Soccer Stars

We have officially started the soccer season as of two weeks ago. Both K and B are playing this year and it has been interesting so far. This is B's first year playing and she is the baby of her team. The cut off to play is the first of July so she barely made it. With watching K for two years and her aggressive personality, we thought for sure she would be all over the field and taking people out to get the ball in the goal. Well, we were very far from correct. At this point, she is more interested in making sure mom and dad are watching her every move while she runs/walks around the field. Usually you can see her running the field, staring at you with a big cheesy grin, and totally oblivious to where the ball is! She has had a few times that she would have made goals if she knew what was going on. Maybe by the end of the season, we will see some progress.
K is also the baby on his team. He went up a level this year which means they have positions and a goalie. His team is double the size it was last year which is good since the field they run on is three times as big as they are used to! This will be a hard season for him and his team. With the goalie now it is a lot harder to score and the teams they have played are hard competition. He is so good at soccer this year compared to past years. He plays great as a defender and keeps the opponent right in front of him. (He even had Randy his soccer dad, impressed with his ability!) When he is a forward he also does a great job helping his teammates. It will be a grand day when his team get a goal.

Soccer in Utah is very sketchy....weather wise-as you can see by their layers under the uniforms! So far we have only had one game canceled for wet fields and one and a half games that we froze through. But we can't complain since some people we know have sat through down pours of rain or snow. GO BEARS AND BOBCATS!!

The Tables Have Turned

Randy and I are not very lucky when it comes to drawings in which your name has to be picked to win something. One time when Randy was in maybe third grade he won a scooter at school...and he constantly reminds me about his "big win." Other than that, we have been down on our luck...until now folks! It all started a few weeks ago when we were in Breckenridge, Colorado for a conference Randy attended. The first night we were there, they had a drawing for a free I-Pod Touch and Randy was the lucky winner! We were both in shock seeing as how we never win anything like that.

Anyway, we thought our luck was used up, but it wasn't meant to be. Tonight K's school had what is called OREO night where the families get to go listen to teachers and aides read their favorite books. When the stories are done, every child gets to have cookies and milk and choose one book to take home. This year they changed things up a bit and added a contest/drawing for a free book set along with all the other fun things.

A couple weeks back they had all the families start reading The Indian in the Cupboard as a family read-a-thon. Then tonight, if a child wanted to, they could participate in a trivia contest about the book to have their names put in the drawing. We forced/encouraged K to give it a try just to see what would happen. Well, long story short: they ended up having a total of 9 winners in all and guess who was one of those 9? You got it K! Now you have to understand that there were a ton of papers to pick through for these 9 winners so we were pretty sure we had no chance. But with our newfound luck....well you know what happened! I think we might try the lottery next!

Here we all are with each child's free book and our brand spanking new set of the Chronicles of Narnia (BOXED SET even)!

A Child's Prayer

A said her prayers all alone tonight. Here is how it went.

Mom: "It's time to say your prayers, do you know how it starts?"

A: "Heavenly Father. Thank thee...."

Mom: "For this day"

A:"For day"

Mom: "Thank Thee to be happy"

A:"No, quiet (directed to mom). Thank Thee for daddy. Thank Thee for Mommy. Thank Thee for K. Thank Thee for B. Thank Thee for A. Jesus. Amen."

Short and sweet and yet so tender! She knew just

what to be grateful for :)

A Dream Come True

Earlier this month, the high school put on the musical "The Wizard of Oz." I took the kids (yes, just three kids and me) to see the show. Despite trying to keep A entertained and quiet the whole time, we all had a good time. B knew everything that was going on from watching the movie at grandma's house not too long before this. She was so excited to meet and greet the actors after the show. She kept asking me throughout the play when it was time to meet Dorothy. Of course, when it was time to get up close and personal, she got all shy but she eventually was brave enough for a picture. It was fun too since we (at least I) knew Glinda the Good Witch.

Do you want our autographs?

So, K and I are famous now...just to let you know. Our bishop wanted the Young Men and Young Women in the ward to take on the task of making a Mormon Message for the new Mutual theme. Our dedicated and creative YW President did a ton of work on it and got it submitted by the deadline. If you are interested in seeing our beautiful faces, go to youtube and type in: mormon message - we believe (and yes, those are spaces between each word and dash). Look through the little pictures and you will see a darling young man in a white shirt and green tie who looks just like K and there you are! I am in all the big group shots if you can pick me out...and I think you can find both of us in the other parts! Enjoy!

The House

As per request from one of the few readers of this blog, I will give an update on the house plans going on next door. Yes, we have been building our house....for quite a few months now. It is now at the stage where the inside is being worked on. In the next couple of weeks, the finish work (meaning the trim, doors, closets, and door frames) will be done. Somewhere in there the siding should be getting on the outside too. Then comes the best part..painting! Actually, I am not looking forward to that part at all because Randy and I will be doing all the work to save money. So, the next time I write about the house, I will probably be complaining about it! Once the paint is done, it is time for all the final things. That is when the cabinets, flooring, and bathroom things will go in. The builders gave us an estimate of being done by February or March. I am going to guess March (and probably the middle of it) so as not to get my hopes up just yet!

Blog Worthy

So, I sent out a Christmas letter stating that I was going to start using this blog that I set up over a year ago. Here we are in the full second week of January and I have yet to write. The problem is, I feel like there is nothing "Blog worthy" to write about right now. Of course, when I wasn't really doing this thing, I had all sorts of stuff I could think up to write....now my mind is blank. It seems like when I read others people's blogs they write when they have something really funny, important, etc to write about. I've got nothing. But I decided since I did say I would do this, I better go ahead and give it a try. So, here goes with my first official post this go around (hopefully to not be followed by the last very quickly!) I don't even know if anyone will read this, but I guess it is worth a try, right?!

Today at K's school they had what was called an AR Parade. They have this program where when a child reads certain books, they can take tests on them and earn points. If you have gotten to 60 points by today, you were able to participate in the parade. Since this is our first year in a "all day" school day, we have not been in the AR program before and this was all new to us. K and I have worked hard to get his points (which really isn't hard to do when you have a kid who LOVES to read) mainly so we could see what this parade was all about-not to mention the cool prizes you get at different point levels! What it is, is the kids who have reached this milestone, get to wear their special shirts, run through the halls with the principal, and give high fives to all the other classrooms full of kids who are standing in the halls cheering them on. Pretty cool if you're a kid in the parade right?! Well, K loved it. He had a big grin the whole time he was running. As they came around the last corner he was about out of breath from all that running, so I guess we can say he got his exercise fo

r the day! I sure am proud of him and all he has do

ne with his reading so far this year. He is currently at 103 points...almost double what he needed for the parade! GO K!