Overnight Fishing Trip

Bryson had the opportunity to go on an overnight fishing adventure in Galveston with his deacon's quorum. I'm so grateful for fun leaders who go above and beyond in planning fun activities!

 

Bryson caught the biggest fish!

Snow Day!

It's a rare thing to get snow in southern Texas, and this is the most snow I've seen here in the last 30+ years I've lived here! The boys enjoyed playing and sledding and making a snowman, even though we don't have good snow gear for any of those things. Everything shuts down here for snow and ice, so it was a fun family day in the middle of the week.

Christmas

The Christmas season has included me participating in the Stake Noel choir. I spent years as part of the choir, but lately I have been 1 of 3 accompanists each year.

Austin's school Christmas party

Cousin gifts on Christmas Eve

Opening presents Christmas morning

Caleb and his presents

Bryson's presents

Documentation of our Christmas tree this year--a lonely branch. Perhaps traveling over Thanksgiving played into it, but each week went by without Matt putting up the tree. (It's always been something he does, and I didn't undertake doing it myself!) As we got closer to Christmas, it seemed like too much work to set it up only to take it down a few weeks later.

Our main experience gift for the kids was some indoor skydiving at iFly. Our package deal only included 5 people, so I sat this one out and took pictures and cheered them on. Austin was especially nervous.

Austin

Carter

Caleb

Bryson

Fall Baseball

We have had a frustrating battle with the last few seasons of baseball with the same coach who kept drafting Bryson. Bryson played 4 or 5 seasons with him, and we really liked him at first, but then Bryson spent last fall (2023) season batting last the entire season. We felt it was unwarranted; Bryson was middle-of-the-pack with his batting average. Bryson got up the courage to ask the coach why one time, and the coach said he needed a strong batter at the end of the lineup. He only ever played Bryson in centerfield. We used it as an opportunity to encourage Bryson to prove himself at every practice and every game with positivity and hard work.

Prior to the spring 2024 season of baseball after the coach drafted Bryson again, I emailed him and asked if it was possible to bat Bryson anywhere other than last. I have never tried to tell a coach what to do or how to coach, but I felt like this was a special circumstance since Bryson was going through therapy at that time developing tools to deal with anger and some depression. I told the coach that Bryson's self esteem really struggled the previous season because no matter how hard he worked or how well he batted, he was still last in the lineup. The coach thanked me for the email...and then continued to bat Bryson last! That season, Bryson had the 3rd highest batting average on the team.

After that experience, Matt took matters in his own hands and coached Bryson for the fall of 2024 so that coach couldn't draft him again. Bryson batted 1st or 2nd in the lineup all season, and mostly played shortstop. It was amazing the difference that made to have a coach believe in him, and it showed in Bryson's playing. He was so confident batting or on the field and his stats improved even more. Matt even gave him the opportunity to pitch a few times.

Austin had a great season as well and improved a lot. It was his first time making a AAA team (higher level), so he had to work really hard to keep up with the other kids. The main thing was that they could mostly all throw harder than him. His team got 2nd place in the play-offs. His team had a commanding lead in the championship game, but then we ran out of our good pitchers and ended up walking in runs allowing the other team to win. :(

Matt led Bryson's team to a victory in the championship game.

Destin Vacation

My family reunion was in Destin this year. We spent days at the beach, saw Wicked, played games/hung out at the house, played pickleball, and celebrated Thanksgiving. My kids also parasailed for the first time!

Carter and Matt did a deep sea fishing excursion

Kara generously took some family sunset pictures on the beach.