The Early Days

For those of you that have not been with Harley from the beginning, I wanted to share with you the picture of her through the years. The most interesting pictures and the ones of Harley as a baby, with her DARK BROWN hair! Yes, it is true, when she was 9 months old, her brown hair fell out and WHITE hair grew back in. There were many days when I thought there was something wrong with her, one day brown hair-the next day white! That's Harley for ya! She has always loved the camera and loves to put on a show for anyone that will watch. But, through the years of changing from baby to toddler to child to youth she is and has consistently been beautiful!

Happy Birthday Harley!

It is true, she is 12! It was a VERY long and eventful day! And if it is any indication of what her teenage years will be like, I need a nap and a raise! It started last night when we went to Applebee's for dinner. Harley ordered pasta with marinara sauce and apple sauce. Hayden tipped off the waiter and Harley was surprised with a singing staff bearing a strawberry sunday! Thanks Hayden! Then the actual day of birth was upon us and she started it with breakfast, eggs and waffles, then off to school. (She would like to note that she did NOT get to wear a cute outfit due to the uniform she had to wear.)

At school she celebrated her B-day with a treat for her class and then while talking with a boy down the hall, she walked right into the gym doors, knocked her down and bruised her face. Of course she was so embarrassed she cried, then the other boys started making fun of her which made her cry harder...what a fantastic start for the teenage years!

After school she went to dinner with Grandma and Grandpa Burningham, Sizzler to be precise, Harley's favorite place to eat. Then she got to open her present from them: 2 cami's, 2 books, 1 very cool hat, and a box full of candy!

She got home from dinner and rushed off to Bountiful High School where she got to be the water girl for the Sophomore game. She did a great job and had tons of fun, something about surrounded by boys...find her if you can in the time out huddle :) For someone celebrating such a BIG birthday, she looked so little out on the field. Her Great-Aunt Kathy was at the game and gave her some money to celebrate her birthday! Harley thought that was very sweet!

Then home to open presents from Mom, Dad, Hunter and Hayden. From Mom and Dad she got signed up for the Creative Arts Academy production of High School Musical and tickets to Bountiful High Schools production of Les Miserables (we are going Monday night!). From Mom she got a bag of girl essentials :) From Hayden she got monkey pajamas, and from Hunter she got a workout outfit for her rehearsals.

After that it was off to Baskin Robins for ice cream. Harley got Rainbow Sherbet and said it was the best she has ever had.

Then home and ready for bed...that is when the best thing happened to her! Her Unlce Brett and her have the same birthday and he called to talk to her. I would like to say it was something me or Dave did that made her the happiest on her birthday, but when I watched her talk to Brett, she had the biggest smile on her face and that was happiness. There is defiantly something special about sharing your birthday with someone you love.

All in all it was a good day and I hope it was all she had envisioned and hoped for, minus the gym door situation! I love ya Harley!

Coach Hayden

Hayden has been making football plays for various coaches, Bountiful High School's coach, Hunter's Little League coach, Dave. Yet, week after week he is sorely disappointed to see that not one of the above mentioned coaches have implemented his plays. He watches closely and sometimes there is a play that is close, but not quite, and he will say to me, "maybe they lost the plays, should I make more of them? Why do you think they don't like my plays? Maybe you should ask them to use my plays." It has been breaking my heart.

I have a good friend at school, and her husband coaches her son's team. I was telling her about the sad story of Hayden trying to get his plays noticed. She mentioned that her husband would love to see Hayden's plays. In fact her husband sent Hayden an email asking for some new football plays. Hayden was so excited he ran into the kitchen and wrote out 4 new plays. "Coon 24" and "Cheetah 47" were 2 of them. Hayden took the plays to my school and gave them to my good friend and hoped and prayed that the team would like and use his plays.

Today my really good friend presented Hayden with a game ball signed by the team and his VERY OWN jersey as a thank you for for the plays. Hayden was so happy and has not stopped talking about the ball and the jersey. He really is on cloud nine.

I want to thank the Kearns Cougar Mighty Mites Team and their coaches, you have made a little boys dreams come true.

Early Birthday Party!

On saturday after the football game we drove to Orem for Harley's 12 year old birthday party. Harley and Maka went to the mall to shop for a "Young Women's" outfit (her first day in YW is the 28). They literally walked through every store looking for a teenage look sized for a 6 year old...not so easy! But they ended up with 1 skirt, 3 shirts, 3 pairs of ear rings, and 1 ring. Success!

Maka also got her a circle journal, a bouquet of flowers in the Young Women's, 2 bookmarks with the YW theme's and values, and a magnet board with the YW values on it!
Great Grandma Miles gave her $12, then Grandma lost her keys and when Harley found them she gave her another $5! This was Harley's lucky day!
Dinner was great as usual, Harley chose roast, mashed potato's, and key lime pie for dessert. The day was long and full of fun times for us. We were exhausted when we got home saturday night. Thanks to Maka, Baka, and Great Grandma Miles for the gifts and Happy Birthday to Harley on Sept. 25!

Down with Bingham

Hunter's football team played against the Bingham Miners at Bingham on Saturday. Hunter was very nervous because Bingham has a great football program and their temas are big and tough. We went to the fields early to see Hunter's best friend play his game. His friends team beat Copperhills and his friend did a great job!Maka and Baka came to see Hunter's game and it was a windy, rainy, cold day, but we all had fun watching the game.
Hunter was a ball of nerves when the game started, but he quickly made the first tackle of the game and after that he made 3 spectacular tackles. Hunter has been working really hard on "containment", which means...blah blah something about defending your area something blah! However, I am proud to say he did an amazing job and no one got past Hunter!
The game came down to the wire and the ending score was 13 to 6 for Bountiful! Go Braves!

State Report

Hayden got to do a state poster on Kansas for 2nd grade. He did all the research on his own, cut out the papers, colored the pictures, and glued them to the poster board. He is so proud of his work, and I can tell you it was an extreme fine motor skill work out for him.

Team Captain

Hunter got to be the team captain for the game against Tooele this Saturday. It was an early game, but a home game which means Hunter walked down the street to warm up and I stayed on the couch wrapped in my warm blanket!

The score was 27 to 7 the poor poor Buffalo's just could not stop our offense. Hunter did a great job, he got the wind knocked out of him on a killer punt tackle. Every man around him was slapping his butt, pads, and helmet telling him how cool the tackle was (Hunter admitted later in the privacy of a conversation with his mom "It hurt, how can that be cool"). Here is a video of one of the kick offs for the Braves and for Hunter. He was so close to getting it, next week Hunter says he is diving for it!

The reality of it is, I was so into watching the game I forgot to take a lot of picture...