Love it or Hate it, wrestling season is here.....

The kids watch as the Coach demonstrates...

Brock has decided he is the champ at the monkey bars...

Casey also coaches the team, here he is giving a few words of wisdom to Brock.

Every year I whine and complain. Wrestling take up so much time, we never have family time during wrestling season. Its SO expensive, the practices are too long, its too hard on the kids...the reasons to hate it are endless...

Every year Jaysen wins his first match and the smile on his face is priceless. Brock takes home another trophy and his pride in himself grows. Those moments are life long experiences and remind me why we do this every year.

The kids started wrestling when they were 4 years old, this is the 4th year they have competed. We travel to Bayard NE, Casper WY, Sheridan WY and several others that are hours away from home. We get up before dawn to be to the tournaments before weigh-ins, and often dont get home until well after night fall. Other times we stay in a hotel for a night or two to cut down on road time. Wrestling starts in late January and goes on until early May. Four months of the four day a week practices with 2 day tournaments on almost every weekend.

Yes the sport is extreamly demanding. Yes it takes a lot of dedication from the kids and the families. Sometimes I find myself wondering who it is harder on, us or the kids.

Brock is last years State Champion. He fought hard all season and won at the state tournament. That is something he will NEVER forget, He went undefeated the first year he wrestled, he won't forget how that felt either.

Jaysen has always struggled, he has to fight hard for ever win, and occasionally gets a bronze medal. Last year he got 3rd at the Torrington Tournament-he got a trophy and was so proud of himself. He will have that to look at and remind him of how that felt forever.

I am so proud of my boys for dedicating themselves to something so challenging, something so demanding, and something that takes more inner strength than it does actual strength.

It teaches them so many life lessons about sportsmenship, losing and winning, working to get what you want and making life long friendships.

In the end, its hard to say if I really enjoy wrestling season, but I know that my kids do, and I know that what they get from it is worth more than my happiness. I know that there isn't a moment that I am prouder than my kids then when they are out there giving their all at something whether they win OR lose. It makes me so proud to see them win, but honestly even prouder to see them give their opponent a hug or high five and tell them "good job" when they lose.

They are both wrestling Bantam(7-8 year old) and Brock is weighin in at around 45lbs, Jaysen will wrestle probably 60lbs. I look forward to seeing what this season brings and what new memories we can make...there will be many more pictures to follow!

AAAHHHH-CHO

I have 2 sick kids...not awful sick, but the typical stuffy nose, cough and sneeze, watery eyes kind of sick. Kennedi is (as always) worse than Carter. She looks like a big walking snot ball. Poor girl. Carter is just coughing and has a never ending drip at the end of his nose...UGH. I should really buy stock in Kleenex. Anyhow, as any mother with sick kids knows, once they figure out the kleenex routine, its a fight. Carter does pretty good, he at least doesn't run or turn his head away from your attempts to wipe the drip. He does not however like to "blow."

"Carter, blow your nose"
"I can't mom..."
"Carter, just blow all the air out of your nose"
"ok...like this...AHHH CHO"

This is what I get today. Instead of him blowing he thinks the right thing to do is sneeze. and not a real sneeze and fake drawn out AHHH CHO. now EVERY time we get a kleenex close to his nose, he "sneezes" into it, and thinks it is OH SO FUNNY!! (which it really kind of is!)

He really is just at such a funny age, you can't help but just laugh and laugh.

Ah...Monday

No. 1 priority - So our dryer has been going out. I mean, I has slowly been dying, one day it works, the next it has no heat, the next it just wont start...whatever. It DIED. Now it runs but with no heat, and will randomly turn on and not turn off. Ever. It is officially retired and out of comission. We spent the weekend at Casey's parents...doing laundry. Normal families do not have to spend an entire weekend doing laundry, but after 6 people go through a full week without being able to wash any, it takes a while to get cought up...you do the math. No. 1 priority...Save for Washer and Dryer. Don't get me wrong, i don't mind spending the weekend at the Blevins household, but lugging all of the laundry over, making room for 4 totes of laundry, 4 children, 2 adults and the Dogs in one tahoe, makes the trip less than enjoyable.

No.2 Priority - Our fridge keeps blowing the breaker. It happened about a month ago the first time. Continued to blow every 30-45 minutes all day. Casey took it all apart and cleaned inside, worked fine. (its only a few months old...so really there was no way it was that dirty...but aparently it needed vaccumed.) guess what, woke up yesterday to the distinct sound of the breaker clicking off. UGH. Fought and fought all day, it wouldn't even stay on 5 stinkin minutes. turned off the Ice maker...stupid thing has been on since without any problem. Priority #2...call the GE Appliance center and tell them to fix my stupid Refrigerator.

