Halloween (Eric and Ronda) 2009

     

Halloween (girls) 2009

Halloween (boys) 2009

Dallin Rocks at Tackle Football

   (with Coach Hankings)     (#4 Dallin)   (team captain)  (Homecoming)

Dallin convinced his mom and dad to let him play tackle football this year with LFA (the Lewisville Football Association). Like all youth football programs we had heard some scary things about the coaches in the league and I tried to scare Dallin with a bunch of stories, but he was determined...he wanted to play tackle football.  I mean, when you're walking in the Grapevine Mills mall and you see a big lady wearing a t-shirt with big LFA lettering and a football in a circle with a big slash through it, you wondering what you're getting yourself and your son into.  And, if you've read my other post about his broken arms, you can see the bruises he received that first week of tackling.   

  Dallin's tryouts consisted of a small workout and short interviews from about 12 sets of coaches.  It was interesting to see him go along the line of coaches as they asked him questions. They asked him things like, "What chores do you have at home?", "Do you like to hit or be hit?" and "Why are you playing tackle football?" (to which he heard a kid in front of him say, "because my parents are making me!). Eric and I watched from afar...just hoping he would look the coaches in the eyes and remember his "yes Sirs", which is big in TX and bigger in TX football.  

  He was drafted to play on the Ohio State Buckeyes for Coach Hankings and Coach Aldermann, who were awesome.  All of his teammates and their parents were great.  Our whole family had such a fun experience.  I'm thinking Eric might run for LFA President next year!  ha!  It definitely wasn't an easy experience.  We are serious about our football here in TX and these coaches were no different. He practiced 3-4 times week for 2 to 2 1/2 hours each time.  They were very organized and grueling workouts. He was such a CHAMP!  We are so proud of how hard he worked and how much he improved.  He played tide end and is a true Buckeye (see the picture of the pumpkin he carved and what he chose to dress like for Halloween!).  His team made it to the playoffs but lost in the quarter finals.  It was a sad day but he is already excited for next fall.

How did you break your arm...for the 5th time?

I am not often at a loss for words.  I'm a talker. However, recently in a doctors appointment with Dallin, I completely lost my mind and couldn't even think, nor speak, which caused for an awkward moment. 

Dallin has broken his arm 5 times!  His last break left him with some range of motion issues that I wanted to get checked out so I took him to a pediatric orthopedic.  The week before the appointment Dallin started tackle football.  Well, he has never played tackle football, and he was the newest kid to tackle on his team, so by this picture I think it's sufficient to say, "he took a beating the first week of learning to tackle". 

The doctor was examining his arms looking quite puzzled.  I said, "he just started tackle football", in which he just looked at me more puzzled, as if to say, "what kind of mother would let their kid do this?" (by the way, I had been thinking the same thing that week...seriously!)  He then asked Dallin, "How did you break your arm this last time?"  Dallin, being a very quiet kid, just looked at me like "what am I supposed to say?"  I meanwhile, completely forgot how he broke his arm this time and couldn't speak.  I was thinking, monkey bars? No, that was 2 other times.  Jumping off the retaining wall? No, that was a different time. It was a very quiet and awkward moment in the office.  Finally, I said to Dallin, "how did you break your arm this time?"  He, too, seemed to have a brain freeze but finally whispered, "heelies".  The Dr. couldn't hear him, nor could I, so I said, "what"...he replied a tad bit louder, "heelies", to which I exclaimed in relief, "Oh ya, heelies, you know those shoes with the wheels on the bottom?"  The Dr. just shot me another "irresponsible mom" look, but I was relieved we finally came up with the right answer!  Whew!  Needless to say I'm not looking forward to that follow up appointment.  I also didn't mention that Landon was with us and was a pretty mellow kid at previous appointments.  But he was going ballistic and they had given him a sucker which was all over him and his hands, which he got all over the doctors pants!  I have yet to receive the bill which might include a dry cleaning bill too!

Landon, A Dog's Best Friend

Today I caught Landon in the pantry with the bucket of animal crackers. (This was right before he opened a drawer and threw my favorite cute glass bowl on the hardwood floor, breaking it into a zillion pieces...but that's for another day's blogging.) As I turned the corner into the kitchen I noticed the dogs (my brother's family and their dog are still living with us) sitting by Landon. I quickly realized why they were sitting there so good. Landon had fed them each at least 10 cookies by then. While I took the time to go grab my camera I'm sure he fed them several more...but it was worth capturing the moment.

Hailey's Volleyball Team Wins 7th Grade Tournament

Hailey's 7th grade volleyball team won their tournament last weekend. It is fun to watch their team as I have coached many of the team members in the past. It's fun to see them continue to excel at this great sport. They were down 13 to 0 in game 3 of the semi-final match and came back to win the match. It was amazing! Hailey is playing the Libero position and doing a great job. We are proud of her hard work and accomplishment!

How many feet are there in your house?

Sydney came home with the following school project. It was a cute house that she colored with the title, "There are 28 feet in my house". Now we are known at the kids elementary school for having a lot of kids but I'm sure even this answer startled the teacher as she wrote on it "Wow! Sydney, how did you get your answer?", as I'm sure she was confident that Sydney was way off in her count. BUT...Sydney was right and if the teacher would have flipped the paper over she would have seen Sydney's clever little legend. She had drawn each member living in our house, including the dog. What the teacher wasn't aware of was that my brother and his family (3 of his 4 kids) and their dog, Snickers, have been living with us while they are relocating to Flower Mound. So Sydney was right..there are 28 feet in our house right now! Bet ya we got you beat? See her legend in the picture below.

