Westonhome: 2012

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Sadie's Christmas Dance Performance

Sadie had her Christmas Dance Performance this last weekend. Her troupe group performed 3 numbers and then the whole troupe of about 60 kids performed a finale that was over 11 minutes long. It was amazing. It is fun to watch all of these girls grow up together and improve their dance technique each year. They are a fun group of girls! The white costume is their lyrical dance and the other group photo is their circus dance with tight rope walkers, lions, and ring masters. It was a really cute dance to music from the movie Water for Elephants.

Thursday, December 06, 2012

Carson Getting Down!

Found this picture of Carson getting down at the ward Valentines dance. The girls look impressed. It makes me laugh. I wasn't there to see the show but Carson has always loved to dance!

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Update at the Weston Home

Kids are so fun! I have had some good chuckles at my kids the last couple of weeks.

One night I go into Kailey's bedroom while she is in the shower. I notice this note on her desk which was written by Sadie (made to sound like Kailey wrote it to herself):

If you can't read it from the picture it says:

Dear Me,

Remember to wake up Sadie (your wonderful, pretty, sweet sister) at 7:00! Also make sure to be pretty for all boys (including Lucus). Make sure to have fun at basketball! Have a wonderful day!

Sincerely, ME

I had to laugh and take a picture of it!

In other news, Jordan has taken up a new hobby (crocheting). I can't get him to put it down. Yesterday his buddies rang the doorbell to see if he would come outside and play. Usually he jumps right into his boots and out he goes. Not this day. He says "I'm really busy right now so I can't come out." His friends ask him what he is really busy doing and he tells them he is crocheting a scarf for his sister. You should have seen the look on his friends faces! Crocheting over street hockey????

This morning I couldn't get him to eat his breakfast. "Just 5 more stitches mom!" Darcy and Carson are a little concerned about this new hobby and I just keep telling them that it is good for JJ!

Another funny comment from JJ. I'm tucking him into bed and he says, "Mom, I think the hairs in my cochlea got shortened today." ?!?!?!?!

I had to think about this one for a minute and asked him what he was talking about. I knew he was talking about his inner ear. He had played in a basketball game where 2 games were going on at the same time and whistles were blowing all over the place and it was really loud. He informed me that when you are surrounded by loudness the hairs in your cochlea, which is part of your inner ear, get shorter and that is how you become hard of hearing. Apparently he felt like his hairs were getting shorter. And did you know that once those hairs are damaged they never grow back!! I asked him if he was going to be a doctor when he grows up and he said "No I'm going to be an architect!"

And then there is Carson and Kailey. It is time for them to start earning their own spending money and the best way for them to do that is to run up and down the basketball. (Not that they don't do enough of that already!) They reffed their first couple games last Saturday and did a really good job. Kailey even called a great offensive foul on one of the players. Their evaluator that was watching them from the CMBA refs was really impressed with their reffing skills.

They make a pretty mean team of refs on the court and definitely kept the game going smoothly, teaching the kids as they went. One of the games they reffed was Jordan's game and Darcy said that they were the best refs we have had this year for JJ's games.

The Christmas music is playing and the decorations are up. Chocolates are being dipped and Christmas is on its way! We have a busy month of December but are looking forward to Christmas Holidays!

Friday, October 26, 2012

Got Refs?

YUP! WE GOT THREE OF THEM!

Carson, and Kailey took the referee course this year and are starting to ref basketball games to earn some money. Darcy took the course with them even though he has been a ref for years he decided to go brush up on the new modified FIBA rules they are playing these days. Plus it helps him when coaching - he usually knows the rules better than the refs do! In fact the last few games he has had the refs coming up to him and asking him questions because they now know he is a ref.

WHISTLE! That is a travel, a block, and . . .

Did we call that???

JJ Plays REAL basketball!

Jordan is so excited to be playing Calwest basketball this year! He has spent his whole life so far watching Carson and Kailey play on Calwest teams and now it is his turn! Even though he is a year too young to play Calwest Minis he was tired of playing tykes and wanted to play the real game so we let him try out for minis. There were 8 teams of mini boys and we thought it would be great if Jordan could make the 7 or 8 team just so long as he could play real game situations. He was the littlest, shortest, youngest kid in the gym and the little stinker went into tryouts and made the #3 team! The funny thing is that he is playing with kids that are Sadie's age, in fact 3 or 4 of the boys on his team are in Sadie's class at school.

Jordan doesn't let his size bother him one bit.

Look at how big this kid is that he is playing defence against!

Jordan plays really good defence and is quick on his feet.

