Brandon's 1st Day of School

So, as promised, here is Brandon's first day of school photo. He's really difficult to photograph. He will grudgingly agree to 'one' photo and that's pushing it. He also doesn't like to take pictures in the front yard. So, in trying to locate an ok place to take a photo inside the house, this is the best we get...



He had an ok first week. He wasn't too excited to have homework on the first day but hey, that's part of school, right?!! He's been spending a lot of time at SCC between classes and long practices getting ready for the big opening game on Saturday.

First Day of School

Here are a few pictures from the kids first day of school. Dean is starting 3rd grade, Heather and Kim are Freshman, Tiffany is a Sophomore, and Patrick is a Senior. Time flies...I can't believe my girls are high school age! Brandon has a couple more weeks before he starts at SCC so I'll have to torture him then but here are the other kids...

Summer...Come and Gone!!!

Wow, I can't believe summer break is over and I haven't updated the blog for 3 months! Sorry about that! The sad thing is, we really haven't been nearly as busy this summer as we normally are. I guess I've been spoiled and getting some much needed R&R. Well, we've recently been busy school shopping and getting ready for the new school year and getting everyone's schedules figured out. School starts on Monday, August 11th. Wooooooohoooooo! EVERYONE here is so excited about that. Well, what have we been up to all summer?

Dean went to summer school in June to get a little extra reading help. Since then he has been bored out of his mind and, like the other kids, becoming rather lazy. He is anxious to get back to school and also ready to start playing baseball. We will probably be signing him up to play on a fall baseball team soon.

Heather has been busy babysitting; playing softball (she was on the All-Star team and also played a few games with a traveling team); she got braces last month and is VERY excited about that, of course her first set of bands had to be 'blue and orange'! She has spent the past couple of weeks at volleyball camps at her Junior High and also the high school and is having lots of fun with that. She will have tryouts for the junior high team during the first week of school.

Tiffany has also been doing some babysitting along with some weight lifting and lots of cheering and dancing. She is really having fun with cheer. At cheer camp, she made All-Stars and is supposed to go to Houston to compete. She is anxiously awaiting the time (in the near future) when she gets to have her braces removed! Can you believe Tiffany is going to be in High School??? It's hard to believe; only 3 more years!

Kimberly has also been babysitting most of the summer. She and the other girls went to church camp in June and had a lot of fun. Kimberly was called to serve as the Mia Maids President for her age group in the Young Women's program at church.

Patrick has been practicing and gearing up for football all summer. He's also been pulling lots of weeds and being lazy around the house. He was suppose to have a job but hasn't had much luck with that.

Brandon has also been practicing and gearing up for football and is registered and ready for college! He will be attending Scottsdale Community College on football scholarship and learned recently that he will be starting so we are all excited about that. He is scheduled for 16 hours first semester so between that and football he will be keeping busy. He also got a job this summer; yes can you believe that, Brandon has a job!!! He's working with Dad at the auction yard. He calls himself the Assistant General Manager (Dad is the General Manager). He acts like one too, trying to hang out in the office all day sleeping with his feet up on the desk :)

Tyler is still working and playing...what Tyler does best. Chris has moved back down from Flagstaff and he and his girlfriend, Tiffany have moved in with Tyler and his girlfriend, Sharon. They both have new puppies...We call them the 'grandpuppies' and we are ok with that for now! It's nice to have them fairly close by and they do come visit quite often (only if we bribe them with dinner).

We are hoping to have some new family photos taken soon so we'll be posting some of those as soon as we can make that happen. Once school starts next week and all the sporting events gear back up our schedules will go back to crazy busy mode again. Assuming Heather makes the volleyball team we will have games 4 nights a week plus all the other stuff; Monday and Tuesday Tiffany will be dancing, Tuesday-Heather's volleyball games; Thursday-Tiffany cheers for JV football games; Friday-Patrick's Varsity football games; Saturday-Brandon's SCC games. I need to find some pictures to add but will have to update later. For now, I'm off to pick up Heather from volleyball camp and it is pouring outside right now with some good thunder and lightning!

Graduation

Well, for the first time in, I don't know, 20+ years it rained on graduation night in Mesa. Last minute backup plan was moving graduation into the gym and the auditorium. They had to split the class in half. It was a bummer not to have them all together but we survived it and Brandon received his diploma! We didn't get nice pictures which really stinks but he did it and we are SO proud of him. We will miss his school friends and sporting events but look forward to watching him grow, learn, and succeed at the next level. CONGRATULATIONS Brandon and the entire Class of 2008!! We are proud of you and we love you!

Athletes

Over the last few days we've had the opportunity to attend several end-of-the-school-year events including: choir concert; orchestra concert and various award ceremonies. Patrick received his first varsity letter from Skyline for track. Way to go Patrick! We look forward to watching him play football, wrestle, and compete in track again next year with Skyline.



