Cal and Kate - Homecoming 2016

Homecoming 2016 ... Callahan didn't go to Homecoming his sophomore year. Last year, he had a girlfriend (so it was an obvious ask). This year, he really wanted to go. The gang had plans, but he just wasn't sure who to ask. He told me there was "one girl" that he talked to sometimes ...

The guys set up an elaborate ask ... music videos. They spent SO MUCH time and effort on this. I'll admit, when Callahan would say he was leaving to go work on the video some more I'd get a little frustrated. Just do something quick and simple! I must say though ... when I saw this finished product? It's a treasure! I loved it ... I hope the girls did too.

It is a little long - Callahan's "solo" is at the 3:50ish mark, but he's in most of the other videos too (just not the lead singer lip sync). I'm never confident about links to other people's accounts, so I managed to download a copy of the video to have, just in case. Sure enough, after a bit, the original link was no longer available. But here's my copy (https://youtu.be/v8mLztVv8r0) So anyway ... she said yes.

 Friday night was the homecoming game ... 

Cal with the guys.

... and the girl.

They started Saturday (the day date) with paintball!

 Cal and the guys 

... and the girl

Then it was time to get all dressed up for the dance.

A fun photoshoot at a friend's house before heading to the high school ...

Silly Socks (they matched each other ... and nothing else!)

 Five guys (most of the senior basketball team!)

Cal's date Kate was named Homecoming Queen.

... and the final formal shot.

Callahan's senior Homecoming ... in the books. And on the blog!

Halloween 2016

Halloween was on a Monday this year. That just feels a little off. It seems more like a weekend holiday! Several schools had their Halloween parades on Friday, while many stuck with the actual day for parades and parties (Colton's school had theirs on Monday). He went as a "Chick Magnet" for lack of a better costume. Not that he likes girls at all of course. I mean ewwww.

Callahan apparently does feel the same way about girls (Keaton either ... but that is another post). For a triple date, Cal and friends and their dates came and carved pumpkins at our house. This one pictured was Callahan's design ... and a pretty perfect one for a house full of basketball boys!

Pokemon Go even got into the Halloween theme ...

They had a Halloween update for the week preceding the holiday. The "scary" Pokemon, such as Gastly, Haunter, Zoobat, Cubone and even Meowth (a cat, though not black) would appear much more often. Also, distance walked was doubled, and triple points were earned on some catches. Cooper was pretty happy about the incentives, but then he got sick and ended up on the couch for several days, instead of walking around taking advantage of the update.

My Friday Zumba class encouraged us to dress up ...

It was a fun holiday dance edition.

Dancing in costume to Thriller, Ghostbusters, Monster Mash, Witch Doctor and more. Happy Halloween Zumba! #zumba

A video posted by JenB (@jenbsjourney) on Oct 28, 2016 at 10:38am PDT

Callahan and Co also raided the costumes for a school dance ...

Cute Woopie Cushion Callahan!

Colton ended up getting sick the weekend before Halloween too. I wasn't sure if either of the little boys would feel up to going out, or if they would even want to (they consider themselves a little old for it at this point). Colton felt better, and did want to go collect some candy, so I walked the neighborhood with him (and the PokemonGo phone). He would have had more fun with friends I'm sure, but we hadn't planned ahead enough. I didn't get around to taking the traditional "candy" shot. 

Maga's Menagerie

Maga had a bit of a menagerie this year (we can't really point fingers, as at our house there were 20 ducks in the backyard, two kitties and a goldfish inside, but that's not the point of this post!) It all started when pretty Princess got pregnant. At the end of May, she had five little kittens. The little tan one didn't make it :(

The Blackham boys went out a few times to see the kittens and get a little playtime in. 

Nothing cuter than kittens!

Ana had her arms full!

Maga meant to get Princess in to be fixed, but oops ... she was expecting again!

Another batch of babies. This time the daddy must have had a little Siamese in him.

Maga found homes for the babies, but Ana ended up keeping one.

NOT this one - the orange male. Cosmo.

The kittens weren't the only animals around (or I wouldn't call it a menagerie!)

There were the chickens! It started off as an Easter experiment ... oh the little peeping and cheeping during Easter dinner (because the babies were kept in the kitchen of course). Then Maga got a little coop for the birds out back. She let them wander though. They were a little rough on the yard, pecking and scratching flowers and plants. But they laid eggs in exchange. Four chickens, around for a few years.

