They may stink but still a good time.

And the streak continues. It has now been 10 or 11 CAV's games in a row that I have taken the kids to and they have been selected to do something. I will tell you that kids are key to getting hooked up at the games. That Tuesday a guy from my work gave me his tickets to the Magic game so I decided to take Maddux. When we got to the game we ran into a guy I know, who is the head of security for The Q, and he upgraded our tickets down to the lower sections. He then asked if we wanted to go down by the locker rooms after the game to meet some of the players. Of course I said yes for the both of us. So after the game we went down and met him and he took us underneath the arena and hook us up right outside of the locker rooms. We stood there and waited for the players to make their way out. We ended up meeting all but 2 of the CAV's players as well as 5 or 6 of the Orlando Magic guys. It is so different to see them in that environment. Most of them came out with their children and wives and were more than happy to sign autographs and take pictures. They were really like big kids and were having as much fun as the kids were. We ended up staying until almost 11:00 at night but it was well worth it. Maddux had made a sign for the game and was able to get quite a few autographs on his poster. It is now framed and hanging in his room. I think I may have been more excited to be down there than Maddux actually was. He didn't recognize most of the players but was very excited to see his favorite player Anthony Parker and Antwan Jamison. The following are some pictures from that night.


Maddux getting his hair spray painted before the beginning of the game. Every time we go to the game the kids have to get their hair colored, a tattoo and have their face painted with CAV's themed things.


Anderson Varejao signing Maddux's sign. This is Brooklyn's favorite player.


Antwan Jamison signing the sign. This is probably Maddux's second favorite player.


Anthony Parker (left) and Jamrio Moon after the game. It was funny because Maddux wasn't into the whole thing until Parker came out and walked over to him. Then his face lit up and he got super excited.


Mo Williams. It was cute because his wife and three kids were down right by us and they were running all around just taking everything in.


Maddux standing next to Varejao right outside of the CAV's locker room.


Maddux and his sign at the end of the night. Brooklyn helped him make it during the day and they were very excited for him to take it to the game. We tried to get him on the Jumbo Tron but had no luck. He held that sign up every time when there was a break or timeout during the game.

Last night Maddux and I took his friend, Holden, and his dad to the game as an early birthday present for Maddux. It was Antwan Jamison bobble head night and we were hoping for a CAV's win on this night. The minute we walked in to the arena we had two girls come up and ask the kids if they wanted to be ball kids. Maddux and Brooklyn have done this in the past and we were very excited for the boys to do this. They get to go onto the middle of the court and have the starting five hand them a game ball which they get to keep. Maddux ended up getting the ball from Daniel "Boobie" Gibson and Holden got one from Mo Williams. They were very excited and it made their night. They had a ton of fun and were smiling the whole night. Here are pictures of them from last night.


Maddux and Holden with their balls during the game.


Here they are on the Jumbo Tron, at last.


Boobie Gibson giving Maddux his ball at the beginning of player introductions.


Maddux and Holden after getting their hair painted and faces painted.

The following video has a very funny story behind it. Jed and I told the boys that they either had to get their pictures taken with the CAV's cheerleaders or they had to dance with the Scream Team in front of everyone. The choice was easy as they wanted nothing to do with the cheerleaders. They actually ripped the pictures of them out of their programs and tore them up. Every time they saw a cheerleader they shyed away and yelled at them to leave, your typical 6 year old boy response. Anyways, here is there minute of dancing. If you watch towards the end of the video one of the dance members tries to get Maddux to go down on one knee and pose for him. Maddux wanted no part of that and you can actually see him shake his head no. They even had another guy come over and try to get Maddux to do it but he would not budge. Holden on the other hand as no problem and even busts out some street dance moves.



We had a great time and if you ever plan on going to a basketball game, or any other game for that matter, I would strongly recommend taking some kids with you as they are the key. I am willing to lend ours out, for a small fee, as I believe they are good luck. I know other people who have taken their kids and not been chosen to do anything. I just hope the streak continues because Maddux has come to expect these things and I don't know what he will do when he is not asked to participate. I think he believes this is part of the game and happens every time. Anyways, we have a ton of fun and I know the boys had the time of their lives. They stayed awake the whole time home talking about the night and Maddux was still talking about it tonight. Now if we can only get the CAV's to win a game.

Our Christmas Story

It's about a week after Christmas but things have been very busy around here. With Jennie's brother and sister in town with their families there has been a lot going on and I haven't had a chance to update our Christmas holiday yet. As usual the kids got lots and lots of stuff. Although they didn't get their number one wish list item, IPad, they did get plenty of new toys and gadgets to keep them busy. We are grateful to be surrounded by family and love to spend time and visit with them.


