The Semi-Annual Soccer Blog

These two could be famous someday!

Once again, another season of soccer has come and gone. So once again I am posting pictures of these awesome kids in action. Both Seth and Aleah had really great seasons. Way to go guys!

All of the pictures of Seth were taken by Andrew A. (one of the parents from Seth's team who is a really good photographer with a really, really good camera) who was nice enough to share. Aleah's pictures were taken by me (which explains a lot).

So here goes...

Legos, Legos, Everywhere

I LOVE Legos. They have got to be the coolest toys ever. They keep kids, (big and small, old and young) entertained for hours and they encourage kids to be creative and use their imaginations. You can make almost anything with Legos - spaceships, dollhouses, fortresses, airplanes, dinosaurs, towers, swords, people, cars, barnyards - anything. They are awesome. Until about a week ago, the only downside to Legos that I could think of is that they make a HUGE mess and I find them all over the house, ALL the time. But in the end, it's worth it.

Josh made this Star Wars fighter.
"Isn't is awesome?", he asked me.

Well, this last weekend, we thought of a second downside to Legos. I went to Corpus Christi last weekend to run in a race with friends and Dalen got to experience the adventure of taking care of the kids all by himself. On Saturday afternoon, right after we had completed the race and were getting in the car to go back to our hotel, Dalen called to inform me that he was going to have to take Anna to the emergency room because she had shoved some Legos up her nose and he couldn't get them out. WHAT??!!! She has played with Legos a gillion times and has never put them up her nose before. But I guess we didn't want Dalen to think that this taking care of kids thing is a piece of cake, so Anna decided to give him a little excitment!

A few hours later, Dalen called to tell me that they had gotten the Legos out and didn't have to go to the emergency after all. Apparently, he had gotten the kids loaded up in the truck in the pouring rain and as they were pulling out of the driveway, Anna told him that she had a Lego. He asked her if that was the one that was in her nose and she said "yes". So he unloaded everyone out of the truck and went in the house. Anna continued to complain about her nose, however, and so Dalen took another look and, sure enough, there was still a Lego up there. He tried to get it out with some tweezers, but she would have nothing to do with that and kicked and screamed like ..... well, like you would expect a two year old to kick and scream. Dalen was about to load the kids up again to go to the emergency when Seth came home from his rained out soccer tournament. Dalen nabbed the couple that brought Seth home and got them to help hold Anna down while he expertly removed the offending Lego with the tweezers.

Anna with the two notorious Legos.

I got home later that night and everyone was still alive and the house was still standing, so I guess all is well that ends well. Now, who ever said that staying home and taking care of the kids was boring??? I think Dalen will be glad to go back to the peace and quiet of the office!

Birthday, Summer, Beach to Bay

It has been a month since I have had a chance to sit down and blog. We have been incredibly busy. But things finally seem to be settling down a little, so I'll try to do some catch up.

Birthday

Last month I had a birthday .... again. They seem to come around more and more frequently. Or maybe it's just that I have had so many of them that I find myself thinking "Really, it's my birthday AGAIN?!"

This birthday was fun. I got to celebrate it in various ways with family and friends for the entire week - including dinner with girlfriends at Johnny Carinos. YUM! Thanks to everyone who made it so great. I really have been blessed with wonderful people in my life!

In accordance with tradition, Dalen baked a devil's food cake, covered it with cream cheese frosting, and let the kids decorate it for my birthday. The picture above is this year's masterpiece. As you can see, it is missing a few candles. I guess they didn't want to risk setting the house on fire. What a sweet family I have!


Summer
The weather has turned warmer and it is feeling like summer is here to stay. The kids have been spending a lot of time outside engaged in various activities involving wheeled toys. Seth and Aleah have gotten really good at riding their ripstiks, Josh is enjoying his bike with training wheels, and Anna likes to ride her scooter and her tricycle. This is why I love the cul-de-sac! I can tell the kids to go play in the street and it isn't considered a mean thing to say.





One of the truly amazing things so far this summer is that the plants I put in last year are actually all still alive. I have not had great luck keeping plants alive in the past. So when I went to the nursery I asked the guy working there for suggestions for plants that could survive ME (meaning that they would almost never receive any care or attention of any kind). The guy was very helpful and I am patting myself on the back because everything is still alive and actually blooming - not that I did anything other than put them in the ground, but I'll take credit where I can.


Beach to Bay
This last weekend I went down to Corpus Christi with some amazing gals and ran in the Beach to Bay relay marathon. This was my second year to run this race. We left for Corpus on Friday afternoon and came back Saturday night. We ate some (Olive Garden), and ran some, and ate some more (Cheesecake Factory), and talked A LOT. It was VERY fun!

I am not kidding when I say these mamas are amazing. One of them just had a baby five weeks ago (the one holding the baby) and another one is pregnant (sporting the "baby bump" shirt). The rest are just plain amazing. Thanks for such a great weekend ladies!

Beach to Bay 2009

Dalana, Karen, Kristen, Natalie A., Natalie S., Me

Beach to Bay 2008

Kristen, Me, Natalie, Karen, Kristi