Fall Sports

Luke and Seth played soccer and kickball this fall.  I had Luke signed up for District 7 soccer but changed my mind at the last minute and just put him in the little city league.  I know it's cheesier but hey he's 6!  He had fun, it was awesome for him and Seth to play the same place and night, and we had Saturdays free!  Luke had lots of fun and scored quite a few goals.  He's still the littlest kid out there.  Seth loved kickball and did great.  Doing great in kickball means standing in line to kick, running the bases, and attempting to maintain some sort of focus when out in the field.  (I must say he had a lot more focus and discipline than Luke did at kickball!)  The boys had lots of fun watching and cheering for each other.  Seth's last game was a makeup game and the other team didn't show up so Luke and the other older siblings played Seth's team, and it was really fun.  The pictures are pretty self-explanatory.

Little Stinker

I don't give Ian nearly enough attention on this blog, but he is a lot of fun (and work) lately.  Chasing him around is a full-time job.  Whenever he has any freedom he makes a beeline for somewhere he shouldn't be like the road, and if there was ever a candidate for a leash it's him.  He has absolutely no problem with wandering a long ways away from me...in like two seconds.  When we take him a public place like a soccer game, church, the park, etc. he does not care one bit about staying with us.  In fact, it seems like he would rather be playing with other people's toys, sitting on their laps, eating their food, you name it.  He has no boundaries!  I love that he's so friendly and not clingy at all but it makes it a challenge to not lose him.  He needs a bell or something...or some of those squeaky shoes.  So here are a few things Ian is up to at almost 18 months...

Ian loves to be in the shower with or without his clothes.  He disappeared one day, and I found him in here having a good old time. 

This is his "I know I shouldn't be doing this, but I am anyway" face.  He uses this one a lot.  Actually he openly mocks me and dares me to react like when he is throwing all of his food onto the floor--almost every meal, or he holds his plate out and yells "mom" in this really loud voice that sounds like a sheep (weird I know) until I take it from him.

Ian still loves his binky, but he will only take this kind.  We usually only let him have it in bed, but we're going to have to break him of the habit soon.

This was an interesting one.  I left the chair pushed out, and I found him on top of the desk standing on my laptop.  I guess he needed those pencils or maybe it was the scissors he was after.  Don't worry I scolded him after taking this picture.

Ian makes himself at home wherever he is.  At Bear Lake he didn't like his little chair that much, but he was happy to climb up in this one and utilize the drink holder.

Ian is a crack up.  He knows when he's being a ham.  He loves walking around with this bug net on his head because we all laugh.

Ian can make some serious faces.  I see the furrowed brow look in the picture above a lot.  He also has some awesome, kissable cheeks.

And of course there's the smile.  He is a happy kid (as long as you don't try to make him sit still or do something he has his mind set on).  In that case, his temper comes out and he will probably slap you (we're working on that).  Church=3 hour wrestling match right now so on Sunday toward the end of Sacrament meeting when he was getting really tired of it I grabbed his hand when he went to slap me so he head butted me--and that's not the first time.  Our friend sitting behind us laughed and commented after that he's got some good "ninja" moves.  I'm not sure that's a good quality in a one-year-old.  Lucky for me Jer is the one who is pretty much in charge of him at church, and he can go to nursery next week.  Yeah!  Little temper tantrums aside he is such a cute, fun, smily, energetic kid and we love him a lot.  He gives lots of good "loves" and sometimes it seems like everyone in the family is competing for his attention.  He is my beautiful blue-eyed, blond baby, and I can't stand seeing him grow up so fast.

Very Random Happenings

Because this is my family journal I'm going to try to do a catch-up post on all the stuff I never blogged about this summer. This is totally random and in no particular order and will probably interest no one so don't feel obligated to read on.  My kids are playing inside for once (in Luke's case it's because he's in a bit of trouble and can't play with friends today), so they are ransacking the basement while I do this.

