Priesthood Advancement

Dale ordained Jacob a Teacher today. Where did the time go?

Middle Tennessee

Jacob always talks about playing football at Middle Tennessee State, a team he is when he plays one of his X Box games.All of his friends are on a team that no one ever hears of. I went to pick him up last night at a friends house and he didn't have a jacket on earlier on because it wasn't cold, but it was in the 40's when I got to his friends house. They were out playing basketball and he walks over to my car wearing this:

Where did you get this???
One of the kids he was with, has a family friend who goes there and left this at his house, so he was letting Jacob borrow it.
It's a pretty nice jacket, but who would ever thought that he would actually wear a Middle Tennessee Jacket!

I Love Technology

Since we don't get many BYU games, I watch them live, online, on BYU TV. I can literally watch it on my iPad. I love technology and the fact that it is so portable.

We are watching the BYU basketball game at the dinner table on my iPad. Who would have thought!
We are also having our start of the Houston Rodeo meal, brisket, potato salad and rolls.

Church Ball

Jacob just barely made the cut-off to play church basketball. It was for kids 14-18. Since he was going to be 14 for the tournament, he got to play, it doesn't help that he was needed! Here are a few pictures from church ball. It is now over. They lost in the tournament yesterday.

A few weeks ago Jacob decided to do  the jump ball against a kid who is clearly a foot taller than him.

It's a good thing our kids have been to plenty of basketball camps. The men use the jerseys the night before and the person who had them, was not responding to phone calls, emails or text, so I went through the kids drawers and came up with enough reversible jerseys, they didn't have number, but oh well.  

Our team clowns. They crack me up. This looks like something Matthew would have done.
Yes, Matthew, this is Corbin and Tanner.

Next Sport

Makenzie had her first Track Meet on Thursday, the 23rd. First of all we were bummed that they put her on JV, she was told she would be on Varsity, but the Head Coach retired due to health problems, so we have an unorganized track program right now. It also doesn't help that, due to budget cuts last year, we lost certain coaches since they were either laid off or reassigned to different sports. The shot and discus coach was reassigned to our Girls Basketball program, which is good for Makenzie since he works with her position,but not so good for Makenzie, in track. This coach, Coach Hammond, did tell me he was going to come out and work with them a few days a week on their foot work, so that makes me happy! Anyways, her first track meet didn't go as well as she had planned, she did get 2nd in the shotput and 5th in the discus, but she is used to winning first. She must realize, that most of these girls have been in track for at least a month now, where she had 2 days of practice, one day of shot and one day of discus, so to even place was good. She did the best she could and that's all we can ask of her. It will come back to her.   Oh, and don't let me forget, they couldn't even find a uniform for her, they gave her a coaches track shirt and she wore her basketball practice shorts, did I mention they were unorganized. Thank goodness she owns her own throwing shoes!

Be a Man Campout

Marti already prefaced this blog posting with her previous post.  The Be a Man Campout is an annual Scout campout by our ward where the intent is for the boys to spend the night in shelters they build for themselves and then the next morning they cook a pig for lunch.  Jacob and I didn't go last year when it was really cold (at least for this part of the country). This year's challenge was the rain.  When a flood warning has been issued before you even leave, you know you could get wet.  And just for the record, camping is one of Jacob's favorite activities, or maybe Not.

On our way.
The view as we are driving with rush hour traffic.

Jacob Navigating

Cooking Woof-ums (Sp.?)
A woof-um is a biscuit cooked ((?) crusty on the outside, doughy on the inside) so it
forms a cup and then it is filled with pudding and whip cream.

A shelter by some of the boys - the morning after.
If you can't tell, there is a puddle in there.

View from the shelter Jacob and I shared for the night.

The hungry group and the pig.  About this time the Bishop
reminded everyone we should say a prayer before we eat.

Jacob, one of our leaders (Giff Nielsen Jr.)
and the pig just before coming off the coals.

One of the younger scouts.  We don't need no stinkin shoes or rain jackets.
Maybe they do learn something along the way.

Jacob and I had to head home before most everyone else so I could go to a Stake meeting, but we did find a few minutes to stop at Chipolte on the way home. Of course I had to wake Jacob up when we got there.

Fourteen

Jacob celebrated his 14th birthday yesterday. That means he will be in high school in the Fall. YIKES!!!  When did my baby get so old?? He was lucky because he only had a half day of school yesterday, so he and his buddies headed to the outdoor shopping mall across from the school after school. They all walked over to our house when they were done.
We caught a late lunch/early dinner at La Finca's. Then all the boys were so excited to go to the Varsity Girls basketball game, which we lost. After the game we all came back to the house, the boys shot baskets in the driveway for an hour and then we had cake and ice cream. Jacob wanted a SpongeBob cake. There was a mix up at Target, so I made one for him. It may not have been as nice as Targets, but it tasted better!! All his friends spent the night in our room above the garage. They woke up late this morning, but were treated to homemade cinnamon rolls, eggs and bacon. He and Dale are off to the "Be A Man" campout tonight. It wouldn't be so bad, but where they are going is under a flood warning, so we shall see if they make it through the night, after all it's "Be a Man", not "Be Stupid".

At La Finca's they sing to you and put whipped cream on your face.
The camera was on a night setting so the picture was bad.

Wiping off the mess on his face and I got the camera setting changed

Jacob, Austin, Colin, Brandon and Thomas

The Birthday Sopapilla

Jacob, his friends and his basketball coach looking so excited about this game

Don't judge, my first SpongeBob cake

Make a wish

Showing off his cake.
Sorry so blurry, my camera got switched to manual focus and I didn't catch it.

The boys asked if they could take some food up in the garage with them,
and this is what they considered food.

   

Flat Stanley

My niece, Amryn, read the book Flat Stanley in school. She had the assignment of making her own Flat Stanley and she sent her to our house for 3 weeks of adventure. OK, basketball 3 times a week, trips to the Orthopedic Doctor, yard work and watching sports on TV isn't that adventurous, but that's what we do. We took pictures and sent postcards and she had to put it all together for her class. She put it together in such a cute way. She cut out a poster board in the shape of Texas and put some of the pictures we took and the postcard we sent on it. You get an "A" from me Amryn!!

I love the "Y'all come back now ya hear"

 

It's Over

Basketball Season officially ended last night, at least ours did. The Varsity girls lost in the second round of the playoffs. I just have one question, since Makenzie didn't get to play, does it count as a loss and ruin her undefeated streak? I asked Dale he said, "No." Here are pictures from the last game of the season.

Team Prayer

Team Cheer

Watching the warm-ups 

National Anthem line up. They do it by height and look, Makenzie isn't in front. 

Lined up for the introduction of the other team, but they didn't do introductions, so the girls stood there looking lost.

Watching the game from the bench

A time out... She's probably glad she wasn't getting chewed out!

Sad the season is over.......

....but happy that she can move on to track now.
Time to dust off that shot and discus!!

I'm a lucky Mom

Pretty flowers from Makenzie

Court Side Seats

Makenzie got her first appearance on Varsity last night, well at least she had court side seats. She did tell me she wishes she could have tried to defend the other team's big girl, just to see if she could. She is always up for a challenge. And yes, we won!

The roster.
 They even spelled her name right, although the height isn't exactly right, but half of them aren't.
Speaking of height, how about that 5'6" Post,and 5'6" is generous.

The starters from JV that were pulled up

These 5 aren't used to sitting out a whole game!