Green is the New Yellow

This month Jaden tested to move up in rank and has earned his Green Belt. My mom and dad, Kaleb, Bradley and I went to his class to see him be awarded. (Charles was sad to miss it.)


He kneels down and removes the Yellow belt (which he had a little bit of trouble with) and then is presented with the new one. There were 3 others who were also awarded. Once they all have their new belt, they stand at the front of the class and lead everyone in their stretches, punches and kicks.


To test, Jaden had to go all the way to Ogden so the big boss, Master Lim, could see him. He was pretty nervous. He said he felt like he was going to barf. But he did very well! I would put the video of his actual test on here, but it's way too big. After his test, Master Lim put his hand out for a congratulatory handshake, and Jaden gave him five! I guess that's not very respectful! :) But it gave everyone a good laugh.


Jaden really loves Hapkido. His class is about 15 minutes away, and at 7:00 at night. There are some days where I just don't want to drag all the kids out this close to bedtime. A few times (when I am feeling really lazy) I have tried to bribe Jaden with watching TV if we could skip Hapkido that night. But he is committed. He wants to go. He loves it. I think the only thing that might change his mind about going would be to go to Grandma's house instead. But that wouldn't ever work because if we're going to pack all the kids into the car to go to Grandma's, then we're definitely doing Hapkido...because it's less than a minute away from her house!


This move is called Water Will Strike.

We almost put Jaden in soccer again this Spring, but we felt like he seemed a little too stressed out doing both last year. So we asked him what he would like to do and he said "just Hapkido." Maybe in the Fall he and Kaleb can do soccer...





This jump is called "Outside-in Jumping Outside-in."

Here's their line up. They line up first by belt rank, and also by age. If you are having a hard time finding Jaden, he is the shortest one. But that's okay because he is also the youngest one. He was really excited to move up in this line. He used to be the last yellow belt (only 4 from the end) but now he is the last green belt (in front of all the yellow and white belts.) Yeah... he feels pretty cool. :)







Here he is doing his favorite kick: a Roundhouse.

Time to cool down with a few stretches...




Kaleb was such a proud little supporter. He kept wanting to hug and kiss Jaden's new belt.



Grandma and Grandpa were also very proud of him. Here's a high five from Grandpa. :)


Way to go Jaden! You are doing awesome! You made it to the "Green Team!" :)

Because Boys Can Never Have Enough...

Even though our Easter weekend began like this... (yuck)...



... we still had a good time. The Easter Bunny left a trail from each of the boys' rooms...


down the stairs...


and to their Easter baskets. But I forgot to take a picture of the baskets. Oh well. The baskets weren't nearly as exciting as what was sitting next to each basket. Each of the boys got their very own Tommy gun. (I know, I know... do these kids really need yet another weapon?) It's like a nerf gun, but battery-operated to shoot up to 20 foam bullets at a pretty high speed.

Up until now, we had never seen one that didn't require little hands to muscle back some kind of... cock... lever... pulling thing... something-or-other. Something that causes massive frustration to a certain Kaleb I know. I was a little hesitant about this, but... they're boys... how could they not love it??

They ran around shooting each other... and tried to get as many to stick to the wall as possible... and even have a little bit of target practice.


Well that night we went over to my mom and dad's for dinner, and my parents were a little sad that the boys didn't bring over these new toys. Little did we know, that apparently the Easter Bunny had also visited my dad. (And my dad was SUPER excited to have someone to play with!) Since my dad couldn't shoot his new toy at his house (by himself), he followed us home so "the boys could show him their new guns."

As the kids were teaching him about their guns and how they work, he said, "Wow, I need one! Oh wait... I already have one!" Then he whipped out his own from under his jacket and started shooting. It's so cute to see my dad have a bunch of boys to play violent games with! :)

Then they all had a little bit of target practice...


except in this one, Jaden opted not to shoot... probably because he was tired of collecting bullets!

Then we thought it would be interesting to video tape the bullets flying at the camera.


But my boys have been taught well. Never shoot your Momma! :)

So we tried putting Grandpa behind the camera.

