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So yet again the time is here where my oldest has his birthday. What can I say about the boy, he has always been such an awesome example to his brothers and cousins on how to be a great kid. He has a strong work ethic and high standards. I don't think we could've picked a better son to have as a first child. Chili always chooses the right path even when we as parents step aside and let him choose for himself. He has a great sense of humor and never takes himself too seriously. I know that he will always be a strong leader in our family. So again we say... HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHILI!!!

The Predator

On the 21st Mason and Chili Wrestled in a tournament called The Predator World Championships which was held in Monroe which was nice since we didn't have to travel too great of a distance for a large national competition. The boys each had about 12 boys in their brackets, Chili's group is ages 13-15, and they aren't supposed to be sophmores in high school yet, however the sophmore thing is in the very fine print and is often ignored which makes the competition pretty unfair actually. Now that I'm done complaining, I can say that Chili did very well. He worked very hard and got all the way to the finals and then lost to a sophmore and then had to wrestle for 2nd & 3rd against another sophmore and lost again taking a 3rd overall. He wrestled very well and if the rule had been enforced he would likely have taken 1st place. Mason's age group is made up of 9 & 10 year olds and he is still 9... that being said, Mason went into this tournament looking for nothing short of a 1st place trophy. He wrestled better and stronger than he ever had before and not only won every match but completely dominated every match. He pinned 3 of the kids and won the other 2 by 9 & 10 points!!! Mason came home with his very first 1st place trophy, from a large tournament!! We are so proud of our boys!!

Halloween

So... Halloween this year was a little different for us, Jeremy, Chili, and Mason went to a wrestling tournament in Denver leaving Me, Giuseppe, and Gage here to go to Beppe's football game and to go trick-or-treating... We found out that the tournament was giving out very cool prizes if the kids won a costume contest and that the winners would be chosen by the crowd and that one kid per age group would win... We thought it through and figured that the best way to get the most attention at the wrestling tournament was to dress like girls... Now some may think its not wise to encourage cross-dressing in your children, but seriously, have you met MY boys... no worries here... I made all of the boys tutus and got them coordinating tights, wings, wigs, tiaras, and wands... some would've stopped at the dress... but not us... if we're gonna be gay... were going all the way baby!!! I have good news and bad news... The good news is that both Chili and Mason won the costume contest at the tournament and Chile got an iPod and Mason a sweet RC Car... the bad news is that nobody got pictures of either of them in their outfits!! Chili had a pink wig and pink and black tights with all pink accessories and a tutti fruitti colored tutu... Mason was pretty much the same except in purple... not all hope is lost... Atleast I took pictures of both Giuseppe and Gage... LOL

Happy Birthday Gager!!

What can I say about our Gage, Some days he is the joy of our lives with his quick whit and great Gage-isms and other days he's the kid I want to duck my head and walk away from at the store while saying 'whose kids is that?' In all honesty Gage is our joy. From birth he has had the biggest smile and when he smiles it feels like the whole world should smile with him. His eyes have always been so expressionate so that you always know what he is thinking just simply by looking into them. He is always getting into mischief and somehow with a flutter of his lashes and a half-hearted apology he is back on your good side and leaving you to wonder 'what just happened here, am I still in charge?' Somehow he is able to trick us into staying up just a few minutes longer, and swindle us into video games on a school night... He is probably going to be a handful later, but for now I am going to love him and enjoy him just the way he is!! I feel like it was just a couple of months ago that we brought him home from the hospital... wow time flies!! Happy 6th birthday little buddy!