Christmas Eve we went over to Jennie's parents for a great dinner, a little Christmas play, by the children, and a night of opening lots of little presents. Bill and Connie have boxes of little gadgets and toys that they wrap up and let the kids take turns picking and opening a present. Then they can trade each other for things that they want. It is a lot of fun and the kids love opening all the presents. It is an hour of straight chaos. The above picture is of all the kids in their costumes ready for their production.


Nolan as one of the Three Wise Men. He has some of the best facial expressions ever.


Maddux as one of the cows in the stable. This is Maddux's new smile. He use to have such a good smile and then went to the fake smile and now this one.


Payton as the other cow.


Here are the kids on Christmas morning right before all the fun. It was funny because we got home late from Jennie's parents the night before and told the kids that they couldn't come out of their room until 8:00 on Christmas morning. Well they were out right at 8:00 but had to wait until Payton woke up to open presents. Jennie told them they could go through their stockings while they waited. Well when Jennie and I came out into the living room they had all the presents separated into piles ready for opening. They were so excited about Christmas and wanted to make sure they were ready to go the second Payton woke up.


Payton with one of her favorite presents. A ladybug pillow pet from her Uncle Spencer.


Brooklyn is a Belieber and has the new shirt to prove it. Her favorite present was a digital camera / video camera. She now loves to take pictures and video different events throughout her day. She also got a paper jamz guitar, some bags with iron-on emblems, some shirts with a peace symbol, some new pajamas, a stop sign and some books and other small things.


Brooklyn and Maddux with their paper jamz guitars. We just need some drums and a lead singer and we could have a band.


Payton with her favorite present. She got a baby doll that moves and makes noises. She saw this thing in the store and loved it. We also got her another baby that plays peek-a-boo as you walk by. She got some new clothes, a couple of play food sets, some play kitchen stuff and her pillow pet.


Nolan with her Bat Cave. This was the one thing that he really wanted and loves playing with his figures. He also got some clothes, some action figures, a remote control car, a frog game, some spy stuff and some games and pieces for the Wii.


Here is Maddux with his favorite present; a Super Hero Squad Wii game. He also got some clothes, some other Wii stuff, a paper jamz guitar, a Justin Bieber board game (that is right he is a Belieber), some spy stuff, some CAVs shirts and some other toys and gadgets.


This was Payton's favorite gift from the night of presents at Jennie's parents house. I also have a picture of Jennie with the same umbrella hat on but she threatened me if I posted it. If anyone wants to see it I will send it to you. It can be our little secret.

For New Year's Eve we went over to Greg and Tacie's for a night of games and lots of food. I was surprised as all the kids made it to midnight. I think this is the first year that Maddux made it. He is one that once he is tired nothing can keep him awake. He has fell asleep during movies, basketball games and the Justin Bieber concert. We had a very fun and busy 2010 and look forward to more of the same in 2011. We want to thank everyone for everything and wish you all a healthy and prosperous 2011.

Tis the Season.

This has been a very busy week for us and we have had lots going on. Here is a quick recap of all that we have done.


Payton was helping Jennie make pretzel jello today and some of the jello fell on the floor. Not wanting to waste anything Payton quickly hopped down and started picking the jello up, with her mouth.


This is the better view as you can see her sucking it all up. She didn't even think twice about it.


Uncle Steve also came up, from Indiana, and paid us a visit. It was great to see him and be able to spend the day with him. The kids keep him busy with games the whole time he was here. You will notice that they are all standing in order from tallest to smallest (also oldest to youngest). It won't be long before some of them start to switch places and Steve starts his downward decent.


Every year the city puts up lights and we always try to get out and get some pictures with the kids. We didn't get too many as it was very cold and the kids were freezing. Here they are sitting in the gazebo in the middle of the lights.


The kids standing in front of the candy cane tunnel.


The children also put on a little remake of the birth of Jesus for all the parents. Connie got the costume set last year and it is perfect for the kids. The kids had a lot of fun and it was great to see them tell the story in their actions.


Here is Maddux as the Shepherd.


Nolan as one of the Three Wise Men.


Finally, we have a couple of pictures from the kids latest games. They have a two week lay off due to the holidays. Here is Brooklyn getting into it with one of the other girls and tying her up for a jump ball. One of her bright moments of going after the ball. Most of the times she is content with letting someone else go after and get it.


