Utah Summer Games

This past weekend our family traveled to Cedar City for the Utah Summer Games. Hayden's Tae Kwon Do Performance Team was performing, and Hayden was competing in sparring. We drove Friday, stayed in a hotel and arrived at the tournament at 8:15am for check-in.

This was the opening ceremonies.

Team Jaguar did a great job on their performance, blowing the competition out of the water! They all received gold medals.


The team, displaying their gold medals.

Hayden with his gold medal.

After what seemed like forever, the sparring event finally came up. Here's Hayden geared up and watching the black belts spar.

Here's Hayden sparring for the gold. The boy he sparred was several inches bigger than him, but Hayden was aggressive and never backed down.

They were tied most of the round, but in the last 15 seconds, his opponent got in two good hits and beat Hayden 8-6.

Hayden received Silver and couldn't have been happier. He LOVES sparring which is so funny, given his mild, quiet personality. We were so proud of him! And now that competing is in his blood, he can't wait for several tournaments coming in the next few months.

The three other children were troopers. The tournament lasted over 8 long hours, with no lunch break. Imagine trying to keep an extremely active one year old content for 8 hours, on bleachers. I'm not going to lie...it was a nightmare. When Hayden's turn finally came up to spar, they all came down to the mats to watch. By the end of his two minute match this is what they all looked like...

Summary

Hotel room: 110.00

Gas: 60.00

Food: 50.00

Registration fees: 35.00

3 bored, tired, hungry siblings: too expensive (and excruciating) to count.

One Gold Medal, One Silver Medal, One Happy boy: Priceless ( I think).

The Isabella Version...

Today, Isabella was doing a puzzle on the Friend magazine site and was singing along to the "I Love to See the Temple" music playing in the background.

This is what she sang:

I love to see the temple, I'm going there someday, to feel the Holy Spirit, to listen and to pray. For the temple is a house of God, a place of love and beauty, I'll prepare myself while I am young. This is my Secret Booty."

I hope, I hope, with all my heart that she is standing right next to the microphone and singing at the top of her lungs when the Primary program rolls around!

The Tornado (a.k.a. Gavin)

Gavin is a force to be reckoned with. Seriously. He is a cyclone who leaves a wide path of destruction in his wake. The majority of my day is spent cleaning up after his disasters. Just since I sat down to write this, I have had to get up twice to get him out of trouble. Once, to pick up the jumbo size box of Q-tips he dumped out, and once to put away the perfume he sprayed all over the bathroom (that I thought he couldn't reach) and search for it's lid (which I never found).

This week has been a busy one for Mr. G. He turned 15 months, started walking, and moved from the high chair to a booster seat. He also threw my cell phone into the tub, dumped a quart of RED paint on my storage room floor (ruining his clothes, my clothes and the spatula I had to use to scrape it up off the floor) Dumped the contents of our cabinets on the floor 632 times (Yes, they have child safety locks on them.) and pulled all the books off the bottom two shelves of all our bookcases (we have a whole wall that is nothing but bookcases) like a man posessed.

He won't touch food with his hands, and he won't let me feed him, so I have to stab the food with his fork, hand it to him, he eats and hands the fork back to me. He loves being outside (because he can peer over the edge into our window wells and hang out in the middle of the street...which is why he doesn't spend too much time outside...)and stares out the window many times a day. He also loves dogs and climbs on my nightstand to look and bark at the neighbors dog. He exhausts me!

But in saying that, I can't resist him. He gives me loves 100 times a day and he pronounces "Mom" like a teenager. He smiles constantly and melts my heart. I guess that's the thing with a tornado. Even amidst their destruction, they manage to suck you right in!

The blankie-thumb combo. So cute.

Watching his siblings play in the yard. Poor, deprived kid.

Flashing me those baby blues that I can't resist.

Benson Turns Five!

Benson turned 5, April 7th. Apparently, this is a milestone Birthday for him. "Because I'm five now", follows much of what he says. For instance:

"I didn't throw a fit over the snack, because I'm five now."

or

"You don't have to tell me where to put my clean clothes, because I'm five now."

or

"Did you ask me to say the prayer because I'm five now?"

