The Christmas Card

It sounds easy enough. Take a cute picture of the kids and make a card. Well let me tell you that it is not so easy. First there will be at least one who does not like what they have to wear. Then one will not want to be in the location you picked. Next the bickering starts. And last but not least Jake is only 2 so this alone is a complication.
So we headed to a park by our house. Usually I do this by myself but Scott decided he would help out. Yeah for me ! So he found this old tree that had fallen over and the quest for the perfect shot began. Basically the girls have to just sit and smile and wait till Jake smiles to. The only way he would this was when Scott hit me in the head with a branch. So I am standing on the side of a slippery hill being whacked by a branch . It worked look how cute they all look. I love the adventure each day brings. The chosen one ! Happy Holidays to you all.

Cate was so over us all. She was hoping I wouldn't make her be in the picture. No Way. Look how cute she is I know everyone wants to see how she has grown this year too.

Taylor is always ready with a smile

Sam the monkey had a great time. She was all over this tree. She wanted to stay and play .

Cate will be mad when she sees this. HeHeHe!

Jake was not a fan of sitting way up high on the tree.

Hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy Hanukkah We love you all !

The Chainsaw

Scott will not think this is as funny as I do. In fact he may not even appreciate that I posted this. Scott has been looking for a chainsaw for some time. Well it just so happened my dad found one deep in his garage. It was my grandfathers. I don't think it has been used in 30 years. Scott is very handy and got the thing to finally almost work. Seriously the whole garage was filled with smoke I could barely see him. The pictures do not do the situation justice! I laughed so hard he chopped up a bush in the front yard and part of a tree in the back. He was having way to much fun..... So if anyone has a chainsaw we can borrow let me know. :)

The Tree

Every year we head off to the Christams tree farm......at Home Depot to pick out our tree. We live in southern California do you know how much trees at all those other places cost ? It is always a challenge to get everyone to agree on the PERFECT tree. Scott always wants to get the first one we look at . We usually do end up with the first one but we have to dig through and make sure. This drives my poor husband crazy! He wants to grab and go . We got our tree all picked out (yes the first one he grabbed) and then the guys who cut the base told us it had a very crooked trunk. So the kids were all excited we got to look again. Scott not as much. He is smart and brings gloves and a knife to cut through the wrapped up trees. I love that guy ! So for the next few weeks our house will smell and look festive ! Merry Merry!

My little All Star

Tay had a great season in soccer this year. Coach Hank and Coach Dan did such a good job. I couldn't have asked for better coaches. Tay loves to play. She is working on passing and centering the ball. She still loves to take it up the side and shoot. The Gator Girls took second place in there division, and Tay made the all star team. Way to go little one ! In January she will try out for the signature team and the in February she will start her spring team. Taylor is so fun to watch on the field. God has given her a real love and talent for this game.

Hide-n-seek gone bad

Jake and I were playing the other day and he decided to hide from me. I didn't actually know we were playing hide-n-seek. Oops! He hid on my bed and this is how I found him. Fast asleep. It kind of freaked me out. I was bringing a load of laundry to fold and there is this little foot sticking out. I lifted the covers and there was my sweetest boy fast asleep. How can moments like this not make you smile!

American Girls

Well we finally got to go to the American Girl store for Tay's birthday. Once again we all had a great time. Although it took for ever to get there it was worth the wait. My Mom went with us . We had lunch ,and shopped , the dolls got their hair done and the girls got to get matching outfits with there dolls. I know some of you think this is silly. But this is a big deal to little girls. This was such a special treat! Sammy and her doll Mia

Taylor and her new doll Nellie

Ok so some of you know that I am constantly taking the girls especially Sam to the bathroom ...every 5 minutes. No Joke ! So at the store they have these special holders for the dolls. So funny , I had to take a picture. I know I am probably the only one who would do this . But how funny is this.

Me and my little girlies!

