Soccer 2009

The boys are enjoying SYSA (Spokane Youth Sports Association) soccer this spring. It is so much fun to watch them play and enjoy themselves. It has made our life completely upside down busy with practices for each of them during the week at different places and games all on Saturday at different places, but so far we have made it work and it has been a blast. Jim and I usually have to tag team the kids and split up, he and I taking 1/2 of the kids and heading off in different directions. They are having a ball and doing great, learning some new skills, and enjoying themselves.

Our 3 Snook Soccer Studs!

Our little Noah is so fun to watch. His coach is doing well with him and it is great to see him grow so much over this past year. He has really begun to interact more with other kids his age and we are learning to work with his deficits. I was not sure how he would do at an "organized" sport, but I have to say now that it is THE best thing we could have done for him. He is enjoying himself so much and have a great time. He even almost scored twice now. He has his moments of "watching butterflies" out there, but he is starting to pay more attention and have a ball. I am so proud of him and the progress he has made in his little life. He has grown so much this year and I am so glad that he is my son and I get to see all these milestones and witness all this progress for him. Way to go Noah!

Here is Jacob really giving it his all. Wow has he really found something he likes to do. It is so good for him to get out there in practice and run off all the extra energy he seems to have in that little body of his. At today's game, his coach practiced a lot with him beforehand in the goalie position. He was doing so awesome. He was so excited to get a chance to play goalie. He got out there and had a ball doing it. he made one really good save, but good for his team the rest of the time he was in the goalie position, all he did was stand around. Seems our team dominated and we were down on the other end of the field most of the time. Jacob had fun and stayed in his goalie stance the whole time he was out there. He was so cute to watch. He really is excited about playing the goalie position. I am happy that he has found something he likes so much and can have fun doing (and something that can wear him out LOL.)

Tyler is having a great time also. His team is in an older age group so he has a bigger field, bigger goals, etc. It gets pretty intense at his games sometimes with a crowd of parents, family, and friends cheering on those players. It is amazing to watch. Tyler has done soccer before, but it was coached by High School kids and they pretty much just let them run around and kick the ball. This is his first "real" soccer experience and he is doing great. He is out there keeping up with kids that have been playing for a few years and making some pretty cool moves. He is getting a hang of dribbling and running at the same time. LOL. It is fun to watch them grow and gain new skills. Keep up the good work buddy!

They are all halfway through their seasons. They have had 3 games and have 3 more games to go. I wish them all luck. We have a few week break after soccer and then start into baseball. that will be a lot of fun to watch as well. I hope they continue to be so active and have fun playing sports. James and I are both big sports fans so it is great to have kids that want to be out there doing it. LETS GO SNOOKS!!!

Favorite Spot

Funny how the kids will find their favorite little spots to hang out. Jameson has been so into sitting on the hearth. He first learned to climb on it, then penguin slide off it, then walk around up there, and now that his legs are a bit longer he can finally sit on it. It is so funny to see him back up to it and pop a little tiny squat right there. He will look up at you with a big grin and just sit there and let his feet dangle. So cute. Here is a pic of him at his favorite spot. What a cutie...

My Love

I just had to take a quick moment to Congratulate my talented husband. Today he gets to do something he has dreamed about doing his whole life. Right now he is on his way to Seattle to photograph an MLB Baseball Game. I am so proud of him and his accomplishments. It has taken a while for him to get to this spot and there is still a long way to go getting into this career, but he is on his way to a wonderful and rewarding career in photojournalism.

So to the love of my life, I LOVE YOU and I AM SO PROUD of you. I hope you have a blast. When you have fun and get to do something you really love to do, you cant really call it WORK can you.

Happy Birthday Jameson

And you thought the birthday wishes were over. LOL. Not quite. Jameson turned the Big #1 on April 11. There has been so much going on this last year with graduating from school, moving back to Spokane, and welcoming this wonderful little man into our family. He has been a great addition and it seems like this is the way it has always been with the 6 of them.This little guy is a definite go getter and has added some spunk and activity to this already boisterous household. He is so determited to keep up with all the other little people he sees around him. Jameson has such a sweet disposition about him. He is usually very happy and is always on the go.Albertsons gives out a free first birthday cake, so here is the one that Daniel and Abby chose for him. It was very cute. We give this cake to the birthday child for their own cake to mess with and play in and sometimes actually eat.

That is Tyle holding down his hands. He just wanted to grab that thing. If you look closely he alread grabbed the Oreo cookie ears off the cake and started muncin on those. He is a fast one.
He was pretty tentative at first. Mostly justed wanted the cookies, but he soon got into the fun of making a mess and eating some yummy frosting.Of course some actually did make it in his mouth, but mostly it just went all over his face, budda belly, and highchair tray.

To be able to play with your food again. Oh what a life.

Showing off his goopy hands.


YEAH CAKE!!

And of course a bath to end the day. Happy Birthday baby. We love ya. Jameson has grown so big and fits into this family just perfectly. I cannot wait to see what this next year holds for our little J.

Yeah for Crafts

I love it when I get the opportunity to be crafty. For my birthday, Jim got me the Cricut design studio to go with my Cricut machine. So much fun. Tonight I worked on a project for a wedding gift. It was a lot of fun to make and for my first time playing with the Cricut design studio, I think I did pretty good.

Hopefully I will have the chance to make many more projects like this. It will be a fun new hobby. Thanks again Jim for the wonderful present. I love it.

