2013 Recap

 

I had a lot of pictures I was trying to stuff into this annual recap collage! Many topics have their own post with more in-depth detail that was published during the year, but I still like a general recap, everything at a glance ...

• Ages: Grayson turned 44, Jen 43, Landon 18, Callahan 14, Keaton became a teenager (13) and Cooper hit double digits (10). Colton turned 8 years old.
• School Stuff: The biggest news was switching the two littles from Columbia, on year-round, to Terra Linda, traditional. The on/off again of the tracks was hard (especially with Cooper), so while the move was hard, it was a good one. Coop wrapped up 3rd grade, then started 4th. Jen acting as room mother to provide a little extra comfort for Coop. Colton moved from 1st grade to second. Keaton changed schools too, finishing up his elementary years and joining Callahan at West Hills (7th grade). Callahan finished up his 8th-grade year and started up as a freshman. Landon started his senior year!
• Fun Zone: Kept the boys pretty busy during off-track time and summer, hitting lots of fun places. Allstar Lanes, Planet Play, Chuck-e-Cheese, Classic, Nicklemania, Jump N Bounce. With all the boys (and cousins) we hit Cowabunga Bay and the Children's Museum downtown. 
• Travel: Gray went to New York for some sightseeing with his work buddy Rob. Then the whole family (sans Jen) went to Seattle and Orcas Island. Coop "collected" license plates during the trip. Gray and the littles with Clay and cousins to Uncle Eric's cabin, and Gray, Landon and Callahan went to Lake Powell. While closer to home, just a day trip, there were several trips to Pineview and new WAVERUNNERS!
• Vehicles: In addition to Roxy and Susie (the new waverunners), Gray got a new truck, a lifted white Tundra. The Avalance was now available for Landon to drive. Unfortunately, the Avalanche was in an accident. Landon wasn't even in the car, it was hit in the school parking lot!
• Medical Mishaps: After finally healing from his broken foot, Cal was back to basketball and ... he broke his foot! Again. It was the other foot. He only got a couple games in his whole 8th grade year. Colton - my only unbroken boy, broke his wrist. Keaton had a trip into the ophthalmologist as there had been "floaties" in his vision. Coop had some teeth extracted, and Colton lost his first teeth and had some cavities filled. Gray struggled with Sciatica after snowmobiling with the scouts. Four of us were hit hard with the seasonal flu in February and all five boys got the stomach flu for Easter! Grandma Norman passed away. 
• Scouts: Gray ran the ward derby as usual, hosting a derby workshop beforehand. He looked into Legos, making that an option for derbies as well, hosting one for our ward. There were several scout outings too: snowmobiling, Topaz Mountain, the sand dunes. Callahan got his "Life".
• Basketball: Cal got a couple games in during the winter season before he broke his foot again. He played churchball too. Keaton wrapped up his first season in the Bantam League, and Colton played Junior Jazz. In the Spring, Colton moved to soccer, and played in the fall as well. Cal and Keaton played on the same team for the summer league. I signed up Cooper for basketball in the fall - he fought it at first but then ended up liking it. Fall was busy with three boys in basketball and Colton playing soccer. In Winter ... all four boys were playing. 

What else makes the headlines for the year?  Callahan got his braces off. Olivia left on her mission. There was a big hail storm. Blockbuster closed their doors. We replaced the old phone/answering machine with a new one, and added gadgets such as Nest and Roku. Jen upgraded her Fitbit to the new "One" and had success with weight loss again. Church was the 11:00 hour, with both littles in Senior Primary now! The kids enjoy Phineas and Ferb, Minecraft, Pokemon and Scramble (although it's Grandma Westra who is really addicted to that game!)

... and that was 2013!

Miscellaneous Memories - The End of 2013

I was looking through the folders of photos on my computer and came across several events I never got around to blogging back in 2013. I usually throw together a "catch all" post for these types of miscellaneous memories, and just hadn't gotten around to it. Better late than never! Right?

Maga bought Cooper and Colton a new set of scriptures.

They were quite into them!

Daddy and the boys went to a Jazz game!

The boys attended Uncle Clay's "Leg Lamp Lighting" party.

Have you seen "A Christmas Story"?

This was Colton's shoe after he came in from playing outside.

That has to hurt!

I'm always finding a bunch of rocks in his room.

Dough Boys

It says right on the package ... do NOT eat raw dough.

They eat it like ice cream. 

I'm not sure we ever actually baked any.

... and speaking of ice cream.

Kong Kones!

Maga had tickets to the Children's Museum.

Daddy took the boys up to meet cousins and Maga.

Fun photo memories!

I'll be backdating this post in a bit. 

Sticking it in 2013 where it belongs!

Not Just ME Making Movies

If you know me at all, you are aware that I like to take our home movies (of late, it's usually been sports stuff) and make them into "muvees" (that name referring to the software I use).

But I'm not the ONLY movie maker in the Blackham household anymore! Grayson recently decided to put his new "Go Pro" camera to use, with the RC car he got last Christmas, and then he made his own little movie (using i-movie).    Here it is ...

He had so much fun, 

he went and grabbed the video and photo files
 from his recent  Lake Powell trip 

and made another movie ...

My sister-in-law Alicia also got into the movie making ... 

check out her cute GINGERSNAP video here.

Do YOU make movies with your video files?

A Blackham Christmas

Merry Christmas from the Blackhams! We gave our usual neighbor gift of wrapping paper and I thought the boys looked very festive as they went out to deliver the goods.

We actually had a countdown to Christmas this year ... I bought a couple of inexpensive advent calendars for the two little boys, and a Star Wars Lego one for Keaton. The boys enjoyed opening up on little door each day. 

