December Days - 12.31.10

And so another cycle of my walk through the holiday season has come to a close.  December 31st has its own tradition since moving to Indiana, in that it is the day we celebrate our Indiana Christmas!  We don't take any presents for our immediate family to Oregon with us (the trip itself is really the present) but we save December 31st after we've come home for our own little Christmas celebration.

Kyron enjoying his first cap guns

Since I didn't have to work we were able to get up in the morning and treat the day as we would if was actually December 25th.  We take a traditional family photo of all of us in our pajamas, eat breakfast while we open stockings, and before we open presents we read through the Christmas story.

This year, however, we didn't read the Christmas story from the Bible. One of the kids had gotten the The Brick Testament: The Christmas Story as a gift and we read the story from The Brick Testament instead, taking time to appreciate at the pictures.  If you're not familiar with The Brick Testament, it is a collection of stories from the Bible illustrated entirely with Legos.

All in all it was a great Indiana Christmas.  A few simple gifts to share, but great family time as the highlight.  The funniest moment of the day came when we were reading the Christmas story and we got to this picture and part of the Christmas story.....you can imagine the questions and quotes we have from Kyron on the topic and the picture itself!

December Days - 12.23.10

Today was the 3rd annual Red vs. Green family basketball game.  This is something that us boys in the family started a few years ago and it has turned into a heated family competition.  The build-up involves months worth of planning and organization as we arrange schedules and a facility to host this family event.

This year, Marcy's Dad retired from the game and the Red team had a big free agent signing with Kyron joining the team as a player.  The game was tightly contested through 4 quarters with Caleb leading the Green team in scoring and Caeden leading the Red team.  Kyron proved his value on the court scoring more points in his first game than his Dad and Uncle Travis did combined!

At the end of regulation, the score was tied 40-40 and we were prepared to call it a tie, but after some negotiation from the boys we agreed for a single overtime period.  Five minutes later we were still tied at 47-47 when the final buzzer went off.

Our boys are starting to take this game a little too serious and all the adults were nervous about the potential of driving home with someone from the losing team in their car.  I think we've decided we need to change the format of this game and find another family we can play against.  That way our family can be united as we win or lose. :-)

Big shout out to Uncle Travis for providing the custom team shirts for the game and to Kyron who was chosen as the game MVP for not only his 12 points in scoring, but his "just having fun" attitude.  The video below shows the consensus play of the game by Kyron.

December Days - 12.20.10

Tonight, the boys in the family were fortunate to be able to go to the Portland Trailblazers game, courtesy of Marcy's brother Jason.  We had great seats just a few rows from the Blazers' bench and were able to be up close to all the action on the court.

The Blazers dominated the Milwaukee Bucks in this game, and the boys still haven't stopped talking about how much fun the night was.  The Blazers were hitting a lot of three pointers and all the boys really got into the "3 Goggles" the Blazer players have made popular this season.

I just have to hope Kyron doesn't pull out the "3 Goggles" when he makes a basket in his own basketball game!

December Days - 12.14.10

In our house, when we have some exciting event to look forward to we don't measure the time in a 'days until' fashion.  It's always measured in 'sleeps', that is the number of times we will go to sleep before the anticipated day or event.

For the last couple weeks, we've been counting down sleeps until we get to go home to Oregon and visit family for the holidays.  This countdown has been especially tough on Kyron and all he has been talking about for the past 3 days/sleeps is when we get to go to Oregon.  He's even been in tears because he doesn't think it is coming fast enough.

He gave his mom the solution this morning though when he wanted to continue sleeping at nearly 10am in the morning: "If I just stay in bed I can sleep until we go to Oregon, then it's only 1 sleep!"

You've got to love the mind and reasoning of a 5 year old!

December Days - 12.8.10

We've spent most of the last few weeks focused on all the boys' basketball games, but tonight was Makela's turn to take the spotlight.  We haven't been around a lot of middle school bands in our days, but the band program at Clay Middle School is very impressive.

Makela plays the clarinet and seems to really enjoy being part of something bigger than herself.  She loves both her band teachers and always has fun stories to share with everyone at home.

Tonight the entertainment was great on stage, and enhanced by the brothers in the audience.  Whether it was Caleb goofing around and shouting to Makela from the audience in an attempt to both embarrass her and make her smile or Kyron dancing to the songs, everyone had a great time.

Quote of the night came from Kyron though after the 8th grade band finished warming up.  He simply turned to his mom and in a not very quiet voice said "That sounded terrible!"