Gage Goes to School

So this past week has been quite interesting for our family. Last Saturday we moved, Sunday we went to a new ward, Tuesday Chili, Giuseppe, and Mason started at new schools and on Thursday Gage started kindergarten. It has been an interesting week of changes. The one that was funnest for me as a mom was of course that my youngest son started kindergarten. The day before school started the teacher had each of the kids in one at a time and showed them around the classroom and visited with them for a few minutes which was really good for Gage since he was quite fond of his preschool teacher, Mrs. Spencer, and he wasn't quite sure that he needed the change. After the meeting we both were very happy with the teacher. She's seems to really know how take care of things in her classroom with a variety of types of children. I am confident that she can handle my Gage.
The night before school started we laid out his clothes, read a couple stories, and tucked him in as usual; He was ready for school. He woke up and got ready without any trouble. Gage was so excited about school that he wanted to ride the bus the very first day! I was a little nervous about this but atleast he had Mason with him to help him out. The cool thing about school in this district is that there aren't any 1/2 days they go the same 2 full days every week and then every other wednesday which is a late start day. So not only did he ride the bus, but he also had the opportunity to have lunch at school and have the 'whole experience' all in one action packed day.
When he got off the bus I was there waiting to hear about his day and he was all smiles and the first words out of his mouth, on the first day of school, were -"I went to the principals office!" Inside my head I'm thinking "already on the first day of school!!" but logically I was thinking "maybe they went on a tour" "maybe he didn't really do anything wrong" Thankfully I asked him and apparently at recess he saw another little boy bite a kid while they were all playing soccer...FWEW!!! I was soo glad to hear that he wasn't actually 'in' the principals office, yet : )
I asked him how everything was on his first day and he told me about as much as you would expect from a boy... I got almost nothing... but after some coaxing I did get a few details from him and the he asked me, "Do I have the SAME kids in my class everyday all year?" i told him yes and asked him why he asked to which he replied, "Because there is this chubby kid that just pisses me off." I held back a couple giggles and reminded him that he doesn't get to choose what he looks like then Gage tells me he doesn't like him because he's mean, not because he's a bigger kid... I guess that'll be a little victory...
For the most part Gage's first day was a good one and he seemed to really enjoy himself, but what an adventure, the bus, school lunch, and the principal's office all in a days work for my Gage!!

I Am Lame!

So, this summer has been quite busy. which is why I have been such a lame blogger! So I appologize and I am now going to update on the days of our lil lives... Firstly as many of you already know Jer had a pretty rough spring which brought him no work, 2 surgeries, 10 days of hospitalization, and and a very long recovery. He is finally now able to do some of the things he usually enjoys over the summer, like hiking, camping, and bicycling. Usually he is pretty sore and needs some ice or heat but we are very grateful to have him able to enjoy a bit of 'life' again.

Chili and Giuseppe flew to Denver to visit their mom a couple of times this summer and of course the had a blast and were spoiled to death! All of the boys have done a couple of wrestling camps to keep up their skills. Mason went to cub-scout camp in July, Giuseppe went to 11yr old Boy Scout camp with Jeremy. Chili and Giuseppe went to a Boy Scout gathering of 5000 scouts called WashJam which was pretty interesting for them..they got to have sacrament meeting in the woods and were able to hear a couple of awesome general authorities speak. It probably would've been more memorable for the boys however the speakers spoke for a total of 8 hours in one day!! yikes! I'm not quite sure who planned that... as a mother of any children can tell you nobody especially deacon age boys want to listen to anything for 8 hours let alone listen to church speakers... actually the boys said that it was long but they mostly enjoyed the experience.

Jeremy has done some work this summer but things are still pretty slow in the construction world. This has prompted us to look into other options. In January he took the tests and applied for several fire departments in the regions and a couple weeks ago he also tested for several police departments as well. He really wants to get hired on as a fireman but there are more positions in the police officer world so hopefully something will work out. We are pretty hopeful since he has already has a couple of interested departments.

We are moving soon... the house is great and we are pretty excited about it. Its a little weird though since there is a chance we will be moving much further if we get a job on the other side of the mountains but we're prepared for the possibility of more than one move this year.

Okay so I know that this is a lame post... I didn't even have pictures or anything!! I think I just wanted everyone to know that we've been busy and enjoying life!!

Grandpa's Farm

As a family we really enjoy our time together camping. We are lucky to have family property in Mineral that is perfect for us to camp at. It has swimming, trails for hiking or biking, a good 'ol fashion tire swing, a 'haunted' house, and lots of room for little boys to play. This year we went on our annual Memorial Day campout and had LOTS of friends and famiy, 55 actually, join us for either all or part of the time. Jeremy mostly relaxed in the RV or by the fire while the rest of us enjoyed ourselves. Here are a coule pictures and a video of our weekend.

Mother's Day

So my Mother's day was a little bit different than most of the ones I have had in the past. first of all Jer was in the hospital so I didn't have the opportunity to spend the day with my boys like I had been planning and there wasn't huge fanfare or anything but I really did have a fabulous experience. There was a need that day for the boys to 'hold their own' because I was needed at the hospital and Glorya(Grandma) was taking the day to visit her own family. Now the fact that the boys were home alone isn't the amazing gift since this was something that happens on occasion and isn't exactly a new idea, but what made it special and significant was that I was gone all day long and not once did I here negativly from the boys. Often when we leave we get to have phonecalls and complaints from the boys because 'so and so did this' and 'so and so did that' but even when I called and asked how things were they were all so happy and getting along... I think I would take all the Mother's Day presents in the world and trade them for more days where the boys love and enjoy eachother. Gage also had a small preschool program for mothers which was very cute...

