Tough Win

Porter learned a hard lesson tonight. It made his mom's heart hurt in the process. He's been playing football on the Desert Hills 3/4 grade team this year. It's his first year of tackle football and he's loving it. LOVING it!! The hard part is that the team he is on has played together before...well at least most of the team. The coach told us up front that he doesn't go deep on quarterbacks and running backs and he plays to win. Porter is not the smallest on the team but he is one of the smaller boys. Good thing about that is he's fast and he works hard. Bad thing about that is he doesn't get to play as much as the other boys (the "team" that has already been playing with each other).

Last night was a BIG game. Desert Hills vs Dixie. Neither team has lost a game all season and both teams have blown all the other teams away in scoring. In fact, I don't think either team has had another team score on them. Shut outs. All of their games.

Porter went to the game knowing he wasn't going to get to play much but he was pumped and soooo ready to play! He really is a decent player for being so small. He can even get past our own line in practice because he's so fast.

The game started and both teams had a defensive battle on their hands. In fact, I don't think the ball moved past each other's 40 yard line through the first quarter. Watching the teams play I knew there was a good chance Porter wouldn't even get to play the first half. Desert Hills had met their match and it was a battle.

First half came and went and still no Porter on the field. He wasn't the only one that got left on the side line. There were about five boys that didn't get to touch the field past that white sideline. Halftime. No score by either team. Tough game for sure.

Second half started. Dixie made a touchdown during the third quarter but it got called back due to a holding call. (thank goodness!!) It wasn't until the end of the fourth quarter with about 5 minutes to go that Desert Hills scored a touch down. They missed the extra point because of a defensive stop by Dixie. The score was 6-0 and there was 1:30 on the clock. Still none of those five boys got to play. It was Dixie's 3rd down on Desert Hill's 40 yard line. I thought for sure that the coach would throw those boys in there on defense just so they could have a chance. Nothing. 52 seconds left in the game. Dixie had just thrown away their chance to score on their fourth down. 30 seconds left in the game. I thought for sure the coach would throw those boys in there again. Again, NOTHING. Our quarterback spiked the ball and the game was over. Desert Hills won 6-0 but it was a tough win because Porter didn't even get a chance to play. I knew how ready he was for this game. I knew he was ready to play tough. I hoped that the fact they won would make him happy. I was wrong. 

When it was time to find their parents after their post game talk with their coaches Porter didn't even walk toward us. He was done. He was upset. He was ready to go home. He wouldn't talk to any of us (don't really blame him) and was headed right for the car. Julia wouldn't keep her mouth quiet about going to get ice cream because they won and everyone could feel tension about not wanting to hurt Porter's feelings any more than they already were. 

I did find that my boys can really be good brothers. The only one more upset than Porter about the game was Payton. He was fuming mad that his brother didn't even get to go in on ONE PLAY! He was outraged!! ("It's against the rules! EVERYONE HAS to play at least one play!")

I told Jul's that it was up to Porter whether he wanted to get ice cream or not and he decided whatever would shut his sister up was fine with him. I know he was fighting back tears in the back seat so we didn't talk about football.

We got our treats at Arctic Circle, came home and ate them and then got ready for bed. By then Porter had cooled down long enough to at least talk. He said it sucked he didn't even get to play at all. His coach told the boys "If you didn't get to play tonight you will get to play more in the next game than the boys that did play tonight." I sure hope that's true. He said he kept asking his coach when they were going to let him into the game and they told him after they make 2 touchdowns. I don't agree with the way the coach did things mostly because I felt like he was running this team as a HS team instead of 3/4 graders. It was the same with the Dixie coach as well. He had about 7 boys sitting on his sideline that never got to play either. It's the way the world works though. Not everyone get

s to "play" when/where they want. Just wish Porter didn't have to suffer. Broke my heart. Of course I had to tell him how proud I was of him. He works hard at practice. He's there ready to play 100%. There have been days I've seen him come in for a water break and head right back out when the boys that get all the playing time are taking their own sweet time and goofing off making their team wait for them to get back into practice. Porter is a tough kid and when he hits his growth, he's going to be amazing. Just wish his coaches could see what I see. (Every mother probably says that about their boy)

The silver lining to this story is that TODAY is Porter's birthday. At least that gave him something to look forward to when we was feeling so down last night. 

Mom Helper

Once a month I get to help in Julia's kindergarten class. I didn't go last month because of SEP's so it seemed like it's been a while since I last helped. Today I had a couple conversations with kids that made me really appreciate kindergarten teachers. They get to hear all kinds of things from kids from all kinds of back grounds. This is just a sampling of what they get every day, I'm sure.

One little girl saw my wedding ring and said,

"Oh! Are you married?"

"Yes! I am!"

"Oh. My mom's not married. She just has babies. But, she's not married."

My reponse..."Well, maybe someday?"

The next little girl told me about one of her mom's good friends and how he got arrested last week and so and so has to come over because now so and so is arrested and in jail. Hmmm.. Sounds fun.

