Soccer

The soccer season came to end at the beginning of May.  I was quite relieved to have it over!  I was able to get some fun pictures of both of the final games.  

Levi did a lot better than I expected.  He didn't give up even when he wanted to.  Although he wouldn't play with his team the Saturday Ethan and I were gone to CA.  

He was so excited that the medal is is "real metal! Its not even plastic!"

The last game for other boys left me pretty frustrated.  They each sat on the sideline more than they played.  The coach didn't teach them anything and he yelled at them constantly, like he expected them to know what they were supposed to do.  I was supposed to coach them, but bowed out when they said this guy could do it too (there were already 3 other coaches!).  I kind of wish that I had just said that I was coaching, I had signed up first.  But oh well!  It would have been difficult with everything going on and having all the kids there would have been tough.

Their team lost every game, I think they scored 1 goal all season.  But they had fun, for the most part. 

Bryant said to me on the way home, "We didn't earn these medals" I guess he's old enough to realize that a medal is supposed to be an indicator of winning.

These two certainly could have earned a medal for being the cutest cheerleaders on the sidelines.  I'm so blessed to have such wonderful (though far from perfect) kids.

April Wrap-up

I don't think we could have fit any thing more into our April, but we had lots of fun.  Here are the last of the pictures for the month.

The kids have been LEGO obsessed lately.  They trade little figures with their friends at least once a week.  They are the source of the most fun and also the most contention in the house.  

Ethan celebrated a birthday!  He's an old man now!  We got him a few gifts, my favorite was the "mixed tape" I made him.  OK, it was actually a CD to play in his car (I found out it won't play mp3 format, bummer!).  But it was so fun to make for him and to listen to with him.  For memory's sake, I called the "album" Good News I Saw 36 Dogs Today!  In reference to a day when Jonas or Levi at the dinner table said, "Good News! I saw a dog today!"  we all laughed and laughed.  If anyone ever starts a sentence with "good news!" now someone always finishes it with "you saw a dog today?!"  

Once again, we couldn't find the birthday candles.  Ha!

Cute birthday boy.

Birthday boy's silly sons.

Birthday boy's biggest fan.

Birthday boy's sweet baby boy.

The last weekend of the month Ethan, Abraham and I headed out to California to look for a house.  We found the perfect house!  Then we found out that they just accepted an offer (cash!) for $40,000 over the asking price!

The weekend wiped me out!  It was nice to be together.  We left California with a better idea of where we wanted to be, with a realtor who we felt had a good understanding of what we wanted/needed, but no house.

We had a nice sister in our ward who stayed with the kids for the 3 days.  She took great care of them and was so nice!  We are so blessed to be surrounded by great people.  We will miss them a lot when we move!  Which will be so soon! (less than two months!)

Kentucky {Pinewood} Derby!

Every time I've talked about the Kentucky Derby, I've stumbled over it calling it a pinewood derby!  Good thing I won't be spending much time talking about it in the future... but I do have A LOT of pinewood derbies in my future!

This year's was a lot of fun!  Our leaders went all out.  We were all given tickets for the "concessions" and the kids loved that they got to go get whatever food they wanted with their tickets.  The decorations were awesome...

They even had full size trophies!

But the kids' excitement was what we were really there for.

My rule breaking husband, crossing his feet into forbidden territory... he lives on the edge, that one.

Just because. 

Let the racing begin!  Bryant's car was up!  His is the middle car with the trident painted in red.  Last year he did Zeus's lightning bolt, this year he did Poseidon's trident.  Both years we haven't had the official weights, so we've added hardware to get them up to weight and the hardware has overshadowed his design, he was pretty bummed that no one noticed his trident.

He won his first heat!

Jonas' car was up next.  His is in the middle (the one with the hardware :).  He painted his to look like Sonic's racer.

2nd place was the best he did in any of his races. He was kind of bummed, but not too bad.

Crossing the finish line!  (On a different heat, so the time is different)

Bolton just found random bags of popcorn and helped himself. :)

Our leaders were SO smart... the set up a play area for the smaller kids with cars and tracks galore and even some pretty ponies for the girls.  Eliza was in heaven. We don't have a lot of girly toys round these parts.

Awards were given, Jonas was awarded the "Unique Construction" award.

Bryant got the "Nuttiest Design."

Then we got a surprise... Sean and HEather had been touring a pre-Civil War home in the area and the guide told them that there was a Mormon church nearby.  So they decided to drive by and were surprised to see such a full parking lot.  Then they remembered it was the derby and so they stopped in to say hi.  We all loved having them around!  But the kids especially adore having some family around. We are so excited to be closer soon!

It was a great night!  The boys did a great job designing their cars and had lots of fun racing.  They were gracious middle of the pack and excited for their friends who won.  I really like the cub scout program.  And so do they!

Flat Stanley even stopped by!

Old Friends (& Family!)

fyi~ Ethan is the one who posted the little sign proclaiming my awesomeness.  Isn't he sweet?  I haven't been on the blog for quite a while I realized when the first time I saw it was Sunday morning!

Spring break ended with Ali and her kids heading home, our big boys heading back to school, and bidding farewell to Grandma Jane.  But we still had Grandma and Grandpa Hoss in town for a day and to top it all off, my brother Sean was back in town for work but this time he brought his lovely wife, Heather!  We took advantage of a lovely afternoon and visited Old Friends Farm.

Old Friends is a farm of retired race horses and their mothers.  I'm sure it would be even cooler if you were into horse racing, but since I'm not I didn't know who any of the horses being referred to were... aside from Sea Biscuit, Man O' War and War Admiral.

Bolton and I were eager for Heather's arrival (sorry GPS stinks and sent you on a wild good chase Heather!)

There were 3 horses that were missing one of their eyes at the farm.  Kind of spooky looking!  I don't remember lots of the details (its been too long! I'm slacking at keeping up on the blog!) but you can check out lots of pretty pictures and information about the horses at the farm, here.

We had to get a picture here!

The farms' mascot Little Silver Charm.  The horses bite, so only this little pony was able to be fed by the non-pros.

They had fun trying to make their hand a table top.

No, this I'm not the real Sea Biscuit, but I played him on TV (or the movie, rather).

Popcorn Delites' (aka Sea Biscuit's) paddock mate will show you his tattoo on command (all race horses have a number tatoo on their upper lip).

Pretty day.

I thought this one was funny, the horse is like a panting dog!  So funny to learn how each horse has such a unique personality and be able to see it first hand.  It was a fun afternoon!

Grandma and Grandpa left KY, but we got to see Sean and Heather every day that week!  We were happy about that!

And I just adore this sweet baby, still. :)

We even went on a double date!  It was such a treat to hang out with some of my very favorite people ever!  I am so blessed in the family department!  My brothers are all amazing and the wives they were blessed to find are such a perfect fit for them and for the fam!

No explanation required.