He had fun none the less and was still proud to show off his house for the camera. Jaxon's and Kayden's houses looked great and were quite tasty looking.

Josh had a great time assembling and decorating his house.  Very festive!

Everyone had a great time and enjoyed eating all the candy while decorating.  They had fun showing off all their hard work and creativity as well.  As for Grandpa, he was tuckered out.  You think he could have chosen a more comfortable position for his nap!

We continued our Chirstmas tradition of unwrapping a Christmas book and reading it each night.  Kayden read Olive, the Other Reindeer to us this night.  It was fun to have the boys read the books to us.

On Christmas Eve we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa White's house for Christmas dinner and Christmas PJs.  Their Christmas PJs look a little more like Easter PJs, but are loved and appreciated none the less.

The boys thought Christmas morning would never arrive, but it finally came.  Santa left his goods and the gifts under the tree looked so pretty.  This was just before the chaos began.

My anxious boys ready to see what Santa had brought them.

Santa brought the boys a double time basketball game.  It was a hit from the get-go and they love shooting to beat each other and their own high score.

Kayden got a giant monkey for Christmas.  As you can see, he loves it.  He even tried sleeping with it in bed but the monkey took up almost the whole bed!

One night he slept on the floor for sleepover in his brother's room and insisted that his monkey sleep by him.  He snuggled with his monkey's leg all night long.

 McKay and Jaxon opening Christmas presents.  There were a few surprises under the tree for them.  Gone are the days of opening Legos.

McKay is modeling off some Superman socks that he got for Christmas.  He is hoping to appear in one (or more) of his school basketball games wearing these socks.

Jeremy is always so creative with the gift tags that he writes on the gifts to me.  It is one tradition that I always look forward to and they always makes me laugh.

Josh received a new BYU blanket for his bed.  He was excited to go to bed the first night it was on his bed.

Santa gave us tickets to the BYU vs Gonzaga basketball game.  The stadium was packed and we had a good time cheering on our team.  It was a close game, but BYU lost.

When the Idaho cousins came to town, we went to Grandma and Grandpa Haacke's house for another Christmas dinner and more presents.  Kayden received this airplane glider from his cousin Shane.  He is anxiously awaiting warmer weather to play with it.

We also went to Hang Time with all the cousins and our friends.  It was a good way to get rid of some of that extra winter energy.

For New Years we went up to Idaho.  While there, Jeremy took the boys and some of the cousins, Uncle Craig and Aunt Debra skiing at a local resort.

Josh spent the day learning to ski with his dad.  He got quite good!

Jaxon must have skied hard because on the way home he fell asleep!  He gave everyone in the car a good deal of entertainment watching him sleep with the rhythm of the car.

While everyone else went skiing, Kayden and I stayed back at Uncle Paul's.  We hung out with his cousin Camron, Grandma and Grandpa, played games, watched movies and went sledding.  It was a great day for us too!

Now the holidays are over and school as started.  So glad we have the memories that we made during the holidays to pull us through the remainder of the winter and the grind of school!

Watch Out!

Someone got their learner's permit!

Ford vs Honda

Jeremy broke down and purchased a new Ford truck a couple of months ago.  It is no secret that the boys LOVE the new truck.  Josh and Kayden were coloring the other day and Josh made this:

He gave it to his dad as a nice gift.  Well, I started to joke complaining that no one loves my Honda anymore.  So my sweet Kayden drew me this:

He isn't familiar with Honda's slogan, so he made up his own.  "Drive a lot"  I like it!  My boys never fail to put a smile on my face.