Happy 4th Birthday Coco Krispy!

So as you can see from the title of this post, it was Coconut's 4th birthday last week. Coco Krispy is just one of his many aliases. Coco, JoJo, Boo boo, Car Car, Cart Man-he is a little man known by many names. He has brought much joy (and distress) to our family. Never a dull moment when he's around. He'll either be a professional football player or a rockstar. He can reach notes that would put Axl Rose to shame. He makes life fun. He's definitely Mama's little buddy. I'm his only friend during the day, so we hang out a lot watching cartoons or going to fun places like Krispy Kreme for a donut to celebrate wearing undies to bed and keeping them dry. Actually, he hasn't needed to wear pull-ups to bed for quite awhile, but he refused to wear one the other night, so we celebrated the next morning. I can almost never resist his little, "Please Mommy." He loves candy, chocolate, ice cream, cake, anything junky-just like mom. I feel really bad about it. He's very smart and knows all of his shapes, colors, can count to 20, is starting to actually recognize some of the numbers, and can sing the ABCs, among other things. He gets himself dressed (unless he's being lazy). He likes to tell stories and ask totally random questions. We had an entire conversation in the car one day about skeletons, "cops", jail, bad guys, and animal cops. He cracks me up. On the one big snow day we've had, he told me that there were probably little bugs throwing tiny snowballs at each other. He makes me smile everyday.
We celebrated with a couple of friends and cake and ice cream with a Captain America birthday party. That stupid cake took me all day because I had to dirty ice it and then let it sit in the fridge and then ice it again, and then make the star and fill it all in. There were several toothpicks and a ruler involved to make sure the circles were somewhat even. Someday, hopefully, he'll see a picture and say, "Wow, you were the coolest mom ever." Oh what we do to make our kids happy. His new favorite thing is Monster Trucks. You can never have too many. Oh, and Ninjagos.

New Blog

For my readers who may not be my Facebook friends (or just don't check it often), I have a new blog. It's for the book I've written. It's my first book and I'm trying to get some buzz going. Plus, I've had people asking for updates on the editing process and how soon I might be able to publish. I've also given some background on how it all got started, and in the future, I might just give a sneak peek or two. So check it out. www.inthemidstofdarkness.blogspot.com

Happy Christmas 2011

Well, family and friends, it's that time of year when everyone sends out their Christmas cards, letters, and photos. I'm doing something different this year. I'm not sending anything out because I figure that a lot of times, people read the letter, put the picture on their little Christmas card stand, and then it gets tossed after Christmas anyway. So, here it is.

We had a busy year once again, but with four boys, that shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.

Big Daddy still loves his job with Morgan Stanley and spent a lot of time on the baseball fields this spring and summer. He was Assistant Coach for Bubba's regular season, and also during Allstar season during the summer. He had a great time working with all of the boys and learning a lot more about how to coach the kids. He built a batting cage in his garage so that the boys can hit all winter to get ready for next season. He's a baseball expert now, and is a great coach and a very dedicated and most awesomest dad! He is serving in our church as Assistant Ward Clerk. He was also a huge football fan this past fall for both of our older boys.

Mama keeps busy everyday with four busy boys! Most of you know that I finished my first book this summer. I started a couple of years ago, but inspiration hit this past summer and I wrote almost the whole book. It has been a really fun experience. I never thought I would be a writer, though I always thought it would be fun. I hope to have the editing process finished before my next birthday in May. I also started working on the sequel. I'm about 16,000 words into it and having fun continuing the story of my characters. I got to put Lit. degree to use this year writing reviews for an internet company. I serve as the Compassionate Service leader in our church.

Bubba had a great year. Baseball season started in March and he got off to a great start. He worked hard after the previous season because he made the goal for himself to make the Allstar team during the summer. We were very impressed with his work ethic and his incredible improvements. He finished the regular season with the highest hitting average, and did a good job pitching when we needed him. He is a great shortstop! His team went to the championship game and only lost by a couple of runs. He got to go to Bill Buckner baseball camp and learned a lot there. We had about a week break before Allstar season started in June. He was the lead off batter, and hit a home run in his very first at bat! He had a two week break between baseball and football. He was a four back this year on the starting offense and had his very first touchdown, and several carries during the season. His team went undefeated and won their Junior Year Championship game. He is also still taking piano lessons and is learning to play bass in a garage band. He started middle school in the 6th grade this year!

JP also played baseball and football this year. He did a great job for his team and played 3rd base and left field. His team went undefeated and went to their age division championship game. They won in the 8th inning and we only ever play 6! What an awesome experience for him. He got to go to a summer baseball camp at our local minor league team's stadium. He got autographs of the players and instruction from them too. It was a fun experience for him. He also had a great football season. It was his first year of tackle football. He played defensive tackle and had at least one sack a game. He scored the most points on defense with 3 safetys (6 points). We thought he would be timid, but as soon as he put those pads on, he was a beast. His team also went undefeated this season (they don't have a championship game at that age yet). He started the 4th grade this year and already has straight 'A's!

