SNOW TRIP!

We decided to take the kids to the snow. It was not the trip I wanted the kids to have - I wanted big hills to sled on like we did last time, but we ended up going to Nathan's unfinished cabin and playing around their cabin instead. The kids had a blast making snow balls, snow angels and we tied all the sleds together the suburban and pulled them around! They loved our white trash sledding! Ha ha!

PRINCESS RESORT!

With school ending so late before Christmas break, I was having a hard time feeling the Christmas spirit...so I asked my mom to get us a night at the Princess Resort for my gift this year so we could take the kids away and feel the Christmas spirit! It worked! We had the BEST time! We hope to go back again. We rode the train, looked at all the lights, ate smores, went down a snow hill on a tube, rode the ferris wheel, stayed in the resort, got dinner, got up and went to breakfast! We had the best time!! Love my family!

TYLER'S HOLE IN HIS EAR DRUM!

Ya two little turkey butts were entertaining themselves at their brother's soccer game late one night and decided to sword fight with their hot chocolate stir sticks. Well, of course, one thing led to another and Tyson ended up accidentally jabbing Tyler with his stir stick so hard in his ear Jared saw him drop to the ground and start crying. After checking him out, Tyler seemed fine. The next day was my birthday and I was all excited to sleep in and have breakfast in bed, but I woke up to Tyler standing in my room crying with blood coming from his ear. I got up and to him to urgent care right away. They gave him some drops and said they couldn't really see much because there was so much blood in there, but that he should go see an ENT. So we made an appointment for the next week and sure enough, a lot of boys get their ear drums poked, but rarely is it as bad as Tyler's and with an actual hole in the ear drum. They sucked everything out of his ear and put a little "bandaid" on it in hopes it would close on it's own. They did a hearing test on him and he failed and then they did anther test on him and it came back ok. For the next 30 days he could NOT get his ear wet and so each night before he took his shower he had to get a cotton ball and lather it up with vaseline and stick it in his ear - even on vacation he had to do this. He was very very protective of his ear, because the dr told him, he it doesn't heal on it's own, he will have to have a little surgery. We finally went back and it had healed on it's own. It was such a relief to him. It was very painful for him to have everything sucked out of his ear, put the band aid on it and remove it. He was a very brave boy, the dr couldn't believe it. Pretty sure we are done sword fighting with hot chocolate sticks. Poor Tyler takes the brunt of most of his siblings...Emma got him stitches on his lip, Eli got him cuts twice to his head and we butterflied them shut and avoided the dr....Tyson put a hole in his ear drum. Awesome.

A GOOD EXAMPLE TO HIS BOYS!

Sometimes these kiddos of ours have no idea all that their dad does - I get it - they are kids - they don't know anything other than their dad - but sometimes you just have to blog it so when they are older they can be like him, admire him and Emma can marry someone like him. The vacuum breaks, he goes to Home Depot and get the part and fixes it. The kids have to be taken to soccer practice, football practice, dance, and a pizza party - all while mom is in bed not feeling good - he gets them every where they need to be - he doesn't complain to them - he does come to bed exhausted and I secretly giggle to myself - ya he can't survive without me :) He hangs our Christmas lights perfectly straight, just how I demand them to be. He helps them with their homework because they are all to smart for me. If I have been freezing my buns off at a practice with some of my kids and he has been at another practice - I can call him and have him bring me home a soup to warm my frosty bones. He will help the boys with their cub scouting stuff. He will appease me and take my wild and crazy ideas and help me accomplish them. He gets on his knees every day before he leaves for work and prays for them. He works hard at work and then comes home and makes sure they are all where they need to be for their extra curricular activities and if it happens to be a free night, well the boys drag him out to the green belt to practice something! He really is amazing, but kids - you do NOT actually need to take a nap every day like he does - but everything else is pretty good!

ELI'S EMAIL...

We got this sweet email today about Eli - had to put it on here so Eli will always remember!

Just got this from Eli's AZ Studies teacher. He is helping our new student stay on track. Such a good boy you have there!!  - Mrs Palomarez

I just want to tell you how amazing Eli is with Patrick! He is SO helpful with keeping him on track and staying caught up :) - Mrs Valentine

ELI'S 3V3 SOCCER TOURNAMENT

Eli finished off another season of soccer. This year he was "Union". Soccer practices always interfered with baseball or football practices so I am pretty sure he went to a total of 3 practices, but Coach Steve loves Eli so much - he doesn't even care, he just wants him at all the games! That we can do! At the end of the season the coach called each player up and said something nice about them. Jared said the things Steve said about Eli were super sweet and were spot on. He loves Eli and for that we love him!

Then this weekend Steve signed some teams up for the 3v3 tournament in Scottsdale. I love watching 3v3 tourneys. The games move so fast and it's so exciting. Eli played on two teams. The team he was supposed to be on - was crap, but then the Coach wanted him on his son's team to fill in for a missing player and those boys played awesome together!! They won every game. Coach ended up having Eli play in 3 out of the 4 games. He even said they would not have won without him - funny side note - the only game the team did not win was the game Eli did not play in - ha ha!

At the end of the tournament Eli's team and one other team were tied for first. They had to break the tie in a shoot out. I was so nervous. I wanted Eli to make his shot so bad. Eli was the last kicker for their team - he made it! Phew!! Now it was up the other team - if they made it - we tied again - if they missed it - we won. They missed it. We won! All the kids ran back to the coach and were super excited. The player on the other team who missed his shot was crying and couldn't stop crying. Eli noticed it and his heart broke for this boy. Instead of going over and celebrating with his team, he went over to that boy and patted him on the back and told him he did a good job and then he went back to his team to celebrate. THAT was the highlight of the day for us. Jared had to choke back tears. I will never tire of Eli's sweet spirit he has and may he always have that!

After the tournament we headed to Tempe to see Kara and Maddie working on their sidewalk chalk art. The boys loved seeing it and were angry we wouldn't let them draw with chalk - that is way to dirty for Jared and I to handle - ha ha! Before we saw Kara we stopped at Fractured Prune and the boys ordered donuts and loved watching them be made. Only our kids will eat donuts with a knife and fork to help stay clean - another proud parent moment - ha ha!

FRESHMAN CHEER PICTURES!

It was FREEZING cold and Perry decided to have their Winter Pep Assembly outside. Brrrrrrrrr. The boys lucked out and begged me to go - I am pretty sure they just wanted to miss school, but I pretended it was to support Emma.


Cheer Squad pic:
Back row: Hanna, Aubrey, Emma
Middle row: Sydney, Lauren, Mason, Coach Asay
Front row: Audrey, Emily, Lacey, Kaitlyn, Ryan


I got a text from Coach Asay that Emma has stepped up her running game and she was leading the pack - way to go Ems!