 

I cannot make this new editor behave, so I guess the text will be here.  The top pic is Luke and Seth with their summer charts.  We set some goals and made a list of lots of things to do this summer and did most of them.  They earned stickers for days when they did their "homework" and chores without complaining.  A few days ago they went and spent their loot.  Luke chose a "How to Train Your Dragon" weapon set which is so him.  He loves to dress up and pretend to be a cowboy, explorer, superhero...he was so disappointed though that the helmet didn't fit.  It was perfectly round and not even close to big enough for his big noggin.  Bummer!  Seth picked a big robot that makes lots of noise.  Yippee!

In June the boys played t-ball.  Neither of them had ever played before, and they don't seem to have much interest in it.  In Seth's case it may just be his age but with Luke he really doesn't like it much.  We'll see if that changes.  I've never been a baseball fan at all, so I won't mind if they don't want to go there.  The team was for 3-7 year-olds which was way too big of an age/ability gap.  Jer was their coach.  The one and only girl on the team loved him.  It was a big hassle for him because his job does not exactly lend itself to being somewhere at 5:00, but he did great!

Over Father's Day weekend Jer was supposed to run in his steeplechase, but he couldn't due to the massive sprained ankle he got training over Memorial Day.  We had booked a room at Little America to stay down there at the race, so we decided to go anyway.  It was our first kidless getaway since Ian was born and it was awesome!  We ate out a lot including P.F. Cheng's where we would never go with our kids, went to a late movie, slept in, and had an amazing brunch at the Grand America.  We stopped off at my parent's house on our way back to pick up the kids and celebrate the holiday.  The Picketts came down for dinner and it was great.  These boys are like uncles to my kids, and we love them so much! 

Lots of fun swimming at the pool, swimming lessons, and home with friends and cousins.

A fun weekend in Salt Lake City with friends.  I met Kristy and kids on what has to be the hottest day ever at Thanksgiving Point.  Luckily we spent most of our time at the dino museum.  When we ventured to the petting zoo we almost died...but we had fun!  Then we met up with Jer and a bunch of other friends at the Miller's house in Holladay.  The guys hit the road for a bike ride on Saturday, and we hit the Gateway with the kids.  Good times.

We have done a few races this year.  We both ran the local half marathon in August.  Jer mostly biked after hurting his ankle, so I would give him about a D for training.  I would give myself maybe a B-.  It was fine though.  I was a few minutes faster than last year, and I didn't have to breastfeed at the finish so that was a plus.  It was a hot day which is really bad for my head.  My migraines have become such a nuisance.  I just plan on having one whenever I get hot exercising which is pretty much each time I train during the summer plus I just get some for no reason.  My pills usually counteract them pretty well.  Well, I had a pill in my running shorts for the finish.  Unfortunately it was a pretty hot day, and the race did not start at the crack of dawn when I usually run.  Needless to say I got a bad headache which was not improved with any of my pills which led to bad puking later in the evening accompanied by dehydration which led to a trip to the E.R.  That was really fun.  At the E.R. they decided to give me some meds by I.V. which took two people and about 3 hours to accomplish.  Just this week I tried this 3 day IV treatment that is supposed to help a lot, but the verdict is still out.  Jer also ran in a very hilly, trail half marathon at Snow Basin last weekend.  He did great despite the fact that he thought he was cramping, ate a bunch of salt, and puked for 10 minutes during the race.  It was beautiful up there and I want to do this one next year.  Running on trails is much more my thing than pounding the pavement.

Trip to Tony Grove.  It was one of the only cold days we've had in recent history and was about 50 degrees, but we had a fun hike around the lake.

Just in case this wasn't the longest post ever I'm also glad to say I finished my master's project a few weeks ago.  What a relief!  Getting babysitters or my mom and getting up to USU at least once a week for the last 6 months has been a huge pain.  I still have lots of writing and more coursework to do but everything else can be done at midnight in my p.j.s.  Okay I've neglected my kids for long enough.  That's it.

Say Cheese

So we got our family pics done in June, and I'm finally getting around to posting them.  We had some miscommunication about location which resulted in a last minute choice of place, but I think we got some cute shots anyway.  Seth wins the award for most uncooperative this time, but they were actually pretty good.  The worst shots were definitely of all the boys together trying to look at the camera at the same time...see below.  The candid ones were great.   