Today we attended Westwood's Senior Awards Ceremony. What an amazing group of seniors they have there! Brandon received the Mutt Ford Athletic Award (which is basically best multi-sport athlete).



We are so proud of all of our kids and their accomplishments during this school year.

It's a Beautiful Thing!

Heather and I (Cathy) went to visit our good friends last week and got to see their beautiful new baby. She's only a few days old in this picture but she was very alert. She is just too cute so I had to share. CONGRATS to the Christensens on their newest addition!



Brandon and Patrick both went to Prom last weekend. Here are their great photos:




Dean had his last baseball game Thursday. He's a little bummed to be done for this season but excited to get his trophy!

MAY

Well, track, baseball, and softball are all coming to an end. Brandon and Patrick are getting ready for Prom this weekend. Brandon is gearing up for graduation. Heather's birthday is coming up (the big "13")! In the next month or so things should begin to settle down a bit. Summer is quickly approaching...UGH! We are all doing well just keeping extremely busy at the moment so this post will be brief. Here are some of Brandon's senior pictures.

Spring is here!

OK, so it's been a while. This is the time of year when we leave the house at 6:30 in the morning and don't return until about 10:00 Monday-Saturday. We've been just a little busy. The kids' sports are really kicking in. We had a great Easter and hope you all did as well. We had our first Easter egg hunt at the new house; 250 eggs...The kids all (even the older ones) had a blast finding eggs. We are still missing one (thank goodness they were all plastic)! Unfortunately, we didn't get any photos (bad, huh?)!
Dean absolutely loves Cub Scouts. On Friday he was able to participate in his first Pinewood Derby. Tyler helped him build his car. It was really cool, but unfortunately, it didn't go very fast. Neither Dad, nor Tyler were able to make it to the Derby so weren't able to help with the car. He had fun anyway and got some help from some of the other men that were there. He ended winning the prize for 'Best Overall Design'. Here's a picture of his car...


Tiffany had cheer tryouts this week and made the JV squad for next year at Skyline.

More to come soon... We really should be updating daily since there is so much going on.

Latest Update

It's been a while... Things are getting crazy busy around here. Several of us have had the 'crud' that's going around. Fortunately, it has now moved on, hopefully not to your house! Well, here's what's been happening around here:

Cathy went on her semi-annual scrapbook retreat last weekend. There were only a few gals there this time around so it was a little quieter than usual but we still had a great time. Derek has received a new calling as the Sunday School teacher for the 15-16 year olds. He will start that next week. That is a great calling for him. He is really good with the teenagers and they all love him. He's been busy working and trying to clean up/organize his garage. He and Tyler have also been talking and planning lately to get back in to racing 'Sand Drags'. They've been talking about buying a funny car that they can both race! We used to have a lot of fun when he raced before and now that Tyler is old enough to drive as well, they will have a great time with that.

Brandon has decided he will be attending Scottsdale Community College next year and plans to play football there for a year or two before moving on to a university. He is currently playing varsity baseball (pitching) for school and is also having fun playing basketball with the men from church.

Patrick and Tiffany are both in track. Patrick attended an invitational meet at NAU earlier this week. He said it was very different to be in the Sky Dome. He took first place in two events at his last meet.

Heather has started fast pitch softball. She's only had a few practices so far but loves it. She's very excited to start the games and she's learning a lot.

Dean has turned '8' and will be baptized this weekend. He is so excited he can hardly wait for Saturday to get here.

We are also having an Open House on Saturday, so, needless to say, Cathy is stressing to get prepared for that. It's been a very busy week so all preparations will have to take place Saturday morning. It will be a great day on Saturday but we will be glad when it is over as well.

Well, we hope to see some of you on Saturday and hope all is well with you and your families!

Just trying to find time...

The family is well, the weather is great, and schedules are packed...
Brandon is finishing up with basketball. They are heading in to the region tournament next week. He is preparing to start baseball as soon as basketball is over. He and Derek visited Western New Mexico University this weekend. It's a small town but not too far away (about a 4 hour drive) and they want Brandon to play football for them pretty bad. Adams State College in Colorado is interested in him as well. He has also been talking to the coaches at Scottsdale Community College quite a bit lately and they really want him as well. He has some decisions to make in the next few days...
Patrick is getting more excited about sports at Skyline. He's been talking to the track coach and the football coach and they are both very excited to have him there. The track coach said they would be hiring a personal pole vaulting coach for him. He was really excited about that. He will also be running for the track team.
Tiffany is also starting track and is still dancing and getting prepared to cheer next year.
Heather is getting ready to start playing fast pitch softball (through Little League). She's excited but a little nervous since she's only slow-pitch before. It will be good to prepare her for playing for the junior high next year.
Dean will be starting baseball soon. He is very excited to be turning '8' this week and is preparing for his baptism. He is SO excited about that. He will be baptized on March 8th. We're trying to get pictures taken so we can get invitations sent out but haven't been able to get that accomplished as of yet.