He is such a sweet, easy-going little guy. When we asked him what he wanted for his Birthday he said he wanted a suprise. When we asked where he wanted to go for his Birthday dinner, he said he wanted to take sandwiches to the park.

Benson at 5: He can do math word problems in his head.

He's in Speech Therapy and making steady progress.

He's far more interested in collecting treasures (nails, rocks, etc.) than playing with toys.

He is dangerously fast on his scooter.

He loves hiking and being outdoors.

He loves sports and is excited to start soccer this year.

He's mischevious and very quiet...a scary combination.

He's super cute and super sweet and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this kid!

Karate Kid

It's official, I am a serious Karate Mom. Hayden has become deeply intrenched in the world of Martial Arts and because I am his number one fan, so have I. I LOVE his school, Jaguar Sport Karate (they emphasize TaeKwonDo but teach mixed arts) and his instructor, Lee Barnard. He teaches TaeKwonDo like a sport, therefore they can't test for belts until they are seven, and he doesn't hand out belts very easily...it's tougher than any other school I've seen. Now that Hayden is seven, he'll be testing for his yellow belt on the 17th. Anyway, Hayden is part of the competition performance team, in addition to his normal classes. A couple of Fridays ago, Hayden's team performed at the Utah Flash Half-Time show. They rehearsed for months and did a great job! We were so proud of Hayden. He didn't seem nervous and he never missed a beat. Afterwards, he came up and said "That was so much fun! Can we do it again?" This was huge coming from Hayden, considering the size of the crowd and his anxiety issues. Here's some pictures of the event...We have a video, but have yet to find the USB cable to upload it so the video will have to wait.

Here are a few members of Team Jaguar, all decked out in their Performance uniforms, before the half-time show.

Beginning of the routine.

Hayden is on your far right. They had the little guys do their own little part.

Hayden's instructor doing his routine. He's amazing. He has four seperate black belts in different styles of Martial Arts. He's a National Champion kick boxer and was a gang detective for the LAPD.

Hayden, after the performance. Great Job Hayden!

Next on the schedule: Hayden will be competing and performing at the Utah Summer Games in Cedar City!

Somewhere in Ohio

I've never been terribly sentimental. I'm the type of person that chucks my kids artwork in the trash when they're not looking (a fridge door can only hold so much!). I have one exception...Anything to do with Tory. I have kept every card, letter and sticky note he has ever written me. I have a journal where I record all the sweet things he says to me. And I still have saved on my Hotmail account emails he wrote me two years ago.

Tory is out of town right now. Somewhere in Ohio. His keenly felt absence has kicked my sentimentality into overdrive. I switched my pillow for his because it smells like him. I drug his dirty shirt out of the laundry to sleep with and as I was loading the dishwasher yesterday I put in a glass, took it out, deliberated, put it back in. As embarrassing as it is to admit it, Tory drank out of that glass and I wasn't sure I was ready to wash it just yet. I know...it's pathetic. More so when you consider that he's only been gone for 2 days (9 more to go) and he's out of town all the time, as in once a month, at least. You think I would have a better grip by now.

That's the power the boy has over me. I've become a sentimental crazy lady. It's going to be a long 9 days. Until then, my heart and my sanity are somewhere in Ohio.

Gavin Turns One!

It's hard for me to believe, but Mr. Gavin turned one this past weekend! Here are a few things that Gavin is doing ...

1. He wakes up between 4:30 and 5:30 for the day, everyday.
2. He discriminates against the orange and yellow Fruit loops, he refuses to eat them.
3. As soon as anybody picks him up, he lays his head on their shoulder and hugs them.
4. He smiles ALL the time!
5. He has no intersest in walking...or standing up to furniture.
6. He crawls by dragging himself by one arm and pushing off with his big toes.
7. He has the biggest gap between his upper teeth I've ever seen.
8. He can say Mama, Dada, Hi and Uh-Oh.
9. He has his siblings wrapped around his finger.
10.He brings so much fun and joy to our family.

Happy Birthday, Sweet Gavin! We love you!