Traditions

Almost every time we go over and visit Nana and Papa (Jeff's parents) we take a walk over to the duck pond near their house. It is beautiful and so fun for the kids. We have spent many a night feeding ducks, rolling down hills, trying to catch frogs, trying to see bunnies and lizards and muskrats and any other wildlife, watching nature take place, watching the change in environment, getting in bread fights, walking Maestro and just enjoying one another's company. It has been such a fun tradition that I hope the kids will remember forever.

PS: Abt Skylee's wings- My Mom just got back from Alaska (Yay!) so nice to have her back. She brought wings back for Skylee and she wants to wear them all the time. I am hoping they will stay together so she can wear them for Halloween- she is set on being the tooth fairy. :) So any ideas on how to make that work let me know.

Inspirational

I have to write about the most incredible talk that was given the other night in the General Relief Society meeting of the LDS church. President Uchtdorf gave the most amazing talk directed to women. I highly encourage every woman - young and old, lds or not to listen to this incredible talk. It is truly inspiring and such a great reminder to cherish life right now and be patient with ourselves and so much more wonderful counsel. To see the talk go HERE.

Horsie Ride

The kids and I have been on the carousel a few times but we wanted to take Daddy. So we went and got a family ice cream cone and went on the carousel. Turned out to be a fun family outing :)

Skylee Soccer Update

So soccer this week went MUCH better. Skylee was sick the day before and so a little worn down but emotionally she was TONS better than the week before. I talked to her all week long about just playing and having fun and not crying. The aggressiveness wasn't there like last week but I would much rather take an emotionally stable little girl having fun and not scoring goals than an emotional wreck even if she did get a goal. :) We will work on the actual game later but one step at a time...

Kokopelli Triathlon

This weekend we had quite the weekend. We started it all off with Jeff's triathlon. Since Jeff has started his Master's degree he has taken a break from tris. Now that he is at the end he had some friends peak his interest again and this was his first triathlon in several years. I braved it and took both kids on my own and they did great. Thankfully we had sweet friends to hang out with during the race. (Thanks Ricks family and Jewkes family). Jeff's time was 1 hour 22 min. He took third in his division and twentieth overall. I'm proud of his hard work to prepare and his race.

Nana's Fun Car

Nana came to watch the kids today while I went to my dear friend, Patricia Harris', memorial service. (Which by the way was beautiful, I am grateful for the opportunity I had to sign a song ). The kids had so much fun with Nana and while she was leaving the kids wanted to go for a ride... and they wanted to drive her car. I must admit it is pretty fun to drive :)

Yay! The Rain!

We have had a few awesome rain storms over the past week. The kids had lots of fun yesterday playing in the rain.

Jaston's Expressions

This boy shows SO much emotion and attitude in his little face and his facial expression. I know it's impossible to truly capture it on camera but I wanted to attempt it. Yes, at 22 months he rolls his eyes, turns his head, makes you feel like you are not worth this little man's time, and then smiles and you melt. He is just so expressive with those little facial features.

Another thing I noticed about Jaston yesterday is when you tell him you are going to come get him or tickle him he runs toward you. It is so funny. Where typically Skylee or other little kids will run away he runs right into your arms. or when we tell him we see his belly button and we are going to tickle it, he pulls up his shirt. My dad has what he calls the bees and that's a warning the bees are going to tickle you and to run- not Jaston he hears those bees and he runs right to him. I love it! He is at SUCH a fun age and it is so fun to see his personality starting to imerge. He is such a sweetie and more of a cuddler than Skylee (although it has to be on his terms). Man, I love my kids!

Yesterday's Impromptu Project

I decided this table needed to be painted so I just went ahead and did it. Jeff and I decided that I am no good at getting before pictures at the very beginning because of my incredible memory. So this is mostly before pics. I only painted the top of the table (which was actually the worst part but oh well).