Beppe's Arrow of Light

My boys are all pretty busy and within all of the crazy things we do somehow Giuseppe had found the time to earn his Arrow of Light. The Arrow of Light is the highest honor in cub scouting and the patch earned is the only one from cub scouting that is worn on the Boy Scout uniform. Chili and Giuseppe have both earned their Arrow of Light and are setting great examples for their brothers to follow. Thank you boys!

New Jewelry

So I feel like I am bragging a bit but honestly I worked pretty hard and I am so excited to finally have earned my Young Womanhood Medallion. for those who are thinking what the heck is she talking about... At church the Young Women from 12-18 have a program called Personal Progress that has goals that are meant to strengthen the girls physically, mentally, and spiritually. As a youth I chose not to take the opportunity to work on the Personal Progress program as I should have and was thankful to have the oppurtunity over the last 2 1/2 years to work on it as a leader. I am thankful for the other leaders and girls that helped me on my way!!

Mason

May was a pretty crazy month for us and though it was difficult the boys did their best to help us take it all instride. Mason was an especially helpful trooper and has tried not to hold it against us that we spent the week of his birthday in the hospital causing the delay on certain special birthday traditions like our one-on-one date the night where he gets to stay up as late as he wants, his brothers doing all of his chores for him, and a few other things like presents since I have not had the opportunity to get him anything yet. With our lives so busy Mason was great about it all and I really appreciate all that he sacrificed on his special day so that we could take care of Jer... We love you Mason!!

Easter Gifts

I bought the boys some towels and then put their names on them in an attempt to reduce my laundry load. It has been about three weeks and the towels are holding up great but sadly the boys are still providing me with tons of laundry to do!!

You Know You Are a Mother of Boys When...

You are having a leisurely Sunday dinner, when all of the sudden you look out the window only to discover that your sons are climbing to the top of the shed and jumping off... now some mothers would hurry outside and make them stop immediately, but not me... I grab the camera and tell them to do it again so that I can get a video... So looking back I am thinking I should've probably played it a little safer and encouraged them to stop... nah : )

Chili and His Wheels

Anyone who has known Chili for awhile knows that he is a phenom on wheels... Beginning with his self taught bicycle lessons at 2 and BMX racing at 3 not to mention the dirt bike he got and rode on his 3rd birthday... he has always loved being on wheels, doing tricks, and showing off... Last summer he saved up some money and bought himself a motorcycle called a 'Pit Bike' which is basically a small almost kid-sized motorcycle with an adult-sized motor and he loves it... he has been asking me for a while to video his wheelies so for your viewing pleasure I present Chili...

Ok so maybe that one wasn't his best... or maybe I thought it would be funny to show him messing up when he was trying to show off : )

Happy Birthday Beppe

So I am a couple of days late but this week Giuseppe turned 11. He is such an awesome kid!! He was a born 'know-it-all' one of my favorite stories about Beppe is when he was only 3 I told him that he looked handsome in his overalls... he informed me that they were not overalls but actually 'overwears' we tried tirelessly to explain how he isn't allowed to rename objects that have been around for a hundred years... he looked at us quite soberly and said simply... 'Well, I call them overwears.' Another one of the things we love about him is that he doesn't follow blindly. Anything that is asked of him he has to know 'why.' Now I'm not saying like the normal child who wants to know how things work but he wants to know how and why everything is the way it is. I also love how he is always trying to figure out a way to make his chores more 'efficient' by trying out different methods and orders. Giuseppe we love you! Happy Birthday!!

Sewing

So usually we try to have some sort of fun during our Spring Break but this year we are on an especially tight budget and Jer is down a from surgery this week so instead of going somewhere to have fun we had to improvise a little bit. I decided to take some time to teach my boys how to sew. We went with pajama bottoms which my boys wear often and they are super easy to sew. they all did pretty well and all of them did most of the work to make their own pants. with exception of Gage who helped out mostly by pushing what he called 'the gas pedal' on the sewing machine... as it turns out with Gage pushing the pedal and making the machine work as fast as possible I can complete a pair of pants in about 25 minutes including the time it takes to iron as I go. Mason and Beppe both made a couple small errors requiring them to get to know a little tool known as the 'seam ripper.' I assured them that I too am well acquainted with the 'seam ripper.' Chili needed the least amount of help and got the job done pretty quickly. They really enjoyed learning how to sew and are excited to do some more of it!!

