Soccer Saturday

Lets Go Dynamites!!!

Ethan's team is on fire, hence the name! Any who, they played their little hearts out. I didn't get to watch all of it, because my U8 team was playing at the same time on the field next to them. I tried to watch some, but it wasn't easy. Once again, my boy is all about the defense. He had so many blocks they lost count. The team score a total of 6 goals and Ethan had 2 of them. He is so full of energy and loves to play. Poor little bug is soaking wet by the end of the game. He hustles so hard and sweats like a dog!!! Next week they play at different time so I will be able to watch his whole game. Thank goodness John was home and he watched Ethan while I coached Hayden. Ethan finished while Hayden had about a quarter and a half left, so at least John got to watch both of them!

What a hustler!

Check him out, he is already at the goal!

He's all business!

Below is Hayden's team the Sharks!!! I am the coach of this team and let me tell I am LOVIN' it. I am having so much fun and I have learned so much about soccer in record time. All thanks to my book, 'The Fool Proof Parents Guide to Coaching Youth Soccer' courtesy of amazon.com. You can find anything on there and I love it. I am so proud of team, the kids are improving every practice and game. We actually won this game (even though you are not supposed to keep score) the final was 7-6. One of our players Sheridan was on fire, she scored 6 of our 7 goals. I finally had to cut her off and have her sit out the last quarter of the game. She kept begging me to go back in, but I told she had hit her quota and lets let someone else have a go at it. Hayden scored the other goal. I was so proud of him. He and another boy were battling for the ball. Needless to say, the other boy fell to the ground and Hayden kicked the ball right out of his tangled legs and drove it to the goal. I ran on the field and picked him up and threw him in the air. Okay, I almost threw my back out, the boy is not light. It was awesome!!!


There's me doing my coaching thang!!!

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Hellooooooo LTC Gilbert!!!!!!

The day has arrived and John is officially LTC Gilbert. Woohoo!!!!! We joined him in San Antonio for the pin on ceremony. It was a great day. We had a small ceremony at the squadron building and reception afterwards. John's dad, Hayden, and Ethan performed the changing of rank. They did such a good job. I know I have said it many times, but we are so proud of John. He has worked so hard by finishing ACSC, almost complete with Air War College, and being away from us each month. He totally deserves this! The squadron was great to us, they welcomed us by putting our names on the marquee and seeing to our every need.

John taking his oath.
Let the pinning begin

He didn't forget Heidi, thanks for the awesome card it made me cry! Thanks to you too Daniel for coming out and sharing in our day. It is so great to have to such wonderful friends.
Now, I am a Colonels wife!!!!
The proud parents with their baby boy.
If it is possible, he is even more handsome with his new rank.

Gosh, I love this man!
A future pilot/officer in the making.

1000 hours in the T-6

I am sooooo proud of my husband. Not only has he pinned of LTC (pics of the ceremony to come), he has also reached 1000 hrs of flying time in the T-6. This is a huge accomplishment given that the average flying time for each flight is around 1.2 hrs. You do the math!!! Yep, that's alot of flights. We went to San Antonio last Thursday for John's pin on ceremony Friday. It just so happened to work out that that Friday he had 998.8 before his flight, so when he landed after a 1.5 hr flight my man went to 1000.3 hrs. YEEHAW!!!!!!! So we had a small ceremony at the hanger when he taxied in to celebrate. Johns parents also flew out there with us for all the festivities. I must say my husband amazes me everyday for his commitments to his country and our family. He takes such pride in both his jobs and even more pride in us. We couldn't ask for a more thoughtful, loving, and generous father and husband.

Thank you God for blessing us with such an outstanding man.

John taxiing by the kids.
There's the big man!

He rcvd a patch for his flight suit that has a picture of the T-6 and says 1000 hrs and looks all cute and piloty. I was able to punch on his new patch.

We are so proud of him!

The boys are right at home with this airplane. Thank goodness they are so good to us that they allow the boys to look all around the plane. We did have to keep telling them not to get inside, there just wasn't anyone paying attention to them in the plane and the last thing we need is for the to pull the ejection pin.

On the crew bus going back to the squadron.

The Big B-day Party

Of course we had a party for the big man, Since Saturdays are full of soccer and football now, we opted for Friday evening for the festivities. We had a cookout and pool party. The kids had a ball. I think we had a total of 16 youngins here. We had hot dogs, chips, pasta salad, fruit and all the fixins'. Hayden was so excited he could barely stand the 3 hrs after school until the party started. I can't believe how big he is, he was such a help by setting up tables and chairs. The order of events went kind of backwards this time. We ate, did presents (Hayden couldn't take it any longer), pinata, then cake. If you haven't noticed by now the theme here is continued with Star Wars. Everything for the party was star wars and every toy he rcvd was too. What ever will Santa bring now?

His Abercrombie shirt from Papa Mike and Gma Teresa. They have style!
The one toy he wanted sooooooo bad. Papa and Gma to rescue. How do they do it each year?
Okay, so we had a pinata. It was a totally cool Darth Vader head. All 16 kids lined up to take a whack at the dark side. Hayden lands one blow to his and the thing comes apart. Normally we make it through the line once and halfway through a second time before it breaks. I didn't even get a good picture of it because I was trying to get everyone a bag for their candy.
The pinata on Laurens head
I know everyone was waiting to see what kind of cake I was going to make this time. Well, Hayden wanted Wal-Mart and I didn't need one more thing on my plate so I said, "You got it Dude!" The cake was fabulous of course, their butter cream icing is superb.
He got all 7 candles out in one breath
Nothing like licking icing off the cake decorations.
We had a wonderful time and wish you all could have been here. I think we finally sent everyone home around 10:00pm. Seven year olds really know how to party!

Happy 7th Birthday Hayden!

Today my big man Hayden turned 7. We took cupcakes to school, had soccer practice in the rain (which I am now the coach of his team), and had dinner at Texas Roadhouse. He wanted to go where he could throw peanut shells on the floor. The sang to him and brought him ice cream. He loved it. He opened his presents from us today when he got home from school. He got new cstar wars jammies, a new bible, a darth vader starfighter, shirts, and lots of love!

Waiting to open his loot!
His new bible and cover

Presents from mom and dad
He is finally big enough for Abercrombie, yeehaw!
It's all about the clone wars
Everyone got new jammies for Haydens birthday. Abigail loves her monkey jammies
Jedi's in training!

The new Clone Wars jammies