Update

We are still alive.  Just finishing up soccer season.  The boys both finished their last fall outdoor games this Saturday.  They both had great games and came away with wins.  I wasn't able to get a picture of Ethan's team after their game.  He stayed after and had a picnic with his team, but here is one of Cole's team.

We have about a week off before indoor starts.  The boys are both playing on indoor leagues and futsal leagues this winter.

Saturday was crazy we travelled over 220 miles that day just to get all the kids to their games and Liv' to her meet.  We were exhausted at the end of the day.

Liv continues to do great at her meets.  She continues to place regularly 3rd place for the All Around competition.  Her team placed first for team scores recently also.  

Here is a video from Liv's beam routine on Saturday.  She scored 9.075 on this routine.

I've been helping in Liv's class.  I watched one day as this one kid kept coming over and was totally flirting with her.  It was hilarious.  She kept blushing.  I tried to snap a picture from the hallway, but couldn't really get a good one.  His name is Chase :)

We spent some time last weekend playing outside, the weather has been great lately.  

We went to a real Wisconsin bonfire the other night.  It was way out on a farm in the middle of nowhere with a huge bonfire.  

Liv went to a birthday party with some friends from school.  Here is a picture of her two best friends from her school class, Emmy and Sydney.

She also spent time playing with Jessica from her gymnastics team one day after class.

I'm realizing that most of these pictures are of Liv.  The boys are still very much alive, but apparently they don't like pictures any more :(  I did grab a few of them from our neighborhood Halloween last night.  Ethan was determined not to dress up this year.  He thinks he is too big, but when he started to see several older kids coming around the neighborhood he changed his mind.  He decided he would be a soccer player.  I tried to explain that it wasn't actually a costume because he looked like this all the time, but he didn't care and people still gave him candy.

This is the crazy version of Elsa, after lots of sugar!

phone pictures

I've gotten lazy.

About 99% of the pictures I take these days are with my phone.

It's a shame when I have such a great camera, but I'm a little lazy!

So, here are a few random snap shots of what's been happening lately according to my phone.

Cole made a tower in cub scouts.  

It may not have been the tallest, but it definitely was the coolest!

We have a few more outdoor games left in the season, but this past week we also had a few indoor.

We took the kids to the Bistro Theatre.  It was great, we could eat dinner and watch a movie.

Shawn and I had our annual "Christmas Planning" hot chocolate date at Starbucks.

It got pretty chilly this past weekend and the kids were excited to test out the new fireplaces.

We all survived freezing cold soccer games in the rain this week.

This is Liv and her good friend riding off on their scooters.  They were heading to the park with purses packed full of treats and snacks.  

Liv had another meet this past weekend.  She did great, got her best all around score so far.

A few last pictures of the kids enjoying our new backyard, before it get's covered in snow!

Updates

Liv had another tournament this weekend, but this time it was hosted by her gym.  Which mostly just means that I had to do a lot of work.  We spent months working on the program, decorations, awards, foods, retail and everything else.  We also had to do set-up and take-down for the tournament, which was a lot of work late into the night.  But, Liv had a great meet and even increased her overall score and this time was able to take 3rd all around for her age.

Cole's soccer team finally had success this past weekend and won their games.  I missed the second game, but apparently there was a little dirty soccer playing going on and someone from the other team took out Cole pretty bad.  Shawn was there and he may or may not have started yelling and stomped out on the field to carry Cole off.  I'm a little sad I missed all the excitement :)  Last week Cole's carpool dropped him off and for some reason the garage door was locked.  My car was gone because I was picking up Liv and so Cole panicked when he tried to open the door.   Rather than just knock so that Shawn could open it, he took off running after his friends mom who just dropped him off.  He ran about a mile in the dark to his friends house and had his mom call me.  This whole time Shawn was home waiting for him.  Not sure exactly what happened, but it scared him a bit.

We got an email this week from the school inviting Ethan to become a student ambassador.  He was recommended to this program by some of his teachers.  Ethan has never liked school so I was completely shocked to see this.  He is doing so great and putting in so much effort into his schoolwork.  It might be because Shawn told him he could get a dog when he gets an A in math!  Shawn's been spending some time with Ethan trying to teach him a little soccer defense.  Ethan is very offense minded and his idea of defense is taking out the player.  We are working on that :)

I got the kids school pictures back.  Even though I take pictures of the kids myself I can't help getting one copy of the cheesy school pictures.

I did laundry today and realized we have interesting laundry.  Shawn's stack is mostly scrubs, Ethan and Cole's stacks are mostly soccer clothes, socks and undies, and Liv is mostly leotards.  I guess I am the only one who wears normal clothes in our house.

Last, yesterday was our 14th year wedding anniversary!  To celebrate we ate at an amazing little french restaurant.  We even splurged and got desert.

Shawn's gift to me this year was grass.  We are romantic like that :)

We are beyond excited to be able to go outside and play on it!!
I guess now I need to get a lawn mower.

Life Lately....

The house has officially been broken in.  Cole threw up last night all over the stairs.  He started at the top and threw up all the way down to the bottom.....at 1am.  It was lovely!

We are getting sprinklers put in today and then grass by the end of the week.  All the hardscaping has been complete and it's starting to actually feel like a yard.

Ethan Update:
Ethan loves his teachers, which is huge.  He has always hated his teachers, but he has such great ones this year and his attitude is awesome about it.  He does his homework without any reminding and is working hard to stay organized and even working hard in math!!  Last Friday his "soccer posse" at school all wore their team jersey's and went to the varsity high school soccer game and then to his friends house for a little bonfire.  I was able to sneak a picture of him after school because I was picking up Liv and Cole and he happened to be close by.  He was a little embarrassed, but I couldn't help myself.

Cole Update:
Cole has his own group of boys that live in the neighborhood who he loves to play with.  They all play on his soccer team also so he spends a lot of time with them.  The other day I was going to pick him up from his friends house and I noticed a large group of boys playing several houses down.  They were playing a shirts and skins football game.  Right in the middle was Cole, having a blast.  He is loving having all these kids to play with all the time.  Cole's allergies are pretty bad right now and he also has some pretty good asthma.  We got him an inhaler, which has helped, but the poor kid is always sniffling and blowing his nose.  He had two soccer games this past week.  Both in the pouring rain.

Also, his teacher emailed me this picture of Cole on the first day of school.  He seems to be doing good in school.  The new school has several lunch choices and the kids are loving choosing fun new things.  They usually bring home lunch, but they will buy a bag of chips of drink or something fun from school.  Cole and his buddies all buy "aquabots" at lunch.  Some kind of flavored water drink.  I had to tell Cole he could only get it once a week because it was getting a little out of control.

Liv Update:
Liv is doing so well in school and gymnastics and pretty much everything.  She is making new friends and comes home from school every day so happy.  The school has a big technology emphasis, which means lots of computer time for homework.  I randomly snapped this picture of Liv and Shawn doing some homework and I was able to get it at just the right time when they both were smiling.

Liv plays down the street at our neighbors house often.  Her friend Isa lives there.  They are so alike and spend so much time together.  Her dad took this picture the other day of the kids playing outside.