And my birthday present was....oh yea! A Judo Tournament!

I know you are thinking that a Judo tournament is always top on my list of things to do on my birthday! Yup! Of course it is! I am just joking. We went to the Intermountain Shiai (Wow!!! Judo is becoming a part of me! Check out the lingo!!!!) in Twin Falls and it just happened to be during my birthday weekend. We did have a great time though. Elizabeth wormed her way out of going but Teila hitched a ride and we got to have a very nice dinner at a restaurant, The Outback, with some great friends! The bonus, Jonathan finally broke his record of only placing 2nd or 3rd and took 1st in both divisions. Teila amazed everyone (Uncle Ron decided to put her in any fight that she could compete in! Isn't he kind?!?!?! I think she dearly loved him for this!!!) and took 1st in 3 divisions and 2nd in one. Here are some pics of our fun weekend and last tournament of the year!

Where, oh where, did our little girl go?

I am a little behind. Well not a little, more like a lot! Life just keeps speeding ahead and, POOF, it's gone and we are further behind, trying to look back!!! Hours, days, months have passed by in just a blink. I remember when we had Jonathan and everyone said, "Slow down, just enjoy! Take time to just play and remember every moment." But did we? Not really. Do we? Not really! Between doctors visits, growth charts, school and parenting books, we pushed and encouraged our kids to grow/learn/do...just like we said we never would. Just like we promised everyone we wouldn't. As I write this, my blog (supposedly my attempt at a journal)is not updated, my classroom is the exact same way I left it on the last day, my house and it's contents are no where near organized and there is only 4 weeks of summer break left with the list of things we had "planned on doing" with the kids has ONE thing checked off. Coffee and get togethers have been cancelled and rescheduled more times than I care to share....
All of this got me to thinking about all the "firsts" that are over in our house. The first words, the first steps, the first time riding a bike, the first time on the potty chair, the first time coloring, the first tooth, the first tooth falling out, first time reading and the list goes on and on. Not really sad, but more a sweet remembrance and wondering how it went so fast. Then I rolled over (we were all taking a nap) and took a look at Elizabeth. How is our little girl now 8 years old! Our baby, the last of babies we are going to have, is 8 years old. Not so much a baby anymore. She is a young lady! I realize there are more firsts to come and I
can't wait. But realizing that I need to slow down, I need to play, I need to keep better track (blog, journal and/or write down the wonderful things that are happening) and really "live" in the moments that we have. Yes, the housework needs done, the laundry needs folding, bills need to be paid but I am going to try and relax and enjoy the days our family has together and write it down, type it up, or just make sure to document it so we can take a look back when we need to! We have been so blessed!
So, in an attempt to start fresh, better late than never, Happy Birthday Sweet Elizabeth! We love you so very much and are so lucky to have you! You are our princess and no matter how old are, you will always be your Daddy and my baby girl!!!

 

An attempt at being creative.......

I can honestly say that I don't have a clue when it comes to all of the gadgets my camera or the publisher program Ron got for me can do! I just basically turn on my camera or computer and play with all of the buttons. (Remember, I teach Kindergarten, so this really is appropriate for the age group I spend most of my time with!) I envy those of you with a "creative eye" and can use all the tech stuff to have projects turn out wonderful! I am always in awe at your quilts, scrapbooks, wall paintings, video's, and the list goes on. You know who you are!!! For that reason, I have always paid, well for the sake of Ron's blood pressure, let's just say too much for pictures of my kids. However, I saw a project that I dearly fell in love with (Thanks Nikki!) and I just couldn't help but give it a try. Now, Ron would love anything that has our kids in it so it really didn't matter what the end result was. Especially with him gone all the time, I thought he would really appreciate having some pictures of the kids to look at. However, our family doesn't just do for one and not for the others! So, guess what? I got to make one for my sister and one for my cousin! However, the kids are beautiful and that is all that really matters in the end. Please disregard light exposures in faces, next door neighbors rooftops, doors, crooked pictures, etc. Remember, I tried! And using the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, "All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better." I tried to just put the three pictures together to give you an idea what the final project looks like. We put the individual pictures into a 3 place vertical frame and the letters spell out the word dad. Please refer back to the previous statement about my technology failures! Hopefully you will enjoy, appreciate the attempt, critique if you must, but most importantly know how much the "Dads" in our family mean to us!
Jonathan and Elizabeth!
Teila and Alyson!
Brenna, Rylee and Jostyn!

Thank You!!!