Emma and Katie's Cheer Competition

So tonight I had the opportunity to see a couple of my Young Women at Church in a State Cheerleading Competition for their school. Emma and Katie's team the 'Bethel Bulldogs' did great! Their team took 1st place... I thought that they looked pretty cool but I really don't know much about cheerleading... So you can see in the video for yourself if you would like!!!

Our Special Day With Gage

Somehow over the last few years we had simply neglected to take our little Gage to the zoo. His older brothers are just not interested anymore and we almost never have just Gage. Yesterday Sandra had the older boys, Chili, Beppe, & Mason, and she took them skiing so we decided to have a 'special day with Gage.' We did a lot of things with him... first we went to the zoo, then to eat a special lunch out, then we helped him ride his motor cycle, we let him play his favorite video games, we even played a couple rounds of 'Candy Land' and then when we were too exhausted for anything else we talked him into watching a couple movies with us. At one point in the day he turned to me and said 'Mom, I love Spring Break.' We are so thankful for our Gage!!!

I Need My Monster

So I just couldn't resist a quick post about my new favorite kids book... A friend from our ward at church wrote this great kids story about a little boy who misses his monster from under the bed... Now I know what you're thinking Tab has a friend who wrote a book and now wants us to believe it is actually good... well while I understand how usually we just 'humor' our friends and their 'cute' little projects I assure you that this is definitely not the case this time... I had a chance to sneak peak it about a month ago and bought it last week on Amazon and have read it to the boys probably once everyday since I got it... so basically I am saying this book is great, the story is great, the illustrations are just amazing and I highly recommend you all add it to your collection!!!

St Patricks Day

So for St. Patrick's Day traditionally, though I am pretty sure that I am not of Irish descent, I prepare all of our food green. The boys simply love our silly little tradition and we are all so amazed at how much my food looks like vomit once it is tinted green.

Green Eggs

Garlic Toast, Punch, and Shepard's Pie

and below we have added some celery with green cream cheese as our after school snack!

Mmmm... does anyone want to come over for dinner!!!

Beppe's Glasses

Funny story... so I get a note home from the school nurse that tells me that apparently Giuseppe had 80/20 vision in one of his eyes and 20/20 in the other. We were shocked to find out that our almost 11year old son has been walking around with what the eye doctor had deemed a 'lazy eye' all of these years. When the doctor confirmed his need for glasses Giuseppe promptly turned to me and with all seriousness said, "I don't need glasses, I only have a problem seeing when I close ONE of my eyes." Yes, he is a boy isn't he! I sure do love how he looks in his glasses! Now he looks as smart as he actually is!!

Our Biggest Wrestler... Jeremy

Chili and Beppe both got 3rd last weekend and Jer did VERY well and brought home a 1st place medal!!! Not bad for a guy who was told by the Doc... no wrestling or grappling pending an MRI... Sorry I should clarify... his exact words were no 'serious' wrestling... so Jeremy said "Good then I won't take it serious!" Glorya... where were you to stop him on this one!!!

ROUND 1



ROUND 2

Why Chili Now Hates Sledding

Denver

Denver

So last week the boys and I left Jer at home and took a trip to Denver to see friends and family. We had tons of fun and did lots of fun things. We went to the Olympic Training Center and took a free tour. The next day we went with a huge group of 11 kids and 6 adults to an abandoned ski resort and did some of the best sledding I have ever done(and I am still sore!) We went to a fun community center where we did some ice skating and swimming and on the last day we even had a chance to go and do some indoor skydiving, which is basically a vertical wind tunnel. so really to say the least we had some fun. I felt bad that we had left Jer at home, but that is what he gets when he is a party pooper!!!