December Days - 12.7.10

Seven days of blogging in my December Days series and now a third blog about Kyron!  The other kids are starting to voice their jealousy, but I don't think any of them would want to be the focus of this entry!

One of the tough things about growing up in our house is that sooner or later you are bound to have a picture taken that you immediately want destroyed.  The older kids are able to create such a stink about it they often times will win out, regardless of how great of a candid shot I think I got.  The younger kids, don't have the same pull (yet) and I am able to capture moments like I did tonight.  (A couple years ago I took a similar shot of Caeden)

Poor Kyron is sick tonight with a fever, body aches, and feeling like he may throw up.  Mom is out at a MOPS meeting so that leaves me as the primary caregiver and comforter.  Not sure that even taking this picture is the best way to demonstrate my sympathy for him, but it certainly captured the moment and his face says the rest.

An hour after this picture was taken, he's curled up in a blanket on the couch next to me asleep for the moment. I have a feeling I'm in for a long night though....

December Days - 12.4.10

Before moving to Indiana, the only thing we really knew about the Hoosier state was that basketball is a big deal and pretty popular. We didn't understand just how big of a deal and how popular though until our own boys started getting involved. For the past four years Caleb has been playing pretty regularly (it's the only sport he plays) and since Caeden started playing a couple years ago it has become his favorite sport too. It should be no surprise then that the youngest brother, Kyron, would develop an interest in basketball and want to play himself.

With the winter season, comes basketball season and today marked the day that Kyron had his very first organized basketball game. Maybe organized is taking it a bit too far... it was more like coaching chaos or 'herding cats'. The important thing is that Kyron had a great time and the experience lived up to the hype in his head. If anything, he looked great on the court and he was smiling the entire time!

December Days - 12.1.10

Last December I spent the month committed to posting pictures and thoughts each day about my experiences and my family's experiences during the holiday season.  My hope was that during the busyness and stress of the holiday season the commitment to take pictures and post some thoughts each day would force me to slow down to appreciate the season.  It worked so well, I've decided to do it again.  So, consider this an invitation to journey through the holidays with me and my family and check in on us each day.

It is sort of fitting that on the first day of December we would wake up to snow.  Although not the official start of winter, in my head winter doesn't really start until December.  So when the kids woke up today to a dusting of snow on the ground it was fun to watch how excited they were.  Kyron was the most excited, planning his afternoon of sledding and snow ball fights.  There wasn't nearly that much snow to warrant that type of planning, but eventually the snow excitement turned to just plain goofiness before school and Kyron had us all laughing to start our day.  It's that goof ball type of fun that makes Kyron so much fun and makes the rest of us smile whenever he's around.

End of an Era

This last week was a sad week in our house because it marked the end of an era for our family.  Kyron had his last day of preschool and it marked the end of that stage for our entire family.    It will be great to have all our kids in grade school and beyond, but it is amazing me at how fast that part of our life has gone by.  I am sure Kyron will do great in Kindergarden next year and have no problem adjusting to the longer days, we'll just have to see how well Mom and Dad adjust to the change.  IMUA!

Benefits of Being the Younger Brother

All our kids have played sports over the years and through all the soccer, basketball, baseball, volleyball, and football games our youngest son Kyron has been exposed to hours and hours of sports and activity, just waiting his turn. 

His turn finally came several weeks ago when he started soccer.  I blogged at that time about his first game, but we didn't realize how good he would do or how much he would like it.

The great thing about Kyron is that he seems to have fun doing whatever has his attention at the moment.  Every moment is full of smiles and it's no different each Saturday as he's playing soccer.  He's fun to watch because he clearly is just out there having fun.  When you're good at something it makes it easy to have fun, and Kyron is pretty good at soccer.  It helps that he's just bigger and faster than the other kids out there (that will change, he has my genes...) and he's been watching and playing with his older siblings for year, but for now, he's way better than other kids his age on the soccer field.  The other team hasn't scored all season when he is on the field and he hasn't had a game with fewer than six goals!

I think we'll spend the rest of the season focusing on passing and playing defense, but even his older brothers have to admit that #3 is a little superstar - at least in our house.

Kyron's Big Day

With four kids, weekends tend to always be busy with their activities. This past Saturday, however, everyone else's activities were put on hold and the day was about the youngest Kyron! We started the day with Kyron's much anticipated first soccer game! Like many little boys, all of ours have started their sporting adventures on the soccer field, so this is both the beginning of a new stage for Kyron and the end of another. He's been so excited to play though, that he's worn his shin guards and socks around the house for the past 3 weeks. Not surprisingly, when he took the field, he did pretty well and took advantage of all the backyard practice with the older siblings.