Then there was the BlackHamster

Can't really blame Pammy for adding this critter ... 

it was a gift from her sisters at the big Pammy Party this year. 

The puppy didn't come until next year ...

Multiple Personalities

I love Facebook. I was late to the party, joining right before my 20th high school reunion. But since jumping on the bandwagon, I've been hooked. As the kids moved to Instagram, Twitter, and now Snapchat ... I remained faithful to Facebook. I just like its interactions better. In fact, in addition to my personal account, I set up a second one, to post about fitness ...

I don't post much about family on this profile. I friend all my Zumba buddies on this account, and follow fitness pages and blogs, and post stats, workout photos, Zumba routines, etc.

... and then why not make it three. I wasn't sure if all my boys friends (those still on Facebook, which admittedly are few) and the basketball parents cared about family photos or fitness stuff, so THIS Facebook profile is all basketball all the time! I post my highlight videos and game scores and such here.

You might say I have a split personality. Three ways!

Recently, there was a little "favorite word" app going around. I'd done this when it circulated before. It gathers your most used words and arranges them in a word cloud. It's fun to see the results ... usually nothing very unexpected, but there can be some surprises. I did it for all three of my accounts and you could definitely see the slant from each account ... 

Water Bottles and the Blackham Bunch

Disposable water bottles ... there is a bit of a debate about them (the waste create by the plastic, etc.) but they do have their place ... and not ONLY for drinking!

2016 became known as the year for water bottle flipping! It was everywhere! All the time! Crazy! Driving people crazy with the flying bottles and the THUNK, THUNK, THUNK as the kids tried to flip the bottle and have it land (on the base, or even trickier, to "cap" it on the top). 

More water bottle flipping fun ...

A video posted by JenB (@jenblackham) on Sep 17, 2016 at 11:22am PDT

I posted my first "flipping" feature in August, and had several mom's chime in that this phenomenon was happening in their homes too. Then the kids try to get tricky... 

Double stacked!

He was pretty impressed with himself!

That's not the only unusual activity we do with water bottles though ...

More fun with bottled water at the Blackham home!

A video posted by JenB (@jenblackham) on Aug 12, 2016 at 4:50pm PDT

We'd seen instructional videos on YouTube about how to "instafreeze" your water. We attempted to follow the steps to no avail. We couldn't get it to work. Then, we accidentally accomplished it after putting some water bottles into the freezer section of our mini fridge. The temperature there isn't nearly as consistent as a regular freezer. Sometimes the bottles freeze completely, sometimes they stay liquid (but very cold) ... and when they do, we can do the "instafreeze" easily. When the water is exactly the right temp, a tap to the side causes it to form a soft freeze. It's about the consistency of an icee. It's so cool to see the water change to ice, after a simple tap to the side of the bottle.  If you put that ice in a bowl, and pour the water over it ... it freezes right before your eyes. Pretty cool, huh!  They boys then sprinkle a powdered drink mix over the ice to turn it into an icee treat to eat.

Like I said at the start, we understand the debate and try to use refillable bottles whenever possible. I've been thrilled with my BIG pink water bottle. It always has enough ice and water to get me through class ... and I get an arm workout carrying it in. We have many of the refillable Gatorade sport bottles the boys use for their basketball games, and several of the "mister" refillable bottles too.

... and that is my Bottled Water Blog post ;)

The A/C and Me

What? A post about air conditioning? Well I must admit, I L.O.V.E. A/C and am not sure how well I'd cope without out it. We HAVE had to live without it, for a few days here and there in past years, as our air conditioner would freeze up, and we'd have to turn it off for hours. 

Even when the A/C was working, the West side of the house (the kitchen/family room) was always hot. With the evening sun pounding on the many windows, and not enough vents in that area, the A/C just couldn't keep up. As it attempted, our bedroom (on the East side) would get pretty chilly ... which was actually okay with me, especially at night (I like to cuddle in my blankets). 

I remember being pregnant with one of the boys (probably Cooper) when the A/C wasn't working. Gray came home from work to find me outside sitting in a small patch of shade, looking miserable. He went out and bought a portable air conditioner and set it up in our room, so at least there was ONE place to escape the heat in the house.

That portable air conditioner moved out into the family room when the house one was back up and running. Just a little extra push in that area. The kids would often come in from outside and stand right in front of the machine. After several years of use and abuse, we replaced it with another portable unit.

