soccer and more soccer

It feels that all we have been doing for the past 3 months is soccer. Don't get me wrong, it has been great and I have loved seeing Sarah and Andrew play but I have to admit I won't be too sad when the season is over. They have both had great coaches and fun teammates! Andrew has played with a team that won every game this season (and I think last season as well). This team has been together for the past five seasons. Andrew most often made at least one goal every game if not more...one game Andrew made SEVEN goals. What I appreciate about Andrew is that he is very humble. He doesn't count how many goals he makes (Nathan and I do that for him) and it's a "team thing" for him so he focuses more on how the team played as a whole than how he did individually.



Sarah has played on a team that only three of the players have ever played before...so, a beginning team and they played teams that have played together for years. This past Saturday, Sarah's team (who had only previously made ONE goal in ALL the games they've played) made three goals and SARAH made ONE of them!!! We screamed and jumped and could hardly contain ourselves!
The only sad part is that both Nathan and I were dealing with a whining difficult Benj at the time and so I didn't get to see it and Nathan didn't have the camera ready....so, no picture...BIG BUMMER!! But, here are a few pictures to give you an idea of what a GREAT season of soccer we have had!!!! Can't wait for fall!!!!



The cheering section!!!!

piano recital

Sarah and Andrew had another piano recital. Andrew played Eye of the Tiger by Survivor and Sarah played When She Loved Me from the movie Toy Story 2. They both did a FABULOUS job! We were SO proud of them! It amazes me that they don't seem to get nervous when they perform.
We were grateful that Grandma and Grandpa Smith could come and hear them!


This is Cathy Taylor their piano teacher and she is AMAZING!! She not only teaches our kids piano during the school year, but she teaches all of the kids swim lessons during the summer! We are VERY grateful for her many talents and willingness to teach our cute kids!

Neighborhood Visitor #3

Some of you may remember the post about a neighborhood visitor in june of 2008.

Shortly after that post in August of 2008 I posted this about a neighborhood visitor #2.

Which brings me to this post about our latest neighborhood visitor. We will call him neighborhood visitor #3.



For those family members who remember going geocaching on the trail behind the community barn...that is where our latest visitor is. A young mountain lion. Fish and Wildlife has been out to survey the situation. Everyone is hopeful that he'll just go back into the foothills. We will keep you posted!

Pinewood Derby

Last night was Andrew's first Pinewood Derby. He and Nathan had gone out to Grandpa Smith's home last Wednesday night to cut out the most aerodynamic car possible. Next, they went to Hobby Lobby and found the perfect "skin" to finish the look he was going for. (Nathan says it is the best $7.49 he's ever spent.) The "skin" adhesives to the wood with just a bit of water. They next painted the "driver" , added a tail fin and it was complete!


Ready, Set, Go!

Awaiting his car at the finish line.

Andrew's car raced 5 or 6 times and averaged around 202 MPH. (Yes, the track is SO high tech now that it can measure how fast the cars go.) WOW!! He had a pretty fast car! Everyone raced - Everyone was a winner - Everyone got a patch for their accomplishment! What a night!

Nathan did a great job announcing for the evening! Do you see where our cute kids get their cuteness?

Spring Soccer

Sarah and Andrew are playing soccer. They are both on league teams but not the same league, so usually dad stays at Andrew's game while mom takes Sarah to her game across town. There will be some Saturdays that we will be able to watch both games - Yeah! They are both doing GREAT!!! We are SO proud of them!


Luckily the field that Andrew usually plays on has a playground for Spencer and Benj to keep them entertained. It also has a great hill to climb and explore.


(Spencer has grapes in his mouth.)

This is the latest thing Levi is up to. Doesn't he look SO grown up?

McCall - Part 1 Bob

For Spring Break we went to McCall, ID and we got to do so many wonderful things during our stay there. However, if you ask our three oldest kids what their favorite part of our stay was, they will all say, "Bob". This is Bob.

Bob loves hotdogs. Bob will eat out of your hand.

Bob came to visit us every day at least once.

We all looked forward to Bob's visits!

McCall - Part 2 Skiing

Nathan deserves "Father of the Year" Award after taking ALL four kids skiing at Brundage. (Mom and Levi stayed in the car, taking pictures and staying warm.) Sarah and Andrew had been before (remember this post), but Spencer and Benj had never been. They were all SO excited to get going!

I didn't have the best lens on the camera when I took this picture of Benj. Which is unfortunate as he was the first to be done and I didn't get any other pictures of him. We didn't have warm enough gear for him or I think he would have lasted longer. All weekend he was proud to show off his ski pass to anyone, and when asked about skiing he would say, he loved it and then quickly add that it was scary! He didn't care for the ski lift at all!!

Sarah LOVES to ski! She wishes she could have gone on the harder runs.

Spencer did great for his first time! He got a little cold so he joined mom, Benj and Levi in the car for awhile and then after warming up, was ready to go again! You can tell from this picture that it was REALLY snowing!

Andrew also wishes that he could have gone on harder runs, but he did find a run that had mogels and he really got into jumping!

My favorite picture of our time in McCall.