Tennis Star in a Tennis Family

Natalie's youngest brother, Reo, just picked up tennis this year after switching from baseball. Good story about a good win for him here. Way to go Reo! Following in your sister's footsteps!

Easter

Cayle had a great first Easter. Church was packed this morning! We got there 15 minutes early, and couldn't even get seats together... :( Cayle had his fantastic Easter outfit on. He looked sharp! This is him finding easter eggs in the front lawn of church after the service. We had a few people over today for lunch. Natalie prepared a feast for us all. It was fantastic. Cayle loved the cheesy potatoes and the french bread! He has taken a real liking to bread lately, trying to see how much he can fit in his mouth at once seems to be a fun game.... This evening, we got packed to head back to IL in a few days for Bob and Marie's wedding. Excited to see everyone!

Easter Eggs

Messy

Not sure what the deal is now, but Cayle recently has been a really messy eater. Today we took him to the Smiling Moose Deli in Eagle, and he ate a ton! He has been eating a lot lately, which is good. But he has this new thing, where he puts the food in his hair! You can get a good image in your head I'm sure... Mac and Cheese, extra creamy, yellow, all over his face, head, hair, ears, eyes.... got it? :) It's so much fun seeing him grow up!

Busy Spring Break

Painting, lawn care, and more painting. Natalie finished painting the house. Done. Finally! She finished the last two rooms that we have been putting off. The master bath is now done, and the guest bed is now done. Ready for guests!

Every winter the dogs kill a large piece of grass from peeing on it. I had to rake it up, and resow yesterday. Just more of a pain than anything.... Gotta find a way to get the dogs to pee on the rocks and wood chips.

Dirt =

Done! First step of the garden was building the boxes. 2nd was filling them with dirt/manure mixture. The first 2 steps are now complete! Thanks Justin for helping move dirt all morning! Thanks to John for use of his truck for hauling. Thanks to GH Daniels for the dirt! They have fantastic service! Highly recommended!

Spring Break

Health Check

Not sure what the deal is. I am in excellent shape, and feel like my arms look similar to the one above, at least as far as the veins go. Whenever I go in to give blood or get blood drawn, the nurses are always like, wow, such nice veins...(weird) this will be quick and easy... Then they stick the needle in, and in a little further, and wiggle it around a little... nothing, I am starting to get queasy and know that if they don't get blood soon I will pass out, the needle goes in a bit further, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, probe, probe, probe, FINALLY! the blood starts to flow, and I'm OUT like a light! Wake up sweating, everyone is concerned, get the man some sugar (low from fasting for the previous 12 hours!) This happens more often than not. It has happened 3 times that I have had blood drawn. Couple cups of orange juice and back to normal. I know my blood pressure is really low, and they are always amazed how low my pulse is, but it sucks having someone probe around in your arm with a needle, while knowing (me) what the end result is going to be :) Oh well, one of the costs of keeping myself healthy I guess...

Mommy's Home

Cayle and I were excited to welcome Natalie home from Denver today! He had a big smile on his face when she picked him up today! It went smooth with her gone, but everything is just much easier when Mommy's home!

No Clue

Natalie is out of town for a couple days for a conference in Denver. I get to stay home with Cayle! It hasn't been bad at all, there is just a lot of things to do when you consider, riding, getting him home, and playing with him, dinner for him, dinner for me, clean up his stuff from the day, put my stuff away, get his stuff ready for tomorrow, get my stuff ready for tomorrow, get mine and his lunches packed, play with him when he wants, among other things.... Luckily, thanks to my wonderful wife, who keeps our family functioning on a regular basis, everything is pretty easy to take care of based on the routines she has worked out for us. It's just at these times that I wonder how single moms with multiple kids get everything done, and still get time for themselves..... not sure how that happens......

