Silly Seth

Seth being silly at the hotel in Lancaster, PA for Dayton's Bday.

After dinner we went swimming. Well, the kids and Dave went swimming. But while Adam was bent over helping Seth out of the pool, he was just a perfectly dry, fully clothed target that I had to push in the pool. After that, he threw me in and we repeated that a couple more times with Seth too. So after a lot of wet towels, clothes and laughs, we went to bed to get ready for Dutch Wonderland!

Swinging before school,...

after school, and if they had it their way, during school. They love the tree swings, especially Ryan. Seth takes breaks to ride his bike, but Ryan can stay on them from after school until dinner without even taking her backpack off. The other day, she was swinging while I raked all the leaves. She took a break to jump in the leaves with Seth. Being from California, we never really had enough leaves to jump into (Yes, that huge tree in the middle of the aviary that lost its leaves in spring instead of fall, but it wasn't what the stories always talked about). But this was definitely what I imagined! It was really fun and, lucky me, we will have more leaves and more leaves to jump in (and rake).

Seth's Blue Sharks

Seth's first soccer team and my first banner. I asked the coach if anyone else was making one and he said, no. I asked if it would be OK if I did because in California we always had these big banners. He looked at me kinda funny and said, "This is just a rec league." (I guess this area doesn't do banners) But I couldn't wait to do one anyway. I kept it pretty simple, but as I was putting it up the first game, the kids looked over and said, "Whooaaaa, look!" It was very exciting. A couple of moms said how cool it was and I told them "I know noone else has them, but..." They said, "Not for long!" I will report back on if and when the other teams get banners.

(FYI - I used the wrong glue which is why the ball is falling off, don't worry it's fixed now.)

Seth is having a blast on the team. He laughs alot and even jokes when his own teammate takes the ball from kickoff and scores on his own goal. His favorite position is goalie because he "can just stand there". But he has also scored a couple of goals! It is really fun to watch.

We were sitting there and Adam said, "This is so suburban!" I told him he's right and I love it! We were sitting there in our little folding chairs on gorgeous green grass surrounded by beautiful green trees in front of a felt soccer banner watching my son kick around a ball with Ryan wiggling around on our laps waiting for the game to end so we could make a tunnel for him to run under. (Yes, they do that here) Yeah for soccer and suburbia!

(Next time I won't go quite so crazy on the number of pictures, but I couldn't control myself this time, they all just brought back such good memories and such fun hopes)

Funny Grown-up Ryan

The other night at the dinner table she said, "Watch and learn, Daddy!"

General Conference and the Staring Game

We watched conference today which of course was great but Elder Holland's talk on the Book of Mormon was AWESOME!!! It was so powerful. In this society of tiptoeing around everything, I loved hearing the truth and what he/we really thought about it. It reminded me of a couple of years ago, his talk about us being Christians. WOW!

We played on the tree swings between conferences and then went on a walk around the block. I had just said how I wanted to get a bench to sit on while the kids swing and what appears, but a great park bench with a free sign on it at the sidewalk. I even found out from a neighbor that it was a 75th birthday present for a sweet lady who used to live there. So Adam and Ryan walked home to get the truck, we put it in the back, had a seat and Adam drove us all back home. It's a great addition to the front yard. Since the kids can play on the tree swings forever, it's a great place to watch them from (or from where to watch them.)

After conference, the kids finished scrapbooking and playing with the kitty, and we sat down for dinner. During which we played the staring game. Adam was immature enough to keep clapping to make Seth blink and then Seth and Ryan clapped back and forth at each other for awhile. The other night, they were playing the Silent game, which Adam loved. Ryan kept calling Pause and then saying the most random things (she's not very good at the Silent Game... obviously, it would be like me playing it, there are just too many things to say). Anyway, after a game, Daddy was saying something silly and Seth said, "I wish you would play the Silent Game!" It was so sarcastic. Hehehehe!

Seth scored a goal

I keep being so excited that Seth had such a great time at his soccer game that I keep forgetting to say that he actually had one goal and one assist. It actually seems silly to even report his stats because the game was so-not-competitve. I mean there were goals and all, but at the end "they tied", even though we really won. One time, Seth's teammate took the ball from kick-off and dribbled all the way to their own goal and scored. Seth said, "Not that way!" and then gave his friend a huge smile. Well, we're gonna be grateful for the friendliness now because he will be elbowing, slidetackling, and kicking girls in the stomack in no time. Wait, was that just me and probably Lacee and Misty, too. Now that doesn't sound very nice... hehehehe!

