Monday, August 29, 2011

Shook Up

Shook came to practice tonight at the end. Poor kid looked miserable. He had the surgery on his arm Saturday. They put a pin and a screw in. Said it was a pretty good break, it even chipped off a piece of bone. His Dad said he was holding up pretty well though. He wanted to bring him so all the kids could talk to him and see how he was doing. It shook them all up pretty well. Everyone gathered around him. Coaches said they are going to miss him but we want to win the season so he can come play in the play-offs. Poor kid looked like he was going to cry. I know he is going to miss this. He was our fastest guy, too. T.J. was in his class last year at school. I'm glad they go to the same school so T.J. can still see him and let him know how things are going. I hate thinking there's going to be more injuries during the season. Hopefully they aren't as bad as this one was. This has brought the team closer though. We have good kids on this team.

Saturday, August 27, 2011

T.J.'s First Real Scrimmage Game Against Bingham

T.J. had his first real scrimmage game against Bingham today (their rivals!). A big game for us, especially since Jared went to Bingham. This was a practice game before the season fully kicks off next weekend. Man, are these games INTENSE! First off, there are five different fields everyone is playing on at this small park so the parking is a joke, there are people everywhere!, and everyone is SO into this. They had a BBQ going on, a snow shack, and treats you could buy. Cops everywhere. It was crazy!                                                                                                                                             It was a fundraiser day so we all had to pay to get in. We got there an hour before it started. T.J. got his X on his helmet. We only have 3 X men on our team. And everyone got their wrist bands to help them remember what they do on which plays it is.
Getting ready with wristbands.


It was so hot! And this park didn't have much shade. The boys were trying to stay cool before the game.

But not our boys. They were a little crazy. I think from all the excitement there. Aren't they cute in their jersey's though?!

                              
Warm-ups. T.J. is on the second row from the back on the very left.


Love this!!! Good spirit about them. This has really helped them get motivated more.

Pep talk before the game. Coach Joel gave a good one. Some kids were scared about getting hurt. He told them to do the best they could and do what they've been taught these last few weeks.

First kick-off.

GAME BEGINS: Seriously within the first minute of the game, we score a TOUCHDOWN!!! It was awesome! Shook took the ball and ran it the whole way, about 50 yards without getting tackled! We all went crazy!! I would have had a picture but it turned out really blurry.  :(
T.J.'s on the defensive line. He's out there blocking right now. He was blocking center.

T.J. is right there in the middle blocking. The saddest thing happened on this play. It was seriously within the first 3 minutes of the game. Shook, who had just scored our touchdown, was running down field with the ball and got tackled. Not just tackled, but they held onto his right arm and somehow he came down on his left elbow and broke it pretty bad. At first they thought it was just dislocated, but after x-rays they saw how bad it was. He had surgery that day and had a pin and screw put in. He gets his cast in 2 weeks, and has to wear it for 6. Poor kid. He's out the rest of the season now. You could see as he and one of our coaches was walking off the field that his elbow was pretty messed up. 

The medic vehicle until the ambulance could get there. They have EMT's on scene at every game. The kids who were on the side lines watched in shock as they helped Shook. They hooked him up to an IV and gave him pain meds fast. Jared went over to the players and reminded them to pay attention to the game. He told them "Let's win this for Shook. Now get out there and make they pay for doing this to him."

Poor kid. Once the pain meds kicked in he told his dad he was feeling better and wanted to get back out there.

T.J. did awesome!!! They all did. They hit hard, blocked well, and really worked well as a team.

Half time. They got watermelon.

We were so impressed with T.J.'s blocking. He did so well. He knocked over the center almost every time. He got knocked over once, but jumped up and ran to block some more like he was supposed to. We were so happy with how well he did.

T.J.'s team ended up scoring 2 more touchdowns and we won 21-0!!!! It was AWESOME!!!!!!


The coaches couldn't have been happier with them. We all were. The coaches later told T.J. he was the fumbler out there. 3 different times when we were on defense, Bingham's center (whom T.J. was blocking) would hike the ball, T.J. would immediately hit him and knock him into the quarterback, causing him to fumble the ball almost every time!! They said T.J. was one of the reasons Bingham didn't score!! Way to go T.J.!!!

Carrie, Clare, Heather, Teegan, and Kai, and also Jared's cousin Dallen, his wife Whitney and their cute baby Remington came to watch. Dallen used to play in high school and said he'd love to come watch T.J.

T.J. loved it! He said playing that was so much fun. Oh, he's so cute!

We stayed after to watch Brodie play his game. T.J. was so hot so he sat under this tree most of the time.

