A Rivalry settled - Brothers in Faith

Since the football season began, tonight's game has been on the minds of the parents.  Coming into the game, two undefeated teams faced off.  At stake was the district championship and home field advantage for the playoffs.  New this year, the rivalry added a trophy to the mix.  Calling this game the Brothers in Faith game, the winning team would house the trophy.  To add more pressure, we came into the game ranked below our opponent and knowing that while both teams are in the top four for our division in the state, only one will advance to the state playoffs.

Our opponent started strong, and the score went back and forth until we scored two touchdowns in the second quarter and went into half-time with a 20-14 lead.  In the second half of play, our lead increased to 27-16 where it remained until the last 35 seconds of the game when our opponent scored a TD.  We held on to our three point lead until the end.  What a sigh of relief!  An amazing night for football.

I could not give Zach the 18th birthday I had hoped to.  He received a couple of t-shirts and a hat, but I don't think it mattered.  He enjoyed a celebration with friends at a local sports restaurant, and his buddies covered his meal.  Then, he played a fabulous game that ended in a solid and much hoped-for victory.  He has been so happy over the last few days.

Zach's smallest fan came prepared to cheer the team to a win.  She loved clapping and ringing the CAL bell, but she was mesmerized by the band's halftime show.

Regan, Jonathan, and Zach.  You wouldn't guess it by looking at him now, but Jonathan was a kicker for his high school football team.

This is how Julia dresses for a football game.  Can we say fashionista?

Zach got his hands on that trophy in the locker room.  You can see that he just came out of a battle.


Our regular season district play ended tonight.  We have one more game against a team outside of our district before the playoffs start.  This season is flying. We will meet tonight's opponent again in the playoffs.  We are so hoping for a bid for the state championship.  It's a good year to be a Centurion!

This mom is happy, happy, happy!

Celebrating 70 Years

We gathered on Sunday, June 30th to celebrate my dad's birthday.  We tried to fix his favorite meal, and I think we were successful other than giving up on the coleslaw which was fine because he likes salad too.  My sister-in-law, Danielle, managed to pull off one of my dad's favorite desserts beautifully. She used my grandma's cream pie recipes.  I had forgotten how good those pies were. I tried to buy Dad one a couple of years ago from a really good local baker, and it was horrible.  I may have to make them sometime now that I have the recipe in hand.  Danielle's double chocolate cake was spectacular too!

Dad let Regan help with the candle.  He was in rare form.  Normally camera shy, he actually asked for pictures with his cars for his Facebook page.  Then he had me help him load several other pictures on the page as well.  I know Dad loves looking at pictures.  He must visit the pages of those on his friend list and just click through their profile pictures.  He wanted his pictures set up that way, so I had to change his profile picture seven times so that you can click through the various pictures together on his page.

trying to get a good shot of my oldest two, the neglected when it comes to pictures

photo bomb fun

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Ira

I have only seen his eyes open in pictures.

Ira! Ira! Ira!  a champion already

Does he have Jonathan's temper too?  We already know that Regan does.

I just had to share the hospital pictures.  I mean, can you get enough baby pictures?

A first Birthday and a Puppy!

We celebrated Regan's first birthday today.  She had a blast, and her favorite gift was a toy vacuum cleaner (hmm, good news for Danielle?).

She was not sure at all about the cake and seemed very anxious to get the icing off of her hands.  Regan does not like to have her hands in anything icky.  However, Jonathan led by example and showed her how to taste the cake.  The mess was not so tough on her after that.

a girl and her clothes, the tissue paper was fun to rip too

We met Bentley today.  Bentley is the 7 week old puppy that Tiffany and the boys adopted last week.  Tiffany has always been anti-pets.  However, I think she has fallen in love, and she admits that this is the best thing that has happened for the boys since Tony's death.

He's a whopping three pounds!  What's not to love?

Bentley and Regan got along just fine.

Regan was just over twice Bentley's weight when we met her last year.

Click here to see Regan upon her arrival in the world last year.

Click here to see Regan meeting the family.

Click here to see Regan at home.

I can't believe it's been a year!  Happy Birthday Regan!

I can't resist sharing these pictures

Yes, we all look this good just minutes before leaving for the hospital to birth a baby.  I just love this picture of the proud papa and his little glowworm looking at each other.

All dressed for her homecoming in the same dress her mom wore home from the hospital.

Regan and Uncle Josh

Of course I stole all of these from Facebook :)

sugar and spice and everything nice

Just thought I'd share some more pictures of the beautiful and fascinating Regan.  Tessa took these.  When I visited Regan on Friday, she wore her little hospital cap and kept her hand over her face.  She was happy to be held by anyone, but if we tried to hand her off to someone else or put her down, she used her lungs to let us know that she was fine thank you very much!  She then settled right down.

Look at how she looks her Aunt Tessa right in the eye.

...and Aunt Tiffany too. I don't think she will be a shy girl.

I did get this shot of Savannah and Regan together. Zach was sick and didn't get to see her until Saturday.  He went with Andy, so in typical guy fashion, the camera did not go with them.

6 pounds, 4 ounces of joy

Regan Elizabeth arrived today weighing 6 pounds, 4 ounces.  She is 18 inches long, alert, and beautiful. Regan and Danielle both decided to be stubborn resulting in a c-section intervention.

These were taken through the glass at the nursery.  I hope to make it back to the hospital for better pictures today.  For the 15 minutes or so that I spent at the hospital elbowing my way past Regan's grandmas and an array of aunts and uncles, Regan looked around.  She never slept.  She only cried when the nurse picked her up so that I could get a better picture.  It didn't work :)  If I could read her mind, I would think that she is saying to herself, "where am I, and what happened to my world!?"

My baby brother is a dad!  Congratulations Jonathan and Danielle!  We love this stubborn stinker already!