And so it begins .. tackle football that is.

Jackson seemed a little unsure whether he wanted to play tackle football.  He would say he wanted to and then the next time we talked about it he would say he wasn't sure.  And it's no cheap investment.  I need to be planning to budget for it this year!  That's how expensive it is!

In the end we got him registered and before I knew it practice was starting and that was no joke.  It was the middle of summer and he had practice 5 nights a week for two hours a night (minimum) for like 4 or 5 weeks straight.  I felt so bad.  I didn't realize what a huge investment of our time it would be.  And by "our" I mean the whole family revolved around football practice.  No more gym class.  Dinners were kind of a disaster.  Jeramie was at practice with him the whole time all week long.  In a word .. it pretty much sucked.  I'm also kind of used to Jackson being one of the taller kids.  But he played in the 8 and 9 year old division and he was BARELY 8 years old.  I believe he was the second to smallest on the team.  As a small player I expected him to play mainly offense, alas he predominantly played defense.  It was really fun watching him progress as the time went by.  He went from being a bit intimidated by the bigger kids to actually tackling some of them.

This year was a good year for Jackson overall.  I really saw him mature this year.  It was fun going from watching him run around randomly during flag football seasons to actually understanding and running real football plays this year.  Here are just a few of my favorite pictures from this season.

Jeramie said that they wouldn't fit his whole last name on his jersey and so he had to pick just one.  Of course he went with "Kramer".  I personally think they should have made more of an effort to fit the whole thing!  Especially since that's all they call him by at practice.

Boys ready.

Here he was going for a block.  It was successful.

I am confident that this will be my next football player.

Wyland isn't really interested.

It was also nice that he was on the same team as neighbor Jackson (aka Jackson B.).  It meant that we could occasionally carpool to practice and such.  They're good buddies.

He finished the season strong.  Had a great time and is already looking forward to playing again in 2015. I guess I had better start saving my money!  Jeramie is also talking about being an assistant coach which will be fun for him as well.  He played football in high school and I know he would love to coach Jackson.

Until next season.  GO JAGS!

Watch out Justin Bieber.

Oh Jackson. I don't even know what made him want to do Soaring Singers at school.  It meant he had to go before school at 7:30am every Friday.  Jeramie was a good sport about making two trips to school on Friday's.  I think we only missed one practice because we just plain forgot.  I'm surprised with the number of times Jackson was "sent to the principals office" this school year that they didn't kick him out.  He had fun though.

We went to the daytime performance that day because I had a trip to Chicago to go to.  It was fun seeing Wyland watching Jackson because he was just so enamored with it all.

Love those shoes.

First year of Pony league.

I grew up LOVE LOVE LOVING the sport of baseball (okay softball in my case, but basically the same thing).  I grew up watching both my brothers play as well.  I have been really looking forward to my kids playing the game I love so much.  Since we grew up in California it wasn't really clear to me what league is the right league to play in here in Utah .. there's Cal Ripken, Pony League, Babe Ruth .. I'm sure the list goes on.  We were playing recreation center ball .. translates to NON competitive league.  So as it turned out Jackson was a couple years behind all the boys on his team.  Kind of a bummer but there wasn't much we could do about it at that point.  So he went from really unstructured coach pitch, to highly structured machine pitch.  It was a struggle.  But he went to all his practices and slowly as the season progressed he got better.

His coach was relatively good.  My only complaint would be without fail EVERY single game Jackson 100% started by sitting on the bench.  He never missed a practice.  I just didn't think it was fair to do that.  There was a round robin tournament game that they played "for fun" because the team didn't have enough players to field and so it was an instant forfeit.  This would have been an opportunity for the coach to let players play some different positions.  But nope.  Jackson still got stuck in right field (sometimes left).  The outfield is boring, I know this from experience.  Especially in little league where not a lot of balls make it out there in the first place.  I don't feel like the coach really worked to improve some of the players that weren't at the level of the rest and that's unfortunate.  Next season I'm sure he'll play again, and every year they try out and go through a draft process so I'm sure he'll go to another coach. I hope that he gets some different opportunities there.

The face after a strike out.

He was so comfortable with his position on the bench that before each game as the coach read off starting positions Jackson would call out, "Jackson on the bench" as he got to his name.  He knew.  But he didn't mind it so much, so I guess at least there's that.

I love seeing that huge name on the back of his jersey!

That's pure joy on that face!

He still got out but it was the first time that he got a piece of that ball.

He just took off from there!

I am so proud of him.  He really wasn't having that much fun at first.  He had to work hard to get better and even then, he didn't get to play any fun positions, he still sat outfield watching the grass grow around him.  But he didn't give up.  And he says he wants to play again next year!