T.J. loved when Brodie came over to the sidelines. He'd only get to talk for a sec but they are so excited to be playing. It's so cute to listen to them talk. Brodie's team ended up loosing 0 to 7.

Afterwards we had to stop for Slurpee's to celebrate. Plus, cool us down. What an awesome game it was!!! I love this whole football thing. I love the spirit about it. And watching all those cute boys out there!





Friday, August 26, 2011

So Excited!!!

I have awesome news!!!! My brother Jim and his wife Cherie are going to have a baby!!!! Wahoo!!! They came and told us on August 1st, the day they found out, while we were at T.J.'s first day of tryouts. Oh, I was so happy. I couldn't stop laughing!! People around us must have known something was going on. The boys are excited, too. But we had to keep it a secret for a while. They wanted to make sure everything was ok. I thought the boys would have a hard time with this, but they did really good and didn't tell anyone.

Cherie had her first ultrasound today and sent me this picture...
So dang cute!! My niece or nephew's first picture!
Everyone thinks it looks like a gummy bear. I do too.
She's due March 30 or 31. Same month as Hunter's birthday.

Aren't they going to be good parents?!

(Never leave your camera on the floor at church when they are sitting right behind you. You just might end up with this as your new screen saver.)

Congratulations Jim and Cherie!!!

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Jared was helping the boys with their spelling words before the their big tests tomorrow. While he was helping Hunter, he could tell he was having trouble with a couple of words. He just couldn't remember how to spell as and sit. So Jared being his clever self thought of a way for him to remember the word as. He said, "It's like spelling a...s...s, but with only one s." Oh dear. So the rest of the night Hunter is making up these songs spelling out a...s...s. I'm going got be so embarrassed if he brings home his spelling test and has a...s...s written down. Thanks goodness he didn't remember how to spell the other word that's like sit, if you know what I'm saying.

** I must explain we do not use that kind of language around here. Doing rodeo we heard every word in the book and so the boys soon learned what words we don't say. But being boys, they get a little giggly when they start spelling them cause they know they aren't supposed to. That's why Jared thought Hunter would remember how to spell as if he put this twist on it. Trust Jared to come up with this. I think I'll stick to the spelling with the kids from now on. **

Monday, August 22, 2011

Missin' Sara

I've tried not to think about it much, but tonight it hit me. I saw pictures of Sara posted on facebook by her mom tonight. She started 3rd grade today. Sara is my niece... my brother Jeff's kid. We haven't seen her since Valentine's Day; 6 months and 8 days to be exact. I miss her. My brother has lost custody of her for a while. Not because of what the Judge has said, but because of Sara's mom's and grandma's decision. It's a long story that I don't want to get into, but it isn't right. Tonight, seeing those pictures, I realized how much she's grown up since we've seen her. Last February she didn't have her front teeth, but now they've grown in. I can tell she's taller. And she just plain looks older. We miss her. My boys miss her so much. When making Cody's baptism movie, we put in pictures of her with our boys. Instead of watching this movie and being excited about all these fun pictures of growing up, they saw Sara and realized how long it's been since we've seen her. Hunter said, "What happened to her?" 'Bout made me want to cry. How do you explain this to kids? How do you tell them we don't know when the next time we'll see her is? For now, I'll add in some pictures of her that I love, and hope I can add some new ones in soon.
Sara giving Cody kisses. They are only 5 months apart. Cody loves Sara.

I love this picture of Sara with T.J.

My boys with their cousins Sara and Teegan.

Love this cute face! She's a spunky little gal.

She got to come to one rodeo with us.

Took these next 3 at our house. Love these pictures!

Love the wrangler butts! Cody and Sara were checking our the fish in the horse trough so I snapped this fast.

Horseyville is such a tease!

Love this picture of Sara and Jeff.

She loved riding the 4-wheeler with the boys.

Such a tease to Grandpa!


Sara with our cute puppies.

Sara signing the sign in book at Jim and Cherie's wedding. She looked so cute that night!

She always wanted to ride a horse so Jared saddled one up for her. She wanted to dress like the boys to ride so she wore chaps and a vest that were too small, some of their wranglers and a pair of boots. A country girl at heart!

Cody and Sara both lost their front teeth for Christmas.

This is a picture her mom put on facebook of her first day of 3rd grade. Made me cry seeing these pictures of her.

We miss Sara so much. Sometimes others don't realize how the choices they make really affect others lives. My boys miss their cousin, I miss my niece, my parents miss their granddaughter, and so on. Break-ups are hard on the families, too. I know we'll see Sara again, just wish I knew when. We love you Sara!

