Growed up Part #1

Guess who's all "growed up"?

I was pleasantly surprised when this came in the mail.

I thought it would take 3 months for in to come in the mail.  I guess not as many people graduate during the summer.  

I can't wait until I get to walk at graduation on December 14th.

Yay for me! :)

Soccer Mom

Two years ago when we were upgrading to a bigger vehicle, I fought Chris over getting a minivan.

Surprisingly HE wanted the van.

I wanted an SUV.

I wanted to get a car that would make me feel young and hip.

A van would make me feel old and exude "soccer mom".

I ended up giving in to Chris' arguments and we bought a van.

I will admit that it is really nice and spacious inside and is a lot easier to get in and out of than an SUV would be.

However, it still makes me feel old.

And as of 2 weeks ago...

 I have officially joined the ranks of Soccer Mom.

Ethan and Logan are playing soccer and loving it.  I must admit, it already has been fun going to their games and cheering them on.

 Ethan #3- Red Dragons

Logan #3- Green Alligators

It's funny that they both ended up with the same jersey numbers.

 Colin wanted to get his picture taken too.  He gets mad because he can't play soccer.  Another couple of years buddy!

Getting ready to play.  I wouldn't want to go up against these two.  They look like they mean business.

Ethan's first soccer game.  What a stud.  He scored a goal in his second game and his face was beaming.  He is naturally timid and shy and so it was a great confidence booster for him.

I haven't been able to take pictures of Logan's games yet, but I plan on it this week.  Chris is Logan's coach and has been doing an awesome job with the kids.

So to tie together my incessant rambling:

It's a fact of life that I am going to keep getting older.

And like my mom always says, "getting older is better than the alternative".

I guess I might as well enjoy it.

Being a soccer mom isn't too bad after all.  

We'll see how I feel about it at the end of the season. :) 

P.S. What makes you feel old?  What makes you feel young?

Favorite

It's been nice having more time to hang out with the family since I've been done with school.  We have been eating a lot of home cooked meals and relaxing in the evenings.  I have been trying to remember to take more pictures of the kids too.  When I get too busy, I forget to sit back and watch the cute things they do.  Now that school is out, I feel like I have been able to do this more. 

Here is a cute picture of the kids goofing off in the truck.  Three of my favorite people in this world.

I love this time of year.  I'm sad that summer is coming to an end, but I love Autumn and the fact that it is football season again.  Chris is lucky because I actually like watching football with him (I probably like to watch it even more then him).  I have 4 fantasy football teams!  September 5th was opening day for NFL and so we decided to have a little party to celebrate.  I made chicken wings and baked spaghetti squash.

My first attempt at chicken wings.  I thought they tasted pretty good.

Spaghetti squash with feta cheese, olives, and tomatoes.  It looks kind of nasty from the picture, but it was good and I was excited because we used a squash from our garden.

Our sweet Logi started preschool on Friday.  He missed the cutoff for kindergarten by a couple of months and he has been begging me to sign him up for preschool.  He was so excited to go.  When I dropped him off, he ran around the classroom laughing.  It was so funny.

First day of Preschool

I'm excited for the future.

As I write this I am watching Monday Night Football.

Two of the three kids are already in bed.

This is the life.

Hello. It's me again.

It's time... for me to blog again.

It's been awhile.

I was too stressed to blog while I was in school.

But I have an announcement:

This girl....

is all done with school!!!

That's right.  I am unofficially a college graduate. :)  I say unofficial because I haven't received my diploma or walked at graduation yet.

It's been a long, stressful few years.  In a way it has gone fast, but it has also seemed that I would forever be   a college student.  I feel like my life was on hold for awhile.  I didn't have anytime for crafts, friends, and even family.  Now that I am done with school, I feel so much more relaxed and ready to do the things that I love again.

It still seems surreal that I am done, but then I drive by the university, see the lines of parked cars, and gleefully give thanks that it is them and not me who are in school.

I have only been out of school for a couple of weeks, but I have already been able to do some fun things.  The weekend after school was out I was able to go on a mini-vacation to Las Vegas with Chris.  While there we were able to hang out with some of Chris' cousins and also see the Phantom of The Opera.  We have both been wanting to see it for a long time.  It didn't disappoint.

Waiting for the show to start.

Ethan started first grade last week!

There was an awesome rainbow outside our window last night.

I had a chance to have a craft day with Chris' sisters and mom yesterday.  It was so nice to focus on fun and not homework.  We made these cute crafts for fall:

Anyways,  I look forward to reading everyone's blogs  and I hope you will enjoy seeing a glimpse of my life once again.

My Very Own Linus

Colin is the funniest, silliest little toddler I have ever seen.

He makes the funniest facial expressions.

He does the silliest things.

One of my favorite things about him is that he is a thumb sucking, blanket holder.  

My other kids have not gotten as attached to their thumbs or blankets (OF COURSE, We are still trying to wean Logan off of his sippy cup.  He is four and states that his sippy is his best friend.).

My other kids didn't even like to use binkies when they were babies.

I think there is nothing as adorable as a sweet little kid holding his blanket and sucking his thumb.

And, therefore, I am proud to say that I have my very own Linus.

So sweet!

So talented.  He can hold his sippy, his blanket, and suck his thumb at the same time.

I also found out the other day that he likes to wear underwear on his head.  He put it on there all by himself. (Don't worry.  It was clean.)

I'm sure it won't be so cute in a couple of years when I am trying to get him to stop sucking his thumb, but for now I love it.

P.S.  I got a job!!!  More details soon.  Wish me luck.

Need to Breathe

Could life get any busier?

Obviously the answer is yes.... but it doesn't seem like I could fit much more into my crazy schedule lately.

It feels like it's been non-stop school lately.

I need to breathe.

And look at pictures of my kids.

Their sweet smiles always brighten my day!

Also, I get to go on a date with my hubby this weekend! :)

Goal Post

A few months ago I read a news article about making goals and ideas for remembering the goals and actually working on them.  

One thing I really liked was the idea of goal board.  

From that article I decided I was going to make one.  

I bought a dry erase board at Walmart for $5.00.  I then covered it with scrapbook paper, used stamps and the cricut to make the words, and attached our names to magnets.  

It was pretty fast and inexpensive to make.

On January 1st each member of our family came up with some goals that we wanted to accomplish for the year.  The kids are still pretty young and so we wrote stuff like, "get all of my teeth (Colin), learn to write my letters (Logan), lose a tooth and learn to tie my shoes" (Ethan).

What I like most about the goal board is that it is a visible reminder of the goals we have set.  Right now it is sitting on my kitchen counter.  I go in the kitchen a lot and, therefore, I find myself reading it a lot and remembering what it is I want to accomplish this year.

At the end of this year, we will get together as a family and assess how well we did.  We will than make new goals for next year.  

I love that we can work on achieving our goals together as a family.