Putting Family First: May 2016

When we go out of town we have a good friend and her family watch Roxy for us. This time it was our turn to watch their dog, Jack. Caleb loved every minute of it. Jack is older then Roxy and he loved that he would sit still long enough for him to cuddle with.

Mothers Day! As in many area's in life my boys are very, very different and when it comes to special occasions it is no different. For my gifts Caleb puts so much time and effort in to creating a personal masterpiece. He absolutely LOVES to personalize his projects and you can tell when looking through them he has made them with such a full heart. Austin has never been as meticulous as Caleb but he made sure Jaren took him out shopping so he could get me some gifts. And even though his gifts were not hand made he took the time to make sure and get things he knew I would love (water bottles , a Dicks gift card and a bahama bucks gift card.) Thank you boys! I love you both so much and love what you each bring to our family in your own individual ways!

For Dinner on Mothers Day we had the Fish family over.

The third graders at our elementary school get to go to Nasa every year and Austin was PUMPED! He loves space and want to be an NASA engineer when he grows up. It was a long but very fun day!

Leaving the school on the chartered busses at 5:30 in the morning.
I followed the busses in my car with some of the other third grade mom.

Enjoying a snack at the rest stop.

I was the chaperone over this great group of kids.
Jackson, Austin, Tai and Sammy.

Austin and his best friend Tai behind the space ship.

The group checking out the space ship.

While we were at Nasa Jaren picked up Caleb early from school and took him wake boardning.

Wake boarding is exhausting!

The busses got back from NASA at 10:30 and it didn't take Austin long to fall asleep that night!

Austin played soccer this season and he absolutely loved it! His coaches were amazing. They focused on team work, good sportsmanship and having fun. I know not all parents want coaches like that but I do! I kind of hate the ultra competitive culture we engrain in our children from such a young age. Austin loved being part of a team and even though he wasn't the best one out there he showed up and tried and had a great time! His team ended up coming in second. They only lost one game the whole season.

Field Day at school.

Not the best picture, I know. Austin and his best friend Tai inside of the maze.

Truett, Tristen and Caleb just abut to enter the bounce house.

Nobody can say we don't play hard at our house! I love these pictures!

Caleb playing pirates with Jaren. this is a favorite for Caleb! He of course is the artist behind that amazing shirt.

So these are Jaren's tunnel vision goggles. He uses them when the boys play capture the flag in the house. Each boy starts on one end of the house and has a "flag" on their end. Then they try and sneak to the other side, snatch their brothers flag and return to their side. The one who gets the other one's flag and returns first wins. The catch is Jaren is roaming the house and if he sees you you have to start over. The boys LOVE this game!!!

A long term summer goal! Jaren and I decided to help the boys with wake boarding by making a progression chart for them. I was really nervous about it. I didn't know if the boys were going to love this idea or hate it. I didn't know if it would successfully challenge and motivate them or just frustrate them. Here was what we did. We took pictures of all the obstacles that are available to them between the two cable parks we go to and we placed a point value to them. So for one of the small kickers (a jump) they would get three points just for trying it, they didn't have to land it just try it. If they try it and land it then they get five points. The harder the obstacle or trick the more points allotted. Once they hit 135 points they get the money that we attached to the top of the board. We made it a high enough value that it would be enticing to a little boy. But the 135 points is not going to be easy to reach. And it was an all or nothing deal, they did't get to get half the points and then get half the money. They were so thrilled about this! And it is working. Now instead of just having them ride around in circles they are going off jumps, going off sliders, trying tricks. I can not believe how much it has motivated them! So much so in fact that one month into summer and they both already have 75 points! They have gotten all the points for easy things and now in order to get more points they're going to have to get really brave! I think it'll be super fun to see where they're at when the wake boarding season is over.