The Sunday before Christmas, we had a gathering up at Maga's house with some old friends, the Rowe's. The Blackham clan used to meet with them every year, but it had been about 20 years since everyone had gotten together. It was a fun reunion. 

There was a re-creation of a whipped cream fight, which had happened some 20 years ago. Having the kids dress up and perform the nativity was another tradition brought back to the forefront. We ate soups,  played bingo and  "Candy Bar Game" (Gray was the $50 winner).

Christmas Eve was spent at Grandma's house (the Westra side). We had soups here too, and I made both my chicken noodle and the chicken and wild rice that is so popular on the Blackham side. I made my bread sticks too. We played the Westra version of the "Candy Bar Game", watched the annual slideshow, exchanged gifts and received our annual family calendar.

We actually slept in Christmas morning. I thought it was a rather slim Christmas (my being sick for an entire week just before didn't help with the shopping) but the boys seemed content with their gifts. Landon got some giftcards (Old Navy, Jiffylube and Itunes) and "Sand". Callahan ... he's a kid who is more than happy to get socks for Christmas! He also received NBA2K14 for the Xbox. Keaton also got some socks, some shirts and some Star Wars stuff. Cooper got a new basketball, a jersey and lots of Legos. Colton got a variety of toys and treats (his own pack of Golden Oreos).  I was pretty spoiled with quite a few gifts from Gray and the boys ... I failed miserably, not getting much of anything for Gray. He said the waverunners were his gift from me *Ü*

We had decorated the house (more text/pictures on that at It's That Time of Year) and picked up a new tree. The one we had for previous years had died. I love seeing the kids grab the ornaments that they made themselves over the years ... often graced with pictures of them when they were little. They are the favorites.

We headed up to Maga's house, where we were able to chat with Sister Blackham (Olivia) over skype and on the phone.  Grayson had picked up new nutcracker for Maga's collection ... Keaton was a little loathe to part with it. 

We'd had plenty of treats, 

but I had to try out my new snowflake disk I had received! 

Such cute cookies! Yummy too.

Hope you had a great Christmas!

A Birthday for my Baby Boy

Colton is EIGHT years old (Dec20)! I can't believe it, he's my baby and he'll always be my baby.  It was the last day of school before the holiday break. They were having a small Christmas party, and Colton brought his favorite candy bar (Kit Kat) to share for his birthday treat. I picked up an Oreo Ice Cream Cake and we had that in the evening. Poor Colton, his birthday does tend to get a bit lost in the hustle and bustle of the holidays, but he's such a good sport and never complains at all.

A look back at this baby boy ...

You can see these pictures full size, 

and the rest of the album (to present day) HERE

I love looking back as he's grown through the years.

Such a cute little boy.

Happy Birthday Colton!

Blackham Basketball Update

I'm a bit behind ... Blackham Basketball has been busy! The boys finished up their Fall seasons and are now moving onto Winter. I've been trying to keep up with games/videos on the Hoop Dreams blog, you can check it out for links to all the games info and highlight videos. Here's Callahan's final Fall game ...

So, what are the Blackham Boys doing in Basketball now?

• Landon is NOT reffing this year (he said no way he was done!). Selfishly I'm ok with it, as this makes him available if I need him to run one of the boys to a game. With multiple games on Saturdays, we do have some scheduling conflicts!
• Callahan, currently in 9th grade, tried out for the sophomore team at the high school and made it all the way to the final cut. I was ok with that ... high school ball will come soon enough. He's playing on the West Hills 9th grade team on both Thursdays and Saturdays.
• Keaton is on the second 7th team. Fall season was a bit hard, with many close, clutch games the boys couldn't quite pull out. They've managed some wins here in Winter, but it's been a challenge. They are a tiny team (only six players, and small in stature too). One game I couldn't attend, Grayson texted me "the other team definitely has the height advantage" to which I texted back "pretty much ANY other team has the height advantage!".  
• Cooper's team got beat in their final Fall game, disrupting their undefeated season. It was a tough game but they handled it well. He's now playing Junior Jazz with four of the kids from his Fall team and some new additions. They are playing in the more competitive "team" division, and it can be a challenge as only half the team is actually 4th graders. 
• Colton is playing Junior Jazz too, with his buddies Randon and Garren. Their games are at Gene Fullmer, so Mommy has to decide whether to video the games, or jog the track ... I did get footage of one game so far. So this video is short and sweet. Hopefully I'll get some additional footage ... and get a little better focus too!

School Updates

School has been in session for a while now ... I think the switch to Terra Linda has been a really good move. I know it is for me! The dreaded "off-track" time came and went and our schedule stayed the same. I'm looking forward to the Christmas break (when the year-round schools don't have have as much down time). It's just been so nice to be able to keep our routine. The boys have adjusted and like their teachers and have many new friends. We had their Parent/Teacher conferences a bit ago and they both received rave reviews.

Cooper was recently nominated for a "Principal's Pride" award. 

I've been driving the kids to/from school every day. We do actually have a friend in the neighborhood who also transferred to Terra Linda and who was perfectly willing to help with carpool, but to help Cooper with the transition and to ease his anxieties (he hates to be late, or to wait) I told him I would take and pick up each day.  I bought the boys some "Terra Linda" t-shirts and a jacket for Cooper ... they are Terra Linda Tigers now!

We had conferences at the middle school too ... both boys are doing great in their classes and both received a 4.0 this first quarter, plus additional awards (Honor Roll, 7-Up club for perfect citizenship, perfect attendance). I drive them to school, and most days Landon picks them up on his way home.

Now I didn't get a school picture of Landon! We never seemed to get the picture information, and so he didn't have a form or money on the day they were taken. We need to get some "senior" portraits done too. Landon is taking early morning seminary, and filled his schedule with pretty tough classes. I can NOT believe he is going to graduate this year!

So that's a little update on the scholastic side :)