Last Wrestling of the Season

Payton and Luke Showing their muscles

Second and Third Place Champs

Luke Wright and Payton Calico

Ready to play nice? WRESTLE!

This is Payton and Luke's match--which was the most evenly matched for their age group. It's not the whole match (obviously) but for time and uploading purposes this is what you get...

This was Payton's last chance to win himself a medal. Wrestling has been good for him this year even if he didn't really understand what he was doing. It was good exercise and taught him that winning isn't everything...as long as you were good enough to get a medal. He got third place this time which he was thrilled about! It was the toughest he's had to wrestle and he even had to wrestle his cousin this time...which I think made it more of an emotional match than anything. I think Todd is glad practices are over but it was fun while it lasted. Payton even wants wrestling shoes for Christmas. I don't think Santa is planning on bringing them though...I really don't know what Santa is bringing. Maybe he's already come and brought us a house.

Tiff's battery died on her camera so here's some pictures of Tanner...

Third Place champ!

and Here's a picture of Luke...

Discipline During Lunch Time

Having a three year old is sure a lot of fun...and work. Today we were enjoying our bowls of Mac-n-cheese for lunch but the boys wouldn't stop kicking the cabinets under the bar. I had just mopped the floors and wiped off that area of the bar because of the shoe prints they leave when they sit at the bar. After repeatedly telling them to stop Payton started telling Porter to kick that bar while he just sat and watched what happened. I'd give Porter "the eye" and he'd say, "Payton told me to". The next time he did it I said, "Do I need to flip your head?" and he said back, "Do I need to flip your head?" Then I said, "Excuse me?" in that you can't talk to your mother that way tone and Porter had the guts or the stupidity to say, "Excuse me?" in the same tone back to me. Of course that's when I flipped his head and he just looked at me and tried to reach me so he could flip my head. That's when Payton started laughing which made all three of us smile and ruined my whole teaching of discipline moment. Dang three year old boy..and his giggling brother!

Wanna' Wrestle?

Payton had his first wrestling tournament last weekend at Dixie High School. I was nervous to send him because he doesn't really know what he's doing yet and I didn't want to see him cry if he got beat. Shows what a supportive and confident mother I am at my son's skills, I know. Well luckily he only had three kids in his age and weight division so there was no chance of losing. He'd get a medal either way. It was really fun to watch him and his cousins wrestle and the surprising thing was that Payton had fun even when he lost. He beat one kid and lost to another so he took Second place bringing home a silver medal! He's so proud and wears it around all the time. Guess we should have entered him into more than just the last two tournaments but next year might be a different story. I had to include a picture and video of the kid he beat. It was the shortest match so less down loading time. Calico vs Barlow (Dale and Candice Barlow's son). The other match was Calico vs Gifford (Russ and Marsha's boy). He was a bit tougher to wrestle because he actually wrestled back but they were sure cute to watch!

Payton wrestling the Barlow boy

End of the match hand shakes.

The Julia Award

Having a baby is a lot like winning one of those awards on TV like the Tony, Oscar, or Emmy. There are a lot of people to thank when it's all said and done. So for today's blog I'd like to thank everyone who had any part of helping when Julia was in the oven as well as her big debut.

First to my hubby, Todd. (Wipe your eyes dear...or at least fake it). He's been awesome throughout the pregnancy putting up with my "My back hurts" or "I don't feel very good" and of course listening to me snore every night and chew my tums in the middle of the night. He's such a good dad and I didn't worry a bit about the boys when I spent the night in the hospital. And of course I wasn't suprised but didn't expect the house to be so clean when we came home with our family of five yesterday.

Next, I have to thank my family starting with Todd's family. Thanks for answering the phone at 2 am and being willing to keep the boys while we were at the hospital. Thanks for the love and support, meals, flowers, and kind words about our baby being the most beautiful newborn ever (of course I knew that but didn't expect anyone else to see it). Thanks for being mom and dad while my parents are so far away and couldn't be here.

That brings me to my own mom and dad. Thanks for the phone calls, beautiful plant, letting us live in your home while we built our own, and of course the love, support and prayers from Nauvoo. We miss you but know we are blessed while you're there.

