Dream Come True

Clayton has always wanted to coach Luke's basketball team, and Luke has always wanted to play on a team.  This was the year!  Luke had a blast, and Clay liked it as well - although I think he's decided that he would enjoy being a fan more than being the coach.  Then, he could just pay attention to Luke.  He was a really good coach, though.  His kids could dribble better than any other team in the league.

Clay running a drill with the boys.

Luke had a great season.  In one game alone, he made 10 points and a few assists.  Clayton thinks his best skill was passing.  Of course, I always missed when Luke made great shots or assists, but I got some video clips of dribbling and defense.  I only wish I had a video of Luke at his third game.  He was a total crack-up!  I don't know what got into him that game, but after every play, he would run down the court near the parents, making some kind of face or victory move.  The parents ate it up, and he really played to the crowd.  Who knew our shy guy had it in him?!

Luke is a red shirt, number 5.

The other dream come true happened this past weekend.  Luke and Clay went on their first Father's and Son's Camp-out with church.  Clay has been looking forward to this for years, and they had a blast!  They even managed to stay dry in the thunderstorms.  Luke said he can't wait to do it again next year.  Audrey, Max, and I had our own little camp-out after the ballet dress rehearsal:  Max in his own bed, and Audrey and I in a tent in the living room.  It was my kind of camping!

Audrey's Dance Recital

Audrey's dance recital was this past weekend, and she was so dang cute!  The girls were supposed to be daisies.

Class picture. Audrey is in the middle row, on the left.

Audrey and her pal, Jade, before the show

Congratulating our dancer after the show

She loved the flowers her dad gave her.

the girlies again

Bragging Rights

If you know Clayton, you know that he likes to stay well below anyone's radar.  He doesn't really care what other people think of him, but is very confident in his own abilities.  I think it blew everyone away when he scored in the top ten in the nation on his last in-training exam.  I wasn't surprised one little bit.  Just proud.  He gets a special award from his program, and the program director offered him a job on the spot.  Of course, he politely declined.  With only 3 calls and 20 days left of work at Henry Ford Hospital, the countdown is definitely on.  I think he is almost as excited about finishing residency as almost anything else in his life!

Our Max-Man

I guess I always thought that Max would look like Clayton and Luke.  He does have a bit of their look, but he definitely resembles Audrey and I with his blonde hair and big blue eyes.  I cannot believe that this little man is already 10 months!  His favorite things: applesauce, swinging on the swing-set, playing in the toilet, clearing off entire bookshelves, having mom's and dad's complete attention.  His least favorite things:  any food with lumps in it, when mom leaves him alone with Audrey (she always picks him up and drags him around, no matter how many times I tell her not to), sitting still.  Church has gotten a lot harder as of late, and with my new calling as Primary President, we'll see how I hold up.  :)  He is very determined, and always tries to follow me around the house with his fast crawl.  He pulls up on everything and can balance in a standing position for a couple of seconds.  The way he looks at the bigger kids running around, I can tell that he's working hard to figure that out.  At his 9 month appointment, the doctor mentioned that he isn't gaining weight quickly enough and that I need to make sure he eats well.  The next day, as I was giving him a bath, I noticed how skinny he is.  I asked Clayton what I should do.  Clay just laughed and said, "When have you ever seen him stay still?  That's why he's so skinny!"  I think that may be right.  He eats very well, but is definitely and mover and a shaker.

One more quick story about him and his sunny personality.  He got sick last week, and we started calling him the green goblin.  He had green slime coming out of his nose and eyes, and I finally took him to the doc when I thought his nose would fall off if I wiped it one more time.  It turns out that the poor little guy had a really bad double ear infection, double eye infection, and a skin infection.  He had been a little bit grumpy, but it was hard to tell that anything was wrong beyond a runny nose due to his happy nature.  We love this guy.

My own form of therapy

Back in March, I had a couple of criminals on my hands.  I'll try to keep the story short, but Luke and Audrey had disobeyed and were confined to their room to clean it up.  They apparently didn't like this one bit, and they snuck out their window.  They rang the front doorbell, laughing, and were in even BIGGER trouble than before.  I took garbage bags into their room and starting bagging up everything left on the floor.  This put some real fear in them, so they begged and pleaded for another chance to put their stuff away.  I left them to it and went to dry my hair.  Fifteen minutes later, I went to check on their progress, and they were nowhere to be found.  That's when I saw the policeman escorting them home!  I guess they had climbed out their window again, gotten on their bikes (with no shoes or coats, in the snow) and ran away down our very, very busy street.  The policeman gave them a stern talking-to, and I was as embarrassed and horrified as could be.  In fact, I was very near my breaking point.  When Clayton got home, he decided that we needed a little change.  I needed some kind of a break during the day for my own sanity.  He, very kindly, took me to a gym and signed me up.  Fabulous decision!  The kids love playing with their friends at the "kids' club", and I get a little me-time in the mornings.  There is nothing quite like swimming laps and feeling all your worries and stress leeching out into the pool water.  Also, I started taking a monthly painting class, which I LOVE!  The teacher is great, and he told me I have a lot of natural talent.  I've already completed two paintings, and I can tell that my skills are already improving.  I actually framed one and hung it on the wall, but then took it down when I saw how it paled in comparison to Clay's paintings.  Maybe someday.  :)

Here's to therapy that doesn't involve a shrink or chocolate!  (although I like to employ the latter, too)

Time Keeps on Slippin'...

I'm back from an un-planned blog hiatus, and I can't believe how many things I've failed to post!  Get ready for a ton of pictures and condensed information.  Here's an update on our spring...

In March, we celebrated St. Patty's Day by baking rainbow cupcakes, doing potato prints, and creating leprechaun traps.

Easter was quite a muddy affair, but we had a fun egg hunt and lunch with some friends in our backyard on Saturday.

searching for loot

Luke and his buddy from church, Izaak

Audrey showing her load 

all the egg-hunters!  we hid about 350 eggs.

sack race!

Yea for Easter!

 Easter Sunday was a nice, quiet day of church, celebrating the Atonement, new outfits from Grandma Allphin (pictures hopefully to come), a nice dinner, and - of course - Easter baskets.  We went pretty small this year with not much candy, but the kids still loved it.

With the large amounts of snow we got this winter, combined with heavy spring rains, our backyard turned into quite a lake for a couple of days.  Luckily, it dried up fairly quickly.

The church parking lot also flooded, and the kids thought it was funny to see a duck hanging out in the parking lot lake.  Can you spot it?