We had a bummer football game this morning. It was Corben's first and last game in this season's play-offs. It was pretty disappointing. We can't even look on the bright side and say that at least we'll get our lives back and not have to plan our lives around games and practices because Trev's team won their game, and if we're already planning around one we might as well plan around two! On that note...

Congrats to Trev! His team kicked butt this afternoon and are heading into week two of the play-offs. Trev did such an awesome job. I'm so proud of him!

The most exciting thing happened in Corben's game last week.

Remember this guy?

He and one of his waterboy assistants were sitting on the sidelines innocently fulfilling their waterboy duties. There was a pass play right by them and before they knew it, they had been knocked to the ground and run over by a group of 14-year-old football players. They both got pretty banged up. It was very sad, but luckily we can look back on it and laugh. Initially Lance said he was quitting his waterboy job and he would never play football. He got over that idea pretty quickly though. He was there with the team today and he still plans on being a player next year. Tough guy!

Congratulations to my football guys, both going to the playoffs! It's been a really fun season this year. Trevor's team is undefeated and Jeremy is an assistant coach on Corben's team, so that's been fun for them, and especially for this guy:

Lance has been in seventh heaven being "waterboy" for Corben's team. The coaches and boys are so awesome, they treat him like one of the guys. He is so dedicated. Not only is he at every game, but he goes the required hour and a half early with Jeremy and Corben. He's not making it a career, though. He's decided that next year he definitely wants to be on the field playing.

Corben and Trev have also been very dedicated to the grueling schedule and have really worked hard and done their best out there. I'm so proud of you guys!

My sweet baby has turned 13 and entered junior high. Luckily it went a lot smoother for him than it did for me. I was such a nervous wreck, partly because my junior high experience was less than stellar. But he is such an awesome kid, he will do great. He is liking it so far, especially since Jeremy and I made a deal with him on payment for grades. He will do anything for a buck. Here he is in the process of cleaning every one of my blinds for $50 (TOTALLY worth it):

He's become obsessed with some video game called Zelda, and for months he begged for this weird musical instrument that is played on the game that I'd never heard of. Props to me and Jeremy for finding it on the internet, although in the end Corben did have to help us decide which kind he wanted. The picture of him with his candles cracks me up. All of my kids are somewhat of a pyromaniac, and Corben scrunched up his candles so they would make one big flame. It worked pretty well!

Of all my children, Corben's infancy and toddler years are the ones I remember most. We went through a lot together, and I will always have extra-tender feelings for this guy. He is so sweet and obedient. I can always depend on him. Love you, Corben!

I guess it's time I introduced the two newest members of our family. One year ago we had a disastrous first experience with getting a dog. It lasted for two weeks and then it was either he goes or I go. So imagine my surprise when I was out with my sisters one Saturday and Jeremy decided he'd take the kids and pick up TWO dogs. I was very disturbed at first, but I quickly realized that this would be nothing like last year's situation. The dogs are brothers and are so cute and well-behaved. By the time I got home the day Jeremy picked them up I was so surprised to see that even Brody and Jace had taken to them and were sitting down letting the dogs crawl all over them. I'm glad I got to experience that evil dog from last year because I'm convinced that I never would've taken to ANY dog if we hadn't gotten a "rock-bottom" dog first. It's taking time for us to bond, though. We took them to get neutered a few weeks ago and when I went to pick them up the assistant brought one of them out and held him up to me and said all cutesy-like, "There's your mommy!" That's when I realized I have a LONG way to go to become a true blue animal lover, because that statement made me shudder really bad. It's been going great, though. The kids all love them and they're a great addition. The best part is I can stop feeling guilty for making the kids get rid of the evil dog.

We get to have Allie and Detmer come over sometimes for sleepovers and the kids always have so much fun. One of their favorite things to do is take a bath. They especially love taking one in my big tub with lots of bubbles.

Detmer and Brody are scared of the bubbles, so they waited patiently until I could get them in the good old-fashioned kid tub.

They all love watching movies. Tonight they got to watch a movie on the big screen downstairs that Jeremy splurged on earlier this summer.

It's been a fun preview to the real fun when they get to have a big sleep-over tomorrow night at Grandpa Greg's house. They are all so excited for that! He has them all over once a month and they just love it (and, of course, so do the parents).

Happy belated birthday to Jeremy. He turned 36, but age doesn't mean anything to us anymore. Since we both aged about 25 years when the twins were born, we can't believe we're still young enough to be in our thirties.

I'll just do a little bragging about him now. He's always known he wanted to go on and get his masters degree, and now that he feels he can finally do it without me heading to the insane asylum, he's gotten it started. He went for summer and is starting back for fall semester. He's done really well so far. His gift for bs-ing will really come in handy on his way to his degree.

