Home School 101

Here we are, day 3 of home school. Hayden is loving it. It is actually going much better than I thought it would be. I knew God had been pushing us in this direction for awhile. Zach was a little jealous at first but his sports are way too important to give up to be home schooled to him.

Hayden has been rocking the math. It has been some pre-algebra and I was afraid it was too advanced for him but he has been doing well with it!

Out With The Old And In With The New

Yes, I am a loser yet again by not getting this done sooner but I enjoyed the holidays but I am glad they are over. Time to move on with life and see what God has in store us. Here is a picture of our lovely tree. Shawn and I had started the red, white and blue theme the first Christmas after 9/11. It is really cool. We have firemen, police officers and American flag decorations. We have added a lot of the kids ornaments over the years. It shows what our family is about and I really like it.

Why is it when boys hit 13 they don't want their pictures taken anymore? Zach is way too cool for all of this (by the way, he is now officially taller than me and reminds me of this everyday). Hayden is still just the sweetest kid that always has a nice smile for me.

Our boys enjoyed the snow very much. This was Hayden's creation that he did all by himself. I think he did a great job!

Shawn and his pup, McCoy. They love each other and Shawn has this pup working like a well oiled machine except for McCoys interest in cords (phone chargers, DSi chargers, etc....)

McCoy has been such a great addition to our family. We are so blessed with this fabulous animal.

Bitter Sweet November

Since I last posted, a lot has been going on. Busy with school, work and family activities. Here are a few pics to show how our last month or so has been. Hayden just keeps on bowling well. Here is his new bowling shirt along with some of the new awards he has won. He gets better every week. Started out with a 56 avg and as of last week he had an 80 average. He loves doing it!

Football season finally ended. Not exactly how Zach had imagined. Ended with a record of 3-4-1. Hopefully it will be better next year. He decided not to play basketball and now is doing off season. High school coaches do their off-season program and they are kicking Z's booty!

Our sweet Yogi. We had to put him down yesterday. Since my last post he had a knot show up on his leg. It turned out to be bone cancer and it just grew like crazy the past month. He was in a lot of pain and even though it was hard, it was the best thing for him. We are recovering.

Meet this new guy. His name is McCoy. He is our new baby. He seems to help the pain of losing Yogi but he definitely has his own personality. We are so blessed to have him. Thanks Julie and Bubba!

He is 8 wks-old today. We are starting to train him from a book called "Game Dog" by Richard Wolters on the advice of our pastor. He has 3 labs he trains this way. I will let u know how it goes! Hope not to take so long next time to post! LOL!

Rollin' On Into October

Things continue to busy around here. Bowling and football. Thats our lives lately! Hayden got an award for bowling a 200pt 3 game series. He got to put it on his brand new bowling shoes.

Hayden and Shawn doing there usual fall planting. This is there favorite thing to do together.

Zach's team keeps rolling on. They beat Plainview 12-8 last Tuesday. Would have been more but our offense had some miscues. Defense was stellar except giving up the 2 pt conversion after Plainviews pick 6. Big game this week coming up against Canyon. Good luck Tigers!

September Ups and Downs

Being September, it has been all about bowling and football in my house. Hayden's bowling league is off and running. He got new bowling shoes and a bag yesterday. He is ready to bowl both sessions and then go bowl in the State tourney in June.

Zach has been busy on the football field. His team is 2-1-1. Not too bad. He is enjoying it and hopes all his teammates grades keep them on the field.

The downs this month have been the motorcycle accident involving our friend, Toby Wimberley almost 2 weeks ago. I think we are past the life and death thing for now but he has a long, long road to recovery.
Shawn suffered a loss of a co-worker yesterday. "Big Steve" West died from head injuries that he suffered at work last week. He was just a 20 yr-old kid that loved to talk football. My thoughts are with his mom today. Hayden's styling bag!

He is so glad he doesn't have to use the bowling alleys shoes now

Zach took care of #24 in red on both offense and defense.

Zach on back-to-back plays!

August Is A Wrap

Ok, I guess I will get August caught up for you guys. I have been very lazy lately in getting this done. Now maybe my ears will quit burning! This post will make more sense if you start from the bottom and come up. This is a picture of Zach from last football season. His 7th grade season starts a week from tomorrow. We can't wait. I got an exciting call from him after school this afternoon that went something like this: "Mom, did u see any of my practice this morning?". " No, Zach, I was tired after work and went to bed.". " We had first day of pads and I was lighting kids UP!". "Did the coaches say anything to you?". "No, they all just had a look of shock on their faces!". I love, love to watch this kid play football. It is just amazes me. So ready to see the first game. For all you non-facebook folks, I will post a schedule on here soon. Those that are not on FB, get on FB. It is an awesome tool to keep up with folks. It is the grown up Myspace. Check it out!

Aug 24th: Kids first day of school. Don't they look excited? Zach with a cheesy smile and Hayden with his eyes closed. 1st week went off without a hitch. Hope the rest of the year is that way!

Aug 22nd: Zach's last summer workout with Shawn. He hated it at the time but now that football has started, he is really glad he did it!

Aug 21st: Zach's last baseball game. It didn't end like we wanted it to but at least Nanny Sue got to come watch him play!

Aug 15th: Our sweet Hayden celebrated his 9th birthday. He is one of the most sincere, genuine kiddos I know. Can't believe how fast he is growing up!

Hand Therapist Rock!

Aug. 5th: Meet Mack and Carin. They are hand therapist that have done an awesome job with Hayden's hand therapy. Mack is one of the funniest guys you will meet that knows all about hands. Carin is so sweet and did an awesome job working with Hayden, always keeping him smiling even when he didn't want to. Thanks guys for your hard work. PS- Tell Johnny he missed his photo op! LOL! Carin, Hayden and Mack today on Hayden's last day of therapy as long as he behaves! Two of the most genuine folks you will ever meet!

They got Hayden's hand from this............

............To this. Thanks again guys!