A couple years ago ... we replaced the house unit and had additional vents placed in the kitchen and family room area. It's been pretty effective. The only drawback was now our bedroom doesn't turn into an ice box ... it's one of the warmer rooms now. I have to turn the thermostat way down to get our room cool. Mornings (as the sun comes up and hits the house are the worst. I like our Nest thermostat, so I can adjust it from my bed without getting up).

Keaton's new bedroom (also on the East side) suffers from the morning sun too. It's HOT on summer mornings! With the portable A/C not in use in the family room, we went ahead and set it up in Keaton's room. He had to move things around to make it work, but we actually like the new arrangement better.

Now the boy is jumping for joy in his COOL room ...

Cousin Camp Out 2016

This Blackham Bunch had a backyard cousin campout last year, and had to get one in this year too. Just under the wire before school started back up (so we can call it part of "summer" fun). Tents and air mattresses. Grayson even took the hammock and lounge chair. The projector of course, as a "movie" is part of the process.  Look how cute Amare and Sammy are snuggled in the sleeping bag with Keaton! The kids were writing to Landon during this time, so here are their recaps:

Colton: So on our campout to Maga's house, it took me hours to fall asleep. It was still really fun though. Addie, Will Aiden and I kept trying to balance and walk around her garden. I got the most in a row at 5. I almost got 6 in a row. The movie we watched there was, "The Angry Birds Movie." In the morning, we were going to have breakfast at a little place by the prison. Right when we got there, we found out that it was closed on Saturdays. So we ended up just going to McDonalds.

Cooper: we had the backyard campout at Maga's. A lot of Pokemon had spawned there, but I had no Poke Balls, so that blew. The movie we watched was the Angry Birds Movie. It was a great movie, and had a lot of funny moments. Then it was time to sleep, but I did not want to sleep in the tents. So I slept on a recliner under the stars. It was kind of cold, but it was also very comfortable. But the things was that I wasn't used to sleeping that way. So I woke up multiple times in the night.

Keaton: We had a backyard campout at Maga's 2 nights ago and it was way fun! It's become pretty obvious that I've officially taken over your position of occupying the little ones (Amare and Sam are with me all the time lqtm). I just slept on the ground in a sleeping bag without a tent. In the morning, we were planning on having breakfast at a cafe near the prison where some in-mates are working, but it was closed on Saturdays, so we just got Micky D's. Everyone, except me, was really scared about going. I wanted to go though because I thought it would be cool.

Callahan had the night off work (had an 8:00-4:00 shift) and sounded like he would go join the cousin campout ... but he came home and fell asleep. I poked my head in at 6:00 when Daddy and the boys were leaving to see if he'd join them then. Then again at 7:00, and 8:00 .... then I gave up. That boy is a sleepy boy.

Callahan's Crossing (Trek Time)

All packed ... no, Oreo didn't go.

The stake participates in a pioneer trek every few years. Grayson had gone on two here, once when he was in the Young Men's Presidency, and once while in the bishopric (also once when he was 14 years old back in the Cottonwood stake). Landon went a few years ago. Now ... it was Callahan's turn (Keaton was also eligible but didn't feel the pull and we didn't force him). Cal made the run to DI to grab some clothes (boys are so much easier than girls to outfit!), we gathered the gear ... and of COURSE the old "stinky pete" hat that Gray and Landon had worn. It's fourth time going out. 

Callahan and Travis

Tuesday morning, July 26, we were up early and to the church by 6 a.m.  Then they were off.  The trek historian posted pictures and their progress as internet access would allow. This trek was to Martin's Cove. They did some walking Tuesday, with square dancing in the evening. Callahan said the dancing was fun, and was his favorite part!

A little dancing to end the first day ...

 As they are put into families (Callahan was in #12 - Brother Hansen in our ward was with him), Callahan mentioned how quickly everyone got to know each other, and how they really did become family. 

Jordan Oaks Stake

Serious shot

Silly shot

Of course, being the pedometer person that I am, I made sure his Fitbit was running and ready for the trek. He is using the Zip currently, which was perfect for this, as it has a replaceable battery that lasts longer than the rechargable ones (my Charge wouldn't make it four days). One Wednesday, he got 26,651 steps. Thursday was the BIG day, with 44,687. Back on busses on Friday for the return home (synced the Fitbit, and while Callahan came close, he didn't quite pass me on my Fitbit friends list). 

