Volunteer Pride

While we are definitely a BYU family, there is another team we ALWAYS cheer for - my Tennessee Volunteers. The 3rd Saturday in September always bring an extra flurry of orange and excitement as we face off against the evil Florida Gators. To stir the rivalry, my brother who is a Florida Alumni, is always trying to corrupt my kids by sending them Gator apparel, tagging me in Gator pictures on Facebook, etc. So we have to retailate with our own fun, like making Gator sandwiches. It was a fun afternoon, even if the game didn't turn out the right way this year!

 

GO BIG ORANGE!!

Family Night Football

A couple weeks ago we played football for family night.  When we play as a family, there are usually a few extra rules you don't always see on tv, like automatic penalties for running over the toddler eating the popsicle, you know, things like that!



Jake trying to stop Michael while Luke runs additional interference





Jake scoring a touchdown,
while Trevor is busted with an
illegal block downfield

 

The best line of the night came when Jake, Don and I were on offense and Jake wanted to make a plan of attack, so he called for us to  

"CUDDLE UP!". 

It made all of us laugh as we cuddled up in our huddle. 

Apparently cuddle up could also be a form of tackling here :)

Eventually the trees, bushes and ice pops won over Hayley, Jake and Luke.

It was a fun family night of football, although I think it pained Don to hear some of his youngest children calling huddles, "cuddles" and touchdowns, "goals".  Something tells me this won't be our last football session!

Are You Ready

for some football?

Come on over in the evenings and join the fun!

Tree Climbing is also available :)

Rise and Shout

The Cougars are out!

Football season has officially arrived...and Luke loves it!
(just like the rest of his family, what a coincidence!)

The Power of BYU Football

The most asked question in the last 2 weeks around town seems to be, "Do you have power?", followed up of course by, "So when did you get it?". I feel guilty at times, especially when the entire neighborhood surrounding our street and a couple others, were out of power for 13 long, hot days. But for posterity sake, I have been asked to post our POWERFUL story for all to enjoy.

It was Saturday afternoon after the storm. It was getting a little hot and sticky, but not too bad yet. Don had been up most of the night, monitoring the storm, and accessing damage during the day when it wasn't raining. So about 2 pm, he said, "Well, I guess I'll go try to take a nap, since there is no chance the power is going to come back on anytime soon and I can't watch the BYU game." For those few of you who don't know, Don is a HUGE BYU fan, and seriously, I think he really bleeds blue. At any rate, he was definitely looking a little blue as he headed down the hallway :)

The kids and I were playing games by the light of the front room windows and about 20minutes later, the hallway door flies open and Don is running into the front room. Again, for those of you who don't know, Don rarely runs anywhere. So he totally startled us, and as I am asking "What's wrong?", Don is fumbling for the remote to the TV. The only words I understood coming out of his mouth was "power...football". Apparently the power kicked back on at 2:25 pm, setting of the alarm in the bedroom, shooting Don out of bed into the front room. It took another minute or so before the air conditioner kicked in (Don already had remote in hand before the rest of us noticed!). By the time he reset the Satellite, which by some miracle in itself was still lined up right, the coin toss was over and BYU was lining up for the kick-off. You couldn't have timed it better if you tried. It was a powerful moment :)



And of course, we were really thankful to get power back so quickly and have AIR CONDITIONING! It also probably help save our carpet that had gotten water damage near the front windows since we quickly pulled it up and dried it out with fans and were able to clean it.

And for those of you wondering, it was an AWESOME game - GO COUGARS!

What a busy week!

This week we had the 100th day of school on Monday; Marti Gras celebrations at school, preschool at our house and Scouts on Fat Tuesday; piano lessons and Church meetings on Wednesday; Spelling Bee, Chinese New Year festivities at school and soccer & football practices on Thursday; 1 kid home sick from school & a Dad flying home from California on Friday; and on Saturday, 2 soccer games, 1 flag football game, a Chinese New Year celebration performance, Odessy of the Mind practice and a church meeting. I think the partridge in a pear tree was lost in there somewhere...

Anyway, life is busy but fun. Below are a few of the great pictures of the week. Enjoy!

Hayley & Trevor after performing at the Chinese New Year Celebration
Hayley in her cute costume
Kung Fu Trevor

Hayley resting after a great 1st quarter
Jake at the game
Trevor playing football on the sidelines of Michael's game
Michael running on defense
Jake passed out sitting backwards on the couch

Saturday Games and a GOAL!!

Today the new season of sports kicked off. Hayley had a great soccer game. She is one of the seasoned players on her young team. It is funny to see those new little soccer players in their first game, still not quite grasping the concept of using their feet to move the ball instead of their hands. Hayley didn't like it when the kids did that, but the parents sure laughed. She was convinced they just wanted the snacks and need to learn the rules better. But her disapproval didn't stop her determination to kick that ball, or to make sure she got her share of the snacks!

Then it was off to Michael's flag football game. He had some great plays at quarterback and almost had an awesome interception playing defense. I forgot the camera but soon we will get a picture up here of him and that mouthpiece he has to wear. He loves it...NOT!


Trevor scored the first goal of the season just minutes into the 1st quarter. He is also one of the older kids on his team but has the same coach from last season, and has really learned alot. It is fun to see how fast the kids learn, from Hayley's team to Trevor's, passing is happening and plays are really being made. Trev loves soccer and is really fun to watch. This is a picture from last season. It wasn't quite so hot today as it was in that picture, but we sure did enjoy going to get ice cream after the game to celebrate the goal!