Yes it's Pinewood Derby season.
This year Eric decided to make the trophies.
And of course Brendan has to help.







Here are some of the trophies that he's made.
He always makes enough for all the boys to get one. I like the "Wall-E" one myself.




But the ones that have parts that move are really cool too!

Ryne 5 weeks old

Here's some pictures of our little "squeak".

This is his "Vegas look"...Thank you, thank you very much.


Don't know if you can see it but he does have blue eyes. Kind of a steel gray blue color. So Eric finally got one.






Here's his fighter's stance. He has to do this often when the kids are around. Gotta protect the do!

Then there's the pensive look. Just thinking whether to take a nap, eat or poop. Aaaah the life of a babe!

Here's our beautiful new kitchen. It's been basically finished for a while now, these last corner cabinets were added when Ryne was born. Thank you Thank you to Art and Eric for all their hard work!

Now I just have to work at keeping it clean and beautiful! Not an easy task.

Just the boys

Just some pics of the boys.

This is Lance's favorite place to be and Brendan loves to "tote" him around on his shoulders.














One day I had to take a phone call, so I put Ryne in his vibrating chair and left the room for "just a second". When I returned this is how I found my boys. Scared me for a minute then when I saw that "all was well" I snapped the picture.
















Can you tell that they're related.

Our Christmas Letter 2008

December 2008

Dear Family & Friends,

As usual we’re a little late this year with our Christmas Cards, but our family is doing great! We had our 5th and final baby boy on the 15th of this month. We now have our Basket Ball Team. Pun is intended. His name is Ryne Javen Ball. He was 7 lbs 9 oz and 20” long. He has blond hair and we HOPE blue eyes. This is Eric’s last chance to have a blue eyed baby. With Cindy’s Mexican blood, it sort of dominates the genes. It’s looking good so far, but only time will tell. The kids keep us busy, but I don’t have to tell you that.

Our oldest, Brendan is 9yrs. He loves his science and math classes in school. He is a high blue belt in karate (3 belts away from black). He loves golf, it got too expensive, so Eric bought a Wii game for Christmas with a golf game. It keeps him busy. He has also learned how to crochet.

Kristen is 7, she’ll be 8 on Valentine’s Day and baptized in March. (We’ll do the baby blessing then as well). She loves reading and is so smart…she takes after Cindy…she didn’t get it from Eric. Hee Hee. She loves to play the piano and sings all the time. She definitely got that from Eric!

Mackenzie is 5 and a ball of fire. She doesn’t like vegetables or potatoes, and it’s rare to find something that she likes to eat. She loves to sing and take care of her 2 younger brothers. She says kindergarten is “boring”. Secretly we think she’s enjoying it since she’s always the first one ready in the mornings.

Lance is 2 and isn’t so terrible. He is learning so many phrases, its fun to see him put together sentences. We are working on, as he calls it “potty choo-choo- training”. It’s going alright and hopefully we should have it licked in a few weeks. Cross your fingers. He loves to tease us and make us laugh. He is also in charge of putting the “plug” in Ryne’s mouth. Whenever Ryne makes a “squeek” he thinks he needs to have his pacifier.

Ryne…is too cute and so far is a great baby and very tolerant of all the noise (he doesn’t have much choice). Brendan calls Lance “PIP” and he calls Ryne “SQUEEK” because that is all Ryne knows how to do.

Cindy is very busy…as you can tell…with 5 kids. She has her hands full, but loves “almost” every minute of it. Her mother passed away last November, and that has been difficult for her, but she did spend the last 12 hours of her life holding her hand and being right next to her. She will cherish that moment forever.

Eric hasn’t changed too much. He still works at Caesars Palace as the beverage manager for banquets. He’s a Mormon who doesn’t drink, so they put him in charge of the booze. He doesn’t skim the profits. Little do they know he sneaks the occasional Dr. Pepper. His big project this year was the complete remodel of our kitchen. With the help of both Dads…Cindy’s and his…we were able to rip out everything except the walls and wood on the floor. We bumped the window wall out 2 feet (We had “real” air conditioning for a couple of days) and rebuilt our kitchen using cabinets that came from a good friends’ home. He was doing the same thing and his old cabinets (our new) were oak fronts will solid oak trim all the way around. We had plenty to work with and with a lot of cutting and pasting, we were able to have a completely new kitchen. Ours was in such bad shape with the drawers falling apart and the cracks in the cupboards and the cockroach city it really needed to be replaced. We finished most of it within a month but the final touches to the inside were finished the week Ryne was born. Massive undertaking. It wasn’t fun not having a kitchen for 4 weeks in the summer with a 6 month pregnant woman. But…we absolutely love it now! It was completely worth it.

We hope you are doing well.
Eric and Cindy are on Face book. And our email address is ecball@cox.net . We love to hear from everyone so keep in touch.

Thank you to all for your love and support. It would be nice if we could be as diligent in doing the cards. It’s always in our minds, but Christmas and the holidays are gone before we get a chance. This year was more hectic because of the baby. We didn’t even do our organ open house this year. We have a full size church organ in our home…and we do an open house with the sounds of the holidays every year. We just couldn’t pull it together this year to do it.

We hope that all of you had a wonderful holiday season and best wishes for an even better New Year.
Lots of love,
The Ball Family
Eric, Cindy, Brendan, Kristen, Mackenzie, Lance and Ryne

On December 15, 2008 we received a double present. Our precious little Ryne was born and also it snowed. It was a most glorious day. I know many of you may not like snow or get tired of it. But for us in Desert land it's WONDERFUL.

So when we do get enough that "sticks" we take advantage of the experience.
Brendan made this "mini" snowman. His name was Jack Jr. after the full size "Jack" of 2003. I'll have to find a picture of him...didn't have digital back then.

It was a very wet snow and not much of it but Brendan just HAD to get his snow gear on and go out in it.

The next day, since most of it had melted in town,we decided to drive out on the Red Rock Loup and take some family pictures. And yes, Ryne was with us, although he mostly stayed in the nice warm car.

Ryne Javen Ball was born on Monday, December 15th at 3:34pm. 7lbs 9oz and 20 " long. Both Cindy and Ryne are doing well. They came home on Tuesday after the mandatory 24 hours in the hospital for babies.