The End of a Season

Well Volleyball has come to an end. Cate did a great job. Although she did not get to play that much this year I am so proud of how hard she worked. I will miss sitting in the bleachers cheering them on. I know it was emotional for her to end this season both on the court and in her life. I too felt sad . It is so weird to have your children grow up. How do you hold on and let go...... This I think will resonate throughout this year. Sorry It is really harder than I imagined it would be. Well here are some fun shots of Caitlen on Senior night. Way to go little one. Now you can get ready for Water Polo!

The Seniors

The sleep over

For Taylors 8th birthday I promised her she could have a sleep over. With soccer finally over we had her party last Friday. I have been throwing birthday parties for 17 years now and never I mean NEVER have we had one where everyone can come. That said we invited 21 girls. I know I know but I hate to hurt feelings. .....Only 1 girl couldn't come. CRAZY. So in my tiny house we had a ton of little girls. They were so fun no drama,fights,or even complaining. Thank God for my sweet husband. He was so helpful . All the girls think he's so funny. We made bracelets,bookmarks,played bingo and watched movies.Oh and ate a ton of pizza ,snacks and popcorn. I think it went really well. I started to get all proud when I had all the girls asleep at 11. But got knocked down a peg when they woke up at 4:30 am and wanted to know what I had planned for them to do now. This is not my best time of day. I told them SLEEP was what I had planned and we were not going to get up right then. They compromised and watched movies til 6:30. What a blessing to have such a fun group of kids . I do not foresee us inviting this many over for quite a while. At least till next year when my Sweet girl looks at me with those big blue eyes. We just laughed when we saw them all squeezed in. The neighbors even came over to see the show. The picture does not truly give the situation justice.

Dominican Republic

Last night Caitlen left for a week to go to the Dominican Republic. She is going with our church youth group, 25 in all. Rebekah Holbrook is there on a 2 year mission working and teaching at an orphanage. The kids are going to do speechless,vbs and manual labor. What an amazing opportunity . I am so thankful Caitlen was able to go. Please pray for all that went . My prayer is that this will be a life changing trip for my daughter. If you would like to see updates here is the blog for the trip. http://www.dominicanupdates.blogspot.com/ and this is Rebekahs blog so you can get to know the kids there and special prayer requests. http://web.mac.com/tiarivka/Site/Blog/Blog.html Please check out both sites especially Rebekahs I know my heart is touched by all she is doing there.

Trick or treat with the Brownies

Last week Taylors Brownie troop went to Nohl Ranch Inn ( an old folks home) to trick or treat. They go at dinner time (4:00) and go from table to table and the people give them candy. Its really cute everyone makes such a big deal over the kids. I met the sweetest lady . I had a volleyball t-shirt on because we were going straight to Caties game after . The lady told me her granddaughter plays for Elmo which is the team we were playing that night. So I got to see her granddaughter play . What a small world ! She invited me back to teach me to knit,crochet, or sew special volleyball pillow cases. I love how these women love to touch. They crab on to your hand , touch your hair, or your back. It reminds me of how my grandma used to be. I think I enjoyed this time more than the girls. Later as I was going through her candy I found a viactive (calcium supplement) One of the grandmas must have kept the candy and started handing those out instead. I laughed so hard. Sneaky sneaky grandma !

Happy Birthday Taylor

Happy 8th birthday Taylor ! Wow time really does move so quickly. I am so thankful God placed you in our family. You have such a sweet heart and a desire to please both God and others. I pray you never lose that . Your smile is contagious and lights up our home. You are the perfect mix of girlie girl and total athlete. I know I am bragging, but its her day so she gets to shine. We will discuss the knock-down drag out fights with siblings on another day. :)
On Sunday ,her actual birthday she got to go golfing with Grandpa Mel and Daddy. She chose this over going to the American Girl doll store with me. I'm not gonna lie I was a little disappointed. But it was the right choice. Grandpa surprised her with her very own set of clubs and a golf bag. Taylor was so excited she even walked some of the holes so she could carry her bag. I am told she was the best Gayer golfer of the day. Way to go Tay. God has given her an amazing athletic ability. She looks small and scrawny but my girls got game !
When we celebrate the rest of her birthday girlie style I will post more. Taylor the model golfer . She can hardly contain her excitement.

