Mental Image Post

We seem to have misplaced our camera so we don't have anything to show for the last few weeks. You'll have to use your good ol' imagnation for this post.

Most of you probably know Kevin made the no-cut soccer team at school. We joke about it but in reality, he made the "A" team and gets to play in the games. Some kids are stuck on the practice squad and don't get to play or travel. I'd say he's part of the "B" team of the "A" team if that makes sense. He's done well and played in all but one of the games and he was even the first 7th grader to score this season. So far, his team is 6-0 and looks like they have a pretty good shot at going undefeated but we don't want to get ahead of ourselves. So here's the mental image part: Picture Kevin in a gold jersey with black shorts and a big #10 on his back. In that picture, imagine him doing a super cool bicycle kick to score the winning goal against the #1 team in Alabama. Ok, it didn't happen like that but if you pretend it did then 20 years from now that's what we'll all remember.

Cameron quit soccer to take up wrestling. After his first practice he was singing songs about how much he hated it. If you're like us, you probably had no idea how hard wrestlers have to work and how good of shape they have to be in. Anyway, after swearing he would never go back he changed his tune after a day or two (we would have changed it for him anyway since we already paid the $70) and kept at it. So far, he's really enjoyed it and his coaches have been very impressed with how hard he works and how quickly he's learning. Why is it that when I was coaching him, getting on to him only made him mad but for these guys he works harder? What the heck? Oh well, whatever works for him. He had his first tournament yesterday and wrestled his heart out. He lost both matches on points but he led after the first round both times and avoided getting pinned. Most kids never win a match their entire first year of wrestling so for him to have been close on his first try was like a win to me. He was caught a little off-guard in his first match because the intensity was noticeably higher than what he was used to in practice. For Cameron, just picture him pinning a guy the size of the Incredible Hulk. Again, convince yourself it happened and eventually it did happen. As a side note, another kid joined Cameron's team on Thursday. Never wrestled before and in really good shape (shape = round). On Saturday, he had to wrestle in the tournament. Poor guy had no clue what to do. He lives right by us so he and Cam may become buddies.

Cade is ready to start soccer and frequently talks about how many goals he's going to score this season. Practice should start next month. He also had a blast at the wrestling tournament yesterday and was climbing all over the bigger kids between matches so he might decide to pick that sport up later. They start at 5 but that just seems too young to me. For Cade's picture, just imagine him happy with a big smile on his face as he's running somewhere. That's perfectly normal for him.

Dana and I are well and are excited to see what our landscaping looks like when everything blooms and turns green again. Not so excited about the allergies though and Kevin is absolutely dreading having to mow. It's gonna take him a week with all this grass! We'll be sure to post some pictures of everything - if we can ever find that darn camera.

Snowpocalypse

Recently, we had our second snow this winter and according to the locals it was one of those once-in-a-decade-or-more events. Actually, they say snow at all is one of those rare events let alone snow on Christmas followed a couple of weeks later by ~7 inches. As the weathermen made the predictions, schools shut down before the storm even arrived and everyone made a mad dash to the grocery store to get their milk and bread. A friend of ours took a picture at Publix and the bread shelves are literally empty. Every one of them! (But there were still some tortillas) The best part, to us anyway, was the fact that the snow stayed around for several days. School was cancelled for 3 days and I got 2 days off from work! Woo hoo!

We took a lot of good pictures so that's what this post is mostly about. But first, here's a shot we took shortly before the world tried to end.

I like this picture because it was taken on one of those nice evenings when we were enjoying being outdoors and the neighbor kids were all playing together. That kind of thing never happened in Las Cruces. Maybe it's because everyone's house is surrounded by a rock wall. We all had a lot of fun that night. But I don't know why Hunter is kissing the Titan. I like it too, but that's a little extreme.

And then it snowed!

Dana broke out here not-used-since-the-80's snow gear and I provided the musical accompaniment by singing the Flashdance song every chance I got. I tried to get her to do the fast foot shuffle dance thing but she refused.

Kids + snow = snow angels, every time

Cameron and Cade do the deed here. Dana made one too.

Cade couldn't wait to go sledding so while we waited for his brothers to get their act together. He would run and jump on the sled to slide across our yard. I just love this action shot.

The neighbors on both sides of us joined us for sledding on a hill near our house. The dads were acting like kids and the kids were having a ball. If you remember Dana's last sledding adventure (see our December 31, 2007 post) you'll know why she vowed to never touch a sled again. Fortunately, I was able to talk her into it one more time. Can you tell she's a little apprehensive here? This hill is NOTHING like Ron's Suicide Run at Inlow.

