Baptism

Nathan was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on Oct 8th. We were so lucky to have so many family members come into town for the big evens: Charity and her 4 kids, Brittney and her 4 kids, Corbin, Grandpa and Grandma Dick and Grandpa and Grandma Sorensen. The program went as follows: Conducting: Bishop Shawn Pearce Chorister: Andrea Sorensen Pianist: Charity Brooks Opening Song: My Body is a Temple Opening Prayer: Rick Sorensen Talk on Baptism: Grandma Dick Baptism of Nathan by his dad, Sean Dick Musical Number: When I Am Baptized sung by Ben and Megan Dick Talk on The Holy Ghost: Caelan Dick Confirmation of Nathan by his dad, Sean Dick Welcome by Primary: Amber Pearce Welcome to the Ward: Bishop Shawn Pearce Closing Song: I Love to See the Temple Closing Prayer: Mike Dick We had root beer floats for a treat. Then we went home and had smoked brisket and the fixings. He has been so excited for this day, and he was so happy to have so many family and friends there to share it with him.

Balloon Fiesta

While family was here for Nathan's baptism we wanted to let them experience the ABQ Balloon Fiesta which was going on the same week they were all here. We got up early Saturday morning and headed into town. After waiting in long car lines for a while we decided to just park on a side street and walk the rest of the way. We got there and the kids wandered around. We waited and waited and waited. No balloons. It was a bit overcast and so they weren't getting the green light to launch. Finally (just when we thought they were going to cancel the launch for the morning) the clouds lifted just enough to get the green light. It was so late by this time, however, and there still was some cloud coverage, so only about 40-50 balloons actually went up. All the visitors still were impressed. We were bummed out because for a good Mass Ascension there will be close to 500 balloons that go up. But we made the best of it and started back to the car. It started to sprinkle as we walked back and once we got to our cars the skies opened and it poured and thundering and lightning shot across the sky. It was awesome. We had to hurry because we had to rush to 3 soccer games. Good thing we left when we did.

Score Another Goal

Nathan is playing soccer again. His coach last season (also a good friend of ours) recommended that we request to have Nathan play up an age group. When it came time for registration I decided to keep him at his own age group. I thought it would be nice to have him be a strong player with some of these younger kids, and also then I could ref a U8 team (as opposed to a U10 team). He has been playing like a champ all season. He won the first game, but have had mostly losses since then, but not because of Nathan. He is definitely the highest scorer in the game. In fact during one game they were up by one and then during the 3rd quarter when he had to sit out (all the kids have to take a turn usually once each game) they fell behind by 4 goals. He tried hard, but just could not make up those goals during the 4th quarter. During another game they did fall behind during the second quarter (by 4 again - Nathan was sitting out), but they came back with a vengeance in the 3rd quarter and were tied again. Nathan had to sit the 4th quarter (every so often they have to sit twice depending on if every kid is there, and our coaches set up line up far before the game happens). Those boys played so hard, Nathan was screaming his head off from the side lines and we ended the game in a tie. We were satisfied with that!

Cub Scouts

One of the most exciting part about Nathan turning 8 years old was that now he could go to Cub Scouts. He has been looking forward to starting Cub Scouts for months. In fact for the past several months he has been begging me each Tuesday to stay at the church after we drop off the other kids for their activities so that he can hang out there with friends. On the days we aren't staying he begs me to leave him there with Ben. At the beginning of September we were finally at count down time - "only 4 more Tuesdays until you get to go to Scouts on your own," "only 3 more weeks and then you'll be a Cub Scout," etc. It was almost a dream come true his first day. And he ended up being the only Wolf there because there is only one other boy that is 8 (he has 2 friends moving up soon in a couple months)and he only makes it about 1/4 of the time. Bro. Valenzuela and Bro. Clements are his leaders.

