Brendon coming out of his shell

I really enjoy watching Brendon play sports and doing other activities with a group of people. I like watching him loosen up and just having fun and not worrying about what people are thinking or what he looks like. :) (Something that i do) Brendon loves baseball and he is REALLY good at it. So far this year he has hit a triple, a double, caught a couple pop flies and only struck out twice. And he actually talks to his teammates and coaches. Something he didn't do last year. :) Of all my boys I think Brendon is the one i can see changing the most (in a good way). I love it!

We also just had our pinewood derby in scouts on Saturday. Phew! Glad that is over. It was stressful to plan and to make every boy and PARENT happy. Never works. There is always someone. But all the BOYS had fun! And that is the whole point, right! Anyway Gavin and Brendon built some pretty cool cars. Brendon's car was the winner though! We thought for sure his car was going to fall apart on it's first race but it SMOKED every car in the room. He came in first everytime. No one ever beat him. He was thrilled. Gavin did pretty good also. We had 17 cars racing and Gavin came in about 7th. I didn't get a whole lot of pictures cuz i was the one running the show. But i got a couple.

I now have a 12 year old!!!

Adam and I have come to realize we are getting old. :( Can anyone tell me how in the world my cute little red headed baby is now 12?!!! I really am in shock. I have to say though that he is such a good kid. No really he is. He is in middle school now and I feel like we still have a pretty good relationship. *Crossing my fingers*
I took him and a few of his friends bowling for his birthday party. As you can see by the score, Tanner isn't really good at bowling. :) Actually he was pretty funny to watch. After a while he gave up and just started rolling the ball down the lane in random postions.
12 year old boys are great! It was fun to listen to them talk with each other. Some of the boys talked about girls (which i thought was hilarious). Tanner didn't have much to say on the subject, probably cuz i was sitting there. :)
Tanner also passed the sacrament for the first time this week. It was great! He was super nervous but he did a great job. Oh next thing ya know he will be driving!!! YIKES!! I think i will like it though, one less person to drive around. :)

The Zoo

So I decided to take the boys to the zoo today. I don't go to the Boise zoo that often cuz it really isn't that cool and you can go through it in about and hour. YAWN! But they just expanded and have 2 giraffes and 3 lions. :) So i thought we could try it out. The boys loved it! I think we spent a half hour at the Giraffes. Tanner is completely amazed by them. All Ethan could talk about were the penguins. In fact i don't think he noticed any of the animals before the penguins. Cuz all he could say was "i want to see the penguins" over and over.

All the animal were out today so we really got a good show. Ethan annoyed a goose and it hissed at him. (That made me nervous) And of course the boys LOVED the monkeys. I think i want to take them to a bigger zoo somewhere. We have been to the San Diego Zoo but we only had Tanner then. The Hogel Zoo is good too. Animals are always a hit with kids. :) Can't go wrong there.

FIRST WIN!!!!

So Tanner finally had his first win of the season! Whooo hooo! It was actually not with his U13 team but with the older U14 team. They have been asking Tanner to play goalie for them the last 3 weeks. Tanner already plays with boys that are 1 year older than him so playing with boy that are 2 years older makes Tanner a little nervous. 14 and 15 year old boys kicking a soccer ball at you as hard as they can, can be a little scary at times.
But Tanner handled the pressure like a pro and kept the other team scoreless. He had about 7 saves. Three of those saves were amazing. One of the shot he had to jump as high as he could and just got a finger on the ball and popped it up just enough it hit the cross bar and bounced out. Phew!!! If he wouldn't have touched it it would have been a goal for the other team. He was very proud of himself and glad to have a win under his belt this season. :)

Ice Fishing

This weekend we decided to take a trip to my brother John's house in Cascade. Adam hadn't been ice fishing all season so i set up a fishing trip. Yes the lake still have 19" of ice on them. CRAZY!! The snow was beautiful on the drive up. As cars drove underneath the big pine trees the snow would fall out of the trees onto the next car. The boys thought that was great. :)

It was awesome in Cascade. It had snowed about 1 foot the day before we arrived so the snow was perfect. It was also very sunny which make for perfect ice fishing. Adam, John and I took 8 kids out fishing with us. Yes we are nuts. But the kids had a blast. John took his snow mobile and gave rides and pulled people on the sleds. Thank goodness for crazy uncle John to break up the monotony of fishing. :)

Adam caught the first fish of the day and I caught the second. (Mine was bigger! Hee Hee) We had lot of nibbles but we only caught the two fish. So thank goodness i packed a lot of treats and hot cocoa. It kept the kids going. All in all we had a really fun weekend that i think the boys will remember.

Ethan

This is what a little boy with an ear infection, for the second time in a month, looks like. GROUCH!!!! Seriously this is how he has acted for a week now with the occasional, "I love you mom." Ethan always has his moments of grouchiness but when he has an ear infection watch out! If the boys come within two feet of him he starts screaming at them. It is like he is possessed with a little demon. WOW!!! I don't think i have heard my name (mom) used in so many different whinny screams, cries, howls, etc. I really do feel sorry for him though I know how much pain he is in and that he is totally miserable. Hopefully he gets better soon for all our sakes. :)

Basketball

Did I mention my boys love sports? So most of my Saturdays consist of being on some sort of sideline cheering for my boys. The sport this month was basketball. Today was Gavin and Brendons last basketball games. Phew! It seemed like a long season, especially for Brendon who didn't really have the best coach or teamates. Long story. But they had fun and hopefully learned something that they can take into next season. Maybe patience. :)