I just have to say thank you for all of the prayers and phone calls yesterday you made to us during Greyson's surgery! I was completely in awe that so many of you would take time out of your busy schedules and do that for a baby that many of you don't even know and our family! Thank you! The link to Bob's blog is on under Westfall's for all of the technical stuff, since I don't want to say the wrong thing. However, I can say, the trach is gone and he did well through the surgery. Bob, Stacy, and Greyson are okay. Of course, it isn't over yet. So, if we could ask, please keep them in your prayers. What a living witness of God can do in our lives, even in the midst of uncertainty! This story has definitely been one with God in the center helping,loving and guiding the whole time! Enjoy this picture that I borrowed (Took right off of Bob's blog! Aren't I getting tricky? Thanks Bob! I will be there soon to take pictures of my own!!!)of the sweet little boy you are praying for! Isn't he a cutie!?!? Takes a little after his aunt, don't you think? My prayer is that everything will continue to go well and this little man will get to come and meet you all for the first time! Wouldn't that be a party?

iNtRoDuCiNg.........

Our family would like to introduce to you the new addition to our family, Nikko Ni Ryan. Our bouncing, happy puppy, born on April 8, 2009, weighs 15 pounds and is an energetic and friendly black Labrador retriever!! (What were we thinking? Actually the story goes like this... Ron comes home and says he has been saving cash for a surprise to take us all to the Outback. Aunt Tammy-Thanks Tam-calls to tell us about registered labs-nothing but the best for us!-for sale near Costco. Ronie has always wanted a chocolate lab and after Bailey's ordeal last summer-Oh my!!!-our family dog has gained A LOT of weight and could use a playmate to get him active, so we thought, why not check them out. The rule was this, if there was a chocolate, we would DISCUSS it. If there were none, we would simply walk and be on our way to dinner! Simple, right?!?!?! Well, we drive up and peek into the kennel and guess what? No chocolate labs...so being apparently the only rule follower in our family, I head back to the car. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Ron put Elizabeth into the kennel with the 12 adorable, but not at all chocolate,to play and love on, puppies . Just an FYI, never put a seven year old little girl that has a desire to be a zoo keeper in a kennel filled with sweet little puppies and try to tell her no. So, about an an hour and a half later- in the extremely HOT sun!, - we left holding our very own BLACK puppy! Hum....not mentioning any names but someone wasn't listening to the plan!) However, he is cute (NOT when he is pooping and weeing all over the house!) and hopefully with our new favorite TV show, It's Me Or The Dog, will be well trained! So, come on over! He loves to play!!!!
Oh by the way...we never did get dinner that night!So much for the Outback!

 

A Tournament In Twin Falls

 

We ended up in Twin Falls this weekend for Jonathan's judo tournament. The trip down was just Tammy, Teila, Elizabeth, Jonathan and myself as Ron was already there for work. Thanks Tammy for the ride! We enjoyed the treats, the Teila comments (Have you spent time with a teenager lately? Oh my goodness! It is like the world is a new place for them and they have just arrived! More stories about this I am sure will come now that I am excited about blogging again!) That night, the kids got to swim in the motel which made their evening. In the morning, Jonathan was geared up and ready to go, begging to "play up" at the tournament. Not that we try to discourage him in anything he does, but we tried to explain that this tournament was going to be hard, he has had rough time this year (Well, maybe our tournament wasn't his fault as he left with a fever was horribly sick!) and that the scoring was different than most tournaments. So, well, yes, I guess as parents we did try to persuade him into just sticking to his own division. But our little guy was determined, so we paid the extra $5.00 give him the "you wanted this, no backing out now, no crying to us, we tried to tell you" speech. I am sure it is a typical speech we heard from our parents sometime in our lives!
The tournament begins and our little man proved us wrong and did absolutely amazing! In fact, I have to say, he was relaxed, focused, and really seemed to be enjoying the whole competition atmosphere. He took 2nd in his division (losing by just one opponent for first) and he fought hard and tough and took 3rd in the 11-12 year olds. I enjoyed the day and actually didn't mind sitting there watching! Even Elizabeth was getting into the whole "Judo" thing throughout the day! So that is telling you something!
So, what we learned......listen to our children. They may sometimes know more than we think they do!

PlAyTiMe On PrEsIdEnT's DaY!!

Today we went to one of the kids' favorite places to be rambunctious and get our wiggles, or should I say, sniffles out. Teehee! These colds have been horrible to get rid of! UGH! We went to Planet Kid. It is a perfect place for kids and full of a bunch of toys and slides and tubes! Fun for all and as an added bonus, adults can fit into it all too! Yipee! You haven't had a day unless you tried to slide down a tube with a nice head cold with your lungs straining for just a little more air, and an added bonus of a 3 year old cheering you to go faster, in a place you aren't sure you can get out of! Too much fun!!! No really, we had a great time! One of my favorite friends and her daughter came with us to join in the fun! I love spending time with them! I am so glad they were able to come!! Thanks Kristin and Magnolia! We so enjoy you! Of course Mom and her new crew came with us and it is always fun to play with all of them. (Plus a day with Mom is just an added bonus to anything!) They even opened up the rock wall and let us climb on that too! We were so lucky! We thought we would share some pictures of our pictures so you can see how we spent our Presidents Day. (We did talk about Lincoln and Washington and all they did for our country! See you thought, we didn't spend the day the way we were suppose to! Silly you!)