Cameron charging down the hill. Surprisingly, he was the first one to get cold and quit despite the fact that he was the only one with snow pants and boots on.

Kevin and Hunter tried to build an igloo. They managed to build the walls about a foot high before realizing how much work it is. They called it good at that.

After a full day of sledding, snowball fights and eating snow ice cream, we were treated to this spectacular sunset.

Day Two dawned bright and early and with it came the news that there would be no school or work for the second day in a row. Not surprisingly, Cade was begging to go out before the sun was fully up. Eventually, we made it outside and Dana laid down the law and told the kids everyone had to build a snowman of their own. And that's where things took a turn for the weird. You see, Kevin and Cameron had been reading my old Calvin & Hobbes comic books. Remember Calvin's snowgoons? They sure did.

It's a little hard to see but Kevin's snowman's head is lying on the ground while the arms are reaching up where the head should be. I have to give Kevin credit for taking the time to trim the branches to make the arms look right. And yes, the red paint is the snowman's blood.

Cameron built this grotesque scene. The snowman with the lopping shears stuck in his chest has an "x" for each eye as you'd expect. The other snowman's evil look leads me to assume he's the culprit.

Good ol' Cade made a regular snowman but he really liked the idea of using paint to make the snowman look better. He started with eyes, a mouth and a couple of buttons. Then he added some more buttons. Then some more. And then hair. And then more facial features...

Here's our complete snowfamily. Kevin and Cameron are hard at work on their creation in the background. How do you like Dana's stick snowwoman?

Remember the snowman lean from my last post? These snowmen were doing "the lean" just hours after being made. I'm telling you, there's a hit song and dance here if I can just figure it out.

Dana also made this caterpillar by the curb. Pretty cute.

More sledding. Kevin and Hunter on a small hill behind our house.

Cade catching maximum air off a 4" jump.

No joke, this boy would stay outside all day and night if we'd let him.

Later in the week, I got home from work just as the sun was setting. Dana told me Cade had been waiting outside for me because I had told him I'd try to come home early so we could play some more. Feeling a little guilty, I quickly changed and we hurried out the door to get a few sledding runs in before it got too dark. Fortunately, the sky was clear and the moon was out so we had plenty of light to continue playing even after the sun set. We had a great time and neither of us wanted to come in from our sledding in the moonlight adventure. That's a memory that will last a lifetime.

And finally, Cade bought some handcuffs (which he calls "cubbies" for some reason) at the store yesterday. I cuffed him to the oven handle. He thought it was pretty funny until I told him they broke and I couldn't get him out. He asked me to get some tools to get them off and I told him he'd have to wait until I finished fixing lunch because I couldn't leave the microwave unattended (chicken nuggets - that's about the best I can do so no comments!). He looked so sad and pitiful that I had to take a picture before telling him I was just kidding.

I thought it was funny.

Christmas 2011

This year, for the first time, we spent Christmas at home alone. Although we certainly missed seeing everyone and spending time with our families, we still had a great time.

On Christmas Eve, we went out to an early dinner before the church service and the boys chose to eat some fine cuisine from McDonalds. Oh well. After enjoying our meal together, we went to a beautiful service before driving around to look at lights. Our favorite house didn't decorate this year so it was slim pickin's. Then we went home and started our new Christmas tradition of opening one gift each - and that gift is a new pair of pajamas. After putting them on, lighting the fake fire (we have a gas fireplace), and watching a movie together, we sent the kids to bed.

As usual, the kids weren't allowed to see what Santa brought until they woke us up. Much to their dismay, Dana laid down the law and set a "no one bother us before 6:00" rule. Since the stairs to their rooms are right beside the living room, Dana and I slept upstairs in the bonus room to make sure they didn't peek.

At 5:58 am, we were awakened by 3 rowdy boys bursting at the seams with anticipation and excitement. Remember that feeling?

Here's what the boys found when they came downstairs. Cade got a Green Machine, Cameron got an iPod Touch and Kevin got a wicked-cool, electric Airsoft rifle. As their dad, I automatically called priority on all 3 Santa gifts when I want to play with them.

And then the paper shredding began.

Laser Tag with night vision! We've, I mean, the boys have had a blast with these.



You can tell Cameron didn't have any interest in this Metroid game for his Wii. He's been dying to get this since it came out in September.

