Let's Go Lakers!

The boys basketball team is known as the Lakers. It has been a great season and both boys have learned a lot about the sport. The first game was kind of brutal and I thought it might be a very long season, but its amazing how much they improved and how much fun it was cheering them on.

Drew is our Die Hard basketball player. He is quite the scrambler and loves to play point guard. He dribbles for quite awhile as he studies out exactly who to throw the ball to or whether he should take the shot. Even though he is the smallest one on the team don't let his size fool you, he is one of the most aggressive players out there. (He gets that from his dad!) He is so fun to watch and makes Kenny so proud. He practices daily at home and has kept track of how many baskets he has made. He has made over 2,000 shots now and loves to brag about how he beats the opposing team, who happen to be pretend players! The funnest part about watching Drew in a game is how expressive he is. You can constantly hear him saying, "OOOH YEAH and we won!" Scores aren't kept officially, except by Drew as he keeps track in his head how many baskets have been made. He then tells the coach what the current score is. I can't wait to watch his love for the game and his skills increase as he gets older.
Ian has improved the most over the season. During his first game I was embarrassed to even say he was mine. The drive was not there and he was the kid looking off into space and walking down the court. I was always a little nervous when he was out playing because I was never sure what he might do. He went from walking down the court to kind of skipping down the court! Hey, but at least he got down there faster. He is not aggressive at all, but does love to have the basketball. When it is his turn to play point guard before he passes it to anybody he says to them as he points to himself, "I'll give it to you but give it back to me ok?" He is also always yelling, "PASS-PASS," even though he will often be watching other games that are going on and will get hit by the ball that has just been passed to him. We had to bribe him with a donut before each game to just play his best. So, as he ran or passed the ball he constantly would look up at us with a huge goofy grin and give us a thumbs up. You gotta love that kid. It will be interesting to see if he and basketball will ever mesh. Kenny believes that it will someday...

Huge thanks to coach for being soooooo patient.
Go Lakers!

Fun Day!

Kenny's been having Saturday's off for the last month rather than a full day off during the week so that he can cheer on the boy's at their Saturday morning basketball games. Our Saturday's are usually pretty busy so he doesn't get to do the things he usually likes to do on his day off. He wasn't able to have this last Sat. off so he did what he does best on his day off....

We did go down to the desert in the afternoon to play at the museum. The boys had fun as usual. However, they did spend a lot of the time playing football with Kenny outside the museum. I don't think we will be renewing our membership. Time to try something else out.




We've had yearly memberships to different places in Southern California since we've lived here. The Wild Animal Park, the San Diego Zoo, Sea World, the Children's Discovery Museum, and the Living Desert Zoo have all been great places to spend time. We want to hold off on Disneyland so that Mya can enjoy it too. Any other ideas of where we could go and have some fun?

I took the Pledge!

I watched Oprah and was horrified when I saw the lives who have been lost due to someone texting and driving. More lives have been shattered due to a quick phone call or text than from drunk drivers. I am disappointed in myself because I am one of those people who do text and drive. But I am not that person anymore! I took the pledge and made my van a NO PHONE ZONE. I'm doing it for my children and beg the rest of you to do the same and make your car a NO PHONE ZONE. Take the pledge on oprah.com. A text or phone call is not worth a human life.

Project completed

The construction of our home was completed in 2006 when we bought it, however the work on the inside continues to go on, and on, and on. I can't wait for the day for all interior and exterior projects to be completed. I'm sure when that happens I'll be bored with the look and be ready to redecorate! So one of my projects was the boys room. Even though we have rooms to spare, Kenny thought it would be fun for the boys to share a room. I was skeptical of the idea, but let him win this battle, and I'm glad I did. The boys love sharing a room and sometimes it takes longer to get them to sleep, but I do love listening to the giggling coming from their room at night. Drew loves signs, so we went with that for our theme for the room. I also wanted bedding that we could use for years to come. I love the vibrant colors of the quilts. Enjoy!

