Blake and Jocelyn at Soccer Camp

Blake and Jocelyn had a great experience and good exercise at soccer camp last week. We were blessed that the heat wave of the previous week let up and the kids were able to run around in cool, cloudy mornings. The camp was held at Tustin High School from 9-12 each morning. Boyd came to watch the children's practices during his lunch hour.

Here's Jocelyn with the soccer coach Luis Cruz...


Jocelyn practicing a foot manuever on the ball.




Blake practicing his ball-handling manuevers....

Happy Soccer-playing Blake!





Happy Soccer-playing Jocelyn!

Blake's 1st Grade Year

Blake was in Mrs. Denene Barrone's 1st/2nd grade combo GATE class. He had a terrific year. Mrs. Barrone was incredibly patient and supportive of him, even when he was having a tough day and when he started to exhibit nervous ticks. She simply encouraged him to be happy, keep working hard and do his very best. He enjoyed the children in his class and got along well with everyone. I loved that his class was a wonderful blend of many nationalities and cultures. The children shared their heritage in many ways -- delicious foods, fun traditions, and great presentations. The parents were great to work with and supported every class activity. Mrs. Barrone even commented that she had never had as much parental support as she did this year. It showed in how successful the class was. The 2nd graders excelled in their writing, science and ancestry projects, and the 1st graders excelled in their writing, math, reading comprehension, and rainforest projects. The 1st graders did so well that they finished their math requirements early, which had never been done before. As a delightful culmination to the year, during the last week of school, the class practiced and performed the cute musical "Jack and the Beanstalk". Blake played one of the farmers who buys Jack's cow with the magic beans. I pray that Blake's 2nd grade year is as wonderful as his 1st grade year was. He truly thrived!


Blake and his dear 1st grade teacher Mrs. Barrone. Mrs. Barrone has also taught Mark and Jocelyn in 1st grade, so she is very special to our family.

Blake with his Spider Monkey rainforest project. He worked very hard on this project. He also enjoyed completing the Sloth and "When the Monkeys Came Back" writing and art projects in class. His mother helped his class work on these projects many, many days.


Blake's class performing Jack and the Beanstalk. The three girls in the center (Alyssa Howie, Sydney Hom, and Crystal Millar) were the three gold eggs!


Blake and Ahkilan playing the farmers in the Jack and Beanstalk play.

In May we had great fun with Marc, Cindy and Shannon Taylor when they came to Disneyland for a week. Blake insisted that Wendy go on the rapids ride and she got totally soaked (but so did everyone else, despite wearing jackets!)


Seismic proof of the Blake-quake....I remember this time well because I was laying in the recovery room following my late night C-section when the earthquake hit. I bolted straight up in bed when the room and bed began shaking. I said, "What is that!!??" and the attending nurse said, "We're having an earthquake." Welcome to the world Blake! It must be happy you are here to give you a rumbling welcome!

The Blake-quake!! We toured the L.A. Science Museum during spring break in April. Jocelyn found the seismic recordings of the earthquake that centered in Yorba Linda the night Blake was born in 2002. We were all so excited to have Blake pose in front of proof of his earthquake!

Blake and Brent running the annual TMA jog-a-thon to earn a free Jamba Juice smoothie. Blake and Brent will do anything for a smoothie (even compete for the finish line!)

Blake ran 10 full laps!

Blake is one fierce tetherball player...he hates to lose! His proudest accomplishment was being voted "Best at Tetherball" by his class. Go Blake!

Blake's 7th Birthday - September 2, 2009

Happy Birthday Blake! Blake with Mark, Jocelyn, Brent and Clayton Brooks

Birthday cupcakes for Blake at his classroom


Happy Birthday Blake! We went to Disneyland for the afternoon...it was 100 degrees outside! HOT!

Do-Re-Mi

Blake smiling because he is learning to sing, play baseball better, and learning to shoots baskets in a full-height basketball standard.

This summer Blake is taking a Saturday morning Beginning Voice class for 1st and 2nd graders. It is offered by the Orange County Performing Arts Guild. He is especially happy because his friend Maiya Bosworth is also in the class. She is in his CTR 7 Primary class. Her younger brother Connor is in Brent's Sunbeams class. Maiya is the pretty blonde on the right.

Blake with his Voice teacher.

