Profile 2012: Andrea

Andrea

Notable changes/events in 2011:  Finished my Child Development class.  Visited Colonial Williamsburg.  Finally visited an amusement park when I wasn't pregnant so I could ride roller coasters.  Took our fourth annual cross country road trip.  Got released from my responsibilities in the nursery at church and asked to serve as the secretary for Relief Society.  Attended Time Out for Women in Richmond.  Joined the neighborhood tennis team. 

Follow-up on last year's hopes for 2011:

*Finish the Child Development class I started this month as well as one more class toward my degree.  (I did finish Child Development, but am only halfway through my next class, Motivation.)

*Also finish my continuing ed credits to renew my dental hygiene license this summer.  (I BARELY made it and had to pay big bucks for my last class, but I DID IT!)

*Purchase a dSLR camera and figure out how to use it.  (The purchase was made.  The figuring out is a constant pastime.)

*Continue to have daily personal scripture study in the mornings before the kiddios wake up.  (Yep!)

*Get some exercise on my bike once the weather finally warms up.  (Nope.  I've given up on the bike.  Caroline is getting to big for me to ride her around.  I did The Biggest Loser for several months and am now using Just Dance as my workout most mornings.)

Hopes for 2012:

*Finish my Motivation class as well as two others!  Yikes.  Is this possible?  I'm not sure, but it's the timeline I need to be on if I want to finish my degree before BYU kicks me out of their program.

*Take a trip to Disneyworld with my family.

*Visit Jayne in Denmark.

*Go to TOFW in Denver with my in-laws.

*Plan a getaway with Drew for our 15th anniversary.

*Take our 5th annual summer road trip.

(Holy cow!  I basically just want to travel all. the. time.)

Favorite sport: Tennis to play.  Football to watch.

Is really good at:  Serving the ball hard in tennis.

Wishes she were better at:  Keeping my house clean.

Best part about my job:  Hugs from my kids when they first get home from school.

Favorite pastimes:  Tennis, photography, playing the piano, blogging, shopping the clearance section (especially at Target), going out to eat, reading.

Favorite recent reads:  The Help by Kathryn Stockett, Uglies series by Scott Westerfield, Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick, The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

Favorite restaurant:  Bonsai Japanese

Profile 2012: Andrew

Andrew

Thirty-something

Notable changes/events in 2011:  Started writing as a Yahoo featured contributor.  Tore my medial meniscus trying to dunk.  My Grandma Rose passed away.

Follow-up from last year's hopes:
No emergency room trips.  (Didn't have any.)
Organizing consistent flag football games with my buddies. (didn't happen)
For the right thing to happen around staying in Greensboro or moving to Dallas  (It did.)
Lots of fun dates with Andrea (definitely),
Seeing the kids be happy as they do their best (yep),
BYU basketball makes a deep tournament run (yep),
The Lakers win another championship (nope),
The Carolina Panthers win more than two games (They definitely did.).  

Hopes for 2012:  That I can dunk again.  Finish writing a book.  Awesome 15th anniversary getaway. 


Favorite sport:  Football

Is really good at:  Cooking eggs

Wishes he was better at:  Exercising

Best part about his job:  The variety

Favorite pastimes:  Fantasy sports, watching sports, writing about sports, and playing tennis with Andrea

Favorite recent reads:  The Punch (about Kermit Washington and Rudy Tomjonavich), The Long Snapper, Surround Yourself with Greatness by Chad Lewis, The Kingdom and the Crown series by Gerald Lund

Favorite restaurant:  Deck House in Carolina Beach

Just started his seventh year as bishop.

Still going strong.

Profile 2012: Brandon

Brandon Trey

Age 10 1/2

Favorite smell: Papa John’s pizza in the car

Best subject in school:  Math

Favorite season:  Summer, because I can play with Miki

Favorite room in the house:  My room because I have all my Legos in it

What makes our family special?  We all have musical talent.

