S is for Saturday.... and Soccer!

After sitting out for the first 2 games of the season, Maddie was able to play in her first soccer game this morning. We had so much fun! I am becoming a huge fan of soccer, and so is Maddie. It is amazing how many teams there are in just our city. For Maddie's age group there are 27 girls teams! There are 6 games going on at the same time ALL day long.

We got up pretty early this morning (for a Saturday) and got all ready to head off to the Soccer field. Maddie was very excited, and after we arrived she told us she was a little nervous. She is the only one on her team who has never played a season before and she has only been to 2 practices (because of her broken arm). So I think she felt a little inexperienced going into the game. She did so well and we were so proud of her. She was really running hard and getting into the game. At one point she got hit in the stomach and came out of the game in tears. A few minutes later she went right back out into the game. We are so proud of our little Soccer player!

Warming up before the game

Hustling on the field

Go get that ball Maddie!

Lining up with her teammates

Soccer pictures came back today

Pumpkin time!

For the last 2 years Carter has been a huge fan of Odwalla's Pumpkin Super Protein drink. Around this time of year he starts asking Chris, "When is pumpkin juice coming out?" Well the other day Daddy brought home several bottles and Carter has been on a pumpkin diet ever since! I don't think this kid could get enough of it. (He isn't a big eater but I guess its okay since he gets 18 grams of protein from each bottle!) It's actually pretty good, it kind of tastes like a pumpkin milk shake or pumpkin pie.

I am happy that fall is on its way. I love the start of this season because there are so many fun things about Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. This is definitely the start of my favorite time of year. I just wish the weather would cool down a bit. We've been having a little heat wave with temps in the 90's every day this past week. Bring on the crisp fall air..... I'm ready for it!

Cast Away.....

After four grueling weeks of Maddie saying, "Mom how many days til I get my cast off?", today was the day! The poor girl has struggled with writing since her first week of school and has had to stay off the playground at recess, and of course sit on the sidelines at her first two soccer games and 4 weeks of practices. She was more than elated to have her cast removed today. Here are some highlights of our 2 hours spent at Kaiser today.

Before removing her cast

After her cast is removed
(She kept holding her arm straight out like she couldn't move it)

Holding the Cast

Carter tries it on for size
(Maddie assures him it is not as fun as it looks)

Yeah Cast Free!!!

Yogurt to Celebrate!

Hey everybody it's Family Night.....

...you'd better take the phone off the hook. I don't know where this song came from but my Dad used to sing it when we were kids and it has just stayed in my head all these years.

Chris took a Loooong trip and finally came home on Sunday. We missed him so much. He went to Utah for the BYU vs. UCLA game and flew directly to Atlanta for a business meeting at the Coca-cola headquarters. He thought it was really cool and got to do some fun things there (like have a private tour of the Aquarium, go to a Braves game, eat at fancy restaurants and try cokes from around the world). Since Houston was on his way home he stopped there and visited Jeff and Janelle and Heather and Cisco's families. He was there a day and a half and came home. He was gone 9 days and it was pretty rough for the kids and I, we missed him so much!

By Monday night it was due time for some serious family time! So we took the kids to one of our favorite places to eat, Fudruckers, or as Maddie and Carter call it, Funduckers! It is next door to my favorite doughnut place, Krispy Kreme so we thought it would be fun to go watch the doughnuts being made. Sawyer was pretty fascinated by it. Here is a cute picture of them with their Krispy Kreme hats eating doughnuts. We are so glad to be back together as a family I am just glad I made it through alive!

Soccer + Cast = NO FUN

Maddie started Soccer her first week of school. She is playing U-8 for AYSO. She had never played a sport before so I was a little worried about how she would do. After we took her to her first practice she absolutely loved it. She fit in so well with all the girls and even was a little aggressive. When Daddy got home from work he took her to Chick's to get a ball and shin guards. I had no idea she'd be that excited. The next day she was outside playing in the yard with her full uniform on and she even got Carter to play with her.

All was well until later that week she broke her arm at school! Apparently she ran into a boy and just fell down wrong and fractured her wrist! I thought for sure there was nothing wrong. The nurse didn't even call me. She just sent her back to class. So the next day when Maddie kept complaining about her wrist, I thought I'd get it checked. Sure enough it was broken. For some strange reason all kids wish they could have a cast, until they have one! Maddie was excited for about 5 minutes, then she kept asking, "can I take it off"! Now she asks, "how many more days to I have to wear it?" She has about 2 1/2 weeks left. The sad thing is that she hasn't been able to play soccer at all and it just kills me because she was so excited! I have taken her to some of the practices to watch but she just gets frustrated and bored. The good thing is she'll only miss two games. On Saturday it was picture day so we'll always remember how she started off her first season of soccer. I really hope she likes it and wants to do it again! (I made the bows for the whole team. I thought they turned out pretty cute! The only thing I knew about soccer was the cute bows they wear so I volunteered to make them!)

Carter's First Day of School

Carter was very excited to have his turn this week! Carter's first day of preschool was today. He is going 2 days a week for 3 hours each day. He was a little anxious since his class this year is in different location than it was last year. He kept asking me if the same friends were going to be there. I really like the location, it is in a beautiful new community center and has a little gated outside area for the kids to play. Maddie went to preschool here and loved it. His teachers name is Ms. April and she seems very nice. When I came to pick him up he had already made two "buddies" as he put it! I think he is going to have a great year. I can't believe that next year he'll be in Kindergarten. He is growing up so fast!

Sawyer's B-day Party

Sawyer's Birthday fell on Labor Day this year so we had a big barbecue for his party. We had a Thomas the train themed party since he loves trains so much. Chris barbecued yummy Carne Asada and we had all the fixings. He was definitely aware that it was his party and was so adorable! He loved opening his gifts and being sung to! We had a Thomas pinata for the kids and he loved that too! It was fun to get together with family and ejnoy our newly finshed yard too!

