Birthdays

We had a couple of birthdays at our house in January.

First, Jack turned 12!  I can't believe how much he has grown up this past year!  There is not a trace of little boy left and we are headed full-speed ahead toward the teenage years.

It was an exciting birthday for him.  He was very glad to finally be able to advance from Primary to deacon's quorum.  His grandparents were here for his birthday.  They came down from Utah because he, Thomas, and Dallin were all being ordained to different offices in the Aaronic Priesthood, and they wanted to be here for that.  It was a bonus that they got to be here for some of the birthday celebration!

Just over a week later, Thomas turned 14!  He is taller than me now, by a couple of inches, and is sailing through Junior High like it is no trouble at all, which makes my life as a mom with a kid at the junior high much happier!

Lately I have been looking at my boys and I can't believe that they are so tall, and grown-up.  I don't know quite how that happened so fast.  I was thinking the other day about how so many moms complain about certain phases of life with their kids, but I can honestly say that I have thoroughly enjoyed every phase that my boys have gone through.  I never wished any part of their growing up years away.  I am so grateful for that!  I only have about 10 years left before all of my boys are out of the house and it makes me just want to appreciate these years so much more.  I know how fast 10 years goes!!

I am so grateful that I have been blessed to be the mom of such great boys! Happy Birthday Jack and Thomas!!

Update

 Popping in to share a little update on some of our doings over the past couple of months.

Jack went out in the forest with his dad and found these two sheds.  Pretty cool!

I reupholstered my old brown chairs.  I am much happier with them now.  This is kind of a look at the before and after.

Thomas was selected to be part of the regional junior high honor choir.  It was a fun day for him and it was fun for me to go see them perform that night.

Dallin was awarded All-Region Honorable Mention in soccer.  That was pretty exciting for him as a freshman.  He was also voted the most improved offensive player on his team by his teammates.  That is probably true.  He went from playing city league against 11-year olds, to hanging with the varsity high school players.  It was a good season for him.  We had so much fun watching him play.

Jack participated in the 6th grade science fair.  His project was selected to represent the school at the regional science fair this spring.  Good job Jack!!

We had fun decorating the house for Christmas.  I'll share just a few pictures...

We also had fun with some of our usual traditions including decorating sugar cone Christmas trees. Unfortunately this is the only activity where I got the camera out.  Oh well.

I'm glad my older boys will still participate in these old traditions.  Dallin was there too, but I didn't get a good picture of him.

We spent a Monday evening filling food bags for 3E snacks.  They are a community program that provides food for needy kids over the weekends and holidays.  It was a good experience for our whole family to help fill these bags to be sent home with kids for the Christmas break.

All of my boys had Christmas concerts. I only got this picture of Tad's at the elementary school, but they all did such a good job.  Dallin was part of the high school Christmas concert.  Thomas sang at the Junior High concert.  Jack sang at the Intermediate school concert, as well as with the sixth grade at the Intermediate school Christmas spectacular.  Drake sang with the fourth grade at the Christmas spectacular and even had a solo!  He did a great job!!  I love going to all of my boys performances and games.  To me, it is one of the greatest parts of being a mother.

I couldn't take a picture of my boys, but they all participated in our ward's Christmas program too.  Drake was asked to sing a solo with the ward choir.  He, Tad, and Jack all sang with the primary.  Dallin and Thomas sang a song with the youth and Thomas played a piano duet with his friend, Sam.  They all did so well.  It was such a nice program and such a good day.

It has been a good couple of months.

Catching Up

Just a few things that have kept us busy over the past few months. . .

Dallin turned 15!  

He also played varsity soccer. He was the only freshman who played varsity. When he was trying out I was worried that he wouldn't make the JV team and my dad kept insisting that he would make varsity.  I just couldn't believe that, but dad was right. Dallin is number 14.  It was a good season and so fun to watch him and his team play.

And I just have to share the Holbrook stadium.  What a cool location.  I did not take a picture of our stadium in Snowflake because it is not nearly as picturesque.

Some of my other boys played city league soccer.  This is Thomas.  Soccer season ended two weeks ago for city and last week for the high school.  We are about soccer-ed out, but Thomas was invited to play on a select team at a tournament in a couple of weeks, so soccer will continue for him for a few weeks yet.

This is Drake.  He came a long way this season, but he says he is not sure if he will play next year.

This is a picture of Tad taking the ball up the field.  

Since you couldn't see his face in the action shot, I am sharing this one of him getting ready for kick-off.  He had lots of fun this season.

