The End of Indoor Soccer

After our first year of indoor soccer I am proud to announce that we are fans. The boys LOVED indoor soccer (especially Lincoln) and would count down the days until it was time to play. Lincoln would say on Sunday, "only 6 more days until my favorite day in the world." I would ask what day that was and he would tell me it was when he would play indoor soccer. I love that they loved it so much. They both played goalie a lot and really were good at it. I think they both also tired of goalie after a while because they began to ask their coach to not put them at goalie. Josh was/is a goalie and so it was fun for him to be behind them coaching them on what to do.
This was Palmer's team (I am sad that I didn't get a picture of Lincoln's team. Oh well, we have their team pictures I guess.) Palmer's coach totally reminded me of "Ben" from Lost. At one point he shaved his beard and he REALLY looked like him. They had a very good team this year (note Palmer's crazy blue socks.  He INSISTED on wearing them and would not even consider black or white.  I never know what my boys are going to do.  I kind of like the randomness of it all).
They both got this spiffy medal, which they were so proud to wear around. We have quite a few trophies, so I am always glad when the medal is chosen to give the boys.
After their games we always give them some sort of reward if they were good sports. I don't care how many goals, touchdowns, baskets, runs they score, but if they are good sports I feel they are learning what I put them in sports for. We have had a few issues with tantrums and poor sportsmanship so this was necessary for our family. Over the years that we have been doing this they have become very good sports. The reward was a little bigger on this last day of indoor. After their outdoor games were done (they have now played 4 outdoor games and I haven't even seen one! I am always at the indoor games so Josh can coach the outdoor soccer games. The season is half over!) we headed to Chik-Fil-A for lunch to celebrate a great season (oh how I love that place).

Can I tell you how kid friendly that restaurant is? When you pick up a high chair it has a stickable placemat in it so that babies don't have to eat off the table. Genius!
McKay LOVES fries (surprise right?)
These boys are so cute and so good at saying "thank you" a million times at lunch.

If you can't tell we are pretty smitten with them.
It was a good day and has been a good experience. I have to be honest doing both sports was a little nuts, so I am glad to be done with one of them. On to outdoor soccer (well, the rest of it anyway).

Hunter's Preschool Field Trip to Wheeler Farm

The field trip to Wheeler Farm is something that my boys anticipate all year long at preschool. I always go with the boys when they are in their "senior year" of preschool :) I got to go with Lincoln last year, and Palmer the year before that. Hunter was so excited that it was his turn. The bus ride to the farm is always on a chartered bus and it is such a highlight for the kids. They play farm songs all of the way there and the kids practice them the whole month before so they know them well. I had some of them stuck in my head for the entire day.
We went first to the "lightening tree" to get some pictures. It is the coolest tree! Hunter was DYING to climb it, and to be honest so was I :) We need a good climbing tree like that.
Hunter's class.


I love all of the pioneer stuff that is all over the farm. I just kept thinking the whole time we were there about how far life has come, how hard it would have been to live back then as well as how simple and wonderful it would have been to live back then.
While we were waiting for our tour of the farm we played red light green light. I got out A LOT. Apparently I need to work on my stealth. Hunter is a champ at it however. I am amazed at his patience. Most kids just want to run, but Hunter bides his time, slowly taking a few steps every time. Is there a career is red light green light?
On our tour they passed around a little container of cream that were were going to shake into butter. I never saw what happened to it at the end, but I remember having it and I don't remember passing it off to anyone. I think I might have left it on our wagon ride...whoops! Don't tell Hunter his mom bombed the cream making experience!
I can't believe how big this house was for the time they lived here. It would have been a mansion! It is way bigger than a lot of houses now (especially our little town house!)
The kids learned about milking cows (I want to bring my boys back to do this, it is only 50 cents and I think it would be a cool experience. I milked a goat on a date to the Utah State fair in high school. Made me who I am today :) They also learned about the blacksmith, which was pretty neat.
I learned a lot too! Did you know that the black and white cows are called "Holstein cows?" They are the cows that give us our milk. The brown cows are called "Jersey" cows and they give mostly cream. Who knew? Now you do ;)
The bunnies are always a favorite. I however am allergic to bunnies. It is sad really. In 5th grade some little kid brought one to my class for us all to see, my eyes puffed up so badly I couldn't even see. Random huh?
The kids were very interested in the sheep and lambs eating.
Mostly because this little lamb wiggled into the feeding pen so he as standing on top of the hay while all the others ate.
The kids all got something that looked like wheat grains to feed the ducks.
Hunter's FAVORITE part of the day was lunch time. I had taken him to pick out his lunch and he was in heaven with this Lunchable. This field trip I was prepared. In the past, my kids have been so excited about eating their own lunch that they didn't really care about any of the other stuff we were seeing. They would ask me when lunch was every few minutes. This time I brought little treats I would sneak to Hunter any time he wanted to go eat his lunch so he was pretty happy to see all of the stuff. Much better.
It was fun to be with Hunter one on one. We both had a great time at the farm!

More Family Pictures

I have been so excited to get our family pictures back from my sister in law, Amy. Little did I know they have been sitting in Josh's car for 2 weeks! I can't tell you how great Amy was as our photographer. I love all of the pictures and am not sure how I am going to decide which ones to print!
This is one of my favorite family pictures.


This is such a cute little candid.
The boys all together.




I seriously LOVE all of the pictures. Amy thank you again! You are A.MA.ZING!

