Campfire with marshmellows and hot dogs

 Jared and I actually made it happen only a couple days after the dare -- give us a challenge and guess what?!!  Actually we were only able to do part of the kid challenge due to bad weather and lots of July activities already in the works (more on those to come).

I thought we were only making yummy smores, but after those were eaten, (and of course it was around 9pm) Brady decided he was still hungry and wanted hot dogs too. Ethan and Luke quickly joined in the roasting. Because of the impending storm, it was quite windy, meaning we kept shifting seats to stay out of the smoke stream.

Indoor Soccer 2011

This is what happens when you have an "smart" automatic focus camera! Actually it's really when you have a "smart" person who doesn't know how to take the camera off auto focus and use the manual settings.

Ethan and Rachel decided to play indoor soccer. Ethan has played before and learned alot and has done very well. Rachel saw how much fun it looked and wanted to try it for the first time.

 Ethan usually did not play goalie unless they where really far ahead in scoring. He looks so tall!

 He played with a few of the same players as last year on the house team. They had great ball handling skills and Ethan learned a lot. He also held his own by scoring an average of 3 goals per game.

 Rachel can be agressive when she wants to. During the first game, she was getting used to the different feel of playing in an arena verses outside on a regular field and real grass. Her league was both boys & girls.

 Finally near the end of the season, she scored!!!! Dad was so excited and she was too because he owed her a kingsize candy bar.

 I might have a budding photographer in the family. Luke was constantly asking to take pictures with my camera. Yep, that's the backside of me with the long Rapunzel like hair!

Halloween 2010

Yep, I'm still going on the last year's catchup - these are pretty funny. Here are Luke, Brady and Rachel ready to head to school for their Halloween parties.

 Then, on Halloween night (we celebrated on Saturday Oct 30th) the weather decided it wanted to play its own tricks on these treaters! We tried to dress more warmly, but that weather was just plain crazy. Jared was out of town so I stayed at home to man the doorbell duties while Ethan offered to take the boys around the neighborhood.

Rachel and her friends left only a coule of minutes later, a little more prepared with umbrellas.

But within 5 minutes the wind had kicked it into high gear and the rain was coming down sideways. But never fear, the tricker treaters would still appear!

Luke (7th) & Brady's (5th) Birthday!!!!

I'm still playing catch up from last year.  Here is last summer's big birthday for Luke and Brady. They both love legos, almost as much as their older brother, so we attempted to make a "lego" cake.

The traditional singing and cake in bed, first thing in the morning to start everyone off with a sugar high!

 Ya gotta love the reindeer wrapping paper, right?!! Hey, I'm just using what I got!

Two very happy campers! Happy Birthday Brady and Luke! We love you!

We'll take water, any way it comes!

We needed a break from all the Wizard of Oz rehersals last summer, so off we headed to the Gateway in downtown Salt Lake. We've been many times before and the kids always have a great time.

I honestly thought the water was going to sneak through his fingers and shoot right up his nose!

Rachel even got into the action, slying moving in and out of the crowd of kids. Its like a mini Belliago water show, just not lights, but the water is choregraphed with music. The Olympic themes are still a big hit.

Grandma came to town to help with the boys during all the rehersals and performances of OZ. Couldn't have done it without her. We luckily found a little shade this day, because it was extremely hot and you didn't want your bare feet to hit the pavement if at all possible.

Can you believe this??? Ethan stuck his foot up right as I took his picture. This was an unusual day because instead of running around in the water with his siblings, he decided to sit with me and mom and read....what, yes, you heard me right, READ! This past summer, Ethan got the reading bug and has been reading several fun books...mostly in the sci-fi category.

I'm pretty sure this was Rachel's expression when I told her it was time to leave. Look at those blue eyes. She's beautiful even when giving her mother the scowl!

Soccer Season again!

The beginnings of fall always brings the anticpation of starting school, pumpkins, autumn leaves, soup, and of course, in our house, SOCCER SEASON.  I must say I am a soccer mom, not just because that is the current "favorite" little person sport, but because I have been immersed in it way before it was "cool".  In fact I think we (my twin bro) and I were 6 years old when he brought home a flyer from school about soccer at the YMCA.  He and our older bro got registered and thus my immersion into soccer began.  I actually didn't play on a team until I was 9, I think.  But even then, our yellow jerseyed team and coach only relied on my bro to score.  The whole game plan was "pass it to Chris".  So for me, in the back field, I just played with my barrettes (the ones way back then that you made by weaving different colors of ribbon on a barrette) and was bored.  So I didn't play again until high school.  This isn't to say that I wasn't still at games.  My brothers played all the time from grade school, middle, high school, traveling teams, and college.  In high school my older brother graciously agreed to coach a girls indoor team for me to be on.  A bunch of us girls, most of whom had never played soccer, played for 2 seasons.  Throw in an outdoor season on the high school team - I played right midfield.