Friday, August 19, 2011

Psycho Birds

I was out feeding tonight, in the dark cause we are at football till late, and Jared is gone overnight with Young Men's stuff. I knew the turkeys were out of water, so I thought now would be the perfect time to water them since they were all bedded down for the night. So I open the turkey coop, step in, and shine my light around to make sure there's no birds. Coast is clear. So I start pouring the water in. Next thing I hear is some cooing from the turkeys. I thought to myself, "This isn't good." I looked all over but didn't see them. So I continue pouring. I can still hear the cooing but still see nothing. I'm trying to hurry as fast as I can, I finally finish, then it hits me.... look up. Let's just say I had a mini heart attack. Here's what I saw....
Four stupid turkeys peering down at me from the rafters. Oh... my... gosh! Seriously... mini heart attack.These birds are psycho. If you've seen the movie The Birds by Alfred Hitchcock, you might have an idea of what I mean. These turkeys are crazy! We've never had turkeys like this. Usually the type we get are so sweet they just follow you around the yard. Not these stupid things. They fly all over the place like we're going to kill them. I hate walking into the coop when they are in there. It's a sea of feathers when we do cause they freak out and fly around crazy in that small coop. I usually refuse to go in there. I make Jared do all the watering, but I had no choice tonight. (I think he did this on purpose to teach me a lesson. Didn't work.)
I wish the camera could have gotten all four turkeys so you could see just how scary it was. But my small light would only shine on two. These birds are pretty big. I'm guessing at least 25 lbs. on the hens, and the tom around 30. That's a lot of crazy bird to be flying around. Not sure why the stupid things are perched up there. Jared built them somewhere to bed down, lay eggs, etc. But nope, these birds are picky birds and would rather be in the rafters so they can scare the livin' day lights outa me!

Poor Jeffery. He's still so scared! Found him outside in the turkey run with is head hiding down in the dirt. Hopefully one day he will learn to like other turkeys. Guess that's what happens when he only sees humans for 2 months. Still can't believe he's the only turkey that hatched.


T.J.'s Practices...

I am really impressed with T.J. and how far he's come with 3 weeks of football. He's hitting harder, running faster, and understanding everything so well. He really likes it. The hardest part is having practice every day, plus school, and homework. Football and school have become his life. He has no time for anything else. He's happy it gets him out of scouts, but it doesn't leave any room for down time. Once games start though, it will go down to 3 practices a week plus games every Saturday.
Our practices got moved to the field by our library in Riverton. It's still about the same distance. I like being right by the library because the boys can go check out books and read while we are right there, plus stuff gets turned in now so hopefully no more overdue fines.
Here's some pictures and movie clips from this week's practices...

Watching from the side lines. See how close we are to the library.

What we do during some of the practices.



My favorite thing to watch!! T.J. is like this solid, steady steam train that comes busting in. He's doing really good at this. He doesn't run the fastest, but he's got the power to make up for it.




So very thirsty. They have to take their helmets off to get drinks so they can cool off a little more.

They played their first scrimmage game yesterday against another B team. Our team CREAMED them!!! That's when Jared was really impressed with our coaches. He could see just how much more work and training our boys get. I love our coaches. They are so upbeat and positive for these boys. Plus, they are very organized. We start right on time, each coach knows exactly what they are doing, and we end right on time.


Jared giving tips from the sideline. I wish so bad he could have coached this year.

Coach had every kid take turns on each play giving each member an equal chance to play.

T.J. was not afraid to hit this team. He was definitely more aggressive. I think he isn't as much with his own team because he doesn't want to hurt them. T.J. is right in the middle. He has just a touch of green on under his jersey.

I love this picture even though you can only see part of it.

Warm ups today. One of the coaches kid is helping this year train ours. He was playing last year and got his head cracked so he can't play this year. (Scary!)
Jumping Jacks. They call them Wolf Jacks for the Riverton Wolves.


T.J. has been so excited for this practice!! His team was playing a scrimmage game against Brodie's!!!! That's T.J. blocking Brodie! They had it set perfectly so he could block him! He was so excited.

T.J. blocking Brodie.
And again.
And again. Both T.J. and Brodie are good at blocking. T.J. came out and said, "Brodie's a lot easier to block then I thought he would be." I said, "Ya, cause you've got 50 lbs. on him." Haha!
They did good against this team. We tied them. I think we could have done better but our team didn't seem to have their hearts there tonight. Probably cause of the heat and humidity today. It's been a hot one. So glad we moved to this park with more shade for everyone.

Jamie, Cherie and Jim came to watch this scrimmage.

More water.

I love this football!! I don't understand it very well but I can see myself getting very hooked on it. I'm already cheering at these scrimmages! It's so cute watching these boys out playing real football. I love hanging out with our boys. I'm so glad we had 3 right in a row. I love boy stuff. I love boys period!