Welcome back Callahan! He wore his old basketball shoes, and said they worked perfectly. No blisters. He does have a nasty looking toe (ingrown?) that we will be keeping an eye on (I remember we got Landon's toes fixed a few months before his trek, but I hadn't been aware of Cal having any issues until now). I'd had to do most of his packing (as he was working a lot before leaving) and he hadn't realized I'd put a set of scriptures in his bucket, so he stuck a set in his duffle ... so he had two. He also didn't notice the spray bottle (for cooling off) until the last day. I packed sunscreen, but he didn't use any. His nose and hands got pretty toasted!

Upon his return, he took a shower, then went to Costco to grab some dried mangos they'd had on the trail. He was craving them! Then he and Keaton went and played basketball for a couple hours. Back to the usual routine!

Father's Day 2016

 Father's Day ...

It's also the annual Westra gathering at Scott and Amy's house. This year ... sans Scott and Amy, who were in Switzerland for a work trip! Their kids stepped up and hosted though. I also thought we'd be missing the Blackham bunch, as it was the scheduled Seattle vacation. But Grayson decided to pull the plug on it as his Meniere's has been acting up, and he's had so much pinched nerve pain. I was pretty happy to have him around on Father's Day though. I would have missed him tons!

As we headed to the party, Grayson pulled out a slack line kit. He had purchased it months ago (maybe even a year or two?) and we'd never gotten around to putting it up. There were two trees in the backyard that were perfect. It was a hit with the kids!

It was fun to visit ... Shane and Alicia were even in town from California, and Jensens had made the trip (they usually do, but not always). So other than our missing missionaries, Callahan working, Mckenna and Spencer back East ... and of course Scott and Amy, we had a pretty full house.

 There was some frog kissing 

(okay, it's a toad from under the tramp).

... and some baby throwing.

(There MAY have been some photoshopping of this photo). 

So happy Father's Day to THIS guy!

I can't believe I didn't take pictures of HIM on the big day. He'd bought himself a smoker, and was getting the bacon ready, so no breakfast in bed for him today. Keaton did step up and make the waffles (usually Grayson's job). See that HUGE wood cutting board? That's what I got him for Father's Day (after he sent me a link to it in an email earlier). I did good didn't I? He's pretty happy every time he uses it ... which is pretty dang often!  It's true. Gray started smoking!

End of the Year Assemblies and Awards

The end of the school year has been wrapping up. I'm SO glad the littles are on a traditional schedule with the older boys, and that we don't have another month of school for them. Colton FINALLY unloaded his backpack and I glanced through all the papers. Oops ... a notice that he was receiving the Principal's Pride award, the date had passed. Colton had never told me about it. I asked him if he was sad when I wasn't there and he said "No, I didn't want to get my picture taken".  Cooper however cares, and always lets me know when he is receiving an award. He did get the Principal's Pride a couple months ago. I did make it to that one ... and took a picture.

There were award assemblies for the end of the year  ...

Colton has always excelled at math, and won the Master of Math Facts award. The fourth grade also participates in the Presidential Fitness Program. Colton got the silver there, he was a bit bummed about not getting the gold, but didn't quite have the flexibility on the v-sit (which also knocked Cooper out of contention back when he was in 4th grade). In every other category, Colton had the high score for the class.

Cooper received the Academic Excellence award, 

and also a certificate for finishing the 40 book challenge. 

Keaton received the Presidential Academic Award (4.0s every quarter) 

and an athletic award (only given to one boy in the entire school). 

Of course, there was the end of the year program too. Cooper didn't have one this year, but Colton did. It was almost identical to the 4th grade program Cooper did (see clips here). Most of the songs had a familiar ring (with a Utah theme).  Colton doesn't love singing and performing, but I thought someday he might like to look back and remember, so here's some clips ...

https://youtu.be/M7Ijg0Fw9wQ

... and I never got around to posting (here anyway ... I did on my JenB'sJourney blog) about Grandparents Day at the school back in March. My folks were able to come out and eat with Cooper and Colton. I come too, to say hi to my folks, the kids, and take the annual picture! 

Grandparent's Lunch 2016

Check out my Throwback Thursday Grandparent's Lunch on my other blog where I showcase all the pictures from the past several years. I can't believe that next year I'll only have ONE in elementary.