Jared played growing up too. So by the time Ethan turned 4, we were chomping at the bit to introduce this love of soccer to him.  They are so cute at that age, running in a big wad together, trying to figure out how to use their own feet.  He too loves soccer.  He has played since then on outdoor rec leagues, competitive leagues and recently on indoor leagues.  This season, we are on a new frontier, he has gone over to the dark side!!! Referree.... I'm just kidding about the dark side, it is actually the neon yellow side with stripes/ or the  bubble bee look is more accurate.  He reffed his first game last week, Luke's age group of U8, and really liked it. In fact, he will ref 3 of Luke's games during this season.

Speaking of Luke, his age group has moved up to bigger fields and more kids on the field and a goalie.  He really has improved.  He is on a good team this year and hopefully he will continue to understand the game more and more.

Brady, on the other hand, is just trying to get a feel for the game.  He has played outside with his older siblings.  But as he found out last Saturday, that is much different than actually being on the field for a real game.  Brady looked quite confused on the field with everyone running around him.  He came off the field quite upset. Jared did get him calmed down.  Later that evening, we talked about just playing to have fun. No pressure to score or anything else. Just have fun.  Within a little while, Brady proclaimed, "I wish my game was now because I think I'm ready now."

Rachel played soccer for a couple of seasons and is now ready to try something new...more on that later.

Back to School - First day

It's back to school time again at our house.  I loved getting organized and everything ready for school when I was younger.  The excited anticipation of new teachers, new friends, new classes... I think I might be more excited for their new experiences than they are!

Ethan starts 8th grade!!! (Notice he has 8 fingers = 8th grade)  No problem - he already knows the school, where the classes are, etc.  His goal for this year is to change his mental thinking that school is actually good.  Great goal since he hasn't had a high regard for homework and school night bedtimes.  So far his favorite class might be Mythology.  Big improvement from last year when I asked him what his favorite part of the first day and he replied "lunch".  Ethan really has been a good student.  His other goal for the year is to get straight A's.  You can do it Son!

Can you guess what grade Rachel is going into? Yep, you guessed it, 5th grade! She's growing up too fast I think. She got the teacher she was hoping for and is also excited to be starting rotations in the computer lab with the nice MAC computers. She has always been a good student, easy to get her to do her homework.  She will get to do her first science project this year too. I think she also is excited to help her teacher.  I remember always wanting to help my teachers.  Yes, I was a teacher's pet several times, I admit it.

I'm sure by now you've figured out our tradition for first day of school pictures.  Luke is now in 2nd grade!  He has a man-teacher (that sure sounds funny but if you think about it, for elementary teachers you automatically think of them as women unless you give the disclaimer that it is a guy).  His teacher is an older, laid-back kind of a guy.  We've heard good things about him.  At back to school night, he showed Luke all of his Star Wars books.  Today when Luke got off the bus, he told me that his teacher is SOOO nice because he lets them read for 9 minutes!!!!  I love Luke.  He has really become a good reader.

Well, I haven't forgotten about Brady.  Technically Brady hasn't had his first day yet because the first week of school is dedicated to individual kindergarten testing.  I have to tell you what he did at Back to School night.  We went into his classroom to meet his new teacher (she was voted Teacher of the Year for the school district last year, so she must be good).  As she was saying hi to Brady she asked "Brady, are you excited to start kindergarten?"  Cautiously he looked at her and then bravely answered "No, not really."  I almost started laughing right there and then.  Good thing she has a good since of humor.  She made a deal with Brady that by the end of the first week of school that he would come home and tell me how great kindergarten is. 

So next week I will do the traditional photoshoot before he gets on the bus with Rachel and Luke for the first time.  How do I get him to do the letter "K" with his fingers?????

We love soccer season!!!!

We love soccer at our house. Good thing with having 3 of the 4 kids playing this year. Actually I grew up in a soccer family, with both brothers playing and I played too. (well a couple of years when I was younger and then again in high school.) Anyways, its been fun and I wanted to show my limited photography skills. I don't know how my dad did this when my brothers and I played BDC (Before Digital Cameras)!

Luke has really started to actually play this season and go after the ball.  His team name was the Green Goblins.

I was Luke's Team mom and in charge of pictures.  So that is why I've got the "pro" shots.
 
Rachel enjoyed playing midfield the most. She also has a great throw-in. I must admit I am very proud because I played Right Half (midfielder) in high school. Actually my brother Chris gave me the nickname of Cracker-Jack Halfback!  Her team name was the Tsunamis.

Ethan is now at the point, age-wise, that they start grouping the boys of various ages.  Hence, he was on a team with 13, 14, 15, 16 yr olds.  I must admit I was a little nervous seeing as he is not a very tall 13 yr old. However, he learned some great foot skills these last several years and quickly earned the nickname from his teammate of "Yao" because he "plays tall".

I thought this last picture was a great one to show Ethan compared to his teammates!  I laugh everytime of think of his team names and I say name"s" because they changed it weekly.  One of my favorites was "The Fluffy Bunnies".  The last one was "The ChooChoo Shoes".