One thing you’re really good at:  BMX

One thing you wish you were better at:  Soccer

Closest friends:  Trey, Bryce and Brycen

 

What job do you want when you grow up?  I want to work in Legoland

What rule in your house would you change if you could?  Chores on Saturday

If you had a million dollars, what would you buy?  A half pipe and the three biggest Lego sets that I can get my hands on.

When will you be a grown up?  When I have a job that isn’t in a restaurant or store.

Something that makes me smile when I see it:  A mustang.  I smile every single time.

Something I collect: Legos

Favorites

Meal:  Papa John’s cheese pizza

Treat:  Ice cream sundaes

Game to play:  Risk
Color:  Black

TV Show:  Avatar--The Last Airbender

Movie:  Tron

Book:  Harry Potter

Animal:  Black Jaguar

Place to go:  Utah

Sport to play:  Soccer

Sports team:  Manchester United

Other notes on Brandon:  Over his lifetime, Brandon has been our most challenging child.  BUT, over the past six months or so, he has turned into the easiest!  He is so helpful around the house and is almost always cooperative.  It rocks.  He has started caring about cleanliness and will randomly clean off the dining room table or start sorting his Legos by color.  Sweet.  He continues to do well in school.  He rides his bike there, even through the freezing cold mornings.  His passion for reading seems to be waning.  He's been more into origami, graphic novels, and list-type books than novels.  It's still kind of weird for me to picture him in middle school next year, but I'm slowly starting to embrace it and it doesn't freak me out like it did a few months ago.

Profile 2012: Whitney

Whitney Amelia

age 7 1/2

Favorite smell:  Lavender

Best subject in school: Art, definitely.

Favorite season: Probably spring because it’s when my birthday is.

One thing you’re really good at:  Drumming

One thing you wish you were better at:  Jump roping

Closest friends:  Ria and Leanne

What scares you the most?  Nothing.

What job do you want when you grow up?  To be the drummer of a famous band

If you could choose a different name, what would it be?  Lillian

What rule in your house would you change if you could? We would have as much video time as we want and we wouldn’t have to do our homework.  We’d have robots to do that.

If you had a million dollars, what would you buy? Candy, paint, and paintbrushes

When will you be a grown up? At 19.

Something that makes me smile when I see it:  A test that I got 100 or more on.

Favorites

Meal:  Christmas dinner—shrimp, turkey, bacon, and yams

Treat:  Red velvet cheesecake

Game to play:  Ramses Pyramid [a Lego game of Brandon's]
Color:  Red

TV Show:  Avatar--The Last Airbender

Movie:  Avatar--The Last Airbender

Book:  I don’t really have a favorite book.

Animal:  Tiger

Place to go:  Chuck E Cheese’s

Other random notes on Whit:  At school, Whitney's class got changed to a combined 1st/2nd grade room earlier this year.  Andrew and I had our hesitations about the effectiveness of the decision, but it has turned out to be great.  Whit loves it.  She continues to be our artist and spends much of her free time painting, folding paper into animals and hats, coloring, and drawing.  She loves to help me in the kitchen.  She just started her second season of cheerleading and has some friends on her squad.  Just in the past few weeks, she and Brandon have found several things that they enjoy doing together.  It has been so fun to see them PLAYING together instead of just fighting.  (Not that the fighting has stopped altogether.  Darn.)  She used to be very affectionate and lately has been more standoffish with Andrew and I.  Boo.  We miss her hugs.  She loves to laugh and make up jokes, especially around the dinner table.

Profile 2012: Caroline

Caroline Rose

Age 3

Favorite part of school:  Playing baby

Job you want to have when you grow up:  Parachuter builder

One thing you're really good at:  Drawing

One thing you wish you were better at:  Painting

Favorite game to play:  Candyland

What scares you most:  Crocodiles

If you could choose a different name, what would it be:  Caroline Walker

Favorite thing to do in our house:  Read books 

If you had a million dollars, what would you buy first?  A million dollars and chocolate money

Favorites:

