MICHELLE

Michelle has had a busy year. She has traveled to Utah twice, Chicago, Nashville and Hawaii. Not all of the trips were fun and exciting as two were for funerals, but the opportunity to see family was still great. We were saddened by the loss of Michelle’s paternal grandfather in September but relieved that his suffering was finally over and Michelle enjoyed a quick trip with her dad and all her siblings to Hawaii for grandpa’s funeral. As a family we also made 2 trips to Las Vegas for two of Michelle’s brother’s weddings. Those trips were all about celebration and spending time with family. They were great. Michelle and Mike had the wonderful opportunity to go on the Stake Pioneer Trek in July. They were called to be a Ma & Pa and lead a family over the 3 day, 36 mile hike pushing a handcart full of their gear. They had 9 children assigned to them and though the experience was physically demanding, it was amazing. The kids in their family were wonderful and it made it all so much fun. Michelle still enjoys digital scrapbooking and scrapbook design. She has taught two sessions of beginning digital scrapbooking classes and will be starting another session soon. Her T-shirt shop remains active (cafepress.com/mlsdesigns) and she sells an average of about 250 shirts per month. In addition, she has recently teamed up with a friend to help with a new business venture...Cherry Lime Boutique making and selling hair accessories. She is loving the creative aspects of this new business and is having tons of fun with it. You can check it out at cherrylimeboutique.com. Michelle has decided to step down from the PTA after 6 years as the Vice President and will do so in February. That will be a big change for her. She plans to stay involved in the kids’ school, but on a different level. So it’s been a busy year with kid’s sports and activities, church, kids’ school stuff, and just keeping up with the family, but she is loving life and happy as can be.

Here are some pics of our TREK family.

KYLE

 KYLE

Kyle is 6½ years old. He will turn 7 in May. He is currently in first grade and absolutely loves it. He is thriving right now as he is excelling in spelling, reading, and math. He truly enjoys learning and is having so much fun with his teacher. Kyle tried out wrestling in the beginning of the year, but he didn’t really like it. Maybe next year. During the summer, Kyle was able to play T-Ball. I don’t think he enjoyed it in the beginning, but by the end of the season, he was doing pretty well. He prefers to hit a ball that is thrown to him rather than hitting it off a T. I guess he will be ready for coach pitch this next year. We found out early this year that Kyle has vocal chord nodules. This is the reason for his husky, rough voice. While it is cute to listen to, we decided to see if we could get him some help to relieve those nodules. We went to a speech therapist and there found out that Kyle doesn’t use his diaphragm when he breathes or talks. Therefore he is unable to push air through his vocal chords with enough pressure to open them all the way. So for the last few months Kyle has been seeing a speech therapist to practice breathing and speaking using his diaphragm. We are hoping that over time this will relieve the irritation that is causing the nodules and that there will be no further damage. Aside from that, he is a healthy and happy little boy. He loves to play the Wii, watch TV, and do whatever his brothers are doing.

JACOB

JACOB

Jacob will turn 9 years old later this month. He is a very busy and active boy and is growing faster than I can keep up with. He is now as tall as Ryan and out weighs him by a little bit. I am sure it won’t be long until I am looking up to him. Jacob had a big event in his life this year. On January 2nd he was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. This made him an official member of our church. Mom and Dad were so proud of his decision to be baptized and it was a very special day Jacob also wrestled in the beginning of the year, but didn’t enjoy it as much as Ryan did. He did however enjoy baseball in the summer. He has a great swing and plays awesome at first or third bases. During the season he was part of several great plays including a couple of double plays. He also had his tonsils out in the summer. After having a tonsil abscess in the spring, the swelling never went down, so we had them yanked out. He was a real trooper and made a pretty quick recovery. The hardest part for him was not being able to eat. Jake has a lot of energy and we are working really hard to help him control that energy and focus when he needs to. He is doing quite well in school and is a great friend. He likes playing with his brothers, playing the Wii, riding his bike and ripstick and rollerblading. He is learning to shoot a bow and even spent his own allowance this year to buy himself some arrows. He has been practicing his archery in the basement. He loves to be outside and hates doing homework.

RYAN

RYAN Ryan, age 10½, was wrestling at the beginning of the year. Though we didn’t participate in any tournaments (because all of them were on Sunday), he did learn a lot of skills that he is using again this season. He is looking forward to next year when he can compete with the school. Ryan was voted school Historian for the Student Council for the last term of last school year. It was his job to take pictures and document school events. He enjoyed the job and did a great job. In the summer Ryan played baseball. It was great to watch him play. He is a really good hitter and can play almost any position he is asked. In the Fall, Ryan joined up for his first season of football. He had the chance to try out several different positions on the team. He played defensive end, running back, and offensive line. He scored one AMAZING touchdown by tucking his head and pushing his way through his opponents, had several great tackles, and a couple of sacks and fumble recoveries. He had great coaches and learned so much. His coaches called him a freak on the field saying he would do whatever they asked him to do. He’s very strong for his size and proved to be a great football player. His team went undefeated outscoring their opponents an amazing 114-22. He LOVED football and is looking forward to next season. He is making excellent grades in school and makes mom and dad very proud. He enjoys riding his bike and rollerblading. This summer he went roller blading with mom a lot through the park. He is super quick on his blades.