Nope... Respect your elders. Especially Grandparents! Such good boys. Plus they don't think it's fair to shoot if someone is unarmed... um... except for Bradley. By the end, Bradley started to figure out how to pull the trigger far enough to make the bullets fly... He shoots them at my legs all the time, and from so close a distance... it can get painful!


Here's Charles and Dad vs. Jaden and Kaleb. Can you tell they were having a little bit of fun?

The next day, Charles and I had a little bit of "close range" fire action going on and... dang, those bullets can hurt! Check out the wounds I left on Charles. There were 4 or 5 on his face and neck, but the ones on his forehead showed up the best in the picture. It was hilarious! He got me pretty good too, only there were no marks left on me. So who's the better shot? Hmmm? :)


So now, whenever I come home from grocery shopping or wherever, and I find that the house is completely quiet... I know I am about to get ambushed. For sure by Charles, and sometimes the boys... but only if Charles can talk them into shooting their momma!

CA Trip Part 6: It's the Climb

During the drive, (both ways) we tried putting all 3 boys in the very back together. The middle seats were free and clear. I was a little nervous about this situation well, for many reasons... but it actually turned out pretty well. And it was nice not to have the tv screens blasting in our ears on our head rests.



On our way home, Jaden and Kaleb really wanted to "climb a mountain." So we stopped and let them do just that.







Here's Kaleb and Bradley waiting, while Charles took Jaden up a bit higher.
Kaleb said, "Hey Mommy, pretend that we're a family."
I said, "Hmmmm, yeah... I think I can do that."


Here they are making their higher climb...


...and poor Jaden was sneezing his head off.


The kids needed a pit stop, and for once they didn't need privacy from each other.


And that was it.


The end of the CA trip blog posts.

CA Trip Part 5: The Rest

When we weren't at Forrest and Michelle's, we were hangin' out at Chuck and Sherrie's.


Here's Grandpa Burkhart teaching Jaden to fish... on the the Wii of course!


Hey, he caught something!


The Wii is fun, but their favorite thing to do at Grandma and Grandpa's... is play outside.


They could play on this swing set for hours. A few times it was a battle to get them to stop long enough to get a drink of water!






They also started playing "Red Light, Green Light." If you were the light, you held the hockey sticks.














One time while Kaleb was "the light," we had him standing a little too close to a tree. When the boys got close enough to reach him, they charged! Poor Kaleb was shoved against the tree and busted his head. He had 3 scraped up goose eggs on the back of his head near his neck. Here he is taking a little break with Daddy and a cool washcloth.


Here, Forrest grabbed my camera and decided it should be pointing the other direction for a change. So here's me and my sisters-in-law... minus Amber. :(


I love having a little girl to take pictures of. Her dangling, feet and her pigtails... Katee Jo-Jo is so cute!


Here Michelle humored me with giving me a subject so I could try out a setting on my camera that I hadn't used before.



And this was our last diner there. Anita and Sherrie cooked all day making homemade egg noodles, chicken, mashed potatoes and Cherry Cheesecake. Man my stomach hurt so much after that meal. I couldn't stop eating, it was so good. And when I finally did stop eating, I told Charles I felt like the noodles were still expanding inside of me, and that I was about to burst. It was such a crazy feeling.



One more thing we did on our trip to CA was visit MY childhood family-friends, the Collins family. I LOVE these people. I have known them for as long as I can remember. We saw Emily,


Mary,


and David... But I don't have a picture of David because I think I was snapping pictures while he was on a wild goose chase that I had sent him on, looking for film and files of my wedding. It was amazing how comfortable the boys felt immediately! It usually takes a few minutes before they can open up, but Kaleb was a little chatter-box from the moment he stepped inside! Bradley kept giving Mary hugs, and Jaden made himself right at home with Ice Cream and homemade soda.


David was aware of the boys' obsession with Star Wars, and he was kicking himself for not thinking to bring his "real 200 dollar lightsaber" home from his office to show to them. But seriously David, it was probably a good thing you didn't have it... They would have either broken it, or asked Santa for one for each of them... Neither would have been a very good outcome!


But Mary had her own bag of hats to entertain with! We had a fun visit, just missed Barbara. :(


This was such a fun trip and the boys are already asking when our next trip to CA will be... well, that's up to "Great Grandpa Socci." :)