No.3 Priority - TAHOE! It needs new Tires, and the engine light comes on, all of the time. With Wrestling starting, I really do want to have my tahoe in tip top condition considering all the traveling I have to do during wrestling.

all in all everything always happens at once. ALWAYS

we had planned on using our Tax Returns for some fun house stuff (ie...finishing basement, buying the kids new beds for their OWN rooms, starting landscaping on the yard...) guess this year it will go towards repairing and replacing all of our crap! (not fun)

on a Positive note...GO SAINTS!!! We are going to the superbowl! WOO HOO! I think we will have a superbowl party, My team is the saints and my Nephew LOVES the colts. This should be fun, and I love entertaining friends...so anyone interested, bring a snack, and come join the fun!

You are not a Triceratops

This is Carters Dinosaur face. ha ha ha

My friend started my day off by telling me "Chelle, you just have to find the little things that make your day different than every other"

I blew off the statement thinking, my life is so repititious, everyday is the same. I wake up at 6am, start coffee, wake Jaysen to get up for school, 7am he gets on the bus and I make breakfast for Carter and Kennedi, from that point on its housework, pets, work, more housework, and when I am lucky a few hours in the evening with Casey.

But then I thought about it. My kids are young, they do funny, cute, exciting, annoying things every single day, all of the time. Why is it that I have compleatly failed to give that any thought before. My life is far from boring like I always assume it is, I have the best entertainment anyone could ask for, and it is free!

Today Carter didn't want to go to school. He wanted to stay home with me. After having a short arguement with him about how he had to go to school today, he calmly and seriously informed me that Triceratops did NOT go to school. WHAT?!? Talk about random and totally out of the blue.
"Carter what are you talking about?"
"Mom, Triceratops don't go to school"
"you are probably right, I don't think they probabley went to school"
"no mom, They don't. And I dont' want to either"
"you aren't a triceratops and you have to go to school today"
the conversation ended there. Nothing more was said about not going to school or whether or not Triceratops went to school. However when we arrived at his classroom, he told his teacher that he was at school today, and that he was a T-rex today because they are the only dinosaurs that can go to school. He, just as serious as before, told her that Triceratops didn't go to school and that he only could be Triceratops when he was at home, but could be T-rex while he was in class.

Oh the minds of three year old boys. That was my happy memory for today, I am so thankful for my kids and even when they are quirky and goofy and a little bit odd, they are always what make my world turn.

Whats so NEW about it?

So I have been doing some thinkin, and I don't understand that HUGE deal about new years...sure its the end of one year and the start of the next. But why is it that people think that because its a new year they are going to change anything!?!

I made the silly resolutions and goals for the new year, but in all reality, you need a much better reason for doing the things you what to change then a "new year." it has to be within you, for more than that day. For more than the week before new years and probably even for more than the previous year.

I know it is super common for people to make a New Years Resolution, and within the next week or month it is long gone...why is that? What do you have to do to keep your New YEars resolutions?

To me there is nothing new about this year, I am the same, nothing has changed, nothin is going to change...I want to make all my resolutions come true, but heck I wanted all of those things last year too...so tell me, what is it that needs to happen????

Its my party...

Kennedi turned 2 on Dec 30th. Talk about getting to much all at the same time...SPOILED LITTLE GIRL! Dec 25 we did Christmas(obviously) and she got a ton of toys/cloths/junk/etc, on Dec 27th we did xmas gift exchange with my brothers family, again, more stuff for her, and then we waited until Jan 1 to celebrate her birthday; yep you guessed it, lots more STUFF!!!

Unfortunately our basement is still totally unfinished(soon to change...hopefully) and she is still sharing a room with Casey and I. The reason I say unfortunately is because i have NO WHERE to go with all of her toys! As of right now she has one huge pink tote that everything of hers gets thrown in and stuffed under the boys bunk beds, well, it is totally overflowing and doesn't really fit under the bed... :( Hopefully within the next month we will be able to start finishing the basement and we will have enough room for her things along with everyone elses!!

The party we had was small and simple, Grandparents, cousins and brothers...but she had a great time, she enjoyed dumping the bagged giftes and ripping (more) wrapping paper. and everything she got was true blue Kennedi. Her family knows her well and she didn't get a gift she didn't love (except maybe the cloths that we got her, she didn't get to excited about them!)

The party we extreme last minute so I feel a little bad about the cake, talk about simply and embarrassing! usually I make these awesome great cakes for everyone, and poor kennedi got a simple white heart with pink letters, looking at the pictures though, she didn't seem to notice as she shoved it into her mouth!