Shortly after we got up, we noticed it was snowing! Before long, we had 3" of snow on the ground and it continued snowing all day and most of the next but we didn't have any more accumulation. Later in the morning, we went sledding on the hill by our house and were joined by our neighbors on both sides of us. We all had a great time together and it was quite different than our experiences in Las Cruces where everyone is confined to their own, walled-in yard. I tell you, we had a wonderful Christmas! However, Cade was a little bummed about the snow because he couldn't ride his Green Machine for a few days.

First snow tasting of the year.


I don't know why we took a picture of our table but I like this shot for the trees and houses in the background.




Out here, they have these things called trees that the snow collects on and they look really pretty.



The view across the road toward our old back yard.









Cade will spend all day, every day outdoors if we'd let him. Here he's getting ready for our second trip out in the snow. I found my old ski mask and gave it to him to keep his face warm. Doesn't he look awfully stinkin' cute?





I built a snowman on Cade's head.

Our neighbor built the big snowman in the background. He quickly developed a lean before losing his head. Then I noticed the little one I built on the Titan was doing the same thing. The Snowman Lean. Sounds like a new dance craze!

Cade and I had a contest to see who could throw a snowball the highest against the house. Here's his jumpshot.

This is on the 3rd day of the snow hanging around. We didn't have much left but that didn't stop Cade from taking advantage of what was there.

It took a couple of days but he was finally able to take his new wheels out for a spin. And he crashed right off the bat. For some reason, this thing doesn't spin so well on the concrete. The kids have a little trouble with it on the asphalt as well (I don't!).

Cade's first ride and his first crash.

He was hesitant to try it again but I talked him into it. Here's his first successful spin. (Special thanks to Cameron for letting me use his iPod to record this. Dang that thing is neat!)

December

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and as much fun as we had. As usual, we stayed plenty busy in the weeks leading up to Christmas with parties and other activities.

One of the best things to happen was the spelling bee at Cameron's school. Cameron was in it and was competing against 2 kids from each of the 3rd and 4th grade classes. Guess who won? We were (are) so proud of that little dude! When the second to last student missed her word, Cameron realized he could win it if he spelled his word right and that look was written all over his face. When they asked him to spell "unify", he actually paused and thought about it (unlike when we were practicing) before spelling it correctly. Now he has a big ol' honkin' trophy and gets to compete against the kids from the other schools in town. All of them. From 3rd grade through 10th grade! Isn't that nuts?

Here's the Cowart Elementary Spelling Bee Champion and the runner-up (which we suspect Cameron has a crush on). She doesn't look too happy.

Speaking of Cameron, any of you that have spent much time around him know he's the most curious of the 3 boys. If there's a button, he'll push it. If it comes apart, he'll disassemble it (and never put it together). I think this next photo is a great example of his curiosity.

We recently got a new front-load washer and dryer. Dana took this picture of Cameron watching the washer to see how it works.

As we got closer to Christmas, the boys and I started our vacations and had plenty of time to hang out around the house with Dana. We filled our time with play and a lot of fun activities.

Making Janet's famous orange ball cookies is one of our favorite Christmas traditions (and yummiest!)



We also made gingerbread houses. The kit contained 5 houses but we really couldn't figure out which pieces went where so we pretty much decided to wing it. One of the very cool buildings I made was accused of looking like an outhouse.

Not the outhouse but a fine example of my handiwork. Hey, we started to get desperate when the icing started drying so quickly and just grabbed whatever piece was closest to make the house.


Cameron and I built a music box that plays "Here Comes Santa Claus" from scratch. OK, maybe not completely from scratch but we did assemble it from the completely disassembled kit. That's pretty much the same as building it from scratch, right?

Christmas time also means Christmas pictures of the family. When I look at other people's pictures, the family always looks so nice and everyone looks so happy. When I look at ours, I remember the arguing and griping and effort it took to produce one or two half-way acceptable shots. We probably took 500 pictures and after deleting those with tears, mad faces, sad faces, weird faces, and closed eyes, we didn't have any left. So the following shots are the best we could do.

This wasn't actually planned but Cameron really wanted to take a picture of us. He did alright.

I realized later, I didn't get a nice picture of Dana with the boys. They all wanted to make funny faces in all the shots she's in. That's OK because this represents our family better than the fake poses.


Dana took a nice picture of the boys and me.



I had a special request to get a picture of the boys with the sled this year. Mom and Dad had a picture of all the grandkids in the sleigh except for Cade. We almost waited too long. Little dude isn't so little anymore.