Evening of the Stars Recap

Evening of the stars was a great time! We got to the hotel early afternoon, to spend some quality time in the hot tub. It was snowing while we were sitting in the hot tub. It was fantastic! After hot tub time, it was time to get all dolled up for the evening's celebrations.
The girls enjoying the evening!My wife looked so lovely in her new dress, and got many compliments on it as well!The boys posing for a photo op in the hotel room before heading to the award ceremony.
It was dumping snow, really coming down while we walked from the hotel to the Vilar Center for the ceremonies. It was really cool! Spring in the Rockies. (It ended up snowing 7"....and the mountain closes next weekend!)

One of the coolest parts of the night was being able to cheer for our principal (above, who is retiring this year) when he got announced for his retirement, and for leading our school to one of the Colorado Schools to Watch. Our little group of teachers was pretty raucous and loud! I thought it was pretty awesome! Then later, we got to welcome our new principal into the fold (pictured below in the white shirt) He seems like he will fit in nicely with our school. He currently works at the high school here in town, but seems really excited to join our staff and help continue the tradition of excellence which our school has become known for.

EOS

Tomorrow is Evening of the Stars. One of the few times that we get to pamper ourselves. We get to spend the night at the Park-Hyatt Beaver Creek at a super discounted rate. After the award ceremony for teachers, then we have dinner and dancing. Before all of it, we plan to spend some time in the hot tub at the base of the slopes. Cayle will be staying home with a sitter for the night. He will do great, and we will get some much needed relax time!

Tennis Star!

Good article from the WIU website about Natalie's brother Patrick. Good thing she taught him how to play tennis. I believe she takes full credit for his success.... :-)

ELMHURST, Ill. – Western Illinois sophomore Patrick Hammers (Peru/LaSalle-Peru) has been named as The Summit League Men's Tennis "Player of the Week" after helping the Fighting Leathernecks to a 3-0 start in league play.

Hammers finished last week's action with a record of 4-0 while playing at No. 3 singles and was 2-1 with fellow Leatherneck Ben Yue at No. 3 doubles.

He helped the Leathernecks secure wins over Centenary, IPFW and South Dakota State over the weekend. Hammers dropped just one set in four matches last week, including a non-league match at Bradley.

Western Illinois currently sits along atop The Summit League standings and is off to its best start in league play since the 2008 season, when the Leathernecks finished a perfect 6-0 and won the league's regular-season title.

Hammers is currently riding a five-match winning streak at No. 3 singles and has won four of his last five doubles matches while playing at No. 3 with Yue.

His performance over the weekend improved his overall record to 6-11 in singles and 9-7 in doubles play. The "Player of the Week" honors mark the second time that Hammers has won the award in his two seasons at Western.

Sad Face :(

I wasn't cheering for Butler the whole tournament, but I definitely was that last game. It's unfortunate that they made back to back championship games and didn't come away with a win. Gotta love the underdog....it's what makes sports so exciting (although you won't find me cheering for the top underdog of all time...cubbies....)
With that being said, I guess it's a good year in college basketball when North Carolina, Kansas, or Kentucky don't win the championship!

ILL in 2011-12!!!!

Spring

Is on the way! 70 and sunny here today! Forecast high of 45 and 10-16" of snow tomorrow... :( Spring in the rockies = unpredictable! I doubt we will get that much snow if any, just on how the season has gone so far, but I kinda like this nice sunny weather!

On a health note, everyone is feeling better! That was a nasty little bug that made it thru all our bodies, leaving destruction and lots of sickness in it's path... hopefully it's gone for a while now!

I think it's crazy and cool watching the differences in the talent levels between the lower level teams (Butler and VCU) and the major conference teams (UCONN and Kentucky.) The lower conference teams are able to be successful with stellar defense, rebounding, and teamwork. The bigger teams have superior athletes and talent. Not to say the big conference teams don't play hard and have to use teamwork, cause they do, but just saying the talent level is pretty noticeable and it's cool to see the smaller schools succeed!

Cayle has started throwing these little hissy fits, and it's pretty annoying... Got to find a way to let him know that he's not going to get what he wants, just by pouting. A friend told us the other day, that it's cute when he does it....... maybe it is, to an outsider, but when it's your own kid, it's not so cute... :) Not sure where he picked that up from, or if every kid goes through it?