Jacob's face vs. Baseball bat

This was day one....it swelled up the day after this was taken and turned black and blue. Now it is yellowing and healing but it looked pretty ugly for awhile. He survived....

Last wrestling weekend….

Well I know that I promised some pictures and videos for our last weekend of wrestling and I am finally getting around to it. They aren’t really very great pictures but I did get some more videos. Luke’s little buddy Aiden from school came to watch. Luke was so excited and a bit distracted. It was pretty awesome to have him there though.

I wanted to show you this picture because this boy was really a tough one for Jacob to wrestle. He faced him the very first weekend and the kid just totally shocked Jacob (and us) with how fast and aggressive he was. The first weekend Jacob ended up doing alright against him but when he saw that he was facing the same “really tough” kid the last weekend, he got a little intimidated. The other boy ended up scoring a bunch of points on Jacob but he sure gave it a good fight and never ended up getting pinned. We were so proud of him for standing up to him and facing him. One of the other boys in the group of 4 didn’t really even try because he was so scared.

Wrestling was a very busy sport for us to be involved in but it was so much fun. The kids loved it and learned a ton. We are very glad that it’s over and that we have our Saturdays back but we will be doing it again next season with at least 2 kids and maybe even 3!! Jacob is on the fence on whether he will do it again but Luke for sure is going again and we are pretty sure that Zac will be out there next year. I will end this post with a couple of videos. You will have to excuse the yelling that comes from me and Ben....we are not the quiet spectators! Keep your eyes open for some more posts soon…I am way behind and have lots to share!

Our wrestling boys

I guess this is about 3 weeks late but I am finally blogging about the Jacob and Luke and their wrestling experience. This has been a crazy month and we have one more weekend but it has been so worth it. To be honest, Ben and I didn’t really know how fun this sport would be for us. We have been so surprised and are LOVING it. It has been so fun to watch both of the boys find their competitive side. We took so many pictures and these are just a few. It’s a bit hard to take pictures and video at the same time that you are losing your voice for yelling so much!

Here's a couple of videos. This was the very first weekend and it was just a take-down tournament. They would take their opponent down, get up and then do it again. My hope is to take some video this up coming weekend so we can see the improvement. They really have learned a ton in just a few short weeks.

Jake joined in

Well he did it…Jacob decided to try wrestling. When we first signed Luke up we gave Jacob the option but he didn’t think he would want to until he went to the first practice. I think he’s enjoying it and will have fun but I don’t know if it’s really going to be his sport. I guess you never know though. Here’s a few picture of his first practice….

We are going to have a super busy March with this sport. The tournaments are every Saturday in March and for some reason they schedule the younger kids first thing in the morning. So Luke has to weigh in by 7:30 and his matches are from 8-10 then Jacob weighs in by 9:30 with his matches from 10-12. Can you say “full Saturday morning!!” It’ll be fun and I’m sure it’s just the beginning of our sports journey as a family. I will get some pictures posted after the weekend and hopefully a couple of videos too.

Luke’s very first wrestling practice.

Do you remember awhile back I posted this? I can’t even begin to tell you how many times Luke has asked me when his practices were going to start. Well, the day finally came and he had his very first wrestling practice tonight. He was so excited. Actually Ben said that he had a smile on his face the whole time. He had such a great time and it’s going to be really fun to see how much he learns this season and if this will be something he wants to continue with after the season is over. Just look at the pictures….can’t you see you the joy? One more thing that I need to add – we gave Jacob the chance to sign up for wrestling too. He chose not to but when they went to sign Luke up he started to wonder if he might want to. The coach told him that he could come and watch the first couple of practices and then he could decide. After tonight he is saying that he wants to try it out. So I may be posting more pictures next week of Jacob the wrestler too. Keep your eyes open for more pics to come of Lukie too.

Now I’m off to watch some more Olympics. I'm loving them this time around!

My wrestling machine.....

I missed my blog entry yesterday so I will do one first thing this morning to try and make up for it.....