Happy 8th Birthday

Poor Nathan - we were right in the chaos of moving when his birthday came around, and even though it was on a Sunday we were in a serious time crunch and still had to do a few things at the new house to get it ready for the carpet guys to install carpet the next day. We made it home at 8 that night and made time for cake and ice cream. Nathan chose a BB8 cake, which was fairly easy to put together, and he was happy with the results. We had pizza for dinner (also easy - thank heavens). He got sung to in Primary and got to get a treat from the Bishop's office, so all in all it ended up being a nice day.

2nd Grader

School is back in session. Nathan started second grade with Ms. Droege. She is an excellent teacher so we were thrilled when we found out he was in her class. He was up bright and early on the first day ready to start the school year right.

New House - Here We Come

We moved! We bought a house just 5 miles from where we were living - still in Edgewood. It was a foreclosure and we actually weren't really even looking yet when it popped on the market. After 5 months and all sorts of hoops to jump through and issues to resolve we closed! (Huge sigh) We won't move for another month or so because we are having the roof replaced and new carpet put in. Plus we need to fix some of the plaster walls and lay some floors (all the bathrooms had carpet - yuck), so there is definitely some work in our future, but we are all super excited. It is 4300 square feet, 5 bedrooms, 3 baths plus an office, a huge kitchen (recently remodeled) on almost 10 acres of land. It is an older house so there is some updating to do, but there is also all sorts of character - huge beams across the ceilings, thick adobe walls, 3 kiva fireplaces and a monster-daddy wood stove. There are stables in the back and fire pit on the side yard. It is awesome! We can't wait to get busy on it. Since we are waiting to do house stuff until the roof gets done we borrowed a friend's ride-on mower to cut down years of weed growth. The kids took turns doing their share of the mowing.

City Swim Meet

Nathan qualified for the City Swim Meet in every event except for the 50 free. He swam great the day of the race. He didn't place in any of them but considering he has one more year in this age group I see good things for him next year. He also played water polo. He is a power house through the water in his swim races, so I thought that would transfer over and he's be a super aggressive water polo player, but he really wasn't. He would definitely go after the ball when it got close and he enjoyed the game, but he didn't have as much drive and competitive spirit as he does in some of the other sports he plays. But he had a good season overall.

A Little Fish

We're back at the swim team thing for the summer. Nathan is still on the 8 and Under team and is doing awesome. He has been getting first and second place ribbons left and right. He really wanted a pair of jammers (the tight swim shorts) like Ben has, but we told him he can get those when he real serious about swimming. We said when he wins a first place we'll get them for him. Well, I think it was his first meet and he won first place in either the short free or the butterfly. He didn't waste any time wanting me to take him to the store to pick out his jammers. He chose a pair that are black with green stripes down the side. He's pretty excited about them. There is another really good swimmer in his age group, so most of the time he comes in second behind that boy, but he is really becoming a great swimmer.

Smartie Pants

Nathan finished out the year again with straight As. Actually he got straight As on every report card through the entire year. He is a great student and his teachers just love him.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Here's our baseball back at it again. He's has the same coaches as last year (which we were pretty happy about - they are great)! He's been doing pretty well. He usually plays at least a few innings at the catcher. He doesn't catch all the balls, but he gets some good stops in there, plus he is one of the few kids that will stay down in the squatting position. During one game we went through at least 3 different catchers after Nathan, and then they put him back in. Nathan watched a couple of his friends do this thing where they swing and then let go of the bat with one hand. He thought it looked cool so he wanted to try it out. After a couple of games and more strike outs than he has had all season we talked to him about maybe reconsidering this new swing style. He didn't connect that it was perhaps the reason he wasn't hitting as well. Sean talked to him about having more power and control when he holds onto the bat for the full follow through. The next game we told him to hang on. The first time he was up he got a pitch and let go of the bat in the follow through. He immediately looked around to see if we were there (he had forgotten to hold on). The next pitch he hung on and hit. All the other times he was up to bat he hit the ball. He agreed that style wasn't for him. He's a pretty consistent hitter and he really has fun with the game. It's fun to watch him.

