All the happenings...

Derek is back to racing again...He and Tyler have been going out to the new sand drag track, which is about 10 minutes from our house (beats the heck out of driving to Yuma, Blythe, Laughlin, or Mexico) and playing in the mud and sand. Tyler has been driving the old 'Wild Willyz' Jeep that Derek use to race.


Derek recently traded his Mustang for a Corvette Funny Car, blown big block Chevy that runs on alcohol. Thanks to everyone who helped him get the car ready to race, especially Lamar, Arnold, Wayne and Mykel. It looks and runs great and he had a blast. His best time was 3.36 seconds on a 100 yard track at 96 mph. He's only had it out one night but is hoping to take it out again on July 3rd & 4th. They also both have a great 'pit crew' (too many names to list here but most of them are family members).


He also took out his little 4 cylinder, Toyota 4x4, which was the first to make it through the mud. Heather and Dean both had fun riding along.





Heather has been playing basketball 3-4 days a week with tournaments on most weekends.
Tiffany has started teaching dance classes at the house. She had a great turnout the first week and is expecting more to come on a regular basis.
Kim has spent the majority of the summer with her aunt and cousin, and doing some babysitting. She also had her first date!
Dean just finished up summer school and is bored out of his mind every day; asking each day if he can go to Chris' or Tyler's house. Not sure what he will do for the next month and a half.
Brandon is finishing up everything to get ready to head off to college. He just got registered for his classes, has made his living arrangements, and is having a good time here with his friends before he goes. He hasn't even made it there yet and has already made his first appearance in the local newspaper. You can read the article here: http://www.jg-tc.com/articles/2009/06/25/sports/doc4a4440de5fd2b156255742.txt
Cathy just finished up her last class to earn her Associates Degree. 10 more classes to complete her Bachelor's in Business, hopefully finishing up by next summer!!!

HAPPY SWEET 16 TIFFANY!!!

Tiffany is 16 and is so excited to have her license! Mom & Dad are equally excited because she can now drive herself to dance, cheer, etc. and also help drive the other kids around as well.


Tiffany with her boyfriend Tommy. Tommy graduated from Skyline in May and will be leaving in a few weeks to go to Adams State College in Colorado on a football scholarship, playing inside linebacker. Tommy is a great kid and we will all miss him but wish him the best of luck there.

Go Panthers!

Well, it looks like it's official...Brandon has chosen to attend Eastern Illinois University (EIU), home of the Panthers. He will be leaving at the end of July. His plans are to 'red shirt' the first year (they have a senior quarterback) and start next season. EIU is in Charleston, about 1 1/2 hours from Indianapolis, IN. He and Derek just returned from a 4-day trip to visit the school. They had a tour of the campus and Brandon met 3 of the 4 days with the coaches, admissions staff, etc. They looked at the dorms and also checked out apartments to rent, found local restaurants, the mall, etc. (all the important stuff). They also talked to the local Bishop, who is a teacher at the university and lives close by as well. Brandon really liked the town, the school, the coaches, the Bishop and everything. He's very excited about it! He will be heading off to Illinois at the end of July.





That's Brandon standing at the tip of the Panther's nose. Hopefully we will get better seats than that when we go to watch him play!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HEATHER!!!

Heather celebrated her 14th Birthday last week! It's hard to believe, isn't it? Her party started out at Teaka's Playhouse with her friends: Marlee, Heather, Jaron, Denise, Austin, Cody, and Tanner. They played there for a little while until the owner had to come and ruin their fun by telling them they couldn't all be on the bouncy slide at the same time. Then they walked around the mall a little bit and went to the park to play some football and ended with a stop by Dairy Queen!

She had her Sunday dinner...her favorite (spaghetti, lasagna, ghoulash w/corn, chicken parmigiana, and yummy mint ice cream cake). Thanks to the Christensens, Leavitts, Whitfields, Beaudoins, Hockenjos, and Roberts! Then, to top it all off...on Wednesday (her actual birthday), mom and dad picked up Heather, Heather and Jaron from school and took them to Olive Garden and then to see 'Wolverine'!

These 'cell phone' pictures didn't turn out very good but mom forgot the camera so it's the best we got...

Spring Break

Well, spring is definitely here and the weather is heating up. It reached 90 today...a little too warm for March and that means we'll have to hit the A/C sooner than we'd like. Anyway, besides Kimberly's birthday party, during Spring Break, we also had a couple of house upgrades done. We finally got the entryway, hallways and stairway painted. We really love how it turned out and are picking carpet and paint for the living room upstairs and hope to have it done soon as well. We also had the carpet ripped out of the food storage/sump pump closet downstairs and had tile put in. It turned out great as well. A special thanks to the Whitfields and their crew from their business: Floors, Baths, Kitchens & More. They did an awesome job!







We also did some 'spring cleaning' while the kids were home: cleaning out closets, moving furniture and sweeping, mopping underneath, cleaning ceiling fans, etc. Of course, they had lots of fun time as well...Kim got to spend some time with her favorite cousins, Tiffany went to Payson and the rim, Heather spent some time with her friends and did a little shopping and had softball practice, Dean spent some time with his brothers and friends and had baseball practice, and Brandon spent a day at Disneyland with his girlfriend. All-in-all, it's been a great week and we're sad to say it's almost over!

HAPPY SWEET "16" KIMBERLY!!!

