Christmas 2010

Christmas this year came fast and left fast. It was a busy season filled with get togethers and family parties. This year we were happy to host Anne and Brian in from Virginia. It is probably their last Christmas in the states for a while because they are headed to Conakry, Guinea next August.

Here are some pictures from our Christmas Eve program at Grandma and Grandpa Clawson's and a few from Christmas morning. For some reason I wasn't feeling it to take a lot so the pickin's are slim.

Thomas, Katie, Abby, and Claire

Brian doing a reading.

The family listening to the program about the birth of Christ. I love Anne and Brian looking lovingly in each other's eyes. They are not technically newlyweds but still act like it. Cutest!

Katie and Claire are in orchestra and band this year at school and have new talents to share.

Grandpa Brad and Ry reading us a story.

Claire. She is sure growing up! (stop it please!)

Claire opening a certificate to get her ears pierced!

Katie
Jake showing off his Michael Jackson glove. He got the Michael Jackson experience for the wii. Both of my boys love to dance! (shhh it's a secret though)

Matthew with a few gifts on. Fuzzy hat, fake ray ban glasses, and striped socks. Classy!


We are truly blessed by all that we have both temporally and spiritually! Most of all we are grateful for our wonderful family and friends that bless our lives daily.

Fall Sports

To me it seems like in the blink of an eye it was over. Our Fall sports season. Boy was it a busy one - just the way we like it around the Lewis household. We started out at the end of the Summer with a very small break (2 weeks) between baseball and football and between soccer and soccer. Matt promised that he wouldn't coach football this year -- he did. I promised that I wouldn't get all stressed out when I had to attend 3 soccer games in one day -- I did. With the exception of those broken promises, our fall sports season turned out to be a great one.

Kate played her first season on an Impact competition team this Fall. She had been training all Summer with her team but started playing games in the Fall. While the team improved leaps and bounds over the season they had a hard time actually winning games. That didn't seem to faze Katie much though, she just loves to be with her team. She has had a nice 4 week break but now starts up Winter futsal this week.

Jake is playing in the Joga Soccer Academy. He decided a long time ago that he wanted to stay with soccer this Fall and not play tackle football. I though he would change his mind when his friends started to play but he didn't and boy am I glad for that decision. He loved it! Jake is a great little soccer player and I love to watch him. Of all my kids he has the best sense for the ball. He is incredibly fast, can win almost every ball and is a key player on his team. It was a good season for Joga U9 -- I think they ended up tied for 1st place. Pretty good for a start up team. Jake had a 1 week break and has already started winter futsal training and starts basketball next week.

Claire decided at the last minute (or maybe I should say caved to her father's pressure) to play soccer this fall. She had a rocky start because she was put on a team where she only knew one other player (that was even a lucky break). After a few weeks she warmed up to the team and ended up making a bunch of new friends. Claire is a tough defender and one of the best out there. Her soccer academy training from last year really paid off. To Claire's great delight, she has a 4 month break before starting soccer in the Spring.

Now for our champions Matt and Matthew. Matthew's football team just won the championship game yesterday. It was a fantastic season for the team and for Matthew. He is really getting the game now. He is agressive and skilled and got to play a lot of fun positions on both sides of the ball. In the beginning I was a little upset that Matt ended up coaching football this year but in the end it turned out to be a great decision. I think he really enjoyed the team and spending time with Matthew. Matt and Matthew now have less than one week before basketball starts.

Here are some pictures from the season. (Regrettably, I didn't take any of Claire - it seems like when I took my camera something happened and I had to leave the game - Sorry Claire)

Kate Battling for the Ball

Kate

Big Smiles

Jake - Intense!

Going for the score.

I love the tongue sticking out.

Matthew with the sweep.

One of his touchdown passes.

The Champs.

Halloween

Halloween is definitely not my most favorite holiday during the year. Probably because of the amount of work it is for me (the mom) to get everyone ready. This year though was a little bit better. The girls mostly got their costumes all by themselves and I just had to find the boys' stuff. Maybe every year Halloween will be a little easier for me thus regaining it's former popularity in my life.

The Halloween season was of course prolonged with trunk or treat at the church; then the school parade, and finally the actual trick or treating. This year the triplets went with friends (no parents) and survived. Jake went with a friend and his big sister so I enjoyed the evening trying to read in between passing out candy. It was a good night.

