Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Normal October life

Life sometimes gets swallowed up with the laundry and cooking.  Thought I would try to remember a few fun moments that happened.
 We made a big sprinkle mess while decorating cookies.  There may have been one child (that one being William) that filled his cup up with sprinkles and tried them straight.  He got tired of them pretty quick.
 We tried to go to the Scarecrow Festival, but when we realized it was canceled we headed to Wheeler Farm.  We took a fun wagon ride, met a sweet week old calf (Caleb named it Milkshake) and collected some leaves.
 Halloween pumpkins....foam stickers make things so easy.  But the kids keep begging to carve them too.  Humph  We have a princess, a fox, a skunk, a raccoon, two bats, and Peter's crazy pumpkin.
 Caleb outgrew his old bike and passed it on to Peter.  Caleb was able to go to Pa's house and get one from Pa's yard sale stash.  It fits Caleb much better.
The boys put their creativity to use for the school's Reflection program this year.  The theme was "The World would be a better place if..."  Caleb did two projects.  One was in literature.  He wrote a poem about the world/nature.  His other project was in photography.  He took pictures of each of our family members and his statement was, "The world would be a better place if people smiled more."
Peter wrote up how the world would be a better place for him.  It was entitled, "The things that make me happy."
William did a diorama of donut falls.  He also had some animals that he loves to see at Scofield.  Of course he has a rainbow in there.  It was entitled, "If there were more beautiful places."  They all did a great job of using their creativity and were happy with their projects.
Well, last night was the "Night at the Museum" and surprise, surprise: Caleb won an award for each of his entries!  Wow!  He was pleased and we are proud of him.
 Up next, Halloween.......The Medieval Times



Happy Number 4!

Okay, I am so far behind.  But I must remember this sweet girl's birthday before we get to Halloween.
 She woke  up bright and early so excited that it was finally her birthday!  Walking down the stairs she asked, "Am I 4?"  Such a sweet little heart.  We went to Wheeler Farm the day before and explored.  Then Sunday, the actual day of her birthday, we went to Stake Conference and then the family came over for dinner and noise.
 Haley's birthday cupcakes.  Who knew I would ever use so much red (making pink pancakes/waffles, cupcakes, frosting.....) food coloring in the space of four years?!?
 The early risers!  It was not even 7:00am and they were up and ready to help.
 Helping Haley break in a new toy.  The game soon turned into something totally different from what the manufacture of the toy intended, but at least they were together.
Another of the presents she loved was this rocking horse from Pa and a mermaid from Granny Gray.
She is also really into musical jewelry boxes.  And if you could not tell, princesses.  
 Every girl deserves beautiful flowers on her birthday.

The evening ended happily with a wrestling match between Dad, Haley and William.  Crazy times. 
Haley is all girl. And is generally nice to her brothers.  She loves pink, princesses, flowers, spinning and dancing and singing and setting up picnics on the floor.  She has started to tell me she does not want that "boy book" at bed time.  She will happily try any new food and eat what the grown-ups are having, so nice.  In fact the day before her birthday she woke up from her nap exclaiming, "Mom, I really like tomatoes." She has started to wear shoes more often, always wants a dress so she can spin or feel like a princess, still loves "Pink Hermoine" and is now really interested in school-time and letters.  But most of all she is always thinking about her brothers and what they are interested in.  IF she is picking a flower she gets one for Peter.  If she sees rainbows in a book she mentions William.  And she knows that Caleb will listen to her sing and not complain, and that Caleb will always be happy to see what she drew or her pretty dress.  She is a sweet girl who loves her family.  

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Fall Soccer 2014

Soccer is done.  The only thing I will not miss about soccer season is waiting through all those practices.  I love everything else about it.  Cheering, watching my boys do their best and sometimes do better than they believed they could.  
 Peter did great.  He was always where he needed to be.  He even scored a goal this year!  He would have scored more had the stars aligned.  He is a terrific player, gets in there and does not quit.
 William had fun this season.  He got a little better with each game and really had fun people to play with.  He did great.
All three of the boys together with their trophy.  They are awesome!  As we all know, Diedre does not take pictures at Caleb's games!  It is forbidden.  Call it superstition or what you want, but I do not do it.  So, I keep mental pictures to remember.  Like the ones where Caleb was the muddiest of the team and it was all because of terrific saves.  Or the one where they missed the goal box kick headed right for Caleb, but he was ready.  Or the photo of Caleb going in head first to make the save or running after the ball and clearing it from the box, then charging back to his spot as a top goalie -ready to make another save.  Or even the photo where they did score on him and he called over to me to say, "sorry, mom."  And all we could do was shake it off and make the next save.  Or the time when Rob texted me play by play of Caleb's game (because I was at William's game) and Caleb made at least 20 saves in the first half!  He is a star.  When I watch most teams that Caleb plays against they usually change out their goalie at half or even mid-play.  Caleb is consistently goalie.  There have only been a few times when Coach has pulled him out, and that is only because the team is winning by 3 points and he wants Caleb to not be bored anymore.  But for the last 5 or so seasons, Caleb has been back there in the box, improving with each season.  At the last game when his coach (who is terrific and awesome and so great) was handing out the photos and saying something nice about each player and he came to Caleb, he had nothing but good things to say.  What I remember most was that he said Caleb was the "most aggressive" player on the team and that was what they needed down in the goal box.  Coach said that even though he has worked with Caleb and knows Caleb is good, sometimes Coach would watch Caleb make a save and wonder, "how did he do that?"  He makes my heart proud.  All three of them do.  That is why I love watching them play.