Birthdays!

With Nate & Abbie's birthdays being just 2 days apart we end up having what seems like a couple of weeks of non stop birthday celebration.

Side note - I have a friend here that sometime ago told me about a tradition they have in their family. On her children's birthday she goes to school and has lunch with them. Any lunch of their choice. It's something that I started doing when Nate was in Kindergarten. It's a tradition I love doing! On to the birthdays...

Abbie's birthday is the first of these two on the calendar. She had a great time opening all her gifts, and we had a small birthday cake at home, not to mention birthday lunch & treats at school. It's great to be 6!

Nate's birthday was next in line and it was pretty much a repeat of Abbie's special day. Presents at home, a small family cake, and birthday lunch & treats at school. This birthday was an extra special one for Nate has he turned the great big 8. He chose to get baptized and got to start cub scouts (he looks sharp in his uniform)! So many good things for our sweet hearted boy!

With the exception of last year (long story) Nate & Abbie have always had a joint "friends" birthday party. It's just easier on me & they don't mind doing it. We rent the High School pool & have a party for a couple of hours. It's always so much fun & then it's done - WHEW!

PS It looks like I never posted Kassie's official 1st Birthday picture. So for the record, here it is:

For this post I am grateful that my children love having their birthday parties together - it really is nice. They have so much fun together & are each other's best pals. It's what all parents hope for & we feel very blessed that for us it's a reality (for now anyway)!

Soccer 2009

So I slipped into that old habit not being able to find time to update our blog on a regular basis. I find myself being envious of those who blog regularly. It's something that I really like to do, but with my job, kids, my church calling and everything else that life throws my way it seems like this pit stop gets passed by on the freeway of life, but today is update day so strap on your boots here we go....

One of the things that sucked up a lot of time since I last posted was soccer season. Both Nate & Abbie played again this year. With practice 2 nights a week & 2 games every Saturday it kept free time at a premium.

Abbie was with the exact same team/coach as last year & they were AWESOME. Their coach is terrific, she really loves the girls & they love her right back. Abbie loved soccer & made great progress from last year. She scored the very first goal of the season & then went on to score 2 more goals that game & scored at least 1 goal every game this year - a tremendous improvement over last year! She loves scoring goals, but honestly I think she likes the attention/praise she gets when she scores a goal most of all. She's such a diva sometimes, but watching her play is so much fun!

 

Nate's team really struggled this year. They were down a "man" before the season even started & they had mixed a couple of teams together to create a new team with a new coach. The coach was great & so very patient. He worked with the boys & taught them lots of basic skills, they really started to click as a team towards the end of the season. I really hope we can keep the same group together next year, Nate's not yet had the same coach (or teammates for that matter) 2 seasons in a row. It's obvious to us what a big difference consistency with a team can make. This was the first year that the team played a goalie - it was something Nate was anxious to try & turns out he's a pretty dang good goalie. It was great for all of us when it was his turn to play goalie so that he could have some success. But in the end he had a great time & loved playing & wants to play again so in my book that's a successful season.

One really cool thing that happened this year, is that for the first time we got to have family at a game. Both sets of grandparents we in town for Nate's baptism (more on that later) and we drug them along in the cold to see a game for each of the kids, it was an extra special day for us. For all the time we've played, all the kids on their teams have had grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc come to cheer them on. It was great for Nate & Abbie to have that, even if just for one game. An extra cool thing is on that day Nate got to play goalie & it was the one game his team one all season - extra special in so many ways.

Just a random side note: Kassie did pretty well at all the games. You can guess how many "How cute" comments we got once it got cold & she got bundled up. The proof is in the pictures!

We also had a very good family friend join us for a couple of games early in the season (before the cold, wind & rain started) to cheer on our kids. We are truly so very blessed to have such an amazing support system here when our family is so very far away. For this we are grateful beyond words.