Here is a video of his touchdown too.

TIFFANY

TIFFANY Tiffany, age 13, played on the middle school basketball team which went undefeated and became the 6th grade city champs. She followed the basketball season with Track & Field. She competed in the 100 meter, 4x100 relay, long jump and high jump. She too had a great season ending it on a high note with second place ribbons for both long jump and high jump. In May Tiffany was inducted into the National Junior Honor Society at her school. She sang in the school talent show and was later asked to perform in the end of year school pride assembly. She has an awesome voice and still LOVES to sing. She will also be singing again this month in the end of term pride assembly (by invitation) and sings in the school choir. Tiffany went to volleyball camp this summer. After 2 days in the camp for her age group she was asked to move up to the 9th grade group because her skills were more on that level. She is an excellent volleyball player. She earned a spot on the 7th grade varsity team and proved to be a very valuable and versatile player. She could play outside hitter and setter interchangeably as needed and even used a jump serve in one of her games during the season. She is an awesome net player and I hope to see her playing for many years to come. She is doing great in school and loves hanging out with her friends.

KAYLEE

So I am posting this to recap our year since I have been such a terrible blogger this year. It will be in parts. One post for each of the kids. (it is from our Christmas Letter)

Kaylee

Kaylee, age 15 had a busy year this year. In February she had a second surgery on her little finger that was broken in Sept. 2009. This was to remove her screws and scrape away scar tissue in hopes of increasing mobility. After months of physical therapy, she still has very little movement in that finger, but she has not let it hold her back. In March Kaylee earned a spot on the Varsity Track & Field team. She competed in the 100 meter, the 200 meter, the 4x200 meter relay, and long jump. She had a great season by continually beating her own personal records and her 4x200 team took second at the city meet beating a school record in the process. She finished her middle school career by receiving a Presidential Silver award for Academics. She spent the summer playing volleyball at various camps and playing in a freshman league where her team went undefeated. In July she had the chance to go to EFY in Provo Utah. She had a great time and met lots of wonderful friends from all over. She also had the chance to go on the Stake Pioneer Trek and while she faced some challenges with her assigned family, she came out saying she would go again if she could. In August she started High School and made the Freshman Volleyball team. She had a great season with her team taking third place out of 12 in their division. She learned how to jump this year and proved to be wicked as an outside hitter. She improved her skills and became a real asset to her team. She has had a great year and is adjusting pretty well to high school. The big event for her this year was turning 15 and getting her driver’s permit. Now she drives pretty much anywhere we go together. She is doing great behind the wheel and is an excellent driver.

The last 2 weeks

We have spent a lot of time the last couple of weeks at the pool.  The boys are truly enjoying swimming, and I am loving the sunshine.  Kyle has even been jumping off the diving board. 

This past week, the girls have been doing a volleyball camp.  It will continue through next week.  I had the chance to talk with the coach on Tuesday.  He wanted to move Tiffany from the 7th and 8th grade camp into the 9th grade camp that Kaylee is also in.  He said her skills are much more advanced than the rest of the girls that were in the camp with her. (he moved 2 girls up, Tiffany is 7th grade) That made me very happy.  She is doing well and so is Kaylee.  He also told me that both of the girls have great skills and he would love to have them play with him in the volleyball club.  The problem for us is that all the club games are on Sundays so we have chosen not to play in the club.  He was very disappointed, but he said he understands.  He went on to tell me that NOT playing club puts the girls at a huge disadvantage when it comes to making the teams in High School.  He said that the girls that do not play club simply do not have the "connections" to make the teams in High School.  That made me so angry.  I think that when it comes to tryouts for the HS team, all girls she be looked at equally regardless of whether or not they play club.  Skills should be evaluated and girls should make the team if their skills are good enough period.  Well, I told my girls that they just have to work hard and if they want to play in HS, they will just have to prove that you don't have to play club ball to be good enough to play on the HS team.

The two older boys started baseball this week.  It is so fun to watch them practice.  Kyle will start T-Ball practice next week.

This week, I have been working hard to get ready for Relay for Life which is this weekend.  I am really excited for the chance to walk.  I have so far raised over $300 for the American Cancer Society.  It feel so good just to know that in a small way I am doing something to help in the fight against cancer.

Today my kids and I have been busy making cotton candy and popcorn that will be sold at our booth at Relay.  We made 135 bags of cotton candy and 75 bags of popcorn.  LAst night we also made about 40 Fruity Pebbles Krispie Treats and 40 Cocoa Krispie Treats.  This week I have also made some T-shirts that we will also sell there.  Here are a couple of pictures of us working hard.  I didn't get any pics while Kyle and JAke were working and of course since I was taking the pics there are non of me, but that's okay.