Batmantopia

Katie has a school project due tomorrow in Mr. Saltas' U.S. History class. Their assignment is, "Make your own colony".

Katie has spent the last few weeks working on it with three other classmates.

The first item on their agenda was to come up with a name. Katie, being the outspoken member of the group (and having a fascination with Batman), came up with Batmantopia.

The next item on the agenda was to come up with a founder. Katie quickly decided on Bruce Wayne.

This is how the story goes:

In 1650, a sailor named Bruce Wayne was on his way to South America when his ship was blown off course. They were shipwrecked on an island that was sunny and pleasant. When they dug into the soil they struck gold. (Imagine that.) Bruce Wayne was so happy that he claimed the land and called it Batmantopia.

I had Katie lay all the papers out on the counter so I could take a picture.



Courtney saw that we were taking pictures, so she had to get in on the action. (She is a very needy child.) Katie is not flipping her off, she is holding her fingers in the shape of an "L", which stands for "Courtney" -- I mean "loser".



This is my favorite ...money. On Batmantopia, their money is in the shape of the batman symbol. The caption at the top of the page says, "The bigger the batman symbol is, the larger amount it is worth."



Here is Katie holding up a picture of their weather. The caption at the top reads, "Climate is sunny, pleasant with average rain fall. The winters and summers are average length." (Once again, Courtney needs to be included.)



I love projects like this. I also love teachers that give the kids in their classrooms the opportunity to use their imagination. I hope Mr. Saltas is ready.

James

Courtney has a boyfriend.

She has had a boyfriend for a few months now. I guess I was hoping that it was just a phase that she was going through... It's not.

Isn't it illegal for a 15 1/2 year old girl to have a boyfriend? No? Well...it should be!

Not that I don't like James. He is very nice and handsome and very, very, very tall.





I just don't think I am ready for my Courts to grow up yet.

But if she is going to do it anyway, I don't think she could have picked a nicer guy.

The first time he came over he brought me flowers. He really is a sweetheart.



James is a sophmore (no... seriously, he is!) and plays varsity football and basketball. His parents are super-nice, too. In fact Courtney is with his mom right now at a "girls night out".

Hopefully having a boyfriend means that she will start keeping her room clean. I'm not sure how, but wouldn't it be cool.

Thanksgiving Weekend

This year we had Thanksgiving at my sister Michelle's house.





It was delicious. My mom makes the best stuffing in the whole world!

We didn't have a whole lot of time to visit because we had to leave for a soccer tournament in St. George



Emily getting hugs from Nana.



Sean and Ryan were able to squeeze in a little football watching.



This is my little sister Michelle and her family.



Here is my brother Steve and his family, the tall one is Landon. His older brother, Justin, is standing next to him with his girlfriend.



We had a few minutes to relax...



and then we hit the road.

We got rained on a little while driving down, but the next day the weather was beautiful and sunny. The girls played really well.





We went to a sports bar called "Players" for dinner Friday night. Here is Sean with his team.





Here is Tyler sitting on the sidelines. He kept bugging Pam by pretending to bite her ear. Everytime he did it, she would turn and try to bite his chin. She got him a few times.



Courtney's team ended up losing in the semi-finals, but Katie's team took second.





It's always a little crazy around the holidays and this makes it even more so, but I wouldn't change a thing. I love spending time with my kids and watching them play sports. I am thankful for every minute I have with them.