Pix as Promised

Here are the pix of our basketball hall of fame night. Bill Hoops' little boy Trey is on the far right. See his peace sign? Charles and Jimmer were fantastic and very sweet to come see our fam. Hope you like! New news at our house? Chaos and craziness. We feel a little overscheduled right now. Next week should be somewhat calmer I hope.

I was able to organize a fun night for my tenants this last Friday and had a full house - I loved it. Matt came with me and was able to appreciate my crazy other hundreds of kids. We held a competition night and Matt was the ref for the 3-3 water basketball which was hilarious. I have officially passed my trial/temp period with the Village and am officially permanent there and loving it. Emma has taken a few steps and is about to take off- seriously. Addie is the best helper as always and has straight A's. Jax is working on the balance between his love of sports and the necessity of reading and schoolwork. Working on that. Gray just told me I'm the best mom he's ever had because I game him peanut butter and fluff for lunch. Awesome.

The BEST night of my whole life

We are so lucky. My little family is lucky because we have an outgoing networking fiend for a Dad/Husband. He is friends with anyone and everyone and that really has come to bring some awesome opportunities as a result. Let me explain. My husband has a friend he plays softball with that works in the Sports Marketing Department at BYU, or something like that. Anyway, he is the nicest friend and anytime has extra tickets to an event, passes them on to my husband.

Over the last few weeks, my husband has gotten to know Charles Abouo who plays basketball for BYU. For dinner last Sunday night, we invited Matt's softball friend and his family over, and a few days before Matt came to me and said - I invited a few BYU basketball players and roommates over too! I didn't hold my breath, wasn't sure if that would really happen, but was hopeful that they would come for my cute boys who love them. Well, sure enough at dinner time, not only did Charles show up, but so did Jimmer Fredette and his roommate Justin.

I tried to prep my kids to not be shy around them, and to also not overdo their excitement but to just treat them like normal regular people. Addie said, shocked, "Mom, they are not regular people! They are famous, and since they are coming to our house, we are famous!" Nice Addie.

If you've met Jackson - you know that he talks about Jimmer on a first name basis and has a shrine to him in his room including one of his shoes from last season. Can you even imagine my son's face and emotions through that night? Needless to say, it was amazing. They played basketball together and ate and talked for over 3 hours. Those players were kind and humble and simply amazing. I have a new respect for them after Sunday night. I believe that they will be coming every now and then for a good (um, not sure about the good part) cooked dinner on Sundays...since they don't have host families like they do in CDA! When they left I asked Jax, with a 10 being the best ever, and a 1 being boring, how he would rate his night.

He thought about, slowly smiled, and said, "This was the best night of my whole life." Perfect. A mother's dream. Thanks to Charles and Jimmer for taking time out of their day, the day right after a win over Utah, to spend with my little boys. Simply amazing. I took some pictures but they are on my camera at home... I will post them later!

Nights at UVU

So our lives have become crazy busy right? Matt has taken on a second job working for the Alumni Department at UVU. One of his responsibilities is to attend the UVU basketball game to man an alumni table/booth. So... we all come with him - if you know my boys, you know that is totally up their alley. We go to the games and sit right in front of Matt. Now, the basketball court games are played on are in the center of the building with two courts on either side unused during the game. They keep up some hoops and let the kids play on them during the game. So... when we get there each night, Jax takes off to play basketball, Addie sits down to watch the dancers and cheerleaders, Matt heads to his table and Gray goofs off with me. Last time we were there Gray and I got silly with the camera. No laughing at my faces - I HAD to post these pics because the faces Gray made display his silly personality perfectly. I took a picture of Matt and his table too.

During that last game, I realized I hadn't seen Jax in a while. I knew where he was, but he usually comes to check in with me every couple of minutes. Usually he is playing by himself or just shooting around with a few other kids...This time I wandered over and found him in a full-on 4 on 4 game with kids twice his size. Not fazed at all, he was having the time of his life. Notice in the still picture the size of the kid he is guarding. Sorry there are no pics of Addie, she was at the concession stand buying candy, of course.

This picture is of Matt... Can you see him? We were at the Flash game on Friday night and he was picked for a time-out competition. He won us $10!!! Yea Matt!