Peanut played his first year of coach pitch baseball this year. He was the best hitter on his team. He's excited to start Rookie this next season and practices in the garage with brother's every night. I can't believe how hard he can hit the ball with his little 6 year old body! He is doing very well in the 1st grade and his teacher uses him as the good example in class. She tells everyone to look at what he's doing when they aren't sure how to follow instructions. He loves football and wants to start playing flag football next year. We'll see.

Coco misses his brothers during the day while they are at school. Mama is teaching him at home with some preschool activity books. He loves to work on them and has even started tracing numbers. He has a very large vocabulary-including the word, "sick" to mean something is cool. It's funny to hear a little 3 year old talking like a big boy. He loves to hit baseballs in the garage every night and can hit really hard off the tee with an aluminum bat. No little plastic bats for this big boy.

We also love doing things as a family. We spend time in the cage in the garage most nights and I love learning to hit too. We went shooting a few times, to Disneyland in February with Grandma Susan, the boys all went camping and fishing with dad several times, and got to visit with grandma on the farm for a week this summer.

We wish all of you a wonderful and blessed year. We love our Savior Jesus Christ and strive to be more like him. We hope that you all remember him this season and all year long.

Coco's 1st Trip to the Dentist

So Coconut has NOT wanted to go to the dentist. I'm not sure why because he watches his brothers and the dentist is our neighbor, his best buddy's dad, and in our ward. So I decided that since he will be 4 in a month, he didn't have a choice anymore. So I scheduled him for today and didn't tell him until this morning.
I said, "We're going to the dentist today."
C-"For Peanut?"
M-"No, for you."
C-"NO!"
I was ready for a battle, but surprisingly, when we got there and I told him he could watch TV while they brushed his teeth, he was totally cool about it. The hygienist was awesome and explained everything. He loved "Mr. Thirsty" and would giggle every time she would use it. He also let her do fluoride, which Bubba always whines about. And Dr. Oto came and counted his teeth and checked for sugar bugs and he doesn't have any cavities. Yay-that makes 2 kids at least. Bubba has great teeth (like I did as a kid), JP just had 1 cavity not too long ago, and poor little Peanut has like 6 fillings. :( I just went in for my cleaning and there have been a couple of spots he's been watching, so he wanted to do one filling. Well, he got in there and it was like the other one I had-it got bigger the further he went in. He discovered that the last dentist did sealants over decay-so yay for me I get to have all but one of my molars filled. Only two left this week. Whatever he did last week when he did two, I told him to do it again because my teeth went numb so I couldn't fill the drill, but my face didn't go numb and I didn't have a migraine after. Funny story about sugar bugs: Bubba just asked me not that long ago (remember he's 11)about what sugar bugs looked like and how big they were. I laughed so hard and told him that they weren't really real. They just use that when you're little to explain plaque and how to clean your teeth. Too cute.
More to come for our Christmas letter. I've decided to save money and not send out pictures and letters this year-except to each of the grandparents. I figure they get thrown out anyway. So I'll post our letter and family picture as soon as I can get everyone to sit in front of the tree.

This and That

Coconut's loot from Trunk-or-Treat


Bubba's pumpkin that he carved himself. He got the idea from cousin Kelly who posted a picture on FB of it.


I carved a Grim Reaper for Peanut and a smiley face for Coconut and JP did his own.


We are each acting out our costumes. Peanut decided a couple days before to change to a motorcycle guy so he's revving his handle bars, Buzz Lightyear is flying, Harry Potter is casting a spell, the giant red Skittle is trying to eat himself, and Mama football fan is cheering.

I guess it's been awhile. I haven't been the best at updating lately. Here are some pictures from Halloween. We went to our Trunk-or-Treat on Saturday night and got so much candy that I told the kids we didn't need to go out Monday. That didn't go over well. I took the kids out in the freezing cold while dad watched football and passed out candy. Bubba stopped at one of the neighbor's house who had their garage door open, making scones and donuts and watched football for awhile with them until he froze and came home, so he didn't get as much "loot" as the rest of them. Luckily JP's wand lit up so we could see. We went down our street and then Coconut said he was cold, so we stopped at home and put on gloves and a few more layers before finishing up. I made a rule this year that they could have 6 pieces of candy a day-which means that we won't have candy until Easter, but it's also not so much that they throw up every night. :)

