Today it is OFFICIAL

 Today, Garrett had his Eagle Scout Board of Review.  Russ and I were asked to introduce him as an Eagle candidate and tell a little about him.  We, of course, had wonderful things to say about him.  Then we were asked to leave and Garrett was interviewed by Mark and Karen Gubler and Ron Jensen.  He was in the room with them for about 15-20 minutes.  He was then asked to step out of the room.  After just a couple of  minutes they asked all of us to come back into the room.  Sis. Gubler asked Garrett if he thought the number 13 was unlucky.  She said that it was going to be a lucky number for him now because on 1/13/13 he became an Eagle Scout.   Yippee!  We are so excited.  He is all smiles, and so are his parents. Russ finally got to scratch this off of his To Do List... I think it has been on there for 2 years.

In other news, this weekend was very fun for our family.  We were asked to house a couple of the players from the BYU Rugby team Friday night.  They had a tournament down in Mesquite, NV.  About 8:00 pm we went to pick up our two players.  I told the coach my name and he said, "Oh, you've got those two crazy guys over there."  The one player stands up and yells "Mom" and comes over and gives me a huge hug.  The whole team starts laughing and wishing me good luck.  I was a little nervous.  But, there was no reason to be.  They were awesome.  We had Jordan, from New Zealand and Noke (pronounced No kay) or "Nokes", as his teammates called him, from Tonga.  They were so much fun.  They had super strong accents and were sometimes hard to understand.  For instance, Jordan said he wanted to shoot a beer.  We later realized he was saying bear.  He wanted to go hunting and shoot a bear.  They were super polite, made their beds in the morning, and ate a ton of food.  Noke could put the food down.  Garrett has finally found his match!!!  On Saturday, we drove down to Mesquite and watched their games.  It was freezing cold, but so fun to be there.  We learned a lot about Rugby (since we knew nothing before going down there) and had fun watching "our boys" play the brutal sport.   

 Jordan

 Noke or "Nokes"

 The Scrum

 This is the inbound procedure

 We loved having them and hope they get to stay with us again when they come back down in a few weeks.

De-Braced, Braced, and Re-Braced

For the past 5 years I have been making monthly trips to the orthodontist.  Garrett started in braces 5 years ago.  

The day he got his 1st phase of braces off, Grant got his first phase put on. 

Then 2 years later, Grant got his 1st phase of braces off, the same day Garrett got his 2nd phase put on.

Well, it has been another 2 years.  Garrett FINALLY has beautiful, straight teeth.  The day his braces were removed, Gracie began phase 1 and Grant began phase 2.

De-Braced

Braced

 Re-Braced

  Honestly, I don't see an end in sight any time soon.  However, Garrett's teeth look so nice that it is worth every penny we are spending (I am pretty sure we have paid for our orthodontist's home by now).  I also don't mind giving up one Friday every month for the next 5 years for appointments.

Christmas Concert

This year Grant decided to take an orchestra class at school.  One of the ladies in our ward is the teacher and Grant was excited to be in her class.  There were four instruments Grant could choose from a viola, a violin, a cello, or a bass.  My little Grant chose to play the bass.  It is enormous and bigger than him.  It doesn't even fit in my car.  Luckily, his teacher lives across the street from us and drives a van.  She is very sweet to bring his bass home on Friday and back to school on Monday morning.  We are so appreciative of her and her sweet attitude toward doing it.  Grant loves his orchestra class and was happy to play in his concert.  He did great and looked so cute while he played.

Fall Festivities

We are alive and well.  I have been having some computer problems lately and have fell out of the blogging world.  Some day this will become easier for me.  Anyway, Russ worked on my computer tonight and fixed the biggest problem.  So, I thought I would hurry and post some pictures of a few activities that we have been involved in this fall.

First, was our annual ward activity: THE PUMPKIN DERBY and CHILI COOK-OFF.   This is such a fun activity that our neighbors look forward to every year.  Families build all kinds of contraptions to race pumpkins down a big hill.  This year, Garrett and two of his buddies took apart our old jogger stroller and built a platform and attached it to the big wheels of the stroller.  They worked on it everyday for a week.  It was fun to watch them use their wood shop skills and have so much fun together.  Here are some pictures from the start line.  You can see all of the different ideas.

