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So yet again the time is here where my oldest has his birthday. What can I say about the boy, he has always been such an awesome example to his brothers and cousins on how to be a great kid. He has a strong work ethic and high standards. I don't think we could've picked a better son to have as a first child. Chili always chooses the right path even when we as parents step aside and let him choose for himself. He has a great sense of humor and never takes himself too seriously. I know that he will always be a strong leader in our family. So again we say... HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHILI!!!

The Predator

On the 21st Mason and Chili Wrestled in a tournament called The Predator World Championships which was held in Monroe which was nice since we didn't have to travel too great of a distance for a large national competition. The boys each had about 12 boys in their brackets, Chili's group is ages 13-15, and they aren't supposed to be sophmores in high school yet, however the sophmore thing is in the very fine print and is often ignored which makes the competition pretty unfair actually. Now that I'm done complaining, I can say that Chili did very well. He worked very hard and got all the way to the finals and then lost to a sophmore and then had to wrestle for 2nd & 3rd against another sophmore and lost again taking a 3rd overall. He wrestled very well and if the rule had been enforced he would likely have taken 1st place. Mason's age group is made up of 9 & 10 year olds and he is still 9... that being said, Mason went into this tournament looking for nothing short of a 1st place trophy. He wrestled better and stronger than he ever had before and not only won every match but completely dominated every match. He pinned 3 of the kids and won the other 2 by 9 & 10 points!!! Mason came home with his very first 1st place trophy, from a large tournament!! We are so proud of our boys!!

Halloween

So... Halloween this year was a little different for us, Jeremy, Chili, and Mason went to a wrestling tournament in Denver leaving Me, Giuseppe, and Gage here to go to Beppe's football game and to go trick-or-treating... We found out that the tournament was giving out very cool prizes if the kids won a costume contest and that the winners would be chosen by the crowd and that one kid per age group would win... We thought it through and figured that the best way to get the most attention at the wrestling tournament was to dress like girls... Now some may think its not wise to encourage cross-dressing in your children, but seriously, have you met MY boys... no worries here... I made all of the boys tutus and got them coordinating tights, wings, wigs, tiaras, and wands... some would've stopped at the dress... but not us... if we're gonna be gay... were going all the way baby!!! I have good news and bad news... The good news is that both Chili and Mason won the costume contest at the tournament and Chile got an iPod and Mason a sweet RC Car... the bad news is that nobody got pictures of either of them in their outfits!! Chili had a pink wig and pink and black tights with all pink accessories and a tutti fruitti colored tutu... Mason was pretty much the same except in purple... not all hope is lost... Atleast I took pictures of both Giuseppe and Gage... LOL

Happy Birthday Gager!!

What can I say about our Gage, Some days he is the joy of our lives with his quick whit and great Gage-isms and other days he's the kid I want to duck my head and walk away from at the store while saying 'whose kids is that?' In all honesty Gage is our joy. From birth he has had the biggest smile and when he smiles it feels like the whole world should smile with him. His eyes have always been so expressionate so that you always know what he is thinking just simply by looking into them. He is always getting into mischief and somehow with a flutter of his lashes and a half-hearted apology he is back on your good side and leaving you to wonder 'what just happened here, am I still in charge?' Somehow he is able to trick us into staying up just a few minutes longer, and swindle us into video games on a school night... He is probably going to be a handful later, but for now I am going to love him and enjoy him just the way he is!! I feel like it was just a couple of months ago that we brought him home from the hospital... wow time flies!! Happy 6th birthday little buddy!

Gage Goes to School

So this past week has been quite interesting for our family. Last Saturday we moved, Sunday we went to a new ward, Tuesday Chili, Giuseppe, and Mason started at new schools and on Thursday Gage started kindergarten. It has been an interesting week of changes. The one that was funnest for me as a mom was of course that my youngest son started kindergarten. The day before school started the teacher had each of the kids in one at a time and showed them around the classroom and visited with them for a few minutes which was really good for Gage since he was quite fond of his preschool teacher, Mrs. Spencer, and he wasn't quite sure that he needed the change. After the meeting we both were very happy with the teacher. She's seems to really know how take care of things in her classroom with a variety of types of children. I am confident that she can handle my Gage.
The night before school started we laid out his clothes, read a couple stories, and tucked him in as usual; He was ready for school. He woke up and got ready without any trouble. Gage was so excited about school that he wanted to ride the bus the very first day! I was a little nervous about this but atleast he had Mason with him to help him out. The cool thing about school in this district is that there aren't any 1/2 days they go the same 2 full days every week and then every other wednesday which is a late start day. So not only did he ride the bus, but he also had the opportunity to have lunch at school and have the 'whole experience' all in one action packed day.
When he got off the bus I was there waiting to hear about his day and he was all smiles and the first words out of his mouth, on the first day of school, were -"I went to the principals office!" Inside my head I'm thinking "already on the first day of school!!" but logically I was thinking "maybe they went on a tour" "maybe he didn't really do anything wrong" Thankfully I asked him and apparently at recess he saw another little boy bite a kid while they were all playing soccer...FWEW!!! I was soo glad to hear that he wasn't actually 'in' the principals office, yet : )
I asked him how everything was on his first day and he told me about as much as you would expect from a boy... I got almost nothing... but after some coaxing I did get a few details from him and the he asked me, "Do I have the SAME kids in my class everyday all year?" i told him yes and asked him why he asked to which he replied, "Because there is this chubby kid that just pisses me off." I held back a couple giggles and reminded him that he doesn't get to choose what he looks like then Gage tells me he doesn't like him because he's mean, not because he's a bigger kid... I guess that'll be a little victory...
For the most part Gage's first day was a good one and he seemed to really enjoy himself, but what an adventure, the bus, school lunch, and the principal's office all in a days work for my Gage!!