The End of Flag Football

The boys and Josh have loved flag football this year. They have won most of their games and Palmer and Lincoln have gotten so good. They both switched off playing quarterback and would usually both get a couple of touchdowns each game. This game above was our last game of the regular season before the playoffs started. We didn't get any team pictures this year so we took a couple of them on our own.

We love football! Even McKay has been walking around saying "bootball, bootball."

We ordered extra water bottles for Palmer's birthday party and gave them to the football team at the end of the regular season.

The tags. We put candy bars in them since we were in charge of the treat and didn't want the boys to feel jipped.

We were lucky enough to have my parents come to our second playoff game. It was such an intense game! We played an undefeated team and won! It was fun to watch.

This was the Super Bowl of flag football. The final championship game. Our team was the "Broncos". One of the cute moms made a sign for the boys to run through after half time.  It is a good thing my MIL took some pictures with her phone, because I totally spaced bringing my camera.  She was so great through the season to come to so many games. 

The boys loved it...

It was a heart breaking game. They lost, but still got a 2nd place trophy. I have to tell you how proud I was of my boys' (and Josh's) sportsmanship. They could have been so mad and frustrated with the loss, but they all had big smiles on their faces and my two little boys just talked about how awesome it was that they got to the playoffs. They were also thrilled to get a trophy and didn't care if it was 2nd place. We took them to dinner after the game and they continued to be so happy with everything. I just couldn't have been prouder of them if they had won the game. I feel like they are learning the most valuable thing they could in sports.

Hunter can't wait to be part of the flag football action next year with Lincoln, and Palmer is ready to move on to tackle (I am not sure how I will handle that one...). It was a great season and a wonderful experience.

Flag Football

Life is so crazy right now in our home. We have something every night and usually it is around dinner time. Dinners have been sporadic and random since school began. Josh is coaching 3 soccer teams and Lincoln and Palmer's flag football team. It is nuts! Good thing the boys and Josh are loving it because the mom and McKay are not sure what to think of our schedule right now.

This year Palmer and Lincoln are playing on the same flag football team. Palmer played last year and Josh coached so Lincoln saw a lot of the football games. He was pretty excited to finally get to play.
Most of the games I don't even bring my camera too as with McKay now as active as he is, I am lucky if I get to watch the game from very far away. I spend most of my time following McKay around. He is so curious and pretty fearless! This game however was at a field that the kids really couldn't go too far away from me and so I was finally able to get some pictures. It was the perfect game to take them as well. Right off the bat Palmer scored a touchdown.


Since being married to Josh I have grown to LOVE football.  There is something so autumn-y about it.  When we are at games I study every tree to see if it thinking of changing it's colors yet.  I am sensitive to the coolness of every breeze and for some crazy reason, I want to bring a thermos full of hot cocoa with me to sip even though it is 85 degrees.  Even though it is takes up a lot of our time, we love to do this as a family.  We are making such great memories and we all come home on a high even when the boys don't do as well as they had wanted to.  These will be some of my favorite fall memories in the future, I just know it!
Lincoln was quarterback this game and I was so nervous for him! He had never played quarterback before and that is such a lot to know and a lot of pressure!
He however was cool as a cucumber and it wasn't too long before he ran in a touchdown. I was ecstatic and screaming while taking pictures doesn't result in very clear pictures, but it really was exciting!


McKay just tags along with all of the big kids.
Lincoln then ran in for another touchdown!
Josh came away so impressed with Lincoln and his "vision".
He was pretty thrilled with it all. Lincoln ended up getting 2 touchdowns and a 1-point conversion (they don't do two point conversions in flag).
To celebrate the great game we headed to The Pizza Factory for dinner.


I had never tasted their breadsticks before and they were just about the best bread I have ever had.
The boys also thought they were pretty great.
I am trying so hard to be in more of the pictures on here, but it is pretty hard when the pictures turn out like this...struggle.

McKay doesn't like that picture either.

