Soccer Season for Kennedy

I finally remember to take my camera to Kennedy's soccer game. She played really well, and is getting better all the time. I think it really helps that she has watched Whitley play for so long. She is very aggressive, and understands the game better than most of the little girls do. She loves to score, but loves being goalie even more!Warming up
Making a move
Our referee trying to catch his breath!

Wild Animals

We live right in the middle of the forest. Most of the time, you don't really think about it. You get used to the fact that your back yard is full of hundreds of trees. One of the "perks" of living in the forest is that the animals that call it home, never really leave. Before we moved here, there use to be lots of coyote in this area. And then a cougar moved in, and the coyote population mysteriously dwindled! Now that there is a cougar "around" the bunny population has escalated!

This little fellow has made our back yard his home away from home. He comes in almost every day, and munches on the grass. He doesn't seem to be afraid of us at all. When we go out there, he just acts like we're not even there. Tonight Colton decided to throw out some carrots to see if he liked them. And he did! He ate everything we threw out to him, and then sprawled out in the grass to relax.

A Week In the Life of...

For some reason I just don't have any desire to post! I'm not sure what it's all about. This is my weak attempt at getting caught up. Here's a quick, boring, picture less recap of our last week. The weather was beautiful Monday so we decided to go for a picnic and family bike ride on Monday. Colton had a scout camp out/bike trip on Saturday and we thought a quick ride around the neighborhood would prepare him for his 21 mile ride!

Kennedy has started spring soccer and has practices every Tuesday. She loves every second of it. Landon took her to practice this week, since I was teaching the Laurel class some hair tips! For some reason, people seem to think I know what I'm doing. My big message was, "fake it 'til you make it".

Wednesday brought more Gladiator for Colton.

Thursday was more soccer. Kennedy had a game, and she scored 3 goals! Her coach asked Landon is he would mind refereeing her game, so he did. When it was over, he asked if he wouldn't mind doing them all the rest of the season. Lucky guy!

Friday we sent Colton off on him camp out, and prayed it wouldn't rain! We knew it would be cold, but wet and cold is just miserable. Luckily the weather held, and he made it through the 21 miles. We had replaced his bike seat with a super deluxe comfy one so his bahookie wouldn't be too soar. He also wore slider pants so he wouldn't have any "chaffing". He didn't, but some of the other boys did! Good times.

Saturday brought even more soccer with Whitley's game. She scored several goals, and played really well. The other team had one of their players whose only job was to stick to Whitley! It didn't seem to slow her down any! Also,we finally bought a new grill on Friday to replace the one we left in AZ. Landon and I were giddy with excitement. So Saturday night we had some friends over for a bbq. It was great. We only had one small mishap when the charcoal bag caught on fire in the back yard. Other than that, it was a success!

So there it is. All of this in addition to work, school, church, scouts, activity days, errands, meetings, shopping, homework, yoga, Dr's. appt. and who knows what else. I guess I'll start today, and do it all again!

Camp Waskowtiz

This year the 6th graders are participating in an outdoor school in May. This is not the 6th grade camp that you and I went to. There are no parents going. This is actually "outdoor school". So this past weekend they had an open house for the families to come up and see where there kids would be sleeping, eating, learning, etc. It's about a half an hour from our house, and the weather was suppose to be beautiful so we decided to take our trailer and camp out for the weekend.

There were about 35 spots at this little campground, and after a short time we realized that most of the people there were residents. They all watched as we unloaded and set up our camp. There was no where for a camp fire, and our plan for dinner was tin foil dinners cooked in the fire! Luckily we were only about 5 minutes from North Bend and we found a little pizza joint to eat it.We pretty much stayed in our trailer and the kids colored and played games.I had decided not to bring our little DVD player, thinking that the kids would be out exploring nature! By about 7pm I was real sorry I didn't have it with us!

The next morning we ate breakfast (in our trailer) and packed up and got out of there. Landon kept saying "this is one of the times we'll laugh about later". We stopped at some outlets that were close to there, did a little shopping, and headed on to Camp Waskowitz! The camp was great. We saw the dorms, showers, mess hall, camp fire, everything. The camp fire sits right on the bank of the river. Really cool. I'm so excited for Colton to get to do this.

As for us heading back to the campground anytime soon, not so much! But hey, like Landon said, it's an adventure and we are laughing about it today!

