Football Games and Flashbacks...

Last Wednesday we celebrated Nathan's 11th Birthday. In our family we only have "Friend Parties" every other year, so this year we had a quiet celebration at home.

Nathan is turning into such a handsome and polite young man.

Make a Wish!

Our family took a journey down to Utah this weekend to watch the Mighty Cougars play football. We stayed with my Grandma Smith who lives within walking distance of the stadium.

This was taken before the game. You can see that we were pretty excited to be cheering on our Alma Mater, especially given that they were ranked 9th in the nation. Sadly the Mighty Cougars didn't play so mighty...it was a pretty big disappointment.

This is a picture I took of Nathan last week, after his birthday. (Notice that one shoe lace is black and one is white---He has been wearing them this way since the first day of school. When asked if this was the cool way to do it he replied, "I don't know, but I'm going to do it anyway!").

Anyway, being at my Grandma's house and going to the BYU game got me thinking about another game we went to 10 years ago, almost to the day.

This is Nathan on his first birthday, at a BYU football game, 10 years ago. Don't you love the ear plugs?

Before we headed back home I took this picture of my kids with their Great Grandma Smith, outside of her home. When I saw it, I got to thinking about this next picture:

This is a picture of me with my Great Grandma Lyman (my Grandma Smith's mom) outside of her home. I bet you can recognize me on the left, my sister, Natalie in the middle and my sister, Angie on the right. I'm not sure exactly when this was taken, but I'd have to guess it was taken when I was about the same age as Nathan is today. Pretty cool, huh?

I'm so grateful for family and memories. They are so important.

Happy Birthday Nathan!

2008-2009 Slide Show

Dear Reader-
I've been fooling around a little with this new computer program I got awhile back. I had this idea to put together a slide show of some of the things that we have done since school started last year. I showed the video the Sunday night before school started. Anyway, I think the video turned out alright. Although, I have to warn you it is 10 minutes long. So unless you are in my close family, you might not enjoy it. I used quite a few primary songs. I guess those are the things running through my head constantly right now, given my new calling, and the fact that the primary program is only 5 weeks away, or so.

I hope you like it, and I hope that you all are having a good day.

Love, Jennie

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P.S.-If you haven't seen the latest "New Moon" movie trailer, you can check it out HERE. I can't wait!! :)

School Starts

A new school year has begun! We are really excited about all of the kids' teachers. I think it is going to be a great year.

Even though Ryan had his first day of school a couple of weeks ago, I couldn't resist putting this picture in. It is such a good one.

Only one more year of Elementary School for Nathan. Wow, he has grown up so much in the last year.

Danny pretended like he wasn't excited to go back to school, but I know better. He is such a social guy, he couldn't wait to be back with his friends.

These two have become such good buddies. I really love the fact that they walk to school together. You can kind of see the school in the background. All they have to do is walk through that gate and they are there. Let the learning begin.

Quarterback

Last Saturday Danny had his Flag Football Jamboree. It was held at Bronco Stadium downtown. We thought he was going to be playing on the blue turf, but it ended up that the tackle teams played on the main field and the flag teams played on the practice field. A couple of weeks ago the coaches had decided that Danny was going to be playing quarterback.

Here you can see Danny on the Blue Team (Stryker Orthopedics), lining up for the count and the snap.

This is Danny in a sweet Running Play. His coaches told us that they picked Danny to be Quarterback because he had a natural understanding of the game and how the plays should work.

Fancy Footwork Danny!

The Optimist League had arranged for the Boise State Players to sign autographs. After Danny made his debut on the field, he and Nathan got in line to meet some of the team. Nathan was not particularly thrilled to stand in line, but we convinced him to get some autographs for Ryan. Ryan thought it was so awesome.



What a great day for football.

It is not unusual for Danny to leave his mouth guard in much, much longer than necessary. He thinks it is very cool and makes him feel tough.

By the looks of things, it should be a really great season. Tomorrow is Danny's first official game. Strykers Attack!