Soccer season!!

It's here! The girls both started soccer this week. This is the first soccer season for both of them, and their first time not being in the same team for little league. 

We were able to get a couple of pictures of Emma at practice, but don't have any of Maddie yet. :/

They both had lots of fun. I'm curious to see how aggressive they will be in their games today.

At practice, Emma would run quickly toward the ball, but when one of the boys came she would step aside so they could have it. Once she actually said, "Excuse me." As she stepped out of the way. It was pretty funny.

I've been practicing with her and trying to teach her to be aggressive, and now she says she is going to push them and elbow them out of the way. Not quite what I was trying to teach her, either...

Football Season

It is that time of year! With 3 nephews playing football, I think we'll get our fill of football. But then again, I'm not sure if Briggs will ever get enough football. He was MESMERIZED. It was such a beautiful day for football, Drake did a great job. Fun to be going to high school football games again!

"A"

Emma is going to pre-school this year, but Maddie is having a hard time with not going, so I've been doing a home school type thing with them,  too. This week was the letter "A".

Today, for our field trip, we went to the airport. By the time we were all ready and the kids had their chores done, it was much later than I had planned. But we got there just in time to see a plane come in. The kids loved it and were fascinated.

There were lots of missionaries there, I thought new missionaries we're coming in.

We were up on the viewing deck and I started chatting with a couple of older sister missionaries. It turns out that the entire zone had come to say good-bye as Elder Ward's family headed home.

It was emotional for me to watch his family. I can't even imagine. I feel so blessed to be there and feel the Spirit surrounding them.

My kids hugged Sister Payne as she left and Emma told her she loved her. Maybe she needed that today?

As we stood and watched the plane take off,  a little of my heart went with them. What started out as a simpler moment with my kids turned into something bigger and more meaningful than I could have ever imagined. When Briggs came over and said,  "Hold me, Mama?" I scooped him up and squeezed him for as long as he would let me. Tell(and show!) the people you love how much they mean to you.

Molly

Molly has grown and changed so much since we got her. She still has lots of energy,  but she is learning to control it. I took her running this morning. Whew! Talk about a work out!!

Pre-School!

Emma was SO excited for pre-school today. She couldn't wait to wear her New clothes, see her friends and write and color. She grew so much this summer and jumped two pant sizes!! She had a great first day and can't wait to go back.

I took the others to the post office, wal-mart and visiting teaching in those two hours. Productive morning for all of us!

Maddie and Briggs wanted to take a picture, too!!

Back to school shopping

I was finally able to take Emma and do a little "back to school" shopping/fall clothes shopping. I always just pick stuff out for her, but this time I let her help and even had her try some things on. She loved it and it was fun watching her get so excited about the simple things we were getting. She just about died over her "gorgeous" shoes. She was even pretty patient while I tried a few things on.

Her favorite part was the dressing room mirrors. Can you imagine how fun life would be with 4 Emma's?!

Blessing Day

Jared blessed Anderson yesterday.  It was a great day.  Eric and his family came Saturday and spent the night, so I had lots of help and it was lots of fun.  I don't know if I just don't care as much or what, but I just didn't stress over preparing this time as much.  I made sure there was food and that my children were are clean and dressed, and felt successful. :)

It was an amazing blessing and I'm grateful for how close Jared is to the Spirit, it was evident through this blessing that he was prepared for it.  

Anderson was wide awake and I was worried he would fuss, but he just laid there, wide awake throughout the blessing.  He doesn't love his pacifier, so he didn't even use that.  When the blessing was over and Jared gave him back to me, he just laid in my arms talking and cooing through the Sacrament and eventually dozed off.

Dinner was easy and then we set up the volleyball net and everyone played for a couple of hours.  It was a beautiful, perfect day.  

So grateful for amazing family.  Kyle even drove up from Vegas for the weekend!