It was a Merry Christmas

The best part of Christmas for me this year was that Ryan wanted to give something special to his Uncle Lance.  Ryan has been taking an art class and one of the pieces he completed was this beautiful car picture.  He knows that his Uncle Lance likes cars, and he has often said to me that he "thinks he gets his art talent from his Uncle Lance."  So this was a special gift... something Ryan made and wanted to give to his Uncle.  We went and got the artwork framed and it just looked awesome.  I love the look on my brother's face when he saw the picture for the first time.

Sarah likes to play on Webkinz.  She also loves dolphins.  She had been looking and looking for a Webkinz dolphin whenever we'd go into stores.  Well, I found out that it wasn't being sold at stores anymore, but I was able to find it on eBay. 

Nathan most wanted a Nintendo DSi... and he was pretty excited that he got one.

I actually didn't get a picture of the present Ryan most wanted.  (I really did a lousy job of taking pictures this year -- I was so busy with food and everything.... )  Anyway, his best gift was a software program to create videos with.  But I liked the smile he had in this picture, so I'm sharing it here.  :)

We all had a very Merry Christmas and hope you did too. 

I've Lost My Voice!

We had to be at the soccer field at 8:15 a.m. this morning for a 9 o'clock game.

The 9 o'clock game was to make up for the game that was canceled last weekend due to rain. Before that first game started, Sarah's team was in 2nd place in the Area Division Playoffs three points behind the first place team.

We won our first game 2-0 giving our team a total of 9 points to be added to our total. The then first place team tied their first game, giving them only 3 points to add to their total, making us the 1st place team going into the semi-finals.

However, once the semi-finals started, points didn't matter anymore.

It was win or go home.

Our girls were on fire and won the semi-final 3-1.

Onto the Championship game...

We had about an hour break in between games,

so we went and got some food and came back to the field to sit in the warmth of the sun and eat and get ready for the big game.

Now... let me give you some background before I share the details of this Championship game.

Before Sarah's regular season even started, her team entered a Labor Day Tournament for fun. It was a good way to get some game time in before the actual season started. They did very well in that tournament, actually being undefeated and winning 1st place in that tournament. The team we played for that particular championship game was the same exact team we were now about to play for today's Championship game! Isn't that something else? Well, you know that team wanted to beat us, right?

So, anyway, we start playing and it is a good game. A very good game, as I knew it would be. No score in the first quarter. No score in the second quarter. No score in the third quarter! Now we have been told that there are no ties in the Championship game. If the teams are tied after four quarters, then they will go into two five-minute overtime quarters, and then if they are still tied after that, they will do what is called a "shoot-out" where each team gets to kick five times on the goal and whoever gets the most goals wins!

Now, mind you, these girls are TIRED! We have been down at the field since 8 a.m. this morning. This Championship game started at 3 o'clock! Four quarters is 50 minutes of game time. They were giving it their all, but you could see that they were tired! Right as the last quarter started, I looked at my clock on my cell phone. I knew the quarter was 12.5 minutes long. So the fourth quarter is being played and there is still no score. I'm thinking, we just can't go into overtime! These poor girls, on both sides, are so tired!

I keep looking at my clock.

Six minutes left, no score.

Four minutes left, no score.

Two minutes left, no score.

I see one of our girls taking the ball down the field towards the goal and I glance at my clock and I yell, "ONE MORE MINUTE! SHOOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

She shoots the ball and the ball goes in the net!

Waaaaaaahooooooooo!

And the referee blows the whistle!

We win!!!!!!!!!

Sarah's team is now the League Champions and are going to Sectionals in February!

I'm so proud of her! She has been so fun to watch. She plays her hardest and gives it her all, and she is a good teammate, always encouraging others and cheering her teammates on!

Needless to say, after cheering on the girls for three games today, especially that last game... I literally have no voice left. Ha!

We Three Kings Duet - Piano Recital 2009

I love it when Sarah and Ryan play the piano together.

"What if the Streets Were Rivers?"

This was the writing prompt that Sarah chose:

"If all the streets were rivers then we could not drive. We would have to ride a bike on the sidewalk."

"What Would Happen if You Grew Taller Than Trees?"

If a fully grown adult grew bigger than trees, then that means there would be a lot of plants in the way for us to walk. We may cut them down for easier transportation, for walking, giant roads, huge cars, and if not big enough, buildings. There won't be as many trees and plants so their won't be as much oxygen. Who knows how bad that will be. Our life will be different with money. Nothing would cost the same because everything will be tiny. Like 100 acres will be cheap, maybe 100 bucks, but everything that you build will cost a lot more like metal. We probably wouldn't be able to live because our bodies will be huge and have bigger expectations so food, like bananas, will be so tiny we will need ten to get filled up. God made everything perfect so we can live and if we grow taller than trees, nothing will be right."

Ryan's writing prompt response ~ December 14th, '09

"If I Had a Magic Wand..."

A couple of times a week, I write a a couple of writing prompts on the white board for the kids to choose from to write about in their writing journal. Yes, I know that was a really bad sentence, but I have a head cold and am too dizzy and tired to try to re-word it. Anyway, I thought I'd share some of my favorites entries from time to time. Mind you, these writing journals are for fun and to (hopefully) develop a love (or a like) for expressing themselves through writing. I don't grade these nor do I correct their spelling or grammar. They enjoy these and always want to take turns reading their entires out loud to us all.

Here's Nathan's writing prompt from today:

If I had a magic wand I would... first examine to see if it's real. But if it is real I would probably abuse it and get....... candy, video games, a playstation 3, no braces, money, a time machine so I can go in the future and get the Padres to sign me for a lifetime contract of 999,999,999,999 dollars when I'm eleven so I could be the youngest player in baseball history, super powers, a potion to make every ball hit to be a homerun, crab legs, all kinds of shrimp and a genie for 3 wishes, which would be 3 drinkable spells: 1, a whatever I want spell; 2, a blender that actually works spell; and 3, a lifetime supply of avocado spell, and that's what I would do if I found a magic wand.

I was cracking up as he was reading this to us today. You see, I have purchased two blenders in the past week, both of which I took back because they weren't working well, and I love avocados, so those two were for me. Wasn't that sweet of him to include me?

Gifts of Grace is Moving...

I have had a "spiritual journal-type" blog for a while now, albeit very seldom written on. I've decided to move the remainder of my Gifts of Grace lists to that blog instead of here on my family and homeschool blog.

So, if you'd like to continue reading my lists, you can see them at my Beyond the Branches blog.