A Playtime Triumph

Some of you know that I am the eternal villain when it comes to playing "guys" with Hunter. If you remember this post you may recall that the child WILL NOT let me be the good guy....ever. Well, I had a bit of a triumph yesterday. We have a bunch of Schleich animals that they boys play with in the bath tub (they are definitely not bath toys, but ya know, it works). Anyway, we decided to incorporate them into our playtime yesterday and the result was that I finally got to be a good guy! Meet Super Rhino and Super Horse (I take what I can get!). True he wasn't about to let me be Batman or Robin (not even the side kick! Lame), but he was totally fine with me being a superhero if it was an animal. So I cut out some capes for my superheros and these two totally saved the day. It was a big moment for me (now you know my deepest hopes and aspirations.) 
This kid is such a hoot and he has the best imagination. I think I sat and laughed for most of our little adventure yesterday as it was totally random and funny.
Batman got a new mode of transportation, the cow was also a super hero by the end yesterday. Come on, Batman cannot ride a cow that doesn't fly.
And this guy was the bad guy yesterday (yep, still played by me), but he and his horse were truly evil, so it wasn't so bad when they were conquered (by being beat up over and over by Batman...bruised hands I tell you).
I didn't get a picture of the other villain. McKay was constantly coming in and grabbing all the toys and hucking them across the room. It was actually hilarious! We had to set up a hospital where the characters would go to have their wounds healed by "the force" (thank goodness for the team of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin).  I am sure you are all thinking I am such a nerd right now...I totally am.

One of my goals is to really be friends with my kids. I have realized as Josh gets busier that they are 90% of my social circle and I don't want to ever resent that. That is the way it is and it is the life that I have chosen. I want to enjoy all the moments that I have with them and go to bed each night feeling satisfied and fulfilled. I will always remember the funny, silly times I have with these kids. Some times it is a total struggle to find my "inner child", especially when I have things to do or projects I want to be doing. But I am always glad when I take some time to be with the boys.

Sick Day

We have had the worst luck with sickness this year. Last year nobody was sick really the whole year. This year, someone always is. This past weekend the boys all had horrible coughs. Nobody really slept on Saturday night and I woke up with a sore throat. McKay was miserable as he is still cutting that cursed molar and he was also sick. So, the whole family except Josh ended up staying home from church.
One hard thing about that is that it means that the kids are all home bored for a whole day. As I was feeling miserable, I wasn't too keen on a million projects. They ended up making a fort out of our kitchen chairs and some blankets (this structure is up in my living room a lot). Then they asked if they could watch a Netflix movie on my computer with popcorn.

It is funny, but once upon a time I would have vetoed this idea as all I could see was a big mess for me to clean up later. Well, times have changed. I saw this as 2 whole hours that they would be occupied. So they watch some Scooby Doo ditty and had a great time.
It wasn't as relaxing as I thought however as Mckay would go up and start hitting the computer and turn the movie off. I spent the whole two hours trying to keep McKay out of their way. I seriously thought I was going to get a nap. Oh well. It was a fun memory.  Oh and when it was all over the boys cleaned up the fort and popcorn mess.  I was pretty impressed.

Snowy Day Slushies

On Saturday APRIL 9, we woke up to it snowing....again. It has been snowy and cold all week and it was getting a little disheartening. I keep wanting to get the shorts out for the boys, but every cold day I decide to wait a little longer. I decided that we needed a pick me up. A little bit of fun on a gray, cold, dreary day. That is when we decided to go to "Big Daddy's Pizza." It is a new pizza place in our area and they are open 24 hours. Like if you wanted to get a pizza at 3:18 in the morning, it is not problem. Genius, who comes up with these ideas? Well, they had Orange Crush there, and as many of you know, I am a FAN! I thought it would be fun to make some snow slushies.
We grabbed a bowl of CLEAN snow (I don't know that the cleanliness of the snow made a difference to the boys...) and we just stuck it in glasses and added some soda, oh and of course a straw. That is a must. Delish.

Lincoln has been sporting Josh's protective glasses. I was waiting for him to laugh about it, but he was dead serious. I LOVE it when my kids do stuff like that.

McKay is a fan of Big Daddy's Pizza.
We made an indoor snowman out of the rest of our snow. We used the only supplies we had, M&Ms and the tip of a carrot for his nose. The M&Ms made the poor thing cry green tears.
When we were done, Lincoln asked if he could eat it (once again, thank goodness it was clean :)

I tell you what, after all this fun were were GLAD it snowed...for a second :)

Another First for the Boys-Chinese Food

I have mentioned before that I love doing things with the boys that they have never done before. I love to see their reactions to a new experience. Last week we had someone coming to look at our house so we needed to be out of it (I am really ready to be done with selling our house...) We met Josh in Bountiful for dinner. He suggested that we go get some Chinese food (no camera, so we just used Josh's iPhone). Usually when we get dinner as a family it is to McD's or IHOP or something along those lines. This was definitely a new suggestion and as I LOVE Chinese food I agreed.

There is a WONDERFUL Chinese restaurant in Bountiful called "Joy Luck" and it is so yummy. My friend Kristen used to bring it over on our craft nights every once in a while and I fell in love with it.
It was really a fun experience. The boys all reacted completely different than I expected them too. Palmer read the menu and insisted that we get the Beef Spare Ribs. What? I am not saying suggested, I am saying insisted, like it was life or death that we get the Beef Spare Ribs. Josh decided to indulge him and they ended up being one of the hits of the night. Lincoln was brought strawberries and rice...random, but perfect for him. We got Hunter noodles as he HATES rice and that is ALL he would eat. Palmer tried just about everything, Lincoln tried a lot, Hunter refused to eat anything but the noodles. I never know what is going to happen. I ate my weight in EVERYTHING and we had a great night.
Palmer wasn't sure about most of it, but he was a good sport and tried a lot.

McKay was the champion eater of the night. He ate anything I put in his mouth and then would do his cute little sign for "more" (I need to get a picture of him doing that, so cute!)

The boys have been asking to go back to Joy Luck ever since, especially Lincoln. He wants some more gourmet strawberries and rice:)