Here she is playing some lock-down defense. It isn't a foul if they don't blow the whistle. Brooklyn and this girl keep getting into it the whole game. When on Brooklyn was on offense this girl kept grabbing and holding her so she couldn't move. The refs weren't paying attention or calling anything so Jennie told Brooklyn to get physical right back with her. The next couple of quarters was a lot of pushing and shoving between the two girls. The refs still didn't call anything and let it go on. It was nice to see Brooklyn get physical and push back even though it was frustrating her because she couldn't move anywhere without being grabbed.


Maddux ran into a pretty good team that could really dribble the ball. They had two kids that could dribble and move around with the ball. Even though they kept it close they ended up losing by 8. Here is Maddux playing defense against one of his baseball teammates, Conner. They are both first graders playing in a 2nd grade league and are holding their own quite nicely.

Well we hope that you are all having a great holiday season and we wish you all the best for 2011.

Brooklyn and Maddux Hoops.

Now that the kids are three weeks into the basketball season I have finally decided to post about their games. Both Jennie and I are coaching the kids as both teams didn't have coaches and we just can't say no. It is a lot of fun and we like being a part of their progress. Maddux is 3 - 1 through 4 games while Brooklyn is 1 - 3. While I would like to say that is must be the coaching, Maddux's team seems to have some better athletes than Brooklyn's. Brooklyn's team did get their first win last week and they were very excited. I will also say that two of Brooklyn's losses were by a 10 - 11 score and could have gone either way. There aren't a lot of pictures of the kids but here is the best of the best. It is kind of hard for one of us to take pictures, with the kids, while the other one coaches.


Brooklyn sprinting down the court on a fast break.


This time she is just content with running down the court with the rest of the girls.


Maddux and his team getting ready to start the game.


Brooklyn playing some lock-down defense. She is quite the defender and now just needs to go after the ball once it is shot.


Maddux playing the same type of lock-down defense as his sister. Maddux plays very good defense and just needs to work on his offensive game. He likes to jump up and down and clap his hands instead of moving to try and get open. I don't know where he learned to do that but we must break him of this habit.

I hope to have some more pictures in the next coming weeks and will keep you all updated on their progress this season.

A Beard Home Makeover.

This process started in August and is finally just about finished. We have wanted to paint the outside of the house for quite some time and finally have everything painted, minus a couple of trim boards. It does make quite a difference and glad to have it finally done. Below are some of the before and after pictures of what it looked and looks like. I don't notice much of a difference to the front, as it is mostly brick, but the back is significantly different.


This is before. The boards on the roof use to be blue and this is when we were deciding on what color to paint the house. There are actually two different tones on the siding. You will notice the tape on the big window to edge around the board. I put that on the last week of July when things were still sunny and leaves were on the trees.


This is the end product. This is sometime in October and you will notice that there are no more leaves on the trees. Everyone said the tape would be very difficult to get off but it actually came off pretty easy, just ask Jennie.


Here is the back of the house. You will again see the two tones of paint as well as some primed spots throughout. Those were from repair work we did 3 or 4 years ago when removing some vents and an A/C. It looked like that for that long before we did anything. It probably would have been a lot sooner if those spots were on the front of the house.


Here it is after painting. Much, much cleaner and better looking.


The back corner by the patio before.


The after picture. We still are undecided on what to do with this area as we would like to clean it up a little more. If we stay in this house for any period of time we must do something to clean this up. This is an eyesore in the backyard.


Last month we also had someone come in and patch the walls and repaint the whole back of our house. While we were repainting Jennie decided to put up new curtains and decorate the walls a little bit. We ended up blowing up pictures of all the kids to hang up. It really turned out nice and is a huge improvement.


Jennie's new curtains.


We also had the kitchen, laundry room and back bath painted as well.


We then framed some of the kids art work and hung them up in the playroom for all to see. The kids were really excited to see their work up on the wall.


We also had a shed put up in July to help clear out the garage and give us some more room. We found a guy who use to build them for Lowe's and we got a real good deal. It makes such a difference having the shed and being able to keep the garage clean.


We painted the shed to match the house.


Here is what the garage looked like before the shed.


And here is what it looks like now. It is nice to be able to park the van in the garage and makes a huge difference for Jennie and the kids with the snow.

Well it did take quite awhile and we are glad that it is done. There always seems to be something to do when you own a home and now we must decide on what to do next. We love being able to personalize our home the way we want to and grateful for all of those who help.