this is sparta!

so i was sitting at the computer, sadly pondering the fact that last year was the first year in 17 years that i did not play in an organized football league (not including the mission). but then, to my utter surprise and joy, i received an email asking if i wanted to play in the tackle league that i played in a couple years ago. i loved playing, but poor league management and the stress of organizing a team was too much for me, so i had walked away. but the league was under new management and had made many improvements including weekly highlights, stats, and a post-season, and i loved the idea of just being a member of the team and not in charge. and they wanted me to just play receiver, which was super awesome since i've never really known how to tackle properly. so i jumped at the chance and thus became a spartan for the 2014 spring season of the utfl (utah tackle football league). 

we started practice and it quickly became apparent that i would have to play some defense because there was no one else who could effectively play safety. that wasn't the worst news because i do like the coverage aspect of the position. again, i'm just not a great tackler. the real unfortunate news was that our quarterback proved to not be so great, and he loved to run at the slightest pressure, but he wasn't that great a runner either. our first game did not go so well. our qb went down with an injury on the first drive of our second game, which meant i unfortunately had to step up as qb. i didn't do horrible, but qb is not my strength. it also meant that the team wasn't going to let me play defense to reduce my chance of getting hurt, so i wasn't loving it. after a couple games we all decided my strengths were not being properly utilized, so we put our running back in as qb and i got to catch some touchdowns. our rb then also unfortunately went down with a knee injury and i was forced once again to play qb for our playoff game. all in all, it was not a good season in regard to win-loss, but it was so great playing again. i definitely didn't accomplish my goals that i set at the beginning of the year (lead the league in receiving yards), but i finished third in the league for interceptions, which isn't too bad since i only got to play defense for half the games the other guys did.

this is my highlight reel for the year. nothing spectacular, but a little bit of everything. i caught, ran, threw, intercepted, and tackled, and looked pretty cool doing it, in my humble opinion. ;) there is something special about putting the helmet and pads on. i feel like a samurai getting ready for battle or something.

Easter

For FHE the week before Easter we tried to teach our two kids a little bit about our Savior Jesus Christ and about the Atonement. It was a short lesson and I'm not sure how much they understood, but we want them to know how grateful we are for Jesus Christ and for all that he's done for us.

Our Easter celebrations started on Saturday when we got to dye some eggs. Everett was pretty interested in this activity, much more so than Claire in past years. He chose to color at least 5 eggs. Claire, with the help of her cousins, also colored a few. :)

The next morning, the kids woke up early and found their baskets (not hidden very well). They each got a few eggs with some candy and a new little toy.

We got dressed in our new Easter clothes and went outside to take some pictures. Claire and Everett weren't very excited about getting their picture taken though so I didn't get too many. We hurried back home for lunch and it was off to church we went. We enjoyed the songs and testimonies we heard that day about our Savior. The primary children went up to sing a song and Claire got a little scared and didn't want to go up at first. Near the end of the song she decided she wanted to go up and sing, but then when she realized she missed her chance she got pretty sad and we had to take her out to cheer her back up. :( After church we headed over to family for Easter dinner. We watched an Easter video and spent time talking and playing with cousins. Happy Easter!

Blood Moon

A couple weeks ago, after putting kids to bed, I was sitting on the couch looking at Facebook when I see a beautiful picture of the full moon taken by my sister-in-law. She said she was getting ready for the total lunar eclipse that would happen that night. I definitely wasn't planning on staying up to see it since it wouldn't start until 1 in the morning, and if I hadn't seen that picture I wouldn't have even realized that it ever happened. But I did see that picture, and being the photographer that I am, I felt the desire to go and try to capture at least a picture of the full moon since I wasn't going to be up for the eclipse. So I did. Scott joined me and after fiddling with my camera settings, I was pretty happy with my picture. Then I went to bed not really expecting to get up again. Scott however being the night owl that he is decided to stay up and watch. When the eclipse began Scott decided to wake me up and let me know just in case I wanted to see. I said no and he left, but I couldn't fall back to sleep right away cuz I did kind of want to see. So I got up again, and of course had to fiddle with camera settings and everything to try to get the perfect picture. I didn't get much sleep that night, but it was something fun and out of the normal routine. Scott and I enjoyed watching the eclipse together too. 

