Upward Basketball

In the beginning of January Casey began his "career" in basketball through a program called Upward at our church.  Upward basketball helps kids discover and build athletic skills, values, self-confidence and a love of the game!

Matt volunteers his time to coach Casey and 9 other boys.  They have practice for one hour on Monday evenings and they play games on Saturdays.  

It has been a very positive experience for Casey.  Each practice and game he gets a little bit better and gains a bit more confidence.  

After each game the coach gives out stars that the kids iron on to their uniform.  The awards are for best offense, best defense, sportsmanship, effort, and being Christ like.  This past weekend Casey earned the best defense award at his game.  He did a great job staying on his guy and trying to get rebounds.  He was super excited about this achievement.  

Star Spangled Banner

Add caption

Listening as he finds out which award he has earned.

Casey's memory verse for the week:

Everyone should be quick to listen.  But they should be slow to speak.  They should be slow to get angry.  -James 1:19b

Christmas morning

I was awoken Christmas morning at 7:00 am by a very excited Casey who said "Merry Christmas Mom!" about 2 inches from my face.  He ran downstairs to check out what Santa had brought.  Of course he had stuffed our stockings with gifts and goodies.   

Joshua joined us a few moments later with his smiling face.  

He is very much a morning person.  

Caleb decided to sleep in on Christmas morning.  In fact, he didn't get up until 8:45am.  Casey learned a lesson in patience!  We did let him open one gift while waiting and stalled him by building a Lego set he had gotten the night before.

Before opening presents Matt read us the Christmas Story straight out of the Bible.  It was a great way for us to focus on the true meaning of Christmas before diving into the gifts.  

 The boys were just as excited about giving as they were about receiving this year.  It was so much fun to watch their cute little faces as they ripped open the paper and studied their treasures.  

Casey picked out special trains for each of his brothers.  He could hardly wait for them to open them.

Happy birthday Jesus!

Celebrate with family

The boys are very blessed to have so many grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins that love them so much.  Christmas is the perfect time to share their joy with those loved ones.  

We started the celebrations at Aunt Tracey's house a few days early.  We got to share gifts and eat mouth watering ribs prepared by grandpa Lew.  After spending some quality time we attended Riverglen Church for an early Christmas Eve service.  

It was a great day filled with many fun memories.  

This year we weren't able to see grandpa and grandma Buntrock in person, but we did get a chance to Skype with them.  Each year they have generously given us money to pick out special gifts for the boys. We usually purchase what the boys wanted from Santa with this money.  Who needs Santa when you have grandpa and grandma Buntrock anyways!  Casey got some really cool space Lego sets, Caleb got a Duplo Lego train and Joshua got a kitchen and shopping cart.  They really enjoyed playing with these Christmas Eve morning.

 On Christmas Eve we got to celebrate with Uncle Andy and Aunt Christina in the morning.  We swapped our homemade gifts and enjoyed some time together.  Later that day the Reed clan and grandma Karen joined us for Casey and Caleb's Christmas performance at Mount Calvary.  Of course there were gifts and Jesus' birthday cake afterward!

Shouldn't have waited until the end of the night to take the group photo.

Christmas day we headed over the Nana and Buppa's house to celebrate with cousins.  The boys love playing with Dylan and Summer.  It is always so great to catch up with family and play in Nana and Buppa's basement:)

Creativity

The holidays bring about creativity in the Buntrock house...

 

Cookies

 

Gifts for grandparents

TREATS

Ornaments

 Gifts from grandparents

Let it snow!

Having been born and raised in WI, I have been around snow my whole life.  I can remember playing in it when I was young, learning to drive in it as a teenager, and then learning to despise it when I became a home owner and had to shovel it. 

It wasn't until my boys came into the world that I really developed a new appreciation for the white, fluffy, fun stuff.  The boys absolutely love everything about it. 

The first day of snow this year brought about a new experience for Joshua.  He stared out the window with wonder in his eyes.  So I thought, why not go outside so he can experience it with all of his senses! 

Joshua wasn't sure what to think of it at first.

Caleb enjoyed catching snowflakes on his tongue.


Within a few days we had a snowman in the front yard and two boys who couldn't wait to go sledding. After a rehersal at school on a Saturday morning, the boys got to go sledding on Mount Calvary's huge hill. They had a blast!

So excited to have a white Christmas this year!

Fun find

The past couple of days I have been going through all of my photos since 2006.  Here are some fun pictures I found. 



Caleb the lion in 2008

Caleb the lion in 2012



Casey the lion and Caleb the monkey in 2009

Caleb the lion and Joshie the monkey in 2012

 

Caleb's big day

On Sunday the 3 and 4 year olds got to stand up in big church and sing.  Caleb didn't seem to care either way about it.  He wasn't excited or nervous.  He did great...I even saw his lips move! 

 

Since Caleb had to dress nice we decided all of us would dress nice in

 hopes of snapping a few photos.

Caleb age 4

Casey -almost 7

Joshua-21 months

Matt....well let's say he's no spring chicken

Love birds.  Married 9.5 years!