"Happy Birthday to you...."

Here is Sawyer playing with his Thomas the Train toy after the party

Another Central Coast Trip (The last one for a while!)

If you read my blog or know me you know that since Chris started working for Odwalla (2 years ago) we've taken quite a few little trips up to the Central coast region when he's had to travel for work. He's actually taken MANY (too many as far as I'm concerned. He actually spent 6 whole weeks in San Luis Obispo once! Coming home on the weekends of course) but we've had the opportunity to travel with him several times which has been really fun. We have just fallen in love with the area, it is just so calm and relaxing, the beaches are beautiful and so natural and the people are so nice! If you've never been there it is a great place for families to visit, and live if you are lucky enough to find a job up there! Anyway, I'll get to my point... Chris has changed districts and is no longer over that area, which is nice because he is actually working a lot closer to home. He now has Orange County and Inland Empire! Until very recently he worked in San Fernando (at least an hour from home, 2 in traffic) and the area went all the way up the coast to San Simeon. The good news is he won't be going out of town much at all and the bad news is we won't be going to the Central coast anymore!

We did have one last little fun trip up to San Luis Obispo but this time I was the one doing the working! I had the opportunity to train a Pediatric Dentist office. I was a little hesitant to go out of town since we left 2 days after getting back from our Family Reunion and celebrating Chris' birthday it was a wirlwind! Not to mention 2 days after we returned, Maddie started school! I thought what the heck lets just have one last hoo-rah of the Summer. The shoe was on the other foot now and I worked two full 8 hour days while Chris played with the kids all day.

The night we arrived it was late and we carried the kids in to bed. Sawyer woke up in the middle of the night and decided to play with his poop and got it all over the bedding in the crib and his P.J.'s (This is a daily occurrence in our household for the last 6 weeks). The next morning he woke up before all of us, climbed out of his crib and played with his poop again and got it all over the white bed spread on our bed! So our trip got of to a great start. (Luckily Chris was able to smooth it over with the Housekeepers by speaking to them in Spanish!)

The first day of training couldn't have gone better, then when Chris came to pick me up, he said, "I'm so sorry honey... something bad happened" I started to panic and looked at Carter and his lip was HUGE and cut open. He had been jumping from the couch to the coffee table in our Hotel room and he hit his mouth on the table. His top teeth had been bleeding so I rushed him in to see the dentist and he took a look at them. He told me just to watch them but did recommend that he get a stitch on his lip. So we took him to Urgent Care and spent a few hours there. Carter was so brave he didn't even shed a tear. After we got out of there it was 8 by then and we were starving. Chris had waited in the car with the DVD player running for Sawyer, and the battery was dead! (Those things really drain the battery) We called AAA and they were supposedly on there way. Someone finally showed up around 9:30 and then we went to dinner. After that we headed over to the Laundromat to wash Sawyer's poopy blankets and clothes. What an exhausting day! Poor Chris felt so bad about what happened and kept worrying the rest of the trip that the kids were going to get hurt.

Luckily the next day went very smoothly.

After Chris picked me up we went to F. McClintocks in Shell Beach. It is a really cool restaurant where they cook everything over a wood pit. The food is sooo good. They also pour your water really cool too. I didn't get any pictures of that though.

Here is my yummy steak, it was at least 3 inches tall, a true baseball cut!

The next morning we got up and drove to Monterey (about 2 hours) and went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It was so much fun. Chris has been wanting to take the kids there for a long time and we were so glad we did. They just loved it! It was hard to get good pictures but here are a few. My favorite thing was the Jelly fish, they were so stunning! There were so many different kinds. They had these little tiny ones that look like little umbrellas. The kids loved the Otters. We walked down Cannery row and had lunch at "El Torito" right on the ocean, it was so cool! Later that evening we drove down to Paso Robles to spend the night and the next morning we went home! Other than the first day our trip was a ton of fun and we really enjoyed spending time with the kids before school started!

Chris is 30!

My high school sweetheart is 30 years old, I can't believe it. (I will soon follow in January) Time has flown by so fast but when I look back a lot sure has happened and we sure have changed (in good ways and bad!) I am so grateful to have spent the last 14 years with Chris I can't imagine my life without him. He brings so much fun to our family and he is the best father to my kids, they love him so much and he really knows how to have fun with them. I couldn't ask for more!

I found a cool website were you can type in a bunch of words (or put your blog address) and it creates a cool looking thing called a wordle, I love it! So I typed in words that I think of when I think of Chris and this is what I came up with. (If you want to try it go to wordle.net)

.........................

Here's how we celebrated his big day... We had just returned from our family reunion in San Clemente and I threw him a surprise party at Spaghetti Factory. To keep it simple I just invited my family and his, it turned out to be 29 people though! He was so surprised! We had just gotten home that day and were unpacking. He kept saying "I don't want to go anywhere tonight especially not out with the kids." So it was hard to convince him to go to Spaghetti Factory. But Cisco helped out and told him that He and Heather wanted to go and so the plans were made to meet them there. It was really hard to get him there on time since he is always fashionably late! But I did pretty good we were only about 15 minutes late! We walked back to the banquet room and he was so happy to see all of his family! Thank you so much for all who came, it really meant a lot to Chris. Here are some pictures of the party!

Surprise!

Heather, Kelli, Tanya and Ed

Faye and David

Chris, Me and Sawyer

Jake, Davis, and Tyler being silly

Sawyer is 2!

Our little Baby is 2 today. It is so hard to believe he has grown up so fast! Here is a slide show of some of my favorite pictures of his life. He has been such a blessing in our home and we love him so much! Enjoy!