First Backpacking Trip

This past weekend Luke went on his first backpacking trip!  He had a great time, and we are so proud of how great he did.  Friday afterschool he and Jer headed up Logan Canyon and hiked up to White Pine Lake for an overnighter.  It's about a 4-mile hike each way.  Jer said he complained a little but not a lot!  He was so amazed at all of our backpacking stuff that he got to see and use for the first time.  We've done quite a bit of car camping and hiking with the kids but this was the first time he got to see the little stove and water purifier in action.  He is a gadget guy like his dad, so he was totally impressed.

They picked a perfect, warm night and Luke was also impressed with Jer's sweet cooking skills--not something he sees around here a lot.

On the way out Luke found an old, broken dog leash which provided a lot of entertainment.  He used it to get bad guys in the bushes and trip Jer among other things.  He's also no dummy and at some point hooked it on Jer's backpack for a little extra pull!

The rest of the weekend was great too.  We all met up at the Liechty's cabin at Bear Lake on Saturday morning and then headed to the beach for the day.  The drive up was so pretty.  We had the kids at Tony's Grove a few weeks ago and only a few trees had changed but now it is absolutely beautiful.  I love fall!  Even though it was September the water was tons warmer than when we were there in July (at least warm for Bear Lake).  The kids were fully submerging, and we had a great day topped off with way too much food at La Beau's.

Luke and Caitlyn warming up after a dip.

Jer and Steve in their cute swim shirts.

This guy needs a post of his own soon.  Let's just say he has left the angelic baby stage and is becoming quite opinionated.  He's a cutie though. 

The whole gang.  We got the van stuck in the sand and the easy-up blew away and took out Caitlyn but other than that it was just a lazy, almost summer day.  Please stay fall...I am in no way ready for winter!

P.S.  I didn't think Blogger could do worse than the old way to upload pictures, but they managed.  The new editor is terrible.  Only click that preview button if you have all day.  I might have been muttering a few choice words while trying to post this.  Frustrating!

Big Preschool Kid

Seth started preschool last week, and he loves it! It's so nice to have a child that just wants to be dropped off and go do his thing. He goes to Ms. Jenny who lives about 5 minutes away from us. Every time we drive in that direction he asks if we are going to "my Ms. Jenny's house." He picked out this really tacky Buzz Lightyear backpack with lots of bling on it but for some reason he did not want it in the picture. He wears it with pride to school though!


It is hard for me to believe he's already three. I know time will keep flying, and he will be in school all day before I know it. I love having him at home with me, so his preschool is only twice a week which is great for both of us.


What am I going to do with the three hours per week with just one child that I now have? I don't know...the possibilities are endless though. This Tuesday I went to the grocery store with just Ian, and it was awesome...like being on vacation...almost.

Seth is becoming quite the character, and he charges through life at full speed (doing lots of crashing into things in the process), but he is also very sweet and doesn't seem to have an aggressive bone in his body. I find him laughing with Ian all the time. We sure "lub" him around here.

Cute Kids

So we've had more firsts around here the last few days and I need to do another post with some pics, but I just wanted to write down a few cute things my kids have said recently.

You probably had to be here for this one but the other day at lunch Seth told me, "my tummy is starting to rumble." I kind of laughed and then he said, "my favorite food is gruffalo crumble." Then I realized he was saying the line from the book "The Gruffalo." It was pretty cute, and he wanted some "gruffalo crumble" for lunch. We had to improvise.

Last night as we were driving through the parking lot at the park Luke starts yelling, "hey there's Cream. He's in my class."
Me: "Cream?"
Luke: "Yes." We went back and forth with that a few times.
Luke: Starting to get frustrated with me, "Cream, C-R-E-A-M."
Me: "Like ice cream without the ice?"
Luke: "Yes!"
We still didn't quite get to the bottom of it. He told me "Cream" has black hair. I'm thinking it must be like "Kareem." Anyway, it was cute and he finished the conversation by saying that "Cream" had a brother that looked exactly like him. I asked if they were twins. He said "yes it's his twin only older." Apparently we're still a little fuzzy on the concept of twins!

Glad I have these cute kids to make me laugh everyday. Ian is currently pulling his favorite trick of sticking his hand under the lid of the garbage can on purpose and then squealing until I notice and help him.