payton's pre-k program

the pre-k did a pre-game signing program at the coaches vs. cancer game the other night. hence all the kids in pink. and they were stinking cute.

they did the cha cha slide (i think that's the name of the song).

clapping

hop one time

stomp one time

now cha cha

and then they sang a train song.

chugging away.

toot toot

and for their final song they did a song all about wiggles

wiggle my hands.

wiggle my hips.


wiggle my feet.

payton knew every word, every action, and he loved singing them all. we were way up in the stands and could hear him screaming the words. i am so glad we got this one on video too. yes, lee and i are "those" parents. both of us have a camera strapped to our faces. we went a long time without videoing anything and now i regret it. so we are trying to be better.

tara

tayte's first grade basketball program

so last friday we weren't just in the middle of a stock show, we had tayte's basketball program. during halftime of the varsity girl's game the first graders walk out dribbling onto the court and perform a variety of basketball skills.

throw the ball up, clap and catch it. dribble right handed. dribble left handed. dribble while getting down on one knee. rotate the ball around your head.

sit down and dribble on one side then switch to the other side. oh, and did i mention that they are all sychronized? dribble while getting down on their tummies

so they can end the show like this.

pretty impressive if you ask me. i knew girls on my varsity basketball team that couldn't do some of those things.

tara

our first stock show

baylee has been raising a pig for his first stock show. he decided he wanted a duroc, how he knew the different kinds was beyond me. but, he knew what he wanted and that is what we got. luckily for us since we were new to this whole ordeal, a guy lee works with LOVES this kinda stuff. so, tyler was on the look out for a duroc. at the end of october we became the proud owners of a pig.

a pig named doug. doug's mom weighed about 1,000 pounds. so when we got this cute little 50 pound (i think that was about his original weight) pig, i made sure that all 3 of the boys got in the pen with him so he could get used to them. there is not telling how big he could get. so the boys played with him everyday when we'd go check on him.

and doug ate a lot. and he got big. and on january 23rd baylee showed doug in their first (and for doug his last) stock show.

i never in my wildest dreams would have guessed how much work goes into showing a pig. payton and tayte had a good ol' time hanging out at the ag barn.

payton was so excited because his best friend "coltkeys" had a sister showing pigs too, so they ran all over the place in hog heaven.

tayte turned into a monkey and every time i looked at him he was climbing on the bars, just swinging away.

so, we (and by we i mean lee) moved doug from the pens to the ag barn on thursday afternoon. thursday evening we (this we is baylee and lee) had to wash doug. baylee washed his sides and that was about it. which makes me wonder how well he is bathing himself? anyway, he wouldn't really scrub anywhere else all that great, so lee grabbed the brush and got the rest of doug presentable. now, we wait so doug can be weighed.

getting 113 pigs weighed was interesting to watch. people standing arounding, people opening/closing pens for the coming and going of the pigs, others driving pigs, and pigs driving people. controlled chaos. doug weighed in at 218 pounds. and ended up in the lightweight class. he was 5 pounds shy of the heavy weights. so both classes were really close. after that it was just a waiting game.

friday they showed all other animals, so it was just a matter of making sure doug ate and had water. and then that evening they clipped him. i guess it never dawned on me that you should give a pig a haircut (there isn't a book about that, lol), but you do. and that was an experience. some people just cut their pigs hair in the pen they are in. tyler suggested we don't do that because it can poke him when he lays down and irritate his skin. we don't want to have a pig with irritated skin now do we. so we (and by we i mean lee and tyler) took doug to the cage set up for clipping. and snouted him. since, i didn't know what this meant i'm sure someone reading this won't know either. you take a rope and wrap it around the upper part of his snout, and pull real snug. then you take the other end and tie it to the end of the cage. and pigs don't really like this. so doug squealled. a lot. and finally after he calmed down some tyler cut his hair. baylee did about 2 swipes and wasn't so good at it and tyler took over again.

so, saturday morning baylee showed his pig. he walked around keeping doug moving. he did a great job. and if you were like me and have never been to a stock show you really have to pay attention to the judge because he is sneaky. he walks up to a kid and puts the number of fingers out that tells what place they got. and i'm not sure if he gets low because it's a bunch of kids but, it's almost like he is trying to hide his hands. anyway, baylee got first in his class. he was so glad. that meant he got to show again after the second class of durocs.
since he got first they put you in a holding pen like this waiting to show again. and this thing is big enough for one pig and one kid. nothing more, nothing less. and while we waited one of the pigs tried to climb out of there. i never knew pigs could climb, but they can.

baylee showed for best of breed and WON. he was grinning from ear to ear. and someone told me that the 1st place from the light weight class rarely beats the 1st place from the heavy weight class. but, really it was just 5 pounds difference between classes.

and baylee's first showing was in class 5. there were 20 classes. so now it was a waiting game again.

baylee got to show again for grand champion. well, i heard a hundred times that durocs never win grand champion, so i wasn't holding my breathe. and the judge never really even looked at doug during this round. as soon as baylee and doug got in the showing area, doug and another pig to into it. so the guys with the big red boards separated them. and it was downhill from there for baylee and doug. doug kept trying to get out of there, i don't blame him he was attacked by another pig. at least that's my version. so the guys with the red boards kept hitting him with their board and pissing him off. and poor baylee couldn't get enough strength to push him away and get him walking.

and with all those pigs it was mass chaos. everyone of them trying to get their pig over in front of the judge. looking pleadingly at him.