Family Day Trip

It hasn't been a very cold winter. After we went skiing near Los Alamos we've wanted to come back and check out Bandelier National Monument. So we did. We did some hiking - the kids were troopers. There were a few great hikes where we got to climb into cave formations and up huge ladders. We even caught sight of a couple of deer during our hike.

Great Grandparents

We took a quick trip to Arizona. Dad and I had a concert we got tickets for (a favorite little band Sean was introduced to in college). Unfortunately he had been thinking the concert was on Monday....it was really on Tuesday, so we ended up missing it because we had to head back home. But, we did get to spend some time with Grandma and Grandma Dick and Great Grammy Dick and Great Grandpa Anderson. And it's always nice to visit Arizona in the winter because it's so warm compared to home. Ben and Nathan both took a dare to jump in the pool. They pretty much jumped in, gasped and then jumped out!

Skiing Down the Mountain

The only person in our family who has ever gone snowboarding or skiing is Dad, so we decided it was high time we take some of the others to learn how. We decided on Pajarito Resort outside of Los Alamos - we could get a 2 hour lesson with a ski lift for just a little more than the cheapest lift ticket other places (and we thought some instruction from professionals would help us out). Dad watched the littlest three in the car and in the lodge while we did our lesson: Ben, Nathan and I skiied and Caelan and Megan snowboarded. Since most of the people in the lessons were kids, they put me with someone separate (pretty much a one-on-one lesson). After the two hours we practiced a little on the bunny hill and then met in the lodge for some lunch. At this point I was going to switch with Sean and he was going to board the mountain and I was going to watch the kiddos. He told me to just go ahead and keep skiing - I'd get the hang of it better if I could keep practicing for the day. As were eating and talking in the lodge Nathan said he was ready to go up the lift (none of us had gone up yet). I told him maybe he should practice a little more or go up with someone else. We all went back out and continued our bunny slope practice. I decided I was about ready to go up the lift and convinced Ben to go with me. As we were riding the lift up I looked down and noticed Nathan skiing down the hill - he had gone up the lift himself and was making his way down the mountain. He didn't even look nervous. As the day went on Ben and I got a little more comfortable going down and Nathan would just zoom right by us. He absolutely loved it. The girls spent a lot of time on their rear ends - I hear that's the way it is the first day of snowboarding. With about an hour left Megan decided she wanted to switch and try skiing. It only took about 15 minutes before she wanted to switch back, but I told her to just power through for the next half hour. It was a great day!

Teeth Pulling and Snow Camping

Dad let Nathan tag along to the scout Klondike camp out with him. He's had a loose tooth that is really close to coming out. Brother Hilbun (a member of our Bishopric) saw his fiddling with his tooth and told him that if Nathan let him pull the tooth out he would give him $3. Nathan kind of shrugged it off and continued to work on it himself. Bro. Hilbun saw him later and repeated the offer. He told him he was an expert at pulling out teeth (and pulled out his pliers). Nathan still couldn't let him do it. At this point everyone was packing up to head out, so Dad and Ben started walking towards the car, and Dad noticed that Nathan was kind of pouting and hanging back. Dad asked what the deal was, and Nathan said he wanted Bro. Hilbun to pull out his tooth. So Dad told him to run back and let him do it. He did. He ran back, Bro. Hilbun pulled out the pliers and with one yank that tooth was out. He told Nathan to find him at church the next day for his money. Of course, as soon as we got to church Sunday morning Nathan ran up to Bro. Hilbun and collected his $3. And now he had one fewer teeth in his smile.

Pinewood Derby

It's Pinewood Derby time, and even though Nathan isn't a cub scout yet he still wanted to help out. He went out into the garage with Ben and Dad to supervise the cutting and sanding. Dad eventually found a piece of wood that Nathan could use to practice cutting. It is going to be a dream come true for this boy next year when he gets to compete in the race himself.

New Year's Eve

Look who made it all the way to midnight! Dad fell asleep at about 11:40 and woke up for a quick minute at the stroke of 12. we played games, did a puzzle, ate lots of junk food, watched a movie and enjoyed the night together just our little clan.