What's up, Dax?

Dax has been very busy the last few months. He is attending preschool as well as doing an online preschool, so he is always working on something for school. This month his favorite preschool day was going to Hee Haw Farms. Seth and I got to go with him, and we had fun doing all the pumpkin patch activities. Dax's favorite thing was a huge slide, but he loved the corn pit as well. He wanted me to take a million pictures of him jumping in...I got some great ones, but this was my favorite.

Dax loves soccer! He just finished up a great year and scored lots of goals. He is speedy! Dax finished soccer and started basketball. He played some amazing defense his first game. He didn't let his guy get by him at all. Dax made a basket, too, which is the most important part to him.  We'll see how he does the rest of the season.

Dax is doing amazing on the piano. He loves it and that makes me happy. I never have to remind him to practice and he loves sitting down to compose his own songs too. Dax's teacher recorded some Halloween songs that he played this year. Take a listen.

Dax always keeps us laughing. He is silly and whenever anyone is sad, he tries to cheer them up by being a big goofball. Dax is also a great helper. Yesterday I went outside and saw Dax raking leaves for our neighbor. I was so proud of his deciding to help someone out all on his own. Dax is growing up so quickly and is an amazing boy!

Mark Is Alive, Too!

Mark scoring a goal...in the rain!

Mark has been playing so well this year in soccer. He is a great leader on his team and they all look to him when they aren't sure what to do. Mark is very competitive and likes to win, so he works hard on the field to make sure that they do win. One game this year it poured on us the entire time. We were all drenched. Mark was wiping water off his head most of the game. He had the chance to play goalie that game, and hated it. It was hard for him when they scored on him. I think he felt like he was letting the team down. Mark plays better up front where he can lead the charge down to the field. I was grateful that he has a good learning experience while playing goalie though.

Mark mopping water off his face!

Soaking wet!

Playing goalie.

This is at the beginning of the game in the rain.
No one looked this happy at the end. In fact, Seth was in tears!

Mark entered two pieces of art into Reflections this year. One was a picture that he drew and one was a picture that he took. He won first place for both entries! He worked very hard on them and he was excited to get two medals. I don't have a picture of his drawing, but this is the picture that he entered into photography title, "Leave No Trace." The theme was "The World Would be a Better Place If..."

Mark's entry showing ugly trash versus beautiful forest!

Mark receiving his awards from his principal, Mr. Rencher.

Mark loves his new elementary school.

Mark also had an adventure at the ER a few days ago. Right after I laid the boys down for bed, Mark came out saying his tummy hurt. So we headed to the bathroom where he proceeded to throw up. He was crying pretty loudly about the stomach pains. After he threw up the third time, Mark admitted to swallowing an eraser at school. He was chewing on a chunk of one of those pink rectangle erasers and he swallowed it. So I called Poison Control and my doctor's office and both recommended heading to the ER to make sure there was no blockage. I really didn't want to go because I know about ERs and their long waits and high costs, but Mark was hurting pretty good. So we headed to the ER where we spent the next three hours, mostly waiting. They took an X-ray and it showed that everything looked good. The doctor said he couldn't explain the vomiting (great!), but everything seemed fine on the x-ray. We were to watch him and make sure he didn't bloat, or continue to throw up. We got home about 1:15 am, and Mark seemed tons better. He did ask his dad at one point if he was going to die, so I hope he learned his lesson about putting things in his mouth. He hasn't shown any other signs of pain or problems, and Mark keeps informing me that it hasn't been in his poop yet. I'm glad that he's big enough to check.

Mark also woke up ready to go to school the next day. He was so proud that he stayed up so late and wanted to tell everyone in his class. I would have been embarrassed to admit I swallowed an eraser, but it didn't phase him one bit. He told everyone.

Mark slept almost an hour in the waiting room--lucky!

Getting an x-ray!

Waiting some more, but feeling better now!

12 year anniversary

Today Randy and I have been married for 12 years. Some days it seems way shorter than that, while other days it seems like forever. I have a hard time remembering life before Randy, and I don't want to. I am so lucky to have him in my life. He makes me a better person and treats me so well. He is the best dad and the best husband. Randy is funny, smart, and kind. I am looking forward to spending forever with him.

Yes, We Are Alive!

Holy cow! I have been very neglectful of the blog lately. There is no reason other than we lead a busy life these days, but that isn't a very good excuse. I promise to be better.