Happy Birthday Daniel

Daniel is the big 3 years old. It is so amazing to think of the last 3 years and what has transpired. He has gotten so big and adds such joy and silliness to the house. He is a big ball of love and sunshine and you just cant help but smile when he is around. Happy Birthday big guy. We love you tons.
For a few weeks before his big day, we kept asking what he wanted for his birthday and the only thing he would every say was "An Elmo Cake!" In fact, Jim baked the cake during the day while I was at work and he told me that as he was taking it out of the oven, Daniel just looked up at him with sadness in his eyes and asked, "Where is Elmo?" Jim told him that Mommy would do it when she got home, but he insisted that Elmo needed to be on his cake now. He waited as patiently as a just 3 year old could and as soon as I walked home he reminded me that his cake needed Elmo. He had a lot of fun and was thrilled with the outcome. I wished we had the Elmo cake pan and that I could have spent a bit more time on the cake, but he is 3 and he was so happy with this Elmo, that it really did not matter to him that I did not spend more time or money on it. Thanks for the lesson there buddy.


Of course, he was also excited to eat Elmo. LOL. He had a great time and all of the kids were so good about making it a special day for him. We love you Daniel and I hope you have many more Elmo years to come.
Oh yeah, gotta snitch some more frosting when no one is looking. What can he say, it is sitting there waiting for a finger to run through it.

Easter pics

We went to the mall the other day and saw the Easter Bunny. They let us put all the kids up there and take 2 (only 2) pictures with our own camera. Here is what we got. I havent even looked at these yet, so lets see what we got.

it is what it is right. LOL. Not too bad I guess. You cant have everyone looking and/or smiling all at the same time.

Love that Abby is cringing as jameson pulls her hair. These are our Easter babies. From left to right we have Daniel, Jacob, Abby, Jameson, Noah, and Tyler.

We had a fun filled day that I will blog about later, but it included a stop at the mall where we ran into the Easter bunny. This was not a planned thing, so we don't have any fancy clothes on them or anything. It was just something the kids saw and they wanted to get a picture, so here it is. Happy Easter to all of you. Hope you have a hopping good time.

Pinewood Derby

It is that time of year again. the time when Fathers get out there saws, sanders, and design kits and boys get out there legos cause you know they don't get to do anything. LOL. Actually, Tyler and Jacob both designed their cars. Jim did the cutting, but after that, the boys did a lot of their own work on sanding and stuff. It was fun having 2 cars in the race this year. It looks like we have learned a few things from our first 2 years in the Pinewood Derby world. Tylers car won 2 races and Jacobs car won 1. They both got quite a few second place races after that. They tell me that they tied for 6/7th place. I am not sure if that is the final score though. they took the top 5 to the district meet, so we missed out by just a bit.

Tyler's car is the red one and Jacob's is the blue. This is actually Jacobs second design. We had a few pinewood derby emergencies with the first that required designing, painting, making a whole new car the night before the race. It was fun though.

Tyler's car. The red sliver. He was going for the sleek, thin look.

Jacob's first car was a skateboard and look pretty cool. This is the second attempt and is a dragster type.

Tyler with car. Cant believe this is his last year in Cub Scouts. Getting so big he is...

Jacob with his car. he can never seem to take a picture without blinking. This is the best of the bunch.

We had a great year. Although we have come a long way since the first build with Tyler, we still have a few things to learn about in the pinewood derby world. We are thiking of investing in our very own track, lights, and scales. We figure we have 11 more pinewood derby cars to make, we might as well have a track of our own to do test runs and stuff. We will be doing pinewood derby cars for a while so it will be a good investment. LOL.

It definitely is a fun time of year. Cant wait till next year and see the design Jacob comes up with. Then the year after that will be both Noah and Jacob. Good job Tyler and Jacob, your cars are way cool and you both did awesome in the race.

Crazy J

It has been so nice since last Friday. The kids have really enjoyed being able to play out in the backyard. Of course, whatever the big kids can do, Jameson can do even better, right. Here is his no fear side. He is just a crazy little guy and is all over the places. This one definitely keeps us on our toes.

Happy Birthday Jim and Teresa

What can I say. Happy Birthday to Us. I enjoy sharing a special day with my honey. It was a great day with a surprise date at the end. Thanks for a great day Jimmy. I love you tons.

Vinyl projects

I have had some fun with the Cricut and vinyl. I have learned it is very fun to do and gives me some craft time, which I desperately need. Here are a few of the projects that I have been working.

This is our family portrait collage. You can see that right now, we just have pictures of a really cute dog and little boy. Unfortunately, as cute as they are, I cannot claim either. We do still need to get family pictures LOL. But the collage is done and I am so proud of it. We will do a family pic in the big middle. Then under live we will have a picture of the kids and under love we will have a picture of Jim and I. Then on the bottom we will have a picture of Jim and the boys and then a picture of Abby and I. In the middle between Families are Forever will be a picture of the Portland Temple, where Jim and I were sealed. Hopefully with the nice weather, we will be getting family pictures soon and I will post an updated with all the pics in their propers places.

When we first moved into the house, we wondered what we would do with this ledge. As you come into the front door you face this wall into the kitchen. The ledge above the doorway to the kitchen extends the whole wall and actually turns the corner into the dining room. I though it would be fun to get a picture of each child up there. When that was done, I thought that maybe it needed just a little bit more, so I added each childs name in Vinyl under their picture. I think it turned out pretty good.

Plus those are the pictures that Jim (own personal photographer) took for us in lue of school portraits. We had a bad school picture year and have decided to never go with school pics again, just Daddy Pics. LOL.

I am excited for more Vinyl projects around the house. I want to do one more for the living room with my favorite quote. Then I will do one for Abby's room and one for my bedroom. I will think about the boys rooms. Not sure what to do with that. We will have to see.