Trains and kitties

It's Sunday evening and I'm trying to catch up. We played on the trains and practiced their parts for the Primary Program. Yesterday and the day before we went around to the shelters looking for our new kitty. We found "Sharpe", soon to be "Sockeye" (salmon, for you non-Alaskans). We found him Friday, but went to another kennel on Saturday just to be sure. The kids were pretty definite that they didn't want a different one, so did the "please Daddy, can we go visit Sharpe again. You'd think we were adopting a child- the process takes forever. But we are finally going to bring him home tomorrow night. What a great FHE! The kids have been making toys for the last few weeks, so this is going to be one loved kitty. And Adam says he doesn't want a cat, but I've seen him hold them at the pound and I'll report back when Sockeye is snuggling on his lap every night.

High Note!

The following story may not be appropriate for some audiences...

Seth was going to the bathroom and let out a long stinker and said "High Note"!
I asked him, "Did you just say high note?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because it was like a high note and loud."
"Did you just make that up or did Daddy say that before?" (that tells you way to much about Adam)
"I just said it."
I told him, "I'm going to go tell Daddy and he's going to think that is soooo funny!"
That got a giggle out of Seth and later, a huge, laugh out of Adam.

Seth, your future wife will be so proud!

Seth is down one tooth...

Seth got his bottom front tooth pulled today because the one was already coming in behind it. So he wouldn't be afraid if he had to get a shot, I explained that there was a good chance that afterwards when he took a drink he would drool everywhere. Everything went great except that the dentist didn't have to numb him deep enough so there was no water drooling. Ryan, especially, was very disappointed. But they cheered up finding his tooth holder which is under his pillow in Ryan's room for their movie sleepover. Now the "tooth fairy" needs to remember to trade his tooth before morning this time...

Squir-la

another word in Ryan language:
Squirla = squirrel
when we try to get her to say it correctly, it moves to...
Squirler = squirrel

Another Twilight Groupie

Those of you who know and love Twilight will totally get this... the rest of you can just skip to the next entry because you'll just think we're as big a dorks as you did when we first started reading these books.

So I told Melissa (my next door neighbor from Astoria who lives here by us now) about Twilight which she, of course, read and loved and was so sad when she finished the last book in the middle of the night, she googled "What should I read after Twilight?" And it gave her an answer, Poison Study Trilogy. So... we are not alone...!

Ryan's Bday at Chuck E. Cheese

Ryan, Seth and I went to Chuck E. Cheese for her birthday. We had a blast as always. We were down to the last few tokens after two hours and the kids had talked about pooling their coins and splitting them. When I saw that Ryan had a couple more, I told her to keep them because Seth had used quite a few more already. Seth happily ran off to use his last two and Ryan and I went to use hers. After we had played one game, she took out her last coins and said, " Mom, are you sure I can't share one with Seth." What a sweet sister! I told her of course and she with a big smile, she skipped off to find Seth.

Then, just to top off how great the kids are, Seth uses his tickets for Ryan. After playing, we spend almost as much time choosing what they are going to get with their tickets. Ryan wanted a magic wand that I was going to have to add money to because it was too much (but it fit so perfect with her fairy princess outfit Adam and I had got her). I whispered the reason to Seth and he was super excited and didn't mind at all that she was getting a way bigger prize than he would get. Then, he whispers to me that the bracelet he had told me about earlier was for Ryan, "don't tell her, OK, Mom." He kept it until her party and was so happy to give it to her.

I know everyone is going to think Seth and Ryan are perfect. Well, they're not, but, I swear, they're pretty close. We are really blessed... and I hope I don't mess them up!

Swinging Fun

Seth and Ryan spent hours swinging outside together. At first, it was regular swinging, but once they found the strings they used to play with "Lucy/Lucifer", the cat, they tied their swings together and started a whole new level of fun!

Talking to Daddy

The kids and the creatures at Aunt Cheryl's