Blake's class began on July 4th with the children learning the basic notes for singing "Do-Re-Mi". Then on Saturday, July 11th, they actually learned the Sound of Music song! Blake was shocked when his Daddy could sing the whole song by heart, too!
Doe a deer, a female deer

Rae - a drop of golden sun,

Me - a name I call myself,

Fa - a long, long way to run!

Sew - a needle pulling thread

La - a note to follow So

Ti - a drink with jam and bread

That will bring us back to Do, do, do!

Perfect Weather in California!

Best Big Brother in the world!! Mark made a great soccer game for his little brothers and was sweet enough to let them play all the positions and kick numerous goals on him! Now that's great sportsmanship!

Blake and Brent playing soccer together. Blake gave Brent his Orange Flames uniform from his U-6 soccer season (Fall 2007). Both boys love to dress up in their soccer clothes and play a rough-and-tumble game of tackle-soccer at the park!

Blake enjoyed a three-day baseball camp this week. Here he is getting ready to (miss) catching a flyball to the field. Fortunately, the weather was in the 70's each day during the camp! Then he'd come home and have us watch the Angels games each night on t.v. He really loves baseball and understands the game very well (much better than his mother). His enthusiasm for MLB has actually taken the "boring" out of televised baseball and made it a lot more fun for all of us to watch...we actually stay up through the final pitch of the 9th inning!

I caught Blake reading his Curious George books cover-to-cover. What a delight to find your son happily reading to himself and his favorite dinosaurs!

Swimming at Holly Robertson's pool....Brent and Juliet Gordon lounging in the kiddie pool.

The Gordon, Robertson and Hill kids helping Wendy blow out the candles on a birthday cake at a fun BBQ at the Robertsons' pool. It was a perfect summer night!

Having a great summer (even in the birthday numbers are lousy)!!

Night at the Baseball Stadium - July 3, 2009

Tonight we enjoyed a fun baseball game at Angels Stadium - the Angels vs. Baltimore Orioles. The Angels lost to the Orioles 6-4 and went through almost all of their pitchers. We got to watch the pitchers from both teams warming up because our seats were behind the bullpens. I was amazed at how Fuentes (Angels pitcher) threw left-handed from the side of his body (not the traditional over-the-shoulder wind-up.) Instead, he seemed to toss the ball to the pitcher! Both teams had trouble with their pitchers - we saw a lot of Dirt Balls being pitched (something we see for FREE all during Spring Little League!).

Jocelyn, Blake & Brent in front of the Big A water fountain behind center field. From this part of the stadium, fireworks are shot off during the Star Spangled Banner, whenever the Angels score a run, or whenever a homerun is hit. My kids just like to climb on the wall and see if they can fall in!

Here are the Orioles in the field while an Angels player runs to 1st base. At the end of the game, we saw a fantastic patriotic fireworks display while music played on the speakers.

Blake wore his little league uniform since his team was the Angels. He even brought his glove along hoping to catch a homerun ball (not a lot of ball action tonight).

Now for a B-Boys brotherly love update:

Blake enjoys his pizza lunchables while Brent pleads with all the energy and tears he has to have "just one bite!" and "please, Blake, please share!". Blake refuses Brent's heartfelt petition and enjoys every last drip of pizza sauce and shredded cheese while Brent wails in agony of soul. (What Brent refused to remember was that he had eaten his pizza lunchable one hour earlier and refused to share with Blake, so what goes around, comes around!) But this proves once again that no one can torture you more than your own brother....

Doesn't this face DESERVE a pizza lunchable???

Nothing like brotherly love in its rawest form!

Blake's Baby Photos

Welcome home baby Blake! Mark is almost 3 1/2 years old, and Jocelyn is 21 months old (sniffing her na-nat).

Blake's club feet condition. This photo was taken 24 hours after his birth to show how turned in his feet were born. He began casting when he was just 2 days old!
Blake during one of his casting sessions with the pediatric orthopaedist. Boyd had to wrestle him to hold him still during each corrective session. He was so strong that Boyd would break a sweat!

Baby Blake at just 1 month old. Notice how dark his hair was when he was born! The dark hair grew out and was replaced by blonde hair!

The first smile of baby Blake! He rarely smiled his first year due to the pains he suffered with his club feet and his severe eczema. I was so excited to see him smile up at me. He is 2 months old here!