I am still here, I promise

Well, life has been very VERY busy for us all lately and I have not been able to post any blogs in a very long time. I apologize for this. The kids have started school, I have started working full time, I am attending school full time, and James is working full time as well. The bottom half of the kids (Abby, Daniel, and Jameson) are in KinderCare every day and are loving it. Abby loves "school" and making more friends. She is learning so much faster now, so she definitely will be ready for kindergarten next year.

Daniel has taken a while to get used to his school, but he does enjoy it after the initial shock of Daddy leaving him passes every morning. By the time I pick him up in the afternoon, he is smiles and gigles and doesnt want to go home.

Here is a picture of the boys first day of school.

Such handsome young men. Tyler is a 6th grader this year. OMG! he is getting so old. I cant believe it. Jacob is in 3rd grade and Noah is in 1st grade. Everyone is loving school and learning lots. Noah is a beginning reader and enjoys his Geronimo Stilton books every night before bed. Jacob is on Book 4 of Harry Potter and also enjoys reading. His teacher says that she is amazed at how much he enjoys reading and sharing the stories to his class.

The boys are in their routine of going to school and walking home together after school. They are home for no more than an hour alone after school while I get off work and go pick up the babies from daycare. It has been a rough transition, but I think we are doing well with it. This leaves just a few hours to cook dinner, clean house, get homework done, and get everyone ready for bed before the morning comes again. We are so busy right now, but we are happy, healthy, and having fun.

Anyway, just an update on how things have been going for us. We have had some fun adventures over the summer and in the recent few weeks. A trip to the lake, a trip to Seattle and the zoo, and a fun time at the Children's museum. If I can find a few extra minutes here and there, I will try and blog some more and get pictures up.

Our Toofwess NOAH

It is so much fun to go through each stage with all of these kids. I remember the front tooth stage of both Jacob and Tyler and it is finally Noah's turn.

I think this look is the cutest look in the whole world! They are just adorable. I love the lisp while the teeth are gone. Everything seems to have just an added whisp sound to it. It is so cute and so fun. I tend to ask Noah to repeat himself, just so I can hear his cute little articulations one more time.

He was so excited to have both teeth fall out at once and was even more excited to go to school to show off his new smile to all his friends and his teacher. I love all these stages and watching this little man grow up.

Tyler

Well, our soccer season has come to an end. We are sad to see it go, but also very releived. It added quite a bit of caos to our little world taking 3 boys to different fields for practices 4 nights during the week and then 3 soccer games, usually at different fields ALL day on Saturdays. It was a busy time so I am glad that is over and we can get back to normalcy. But, I will miss seeing the boys in action. They had a wonderful time and it was fun to "get out of the house" for some exercise and sun.

All 3 boys participated in the Wendle Tournament last weekend, but Tyler's age group competed for championship. It was a rough first few games for Tyler's team, but towards the end of the season they really started coming together as a team and it showed during the tournament.

Their first game was on Saturday morning. They led most of the game 2-1, but ended up giving up a few undeserved goals in the last few minutes, mostly due to tired boys. They lost 4-3, but fought very hard to stay alive in that game. Their next game was Saturday evening and they slammed that team 9-1. The last game was on Sunday, which we did not participate in, but apparently they won this game as well putting them into the championship game. They were playing for 1st or 2nd place. Tyler's coach called after the game and said that they tied 7-7 so they had to go into a tie-breaker shootout, which they ended up loosing by 1 point. That means that Tyler's team got 2nd place overall for his age group. WooHoo. Way to go Tyler. They had a medal for Tyler, which we picked up a few days later. It sounds like it was a fun game to watch and the boys did an excellent job. They should all be proud of themselves.

Here is Tyler with his medal and a trophy that his coach got for the team. What a great soccer season. I am so proud of the hard work Tyler put into learning this new skill and the success he achieved with such hard work and determination. Way to go Tyler, your are AWESOME!

Our Park adventures.

We enjoyed an evening at the Park with some nice weather last night during Jacob's soccer practice. It is always a fun time for the kids since the practice is right next to Shadle Park with lots of fun toys. It is fun to see all the kids have a great time. Abby made good friends with another little sister of the soccer players and they were running around the whole time playing some game. Of course she had her purse with her with all of her most important things.

Daniel had a great time being chased by Tyler and Jameson. They went up and down the slides I don't know how many times. Jameson just had a ball exploring all over the place. He is just not afraid of anything and had so much fun trying all the new things.

This is video of Jameson going up the stairs to the slide.

And this is video of him going down the slide.

He is just too brave for his own good. He had a lot of fun doing this over and over again. Tyler helped out a lot and took him down some of the other slides. If he was not climbing stairs, playing with Tyler, or going down slides, then he was just wondering around taking it all in.

And here is some video of our little Noah. He has recently learned how to swing himself and he spent 90% of the time just swinging and swinging. I am so proud of him and all the growing he has done over these last 6 months or so. He is a totally different child and it is so fun to see him out there interacting and learning and growing and most important of all finally acting like a kid and having fun.

The video clips are from my phone, so they are not the best...

Overall, it was a fun night while Jacob was at soccer practice. It is so nice that we can finally go outside and enjoy ourselves. We have been trying to spend more time outside being active and less time sitting and watching TV or playing Wii. It is great to finally have the opportunity to burn off all this energy these kids keep building up. I hope the weather continues and we can have more and more fun outdoors.

Mani-Pedi

The Easter Bunny brought Abby some fun new fingernail polish in her Easter Basket this year. She really wanted me to paint her nails, so I did her fingernails before church. She really wanted her toenails done as well, but I had already put her tights on for church, so I promised after church we could paint her toenails. She decided that since she got her fingernails and toenails painted, then I needed mine done as well. Here she is doing my fingernails

And now for my toes. She had so much fun. She wanted to do Grammy's as well, but Grammy declined the offer, saying maybe next time. For some reason, the boys wouldn't let her do theirs, hhhmmm I wonder why? She even begged Daddy to do his as well.

She had a blast and I am sure that she will be doing more nails before long, maybe even a few of Daddy's. he tends to be a bit of a sucker when it comes to what Abby wants. LOL. It is so fun having a little girl and getting to do all these little girly things. Cant wait till she is older and we can enjoy real "big girl" spa days together full of shopping, mani-pedis, and lunch dates out.

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...