6th Man

One of our favorite things we did during the week after Christmas was to go watch my little brother’s basketball games.  Michael is a freshman in high school and he is one of only 5 freshmen that made the team.  It was so fun to go and cheer like crazy for him!  Michael is the youngest of the 6 of us, and we all played 4 years of high school basketball, so I think we were all reliving our high school days a bit:)  It was fun to show up with all our kids . . . . I think most of Michael’s basketball team was surprised to find out he has 5 older married siblings and 9 nieces and nephews!  They probably thought he was an only child!    

So, whenever Michael’s team was down and needed some momentum, we would take it upon ourselves to help the team out, and would do a Defense cheer as loud as we could.  You know the one: “DE-FENSE!” clap, clap, “DE-FENSE!” clap, clap.  And sure enough, whenever we would do the cheer, Michael’s team seemed to play harder and they would make some amazing steal, or grab a sweet rebound to get the ball back and we would all go crazy.  We thought it was hilarious, and started calling ourselves the “sixth man.”  Yeah, we might be a little arrogant . . . . BUT, one game, after a terrible first half, Michael’s team was down by 20 points at half time.  We thought they had no chance against what appeared to be a much better team.  When they came out pretty strong in the second half, we thought they could use some extra cheering . . . . and before we knew it the game was tied!  It was such an exciting game, and Michael’s team ending up winning with Michael swishing a key free throw at the end.  We even had the coaches coming up to us after the game and thanking us for the extra energy.  Needless to say, we took some of the credit for that win . . . . and a few of the other close wins they had that week:)  Haha . . . . it was quite funny actually.  But we loved it.  We had so much fun, and I’m pretty sure Michael loved having his #1 fans in the crowd!   

Here he is sinking a 3:

And us going crazy!

And here he is with a sweet steal and then going up for a lay-up.

Yep, we’re pretty proud of that little brother of ours!

3 Flys Up

Well, Christmas was over.  Part of me was sad, and part of me was kind of relieved.  Christmas is just so crazy busy!  I was looking forward to the week after Christmas . . . . when we could finally just relax and have fun with my family!  The weather the week after Christmas was just gorgeous!!!  Like upper 60s.  We took advantage and headed to the park one day.  We played some 3 Flys Up.  Here I am battling it out with my sister and 2 brothers.

   

Jeff easily caught 3, and traded places with Spencer.  Woah, Michael!  Sweet grab!  haha.

Michael has some serious air . . . . he always comes flying out of nowhere!

Take that, little 14-year-old brother!

Oh yeah, me and Ash have our eyes on this one! 

We’re going for it!

What the?

Hey!  Michael!

And one last progression:

Because I catch this one . . . .

over Spencer:)

Christmas!

“Christmas comes but once a year, now it’s here, now it’s here!  Bringing lots of joy and cheer, tra-la-la-la-la.” 

Isn’t Christmas just so exciting?  I love that very first moment when the kids come out and see the pile of presents under the tree for the first time.  And as they excitedly look for what Santa brought them.  It’s as close to magic as anything I can thing of:)

Santa brought James a basketball hoop, Leah a little grocery cart with play food, and Annie a new bike!

Bike Girls:

Digging through their stockings:

Christmas was a little different this year since it was on a Sunday.  We had church at 10:00, and with 22 people in the house needing to shower and get ready, we didn’t have time to open any presents before church.  We all got ready amazingly fast and had a wonderful musical program at church.  There were a lot of people home for Christmas in the Saratoga Ward, so it was fun to see and catch up with old friends. 

We came home, and of course wanted to take some pictures before changing out of our church clothes!  The kids were such good sports, especially since there was a huge pile of presents under the tree just waiting to be opened!  My mom bought the girls these adorable outfits. 

Best Friends! 

We also didn’t have time for our traditional Christmas breakfast of German pancakes before church, so we whipped them up for lunch when we got home.  Still putting off the presents . . . . we were starving, and thought it would be best if we ate before beginning the madness:)  I manned the pancake station, and Michael made us some seriously good bacon in the microwave!  And Brigham whipped us up some delicious scrambled eggs he learned how to make at Facebook!  haha.

Ashley is our smoothie queen!

Grandma and Grandpa came for lunch.  We loved having them!

And FINALLY, when we were all changed, full, and pictured out, we could focus all of our attention to this:

We had a wonderful afternoon of opening presents.  We didn’t get too many pictures because our camera was seriously dying throughout the day (more on that later).  And somehow we lost our video camera the night before after all the festivities. (Dan and I spent from 2 a.m. to 3 a.m. looking for it, so we’d have it on Christmas, but couldn’t find it anywhere.)  But we managed to get a few last pictures out of our camera.

Santa brought the girls a set of princess barbies!  They were really excited about these.

And Grandma Walton gave Flynn Ryder to Leah and Snow White’s Prince to Annie.  Thanks, Grandma!

My mom got her picture book Steph gets her every year.  She loves them!

Dan and I made my dad a “Bishop’s Birthday Bin” with birthday coupons for the primary to hand out to the kids on their birthday.  The kids take their coupon to the bishop and redeem it for a candy bar.  He loved it!

Annie and Leah got James this Mickey Mouse.  He is really into Mickey these days!

Dan surprised me with a Coach purse!  I hadn’t even hinted at wanting one:)  Love that guy!

Brigham got Steph one too, not even knowing that Dan was getting me one!  Although she had hinted it to him.  But do we have awesome husbands, or what??

And what did I get Dan?  An I-Pad!  Although don’t get too excited for him, because a few days later, he decided to return it and the jacket I got him from BR, and instead bought a brand new camera, because ours was just not going to make it.  He’s really excited about his new camera though! 

Phew!  That was exhausting!  The kids got a lot of fun stuff, and Dan and I made out pretty good as well:)

And after all that, we cleaned up, made some side dishes for dinner, and made our way over to Mike and Beth’s for a delicious turkey dinner.  It was an awesome Christmas.  It was definitely not a relaxing day with it being a Sunday, but it was great to be able to go to church and to really remember and focus on the reason we celebrate all this in the first place.