So - I had blogged Callahan's 16th birthday back in February. I got him a couple of cakes, because I couldn't choose. NOT a problem later on. By the end of the year, we have a glut of birthdays, so even in one week, we can have three different types of cake! So sans Cal, here's the rest of the 2015 Blackham Birthdays.
Cooper was up first, on the 28th of August. He turned 12!
Keaton follows a few days after ... August 31. Big 15 for him.
After not being able to find our favorite Oreo Ice Cream cake for a while ... we had it again!
Landon celebrated his 20th birthday on his mission to Mexico.
We celebrated for him here with a lemon-jello cake and big-head stand in!
We had a Westra family birthday celebration (Grandma on the 7th, me on the 10th) and I brought our favorite Sam's Club white cake with buttercream frosting. I was simply trying to tilt it slightly to get a better view for the camera, but it tipped over! Oopsidedown cake!
Another (non-upsidedown) cake on my actual birthday ...
... and another lemon jello cake for Grayson's big day.
I asked him to SMILE!
Whereas we didn't put on 47 candles for Grayson, we did put on all 10 for Colton!
I'd wanted our regular double decker cake, but they were out, so he got this big one.
There you go ... now you're all caught up on the Blackham Birthdays.
Every year as I fall behind on blogging, I look back and find photos of the kids that haven't happened to fall into any other category or topic. Just random pictures taken throughout the year. I've tried to do a post for each kid. It seems that almost all of my 2015 pictures of Callahan had enough of a theme that they got their own posts, but I made a Keaton Compilation, Catching Up with Cooper and Looking a Life with Landon post for such miscellaneous photos.
Here's Colton!
Modeling the leather jacket Keaton wore as a baby.
It fits, right?
Funny faces during the family photoshoot.
Just chilling
In the doghouse ... duckhouse
Turkey cookies!
Poor Barfing Boy :(
The things we find in Colton's shoes when he takes them off.
How did he wear them with all those rocks inside! Ouch!
Eating out ... whether it's just for a pretzel or a nice sit down dinner, we don't always catch the moments on camera. But every year I look back and see quite a few "food" photos, so I figured I'd organize them all into a blog post. Landon's "Last Supper" was blogged separately, as was Cal at KFC and Grayson's Food Fest in Seattle ... but everything else I found pictures for is here ...
A couple pictures with Landon in them before he left ...
Ice cream with cousins ...
... and a final Salt City Burger
Then Landon was gone, but we still tried to include him.
Verg's with the whole family!
An adults-only dinner at Asian Star
A simple stop at Sam's Club
We always love Tepanyaki!
Donuts ...
HotDogs (on a stick!)
Desert Star is a show ... but there's also EATS!
More cousin outings ...
Rodizio
Tepanyaki again ...
It's not so much photographing the food ...
But the friends and family that gather as we eat out.
Here in the Blackham home, we are never really "done" with basketball. But during the summer, Colton was really the only boy actually on a team playing games.
As school started back up, again, Colton was the only Blackham boy playing in a Fall league. But this hiatus wouldn't last long! The official basketball season was here!
Callahan tried out and made the team at Copper Hills High School. He's so happy to be playing ball again!
Keaton tried out and made the team at West Hills Middle School. They will be playing in the district league, and then also in a Thursday Superleague.
Cooper surprised me by saying he wanted to play on a Junior Jazz team with his school buddies. Although Coop is as talented as his brothers, he hasn't wanted to play on a team or in a league for a couple of years. I'm SO excited to be able to watch him play again!
Colton will be super busy this winter. He made friends on his Spring/Summer team, but then they were moving up to the 5th/6th grade division, and I thought that would be a little too much for Colton (in 4th grade). He tried out for the Bantam Copper Hills team, but there wasn't enough interest to put a team together. By combining the kids from 3rd/4th they had enough, and they played together in the Fall, and planned on a Winter Superleague as well. We also reconnected with Colton's old coach and a couple of the kids who were playing in a 5th grade superleague, and Colton decided to join them as well.