I guess I'm ok with living the simple life of being married to one man, the same one who helps with our four kids and one dog, and hearing about the rest of the world through the mouths of cute kindergarten kids. I Love being a Mom Helper! It does make me wonder what fun facts Julia's teacher knows about our family?

Pete

We love our dog Pete. Grandpa and Grandma Turek kept him while we went to California for Christmas and he got spoiled by them. He thinks he needs to be loved and treated super nice now. The other night we let him come inside the house--usually he gets to come in to vacuum after dinner and then he's back out. The kids were in their PJ's and jumped in bed after prayers. Pete jumped in bed with Jess and Julia and snuggled right in. It was my bribe to keep the girls in bed that night. I told them if they get up for any reason I would have to put Pete back outside. They slept really good until Jess fell out of bed, Julia peed and that is when Pete went outside. I let him lay in there with the girls again last night and while everyone was sleeping I was in folding laundry. I could hear Pete dreaming and whining in his sleep. He must have really wanted to catch that bird he was chasing. He slept there all night long until Todd put him out this morning before he left to work. I hope I'm not creating a problem. The funny thing was that when Pete came out into the kitchen I went and opened the back door for him. He slunk back into the girls room and layed down. He must have known the deal too. If he's going to get out of bed, he's going outside.

Good think I like the ol' fella!

Hello 2015

For New Year's Eve we went to the Hurricane Rec Center. The night was spent by eating, dancing, playing dodge ball, eating some more, playing a wicked awesome game of hockey, running around crazy, and then finally getting into bed and settling down for a sleep over in Hurricane! As we were leaving St. George it had started to snow so I was sure that we would be hit with a white wonderland when we got to Hurricane or at least when we woke up the next morning. When we hit the off ramp toward Hurricane our white flurries had stopped and were to be seen no more. Sad to say I didn't take many pictures but it was a fun night.

We were so into our Hockey game when it hit midnight that we hurry and ran outside in the cold and then hurry and ran back in to play some more hockey. It was so fun!! I'm blaming that on the lack of pictures taken. So sad :(

Tayosha's last New Year until she comes home from her mission

Some funny memories of the night:

vThe little girls (Khloee, Emmie, Julia, Lainee and Jess) wanted to make up dances to Taylor Swift's "Blank Space" all night

Luke called out Porter's name in the nigh for some reason

Porter had to wake me up at some point to go pee

Julia woke up crying in the night because she was cold and had to come share my blanket (even though she was sleeping on top of her sleeping bag)

Jess woke up and tripped over Khloee, Payton and Traxten before she made it to me and said, "I want to go home". She laid down by me and was asleep in 20 seconds.

Payton was mad at his mom for not getting to play "Call of Duty" on the play station

Porter hit his head pretty hard on the floor as we were cleaning up to go home and came home with a souvenir to start his new year

The next day we were invited over to Grandma Julie's for a New Year Get Together. We ate yummy chips, dips, snacks and drinks and played games. It was a great way to start 2015.

House of Jump

During our Christmas Vacation time we got invited by Tiff's family to visit "House of Jump". It's a place here in St. George that has a bunch of trampolines and on Monday night's they have a family special. As much as I didn't want to, our family ended up going. And, I'm glad we did. It was really fun! Here's some pics from the night...

Not pictured is our epic dodge ball games, tag, and the basketball dunk fest by the boys.

California Christmas 2014

We did something we've NEVER done before. We went away from home for Christmas. Todd's brother lives in California so we decided this would be a good year for us to try visiting them through the Christmas holiday. Don't worry. I had my fears. How would we do this? The kids had things on their list that would require organizing, planning, and $$$$. Surprisingly enough, the expense to get to and stay in California was pretty reasonable!

We packed our things up on the night of Tuesday, December 23rd and headed to Vegas to spend the night with the Dennett's. The kids got to sit in the hot tub with cousins and do a little polar plunging in the cold pool that night. We never spend enough time at their house. My kids LOVE it!!

The next morning, we woke up early enough to change our clothes, let aunt Cheri make us some breakfast, give our Merry Christmas goodbyes and be on the road to California. 

The drive wasn't too bad. Of course having head phones and movies to entertain the kids sure helps. Traffic wasn't even that bad! 

We arrived alive at Tav and Amie's house to find the rest of the family there ready and waiting. 

The arrangements were pretty nice since Amie's sister had a house right across the street from Tav and Amie's and she was going to be out of town for the week. We got to share the house with Todd's sister, Tara and her family. Each family had a room and we unloaded our bags, changed our clothes, and did what our kids had been waiting to do since we started our Christmas Vacation ... we headed to the BEACH!

The weather Christmas Eve was so nice! It didn't even feel like Christmas! The kids played in the sand, sun and the chilly water. Then the sun started to go down and it was time to walk back "home" (I loved that we were 5 walking minutes from the beach!!) and get changed, ready for the Christmas Eve dinner feast. 

 Amie did a great job hosting us all and we had a delicious dinner of Roast, Mashed potatoes, delicious roasted carrots, green salad, fruit, and hot rolls. Everything was soooo yummy! Then Grandma Julie read the Christmas story while the grand kids acted it out with the hand puppets. PJ Elf made a stop and brought the kids pajama's. Then we all sat around and talked about our favorite Christmas memories. I'm hoping our kids will sit around one day and remember how they spent this Christmas.