So here is an update on each one of us...well tonight it is on Randy. Randy just finished up another season of softball. We have so much fun going to the games and cheering our dad on. We also like to hang out with our family and other friends who come. They aren't the best team in the league, but they are a great group of guys!

Great hit!

Randy also played in the faculty vs. 6th grade football game last week. They play this game every year at Highland (I even used to play in it when I taught), and Randy is always the super star. He is very competitive about it...the 6th graders do not win. We had a lot of fun watching him play this year because we don't always go out and watch, but luckily Randy forgot all his gear so we had to take it to him which gave us an excuse to stay.

He's getting ready to cream those 6th graders!

Everyone loves Mr. O!

We are lucky to have such a great dad who plays sports, and coaches the boys' teams. Randy is doing great...and he has lost 15 pounds! Pretty awesome, huh?

Water Fun

Oops, this post got buried down in a list of other draft posts. So it is about a month late, but I always say, "Better late than never."

The last two weekends we have done some fun water activities. Last weekend, we went out on Utah Lake with Glen & Ty and did some tubing. Dax and Mark both rode on tubes and we had a lot of fun. Mom even braved the tube and for a brief moment Seth thought about it, but he didn't like sitting on the tube.  We ate lunch on the boat and had a great afternoon. It was a fun trip!

Dax is so excited to ride on the tube!

Seth has great sea legs. He walked all over the boat and never fell.

Ready for the first ride.

Mark wasn't so sure this year, but Ty convinced him to go.

They look slightly horrified, but I promise they are having fun.

Seth thought he was brave, but he wasn't.

We all went together. That was fun!

Mark was worn out.

Seth got to drive the boat.

He loved being captain for a little bit!

The next weekend we went to Seven Peaks. We haven't been there since Dax was a baby, so none of our boys remembered visiting this water park. We went with our friends and we had a blast! The boys were so brave. Seth rode down the slide lots of times and kept asking for more. They loved the wave pool. Mark and Dax went far into the water and tried to ride the waves back. They loved playing in the kid section, too. We spent almost 4 hours there and it flew by. It was a lot of fun!

We went down this slide about 10 times. Seth loved it!
He's helping me take this picture though, so he isn't in it.

Dax went down the kid slides a million times.

Dad and Seth also ventured down the kiddies slides.

Those are Mark's feet sticking up over the snake...he liked to dive over it.

Dax and Mark are out past Randy...they went out super far into the wave pool.

Then Dax would run from the waves.

It's Soccer Season...again!

I'm pretty sure that I write this post every spring and fall when we play soccer. But it starts to monopolize our lives, and so it is all I think about.

Mark is with his same coach from last year, but half of the team is different. Lots of boys made the decision to move on to competition soccer, instead of recreational soccer. We didn't think Mark needed to live an intense soccer life at the age of 8, so we stayed with our same league. Their team is the Ninja Turtles again which matches their green uniforms well. Mark played really well the first game...he scored 3 goals! He hustled all over the field and he worked really hard.

Warming up

It was the 8:00 AM game this week, so we didn't really get Mark's hair done! :)

Dax is on a new team this year. Randy is coaching and they are the Blue Dragons. Dax really, really wanted blue uniforms, so Randy hurried over to pick them up early. Our team looks to be pretty good. We were up 7-0 at half, but they don't keep score. Dax scored two goals, and he was running all over the field. He is so speedy! He is super excited to have his dad as his coach this year.

Excited for the game to start.

Speedy Dax!

I didn't get a picture of him before the game,
so here he is halfway through all hot and sweaty!

Dax: Lots of Firsts

Dax has had a busy week. He began a lot of new activities. First, he began piano. We were able to start Dax with Mark's old teacher who is amazing. The whole day Dax threw a huge fit about how I was supposed to teach him and he was not going, but once we were there, he had a great time. And he keeps bugging me to practice every day.

First piano lesson

The next day Dax started a reading class at our local literacy center. The class lasts for four months and is geared to helping children learn to read. Dax loved every minute of it and was so happy when he came home. I hope he makes great progress in reading.

First day of literacy class preschool.

The following day, he started preschool again. This will be his final year of preschool. Dax is 5 and could be in kindergarten but we have made the decision to wait to send him to school like we did with Mark. It has been such a great decision for Mark, and we feel it will benefit Dax, too. Dax is going to preschool right here in our neighborhood, so he really wanted to ride his bike. Here's to another great year of school for Dax!

First day of preschool

Riding his bike to school