After soccer, we got ready for Kyron's birthday party.  He turns five today, but we had his party on Saturday. For his party, He had a special request for his birthday party, a scavenger hunt.  As we talked through what he wanted it became clear what he wanted was his own Amazing Race.  That got my creative juices flowing and I created The Birthday Race.  We divided the party into two teams, made "clues" for the teams to find, and had a series of challenges that led the kids around the neighborhood from houses, to the playground, to the creek and finally into the backyard for the finish line. Proving that we're a house full of reality television fans, after Kyron's "blue team" won the Birthday Race he announced "We won immunity!"  Okay, wrong show, but it was sure cute!

I look at Kyron and am amazed at how quickly the last 5 years have gone by and I also can't help but think back to how scared I was to have four children! I never imagined we'd have this big of a family, but Kyron brings so many unexpected moments of laughter to my life that I am so thankful God, as usual, worked His plan instead of mine and gave us Kyron.


Happy Birthday Bugs!

Dad's Night at PreSchool

Tonight was the last time I got to go to a Dad's night at preschool for one of my kids.  While I had a fun time going on a Bear Hunt and watching Kyron sing little songs, it was also one of the strangest Dad's night experiences I have been on over the years.
The kids all fill out a survey about their Dad's before the evening and their answers are read aloud to everyone.  Here were Kyron's answers:

MY SPECIAL DAD

• My favorite thing to do with Daddy is: play games and play bb guns with him. We have 2 BB guns.
• His favorite food is: spaghetti
• His hair color is: whitish blue
• Dad loves to watch Star Wars on TV!
• Daddy is really happy when he is watching Star Wars!

There are so many things strange about this survey.  First, we don't have ANY bb guns!  Where is he playing bb guns at?  Second, I hate spaghetti! Third, 'whitish, blue'!? Fourth, Star Wars? I can appreciate visiting a galaxy far far away, but I'm no fanboy and I haven't seen Star Wars in years. I sat there in confusion when Kyron's teacher read his answers, but after she handed me his survey his answers became a little more clear..... at the top of the survey was the first question:

• My daddy's name is: Brian

BRIAN! Really!  My own child doesn't even know my own name or all his answers were for his other Dad.......Brian.  I don't know who Brian is, but from Kyron's portrait of his Dad, he's a clearly a handsome dude.

December Days - 12.20.09

It's a pretty exciting time in our family right now as the kids have two different Aunts that are pregnant and expecting babies next summer. Since we've been in Oregon the past few days and around these Aunts, there have been lots of conversations about babies and such.

So it really shouldn't have come as a surprise tonight that when driving back to Marcy's brother's house after dinner with my parents, Kyron dropped the big question: "Mommy, how do babies get in your stomach?" His question sent the other kids into fits of "Oh, no!", "Please don't tell him right now!", "I don't want to hear this again!" Marcy just smiled and reminded me that boys were my responsibility in this area of life.

I guess this holiday season we'll be answering more mysterious of life questions beyond just how Santa fits down the fireplace chimney.

December Days - 12.15.09

Tonight we went to go see Kyron's preschool Christmas program. It's so great having him in a Christian preschool where he is learning about the true meaning of Christmas with certain jolly bearded men as after thoughts, not the main emphasis. His lessons and interest in Christmas have been a great reminded to the rest of us what the real reason for the season is. For the past few weeks he has come home singing the songs they'd been practicing and talking to us about the Christmas story, asking questions about things he didn't understand at school. Like, why'd they ride a donkey instead of drive a car? Or, "Who's the mergin Mary?" Gotta love the mind of a four year old!

December Days - 12.10.09

I think one of the favorite stages each of our kids have gone through is the stage that Kyron is in right now, year four, before kindergarten begins. He just enjoys life, isn't trying to impress anyone, and everyday brings some joy into our lives. He doesn't have any inhibitions and he isn't self conscious which gives him a freedom to just be himself without worrying what anyone else thinks. He's that kid at the basketball game that enjoys dancing to the music blaring over the PA system even though it's embarrassing his older siblings. He's that cute kid dancing on the basketball court when he's supposed to be playing defense. He's that adorable little boy hugging and kissing his mom, telling her and everyone within ear-shot "You're the best mommy in the universe!" And He's that painfully honest kid who shares his thoughts, feelings, and word for word quotes he heard from Dad with people Dad never intended to hear that much honesty. Whether he's dancing, singing, recreating his favorite Star Wars scene, or sharing family secrets, he's our Kyron and all his quirks and characteristics make him perfect....at least while I write this and he's sound asleep in the bed next to me.