1st and 3rd Grade

One of our best school years yet! Could not have asked for better teachers! Trey came into his own this year. He has always been a confident kid - but this year he had FUN! His teacher commented that she felt like she watched him grow into himself and his personality this year. It was awesome to watch. I think a lot of it had to do with an awesome room mom who made the kids in the class become best friends with all the extras she did with them. This was a great year for sports as well where we were able to form a school indoor soccer team - bringing those boys even closer. So far school work remains easy for him and for that I am grateful! Toby had the funnest teachers this year! I wanted to be in their class! At the first sign of Toby's struggles in math his teacher had him meet with a tutor and from that 1 meeting things clicked! He is our most driven child - there is nothing about Toby that is not INTENSE. Keeping it real on here, we have realized that Toby seems to struggle in the Fall and Spring. It took me a while to put this all together but we think a lot of it has to do with allergies - once we figured this out things got better. I am still hoping that he can break through his quiet ways at school - what I wouldn't give to hear that Toby got in trouble for being silly or talking at school.... I know, real problems over here right? But I want him to feel safe at school to share his personality there and so far that hasn't happened completely. With time, I know he will grow into his own just as Trey has - If I look back I believe it took me a while to do that as well! We love our school, the teachers, parents, and friends we have there make us feel blessed everyday!

Summer 2012

Memories from the summer 2012: Spent time at temple square in SLC for my birthday (and some shopping at city creek) Not pictured: Trip to Kirkham hot springs where Lars took jumping in the freezing rapids up a notch and then dared us all to do the same - Roaring Springs day was a blast, we want to always remember how Trey was on an adrenaline rush for 2 days after and couldn't stop talking about the slides - bike rides with the whole family - the Saturday morning farmers market - BSU camps for the kids, 3 weeks on the campus each morning was perfect for everyone, Tammy even had me running a 5k by the summers end! We love our summer time out west. BYU, PoJo's, drive in movies, trips to the fountain, family reunions, cousins, grandparents, aunts and uncles life is great!

house

When my sisters and I get together we spend hours talking about decor - I have always said that there are no better people than sisters to give you their honest opinion about things.... And we are nothing if not honest with each other - so these photos should give us hours of discussions. For the life of me however, I can not figure out how to get photos in any sort of order on this blog. To top that off I should probably wipe off the lens on our camera after pulling it from the beach bag - but for what it is worth here is our new home (in no particular blurry order...) There are rooms that need work and others that were not photoed (kitchen and dining - can't wrap my head around those areas) The grey front room is just getting it's start and will take a long time to be completed mostly because I am obsessed with mirrored antique looking coffee tables and how I am going to get Lars to sign off on the price of one of those puppies is going to take a lot of stratagizing - I don't think that is a word:) But for 9 months in we are happy and settled and loving this home.

Beach 2012

We went to the beach! We have become lovers of the 30A beaches here and when we can get to Seaside beach in just under 3 hours - we are all hooked! I didn't get any cousin pictures, but the kids loved having them there to swim and play games with - and what a treat for me to have Aunt Kim willing to hang with Toby at the pool (by day 4 Toby was done with the sand) so that I could get to the beach everyday with the other two beach kids. Lars was with us for the first part of the vacation - we had a great time spending fathers day with him and his dad - My friend Tomicka came for the second part of our trip - We finished our trip with seafood on the harbor - Oh how we love summer!!! (hoping to insert more photos here... Kim? Tomicka?)

End of school

The boys finished up their school year with an 'honors ceremony' at school. Because this blog is a way to keep a journal for our family and since the boys don't read it, I can be honest about the highs and the lows that we go through in our family adventures. We are at an academic magnet school that we LOVE. There has never been a question that this school was 'right' for Trey. Things come VERY easy for Trey. He easily gets straight A's without much effort on our part as his parents. He is gifted and beyond his years intellectually - I don't say that to brag - if you know Trey and if you know his dad you know that some people are just born brilliant and that is their gift. They are lucky devils - I was not born with that gift - I am a worker and I believe in doing hard things and that we can push ourselves to greatness. Toby is more like me and for that reason I have struggled to know if this school is 'right' for him. While I am so proud of Trey and his prinicpal's award and top accelerated reader award (he read all the Harry Potter books this year among many, many others), I am extremely proud of Toby this year. He pushed himself all year and wanted to work towards greatness. He started in the lowest reading group and worked his way up to the middle group. He became obsessed with taking AR tests. He has developed a strong understanding of addition and subtraction and although we still have to work on his speed in these areas - he wants to get better. At the end of the honors ceremony the principal said that the last award was the most important award of all - it was the good character award. Each day the school recited a good character pledge and the kids in each class were asked to vote for a student that best portrayed these characteristics. Toby's class voted for him - he beamed - we beamed - his teacher beamed - we are all still beaming! Way to go boys, you are both gifted and loved. On to a much deserved summer break!

Trey Baseball

Who knew baseball was so much fun!? Trey became obsessed with playing spring ball during basketball season. There are two things Alabamians take VERY seriously - they are football and baseball. I knew that baseball would not be the fun happy go lucky experience that we have had so far with our sporting adventures - but Trey was convinced and Lars found a way to make it so the kids could keep playing soccer and do baseball at the same time (that way was me - driving non stop from a soccer field to a baseball field - with Lars' help of course:)) I have to document that Lars was very tormented by the boys' obsession with baseball in the beginning. He may have told them that the boy who chose soccer over baseball would be his favorite - they both chose baseball! Toby is a bit of a soccer star this season and Lars' pride is something to behold - but they caught the baseball bug and in the end so did Lars. (He just bought a pitching machine) Toby is still in his T-ball season right now so pictures of him to come - but these are of Trey and his team who tied for first in their division. I can not get over how awesome his coaches were - I will always remember Trey's first home run and how one of his coaches was waiting at home plate for him where he hugged him and threw him in the air to celebrate that run. They did this with each player and I watched that team turn into rock stars by the end - they were unstoppable! Now Trey can not get enough baseball. He wakes up in the morning during the 6'oclock hour and gets on the ipad to check baseball stats. Lars and I wake up each morning to comments like "daddy Chipper Jones got a triple". We love these boys and love seeing their passion for new things!

It's great to be 8

Trey turned 8 this year and chose to be baptized! He really did learn about it and decide for himself that he wanted to follow Christs example and get baptized. What a celebration it was with lots of family coming to celebrate with him.

A few of the Tennessee Longneckers were there too - but I didn't get a picture of them :( Some of our favorite gifts came from those family members that were not there but sent something fun for Trey - Aunt Alison sent Trey a white towel that had his name and baptism date embroidered on it and Kelsey and Mike sent an autographed Cougar football signed from all the players saying Happy 8th Birthday Trey!

Grandma made Trey an awesome blanket to talk about the Holy Ghost being a comforter - he LOVES it. Uncle Erik and Ben were the witnesses and Grandpa and Natalie said prayers with Aunt Kim leading the music. Trey did NOT want a special musical number - he is becoming more like his dad EVERY DAY!

What a weekend it was - there was also bowling and dinner (with 22 of us), swimming and a trip to the zoo! Thanks everyone for such a special weekend for such a special and loved boy. Trey, you are smart and kind and funny. You are tender hearted and a wonderful brother that would do anything to protect those you love. Recently your soccer coach described you perfectly - you are never in a hurry but always in the right place at the right time. I want time to slow down but I am obsessed with watching you grow and experience new things - you do it with such confidence and grace. You are very humble and shy away from attention but that shouldn't fool anyone because you are competetive to the core! We love you Trey!