Haydn's Choir

Cardston Elementary Senior Choir

     Haydn has been singing in the Cardston Elementary Senior Choir for the last couple of years. Last year they won a competition that made them the best elementary senior choir in all of Canada. They received a trophy and a certificate for this achievement. These kids are great and they put in so much work to learn their songs.

     Haydn had his Christmas concert a few weeks ago and he almost missed it. He had been sick all week and was not sure if he was going to be able to sing in the concert. We felt so bad for him because he had worked so hard and woke up so many early mornings (which was probably a bigger job for Kristi). He missed school monday, tuesday, wednesday and Thursday. His Concert was thursday night. He stayed home from school to save some energy and went to the concert that night. He was supposed to perform 2 shows that night. We as a family went to the first show and listened to the choir. He started the night feeling pretty good, but as we watched him through the show you could tell that he was not feeling so hot. He was not able to do the 2nd show because he was so sick, but he did a great job in the first show and they sang great.

December is Here

     Well what has been happening since halloween????????????????? Haydn and Brody had their birthdays on December 4th and 9th. Haydn is now 11 years old and Brody is 8 years old. Brody is especially excited because he will be baptized this month. This will be a great day for him to share with all the family and he is very excited for that. Brody also was able to go to "Cubs" for the first time last week and he was really pumped up about going with his older brother to that. BUT now that Haydn is 11, he will be moving out of "Cubs" and into "Scouts". Wow, they are growing up so fast.
     Kristi let the kids choose what they wanted for a birthday dinner. Brody wanted chicken wings, which was great because I love chicken wings. All Haydn wanted was sushi, so Kristi made him home made sushi and teriyaki beef which was so good. Haydn is so funny, because he is the pickiest eater ever, but he will eat sushi everyday if he could. Either way we had 2 great meals for the kids birthdays.

     I played in the Cardston Alumni basketball tourney this year. They did not have many players coming back this year for the tourney so they asked a few random people like myself haha. This was a lot of fun because Ryan was asked to play as well so he flew home from Vegas for the weekend and we were able to play on the same team. This was great because I missed seeing Ryan a few times during the summer because of Haydn's baseball tourneys and our camping trip at the end of summer. Ryan stayed with us, so it was nice to hang out and catch up. I had not played in a competitive basketball game in about 5 years so I was really nervous, like had to go to the bathroom 8 times before the game nervous haha. We won our first game in the last few seconds of the game. We had a call that went our way with about 4 seconds left in the game and that sealed it for us. Our second game we were winning the whole game by about 10 points and then fell apart in the last few minutes and lost by 3. We played in the third place game and won that game. I had a great time playing and found out that I am kind of a Hack when it comes to basketball. I will probably just stick to playing softball!! haha!

     We are having a baby GIRL!!! Yes, I will be the father of a daughter. This is a scary thing for me to think of for some reason. Kristi was soooo excited to find out that she was going to have a baby girl on our last baby. She had to pull the car over to the side of the road when she was telling me because she was crying cause she was so happy. Deep down all dads want to have a son and all moms want to have a daughter. I am happy that Kristi will get to have that. She has such a great connection with her mom and I am sure she would love to have that same connection with her own daughter. It will be good for me to get more in touch with my sensitive side haha. I am sure I will parent a daughter different then how I have my boys. I keep telling Kristi that it is good that we are having a girl cause now we will have someone to take care of us when we are old. We are excited and are in the process of brainstorming names!!

 



      It has been sooooo cold here the last few weeks. We had 2 days of school that were cancelled last week because of the snow. We hadn't had a snow day from school in about 4 years so it was amazing to get 2 days in a row off. We had temperatures of -48 with the wind chill. It was tough to be outside for any amount of time. The bad part is that I was supposed to fly to Dallas Texas on December 6th for a teachers conference, but the Bad weather we had must of made its way down south because Dallas had the worst ice storm it has had since 1950 and all the flights to Dallas had been cancelled. We tried to fly out the next day and the flights were cancelled again, then we tried to fly out the next day and again for the 3rd time the flights were cancelled. So me and Scott Quinton were stuck in Calgary for 3 days hanging out in a hotel playing video games, watching movies, hot tubbing, water sliding, and eating. It sounds like fun, but we wish we were in Dallas.

     Well it is christmas time again!! I helped Donny with his lights at his house, and we made our lights for the outside of our house. Each tree represents a member of the family. The big green tree and the 3 smaller green trees are me and the boys. The red tree is mom and after we found out our baby was going to be a girl, Donny made a small red tree to sit beside Kristi's tree.

 Halloween 2013

     Well another Halloween has come and gone and the kids will be all jacked up on sugar for the next few weeks. The boys had a great haul of candy this year. Haydn is old enough just to go out with his friends so he went out with Kade Powesland. They went all over the place and came back with a pillow case full of candy. Karlee took Brody out, and they had a great time as well. Me and Kristi took Tyson out to 5 or 6 houses and he was so cute. He would say "Trick or Treat" and "Thank You" at the houses and was so funny running from house to house. We only went to 5 or 6 houses for him, but because he was so cute the people always gave him extra candy.

