2011 USA Football

We are super excited to be watching Christian play tackle football this year. We had the opportunity to participate in this great program when Michael was in 6th and 7th grade. The USA youth football program is a great way to teach these boys the fundamentals of football(anyway that is suppose to be the goal). Christian's first game was last Saturday. The USA program had a "Midnight Madness" practice tournament for all the teams. Christian played other 3rd grade teams from Cedar, Canyon View, Desert Hills, Dixie, Snow Canyon, and Mesquite. It was a learning experience for sure. Christian is still getting the concept down so it was fun to watch him try to keep his guy covered. The tournament was in Mesquite. It was 112 degrees. We were all dying. It is hard to complain though since my better half is dealing with 119 on a good day. I will suffer through my 112 and be grateful that I am home watching our son play the greatest game!

Care Package

Cory's Dad sponsored a shopping trip for the guys. The PX is running low so we get to send packages from home. We hope this will make the guys' life over there a little more comfortable. The Republican Women group of Washington County is sponsoring a drive to fill Xmas stockings for the guys. Keep your eyes open for their quilt they are selling tickets to at different events and if you are interested in donating supplies or $$ let me know and I will give you a contact name.

First day of school 2011

We have a lot of new things for 2011. Michael turned 16 and is a sophomore so at the HHS now. Jessica turned 12 and is now in the Intermediate school. Christian is in 3rd grade this year and turns 9 in September. His teacher this year is Mr. Clay. When Christian was in 1t grade it was Mr. Clay first started teaching. They do the team teaching thing so Christian got to be with Mr. Clay a lot. He LOVED him then and he loves him even more now. School is so much better when the teachers are awesome! When we got the letter in the mail about Christian having Mr. Clay for a teacher he was so super excited he almost was crying. Cute as heck. Christian just got done being spotlighted this week. I got to go into his class on Friday morning and talk about Cory. That was super fun. We took pictures, a map and his dog tags that Christian has. I absolutely loved hearing Christian talked about his dad. SO PROUD!!!! I dont' really hear how much the kids miss their dad. They don't really say. But when Christian was talking about his dad you could really tell. When he got home from school I was on the phone with Cory and Christian got to talk to him for a bit. When he heard his dad's voice he was so super excited. Brought tears to my eyes. I know my kids miss their dad so much. Especially as we are still dealing with Michael's knee and the trials that brings into his life. Jessica could sure use her dad being around too. We are so proud of him though. We love him so much and as much as we miss him we know he has a job to do and we support him 100%. This experience has definitely taught us to be grateful. No matter how bad things get there is always some good to be found. Sometimes we might have to look with a microscope right now but I know the good is there.

August 16th B-day Bash

For Michael's 16th birthday I wanted to have a surprise party. I knew of a couple of boys his age that turned 16 in the month of August also so I contacted other moms of the boys I knew. Come to find out we rounded up 9 kids that turned 16 in August. It was fun. We had pizza and cake and a great sound system provided by one of the families. We had it scheduled for 4 hours but really 2 hours would have been plenty of time. I really thought that if we had organized games and stuff that it would be lame but come to find out that is what the kids needed. They just hung out around and didn't really mingle. Don't ever let me plan teenager parties AGAIN!!!!I hope Michael had fun. The trying to keep a secret was fun. We love our Michael so much and are EXCITED that he can drive his own self around. Life just got a TON less complicated for me.

August Birthdays

12 and 16. We had milestone B-days at our house this August. Michael has his drivers license and is a priest. Jessica is now in Young Womens. Michael got some fun stuff for his car and Jess got makeup and a jewelry box. Sunday night dinner over at Mom and Dad's was the kids' favorite, Turkey noodle soup with homemade noodles from my mom of course. Angie, Taylor, Erick and Yana helped celebrate the kid's B-day with us. It is so nice to have family close by.










Jess had her B-day party the 1st week in August but since it was Michael's 16th we had a big party. There are 9 kids that we found that will turn 16 in August. I was able to get with all their moms and we managed to pull of a surprise birthday party for them in Toquerville. The party was 4 hours long and that was WAY too long. The kids started drifting off about 9. I hope all these kids know how much all us moms love them. They are a great class to go through HHS. I am very glad that Michael has such a great class to grow up with. They all will be amazing adults.