I found this great old wagon at an antique store in town. We use it to hold books.
Kenny surprised me with the boys name signs. He actually purchased them before we had even decided on naming Owen, Owen. This project has taken years! Its taken us so long because we were waiting to see if Mya was going to be a boy, it would determine the need of a twin or another bunk bed set.
This dresser was given to me from my parents. It was actually used by my dad when he was a boy. I love that my boys are now able to say they are using Grandad's dresser! What a treasure!

The license plates came from the boys' Great Grandpa Scott, Great Grandpa Elliott, and Grandpa Summers old trucks.

We had fun putting the boys room together. Now onto the next project!

Pure Happiness

So I am a little biased, but I think Mya is the cutest thing ever! Just had to share one of my favorite pictures of her. I LOVE having this little girl!

Unpredictable

It has been raining, pretty much nonstop, this whole week. We have been stuck inside, watching movies, playing games, doing art, and reading books. As I picked up Drew from school he asked if we could drive by the pond in the back of his school. I told him I wasn't sure what he meant and he said, "The playground!" We drove around the back of the school and saw this:
Water covering the swings! I've never seen anything like it in sunny CA!

It rained most of the night, I knew this because I was up with Mya, and when we woke up in the morning we saw snow covering the ground! Which is pretty unusual for where we live. I told the boys it snowed and they asked if they could go dig a snow tunnel! *Oh, there's no place like home!* So due to the snow, school was CANCELLED! Can you believe it? They said it was Unsafe!

My poor flowers!

We've had some fun while indoors, making pictures all over somes boxes that arrived this week. So my boys are pretty unpredictable, just as the weather can be, and while I was nursing in the other room they not only decorated the boxes, but .....

THEMSELVES

Of course it wasn't Ian's idea.......

somehow Owen just happened to draw two nice round circles around his own eyes.

I need it to stop raining, so my boys can go back outside!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY IAN!!!

Our spirited child, Ian turned 5 years old today! We celebrated with a few of his friends by taking them, or should I say, trying to take them to see the movie "Alvin and the Chipmunks 2: The Squeakquel," but ran into some problems. I picked up three of Ian's little friends, dropped Mya off with Kenny at work, and took six little boys to the movie. When we arrived for the 4:30 movie the parking lot was packed. I had all the boys holding hands as we went into the theater and the place was swarming with people. I was shocked by how crowded it was for a Wednesday afternoon movie. I took the boys in the room, hoping for seven available seats and there were none! The guy holding the flashlight said he could help me place the kids in different seats, sitting by strangers! He said that if I wanted that many seats together I would have had to arrive two hours early. I thought Heck no...and we were out of there. Drew started crying saying, "I don't want to leave, I like the smell of this place!" Ian was mad because he wanted to see the chipmunks. I quickly put a call into a friend who had the first movie of Alvin and the Chipmunks and moved the movie theater to our house. It all ended up working perfectly. Good thing I bought Kenny a surround sound home theatre system for his birthday. The sound blared, we had all the lights off in the house, we went through five bags of buttery popcorn, drank sodas, had pizza, and watched the silly little chipmunks on our home tv. The boys had a blast and I don't think minded not being in the over crowded theater. When I asked Ian if he enjoyed his party he said, "It was Awesome!" So glad to make him happy.

Five things I LOVE about Ian:

1. He is our little comedian! He refers to many people as Stinky Pete and loves to joke about people being Barbies. Somehow this makes other little boys his age crack up.
2. He has a sense of adventure. He is not afraid to try anything. He didn't even think twice about jumping off the high diving board at four.
3. He is a great helper. In the kitchen with mom, helping dad in the garage, or taking care of Mya, he wants to do it all.
4. His eyes sparkle when he is excited and when he is being mischievous.
5. He is very empathetic with his siblings. When somebody is sad he is the first to try and make them feel better, as long as he wasn't the one causing the sadness!

WE LOVE YOU IAN & ARE SO GLAD YOU ARE OURS!!!