We also drug out our Twister game for the first time in years. The boys had a blast playing it and of course roped Dana and me into several games with them. I'm not sure about Dana, but it sure made me realize just how little flexibility I have anymore.

Cade's struggling to stay up in this solo game. Notice his tongue!

Kevin's friends Hunter and Nic even got into it. This game appears to have broken down into some alternate version.

We also spent a lot of playing time outside. Cade, more than the other two, loves being outdoors. He drags his scooter and bike and anything else he can get his hands on out every day if we let him. Even in the cold. Recently, he came up with a new way to keep his face, and nose, warm.

Ever since Cade was little, he has loved wearing gloves (and weird outfits). Of course, we can never keep a pair of gloves together so when he finds one he'll wear it Michael Jackson style for a few days until he either loses it or finds another one. Here, he found one black glove and one Spiderman glove. I think they pair nicely with the desperado look he has going. Just the other day he went into the store with me to return a movie dressed just like this except with two Spiderman gloves. If it didn't bother him, I guess it doesn't bother me. (

I'll post our Christmas pictures soon.

Busy Time of Year

A lot has happened over the last month. We finally, officially, completely and no jokely, sold our house in NM. Then we turned around a couple of days later and bought a house here. We were supposed to have closed on this house the weekend before Thanksgiving which would have worked out nicely since Dana was off from work. However, it didn't quite work out that way. Instead, the closing was pushed back a week so, with the owner's permission, we started moving in the day before Thanksgiving. One pickup and Expedition load at a time. We took most of the day off on Thursday to spend quality time getting on each other's nerves and eating the wonderful meal Dana prepared. Then we jumped back into it on Friday with the help of a couple of our friends. Good ol' U-haul apparently lost my reservation for a trailer because I was never able to get one. That would have saved at least a lot of trips back and forth if not a fair amount of time. And, living in football country, our help was only good until about 1:00 because the Auburn vs. Alabama game was coming on. But with their help, we managed to get all the heavy stuff moved. All that was left was the little stuff. And that took another 2 days. Dana slept all day so I worked Kevin and Cameron to the bone.

Having moved in and no longer owning a washing machine or dryer (our rental house had one and we sold our old stuff when we left NM), we decided to head to Sears in the wee hours of the morning on Black Friday to snag the good deal on a new washer and dryer. Actually, Dana decided that I would head to Sears in the wee hours of the morning. So I talked Kevin into heading out with me at 2:00 in the morning. As one would expect, we were the 5th person in line for the 4 sets available. To make matters worse, it was cold and rainy. I waited anyway to get a different set while Kevin wimped out after about 1/2 an hour and sat in the pickup with the heater on.

Now we're into the part of the year where it seems like hardly a day goes by without some sort of activity to keep us busy.

I really like this picture. It was a windy day and Cameron and Cade were picking up piles of leaves and throwing them in the air. Can you be any more carefree than that?

Cade had a little Thanksgiving skit with his pre-school class. He looks like a man among boys (and girls) in his class. And yes, that tiny little girl is 4 and in his class.

A couple of weeks later, they had their Christmas performance. Cade is lip-synching his heart out...


While we watch and entertain ourselves from the pews.

We forgot to take the camera with us when we went to the tree farm to get our tree so I'll describe the scene. Picture freezing weather and wind. Now imagine us shivering while we wander among all these trees trying to find one with a fairly straight trunk that isn't too tall or short or wide or butchered. Out of desperation, someone says, "How about this one," and without even looking everyone readily agrees just so we can get the heck out of there and back into the pickup with the heater on full blast. Oh yeah, and Dana had been up all night and was really tired. That's the stuff memories are made of right there.

Kevin had his 7th grade band concert a few days ago. He looked mighty handsome in his tux (which is missing the jacket in this photo but he wore it later). The band sounded pretty darn good, especially after listening to the 5th and 6th graders right before them. Kevin even said he wondered if they sounded that bad last year. Yes.

The majority of the houses on our street have made at least a minimal effort to decorate for Christmas so we couldn't go without either. This is the extent of our decorations for this year, except I'll add two little trees that we'd forgotten about to the display this weekend. It doesn't look like much here but it is voice activated. I say, "Cameron, plug in the lights," and Cameron does it.

MSFC didn't decorate their usual Christmas tree this year. Instead they created a megatree using the Saturn I. How cool is that?

We had some freezing rain yesterday. These little birds, and several others, were all over the ice that formed on the patio table. We still get a kick out of seeing the cardinals and other birds that actually have some color.

That's all for now. I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!