Arrow of Light

Brendan just turned eleven and with that comes the advancement from the cubscouts to the boy scouts. He worked really hard the last couple of months to earn his arrow of light and was awarded it last Sunday night along with 3 of his good friends.

This is a display of his favorite things.


Brendan with his award. The paint on his face was part of the ceremony.


Josh, Hayden, Conner and Brendan with their leaders and the Cub master. Thank you for all of your help everyone!!!

Way to go Brendan!

No more yelling at the Referee

Taylor recently gave up 8 hours of free time to take a referee class. He passed and is now a certified soccer referee. We are all very proud of him. He thought he needed a part time job and this is what he decided to do. I thought it was a great idea since we are always at the soccer field anyway. He has to ref as a volunteer for a year and then next summer he can start getting paid. Yippee!!!!

Don't mess with this ref or you might get carded.

9,5,2,1

That is right. School has started again and I have kids in 9th, 5th, 2nd and 1st grades. I cannot believe how fast time flies. It seems like just yesterday I was watching Taylor go into his Kindergarten classroom. All of the kids were really excited for the first day of school. Here are a few pics of the kids in their new outfits.

Mati 1st grade

Benji 2nd grade

Brendan 5th grade

Brendan , Benji, and Mati. Don't aske me why Mati finds the ground more fascinating than looking into the camera.

Taylor 9th grade. He was in too big of a hurry and his friends were waiting so it was all I could do to get him to pose for a picture even if it is in front of the garbage can and garage.

Taylor and his goofy friends ready to go to school where they will be the big men on campus.

Goodluck kids. I know you will have a great year!!

Pioneer cup champs!!!!

We spent the last 3 days watching Brendan and his Rampage soccer team play in the Pioneer Cup soccer tournament. The team played amazing. We made it out of pool play unbeaten so we went straight to the semi finals. The semi final game was tied at the end of regulation and so we had to go into overtime. We scored in the last half of overtime to win the game and go to the finals. We started the finals down 1 -0 in the first 2 minutes, but the boys battled back and tied up the game in the last 5 minutes. Overtime again. End of 1st overtime still tied. With about 2 minutes to go in the 2nd overtime Brendan found a hole, dribbled through, shot, and landed a goal in the top left corner of the net. It was amazing!!!!! I have to say I was the proudest mom on the field at that moment. Final score Rampage 2 LaRoca 1.

The team with their medals and the team trophy.


Brendan receiving his medal.


The team holding up the team trophy.


Brendan with his medal and the team trophy.

That night the team celebrated with a trip to the Real game where they got to walk out onto the field with the parade of champions. Go Rampage!!!!

Benji and Kyle Beckerman

Brendan and Benji went to a soccer camp last week in Centerville. They both had a great time. Benji's camp was in the morning and Brendan's camp had two sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. On Thursday when I went to pick up Benji he was so excited when he got in the car because Kyle Beckerman was coming to hang out later that day. I wasn't exactly planning on staying an extra 45 minutes until he showed up and after trying to talk him out of staying he was determined to stay and meet him. I made a few phone calls, because I had some things going on later that day that I was going to have to push back and we waited for him to show up.

He showed up aroung 11:15. There were only 4 kids from Benji's group that waited around and so he pretty much got a one on one with him. He is a really nice guy and he was so nice to the kids. He signed Benji's ball, bag, cleats and a Real Salt Lake sticker. He also gave Benji a high five and asked him a bunch of questions about his soccer team and what position he likes to play and about the world cup. Benji was on cloud nine.

Benji getting a high five from Kyle Beckerman.


Kyle Beckerman signing Benji's bag.


Brendan also got to meet him. He didn't quite get the experience that Benji got but it was cool none the less. He talked to Brendan's group about soccer and what it takes to be in the MLS or any other professional soccer club. He signed Real stickers and whatever else the kids wanted. The boys loved soccer camp and told us that they wanted to take it again next year. It was definately well worth the money we spent.

Another school year over

Another school year came and went just like that. The kids had a very successful year and we were so proud of all of their good grades and accomplishments. We attended an end of year program for all of our kids which was wonderful. I do not have pictures of Brendan's program because my camera was not working very well that day.

Taylor had an awards ceremony where they celebrated the students who had been on the honor roll at least 3 of the 4 terms, had a good citizenship grade, had good attendance. The teachers also gave out awards for each individual class. Taylor was recognized for his good grades. He was on the high honor roll every term and his citizenship and attendance were great.
This is Taylor getting ready to receive his award.

Taylor receiving his certificate.

Taylor shaking the hand of the principle and a few of the other school officials.

Mati had a graduation program. You gotta love Kindergarten graduations. They sang a few songs and each child had a little part that they said. Then the teachers handed out their "diplomas". It was a great day!!

Mati and her diploma.

Mati and her class singing.

Mati receiving her diploma.

The teacher had put together a little reception in the classroom after the program. We had some refreshments and then we were able to look at book Mati had made of some of the things they did througout the year. I can't believe the progress. She is growing up.

This is Mati and her teacher Miss Washburn.


Benji's class also had a program. Their program was all about friends. It was very well done.

This is Benji getting ready to start the show.

Benji and his class singing.

Benji and his teacher Mrs. Braby.

Here's looking forward to 9th, 5th, 2nd and 1st grades.

A fight with a frisbee and a messy desk

On Sunday night Brendan and Benji went outside to play frisbee. They had only been outside for about 15 minutes when Benji comes in crying. I ran down stairs to see what had happened and this (after washing off the blood) is what I saw. The frisbee had hit Benji in the eye and cut it. Needless to say it is black and blue now. If you know anything about Benji he thinks that having a black eye is pretty cool.

This is the day after. Still a little swollen.

This morning I hollered downstairs for the kids to get in the van so we could get to school on time. I came down the stairs to this!! I asked Brendan what it was and he said that they cleaned out their desks at school. It is a wonder how all of this stuff even fit in his desk let alone his backpack to bring it all home. I was looking through the pile this afternoon and just had to smile. I found tests and assignments that had been graded, all with pretty good scores, so I don't think he was ashmed to show them to me. But I now know why I he hasn't been bringing anything home. It was all in his desk!!! Love you Bren.