Drake turned 10 at the end of October.  I can't believe my fourth child is in the double-digits already!!

This is a horrible picture, but it was the best I could do in the ten seconds they would give me on Halloween morning.  They were in a hurry to get to school. 

As you can tell Thomas was thrilled to be dressing up, but that is what you get when you are Student Body President and you are in charge of the Halloween dance.  (He was the Karate Kid, if you couldn't tell)

Jack was Draco Malfoy, Drake was Harry Potter, and Tad was Captain America.

Last weekend we took a trip up the mountain to cut and haul our winter wood supply.  This is hard work and definitely a time when it pays to have five strong boys!!  Dallin was super cooperative about letting me get a picture of him while he worked.  Oh well, it was better than Jack - I couldn't get even one of him.

Thomas was just as cooperative with my picture taking.  We'll just say he was focused on the work.

At least my little boys tried to muster up a semi-pleasant expression.

Thanks boys for all your hard work.  I love having a nice fire in the fireplace every morning and evening in the winter.  And it is nice that it helps keep the heating bill quite a bit lower too.

It has been a good couple of months for the Hatch family!

Back to School

 My boys started the school year a couple of weeks ago.  These are some pictures I snapped quickly as we were running out the door on the first day.

Dallin is a Freshman this year.  He is excited to be at the high school.  He also just found out that he made the soccer team, so he will be a busy boy this fall.

Thomas is in eighth grade this year.  He is student body president at the junior high.

Jack is in 6th grade.  His teacher is Mrs. Krekeler.  Thomas had her for sixth grade too.  She did the best job preparing Thomas for 7th grade, so we were very happy that Jack was assigned to her class.

Drake is in 4th grade, so he moved up to the Intermediate school.  This is the first year that he has had a principal other than his dad.  His teacher is Mrs. Breedlove.  Jack had her for fourth grade too, so we know that Drake will have a great year in her class.

Tad is in 2nd grade.  His teacher is Mrs. Hancock.  None of our other boys have had her, but Jeremy says that she is a great teacher, and Tad is loving her class so far.  This is the first year that Jeremy has only had one boy at his school.

I love that handsome group!  Have a great year boys!!

Summer

One of the first things that we did this Summer was flying with Uncle Joe.  Jeremy's uncle flew up here and offered to take all of us on some short flights.  The boys loved it!!

We then headed up to Utah and spent a week there re-doing my parent's main bathroom.  It was full of green laminate countertops and a peach sink and tub.  They were all original to the house (built in the late 60's) and had seen better days.

Jeremy was too quick getting on the demo, so I didn't get to snap very good before pictures.

This is after the remodel.  The lighting in my mom's bathroom is terrible, so I apologize for the quality of these pictures.  We plan to add an overhead light in this room on our next trip up.  We just ran out of time.

The room looks very white in these pictures, but my mom has added lots of color with her decor.

While we were working on the bathroom, Dallin attended a session of EFY with his cousin, Paige.  He loved it and was disappointed to hear that he wouldn't be able to attend next year.  I am sure the new FSY will be great, but he loved meeting kids from all over and spending time on BYU campus.  Oh well.  At least he got to attend once.

After we got back we went camping with the Hatch family. Sadly this is the only picture I took.  My boys loved taking the ranger out for little drives.

Drake and Tad took a session of swimming lessons.  They both did great!!  Drake is getting to be a really good little swimmer and Tad came sooo far this year!

They were both rewarded with their favorite Spongebob ice cream bars on their last day.

There was not a single firework to be purchased anywhere on the mountain for the 4th of July, so we purchased some glow sticks and the boys had fun playing with them in the yard.

Thomas and Dallin took first and second in their age group at the Taylor 4th of July run.

And just to finish off this Summer post, here is the view of the walk up to my house.  The dwarf potentilla are coming along great and I love the happy little yellow flowers that are always covering them!

I also love my pretty hanging baskets.  I took these pictures a few weeks ago, and they look even better now.  They make me so happy.

It has been a good summer.

Tad is Eight!

Our baby Tad turned eight back in June and was baptized! 

It was a good day and we are so happy with what a good boy Tad is!!

Per tradition, I made him a quilt to celebrate his special day.

He picked out the pattern and the fabrics for this quilt. I will try to get better pictures of it up on the blog soon.  But, with my blogging frequency lately, I wouldn't hold your breath.

As usual, I am feeling pretty nostalgic during this special time for our little Tad.  So, per tradition, I will share a whole bunch of pictures of him through the years. . .

We love our Tad and we are so grateful that our family was blessed with him!!