I'm enjoying no sports for now. I love to watch them play, but the break is much needed. In the off season, all 4 of them are in the garage in the awesome batting cage that dad built, hitting away. He's pretty hardcore and has them do several different drills. All of them are very receptive to his teaching/correcting this year. Even Coconut wants to hold the bat the right way now. By the time he's ready, he'll have to skip 5 yr. old t-ball and go straight to 6 yr. old coach pitch. JP is already hitting 100% harder than during the season. I think it was all that football upper body strength. He hit 47 out of 50 balls in the cage the other night. Bubba hits pretty much all of them-maybe 1 miss here or there. Even Peanut is an animal. B says that he has the best stance of them all, funny enough. The other night they were going out there and I asked for a lesson. I've always loved watching them and been so jealous that I totally suck at sports. So B put me through the same drills and taught me how to stand and hit. I don't hit all of them yet, but the ones I hit, I crushed. I'm pretty proud of myself for my first time. Maybe I can actually play with them now. :)

Fiesta Bowl Jr. Champs 2011

Mama and brother both sportin' our Mean Green

That's right-our boys won their championship game!It was the greatest day of Bubba's life of course. The team we played has been undefeated for 3 years. We played them last year and lost in the last 20 seconds of the game by a 2 point conversion. So Bubba aptly named this the "Revenge Bowl." What an intense game! Our sponsor (whose son is on the team), bought us all rally towels so we waved those around during the whole game. We also stomped on the bleachers for each major play. The other team copied of course, but they didn't have cool towels like us. No one scored in the 1st quarter and finally in the 2nd, we scored and got the 2 extra pts. (There are no goal posts at this age). Then they scored. Then they scored again. Then we scored again, so at the end of the game it was tied 16-16. Since it was a championship game, they went into overtime. They got to start on the 10 yd. line and had 4 downs to score. So we went back and forth and when we missed the extra 2 we thought we were done for. Then they missed it. After double overtime and still being tied, the announcer said that if it went any longer, the coaches would have to suit up and come out onto the field and arm wrestle. Ha ha! Oh yeah-I forgot to mention that there was an announcer who announced each of them by name at the beginning and then as they would make plays during the game. It was such an exciting thing. So anyway, in 3rd overtime, we scored first and MISSED the extra 2 again. And we thought it was over for sure then. So they went and on their first play got a face mask penalty of 10 yds. Hooray for us. Then on the next play, they fumbled! And we recovered it! Mustangs win 36-30!!! I actually started crying. It was so intense and such an awesome experience for them. Bubba is on the kick off return team and he got a good 30 yds. on his play. It was awesome! I'm so proud of my boy. He amazes me with his awesome talent. They got a cool trophy and I've never seen 21 boys so excited in my life! Watch out next year!



Love this picture! He's #76 in the front with the awesome block




Mustangs #1! Woo hoo!


All the kids got a picture holding the trophy

Mustang & Eagle Football

#62


JP is the one facing/running toward the quarterback.


Sack that caused the fumble. He's the one underneath the quarterback.


All three of these pictures are Bubba trying to block one of the big guys #10. He has a very determined look on his face.




So Saturday was JP's last football game. Even though they don't have tournaments at the Freshman level, their team considered it their championship game because both teams were undefeated. Well, we creamed them 26-0. Way to go Eagles! JP had a sack that caused a fumble and a couple other tackles too. My mom came up to see it and watched almost the whole game, but Bubba's game had started a half hour after JP's and since it WAS a tournament game she came over for the last quarter. We all watched the first of JP's game though and B and I went over during Bubba's half-time.

So Bubba's team-the Mustangs-had a super hard game. There were two games that day between four undefeated teams and the winners of each will play this coming Saturday in a championship game in the evening at a high school under the lights. Pretty exciting for these 11 yr. old boys. The other team had 3 mega-huge kids. They were all taller than me for sure and they were crazy strong. Poor Bubba had to block one of them and would get a little block in and the kid would take off with Bubba hanging onto him. It took like 5 kids to take him down when he ran the ball. The other team scored in the first quarter, but missed the extra point. We struggled hard and fought our way down the field several times, but couldn't quite make it. Then in the 4th quarter with about 4 minutes to go, Bubba caught the pass of his life. It was for about 12 yds. and it was on either a 3rd or 4th down (can't remember for sure). He made a ONE handed catch and moved us down the field which completely turned our game around. We were able to score in the last 2 or so minutes and GOT the extra points. So it was 8-6. Then another superstar kid on our team caught an interception when the other team was like right at the end zone! With about a minute left we ran one more play and then took a knee to finish it up. Hooray! In 3 years, we've never had such a low scoring game. We were so proud of all of those boys. Coach got a little emotional during his speech and it was such a neat moment. So now, we'll play the only team we've ever lost to this Sat. And it's time for payback baby! We only lost to them by 2 points last year in the last 20 sec. or so of the game. Then we'll be done with sports until March! As much as I love to watch these guys, I'm so beyond done with practices every night!