Overall her birthday was great and she is healthy which is what I am most thankful for...It has been almost a year without any health problems...Im hoping that it continues and next year I can say "its been almost 2 Years" I am glad that she had such a great time, but I have to say I am thankful that its all over and we have a few months to recouperate now before any big events in our family.

The newest addition to the family...yep officially I am crazy!

This is Maggie. Something in my mind made me believe that our existing family of 6 people, 1 dog, 1 cat, 1 fish and 1 ferrett just wasn't quite enough. So we got Maggie. A Beagel-Bassett hound cross, super cute, super sweet and yeah super dumb. I shouldn't say that, she isn't really dumb, she just really doesnt listen...at all. not the annoying doesn't obey commands, she doesn't listen to anything at all...if it werent for the fact that occasionally she responds I may think she was deaf... but im quite sure its just pure stubbornness and not caring that she doesn't listen. Its a good think she is so sweet, because we all love her anyway!

Happy 2010

Nathan, playing the Wii around midnight...him and Casey challenged eachother on Wii Resort most of the nightBrock and Kennedi enjoying the last few hours of 2009 with eachother

All of the kiddos playing, dancing, and being crazy to "who let the dogs out" what is it about that song that kids like so much?

Jaysen and Josh watching and waiting for their turn on the Wii

everyone again, enjoying eachother and the last of the year!

Well, even though its the most generic blog post ever, you still gotta do it! HAPPY NEW YEAR! Its crazy that it is already 2010! another year gone, another year older, another year wiser. Another year to look forward to, another to make memories in and another to try to improve yourself!

Typically people go out, bring in the new year with Friends or random people at the bar, drink entirely too much alcohol, try to drive home and hope not to get caught. People give those Officers a reason to work on new years...

Well, we chose a different (probably much smarter) way to spend our last day of the year. We had our neices and nephews out to our house, stayed home and had a party with the kiddos. It was SO fun! We had frozen pizza, junk food, soda and misc snacks. Stayed up all night playing board games, Wii, computer games, listening to music, and laughing hystarically at the kids. The kids had a blast and we all made some great memories(along with getting some great photos!)

We had such a good year, We moved into our house in the country, its been great living out here, had our first "real" garden, my first custom kitchen, made just for me, Casey is close to his job which saves us lots of gas money, Brock won 1st place at State Wrestling, the kids have all been overall healthy, I started a new job that I really enjoy, made and Re-united with great friends. yeah, there have been the ups and of course the downs, but overall its been a good year!

TOP TEN NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS:

~10...I hope this year to spend more quality time together as a Family...so my goal...Family night once a week, games, projects, mini-vacations, anything as long as it is all of us together once a week.

~9...I want to spend more time alone with Casey, so I am shooting for a mommy and daddy DATE night at least twice a month. Even if we just stay home I think it is important to have a few nights a month with just adults, NO KIDS!

~8...Seriously!!! SAVE MONEY! my goal for the year is to pay off all the Dr bills, debts and IOU's and really truely start being smart with our money.

~7...I need to spend the time to organize my house, my kitchen, bedrooms, everything! Also included in this I am hoping to finish the flooring in the bedrooms and all of the basement. our plan is to use our Tax Returns to finish the basement so that all the kids have their own rooms and our house is really truely big enough for our family of 6!

~6...I am trying really hard to be positive and not be so grumpy all of the time, my goal for the year is to improve my temper and overall mood!

~5...I want to find an activity for each of the kids, Jaysen wants to continue lessons and learn to play his Guitar, so my goal for him is to continually and regularly go to guitar lessons, and for the other kids, to find something they are passionate about and keep them doing it!

~4...Kennedi is offically cut off of the bottle. My goal is to not fall into her demands for giving it too her and keep her off of the bottle and on her big girl cups.

~3...I am going to try to make it to Bible study and church at least a couple times a month, I haven' t been going at all and think that if I start with a couple times a month this year it would help my overall outlook on life.

~2...I try really hard to keep healthy snacks in the house for the kids and us, I want to work harder on always having snacks and meals ready and planned that are healthy and cover they food groups that the kids need to be healthey!

~1...my number one goal for the year is the same as probably 90% of everyone elses...to lose weight and get healthier, exercise daily, eat healthier and lose this weight I keep blaming on having Carter and Kennedi so close together...Kennedi is now 2, no need for babyfat anymore!!!

Happy New Year everyone, I hope you all have a great year filled with love, happiness and great memories...now that I have shared with you my resolutions, i would love to hear all about yours...post me a message telling me your goals for the new year!