     The kids had a great time carving their pumpkins. Haydn couldn't decide what to carve so he carved his pumpkin 3 different times. Brody had a great pumpkin this year and carved a Transformer face into his pumpkin. I did the Avengers symbol and Kristi did a great scary face.

     We finished the night by going to Uncle Jimmy's house and eating pizza. This has become a tradition in our family on Halloween night. Its a great time to sit around and laugh and joke with one another and let the kids binge on their halloween treats. Tim Williams and his family was their and Perm. It was a great way to end the night.

      Both the kids wanted to keep their candy in their rooms, but who knows if that really is the best idea for kids to have a bag full of candy in their room at night. We will see how this plays out. hahah

   
   

 Back to School September

     Wow the boys are getting so old or is it just the parents? haha. Haydn started grade 5 this year and Brody started grade 2. It will be so crazy cause Haydn will be up at the junior high with me next year. That will be good cause I will be able to keep tabs on him. haha

     Haydn is singing in the choir again for the elementary school and both the boys are playing basketball every saturday. It seems like life just gets so busy the older the kids get. All the boys love to be involved in all kinds of activities outside of school. 

          Our little man Tyson just turned 3 in August and is as crazy as ever. He says the funniest things. Right now he loves us to lay in bed with him at night and tell him "Stories" before bedtime. We will tell him a story and then he will say that it is his turn and he will tell us the funniest stories that have the most random details in it.
     
     Tyson loves to be outside and will go to the park no matter what the weather is like outside. He is such a fun kid to have in the house and always has something funny to say. It is amazing how much kids pick up form TV and movies, cause this kid is always quoting something from a movie he watch or a video he has seen.

Baby #4 in April!!!!!!

     Yes baby #4 will be arriving in  April. We are excited to have a new edition to the family, but very nervous at the same time. Having a baby is s stressful time cause you want so bad for the baby to be healthy and you always hear of all the problems that can happen while a woman is pregnant.

     We told our families last week and they were all shocked and very excited. I told both families some big story about how I get to travel around this year but then added that my favorite trip will be when i get to go into Lethbridge in April and pick up Kristi and our new baby. Everyone just went quiet and tried to figure out what I had just said. Then when they realized what I had said they were all excited. Reggie thought it meant we were adopting a kid. haha. Everyone thought that we were done having kids, but we just couldn't shake the fact that we both felt like we should have one more baby.

     Haydn, Brody and Tyson all want a new baby sister for the family. I am sure deep down Kristi would love to have a daughter that she could pamper and spoil. haha. Wouldn't be to bad to have a baby girl that would have 3 protective older brothers. I would love to have another boy, but would be just as happy with a daughter as long as the baby is healthy.








Working For Donny-son

     Don wanted to re-do all of his sidewalks because some of the bricks were sinking in and starting to pool water when in rain or when snow melted. This was like taking apart a giant jigsaw puzzle and then putting it back together again. It was a fun time that lasted from 8am till about 8pm. The first few hours were tough and none of us thought that we would ever get done haha. Everyone came to help on the project. Kesty, Barry, Winslow, Reggie, Maddy and Luc. It was fun to be around everyone and it makes the work a lot funner when you are laughing the whole time.

     After the work was done we all had a family meal together. It is great getting the whole family together and hanging out. Barry and Winslow came all the way from Edmonton just to help out with the sidewalks.

 Conference in Edmonton

     I was asked to go to a conference in Edmonton about assessment. We took the bus up to Edmonton and it was the longest ride to Edmonton in my life. It was nice just to relax and let someone else do the driving cause usually when we go it is me doing all the driving. The conference was good and I was able to walk away with some great ideas for making teaching in my classroom more effective. I stayed in a room with Scott Quinton and that was a lot of fun. We went to a few movies and would go out to eat with a bunch of friends.

     The one night we went to a movie at 7pm and came back to our room about 10pm and I looked at Scott and Derick Heggie and said there is no way that we are staying in at 10pm when we have no wives and no kids with us. I didn't want to be "That Old Guy". So I looked out the window and I could see a pub across the street, so we went there (and we were ID'd haha) ate some nachos and watched the baseball game. So I felt i saved my Man-hood somewhat.

 Grade 7 Boys Volleyball

     I coached the grade 7 boys volleyball team this year and we had a great little team. We had some great little athletes on the team that could play the game well. We played in 4 tournaments and I am pretty sure we only lost 3 or 4 sets all together. We won all the tourneys that we played in and the boys were so excited when we won the Final Divisional tourney in Magrath and won medals and a ball that all the boys could sign.