Dance Dance

Ever since Claire first fell in love with dancing, we have really wanted to put her in a dance class. So when we found this 6-week dance class through our city's rec center for 3-5 year olds, we decided to go for it. We talked to her a little about it before she went and she was so excited she couldn't hold her excitement in. :)

right before her first class

Parents were only allowed in to watch the first and last day and my camera battery died right at the beginning of the first class, so I don't have many pictures throughout the 6 weeks. They had enough girls in the class though that they split them into two classes. Claire was in the younger class. It was a lot more about getting them moving and exploring different kinds of music than really teaching them to dance which was exactly what we wanted. She loved it! :)

For the final dance class they combined the two classes again (I think Claire's teacher was sick), which is why in the video there are some with matching blue skirts and some without. Claire wasn't quite used to the teacher and the different activities they did, but I don't think it mattered. If you watch the video I think you can see she still had a blast. :)

children's museum

a couple saturdays ago we joined up with some of the other brysons and headed to the childen's museum in salt lake. it's such a fun place for the kids with so much to see and do. here are some of the fun memories we made... :)

Everett Facts

1. Our little buddy is 18 months old now, which means it's time for a blog post all about him! :)

2. He had his doctor visit last week and we found out that he is 24 and a half pounds and is in the 55th percentile.

3. Everett is 33 inches tall and in the 55th percentile for that also. He is growing right on track according to his doctor.

4. Everett is quite the biter. It's probably related to teething somewhat because I always see him chewing on his jacket or blankets and things. But he also tends to bite us when he gets upset or mad at us. Right now he has his 4 top teeth and 3 bottom (the doc was a little surprised that 4th one on the bottom didn't come at the same time as the other) and he has a couple molars that are poking through in the back.

5. He is talking so much. He knows so many more words than I thought Claire did at this point, but then it's probably because of Claire that he's learning more words. He needs to know how to get what he wants so he learns those words quickly. He's also very good at imitating us and our words.

6. He just started nursery 3 weeks ago. It was a little rough the first day, they had to come get us to calm him down and I had to stay with him for a little bit. The next two weeks were better besides a couple crying fits. I think he's just not used to playing with other children instead of Claire. He loves playing with the toys in nursery though and it's a lot more fun I'm sure than hanging out with us in our other meetings. :)

7. Everett has an obsession with his belly button. He's always poking his finger in and rubbing his belly button. One of his favorite games is saying, "Where'd it go?", then he pulls up his shirt, points to his belly button, and says, "There it is!" We'd love to catch a video of him playing this game before he stops. :)

8. Everett is all boy. He's very active. He loves to jump from furniture to furniture, he climbs ladders at the park like a pro, and he loves to climb all over people, especially his daddy. One thing he's made a habit of lately is getting a ride to bed on daddy's back and then standing up on daddy and jumping into his crib.

9. He is an eater. He's pretty good at trying new things and wants everything. He still insists on eating things like we do. He doesn't like when we cut up his food into smaller pieces.

10. He loves cats and dogs. He gets super excited when he sees them on the TV or in books. He knows exactly what sounds they make and when he sees one he'll run right up to it with a scream of excitement. The other day he did this to a small dog while we were on a walk. The dog also got pretty excited and started running straight towards Everett. Everett didn't like this return of affection as much and turned to run away in terror while his scream turned from delight to fear. The whole scene was a little humorous, but he saw another dog on TV the next day and was still happy to see it, so I'm glad it didn't scare him away from dogs all together. :)

And a little video to show his awesome dance moves... :)

our quick trip to wyoming

we were recently able to enjoy a wonderful weekend with some of our our wonderful family. april (amber's sister) and her husband dean were blessed with a brand new baby boy so we made the trip over to wyoming for our newest nephew's baby blessing. since it was a three hour drive, and since church was nice and early, we decided to make the drive up on saturday and stay in a hotel, which is always an adventure with our family. it's always fun, but it rarely means a good night sleep since our two little ones are usually too excited and just want to play all night. :) we checked into our hotel and then headed over to april's house for some food and fun. that evening i took the kids back to the hotel early for baths, which ended up being a challenge when we realized our room only had a shower. but with the help of a wash rag, we clogged the drain and made a fun little splash pad to clean up in, which the kids loved. amber meanwhile stayed and played games with her sisters for a little bit before joining us back at the hotel. the next morning we all gathered at the church for baby isaac's blessing. afterwards, we headed over to dean's mom's house for a wonderful lunch that she had prepared for us. that's when amber got to take these wonderful pictures of isaac and his family.

unfortunately, some bad weather moved in as we started our drive home that afternoon. that combined with a little girl who is still mastering the idea of "use the restroom before we get in the car" made for a very long trip home. thanks to claire though, our road trips always seem to include places we'd never see otherwise. this time it was one of those utah visitor's center. it was... pleasant. because of the bad weather, we decided to skip driving through provo canyon and headed up through salt lake, which gave us the opportunity to visit my sister becca for the evening. we had some fun there before we headed back home that evening. i am so blessed to have such a fun and wonderful family that i enjoy being with - the family i was born into, the family i married into, and the family amber and i are making ourselves. we are so thankful for the role of families in our Heavenly Father's plan. :)