He's also an assistant coach for Corben's football team, and seems to be really loving it. He takes Lance to practices and Lance is thrilled to have become one of the team's water boys. They practice every night for a couple hours and Jeremy has been very dedicated.

He's still working on base and doing everything he can to better his position. It's been a shock to his system to have a job that requires you to be there at a certain time in the morning, but he is long gone every morning before I even roll out of bed.

This is what I like the most about him: He knows when he really needs to be there for me. I have been really sad these past couple of days, and he has done everything to try and makes things easier for me. These are some of the things he's done the last couple of days that I couldn't tell you when the last time was that he did them: bathed the kids, cleaned the kitchen, rubbed my back, brushed the kids' teeth, and has just generally been doing whatever he can to make sure I'm okay. He even cancelled a fishing trip he had planned this weekend so he could stay with me.

I hate bringing this up because it makes me look bad, but I made him sell his motorcycle. The feeling came upon me suddenly and strongly that we needed to get rid of it, and though he loved that thing, he immediately gave in to my wishes. It was really hard for him, but I'm very happy to know that when I feel that strongly about something, he won't second-guess me. It was never even an argument, he was just sad about it. He had it sold within a month (I won't mention the two news articles I've read in the week it's been gone that were about fatal motorcycle accidents. Just more peace of mind that we did the right thing).

The last thing I will mention about his amazingness is SO amazing, that he doesn't even know it yet! Since Kira is going out of town this weekend, he is going to get up bright and early on Saturday and come to yard sales with me! Isn't he the greatest?

(side note: this story ends fine, just sharing an experience)

A few weeks ago Jeremy took Trevor in for his sports physical. He was otherwise fine, but the doctor wouldn't sign him off because of a heart murmur. Trev would have to see a cardiologist before the doctor would sign him off for football. Jeremy and I scoffed. Who doesn't have a heart murmur? I've heard of tons of people who do. So we made an appointment with Primary Children's Riverton office (so we could get in sooner. The main hospital couldn't get us in until after football would have already started). We decided to make a day of it since we were driving all that way so we piled all the kids in and headed to see the doctor. The doctor was really nice, but after a couple of initial tests he explained that he didn't like what he was hearing. He went into detail, saying an innocent murmur wasn't common in a child as old as Trev, and it sounded like the type of thing, he didn't say this in so many words, but implied that it could basically make a child drop dead if they are being too active. At this point Jeremy and I were both getting a little nervous. The doctor sent Trev in for an ultrasound. After that we were brought back into our little room and waited. And waited. And waited. After nearly an hour, the doctor reappeared. Now, a little advice to you doctors out there: After you have just told me my child quite possibly has a very serious heart condition, done further tests and made us wait for an hour before reappearing, don't come back into the room escorted by two other doctors. Or if you must, at least poke your head in the door first and say that you have two residents following you around observing. It was a terrifying few seconds until he casually told us that it was an innocent murmur after all and Trev was just fine.

After that lovely experience we went to try out a big waterpark in the area called Cowabunga Bay. I can't believe how much fun we had. I'm always a little skeptical to take all the kids to a water place, but it worked out pretty well. There were a lot of slides they could all go on, even the little ones, and the water is never very deep. It was such a fun day. After a hectic summer it was pretty much the first time in several weeks we had gotten to spend quality time together. It's definitely something we need to work on doing more. The only damper on the day was missing Corben because he was at scout camp, but I stopped feeling bad when he got home and told me it had been the best week of his life. Uh, don't know exactly how I feel about that.

My two cents about Cowabunga Bay: We did the cheapest deal they offer, which is two hours at the end of the day, and it still costed $65. They are way overpriced. Though it was a lot of fun, it definitely does not offer enough to justify what they charge.

Here are the kids all tuckered out at the end of the day:

I've been bummed all week about last week's Deseret News 10k that I ran with my dad, sister, and brother-in-law. I had no doubt that I would improve on last year's time and ended up adding three minutes! So I'm trying to gain a little perspective. I'm blessed that I have the ability to even attempt a race. It's not something I would've ever thought about trying ten years ago. And my sister made a couple of good points when she wrote about it: It is an awesome family tradition that we've started. This was our second year but we have no plans to stop. Also it's inspiring to run with our dad. He's 56 years old and didn't even start running until about five years ago or so. I am an avid exerciser, and despite my deep love and appreciation for all things chocolate/fried/crunchy/salty, etc. and the ensuing weight problems that causes, I think I am fairly healthy. So I need to stop being bummed about what I couldn't do and be proud of myself for what I can do.