Christmas in '08

A fun year had by all. We spent some of the day playing and having fun with the snow - cause we had at least 18" of it! The other part of the day we enjoyed eating and just hanging out with the family. The boys were sufficiently spoiled and overall it was a good year - here's hoping for '09!

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!

The Boys had so much fun opening presents and it was truly the first year that Brennen really got it. He was so excited and that made it alot of fun! Then we headed out to do some sledding!

The boys took advantage of the crazy snow storm we've had. I'm not entirely thrilled with the weather, it makes my job very, very difficult! Ah well, no one got hurt, I've been able to get to & from work pretty decently & the boys are having fun! Only 5 more days till Christmas - only about 3 more shipping days though!!!

Uh oh, the boys are in trouble

Boys couldn't hold it & tipped over

Even Daddy got in on the fun

A Visit with Santa

In our family, we have a fun holiday tradition. Every year we go to the zoo to see Santa. We've been doing this since BJ was 1 year old and it's the best place to go see Santa. There's never any lines and you walk right in and get to see Santa.

It's one thing I'm pretty adament about and if the boys are "too cool" to see Santa & tell him what they want, they're "too cool" for Christmas morning. As we say in our family, if you don't go see Santa & take a couple pics, Santa drops nothing off for you under the tree. It's all part of that wonderful Christmas package!

You gotta love B's shirt, tie & pants that go so well with his Mohawk. I think it was the first time B's worn pants in months.

BJ, Santa & Brennen - I can't believe how old my boys are getting!

Bothell Vs. Lake Washington

Bothell had their first league game today against Lake Washington and ended up winning 46-29 (I think). They played a good tough game and I was able to take some video with a new camera and I put together some of BJ's highlights. I'm still getting used to the camera so It will get better!

Check out the Video ... #20 finding the open man, playing tough Defense, stealing the ball, hitting the sweet jump shot & making some free throws. Go #20!!!

Turkey & Basketball

I know, our life really does revolve around Basketball. We had a great Thanksgiving on Thursday and followed it up with 3 straight days of Basketball. Both of BJ's teams were playing, ECBA & Bothell. So he played 7 games in the span of 3 days.

Of course, the story line is ECBA & Bothell and of about 18 teams in the 5th grade division, who was the first matchup? Yep, you guessed it Bothell Vs. ECBA. Who did B play for? It was the last weekend for ECBA until Spring so he finished out his commitment for ECBA and played against Bothell in the first game. It was pretty interesting and BJ was very nervous but played well & very tough.

ECBA won the game, but that would be the only game of the tournament ECBA would win. Bothell went on to win their next 3 with BJ getting the majority of his playing time in the last game. Over 3 games with Bothell the kid had 30 points, 3 steals and I don't even know how many rebounds & jump balls. We were so proud of how he played for both teams. 7 games in 3 days is alot to ask of one fifth grader. Well done B!

B with a fast break

Taking off after stealing the ball

Sharks Parent - Kid Game

Our official Sharks season is over, and I think we may have started a new tradition, the Parent - Kid game. Today we had our end of the year party today but first played a parent - kid game and it was a blast. Just to get the parents out there having fun with the kids was awesome.

Bryan and I are always competitive, perhaps too much sometimes (see if you can tell what I'm talking about in the pics below!). Bryan played on the boys team & I was on the parents team. It was seriously the most fun I've had playing soccer in a while, I hope the boys & families had a great time!


here are some highlights from the day:

Bryan & Robin chasing to get that ball!

Bryan, always coaching!

BJ trying to get by one of the big brothers

Again, Bryan & Robin going for the same little ball

Um .... FOUL???

The 2008 Sharks Kid - Parent game players!

The Continuing Saga of Basketball

So this past weekend was BJ's first game with the Bothell Select basketball team. I'm left with mixed feelings about the team and about our and his decision for him to take a break from Emerald City Basketball Academy. He played well when he was in, but didn't get much playing time.

It was my big concern going into the season & I'm hoping the rest of the season is better, but only time will tell. I'm not all about thinking my kid is the best on the court, but how he can get much more playing time on an AAU team with Emerald City (which plays much tougher competition) begs the question, why isn't he playing more here? He's definitely in the top 7 kids, but maybe I'm a little biased.

We'll see what happens. I know he's working hard & I just don't want him to lose his confidence! GO BJ!

Bothell Select Basketball team

Halloween '08

Another year, another Halloween. We started out the usual way and headed to Emerald Hills in Edmonds for some trick or treating. You can tell the economy is taking a toll even on those that are "comfortable" as there weren't quite as many full size candy bars as in years past. I know, trivial eh?

The boys went out & had fun, BJ in his 1930's Gangster outfit & Brennen in his UPS delivery driver uniform. Yea, I was a little proud of that but just so you know, he picked it out on his own. I tried to get him to wear something else, but the UPS guy is what he wanted. Oh & just and we definitely DO NOT promote smoking stogies of any type, but when playing a part you have to look it, paper cigar was pretty disgusting according to B!