Matthew arranging his trick or treating group.


Jake the sumo. Easiest costume of all time!

Claire the Sassy Cat.

Katie the 8o's Barbie

Nachoooooo!

Birthday Bouncin'

Tonight our family celebrated my Dad's birthday. He turns 65 this year and my Mom thought it would be fun to surprise him with a party at Bouncin' Off the Walls (a local warehouse filled with lots of bouncy things). Well we knew that all of the grandkids would have a good time but who knew that even the adults would too. We had such a great time and I think my Dad especially did. Both Grandma and Grandpa were spotted zooming down the giant bouncy slide. Here are some fun pics from the party.

The birthday boy with Abby and Claire
Cuties - Claire, Caroline, and Thomas
Little Ry Ry
Davey didn't like bouncing but he liked the basketball.
The Hippie duo - Andrew and Natalie.
We did so much fun stuff...we played air hockey
We slid
...and slid
and slid some more.
Andrew and Tony were silly,
Grandpa blew out his candles
Caroline did too (they get to share a birthday!)
and opened presents.
Here are Grandma and Grandpa with almost all the grandkids (Matthew was missing)
Here is almost everyone. (Matthew and Brian were missing)
Happy Birthday Dad. You are a good Dad, and Grandpa and we love you very much!

Fun Distraction

What do you do while you are sitting in the car for 6 hours while driving to Vegas to see a concert, stay one night, and then drive for 6 hours home again? While Matt listened to the Utah football game I took some cool road photos with my phone camera. I got a cool app called retro camera that adds effects that look like the picture was taken with a bunch of different old cameras. Check out my shots below. Kinda fun.

The concert I mentioned above was Justin Timberlake and Friends. It was an awesome concert featuring: Selena Gomez, Lady Antebellum, T-Pain, Salt n Pepa (the best act!), P Diddy (0r whatever he calls himself now), Christina Aguilerra, Elton John, and JT himself singin a little acoustic. Matt and I had a great time listening to the vast array of music and people watching. Whoooeeee! Let's just say I felt very covered up in my jeans and cardigan.

Pictures from a Funeral

I finally had a second to review some pictures that I have taken over the past little while and thought I would post a few pics that were taken at my Grandpa's funeral.

I miss him and think of him often but as I look at these pictures of our family I am awed at the greatness of his posterity. I love my family very much and am grateful for their great example and love.

Almost all of the Brad Clawson family. Tony's babies (David and Ryan) were at home.

Uncle Denny, Aunt Cathy and my Dad, Brad


All of the Clawson cousins


The Girl cousins.

Nationals

I just returned from my trip to Palm Springs for my tennis team's participation in the 2.5 Adult National Tennis Championships. For those of you who aren't familiar with how tennis league works, it is divided into levels based on ability. It starts at 2.5 and goes up to 5.0 the first being a beginner and the last being really good (like former collegiate players and sometimes former pros). They do this so that competition is fair and the matches are fun. So I am playing at the lowest possible level in the tennis world. At any rate, as I stated before my team was undefeated through our local league play, through our state tournament, and through our sectional tournament and ended up being able to go to this national tournament.

We didn't know what to expect going into it. We had friends that went to this tourney last year and faced some fierce competition. Honestly we went thinking that it would at least be a great girl's trip and we could play a little tennis. Well it turned out that the competition was fierce but we really held our own. We won our first three matches against San Diego, Michigan, and Arizona and then went into our last match against Arkansas tied with them. The winner of that match would decide who got to go to the finals. (In team tennis you have to win 2 of 3 individual matches for the team win.) My partner Lindie and I won our match in two sets and Macy lost her singles match. The last match to be decided was being played by Kris and Celeste. They split sets and went to a tie break and ended up losing 10-7. We fell short of moving on by three little points. At first I was sad and then realized that we did far better than I ever thought we would and I am so proud of how well we did.

Arkansas went on the win the championship (which was maddening because they were mean and they cheated) but I am consoled by the fact that Lindie and I actually beat the national champs. Not bad. All in all it was a fantastic weekend in Palm Springs with girlfriends. We laughed alot, sweated alot, and played alot of tennis. It was a great time!

Here is our "rockin" team photo:

Macy, Amanda, Celeste, Kris, Kim, Susie, Lindie, Tamara