 Then it was time for bed...which was CRAZY! They kids had just had hot chocolate, goodies, and it was CHRISTMAS EVE so they were wired and not ready to sleep!! Riley wanted to sleep with the kids too and after lots of talking, giggling, fighting of who got to sleep by who they settled in enough that I could slip back over to Tav and Amie's to see where Santa might leave his stash. Todd was happy to stay in the room with all five of the kids and I was happy to leave him there! I'm sure he laid down the law after I left because when I returned everyone was sound asleep. The rule was that we weren't going over to see what Santa had brought until after 7:30. The kids were actually really compliant with that request. I even heard Payton and Porter whispering in the night that it wasn't time yet and they better go back to sleep.

Christmas Eve 2014

Christmas Morning--This was the picture we sent to those staying across the street to let them know we were awake and ready to see if Santa found us in California.

 Christmas morning was a blur. I remember wrapping paper, smiles, candy, more wrapping paper, lots of wheels spinning and happy happy kids! Did I mention there was a lot of wrapping paper? The boys got new scooters. Julia got a new bike, which the first thing she said was, "I said I wanted a pink and purple bike!" Porter played off it quickly because he was ready to wheel and deal. He was going to trade her for his green bike at home. Jul's declined with a firm, "No!" Jess was happy with her new baby and stroller and I have her on film saying how nice Santa is. Yes. He is.

The girls with their new friends at the skate Park Christmas Day 2014

Breakfast was our traditional deliciousness made by G-ma Julie and Amie. We spent the day (which wasn't as nice and warm as the day before, but still a good day) at the skate park making new friends, and then went to the beach that evening to play and eat Tinfoil, or Hobbo, dinners. When the fire died it was time to hit the road and find some warm showers, tubs, and clothes.

The beached Sea Lion before the Sea World Rescue came for it. We thought he looked like he was waving for the picture

Porter and Jul's ran up and down this hill tons of times!

Leu and Tav after running down the sandy hill

Tressa and I's attempt at a selfie on the beach. It would have looked better with just Tressa in it

Grandpa Blair and Jess on the beach cruiser

 The next morning was our last full day. The kids loved the skate park so much we decided to walk there with their new wheels and play for a while. While we were there a man was doing HUGE bubbles in the park. The girls spent a good hour catching bubbles, blowing bubbles, and probably driving the man nuts because we weren't ready to leave. They LOVED it! I'm sure I have too many different video and pictures of those moments.

Julie, Blair and Tressa had to get home so we said our goodbyes at the park (without Tav, Amie and Leuca--who were napping/working/not there yet). Later we found out that it had taken them 8 hours just to make it to Vegas because of traffic. It may or may not have motivated us to leave the next day instead of Sunday like we thought we would.

The Utahites in California together for one last picture

Missing Tav, Amie and Lueca for this picture :(

One of my favorites of these girls trying to pop a bubble

Riley getting a chance to make some bubbles

Julia's turn to make bubbles

Even Jess got a turn to make some big bubbles

After the park and some delicious tacos at Tav and Amie's we went to "the Pier". Tressa had mentioned before that she loved going to the Pier every time she came. She was shocked I hadn't ever been. Now that I've been once, I'm shocked that she wants to do it every time she comes! ;) 

It was fun to walk out there and think we were surrounded by the ocean. We even saw some dolphins swimming and some surfers catching the waves. We decided we'd go back to the beach by Tav and Amie's and let Todd and Tav try some surfing (and Payton some body surfing) and let the kids collect rocks, and play in the ocean one last time.

Julia with a Pelican on the Pier

Love this crazy family of mine

Walking back from the Pier

I feel bad to say I didn't even get in the ocean this trip. My legs got wet and that was enough for me. What a pansie!! I did enjoy watching my kids play in the waves and sand, though. It was fun to watch the sun set our last night there before we walked back to our homestead. We had homemade pizza and watched a movie. Then it was off to bed. 

The surfer's

Julia made a "home" for the rocks she was collecting. Porter later wrecked it "for" her

As the sun was setting, this was my view

  After hearing how long it took Blair and Julie to get home we decided to get the car packed that night and be ready to head out early the next morning. It was a trick to get all the scooters, bikes, gifts and then our suitcases, bags, pillows and blankets into the car but we did it! We headed out early the next morning and made pretty good time and avoided the traffic. The worst part of the drive was making so many potty stops. WHY is the line to the women's bathroom ALWAYS twice as long (sometimes longer) as the men's? I was trying to reduce our stops by getting Todd to take the girl's to the bathroom but I got no response from my texts while waiting in the long lines that wrapped around the gas station merchandise.
It was nice to be home but it was sure fun to spend time with our California family for a Christmas I think we'll all remember. (Maybe that will make up for not getting a Christmas Tree this year--which is hard to say really didn't happen this year! :o I'll have to try and find a picture of our paper tree and post later.)

The last picture I took at the beach for 2014