Of course this all keeps ME pretty busy too! Luckily I LOVE watching the boys play basketball. I go to every game I can, armed with my video camera. Back at home, I combine the clips into highlight reels to post on YouTube. So as not to overwhelm my Family Facebook, I went ahead and set up a separate account just for reporting about the boy's basketball (JenB-BasketballMom). As the kids aren't really using FB anymore, I also set up "Basketball Mom" accounts for Instagram and Twitter for anyone who wants to follow their games/clips/etc.
I also have the Hoop Dreams BasketballCal Blog, devoted to just the boy's sports activities. I'll only post about basketball a couple times here in on the family blog *Ü*. Here's a link to the current schedules for this season.
With all the boys in basketball, we have something almost every day except Sundays. Happily, Callahan can get himself to his own practices and games, and Keaton's practices are right after school (saving me a trip picking up and dropping off). Thursday nights are a little crazy, as both Keaton and Colton have games, and Cooper has practices, and then on Saturday the three younger boys have games. There are conflicts. I won't be able to make it to every game. I'll have to arrange for some rides with teammates, have Daddy or other relatives pitch in to cover it all ... but it's worth it. We LOVE basketball!
Callahan got a job! He is 16, and with the basketball team planning on a trip to Disneyworld in December, he needed to earn some money. He had a friend's brother working at KFC who told Callahan he'd be hired if he applied, so he did. It's really close by, and he looks so cute in his KFC cap!
Callahan has turned out to be a very hard worker. I know as a mom I'm a bit biased, but I've been so impressed by his loyalty and commitment. They are lucky to have him! He's moved up the ranks pretty quickly.
He actually didn't work that much during the summer, when he had the most time (they had some college kids home from school for summer who wanted shifts). I was a little worried when school started, and suddenly he was getting more and more hours. Sometimes even full time! He'd be working so late, and up so early (with early morning seminary).
There were some troubles ... a couple accidents (both involving his buddy Ben) with some bad burns, and a bunch of people quit. Callahan was always ready to step up and step in.
In addition to KFC, Callahan also worked concessions at the Real games at the Sandy Stadium. This was another hookup with a basketball buddy. Between the two jobs, he made more than enough to finance his trip to Florida all on his own, and still have money left over.
Even with busy with basketball, he's still working. KFC offers some nice incentives for college scholarships, which is something he's working towards. We don't go visit him at work very often, but we have a time or two (much to his delight!) He'll often act offended if we go to Popeyes or Chick-fil-a instead.
So if you are hungry and in the Jordan Landing area ... go check out KFC and see if Callahan is working. It's finger licking good!
This post is looooong overdue. But if I'd posted more promptly, I probably would have had a dozen or so smaller posts all about our eggs, ducklings, and the activity in the following months. So yes, that means this is a BIG post, because the duckies were a huge part of our lives last Spring, Summer and Fall.
It all started with the great egg experiment ...
Grayson ordered duck eggs and an incubator off the internet. The small incubator held seven eggs. Eight were shipped, an extra in case of breakage, but they all made it. We felt bad just leaving that one little egg out in the cold. After a couple weeks, we "candled" the eggs. In a dark room, you place an egg on top of a flashlight, and it gives you a peek inside. An "egg ultrasound" if you will. Duckies are social little creatures, so we needed at least two to hatch, to keep each other company! We could tell that three of the eggs were developing well. Two had something going on, but weren't the same as the other three, and two ... nothing.
As we neared the month mark, we started watching the eggs closer. One day, I noticed a little crack in one. There was a lot of "egg"citement that evening! A second egg started to crack too. They would rock back and forth a bit. The second egg soon passed up the first, we could see the little duckling inside, and with just a bit more waiting, we had a moist little duckling. It's recommended that you leave them in the incubator for up to 24 hours, before bringing them out into the big, wide world. We watched the second egg, but after the initial cracking, it just wasn't making any progress, even hours afterward. We were very worried, but when I woke and checked on things in the night, there was a second little duckling!
