Boys Basketball

The boys joined a more competitive team for the last couple of months. They aren't as experienced as their teammates, but it's good to see them slowly improving. It's especially fun to have Lou joining us for most of the games since they're on Saturday.

Ward/Stake/Regional Basketball Tournament

In the last 6 years, Lou's ward basketball team has only lost the regional tournament once (last year). This year they played the same team and won them--a huge scoring game! I think he was high on that game for at least 2 weeks! :)

The 5 year out of 6 Regional Basketball Winning Team! Marcrest 1st Ward
I always love to watch Lou play ball!

Look at that form!

Boys Basketball

 

 

My favorite was watching Gehrig on the sidelines reading a book! He has fun on the court and then gets right back into his first love--READING!

 

 

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Lou started his birthday out earlier than normal, so the sausage, eggs & pani popo I prepared for his breakfast had to be sent with him to eat at the office. We were able to bring a little chaos to his office in the early evening to say hello to him (none of the kids were awake when he left this morning). Then, he came home with just enough time to grab a quick bite of red beans & rice (a Southern dish he likes) and rush off to the boys' last basketball game of the season. You'll have to notice Emma & Isaiah at Lou's leg as he's coaching his little team. They wanted to be right there--under him! I love the picture on the bottom right that shows Damian crouched ready to get the ball and Gehrig right in front of him. It's been a fun basketball season for them--and Lou & I are both ready for the break from it too!

 

After the game, we came home to eat the Red Velvet (a childhood favorite) cake I made for him. Damian made the frosting and was excited to deliver it to him while we sang to him. Can you believe his 30 something is 38? YIKES! Top right Emma is giving him the treats that she and I made him for his birthday. Top left is the close and personal picture of the hug Lou gave Gehrig after his thoughtful gift. I love the bottom left picture of Gehrig. He's anticipating the reaction to the gift he prepared for his daddy.

 

About 2 weeks ago, Gehrig was given a box of heart candies at church. He made a box for them and wrote a very sweet note and saved it as his gift for his daddy's birthday. His note says, "Dear Dad, I love you. Heres a bit of my love., but not even a milion could amount to how much I love you, Love, Gehrig" What a thoughtful kid! I love it!

 

Apparently Damian had something else in mind for his dad, but lost it. So. . he found a mechanical pencil to give him and enjoyed playing "Heavy, heavy, hang over they poor head." Look at how excited he was to play the game!

 

Sadly, something I fed them yesterday didn't go over well. I thought it was so strange that after only about a bite or two, Emma was ready to go to bed. And Lou only ate half of his cake. Well, at 4:30 this morning, Lou was throwing up in our bathroom and Emma was throwing up in her bed. We thought it was the cake at first, but it's hard to imagine why--everything I used was good. Now we're thinking it might have been the leftover chicken (which also was only a day old). Anyway. . .Damian's not feeling well today, so it got him too. I feel so bad for making Lou sick on his birthday. Luckily, he's feeling better today--at least well enough to go out on a birthday date with me.

Basketball, basketball, basketball

We're up to our eyeballs in basketball--at least on Thursday evenings. Last night, Lou coached the boys' game at 7 (did I mention that I signed him up to coach their basketball team for 6 weeks?), took Damian with him to ref a stake men's finals game at 8 while I took the other 3 to my stake women's game at 8:30 and then I brought them all back to the stake center for Lou's game at 9:30! I'm excited to see the boys learning and enjoying the game! Damian kept himself busy by keeping tally marks of all the baskets made in the game. Emma and Isaiah keep busy coloring or doing puzzles.

 

I love how Damian is looking up at his Daddy.

 

Notice Emma nearly hugging Lou's leg. She loves to run back and forth along the sideline as he coaches.

 

Can you see both boys in this picture? Damian has gray pants on and Gehrig's at the bottom right with the white stripes on his pants. It's so funny to watch their games. I told Gehrig we need to shake him and Damian up in a jar b/c Damian is overly aggressive (you should see him guard on the defense and fight for the ball!) and Gehrig is overly passive (he's content to put his arms in the air and watch someone else get the ball--but he's pretty good to rebound because he has height on his side. He's one of the tallest players--even though some of them are as old as 12).

 

JAZZ Part 1

So. . .in December we went to the Larry H. Miller Sing-a-Long at the Energy Solutions Arena, a free event with an orchestra, special guest John Schmitt and thousands of people singing Christmas songs. At the end of the event, they gave us a care package which included tickets to 1 of 5 different Jazz games. Tonight was our night. Having only been to one NBA game in my life, I didn't realize what I was up against. I thought that leaving at 6 from my home would give me plenty of time to drive around and find free parking somewhere within walking distance. Not so. After driving around for about 20-25 minutes, I finally paid $5 and parked a couple of blocks away. I still had 20 minutes before the game started, so I thought I was okay on time.

I got all the kids bundled up in their coats, hats and gloves (Lou was still at work--we were hoping he'd be able to join us soon) and took off holding Emma's hand on one side and Isaiah's hand on the other (and carrying a bag with my purse, snacks & coloring stuff in case the little ones got bored). Gehrig & Damian each held the other hand of the little ones. We walked fast and eventually made it to the Arena without too much complaint. I was really proud of them for sticking together and the little ones for being able to keep up. I went to the door and let them check my purse and gave them my tickets. That's when I found out I didn't have real tickets--just vouchers for tickets. So. . .I had to walk all the way around to the other side of the building with my 4 little ones and wait in a long line to get tickets. [A little side note:I was really trying to be there for the beginning b/c I wanted the kids to experience the excitement at the beginning when they introduce the team and say the pledge of allegiance in a crowd of thousands--I wasn't sure they'd make the whole game, but if they made the first, I figured it would all be worth it.]

