Youth Sports Saturday

After watching the 49ers fall apart in the second half of the NFC Championship and BYU's Men's Basketball team crumble in triple overtime, I would not have expected this to turn into such a great week for sports.   It started Saturday morning with Brody's Junior Jazz game.  It was only his third game, but it has been fun to watch him grow so quickly.  The first week he played great defense but didn't have any chances on the offensive end.  Last week there was some definite improvement.  But this week was just a joy to watch. He was clearly one of the two best players on the floor.  He snagged several rebounds, dribbled the length of the court, made some great stops and some great passes, too, but the most memorable thing was his first basket.  Sure he shot about 20% for the game, but all I will remember was the look on his face as he ran back on defense.

McKinley's first scrimmage for the indoor soccer season was later in the afternoon and she put on a  showcase.  She handled her nerves better than I have ever seen. Usually it's the third game before she starts to relax and play with confidence, but today she was so composed.  It helped that she started as the center fullback, which is her favorite position.  Nothing was getting by her; she helped to keep the other team scoreless.   But her best play came on offense.  Her coach talked to her during the game about moving forward when the ball was at the other end. Late in the second half, she advanced as a ball was played into the midfield about 40 feet from the goal.  I watched with pride as she accelerated and struck the ball on the move.  It was a perfect strike, flying above the heads of the other players and into the back of the net.  It was the best play that I have ever seen her make.

All of which goes to show that the failures of my favorite sports teams mean nothing in comparison to the accomplishments of my children.  Only one thing makes me feel greater happiness than to see my children reach a milestone, accomplish a goal, or fulfill a dream.   That one thing is knowing that their accomplishments are molding them into happy, confident people with a sense of purpose and knowledge that they can do anything they put their mind to.  I am one proud father!

Moving

  In January I had this overwhelming feeling that we NEEDED to move.  I laughed it off, and thought there is no way I will ever be able to get Michael to agree to that, and we could never afford to move either.  A few more weeks went by and a neighbor of ours put their house on the market.  Michael and I started talking more and more about moving before interest rates went back up.

In the meantime I really have been working on cleaning out and de-junking our house.  Mostly for myself to feel like I enjoy my surroundings.  In mid February we got hooked up with a realtor and he told us what he thought he could get for our house.(keep in mind I spent the 4 days before he came cleaning and staging our house.  I even hired someone for an afternoon to clean for me.)  The market in our area was kind of in a funny place where new jobs were coming and there really wasn't a lot on the market for under $200,000.  We COULD do it!!!  We could sell our house for enough to pay a realtor and have a 10% down payment on our next home.  We had a photographer come on a Saturday afternoon, Monday evening our house was officially on the market and by Wednesday afternoon our house was under contract for only $3000 less than what we were asking.  It happened so fast.

At the same time we were looking for a house in the Lehi area.  We looked at everything available and couldn't find anything we were interested in living in.  Michael had been pushing for us to move to Daybreak and I was very hesitant because of losing my babysitting, and moving from where we were familiar.  I really like Lehi, but Daybreak is a lot closer to Michael's work.  I agreed to go and look in the area.  That night we also went to houses on the Herriman area.  We looked at quite a few but, nothing is what we felt good about.  Our final house we went to see was on a 3 acre park in Daybreak. It was such a cute house, and if I wasn't going to have much of a yard......a park could totally make up for that.  I remember standing on the front porch and getting this warm feeling.  I knew before we walked in that this was OUR house.  I wasn't going to say anything to Michael because he thinks I get too excited to quick.  He looked at me though, and I knew he felt the same way as I did.

We made an offer that night, the next morning as we waited to hear back, we went to an open house close to the house we made an offer on.  We like the open house house but, it didn't have everything our house had.  At 2pm we heard back and the house was ours IF we could rent it back to the current owners until June....late June.

We said yes, without really thinking about how long the end of March to the end of June was.  Luckily I have to coolest parents in the world, who agreed to let us live with them for almost 3 1/2 months.

March went by quick, we had home inspections, appraisals that went bad and good.  Getting a storage unit, helping move my parents house around so there was room for us to live.  We moved into my parents house, closed on our Lehi house all before the end of March.  I was so relieved when everything was finalized on our townhouse.  I was so nervous the whole time we lived in that house that we were going to be there forever, because of how bad the market had gotten.

The first week of April we closed on our new house. We own it, but are renting it.  Hanging out in Alpine has been a lot of fun.  My parents really like having the kids around and I really like having my parents around.  It is a nice change of pace.  I am currently driving a lot to get kiddos to and from school, but it isn't too bad.  I am glad we didn't have to change things too much for them.

I would like to say that this whole moving experience has been a real eye opener for me.  I truly believe in being guided to what where you are supposed to be in life.  I am not the most spiritual person and will never proclaim to be, but I do believe if our hearts are good and we have genuine intentions we will be guided to where we are supposed to be.  My Heavenly Father knows me, and how I genuinely believe in my family and what I want for it.  I am grateful that he knows me and I know him.  Not in the way that everyone around feels that I should be, but in the way I am comfortable with and in a way I understand and learn.

Stay tuned for our "Moving In" adventures.

Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years and more...

I am behind keeping track if our happenings.  Here are a few of the things we have been up to the last few months.

New Years!!!