After :)

Soccer Drama

Well today was quite the adventure with Skylee's soccer. Yes, she is four and it is a little young to start soccer (granted we did do it last year), but I thought she would be more ready this year... after today not so sure. I am utterly exhausted after her first practice and game. (It didn't really help that I left SLC at 5:00 this morning and drove straight to St. George, went shopping for cleats and headed to the game but this isn't about me...) 

    SO. I guess I should defend Skylee first because yesterday was a long day for her I took her to my sister, Teona's, in Cedar to play all day while I headed up north. Greg (Jeff' bro) picked her up that evening and took her to Nana's where she spent the night. So she was pretty exhausted.

   OK, back to the game. The practice went okay she was a little whiney and clingy but practiced okay. Game started - first five minutes were awesome I was so excited she was playing like a champ- dribbling down the field, stealing the ball from other players, just being super aggressive. So I thought sweet! This is going to be a great season (much better than her ups and downs of last). Yeah... not so much.

       She started to get frustrated because she couldn't make a goal. So she started crying and getting frustrated. So they had a quarter got a drink, I gave her a  little pep talk and sent her back out. She did okay again then would get frustrated. I forgot to mention that there are only three girls on her team and one of them refused to play she cried the whole time so it was two on three the whole time. After half time Skylee got out there and did this amazing run down the field everyone was amazed cuz she is a head smaller than anyone out there but she was a champ and right before the goal another girl kicked it away from her. That was the LAST straw. She was ticked and done! She started sobbing and that was the end of that. She continued to cry the rest of the game. Let me tell you I tried everything to get her head back in that game to no avail. I tried bribery, I tried standing on the field with her, I tried holding her hand, I tried physically running and placing her in front of the ball... Yeah, nothing! So our team was pretty much a mess the whole last half. Looking back it is kind of humorous but really at the time I was so tired from lack of sleep and traveling I was just doing everything I could to stay patient with the girl. I asked her what was wrong and she told me she couldn't make a goal she was so mad at herself and she couldn't stop the other team. Poor thing she was putting so much pressure on her little 4 year old self. (Sounds a lot like her mother). I tried to explain I don't care I just want her to have fun but no, she wanted a goal. 

   

   It was a little humorous when she was defending her goal and she picked up the ball placed it in front of the net and kicked it in. Everyone cheered- she got her goal and no one was going to tell her it was for the other team. Afterwards she was excited to tell her Nana she got a goal... oh well. 

     SO, that being said it was hot and tiring and on the way home she said she had fun. She also told me she didn't want to play soccer anymore (Great since i have signed her up for this season AND next and I didn't raise no quitter... right?). She also told me she didn't want to be on the blue team anymore she wanted to be on the yellow team (last year's team) cuz she was better on that team. Wow, I am exhausted. I forgot the drama of last year. She has asked to be in soccer for forever and now that we're here... wow. Hopefully next week will be better... if not... Not sure what I will do.

Skylee Stories

We went to dinner tonight with Jeff's family and then went over to Nana and Papa's to go to the duck pond- our weekly ritual. It was a very fun day at the duck pond. We saw a beautiful swan which Skylee named Dumbee, a baby frog which she picked up and named Bendee, and Skylee and Jaston learned how to roll down the hill from their Nana (I must say that is one cool Nana :) On the way home Diane and I were talking about how I need to document these things and the cute things Skylee says so I don't forget so I just wanted to write down a few memories from today. It was cute we asked Skylee what the swan's name was and she told us Dumbee so we asked why and she said, "cuz that's his name" and the the frog was Bendee we asked if it was because he was bendy but she said, "Nope it's because he's jumpy." Gotta love that girl :)

Diane teaches third grade and she always tells things about Skylee so they always beg to hear "Skylee stories" Sky gets to go in each year and read them books and hang out with the class. Man, is she loved by those sweet third graders. She has yet to go meet this year's lucky class. :)

My Little Man

Jaston was showing interest in Jeff's hat today so we pulled out one we had for him. He thought it was pretty cool he could be like Daddy but everytime I told him it was cute or tried to get a pic he tried to pull it off. These were the pics I was able to get- not the best but still shows my cute little man...and his cute Daddy :)