Then, Gracie finished soccer season.  This year she loved it and is anxious to play again in the spring.  Here are a few funny photos from one of her last games.

Yeah, well we have until spring to work on her form and develop some skills.  She was sure cute though and was able to learn a little Spanish while playing.  Rapido Gracie.  No manos Gracie.    

Next, some friends and I ran the Color Me Rad race.  Unfortunately, it was freezing cold and I had NO white warm clothing.  I was unwilling to sacrifice my body warmth to get into the spirit of the race.  But, I had a great time hanging out with some of my running buddies and some new friends.

Next, we had some yard clean-up projects that turned into a little leaf jumping fun.

Finally, we had a court of honor and Grant received a handful of merit badges and a rank advancement.  He is a Star Scout and actually has been for about 5 months, but just recently received his award.  Along with Grant's progress, I am happy to report that Garrett has officially completed all of his Eagle Scout paper work and turned it in to the council.  He will have his Eagle board of review the 2nd Sunday in January.  We are one month away from that boy finally being done with this project.  Hallelujah!

And there you have it.  Short and sweet.

Student of the Month

This morning Gracie handed me a crumpled up piece of paper from her backpack.  She said, "Oh- I forgot to give this to you."  It was an invitation to her school awards assembly.  The assembly was today at 2:30.  It wasn't much notice, but at the last second I was able to get off of work in time to be there.  Yay for a good boss who realizes that stuff like this is important.  Anyway, Gracie was given the Student of the Month award.  Each month they will spotlight a student that represents a value.  This month the value was being a Peacemaker.  Unfortunately, I did not get a very good picture of her with her award because she was being very embarrassed and silly.  Oh well, I tried.

The next chapter...

I am not sure where time goes, or how things can change so quickly.  Just a couple of weeks ago I was feeling sad for our "Little Lou" because she was following her brothers to all of their sporting events.  She really didn't have a sport or activity that she was into yet.  Well, she has now become my busiest child.  She has gymnastics 3 days each week and soccer 2 days each week.  She also has activity days, school, and a social life that fills in any spare second she may have.  

This weekend Gracie had her first gymnastics competition.  She was nervous, but I think her mom was way more nervous than she was.  She did well.  It was certainly a good learning experience for all of us.  We really did not know what to expect going into the competition.  Now we are more prepared and are excited to watch her progress over the next few years.

Here are some of the highlights from her competition...

Gracie also had her first soccer game this Saturday.  She is very excited to play.  They won their first game and she couldn't be happier.  Here are a few photos my mom took of the day...

The Eagle has landed...

Today is a happy day in the Hyde home.  Garrett completed his Eagle Project!  This has been a long time coming.  He came up with two different projects, that the city so kindly completed before he could get them approved.  Then he finally was able to get his 3rd idea approved by the city and had all of his paperwork completed, just as the Eagle Project coordinator/leader/adviser/whatever was released of her duties.  We then had to wait for the next person to get trained in the position... which took another 3 months.  It was then in the middle of Garrett's baseball season where we are gone, traveling every weekend.  When baseball season ended, our cement guy was on vacation.  Finally, the stars all aligned and we were able to begin his project last weekend and finish it today.  We are so excited.

The Eagle Project:

Convert this area into a recreational campsite

These are the cement pouring photos taken last Saturday

We had to let the cement dry for 1 week before we could install the picnic tables.  So, today we rounded up some wonderful family members, scouts, and YM leaders from our ward to finish up the project.  We put together 2 picnic tables, drilled holes in the cement, placed anchor bolts and secured the tables to the cement slabs.  We also spread gravel around the area to level the site.  We need to go back one more time and clean the site up a little bit before we present it to Washington City.  

Here are the photos of today

Many thanks to those who came and helped us with Garrett's project this morning.  The work went quick and easy and we are so grateful to all of you.  

We are so proud of Garrett for accomplishing this great goal.  It has not been easy with all of his other activities.  He is one busy boy.  But, he persisted.  He did a little each week.  And now, he is done.  Hooray!