Gage's First Win

So there are many mile stones in a child life that are important, first tooth, first steps, first words, and so on. In our family a first wrestling win ranks right up there with first day of school. We wrestled at state this past weekend and all of the boys did their very best. Most of the kids are grouped into brackets by age and weight but Gage is in a special category called Peewees which is made up of 4 & 5 year olds. They pair these guys into groups of 4 by weight and they all wrestle each other once which gives them 3 matches. The Peewee group is probably the cutest, funniest, wrestling you will ever see. Gage's winning match started with a handshake as usual and the referee blew the whistle and Gage grabbed the other boy's leg and took him down, put in the 'half,' and rolled the kid to his back... he held on as tight as he could while the other boy wiggled and wiggled trying to get free... he then took a quick look at us to make sure we were watching all of the action... and then it was back to work... it seemed like an eternity to me as mom and I am sure it did to Gage but finally the ref slapped the mat giving Gager the pin! Gage jumped up to his feet and giggled profusely as he realized that he had just won his very first match. We were tickled! After all of this action we looked at the clock and saw that Gage's very first winning match lasted all of 16 seconds. Gage spent the rest of the day stopping everyone he came into contact with and letting them know that he had won a match. So technically since Gage lost 2 and won 1 in a group of 4 he takes the title of 3rd in state! No matter the outcome of the tournament the most important thing to us was the smile on Gage's face. We are so proud of you. Go Gager!

Chili Pins Aylen

So if you were wondering what a pin looks like... and for those keeping score... he has 3 pins in his last 3 matches... the time of all three matches combined equal less than 1 minute... nice quick pins!!(ps a normal match is 3-one & a half minute rounds)

ACDC

So I bet some of you are wondering why in the world I would choose ACDC as the music on my little family oriented blog, but then again maybe you they are more of you who aren't even a little surprised! Well actually I had a plan, shocking I know. This is what we call 'Tournament Season.' Wrestling is always pretty busy but January is always a little more special. This is the month when we go to sub-division, if we make the top four, we go on to division, and then again the top four go on to the big finale league. Our team has traditionally been introduced and made their big entrance onto the mat with the big loud manly song "Thunderstruck." So basically I am trying to help out our teams luck by getting the song stuck in everyone's head!!! Oh, and in case anyone was curious Chili, Giuseppe, and Mason are all going on to the League Tourney this year... Wish us luck!!!

Chili -vs- Stahl

Chili's Jr. High team lost the dual meet but Chili as you can see didn't have any trouble at all against their 110lb Varsity wrestler : )

Giuseppe Takes 1st!!!

Giuseppe has been working hard now for 4 years in the sport of wrestling and all the while his brothers have been having all the success. Giuseppe has been working just as hard as them but for some reason has just not quite ever taken first. Many second place medals and some thirds but no first places..... until now.... finally all the hard work has payed off at least for now. He has taken home his first official 1st place medal and poster!!! We are so very proud of him over the last couple weeks. He has not only done great in wrestling but also in the classroom. Giuseppe is the first of our boys to bring home a report card with all 4's (the equivalent of straight A's for the non-Washington readers) and then as if that weren't enough he was the only one in his challenge class(gifted program once a week) to get all 4's on that report card as well. I guess this is just his month!!! We love you Beppe!!

Mr. and Mrs. Hammond

Gage's First Wrestling Medal

So this past weekend the Holiday Tournament. Well here is how it went, Giuseppe and Mason placed 4th and both received medals. They both did their best. Now Gage was in a slightly different part of the tournament. While Giuseppe and Mason were in a regular 8 man bracket style tournament, Gage was part of what is called a Round Robin where they pair up 4 kids of similar age, weight, and ability and they wrestle each kid once. Gage has done this a couple times now and for some reason he seems to get the similar weight part but almost never ability and age. I suspect it is because since his big brothers have been around for a while they assume that since Gage has the same last name he must be better than average. Well as it turns out he's not. He is just quite simply a 5 year old with a couple of months experience. So he always is paired with kids with a couple of years experience. So he hasn't even scored a point all season. So we were a little bit bummed when we found out that Gage was wrestling 7 year olds. But Gage always seems to have fun so we drove on as usual. He ended up losing all of his matches but he felt like he was king of the world. In his 2nd match he scored 2 points, his first points ever, then he got pinned. For his third match I think he remembered how much fun scoring was so he decided to do it some more. He scored 8 points and almost pinned the other kid. In the end the other boy won by just a couple of points. His coaches were so proud of him that they gave him a special star patch. One of Chili's friends saw how excited Gage was and even bought him a shirt. So yeah... all the kids at the tournament received a medal and really Gage got 4th out of 4... but isn't it the little victories that count?!!! GO GAGER!!