Gladiator

Colton is doing the funnest thing ever right now. It's called Gladiator. It's a mix between flag football, dodge ball, and capture the flag-all played at the same time. He's signed up with a couple of his friends, and he's loving it. They have so much fun, and it's a great work-out.

He comes home every time, and gives me a play by play of what happened. I get lots of slow motions reenactments. It's hilarious. The way he tells these stories you would think he was in the super bowl.

Easter 09

Easter was a whirlwind at our house this year. Being out of town the week before completely threw me off! So we had some last minute things we had to get to make everything "even" for Sunday. We didn't end up dying our eggs until 9:30pm Saturday night. But hey, we got them done!

Our church starts at 9am and Colton has to be there at 8:30 to set up chairs and whatever else he does, so we have to go pretty early. Luckily the Easter Bunny comes while we're at church when we have early church.
Kennedy's Easter do Here are some shots of the kids opening their Easter baskets. You would think it was Christmas by Kennedy's reaction.
After they opened up their baskets and found the eggs that the Easter bunny hid, we headed over to some friends house for Easter lunch. Thankfully we were smart and had it catered by Honey Baked Ham. Everything was delicious, and I just got to enjoy it instead of make it.

Then it was off to another friends' house for an Easter egg hunt, and some "feats of strength" games. We love getting together with this group of friends, and had a blast searching for eggs in the rain. It was definitely different not having family around on Easter, but we have the best group of friends that don't have family around either. These guys welcomed us with open arms 7 months ago, and made us feel so welcome. It feels like we've known them forever! Thanks for making this an Easter we'll never forget.

Trip to AZ

Kennedy and I took a trip to AZ for the latter part of Spring break and into the next week. Why just Kennedy, you ask?? Because she was the reason we went. It was time for her to have some testing done on her back and kidneys so away we went. Colton and Whitley were sad that they didn't get to go, but had fun working on projects with Landon all weekend long!

Our trip was jammed packed with family, food conference and hospital visits! We snuck in just a little time with friends, but not as much as either of us would have liked. Thanks to everyone who dropped everything to spend time with us while we were there. It was really great to see everyone!

On a side note, Kennedy had excellent results from all of her check-ups. Everything is still the same (which is a good thing) and she doesn't have to have more tests for another 2 years YIPEE!

At the airport on our way out of SeattleThe first day we were there we went with Bumpa (Landon's' dad) and Heidi and Rowdy (My sister and nephew) to the park to feed the ducks and ride some rides.
Turns out Kennedy was a little big for the rides. However she rode them anyways!

One of the places we ate was 5 and Diner. They have the best shakes ever! Just ask Kennedy and Rowdy

This is Kennedy after her MRI on Friday afternoon. They have to put her to sleep because she can't move while they do the test. It lasts about 45 minutes. Luckily they only used gas and not an IV for anesthesia this time. She was pretty groggy for about an hour afterwards.

Kennedy loved doing her little projects during conference, and did pretty good considering she didn't have Colton and Whitley to hang out with. My mom and I enjoyed watching conference together. Something we haven't done forever!

One thing my kids has always loved to do is play baseball with Bumpa in his backyard.

Kennedy with Grandpa Scott

Saying good-bye is always the hardest part of visiting.

Kennedy with Grandma Ruth
Kennedy and Bumpa

Rowdy and Kennedy waiting for pancakes

Heidi and I (One of us is 8 months pregnant. Kinda hard to tell which one!)

Conference Weekend Ideas

Conference weekend in always a challenge in our house. We love to listen to the messages, and Landon and I look forward to it. My kids on the other hand have a hard time being quiet and staying into to. So I try to have projects and activities to keep them quiet and listening! Last conference I did these candy bars, and they were a real hit. I'm doing them again! They are mini candy bars and I've printed the picture and name of the first presidency and 12 apostles on them. Whenever that person is speaking, they get to eat their candy bar. I also try to do some age appropriate packets for them. Here are a couple of links to some conference "packets" that I"m using this weekend. http://www.sugardoodle.net/mambo/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4195&Itemid=5 and http://www.scribd.com/doc/13298891/2009-April-Conference-Packet

Last but not least, I've found these two crafts at Family Fun that I think my kids will really like. http://jas.familyfun.go.com/crafts?page=CraftDisplay&craftid=12150 and http://jas.familyfun.go.com/crafts?page=CraftDisplay&craftid=12153 I'm going to have them go out in between sessions on Saturday to get the twigs for the nests! Hopefully you can some of these ideas, and I'd love to hear any you might have.