In my rear view mirror

I just had to capture this memory. One of my favorite things to do while driving with Landon is to tilt my rear view mirror so I can see Landon and say "hi". It never fails that he gets so excited and just flashes me the cutest grin. It just makes my day!

The 1st Day of School 2009

  
On the first day of every school year we take pictures on "School Rock".  School Rock is located in our flower bed in the front yard.  This year I was taken back as I looked into the camera to take pictures.  My 3 school kids looked so much more grown up.  Hailey especially freaked me out. With her hair straightened and dressed up a bit (remember this is the girl that wore a camp basketball t-shirt for her school pictures in elementary school) she reminded me that she is on the brink of turning 13 in February and becoming an official "teenager".  Poor Landon was sad to be left home alone with just mom, after an eventful summer of receiving a lot of attention from his siblings.  

Summer Fun in Yellowstone and Idaho

Our family had a fun opportunity to go visit Eric's sister, Brenda, and her family in Rexburg, ID.  They recently moved into a beautiful new home and we had so much fun playing ping pong, Ticket to Ride (we came home and ordered it right away!) and doing a huge SLIP and SLIDE down the hill in their back yard park.

This summer we had a Freeman Family Reunion in Swan Valley, ID and Yellowstone.  What beautiful country.  We were lucky to stay at the Mooney "Cabin" (gorgeous and huge) right on the Snake River.  Literally the back porch is about 30 yards from the river.  This was a bit scary with Landon, however we had lots of helpers, including a leash.  

We traveled to Yellowstone and saw many beautiful sights and lots of incredible animals up close.  It was a very relaxing vacation and fun to be with our cousins, aunts & uncles and grandparents. 

The kids tie-dyed shirts and we all went canoeing, hiking, kayaking and ate lots of square ice cream from the local ice cream shop in Swan Valley, ID.

Our family had a fun opportunity to go visit Eric's sister, Brenda, and her family in Rexburg, ID.  They recently moved into a beautiful new home and we had so much fun playing ping pong, Ticket to Ride (we came home and ordered it right away!) and doing a huge SLIP and SLIDE down the hill in their back yard park.

Sydney Speaks

Sydney (7) is my child that speaks what she thinks. (More genes I'm convinced she received from her dad!). She often surprises me because Hailey and Dallin might think it (actually I don't even think they think it) but would never say it. Yesterday at her soccer game her team was not doing so well against what I can honestly say is the best 7-8 yr. old team I've ever seen . There were 2 girls that could have played on Haileys 12U Select team. At halftime they were up by probably 10 goals and I could tell Sydney was frustrated. I tried to encouage her to go back out there in the 2nd half and work hard. She just looked at me (sort of like one of those looks like "are you stupid?") and said, "Mom, we're pathetic! We should just change our name to "The Pathetics"!". "Wow"...I said, as I tried not to laugh, "that's not a kind thing to say. If you can't change your attitude then maybe you need to go home because you're team doesn't need you with that kind of attitude." She just looked right at me and said, "I'm ready to go, let's go!" I quickly backtracked and reworked my speech to try and be more encouraging. She did go out and work hard, and even scored a goal, which changed her whole outlook on the game. In the end I had been disappointed by her attitude but quite proud of her ability to use the word "pathetic" in the correct context. How many 7 year old even know that word? (in which my brother reminded me that kids get most their word use from their parents. Geez..I wish Eric wouldn't use that word so much! ha!)

Another Syd soccer story. After Sydney's first practice this season she came home to inform me that their team was changing from the red socks they've worn in previous seasons to white socks this season. So I promptly went out and bought not one pair of white socks, but three pairs. Below is a picture of her at her first game. Imagine my surprise. After the game I asked her why she told me they were changing their sock color when clearly that wasn't the case. She said, "because I'm sick of red socks, we always wear them and I wanted to wear white." Well, at least I know she is not a conformist, but we did have to discuss the need to be in the same uniform as your teammates. We love her.

Why Blog?

My friends have been after me to start a blog for a while now. I've comtemplated the reasons why people do a blog and decided that for me the reason was twofold. First, it would be a great way to keep Grandparents happy, and other family members and friends up to date on the happenings of our family. And second, it would eliminate the guilt I feel as a mom of not keeping a consistent journal or scrapbook about my family. I mean, when poor Sydney's scrapbook contains a picture of me when I was pregnant with her, that is kind of sad. She is 7. Yikes! So here goes my attempt at eliminating some guilt in my life and aspiring to be a bit like my late Grandma Hansen, who I adored, and who wrote in her journal, often daily, but always weekly for about 65 years. Since her death I have been reading and working (very slowing) on typing out those journal entries for her posterity and I can honestly say I've been blessed by her words and experiences. Since my friends told me they print out their blog entries and make them into a book each year I thought this was a great reason to "jump on board the blog train". Unfortunately I didn't know how to delete this post, but you can see that I actually started this blog on January 29th but didn't touch it again until September. I'm re-dedicating myself now, so here goes. Happy Day, Ronda

Christmas Fun 2008

On December 26th we decided to pack up and drive to Utah for some winter fun.  After a 2-day drive we arrived on Saturday evening and the kids were in awe of all the snow on the ground.  They were bummed that is was dark outside and could not wait until morning to have a snowball fight.  We went sledding, played in the snow, build snowmen and went skiing and snowboarding.  It was a memorable week.  Check out our memories below...