Kim wanted to celebrate her 16th Birthday at Castles & Coasters. The girls had a GREAT time!!! 16 fun things Kim did for her birthday...

1. Had big spaghetti/lasagna dinner w/cake & ice cream
2. Received a cool foot soaker/pedicure set (Thanks Aunt Linda)
3. Tiffany fixed her hair for her big day
4. Gathered up the 'gang' for the day...Kim, Tiffany, Heather, Mom, Marlee, Morgan, Dana, Brittney, and Andreana

5. Ate pizza and ice cream
6. Drove the bumper cars

7. Rode the 'magic carpet'

8. Rode roller coasters...went upside down!

9. Drove Indy cars

10. Rode the Dragon Boat...Kim's favorite as you can tell from the pictures!


11. Rode the Sky Diver

12. Got wet on the log ride

13. Got face and arm painted with friends


14. Received bath set (Thanks Marlee & Morgan)
15. Stopped on the way home to eat at Taco Bell
16. Relaxed, watching a movie while soaking feet

Where has the year gone...already!

OK, I knew it had been a while since my last post but when I went to see where I left off I had no idea it had been THREE MONTHS!!!!! If any of you out there have been watching our blog and waiting for an update, please let us know you are interested so we can do a better job of keeping you up to date! For now, let's see if we can get caught up. Hopefully you won't fall asleep while reading this LONG post.

Heather finished up the basketball season and was very sad to see it end. She had a great time and really enjoyed getting to know all of the girls on the team. She had her high-scoring game toward the end of the season with three 3 point shots and a total of 10 points against Shepherd. They didn't end with a great record but she learned a lot and had a lot of fun. She's looking forward to playing again next year. She received the Coach's Award at the end of season awards night as well.




Heather is now playing on the school softball team (more on that in the next post).

Tiffany is still cheering. Toward the end of the basketball season, she was asked to move up to Varsity and compete with them. She had a couple of games at the end of the season in which she cheered for both JV and Varsity. Their first cheer competition is coming up this weekend (more on that in the next post).



Brandon has been playing church basketball and loving every minute of it. He plays with a great group of men and is really enjoying having the time off from football to play some fun basketball. He's got a full schedule this semester and has been working out and throwing quite a bit in preparation for the next football season. He was excited to receive a hand-written letter from the coaches at UCLA this week. Hopefully he'll be getting some good Division 1 offers throughout this next season.

Cathy had a great time last weekend at her semi-annual scrapbooking retreat, joined by 5 friends. She missed plenty of sleep but was able to complete 40 pages, what a shock!

Kim has joined drama and is back in chorus this semester. She is turning 16 in a couple weeks. Hard to believe, isn't it!...more to come in the next post.

Chris has been busy with school, work, and bowling with the MCC bowling team. As of the time of this post he is bowling in Buffalo, NY. He was able to visit Niagara Falls and Canada (maybe we can get some pictures for the next post and have more info on how he did in the tournament).

Our little Dean turned 9!!! For his birthday party he had some friends over and they played some fun games, had a scavenger hunt, ate cupcakes and played at the park. He had a fun time and enjoyed seeing some friends he hasn't seen for a while. He now also gets to advance to the Bears in Cub Scoutswhich he is very excited about.


Dean just finished up his first season, ever, of soccer. He was able to be on a team with a friend from church who lives across the street and whose dad was a coach. He did really well for his first time playing and really enjoyed it. We may have found 'his sport'! He scored a total of about 10 goals during the season, 4 of which were in 1 game. He had a great time and is looking forward to playing more soccer in the near future.



He also was able to attend SRP's Take Your Kid to Work Day with mom this year. He had a great time checking out all of the tools, equipment and other displays they had.

Player of the Game, Happy Birthday, & Merry Christmas!

We've been super busy with school and basketball finishing up before Christmas break; getting ready for Christmas...decorating, cards, letters, baking, shopping, etc. Haven't had much time to update the blog and unfortunately, pictures are on the camera card that is currently with some friends, but here goes...

Heather earned 'Player of the Game' in their game against Stapley for shooting 2 three-point shots (in a row)! She did awesome! Unfortunately, they still lost the game but she had fun. Mom gave Brandon a hard time because, although he was at the game to support here, he was very 'involved' with a brickbreaker game on his phone during both of her three-pointers.

Brandon celebrated his 19th birthday the week before Christmas. He got (an early present) a ticket (and cash) to go the ASU vs UofA football game in Tucson and then we took him and his friends Dan & Jessica out to dinner at Olive Garden.

We had a great Christmas (aside from a slight plumbing problem that started the day before Christmas Eve and therefore wasn't able to be fixed for about a week). The kids got everything they wanted and more (well, maybe not everything but they faired well). They got mom & dad out of bed at 5:30 in the morning to open presents. The popular items this year were clothes, shoes, jackets and gift cards for the older kids and of course, toys for Dean...Bakugan, chapter books, Ben 10, etc. Derek's family (well, part of them)and some friends came over Christmas morning for breakfast (biscuits & gravy, sausage, bacon, hashbrowns, and Grandpa Tommy's 'concoction' (egg, potato, ham & cheese casserole). It was a nice day!

Chris & Tyler playing with Dean's toys

Kim excited about one of her new DVDs

Tiffany sporting some of her new clothes

Dean showing off his new Pumas! He's been wanting these shoes for months but mom could never find them.

Heather is, for some reason, obsessed with office supplies...she got an OfficeMax gift card!