Well, by the time we got up to get our tickets, it was after 7 and we'd missed the beginning of the game anyway. So. . .it wasn't all that bad to be told that the tickets were SOLD OUT. Anyway, we now have tickets for the game against Houston on Saturday. This time, I expect Lou to be there with me from the beginning, so it should be much easier.

I decided that I didn't want to have to pay the $5 for my parking since the event we came for was Sold Out, so I asked them if I could use it again on Saturday. The lady said she wanted to help me, but wouldn't be working on Saturday and didn't think she'd be able to do anything for me. I kept politely pressing, suggesting that she write a note on my ticket to clear it or something. Anyway. . .after talking to her supervisor, she got permission to refund me my $5. So. . .all I'm out after all of this is a couple of hours and the gas money from the drive. . .

Hopefully Saturday is a blast, because I figure I went through enough with my little children to deserve a really good time on Saturday! Don't you think?

Gehrig & Damian's First Basketball Season & Emma's First Clogging Performance

So, I put the boys on separate teams, thinking that they would do better that way. The first four weeks were great. The last two weeks, Gehrig's team needed another player and Damian's team had too many, so Damian played on Gehrig's team. They actually played very well together--looking for each other, passing and even making a couple of baskets! My favorite part was watching them walk off the court with their arms over each other's shoulder, talking animatedly about the game. It was so fun to see them running up and down the court with big smiles on their faces. They improved a lot in the 6 weeks they played. So. . .I think we've entered the "sports arena." Gehrig was so excited about taking Hip-Hop, but after trying that for a couple of weeks and then going to basketball, he's chosen to play basketball. Personally, I'm excited about his choice. I love to watch my guys play ball!

The lighting was terrible for pictures (maybe if I knew how to use the settings on my camera, I could have fixed that problem), so sorry about the pictures. Emma had her first clogging performance at the Mall this past Saturday. I love this picture of her (front and center) waiting behind the stage for her turn. She had fun watching all the more advanced dancers.
Here she is with her class dancing. I didn't try to get good pictures b/c of the lighting and b/c I was taking video of it. I was very pleased that she kept her thumb out of her mouth (something she does a lot during her classes for some reason) and did her best to follow along. It was so fun to see her having such a great time up there!

Basketball

'Tis the season for basketball. Lou finally joined another community league (after a several year absence), so we're enjoying watching him every Wednesday night. And for the first time, I put the boys in basketball. They started last week with their first practice on Tuesday and first game on Thursday. There are only two teams in their league and I had them put on different teams, so they will play each other every week. As it turned out, they were never on the court at the same time (probably a good thing). I can't tell you how much fun it was for me to watch them run up and down the court with great big beaming smiles (look at Damian in that first picture). They had so much fun and they were so fun to watch. I can't wait for their dad to find some time to give them a bit of at-home coaching. I hope they continue to enjoy basketball because I will be their biggest fan! I love watching all my boys play!!

Gehrig even went for a shot or two (didn't see him make one in the game, but I saw him make a couple when he was practicing).

Gehrig caught a rebound here, I think--or was it a pass? Anyway. . .look at the grin on his face.

I know this is random, but I had to put in a picture of the Snow White pumpkin I finally carved for Emma (what, a week after Halloween?). She got in her Snow White dress and enjoyed admiring it (even though it was a pretty sloppy job--I never really was in the mood to carve this year). And, I was looking at my sister's blog and saw the cutest hair style on her little girl. So. . .I had to copy it on Emma. Funny thing. . .I was looking at my other sister's blog and she copied her too! It's so fun that we all have little girls that we can get creative with.

March Madness with the Harris Family

It's been a long time since I've been able to update my blog. Now, I'm just trying to give a condensed version of our life for the past month. As a side note, while I've been preparing the pictures for this post, Gehrig has been reading a Human Anatomy book to the rest of the children and examining everybody's veins, bones, teeth, etc. telling them all about the things he is learning. It's great to see learning taking place without my bossy influence! :)

The first set of pictures are from our trip to the Draper Library for March Marble Madness (a K12 activity to help the children learn some math through games with marbles). On our way to the activity, we stopped at Applebees for lunch (redeeming coupons the boys had earned from K12). It was so nice to have all four of them acting appropriately in public! A rare occasion (hopefully getting less rare as they grow older and I learn better parenting skills). Emma & Isaiah had a "ball" playing with a ball behind the scenes.

March brought great winds--maybe too great for kite flying, but we tried it anyway. It was fun to have Lou flying with the boys. The little ones missed out this time b/c they were taking naps.

We had so much fun watching Lou during his tournament games. His team won the stake tournament and went on to the regional tournament. They won for the 3rd year in a row (even with the ward boundary change that took away some of our key players--but added other key players)! Isaiah couldn't wait for the game to end so that he could have his time on the court. He was the last one out of the gym that day--being eventually kicked out! :)

Our poor house. . .Gehrig threw or kicked or something (I wasn't there to witness it) an empty laundry basket into our wall and put a great big hole in the wall. I put cardboard over it for over a month while waiting for Lou to help fix it. My friend MaryLynn loaned her kind brother-in-law the other day to help fix it while he was fixing a hole in her wall. He was so cute to let the boys help him fix it. Now we just need to prime it and repaint. At least the hole is patched up!

One day I heard hysterical laughing outside from Gehrig & Damian. I went out to see what was so funny and found Emma working in the dirt with the big boys and Isaiah wearing her Snow White dress. Sometimes the big brothers think it's funny when Isaiah joins Emma in her play, but often they are disturbed by it and try to get the "girl" things off of him!Another fun puzzle we did together as a family.

Too precious! I love the angelic sleeping face. Lou brought his sleeping "pose" to my attention.