On a side note- we measured the kids today... Jax who is 5 1/2 is as tall as Addie was when she was almost 7 and Gray, who is 4 1/2ish is as tall as Jax was at 5 1/2, and Emma is 8 mos old and in 18-24 mo. clothes. Hmm.....

I'm not having a good day...

I have lost count of how many times I hear Gray say those words. The best of them all was RIGHT when he woke up one morning. He walked down the stairs and sleepily said to Matt and I, "I think we need to call the police." Why Gray? "Cause I'm not having a good day and I need the police to fix it. Let's call the police." Seems like an appropriate reason to call the police I guess...

So we have a relatively new ottoman that is leather in our living room. Apparantly our kids like to wrestle with the cat on it. I came home from work one day to see a nice BIG scratch on it. So, I called RC Willey to come have them repair it. I was hoping to avoid mentioning how I thought the scratch had gotten there, they would repair it and leave. So would the cat in my dream world. Anyway, the repair man came, and first off asked, "How did the scratch happen?" Gray just so happened to walk into the room at JUST that moment and said, IT WAS MY CAT! as loud as he could. Thanks Gray.

New Year's 2009

Every year for New Year's Eve we travel up to Matt's parents and spend a couple of days. Our kids look forward to it and plan out their time there months ahead of time. We have a few traditions that include breakfast in PJs on New Year's morning and a few hours at the Classic Fun center - roller skating, bounce houses and laser tag. Here are the pictures! Notice Emma in the big girl highchair!!! And Gray's face... can't explain it.
Classic Fun Center - Emma finally konked out.

Laser Tag... Gray and Jax loved it!

Apparantly so did Uncle Mark -

The Brousseau/Frank boys - most of the grandkids on Matt's side are boys - can you tell?

The crazies - I missed the memo that it was a crazy picture - My boys with their cousin Hyrum.

Addie on roller skates for the first time! Which by the way - Matt and I roller skated too and it was so much fun. I honestly don't think I had roller skated with a boy before...in the dark... I felt 13 all over again, and I only fell twice (thanks to Addie).

Bounce Houses - the boys love those things.

I love love love this picture of Matt with Emma.

Happy New Year everyone! Here's to hoping this year is better than the last. My motto this year - is that it can only get better. Optimism at its best...

Swimming...and sledding

We were lucky enough to be invited to Soldier Hollow with our friends last night... Our kids had a blast. Especially Gray who decided to not wait for us after riding down one time, but to instead head up the hill on his own, riding the ride that takes you ALL the way to the top, without his parents so he could ride down the hill again. It was a fast hill - I don't think the pictures give it justice about how big the hill is (ask Matt who ran up it to find Gray :))

This is Jax riding down - look at the later picture to see how squished into his sled he is... Gray -

The ride to the top!

Sorry - for some reason it uploaded it twice...

Swimming! Abby was lucky enough to get her feet and lower legs wet chasing after Eva who went for the hot tub WITHOUT floaties. Just what she wanted - wet pants in the middle of winter...

Swimming in the wintertime is one of those things that is so much more fun because it's in a time when you don't normally get it. Like eating chocolate during labor - you're not supposed to so when you do it tastes SOOO much better.. at least that's what I've heard. Well, my complex has an indoor pool and my kids love it. Today the Maile girls came with us! The older three are having a lateover right now (after swimming) and I have some serious MarioKart competition going on in my downstairs living room...

My baby isn't really a baby anymore...

I've hit a milestone in my life - my baby isn't really a true baby anymore. She has a tooth! I know it's not a big deal, but knowing it's my last baby to cut his/her first tooth - it is to me! And she was not that moody!! Okay, maybe a little, but if this is how teething with Emma is going to be - no problem. She's also trying to stand unassisted and is into EVERYTHING... I have a mover and shaker. Emma also is fed up with baby food - she wants the real stuff. I can't believe it's gone that fast.

It's totally true you know? Don't take anything, not even a moment, for granted because you will blink and it will be gone. I'm trying to relax and enjoy the ride, which for those of you who know me, THAT is very hard to do. I am loving my kids and loving all of their different ages and stages because I know I will not have that with them ever again.

But, I am taking lessons from Abby and listening to her... Although it is not where she wants to be or have happen to her, I am learning from her, she is an excellent teacher and older sister. Abby - we LOVE you. Thanks for being such a great example and for carrying your trials with such grace. It just shows me that you, and even I, can handle anything...