Swimming Lessons

The boys have now gone to their last swimming lesson. We finished last Thursday and it just seemed to make the end of summer that much closer. The boys had such a good time at swimming and made incredible progress.
Hunter was dying to get swimming on his own. I think the class he was in was a little bit too easy as he was swimming small distances by himself when the other kids were learning the things he already knew. He will be happy to move on when we do our next session.
The last few days of swimming were pretty intense as they tested to be able to pass their class (which they all did), but they had some fun too. They each got to float around the pool in a life jacket, which was pretty fun for them.


McKay's favorite activity was pushing the stroller around, which meant that I followed him around. He kept charging the stroller toward the pool and when I would change his direction he would get so mad at me!
Can I tell you the relief I feel at seeing my boys be able to float and swim on their own. I now know that they can survive should they fall in a pool/lake. I have always been worried about my kids around water.



Lincoln couldn't find his goggles on this day and he did most of his swimming with his eyes shut :)




We had a great session and are going to try to get a couple more in this year after things calm down with school starting. I am bursting my buttons with pride and how well these boys did in their swimming class.

End of Soccer

Soccer season ended a few weeks ago, and since I never posted any picture of it (probably because I didn't take many as I have been chasing McKay around at most of the games :), I decided that it was time to do a few. All of the boys had a great season. Palmer lost his jersey midway through and ended up wearing his indoor one to ever game. I guess it worked :)
He was thrilled when his teacher came to watch him in one of his games. She is seriously such a great teacher.
The awards this year were probably the boys' favorite as the ball on top was squishy and came off so they could play with it. That is a pretty smart idea I think. We also made each member of the team a little "have a cool summer" treat like we did for their school classes. The saddest thing happened at this last game, there was only a few minutes left and Palmer was nailed in the face with the ball. His nose started bleeding profusely and guess what...I didn't have any wipes! I don't know how, but they were taken out of my diaper bag somewhere. So all of the parents on both teams pitched in and we got him cleaned up, but they decided to call the game. The poor kid had to end the soccer season on that? Oh well, he had a great season so I am sure he will forget it :)

McKay totally thinks he is one of the big kids. He loved sitting in this chair (as I hovered worried he would fall out)
Hunter loved his season as well. He had a pretty great team. They were all so silly and had a lot of fun together, but worked very hard. Hunter really surprised me with how aggressive he was this season. His personality is very laid back and it was so fun to seem him stay with the ball until he got a goal. He did this over and over each game.
This was the last cheer. The boys wanted to put their heads in instead of their hands. I told you they were silly! Their coach was a good sport :)
Very proud of his trophy. He doesn't have as many as his brothers since he hasn't played as long, and always is very frustrated when he gets a medal instead of a trophy as he is trying to catch up :)
I finally got a picture of Lincoln getting a goal. Lincoln has grown to love soccer. It surprises me as for a while he really wasn't too into it. We were pretty close to taking him out of it all together because it didn't seem he enjoyed it. He ended up playing last year only because Hunter's team needed someone else and that was the season that he started to love it. I haven't gotten to see very many of his games this year because Josh was coaching him and Hunter needed someone at his games. I always tried to run between games, but it got crazy. I got to see a few though and he did so well.
His dad/coach was pretty impressed as well.
I told Palmer I would give him 2 ice cream scoops if he would "babysit" McKay (yep I use them as bribes). This mostly just mean keep him happy, since I was standing right there, but he was so miserable. Palmer did a great job and McKay was thrilled to play with him.
Lincoln handing his treats out to his team. Lincoln has played with some of these kids for a few years and it will be interesting to start all over with teams in the new area.

Josh has loved coaching the boys this season. He has seen so much improvement for all of them.
At the end of the game Palmer went and got out Josh's bag of soccer balls for McKay to play with. He was so funny playing with the cones.
He was being so good for a long time and I wondered what he was so interested in. I came over to find that he and the boys had gotten into some "dum dum" suckers that Josh had in his bag. McKay was covered in pink. He had to have eaten 4. He had a great time :)
The boys had a great season and are looking forward to playing again in the fall!