Then began ducky days ...
We had a setup in the basement. A big box, with a light warmer, food and water. Grayson originally put the box in our utility room, but with it's sliding door that was a bit tricky to close all the way, it only took one close call, finding our kitty Oreo in the box with the ducklings (he hadn't hurt them, but it was a heartstopping moment!), and I moved them to another room where we could keep the kitty out easier.
This began the duckie days ... every morning we'd take them out of the box to clean up the poop and spilled water. We'd fill up the bathtub so they could practice their swimming, and when the weather warmed up a bit, we'd take them for "outside time" in the morning and evening.
A video posted by JenB (@jenblackham) on Those little buggers were hard to catch to move from box to bath to play and back to box!
Those little buggers were hard to catch to move from box to bath to play and back to box! The boys named them Joe and Andy ... although we had a hard time telling them apart. Almost every time we took them outside or put them in the bath, it would become a family affair as everyone gathered round.
Then tragedy ...
Joe died. We'd been worried about him for a day or so. He just seemed lethargic. Not really eating, not really running away. We weren't sure what to do, then it was too late. He was gone. Poor Andy. Ducklings aren't meant to be alone. She would just peep, peep, peep missing her brother so much. There were human tears shed too. We tried putting a mirror in the box with her, and she would snuggle right up to it. We gave her a lot of extra attention while we obtained a couple more ducklings so keep her company.
Here is Andy chasing Mommy around the front yard ...
It was well past Easter, when Cal-Ranch and other stores have ducklings in stock, but Grayson was able to pick up a couple from a local contact online. Two more feathered babies, quite a bit smaller than Andi (and quite a bit more skittish), but it did help! The new ducklings were named Alex and Pedro (that was Landon's suggestion from the mission field).
Duckies on Daddy
Daddy digging worms ... yummy!
Our flowerbeds and gardens were actually weed free.
It didn't take long for the new babies to catch up in size, and we moved all three ducks outdoors. At first, we'd just leave them out in a pen during the day, still bringing them in at night or when the weather turned, but eventually they moved outdoors for good. Of course they outgrew the bathtub too ...
The duckies liked it, and we liked watching the duckies. Every morning, I'd prepare them a "big salad" of lettuce, grapes and tomatoes. Change their water and give them time to play. In the evening, we'd bring out a plate of peas and corn, or if they were really "lucky ducks" they would get crickets, goldfish or mealworms. Oh ... they LOVED mealworms and would eat them right out of Daddy's hands.
Ah worms! Gray would pick them up from Petsmart, but found them cheaper online ... we did have some struggles with them being shipped (opening up a box of dead worms! Ewww. A box of live worms isn't much better ... but it does smell better). I was SO happy (that is sarcastic) when a box came while Grayson was at work and I had to empty out the box and of wiggling mealworms! These would actually end up in a container in the fridge. OUR FRIDGE. Ewwwww. I deal better with earthworms, which the duckies definitely loved eating up too! I think we dug up most of the worms in our yard, so Gray ordered earthworms to restock.
While the ducks were quite tame, and would eat out of our hands, they sure didn't like being touched or picked up! Gray would try to catch them sometimes, just to see if he could. I've seen videos of ducks that acted more like dogs ... but our ducks were just ducks.
As the summer ended, the ducks would sometimes fly out of the pen as we brought them out for the evening duckie time. They would fly across the yard and we knew at some point they would probably fly away ...
I remember the first time, Alex, our big boy (Andi and Pedro were girls) flew up and over the fence into our neighbor's yard. We could see him there, looking confused. We went and knocked on our neighbor's door, and they let us into their backyard (luckily their dog wasn't out) and we walked Alex back to our house. Whew! A few days later, Alex flew again, he made a big circle up in the sky and then landed (crash landed) back into our yard. A few days after that, Alex and Pedro flew up over the fence ... and away. Poor Andi didn't get the memo, and was left all alone again. We really hoped our two duckies would come back home, but they never did.