Anyways, here are a couple of pics:

Brennen chewing on some pre-trick or treat candy

BJ with his "I'm a cool 30's gangster look"

Brennen on the Trick or treatin' trail

BJ looking cool waiting for his much slower li'l bro

BJ & Brennen with a new friend

Brennen with some "not scary" ghosts

Se7en Fun Facts

So a friend of mine put up something on her blog that was very interesting to me ... 7 little / unknown facts - so here are mine ...

I actually like staying up until 3am & getting up around 11am, but I think Bryan's not the most fond of it.

I definitely wish my family could / would go on more vacations ... finances & such being what they are, it's sometimes difficult. Sometimes though, we could put more effort into "local" vacations or maybe just more family time away from work.

My family is absolutely the most important thing in the world and I couldn't be more proud of all my boys -- even if they drive me nuts when they all gang up on me. Which by the way, is almost an everyday event! No seriously, talk to anyone who has spent time with all of us, it's always in good fun though.

My friends (you know who you are!) mean the world to me, and I hope they never forget that, no matter how busy my schedule is.

I'm pretty sure both Bryan & I overcompensate for our ... um ... somewhat lacking childhoods & we try to do everything for our boys, probably too much at times. When you have a childhood friend who tells you your childhood sucked ... um yeah. Our philosophy is absolutely better to try harder doing more than less (as long as your kids behave of course!)

I actually do have 3 brothers, though you wouldn't know it 'cause we're really not close (I wish that was different.) One of my brothers is 18 years older than me & is actually only 2 or 3 years younger than Bryan's parents. Sadly I'm much, much closer to Bryan's 2 younger brothers.

I love Days of our Lives and sadly to say, have watched it since I was 13. Nearly 20 years, yep, I'm old.

Huskies & Mariners Sports Event

The boys had a busy weekend a couple of weekends ago, I took them to the Husky Football game (vs. Stanford - sadly another loss) and Bryan took them to the last Mariners game of the season.

It's been difficult going to all of the Huskies game and watching them play worse than the previous. There's hope I suppose, they will have a new coach next year (pretty sure) and hopefully they're schedule will not be nearly as difficult next year.

Ah well, it's these times when they are just terrible that makes you really appreciate it that much more when they're good. We still managed to have fun at the Husky game and I think Brennen had a great time!

Brennen's First Swimming Lesson

Today Brennen had his very first swim lesson. It was actually the second week, but he missed last week cause he was feeling very sick.

He was very apprehensive about going to swimming lessons going so far as to say "I don't want to go to swimming", "swimming sucks" and "I hate swimming". As you can imagine, I was thinking great this is going to be a disaster. The hardest part was getting him into the pool, after that he sat on the wall and then he thought it wasn't so bad. As you can tell by the pics, he was even laughing and smiling for most of it.

It was so funny after his lesson he didn't want to get out of the pool and couldn't stop telling everyone how much fun he had at swimming. Now we're dealing with the constant, "when can I go swimming" and he's asking his brother to go with him too.

Here are a few more pics of the day, and they're not the best, I only had my point & shoot today and as we all know, they don't always do so well inside without the flash!

Weekend Recap

This weekend was a little out of control for us! We had our Sharks soccer game at noon on Saturday & then B had a basketball tournament after that. 2 games were on Saturday & 1 on Sunday.

The Sharks were victorious once again and his basketball team came out ahead in the tournament as well winning 2 of the 3 games. The only challenge we had over the weekend was that B went to a sleepover on Friday night with one of his good friends and ended up only getting 5 hours of sleep. 5 hours doesn't go a long way when you've got a soccer game & 2 basketball games the next day. He played very well in his soccer game & first basketball game. After that he was a bit tired for the rest of the weekend.

I'm proud of how he played and he had so much fun on Friday I don't feel bad for him at all!

B going to the hoop

Catching up

I have been such a slacker lately with the blog! It's been so busy since soccer season fired up, we're busy coaching & organizing for that and I'm heading into one of my busiest times at work. We've already planned most of our Christmas season, I'm already tired of December and it's not even October yet.

B started school and is loving his class thus far. He has a few of his really good friends in the class, I'm not sure who unleashed that punishment on the teacher! I'm hoping it's a good year for him and he enjoys his split class through out the year.

As for soccer, we're quite busy and have been since the last 2 weekends in August with tournaments & the beginning of the season. The boys are doing well and we're off & running with our Sharks again. GO SHARKS! In addition to the sharks this year, B's playing with ECBA again on a select basketball team, he loves basketball so much! He asked if he could do cross country with everything else and we just had to say no, I think it would've sent us right over the edge.

Anyways, here are a few pics from some soccer tournaments and the first games of the season. I promise I'll put up a post very soon, I won't wait as long!

Seriously, he is such a trooper, going to all of his brother's stuff.