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.

The Fiesta

Every September there is a Fiesta at a church by our house. We go with a bunch of neighbors. They have rides, games, confetti eggs, silly string and even margaritas. It is good times for us all.We always run into old friends we haven't seen in years. So here are some shots of us at play. Caitlen mostly hangs out with her friends but did grace us with her presence. Notice the confetti all over her back.
Our neighbor Jon and his girl Sam !
Ok I will explain the whole confetti egg thing. They sell cartons of confetti filled eggs. The kids love it and talk about it all year. I am just glad I don't have to clean it up. Although I am still finding it in Jakes stroller.

Jake loved the rides. He had the biggest smile on his little face.
Matthew our neighbor and Taylor.
Caitlen and Raquel.
What a shock. Singing and dancing
It was just to much fun for my little man.

This week in sports

This week was the start of our sports madness. Between all of the practices and games there is little else going on over here.

This week Caitlen had 2 volleyball games and a tournament. She made some great digs! After her 3 hour volleyball practices every day, 2 nights a week she is then going to 2 hour water polo practices. Oh to be in high school again.

Taylor played great this week ! On Saturday she scored 4 of the 7 goals. Yes 4 ! The Gator girls won 7-0 . Her coach told her she could have a scoop of ice-cream for each goal. Although she could have easily eaten 4 I made her settle for 2. Way to go Tay!

Sam had her first game of the year on Saturday. She played so good! I love to see the concentration on her little face. The grasshoppers won 4-0 . Good job Sam! We didn't even have to go in the nasty park bathroom. This is an amazing thing we usually go about 4 times. I guess it was my lucky day.