I am relieved that 2012 is over.  It was a hard year for me and it is nice to think that we get to have a new start.  Michael and the kids have been home from school for almost 2 weeks and we have a done house projects and PLAYED!!!  This has been a really long vacation for Michael and it has been so nice to have him home.  The kids have loved it, and I have really loved  it.

Here is a funny thing he did yesterday:

In his stocking for Christmas he received a $15 itunes gift card.  He realized that he didn't know where it had gone after Christmas and started scouring the house for it.  It was no where to be found.  He decided that he must have thrown it away and started digging through the trash.  It has Christmas garbage, tile floor garbage and I am sure much more.  HE FOUND IT!!!  He threw it away on accident and was so relieved when he found that $15 gift card.

Kim and Billy watched the kids for us over night so we could go on a date.  I received a gift card to Ruth's Chris for Christmas and Michael got Movie tickets in his stocking so it was going to be an awesome night out.  It was the most delicious meal...totally worth the cost.  Skyfall was a great movie. The kids had fun with their Aunt and Uncle.  They had a treasure hunt, decorated cookies, played hide and seek and much more.  They had so much fun.  We really appreciate Kim and Billy for watching them for us.

TILE
We started tiling our kitchen right before Christmas.  It was a pretty easy project and we felt like we had done a pretty good job considering what was there before.  I am going to do a whole post on the house changes we have made in the last eight weeks.  We are tired of projects and will be taking a break for a little while.

Christmas
I am really learning how to do this Christmas thing with kids.  I like to keep it relaxing and easy.  It was a little busy this year, but worth it.  We were able to spend a few days with the Clutter's which was really great.  The kids really enjoyed those times and can't wait to see them again.  We spent the few days after Christmas as a family enjoying time together.  I know these years where the kids enjoy the "Magic" of Christmas won't last long and I hope that I can make them very memorable years for them.

Mr. Peaker
We started a new tradition this year  "Elf on the Shelf".  Ours name is Mr. Peaker and will look forward to many years of him coming to visit us. The kids really fell in love with him and his crazy ideas.



Brody and Michael's Birthday
We kept Birthday's simple this year.  Went to dinner with Nana and Papa for Dad's birthday and Brody had a small birthday party and after that has a small dinner with family that lives close.   We have fun on Birthdays and are always so excited for this time of year when we get to celebrate together.


Thanksgiving
Elizabeth was so wonderful to host Thanksgiving this year.  We had the most amazing time with everyone.  I am so glad we were able to spend so much time with cousins and siblings.  Thanks! Ben for all of the fun food.

Brody Says: 5th Edition

Brody Says: 5th Edition

Different Shoes

We were excited to get out of the house and go to the new outlets by our house a few weekends ago.  Brody and Michael were in the Nike Outlet when Brody saw the Mannequins with  2 different shoes on.  He hurried over to grab me and show me this mannequin.  He was so excited about these different shoes.  He LOVES Nikes and thinks they are the worlds greatest shoes.  He was getting a new pair for his Birthday a few days later.  He wore his new Mikes for a few days and now has decided that he is going to be like the guys in the store and wear 2 different shoes.  He went to school today and was so excited to show all of his friends his shoes.  What a trend setter!!!

"B" wall

I spent Monday and Tuesday painting my kitchen that REALLY needed to be painted.  I also took off all the baseboards in the kitchen in preparation for tile in the next few weeks.  It was so refreshing to have clean walls that were a little different in color.

"B" wall

I have wanted to do a "B" wall for 3 years now.  I love monograms.  It symbolizes something you are proud of.  So what better way to be proud of your family than an initial wall.  I have been collecting b's here and there for a while now.  I told Michael that I was going to make a "B" wall and he thought I was insane.  Over Thanksgiving weekend my sister in laws thought the idea was a little crazy also.  I started out slowly. It took an entire day (I was also babysitting) to figure out how I wanted it to work.  Here are the results.  I think it is so nice looking I even had my photographer friend take a photo of it so you really get the best picture of it.

Thanks for looking!

Brody Says

Michael and Brody at the BYU basketball game.  

Their seats were the second to last row of seats.

"Brody isn't it cool that we get to sit so high up?"

"Yeah, Dad!  It would be better if we could sit one more row up."

Table and Chairs

I worked on two projects this week.  I had an old oak sofa table that my in laws weren't using anymore and 2 oak chairs that My Grandpa Pyrah had brought from Montana to refinish and never got around to before he passed away.  My Grandma passed away early on in the week and I needed some serious distraction.  If I slowed down at all I would get really sad so it was easier to work on these projects that I have been putting off for awhile.

Here are the before photos

 The picture above is the only one that I have.  

I need to be better about taking a before picture.

I have two of these chairs, I am only going to show you the first one I got finished and when I finish my front room changes I will show it to you all put together.  

Here are the afters!!!

 The table is too small for my large wall so it is going to have to find another spot, and I will need to find something else for that spot. It turned out really great looking though.


The chairs are so cute, the first picture makes it look more cherry red
than it really is.  The second one gives you a better idea of what it really looks like.  My plan is some Chevron pillows to go in my red chairs.  We will see how my vision comes out.

These two projects were my favorite ever that I have done.  I think it was because of the circumstances of the week, I put a lot of heart and soul into them.  I know those chairs will be cherished in my home for years to come.  I really enjoy thinking that I was able to do something with them where Grandpa couldn't.  

Thanks for reading!