Last night Luke got to register for wrestling and he is so excited! We have been talking about it for a long time and the day finally came. Ben and I (and many other family members) think that he is going to be a natural with this sport. He starts practice mid February and the tournaments start in March. I will post pictures when it actually starts but Luke was so excited to try on the "singlet" and I had just to take some pictures.

Thanks for all the comments on the new look. I'm still not 100% sure that I will stick with this one so keep an eye out for some more changes.

Have a wonderful Wednesday!!

Our new family toy….

I realized today that I didn’t tell you about our new toy. For Jacob’s birthday we decided to get a new basketball hoop. It’s so fun to have. With four kids, three of which are boys, we know that it will get a lot of use in the next few years. I have to admit, even I have enjoyed it some and Ben has really enjoyed it. Here are some pictures that we took the first night that we had it. As you can tell…all of the kids were getting into it.

Who knew Sarah could dunk huh?

My first official run!!

So today I did something that I never thought I would ever be able to do....I ran a race!! Bloomsday is a race here in Spokane that is the biggest timed road race in the US if not the world. It is a total of 7.46 miles (12K) and that's a really long way to run. I was pretty sure that I would walk at least half of it but guess what? I RAN the whole way!!! Now my run was pretty slow but I still ran it. My sister-in-law Crystal came over and ran it with me. She a tough chick and pushed me, I mean encouraged me the whole way. We don't know our official time but we think we did it in about 1 hour and 20 min, maybe 30 min. They will post the results tomorrow probably. I am very very sore tonight but so excited that I did it. I will be running more and maybe I will work my way up to a half marathon. Here's a few pics of us before the race. I will let you know the official time when I find out. I just had to tell you all about my experience.

Jacob Abshire.....Basketball Great!!

Well here it is, the basketball post that Grandma has so anxiously been awaiting. Jacob had his first basketball game last Saturday (the 10th). Practices started in November but with the weather we've been having he had 2 practices canceled and then a 2 week break through Christmas. So these kids only had 3 practices together before their first game. Add that to the fact that they are all in first grade and most of them have never played the game before, it was very interesting and fun to watch. There was so much confusion when they started playing but Jacob is having a blast and that's what matters! He is playing through an organization called Upward. When we signed him up we thought about doing it through the YMCA but I'm glad we chose Upward. It is a Christian run program and they really focus on learning the game not really who's winning at this point. For now, it's what we want for Jacob. So, here are a few pictures from the game. I need to apologize for the pictures though. My camera did not perform like it should have. Maybe we need to get a new camera huh? My birthday is a short 5 1/2 months away (hint hint) :) Anyway, this is about Jacob not a new camera.....as I was saying some of the pictures are a little dark so I'm sorry about that.


This first one is in the "locker room" (aka Sunday school room) before the game started. They all meet in there to mentally prepare for the game As you can tell, Jacob is very focused on game time....

It's pretty cool, they have a little tunnel that the kids get to run through as their name is called. Jacob is right behind #24 there.

My friend Jill came to watch his game with us. I didn't tell him that she was coming and this was his reaction when he saw her.Here they all are, praying before they start the game.

I thought this was pretty funny. Jacob didn't start in the first game so he was sitting on the "bench" between the coaches. Looks like he was learning the plays!

Here he is getting some instruction on where to stand. There's so much to this game! I'm not sure what he was doing in this picture but I thought it was a good one of him. Look how skinny he is. Ok, last but not least, here's a video. Now I feel the need to remind you that they are first graders, 6 or 7 years old. The other thing that I need to tell you is that Ben is not the coach but you will hear him because the real coach doesn't say much. Jacob really had NO IDEA where he was supposed to be. It was so much fun and I can't for next Saturday and his next game. I'm sure in about 5 years I will be exhausted from all the different sports that my kids will be playing but for now, with just one playing, I can sit back and enjoy watching my son "play" basketball. Enjoy the video and feel free to laugh along with me!