(You've got to be when you are the smallest player out there)

I love this picture. It makes me laugh every time I see it. (Not just because of the kid in the saran wrap uniform) The team is in an intense time out and Jordan is busy looking at the muscles of the basketball player on the door. Good thing his coach didn't notice he wasn't paying attention!! :) Notice who the coach is!

High School Volleyball for Carson

Carson was a little disappointed when he went to volleyball tryouts and there were only 12 guys there. This is high school after all and with 500 grade 10 kids you would think you'd get a ton of guys out to try outs! Needless to say Carson debated on playing football instead after he saw the prospects for volleyball. We encouraged him to stick it out and make the team good. All you need is 6 good players in volleyball and even if you have 3-4 really good players you can have a good team. "But we don't even have a setter who can set the ball! We have some good hitters but how are we suppose to hit if we don't have anybody who can set us?" was Carson's response. I smiled at him and gave him a wink! The next day he turned himself in to Coach Larsen and told him that he could set. The coach and the players were ecstatic when they saw him set the ball over and over again. "We've got ourselves a team!" Coach says at the end of practice.

So Carson is a setter again! I reminded him that the setter is like the quarterback of the team. You are the one calling the shots and leading the team! He started getting excited about the prospects of the team once he saw the good hits they were getting off of his sets.

Being the leader and quarterback of the team is a lot of pressure and Carson takes it very seriously - sometimes too seriously and he expects too much of himself. This picture is what we call a "Carson time out!" The coach calls a time out just to talk to Carson. To build him up and tell him not to be so hard on himself. After this the team is back in order and Carson gets them going again. There have been a couple of "Carson time outs" this season.

Here he is calling his plays. This set is going right side to Kaden (our power hitter and only club volleyball player on the team).

Here they are in action!

A little blocking at the net! The coach says, "Nice to have a setter who can also block"

I love this picture - one of my personal favourites. Not just because it is a cool picture of Carson serving. . . (Notice the gym we are playing in? It's my old stomping ground! I spent a lot of hours practicing and playing in that gym! Kind of fun going back to Western and walking the halls again reminiscing on all the good times of High School. Then quickly I am brought back to reality of how old I am when I watch my own kid playing in that same gym!) Never thought I wouldn't be cheering for the Red Men but here we are cheering Griffins all the way!

It was a close game and we went to 5 games and came up short by 2 points.

Next time we will beat them!

A quick unexpected dump catches the other team off guard every time!

Even though it is volleyball and Carson loves the sport, he can't help thinking basketball every so often! It is a little joke between Carson and his coach whenever he makes a mistake the coach reminds him that this is volleyball season, not basketball yet.

Kailey in Action

Kailey has had a great volleyball season. Kailey has led her team by playing all 3 positions. Her coach actually had her setting the last few games because she is the only one that can actually set the hitters properly. He told me that he hates to use her as a setter because she can hit so well but when she sets they get so many more attacks.

A quick dump over the net.

A little hitting action.

Serving

Setting

Big hits and blocks!

Kailey has enjoyed volleyball so much this year she is debating on maybe playing club volleyball instead of club basketball this year???

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Look out Knights There's a New Cavalier in Town!

"See the cute #8 with the bow in her hair! That's the new girl - Kailey Weston!" I hear a few boys talking at the Cavalier Classic Volleyball tournament last week.

Yup, Kailey switched schools (to St. Joan of Arc) and is following in Carson's footsteps. She is an official Cavalier now and the coaches are excited to have her. Being the "new girl" at school and only in Grade 8, she was surprised when the coach named her Captain of the team!

She is doing a great job at leading the volleyball team at St. Joan of Arc. In St. Joan of Arc fashion the volleyball team played in their first tournament at the end of the first week of school and then 2 weeks later they played in their home tournament. They don't waste any time!

Kailey is loving her new school and her new friends. She is proud to be a Cavalier!

Holding on to Summer

So this spring our yard went through a small make over. Who am I kidding? It was a HUGE make over!

It went from this . . . .

To This!

We bit the bullet, opened up the bank account and splurged! So far it has been well worth it! It doesn't get better than a beautiful summer afternoon watching the kids play together on the sport court! Ok, not just the kids - the dad too!

Carson is fair competition for Darcy these days! It is a pretty even game! I guess it is every dad's dream to have their son become good competition at whatever they like to play.

A little one on one competition between Kailey and Jordan only makes Jordan a better ball player!

While 3 kids play on the sport court . . . .

Sadie practices her dancing, jumps, and pointing her toes!

Black Jack enjoys what lush grass we have left as most of it disappeared when the sport court arrived. We are trying to enjoy every last day of summer because we know eventually the seasons change and winter will be upon us. For now we will enjoy the beautiful weather we have had this summer!