The clubs !

See Mom this is how I swing .

Halloween Party

On Saturday night The Friesens had a Halloween Party. We all had a great time hanging out with friends and watching the kids play. Thanks Aaron and Christina we had so much fun ! Taylor as Sleeping Beauty, Jake as a construction worker, and Sam as Hannah Montana.

I went as Caitlen the Volleyball player and Scotty was my coach. Cate said I could wear her Waterpolo suit but I wisely said NO!

Homecoming

On Saturday Caitlen had Homecoming. She looked so beautiful. She went with a bunch of friends in a huge group. They had a blast ! Here are a few shots of my girlie all cleaned up.

My little Man

I love this age! Yes Jake is 2 and I'm not gonna lie I love it. Everything is a new adventure,and anything can become exciting. I love that everyday there are new words ,and that they are said in there own special way. A horse is a hee haw , and a cow is a moo. It is so amazing that I can feel this way again and again. Jake has started saying "I do it ,no help me " . He wants to do everything himself. Then when he gets tired or can't do something he stands in front of me with those big brown eyes , sticks his bottom lip out and says " I a baby mom, I a baby" Then snuggles into my arms. It completely melts my heart. I know exactly how quickly these moments in time pass and I love this moment ! I am so thankful that God gave us this little guy. Yes that is a hammer ! He also sleeps with trucks,cars and last night a baseball. But he is never without his blanket and dog . See there is a soft side.

Soccer , Soccer , Soccer

Soccer season is in full swing. Which means on any and every night of the week you will find us on the field. The girls are playing great and even more important having fun. Both the girls team colors are green this year which makes it easy to wear team colors. Yes supportive moms are supposed to do that. Well when you have a cute green shirt that is. There teams are also both in second place. Go Grasshoppers and Gator Girls !!! Taylor scored 2 goals this week . And Sam did a really good job running . She kills me she pumps her little arms so hard and runs so slow ,then she looks over with a smirk on her face and gives me a thumbs up. Eventually I will get a picture of this.
I don't have any new Volleyball pictures this week because she only seems to play when I am not there. She made some great digs and even a few kills this weekend at there tournament. They are also now ranked in the top ten in the county. Not sure what # But I will post it when I find out. They lost tonight to Eldorado . That means a killer practice tomorrow. Hopefully They will win Wednesday night. Go Canyon !!
The team they played on Saturday kept pushing . Taylor got knocked down several times and had her shirt pulled so hard they turned her all the way around. The Ref didn't call any of these offenses. She came off the field and in her squeaky little voice told her coach "what is wrong with that Ref ! Those girls are pushing me all over out there!"

She scored here. Taylor is really good at bringing the ball up the field. She is still working on passing. She is getting better but loves to score and have everyone cheer for her. Who can blame the girl. Thats the best part ! Scott has been telling her that passing and making the assist is just as good as scoring. But she is not convinced. She looks at him like yeah right Dad, and told him that no one cheers and yells out your name for that! She has a point. But I am not encouraging it.
Sammy loves Taylors Coach Hank. He was there softball coach last year and she calls him coachy. He was so sweet and came to see her play last week. This made her day. Look how relaxed my husband is at Sams game. Totally different story at Taylors games !
This is his position at Tays games. How cute is Jake trying already to be like his Dad.

Go Sam ! There is still a case of swarm ball .....But seriously how cute is she.
How many games do we have to go to today??
Grandpa Mel with Taylor , Jake and Sadie the dog
There are those arms. You would think she is the fastest runner ever. But no not so much. She does good though. She is always right there with the ball.
Well after 4 practices ,a soccer clinic,2 games, a pizza party ,and a pool party. This week in soccer is done. Until next week that is.