Babymoon

Thanks to Josh's research project and his parents graciously watching the kids for us, we got a night to ourselves in Chicago!  I said it was our "babymoon".  We dropped the kids off at Grandma and Grandpa's after soccer on Saturday morning and then drove on to Chicago.  The hotel where he was presenting was a little ways outside of the city so we checked in and dropped our stuff off and then rode the train into downtown.  To me a lot of the fun of being in a big city is just walking around and taking in the atmosphere and some good people watching.  And I was so glad the weather wasn't an issue like it can be there, it was actually perfect.  We wanted to go to Navy Pier since we didn't make it there our last time, and we loved it.  

 Then we set off for some good Chicago pizza, and it was a fun change to see the city at night on our way back.

 We tried Lou Malnati's this time and liked it a lot better than Giordano's.  Yum.  We ended up walking over 5 miles, and my pregnant body ended up doing pretty well.  Do you think I burned this off??

I hung out in the hotel while Josh presented his research on Sunday morning, and then we headed back to pick up the kiddos.  They of course had the time of their lives with Grandma, Grandpa, and Matthew.  Grandpa was Sadie's buddy this time, she sure loves him.  

Thanks Greg and Shelley for watching them, we had a lot of fun and I know the kids did too!

Soccer Kids

We decided this fall to try out soccer for the kiddos and we are so glad we did!  Our Y doesn't do outdoor soccer, so we had them play in Upward, a church league, and ended up liking it.  They do some different things like have a mid-practice huddle with a little devotional and the coaches give out star stickers after the game that you can earn for being an example of certain things.  This picture after their first game makes me laugh because Shane got the sticker for being Christlike, so naturally he felt like he should fold his arms for the picture ha ha.  

 They also announce each time before every game and have them run through a "tunnel" which they had fun with.

 Josh coached Shane's team this year.  He knew he was going to be on a rough rotation for part of it so he only signed up to be an assistant coach but they didn't have enough coaches sign up so they made him head coach anyway.  Luckily it worked out that there was another dad that didn't sign up because he was also going to miss a few of the games but it worked out well that they missed different ones and he really had a lot of fun coaching.

 He had debated on whether to coach Shane or Marissa's team and I am pretty sure he made the right choice!  There is a big difference between PreK/K soccer and 1st grade soccer!

 Marissa had a lot of fun, and as my mom used to tell me, "she was the cutest one out there!"  The first game she skipped to every ball, and then somehow she developed this propeller arm she would swing whenever she ran.

 She also liked to check out her fan base, and stop to hug her little boyfriend there on the right.  Boy is Josh going to be in trouble!

 Shane had a lot of fun and really improved a lot from the first game, i didn't get many pictures of him,

 because I was usually busy breaking up fights between these two.

 He got to where he really loved to play defense, and he did it with sound effects too. Every time he would kick the ball away from someone it was accompanied by a loud grunt.  The last game I thought I would just toss out there while he was sitting out one period that I would take him to Rise and Roll (the amish donut shop) if he scored a goal, and he got really upset because he didn't know how he was going to do that, but he played a lot more aggressively on offense after that and luckily scored a goal!  I should have bribed him earlier!

And this cutie enjoyed frequent trips to the potty which was of course across the parking lot, and also playing on the sidelines.  She picked up on a lot just watching practice- when I would dribble the ball from the car to the field she would tell me, "don't kick it with yours toes mom!"  Crazy to think someday we'll have 3 or 4 in soccer!

Daddy's Girl

Shane and Marissa love their daddy, but Sadie is definitely the biggest Daddy's Girl of the three.  She is the first to run to the garage door when she hears him coming home from work, and loves cuddling with him.  Randomly during the day she will talk about how he's at work and she misses him, or when she is having a particularly rough day, "I need mine daddy!"  And who wouldn't love such a fun daddy like this?  Yesterday she wanted to "help" him work on the shelves he's building, so he let her draw the lines for him.  

Don't worry folks, no cutting for her so her fingers were safe;)  But just an hour or so later little miss clumsy tripped on her way to the bathroom to brush her teeth and smacked her forehead right on the corner of the wall.  But she loves being a patient, especially when Daddy is the doctor.

Here is a close up of the damage.

He made a run to the office for some steristrips and closed it up for her.  These are the times having a doctor in the family is nice!

And while Sadie sure loves her daddy, I am pretty sure he is the one who is wrapped around her little finger!

Miss Marissa

After having to wait a few weeks after Shane started school, Marissa got to have her first day of school a few weeks ago!  

And as luck would have it, she also had her first day of her new ballet session on the same day!  Can you tell she was excited??

I love this little girl, she loves to be beautiful and frilly, and at the same time is catching bugs.