Food:  Marshmallows

Treat:  Ice cream

Color:  Yellow

TV show:  Phineas and Ferb

Book:  Snow White

Animal:  Horse

Place to go:  Chuck E. Cheese's

Other random tidbits:  Caroline is just growing up and doing great.  She started Sunbeams at church this month and didn't seem to miss the toys and snacks from nursery at all.  She loves school, her Tangled sticker album, reading books (especially Dora and Diego ones), playing games, doing puzzles, coloring, watching Avatar: the Last Airbender with her big bro and sis, eating pretzels and goldfish, and asking Daddy to pretend he's Appa (from Avatar) so she can ride on his back up the stairs.  She has almost completely given up her nap--will take about one a week or so.  She doesn't like to eat meals, but is a great snacker.  Her hair is still blond and curly, but seems the curls seem to be relaxing a bit.  She has recently grown fond of the word NO, but for the most part is our cutie pattootie and makes all of us smile.

2011 Year in Review

10 Greatest things that happened
I am most proud of these 3 accomplishments
Three great lessons I learned from last year:
Three personal developments I've made in the past year:
If I could do things again, three things from last year I'd do differently:
Three things I need to do less of:
Three things I need to do more of:
Smartest decision I made last year:
Biggest risk I took last year:
One sentence that sums up the past year

What went right?
What went wrong?
What do I love about my life?

Winter Sports: Fantasy Football

Andrew, Brandon, and I all play fantasy football in a league with nine other friends and family members.  This is our fourth season playing together and we love it.  This was easily my favorite season so far because.... I WON!!!  The super bowl.  The whole she-bang.  The entire season.  Aaaaagggghhhh!  I hope you get a feeling for how exciting this was for me. 

I played IX Fe (Jeff) in the super bowl.  It came down to the Monday Night Football game.  I had Drew Brees and Darren Sproles.  He had Jimmy Graham and Matt Ryan.  I am SO grateful that Drew Brees had a passing record on the line because his last touchdown to Sproles sealed the deal.  I haven't screamed like that over an NFL game since...ever.  So, so fun!

 Final score:  Gridiron Girl 160, IX Fe 145

My new fantasy football crush:  Drew Brees

To celebrate my win, Andrew put together a trophy ceremony.  We ate yummy pizza

and toasted with Martinelli's.

The other exciting part of this season:

Brandon took third place!!

Andrew (the commissioner of our league) got him a medal

to commemorate his accomplishment.

Way to go, B!

And I received the league champ trophy!

Woo hoo!

Reveling in our victories.

I joined the Circle of Champions, which already included

Michael ('09 and '10) and Andrew ('08).

Instead of a celebratory Yoohoo shower,

which sounded sticky and messy,

we just drank the Yoohoo instead.

Yum.

I'm already looking forward to next season when I get to change my team name from Gridiron Girl to Trophy Wife. 

Winter sports: Flag football

Christmas mudbowl!  Drew got a bunch of his friends together for another round of flag football.  Again, we were fortunate to have great weather, but we had a lot of rain earlier in the week.  So, they had a lot of mud on the field.  Andrew got to do that load of laundry.  Here are sixteen of my favorite shots from the game.  (I took almost 400.)  :)

Winter Sports: Panthers Game

Once again I lucked out and the Panthers had a non-Sunday game this season.  So, I had an easy gift idea for Andrew's birthday.  He took Brandon down with him on Christmas Eve and they got to watch the Panthers play the Buccaneers.  You can read his version of the story here. They had a fabulous time and made it home in time for our yummy Christmas Eve dinner.  Here are some pics.

Winter sports: Basketball

Brandon started his basketball season last month.  He is playing with the Jamestown Youth League again this year, after playing at his elementary school last year.  Wow, the level of competition is noticeably higher.  He's holding his own in rebounding and blocking.  Andrew is helping coach, which is fun for both of them.  And, his games are played at the middle school he'll attend next year, which is a cool bonus.

Get that rebound!

Another board.

The shot is up!

Going for the block.

Free throw

Talking strategy

Pulling down an offensive board...

and he put it back up for two points.

Get that ball!

Laying it up.

His team is 1-3 so far, but they have had some super close games.  Looking forward to the second half of the season!