Again, left with a lone ducky ... Grayson made arrangements for a new home for Andy. She went to live with a bunch of other ducks, from the place where Grayson had picked up the two baby ducklings. Hopefully she's enjoying the company of many other ducks, and maybe she'll find a man. It was a bit of an emotional goodbye. The end of ducky days ... we missed them.
Then, some neighbors just to the South of us reported a pair of ducks that was getting in and out of people's backyards, leaving a mess and making a bit of a nuisance of themselves. We were asked if they were our ducks, but these two weren't mallards, as ours had been. Gray investigated, and we think they had been raised as pets and released. They couldn't quite seem to make it over to the canal, where many wild ducks lived, so Grayson grabbed them and brought them home. We had ducks again. These two big boys were too fat to fly! We never bothered penning them up, but just let them have the run of the backyard. They liked the pool, and the worms ... they were not a fan of the big salad, as our ducks had been. We kept them for a couple of months, it wasn't quite the same as with OUR duckies, but we still enjoyed them. When the weather turned cold. Grayson found a place down south, kind of a "humane society" for fowl, and he dropped off these two ducks there, and I think they were quickly adopted into new families.
And that is the end of our ducky days for 2015.
What will 2016 bring?
We had SO many more pictures and video clips ... I made a muvee.
It's probably a little long for anyone else to enjoy,
but I think our family will always look back on 2015 with fond memories!
What I really love about the picture above, it that I didn't take it! Cooper did. I usually do take such a picture, but didn't get around to it this year, and Cooper kept the tradition alive. *Ü* I actually wasn't sure we'd even have any Halloween pictures this year. The boys didn't seem to care about trick-or-treating. Cooper has been on a health kick ... exercising a lot and improving his eating.He has pretty much given up treats and sweets. In the end, both boys did go, although Cooper gave his haul to Colton as he wasn't planning on eating any himself.
There was the truck-or-treat over at the church ... I can't remember what we had that night, I think one of the boys had a game. Of course there was the parade and class parties at the school. Cooper wore his "Lego Man" costume he wore last year, and Colton went as a basketball star on a box of Wheaties.
After the parade, the 6th graders have a tradition. They perform the dance "Thriller". As Cooper is in 6th, he was part of this production. I enjoyed it a lot more than I anticipated (there is a little clip down below). After the dance was finished, it was off to Cooper's class for their party.
The entire 6th grade was celebrating, split into groups and moving from classroom to classroom for different activities. In our room, we broke the kids into smaller groups and rotated them through a few games. An "eyeball and spoon" relay race, monster toss, cup crash and Picture-eek-a. In the other classrooms they were doing a picture scavenger hunt (using ipad cameras to capture the items on the list), decorating pumpkins, and ... I don't know what all else! It took a couple hours to get through everyone! And I wasn't done yet! Colton's class party was in the afternoon, so I was helping out with it too. There, I manned the "bingo" station. After it ended, there really wasn't time to go home before I'd have to come back and grab the kids, so I just waited until school got out. Just spending one entire day at school really makes me appreciate teachers and all they do (and put up with!)
... as promised, here's the clip of and "thrilled" Cooper
(small Instagram clip HERE, updated/longer YouTube video below)
I even dressed up as I went to help at the school ... one of the items on the scavenger hunt was "a parent in costume" so even though it was just ears, I got my picture taken lots of times for that game.
... as I mentioned above, the boys weren't super excited about trick-or-treating. They went with simple, but coordinating costumes. We actually let them go out alone, just around our little block. As it went over an hour, I began to regret that decision (worry wart mommy here) but of course they got home just fine. We didn't have very many trick-or-treaters come to our door, it was pretty slow.
As Colton wasn't wearing the Wheaties box ...
the kitties decided to get in on the action!
I DID go through all the costumes this year and pared them down by over half ... keeping just what would still fit the boys, and only things I thought they'd actually wear. I'll pass some on to cousins for dress up, and to a neighbor who collects and loans costumes out. We still probably have way more than we need, but at least I eliminated a couple of bins and got the mess cleaned up!
