pics of the past couple of months…
Here is what our family has been up to over the past few months. I am just posting all these pics and stories in one post, so here it goes:
Eli had his first Pinewood Derby in January. He has been watching Brian and Jocelyn work on her cars for the past 3 years and he was excited for them to work on a car together. Eli decided that he wanted to make, not a car, but a tank! It turned out very well! I think Brian has found a new hobby (which he is very good at!) in woodworking. Which is awesome because Brians grandpa loved woodworking and it is kind of a cool tribute to his grandpa!
Before checking in his car!
Watching his tank go down the track. During one of his races, his tank jumped the track and a little boy said “Oh, cool, look! Eli’s tank just took out all those other cars!!” Made Eli smile!!
After the race. They voted on the coolest car and Eli’s got in the top 3! It was a pretty cool tank!
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Brian and I celebrated our 12th Anniversary on January 9th. We had a good day together.
The kids made us a big card
Our kids are so sweet!!
Heres to another wonderful 12 years!! I love you Brian!!
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SNOW – SNOW – SNOW
It has been one crazy winter. We didn’t have any snow until Christmas. Then BAM, we were pounded in January…February…AND HOPEFULLY not March!!
THe kids (and Ebony!) have loved their days in the snow!
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Eli’s 7th Birthday
We had his birthday party with his friends on the 14th. He invited 12 other boys and we had it at our house! Note to self: DO NOT INVITE THAT MANY WILD BOYS AT THE SAME TIME!
and
DO NOT HAVE IT AT YOUR HOUSE IN THE MIDDLE OF WINTER!!
It was the wildest, craziest party I have ever thrown! But, hopefully the boys all had a great time!
We played lots of fun games! Luckily, my friend, Danielle stayed to help too. She was able to take pictures for me.
We tied a balloon on a string and tied the other end to their ankles. Then they had to try and pop other peoples balloons while keeping theirs safe!! Here was Eli and his buddy, Carter, at a stand off!!
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Basketball
Eli just finished his first Basketball season today. He went to a basketball camp last winter, and then decided to play this year. He started on a team that 5 of the boys played on last year and 5 of them were new. So it worked out really well. Eli, along with his buddy, Gavin are the tallest 2 on the team (by far!). Eli started off the season very nervous about playing this new sport. He has become so comfortable with soccer over the past 3 years that playing something unfamiliar make him nervous. It has definitely been a learning season, but as I was watching him today, I realized that he really has picked up a lot of new skill over the past few months of basketball season! I am so proud of him! And he now has another sport that he loves to play.
Eli is #15. This was his first basketball game.
Throughout the season, he was able to control the ball more while running and dribbling, he was able to have more confidence when shooting the ball, and know his positions more when on the court. A great first season! I will post some more recent pics later. They are still on my camera.
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Jocelyn’s Pinewood Derby
Jocelyn loves the Pinewood Derby for Girl Scouts. She is such a crafty girl, so she loves brainstorming all year to figure out what car design she wants that year. This year she came up with a Coke Bottle. It was the coolest derby car I have ever seen!
The girls from Jocelyn’s troop that participated in the Derby.
Jocelyn and her good friend, Addy.
Jocelyn with her Coke Bottle car and Addy with her Wii remote car.
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Father Daughter Dance
Jocelyn and Brian went to the Father Daughter Dance with Girl Scouts again this year. They had a great time. Jocelyn is looking so grown up. I look back at their first dance when she was in Kindergarten when they were so little!
Her favorite part of her outfit was her flower in her hair!!
Jocelyn and Brian
We also have a tradition with some of the moms in the troop – we take the siblings (mainly the boys!) out to eat and the bowling. We ate at Red Robin this year and then took all the kids bowling. Audrey was the only girl along, so she bowled with us moms! Eli loves this tradition because he gets to hang out with a big group of boys!! Eli also was very embarrassed because while we were at Red Robin, we sat right next to a group of 1st grade girls and their dads eating before the dance. They all would smile and say hi to him! He is such a little ladies man!
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A couple of funny stories…
Brian has been watching JAWS with the kids. They love to watch these movies with Brian. Brian said that as soon as the “scary” music would start, all of their feet would go up on the couch. And Audrey would say “Oh, no! Here comes that big scary shark !!”
We also watch Survivor together as family. Usually, one evening we will eat dinner out in the living room and watch an episode. Well, for those of you that are Survivor fans, you know who Russell is! Eli is Russell’s BIGGEST fan! He is so excited that he is on another season. A few weeks back, after one of the challenges. Jeff told the teams that “flint” was waiting back at camp for them. Eli says to us “Who is Flint?” We all just cracked up at him. Those are the types of things that just make us smile!
Another funny Eli story. I had picked Eli up at a birthday party one evening. And we were walking out of the party with one of his friends and his mom, when I asked Eli “Was everyone well behaved? (Keep in mind, this was a couple of weeks after Eli’s CRAZY party, so I knew what those kids were like!) Eli says “No!” Eli’s friends mom says “Did _____ (her son) get in trouble?” And Eli says “Yes!”
I blurted out “Eli, YOU DO NOT THROW YOUR FRIENDS UNDER THE BUS LIKE THAT!!”
And Eli responds back to me “Mom, what bus?”
Sometimes Eli is so blonde! Love you Eli!!
This isn’t a funny story, but it is a very touching story about Jocelyn.
Jocelyn’s grade at school got to nominate someone for the Kindest Kansas Citian this year. They also wrote an essay as to why they were nominating that person. Jocelyn nominated her speech teacher. We were able to read this when we went to her conferences. And it was so heartfelt! She wrote about how she used to get made fun of for not talking and pronouncing her words correctly. The 2nd grade teachers read these essays (without knowing who wrote them) and picked 2 from every class. Jocelyn’s was chosen! We are so proud of her and more than anything, we are thankful to her speech teacher for making such an impact on Jocelyn. We are so proud of you Jocelyn!!
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Spring is just around the corner and the hussle and bussle of spring sports and activities is beginning!
Eli has just started soccer practices and baseball practices will start in the next month. Cub Scout activities are keeping Eli busy too. And Brian is enjoying being one of Eli’s Den leaders.
Jocelyn just moved up to a level in tumbling for cheerleading and loves it! We just signed her up for cheerleading, but those practices won’t start until June. Girl scouts is keeping her (and me!) busy too!
Audrey is doing wonderful at preschool. We just got her spring assessment back and she is doing great. We also just signed her up for TBall and she couldn’t be more excited! She wants us to buy her a pink helmet, pink bat, etc!! Luckily she already has a purple glove!
Well, that is all the updating for now. I will download more pictures soon and post a bunch more!
Belden Bunch 