Thanks to our brothers and sisters who were able to call or come by the hospital or our home to visit. It meant a lot to us that you cared. We love you guys! Thanks for the treats, the gifts, keeping the boys ALL THE TIME (Tiff) and the praise for having such a cute, healthy, chubby cheeked baby.

And to the rest of you...THANK YOU for the emails, phone calls, laughs and past memories that help keep us in touch.

Todd and I are both so thankful to everyone,

especially our Heavenly Father for such a

healthy baby.

Now the real fun of raising her begins!

Baby Julia Marie

Our first baby Girl!

Our First family photo. The boys LOVE their new baby sister.

Todd and his daughter (sheesh that's still a bit weird to say) minutes after her birth. He couldn't take his eyes off her...I remember when he used to look at me that way (a long time ago ;-)

Always have to show a naked shot, right? Blackmale later.

I'll leave more info later but wanted to leave a quick post of what a happy mommy I am to finally have baby Julia here, healthy and a part of our family. Shw was born 11-11-08 at 4:28 am. She weighed 8 lbs. 8 oz. and was 20" long. I'll post more pictures with details later but just wanted to share the great news that happened (earlier than anticipated) at our house!

39 down, 1 to go!

I think the title is self explanatory. Our AFLAC policy goes into effect on the 14th (a week from yesterday) and so we're thinking we're going to make it! Of course after last night I was a bit worried. I was contracting every 5-7 mintues until I decided to let Todd take over the dishes and cleaning up dinner so I could lay down. That helped slow things down. It's crazy to think this week is my last week of work. I think I'm going back after the baby is born but it will only be for one day a week instead of two. Haven't worked out the details with Tiffani yet but we'll see what happens. I decided that I don't have any pictures being pregnant with this baby except for the Japanese dinner photo so I decided to turn the camera over to the boys to try out their photography skills. Just thought maybe this baby would like to know it really came from me and now I have the proof. Not cute proof, but proof none the less.

This was our first attempt...Yikes!

This was our second attempt...getting better?

Finally decided to set the timer.

Couldn't leave it at just those pictures. Had to take a couple of the boys alone!

Little Wrestlers

Payton has been enjoying his Tuesday and Thursday nights lately by going to Wrestling Practice. He looks forward to going but his dad just dreads it. Payton really doesn't get the concept of how to win (probably because we're too cheap to pay to go to the tournaments yet) but he loves to run around with his cousin, Luke, on the mats. If nothing else it's excercise for the boy. I took a little footage at last nights practice. For some reason when Todd's there trying to help Payton finds some reason to cry. If Luke would just stop stepping on his fingers or squishing his guts out I'm sure there would be no reason for the tears. Darn Wright boys!

I thought I should add this quick blurb of Tanner. I missed the action shot but they were teaching them to distract their opponent by tapping them on the side of the head before they shoot for their legs. Tanner made a major distraction by Whacking his opponent on the side of the head. At least he got his attention. I'll have to work on my video footage but until we go to a tournament I'm afraid this might be as good as it gets.

Homecomings and Halloween

We traveled to Vegas on Thursday to pick Todd up that night. We left earlier in the afternoon to get a bit of swimming at Cheri's in before our dad was to arrive. When Todd got to Cheri's (Shane was the taxi who picked Todd up at the airport) I told the boys there was something cool I wanted them to see--which was their dad of course. Porter came out of the toy room, looked around and said, "What is it mom? What are you going to show us?" Of course Payton went and gave his dad a big squeeze but Porter was still wondering what was so neat. Later Porter asked his dad, "So how was Kleenex?" trying to say Phoenix. It was pretty cute. We spent the night and enjoyed a day of activity at Cheri's before it was time for us to head home for a little Trick or Treating of our own. Todd took the boys this year while I baked some croissants for our dinner party at Tiff's. Nothing like soup on a Halloween night. Unfortunately this year wasn't nearly as cold (ok so not cold at all) as it has been in the past. The kids had fun dressing up, going door to door to get treats and playing with their cousins. I'm glad to have Todd home again. Now the next big step is to get a baby here. TWO MORE WEEKS...or more...or less. You all know how it is. They come when they want to.

So it looks like Superman needs to visit the bathroom but there just wasn't time because there was Trick or Treating to be done.
Don't cross this little cowboy the wrong way. He'll shoot!