It was a big time commitment for us as a family.  And I've learned that this is a good league to be in as far as competitive goes.  I will be getting Wyland (if he still wants to) and Oliver going next year as well so that they aren't as far behind as Jackson was.

Flags are so much safer.

Oh this was fun.

The games were often windy and sometimes crazy cold.

But Jackson had so. much. FUN.

It is just amazing to me how much it just clicked for him this year. In previous years he's just kind of ran behind wherever all the other kids went. This year he understood the concept of the game.  He definitely preferred to pull flags on the other team.  I don't think he likes the pressure of carrying the ball but when he did he enjoyed it.  He had a really good coach who made sure all the kids played and they worked on drills before the game.

I love when I remember to bring my big camera to these things!

LOVE this kid!

It felt like it was over so quickly.  I can't believe we are now preparing for his first season of TACKLE football!!  I'm just not sure that I'm ready for this.  I'm not sure he thinks he is either .. haha.  It's going to be interesting.

Jackson's Birthday Survey

One of my favorite parts of birthday blogging is the annual survey.  It's fun to see how their answers change as they grow up.  Last years survey is here.

This boy was smiling and laughing at only 1 month old!

I forget how curly his hair was.

Even more so than Oliver's.

~ 1YR ~

Jackson's Favorites:

Favorite Color:  Green

Favorite Food:  Steak

Favorite Sport:  Tackle Football

When I grow up I want to be:  a coach or a teacher.

Favorite Book:  Batman

Favorite Song:  Flo Rida songs

Best Friend:  Kingston

Favorite Drink:  Cactus Cooler

Favorite Movie:  WWE shows

Favorite Toy:  wrestlers

What does Dad like to do?  Sit on his butt and watch TV

What does Mom like to do?  She loves marathons.

Favorite thing to do with my family:  going to Disneyland

Favorite Animal:  black panther

We chopped those curls off and they never came back.

~ 2YR ~

~ 3YR ~

Jackson's Favorites, if you asked MOM:

Favorite Color:  Red

Favorite Food:  Pizza

Favorite Sport:  Tackle Football

When I grow up I want to be:  no clue

Favorite Book:  Batman

Favorite Song:  Flo Rida songs

Best Friend:  Wyland, Owen, Jackson B.

Favorite Drink:  Gaterade

Favorite Movie:  WWE shows

Favorite Toy:  wrestlers

What does Dad like to do?  read weird stuff on the internet

What does Mom like to do?  She loves running.

Favorite thing to do with my family:  going to Disneyland

Favorite Animal:  black panther

~ 4YR ~

~ 5YR ~

~ 6YR ~

~ 7YR ~

Not the best picture I could fine, but he just looks SO grown up to me in this one.

~ 8YR ~

Another year older.  Man we struggled with second grade this year.  We had an especially bad fit with the teacher (Mrs. McAllister) and while I wish I'd moved him early in the year, alas I didn't and so we had to grin and bare it.  Jackson however continued to love school, especially the social aspect of it of course.  Jackson played his first year in a competitive baseball league.  It was a bit rough getting started but towards the end of the season he was really getting so much better and much more consistently making contact with the ball. He also played flag football.  By far this was his favorite.  He was really good at the defensive position and talked about going into "beast mode" and getting all those flags.  It was a lot of fun to watch too.  While Jackson is high energy and a bit challenged when it comes to focusing on school work, he cares about what people think of him so much.  He is kind and protective over his brothers and sister.

We love you so much buddy!

Jackson's 8th Birthday

Every time a birthday passes by I am reminded of how quickly these children of mine are growing!

The days are long but the years are short.

It is so true and I hate that.

Jackson was so very excited for his birthday.  We decided to splurge a little bit and took the family to Bonsai for dinner.  I expected pricey.  But it was even more than I expected.  None of them remember going at younger ages, even though Jackson and Wyland both had.  They were in for a treat.

The birthday boy!

Jackson was thrilled with his multiple wrestlers he got.  My kids have gotten into the habit of "shopping" on Amazon.  What that means is they put a bunch of stuff in my cart for me to buy and then I sort through it and delete some and maybe if they're lucky order some.  Jackson is really into WWE wrestling right now and while we can get an assortment of wrestlers at the Target's and Walmart's of the world you can find some of the harder to find stuff on Amazon.  They LOVE when boxes arrive on the doorstep!

J'Von was quite envious of Jackson's iPod he got as well.

And the kids loved the restaurant!  I think their favorite part was watching the shrimp fly at their parents and grandparents faces!  Nothing like missing and having that greasy little shrimpy go SPLAT on your face!  Alas, that of course didn't happen to me!