It's Football Time Again ....

2010 - 2011 Storm Mitey Mite Football

Matthew started his 3rd year of Pop Warner on August 1st. He is liking the year thus far and has played in two games (one was really a jamboree!) His team has not had much success but he is playing great on defense. He loves the defensive coordinator, Coach Jeff, and is playing mostly middle linebacker!! He had a great game this past Saturday!! Keep up the good work and attitude, Moo!! It is tough playing for three years and only getting one win, but we are trying to keep him focused on his job!!! He definitely is our football player .. he has the right mind set, loves to hit, and his anger management issues are a clear advantage in this sport!!

Working a little at QB

Even focused in the warm-ups

Our linebacker!!

Great stop #13 ... you saved the TD.

Part of the defense ... Yellow jerseys!!

Focused on the end!!

This picture says it all ... although we lost, our defense accomplished all of their goals!! Way to go guys in yellow!!

Finding the tailback ... he gets him down!!

Another solo tackle!!

Happy 40th Kristin

One of my closest friends, Kristin, celebrated her 40th birthday several weeks ago!! She is such a great girl and we say we are soul sisters. She totally gets me. When you ask her to do something, it is done. She is always on time. She is hilarious!! Her son, Brody, and Matthew are great friends. We totally connected the first time we met ... she likes hip hop and rap music, loves to run, is not too girly, and is up for anything!!! Happy birthday Kristin ... this is going to be a great 40th year for you!!

Her husband surprised her and the kids with a big bash at the pool!

Love that look on her face when she sees everyone!!

On our way to Season's 52 on her actual birthday. Had our hair done and then off to lunch!

Back to School 2010

All is red ... except for one!!

This year all five kiddos went Back to School. Andrew - 8th, Katie - 7th, Matthew - 3rd, Julia - K and William PK3. The older four are back at Windermere Prep (can you believe it is our 6th year there!) and William is 3 days a week at the Community Presbyterian Church in Celebration. Everything went smoothly and all the kids are happy!! William has transitioned very nicely and really likes Ms. Jessie and Ms. Shelly!! Jessie actually used to babysit for Andrew and Katie when they were little!!

So thankful for uniforms. No back to school clothes shopping, no arguments about what is appropriate to wear to school!! Love it!! Actually got most of our school supplies from our overflow closet!! Thank goodness for 90% off supplies at the end of last year.

Katie, Casey, Claudia and Taylor

Not to sure of Kindergarten ... meet the teacher day!! She is doing great, talking to her friends and her teachers!!!

Andrew's homeroom!!

Happy Matthew --- he is my best organized student. He pops right out of bed, never complains in the morning and is always ready with 20 minutes to spare. He is my routine guy!!

Ready for PK3

I found my name!!

Ready to walk in ..

Ms. Jessie

Ms. Shelly

Julia ... her first day of Kindergarten

Happy Kindergartner!

Sweet brother and sister!!

Our Baby Turn Three

William turned THREE on August 1st. We can't believe our baby is already three. Is some ways he is so mature (his speech, ability to skip, run, gallop, jump on one foot), but we still sometimes treat him like the baby (I guess he always will be that!!). He is a busy boy but very very sweet and snuggly!! He is so verbal and amazes us each day with his vocabulary. He is almost a carbon copy of Andrew at this age with the exception of the reddish hair, but his personality is more crazy like Matthew's. Looking forward to what this year has to bring!!

He had a low key birthday at home with just the seven of us. As you can tell we went with the Toy Story theme!! He loves Buzz Lightyear and "the Main Guy" aka Woody. He spent the next several days just playing with his new toys!!!

Loving the Buzz wings ... Thanks Greers!!!

Little Miss Makeup

Julia has discovered make up and was applying it heavily for about two weeks. I never had this with Katie who has basically been a tomboy (and still refuses to wear lipgloss or a little mascara)! It seems like Julia's makeup phase has ended, but I did get a couple of pretty pictures of her. Watch out Daddy .. she is going to be a pretty teenager!!!

The Traveling Continues ...

Katie was only back for a half a week and then she left again for Seattle with Andrew to visit the Browands!! They had such a good visit and once again did so much!! Meredith is such a great aunt and kept them busy and learning and excited the whole trip. The spent the first day at her friends' lake house tubing, crabbing and out on the boat. They even made s'mores!! They spent one day downtown (they went on the ferry and did all the sites), went to a night Mariners Game, hung out playing Wii and tons more!!!!

First Day on the lake tubing and crabbing!

Downtown Seattle with the boys

Air and Space Museum

Mariners game, wild animal reserve .. just hanging out

Katie's Amazing Summer Continues ...

I think Katie had the summer of her life!!! We arrived home from TN at 10:30pm on Friday and Saturday morning at 9:00 she was off to New Jersey to meet her BFF Casey and her family!! She spent five days with Casey, her mom, sisters and her mom's family. They packed in the activities ... beach, water park, sushi, boardwalk, mini golf, jet-skiing, dinners out, pool parties, BBQs .... One of her best trips by far!!! So happy for you Katie girl!

Washington DC

Sean and Matthew took a special trip to Washington DC for several days in July. Matthew was supposed to travel to Seattle with Andrew earlier in the summer, but when we rescheduled that trip, Matthew had a conflict with football. He was really disappointed so Sean took him to DC for some one on one time and exploration. Matthew LOVED the trip. They did so much (typical Sean to do his research even on short notice and pack in so much each day). The highlights included the Air & Space Museum, Arlington National Cemetery (Matthew loved the changing of the guard), The Capital, all the monuments, the Smithsonian and the Spy Museum. They both came back to happy and excited .... loved listening to them both talk a mile a minute about the trip!!

Reunion Finale

Finally back to my blog!! I am always irritated when people don't update ... why can't they just take 2 minutes and post their pictures I ask myself. Well I know why ... life happens. School starts, time flies. So happy to be back. Most likely brief journalling with a bunch of pictures to catch myself up. So now onto the end of our family reunion.

My Aunt Jane (my dad's sister) and Uncle Doug drove all the way from Chicago to see everyone. We had a great visit with them. Girls went shopping and out to lunch. Guys and kids went to the Aquarium.

We celebrated that night with a birthday party for everyone!!! We are never together for big birthday parties, so we decided to have one for all 18 of us!!!

What an amazing week with my sisters and their families, my mom and brother. It was so fun (but bittersweet) to be together. I wish we could live close .... miss them so much already!