Down & Derby- I know. Cheesy Title

I keep forgetting that this was Lincoln's first, official, Pinewood Derby. He's been going to all the races with Jim for years. We have a race track, so they always call Jim to run the race. But, this year, Lincoln actually got to enter a car. His is the orange skinny one below.

Getting set up.

Here we go.

Lincoln's car came in 1st that heat.

Lincoln ended up taking 5th overall. I can't lie, he was a little bummed. He wanted a medal. I think he learned a good lesson about keeping it fair. Jim has some really fast Pinewood Derby cars. He knows how to make a 1st place car, for sure. But, it's not really that much fun when one car whoops everyone in every race. This race was fun. There were lots of boys who got to be 1st place in their heats. So, it was fun for everyone.

Robbed...again!

This weekend was the MLK Tournament. Here are some highlights. We breezed through the 1st 4 games. Like, crushed everybody. We had the Championship game today, and STINKIN' LOST! We have never won first place. We always take 2nd. We thought, maybe, today would be our day. It just did not go our way. I was really impressed with our little team, though. The Wildcats scored 5 runs on us in one of the innings. Normally, this would've psyched our boys out, but they fought back and we tied the game 8 to 8. We went to extra innings and lost 9-8. It was a HARD loss. The boys fought til the end. Lincoln had a good tournament, and got to pitch in two of the games. He had some really sweet plays at 2nd base, too.


Here is a stressful situation for a mom. It's the bottom of the 6th, the bases are loaded, and your kid goes up to bat with 2 outs, and the game is tied. COME ON!!!! I thought I was gonna have a heart attack! Lincoln has the potential to win the whole game in a walk-off. I know that he is freaking out in his mind. He gets a piece of the ball, and hits it foul to the right. Guess what? The kid on the other team runs over and catches it! Lucky. Anyway, we lost in the next inning. And I left the field with a sore neck and back, and a big head-ache. This baseball is very stressful.


Notice, all the cute little fans in the above pictures. The girls even made Levi a "Stealth" shirt. And Lincoln in his "Championship Black" uniform- only to be worn in the championships. Hopefully, we will have many more opportunities to wear it :) Our next tourney is in 2 weeks in St. George. The girls are excited. We had to book 2 rooms for our over-sized family. All of the upcoming tournaments are traveling, too. This is getting expensive. But, it gives us a reason to take the whole family away for a weekend. You can't put a price on creating memories, right?

Silly

Jim took this picture. This is what the kids wear when they want to slide around on the wood floor and not get floor burns. Silly. Pay no attention to the mess. This is the room where we throw all our extra crap :)

PS. I am going to be a better blogger this year, because my kids are cute, and I should be recording more of the cute things that they do. The end.

Christmas 2010

This is the one and only picture that I took this Christmas season. Sad and pathetic. After getting my new camera and everything. Oh well. I guess I was too busy being "in the moment" to actually capture "the moment".

Isn't that a beautiful ham, though? Jim got a Traeger Smoker for Christmas. I have to say that it was the yummiest, juiciest ham that I have ever eaten. We spent Christmas Eve with my family this year. We missed Kelly & Brandon, though. Brandon had a gig on a Cruise Ship.



We had a really great Christmas. The best part was just hanging out with family and friends. To quote Brooklyn, "Christmas isn't about presents, it's about family and cousins." Hopefully, the kids are learning that. They did get quite a lot of presents, though. I wish I had a picture of the tree before we opened everything. We have a tradition with opening presents, and it actually takes us about 2 hours to finish opening everything. We don't let the kids just tear into everything all at once. One of the kids picks a gift for someone, and then we all watch as that person opens their present. Then that person chooses a gift for someone else, and so forth. We have done it like this ever since I can remember, and it just makes Christmas last a little bit longer. I love watching the kids get excited for eachother as we all watch that person open their present. Just a fun little tradition.



Anyway, the kids had a great Christmas. I'm almost embarrassed at how good it was. Santa was really nice this year. We are blessed.



I got another lens to add to my collection. I'm still in shock over my new camera equipment. I'm totally in love with it. My newest lens:

Things are getting back to normal. The decorations are slowly coming down, and we are getting back into the busy-ness of life and school. Laundry is slowly getting caught up. Taylor & Brooklyn have been sick this week. How convenient for them to get sick the week school starts back up. Hmmm. I guess it is pretty hard to fake the stomach flu, though.

I find myself with a lot less stress, and a lot more time having been released from my calling. It's kinda nice to not always have to worry about planning the next activity or the next big event. No more juggling between my calling and Jim's calling. It will be a nice break for our family.

I hope all of your Christmas's were as great as ours. I feel like our family served each other more this season than in the past. I'm really hoping that it carries over. I could tell a difference in the Spirit of our home, and it felt good.