but, for his first show baylee did a fabulous job. and he even wants to show again next year.

i now i have 3 boys who are way to attached to this pig. friday night they all 3 were in their beds crying because they didn't want to "lose" doug. crap.

tara

family prayer time

we started praying before bed at night together as a family. i'd like to say we do it every night but, reality sets in. we are really pretty good about doing it about 5 times a week. we started a year or two ago and i am so thankful that we did. first of all the boys have learned most of the regular prayers they should know. but, to watch them grow in their praying has been the biggest blessing. when we started we would have to force tayte to pray for at least 2 things. and then we would have to force him to pray for 2 different things because he would find 2 things and stick with them for as long as possible. now he changes things up every couple of nights or so. baylee has really learned to pray for people even if he doesn't know their name. i like that he will pray for people he will never meet. i hope someone out there is praying for him too. and i'll have to admit lee and i have gotten better at praying for different things. you know the saying practice makes perfect. but, the real reason for this post is so that i can remember payton's favorite prayer for the time being:

glory be to the father, and to the son, and to the holy spirit, holy mary
mother of God world without death amen.

it cracks me up every time he says it. no matter how many times lee and i correct him this is how he says the glory be. oh well, maybe later.

tara

baylee's basketball game

today baylee had a basketball game. and this isn't an ordinary game. we were playing white deer. we had played this team earlier in the season (and by season i mean 6 weeks total) and they creamed us. we lost by 40 points. well, lee is the coach and he can be competitive. he is a really good coach and believes that all players should play and really tries hard to play all the boys equally. he doesn't find the star kid and work with them and let the others just kinda muddle through. if i have to be a coach's wife this is the kind of coach i want to be married too. at this age that is what it is about, building the kid's confidence and teaching them skills.

win some, lose some.

teach it all to the kids.

don't be out for blood.

i admire lee for this, and you can tell the kids do too. but, back to today's game. the coach for this team is the exact opposite of lee. when they were beating us he was still pushing his kids to go harder, not to slow the pace. you know like a coach with class would do. this team had beat every one of the panhandle teams. and the coach was a jerk each time. in fact, several of the other coaches gave him some version of this comment, "really coach, you're beating us by...." out for blood. don't get me wrong, i think you should push the kids and teach them that when appropriate don't let up. i do have a competitive side too, ask people i've played against. but, i also think you should teach kids how to be gracious. so, lee's competitive side really was getting to him. he wanted to beat this guy. so at practice this week lee really played up the "they've beat every one... we're going to give it our all... and some of you may not play as much... everyone on the team is here this game (one of our stronger players was out sick last game)." he pumped them up. and boy did it work.

the game starts and before i know it we are up 6-0. the whole first quarter we had the lead by no less than 5. it was intense. the second quarter starts and the boys are still on fire. they came to PLAY. remember this team beat us by 40 last time. our boys had an agenda.

then things get real interesting. halfway through the second quarter the referees switch. this never happens. our refs are volunteer high school students with a few other older people. we had 2 high schoolers, until the switch, when a girl who has been out of school maybe 4-5 years steps in. then, one of the ladies who helps run the whole show starts talking to the other coach. and then the new ref starts talking to him. he apparently is complaining about how our boys are screening and complaining the refs aren't calling fouls. the new ref informs him they aren't fouling no matter how their feet are stanced as long as they don't extend their arms and push off the kid. he keeps mouthing. lee said he told the other lady, "well i'll just have my kids push back and hurt those other kids." so, the other lady gets in his face. he is still griping. and she ejects him from the game. the ref switch was because the first ref was intimitaded by him, so the second came because she wouldn't put up with his mouth.

crazy.

this is third and fourth graders. and a coach gets ejected.

CRAZY.

one of our kid's dad is a local highway patrol. chris stood up and was ready to go help out if needed. lee told me later that when he saw chris stand up he just backed off and kept his mouth shut. i guess that is why there always are law enforcement at the games. lol.

as the coach was walking out of the gym he called another guy out of the stands to come coach. and there was mouthing from him and from the crowd. he said they weren't coming back. and there were a lot of good i hope nots.

so, we get back to playing. and, they bring the game to a tie. then, we pull ahead. the third quarter was stressful. at one point white deer had the lead by 2 points. tie...us lead...tie...white deer lead...tie...us lead...tie. the gym starts to fill up. i'm not sure if it was because of the game after ours or if word was getting around that this was an interesting game. probably a little of both (you know small towns). i am so proud of the defense the boys are playing, they are sticking with those boys like glue and you can tell it is getting to them. that team rarely misses, but they were missing shot after shot. one of their strongest players fouls out. our kid shoots his free throw and we are up by 1. there is just under 30 seconds. it is a nail biter. we head to the other end of the court and they don't get a shot in. we get the ball and head back to our end. we win by 1 point.

one.

our guys have come so far in the last few weeks. lee played every boy. some not as much as others. but, every boy played with more heart than they had all season. everyone of them will walk away as the team that beat the team that was undefeated. lee said after the game he had the boys all huddled up and every one of them had big wild eyes. eyes of pride and disbelief. this team had beat them by 40 the first time and then we beat them by 1.

lee also says he has something special planned for the boys who didn't get to play as much today. and it's a good one. you'll have to check back later after the end of the month. i don't want to ruin the surprise. and it's another reason why i love him and love him coaching.

oh, and white deer didn't come for their second game today. after the game the boys and i went to get a soda from taylors and we saw the replacement coach walking out with an 18 pack. it was a rough game. lol.

tara