She spends a large part of her day making projects that she comes up with on her own.  One day she asked me to show her how big the baby would be when he was born, and I realized why after- she was making t-shirts for him!  Josh brings us home tons of scrap paper from work and it goes quickly at our house!  I used to worry they would get upset when they realized I threw out their stuff every night but Marissa very nonchalantly said something the other day like "and you will throw it away when it's time for dinner" so I am not too worried anymore!

I am the lucky recipient of probably about 10 of these every day:)

And she is slowly overcoming some of her fears, and so proud of herself when she does!

She is loving school and I can tell by all the stuff that comes home in her backpack that she is a busy little bee there!  It makes me laugh because pretty much every time her teachers bring her to the car they say something like "Marissa had a lot of fun with the glue today, I'm not sure we got it all off her chin!" or "she was having such a great time painting we got the smock on a little too late!" and I just laugh and say, "don't worry about it, I pretty much just expect it by now!"

Fall Fun

Though the weather has been feeling more like summer than fall (which I am not complaining about- we got a few cold days at the end of August and I was worried that we were on a downhill slope til spring- but since then it has been really warm and nice), we have been enjoying a few fun fall festivities.   We've been watching lots of football.  It was especially fun when the girls put on their lucky BYU nightgowns we won from BYU 50 and we had a miraculous win against Nebraska!

 We picked a bushel of apples (about 40 pounds) at the orchard a couple weeks ago and have 2 left.  We've eaten lots of apples at lunch, apple stuffed chicken, apple pie (which the girls did not like), apple cinnamon waffles, apple baked oatmeal, applesauce, apple muffins, etc. etc.  I love that picking them gets them so excited to eat them!

We hit up a fun fall festival that we hadn't been to before because I wasn't sure how much there would be to do- and I wish we would've gone every year! They had all kinds of rides all for free and the kids loved it.  Here are Shane and Sadie on the hayride, 

 and little miss scaredypants who had to be right by me.

 She finally got brave enough to sit with brother and sister for a picture,

 but insisted on riding with someone on the barrel ride (I rode with her the first time while her little sister rode on her own ha ha)

 then finally warmed up to riding something on her own because she realized I couldn't fit on there!

 And with the weather still being so warm we have gone on a lot of morning walks after dropping Shane at the bus stop.  I always love it when we see herons (which I tried to get a picture of but is obviously too far away).

Can't wait for more fall fun in October!

Docs vs. Suits

Last month Josh got to play in a "Docs vs. Suit" fundraiser game at Parkview Field.  

 It was a beautiful name for a ball game, and Grandma and Matthew came and some of our neighbors and friends were there too.  We had a great time!

 Josh kept saying things beforehand like he hoped we weren't embarrassed by him, but he did awesome!  He strategically placed his hits and got on base both times he got up to bat.  We were very proud of him!  I thought it was cute too that he kind of jumped up and down on the base when he made it because he was excited- reminded me of Shane!  I joked with our neighbors that I had bribed him with ice cream too:)

 Grandma and Matthew spent the night and the next morning we took them to Lowe's to build their last Avenger kit, and we spent the afternoon at the pool.

 We sure love when they come to visit!

Adventures in Cooking

I love to cook.  While the actual act of cutting and stirring and creating something is relaxing to me in itself, I love it on a deeper level too.  I love knowing that by cooking and feeding my family I am helping them grow, creating traditions, and bringing joy (depending on what's being made and who we're talking about...).  I (mostly) enjoy the challenge of planning out meals for the week- thinking about what ingredients are on sale and which recipes we like that use them, and how I can get healthy foods in there that my kids will enjoy (or practice learning to like).  And though gluten free cooking can be a pain at times, it is a pretty simple way to show love to my husband and he makes me feel like a rockstar because most of the best things he gets to eat are made by me!  And I am pretty sure that love is rubbing off on my children, especially the girls, because it is a very rare instance when I am starting to make something and don't hear the scraaaaape of a chair being pulled across the kitchen to come help.  

One of their favorite things to help me with is homemade pizza.  The recipe I use makes 4 pie-sized pans so there is one for each us, and I have learned to plan extra time and am slowly letting go of my desire for them to be perfect and relinquishing more and more responsibilities to them. 

 And I have to give a big shout out to good ole Mel, author of my favorite cooking blog, melskitchencafe.com.  Probably a good 75% of the things I make came from her site because I always know they will be good.  And she feeds my need to constantly try new recipes by posting often.  Some of our very favorites are:
Creamy Baked Chicken Taquitos
Grilled Island Chicken
BBQ Pulled Pork
Beach Street Lemon Chicken Linguine
Creamy White Chili
Cheesy Ham and Broccoli Quinoa Bites
Chicken Tikka Masala
Creamy Tex Mex Quinoa Dippers
Grilled Honey Chicken and Veggie Kebabs
Roasted Garlic and Cauliflower Pasta
any of her muffins

Now if I only I loved the cleaning part afterwards...