15 Great Years Together!

Today is Chad and my 15 year wedding anniversary! Our lives are fuller, busier and filled with more love than we could have imagined. I couldn't ask for a better hubby and feel so very lucky to be on this journey with him. Here's to (at least) 50 more years together!

Homecoming 1985 ~ a couple months after we met!

1989 ~ Leticia age 19, Chad age 21

Our wedding day ~ July 30, 1994

Happy Birthday Willem!

Willem with his new goalie outfit!

Willem turned six today! Our boy was up very early (before 7:00) wanting to open gifts and by 7:45 he was jumping on Cade's and Gabrielle's beds saying 'It's my birthday'! After opening a couple of gifts (soccer jersey and goalie gloves), we headed out for McDonalds pancakes (his favorite!) and then a trip to the Cat store and then the John Deere store. Will picked out a toy tractor with a wagon. We then met our friends, Chris, Boston and Sydney at Chuck-E-Cheese for games and fun. This evening it was off to Grandma and Grandpa's for DQ ice cream and more gifts. It's good to be 6!

Here's a bit about Willem at six....
-Willem is pretty much all about farm/dairy and soccer. Those things consume pretty much all his time, thoughts and conversation!
- Willem still loves to go on the internet and look at farm/harvest videos, farm toys, etc.
- The only 'books' Willem 'reads' are farm/dairy/lego/playmobil catalogues and farm/dairy magazines. He goes through the farm and construction classified ads and circles the pictures of everything he wants to buy for the dairy and/or when he gets older.
- Willem loves to go outside (or in our hall) and play soccer (for hours) with his brother. They mostly take shots on each other and also play mini-games. The games often end in a fight but then begin again a few minutes later! He knows about all the premier league teams, their jerseys and a lot of the players. He is really into playing goalie lately.
- Math comes easy to Willem. He can add and subtract two digit numbers in his head and likes to figure out problems. He is less interested in reading; he does know his letters and sounds but can't really read yet.
- Willem still loves to be funny and often cracks us up with the things he says like this morning when he and I were talking to Genevieve about Willem being 6 now, he said in a joking way, "your lagging behind now sis" (as in I am one year older now and you are not).
- Willem can play for hours on his own and loves his dairy in the backyard and in the playroom. He will often go out there and play and play.
- Willem likes to watch the TV shows Barnyard, Penguins of Madagascar, Extreme Logging, Ice Truckers and soccer games.
- Willem's best buddies are his bro, Cade, and school friends, Jackson, Treysn, Ben, Hayden (any many more!).
- Willem continues to be easy-going and just a lot of fun to be around though he is pretty his competitive and will get frustrated when Cade doesn't let him win once in a while! He doesn't get in trouble much though sometimes when he does, he thinks it's a joke at first until we make it very clear it is not :)
- Height: 49.25 inches
- Weight: 55 lbs

We Love Our Sweet, Smart Willem!

playing in his new clothes

At the John Deere store

Craziness at Grandma and Grandpa's house!

Grandpa with Genevieve

Grandma and Nev

Just a sweet picture of Genevieve

My Birthday Dinner!

Tonight I met some of my best friends for a birthday dinner. I always love getting together with this group of friends and so appreciate the support and love they give me all year long. Thanks for a great dinner, Sheri, Sandy, Kathy, Christy, Julie and Brandy! I love you!

Gabrielle on the News!

Take a look at a news piece on Gabrielle's (and Athena's) soccer team...

Gabrielle on the news

My Perfect Birthday Weekend!

My birthday cookie from Paradise Bakery (thanks, Chad!!)

What a great weekend! Some may call me crazy but I had a perfect birthday weekend here in Portland watching Cade and Gabrielle plus six of their cousins (my nieces & nephews) play in a three day soccer tourney in 90+ degree weather! My brothers, James & David and their families, plus Chad and me with our kids as well as 5 or 6 other soccer families (mostly from our kids' school) stayed at the Embassy Suites and hung out together watching soccer and eating good food. My Dad and other brothers, Marcus and Duane, also came to watch some games and hang out as well. I ate lots of Paradise Bakery goodies (my fav), ate at the Cheesecake Factory twice (another fav) and even got some shopping in today after the tourney. Soccer, hot weather, good food, family, friends, Portland, What else could I ask for?!!?

I have so many pictures and stories, it's hard to know where to start but here goes...

CADE: Cade's team played in a 12 team Gold (top) Group and his four team bracket had three of the best teams in Oregon. Though Cade would have liked his team to win the bracket and advance to the semi-final, they showed they could play with the best in Oregon with a 2-1 win, 1-1 tie and 1-2 loss. All very close and exciting games. I was proud of how Cade took the games in stride; he is growing up!!

It was hot and dusty at the fields Cade played

Cade has gotten taller and leaner

GABRIELLE: This was Gabrielle's Athletica team's first tournament together and Gabrielle's first out-of-town tourney and they (and she) did awesome! There were 20 teams in her age group (8 in her Gold/top Group) and her team won all three pool play games, then won in a penalty kick shot out in the semi-final and then lost 1-2 in a very tight championship game. Taking second in this big tourney was pretty exciting and Gabrielle had a blast and worked so hard playing central defender. It was great to see her excitement, to see her push through when she was hot and exhausted, to see her joy when they won and when she made her penalty kick, to see her teamwork, to see her bond with her friends and to see her experience so many new things. On Saturday night, the parents ate dinner at the hotel restaurant and we let the girls order room service and a movie on their own in the hotel room. They were so excited and felt so grown-up to do this on their own. They came down to the restaurant 3 or 4 times to ask questions! Too cute!

The second place team. Great job girls!

Being silly!

Trying to get lots of water at half-time. It was so hot!

Gabrielle working hard!

Go Athena!

Gabrielle takes a free kick

Nice kick, Gabrielle!

Kyndsi dribbling away!

Go Jorja!

Gabrielle looks so grown up!

The girls cheering after their PK shootout semi-final win!

They were so excited!

Having fun between games

The girls watching a movie in the hotel room (Elle, Kyndsi, Amanda)

Jorja and Athena, Movie time!

WILLEM: Willem was such a trooper again at all the soccer games. Willem always seems to find things to do at the games and he always finds buddies to play with. If we lose sight of him all we have to do is look for an open soccer field and he's usually found someone to take shots with! He also got in a few swims at the hotel and Chad took he and Cade to a Timbers (pro soccer) game with Auntie Cindy and Uncle Brett (and cousin Andy & Colin) in downtown Portland.

Willem and a new buddy playing soccer

Just watching the early morning (8:00 am) game

Will & his buddy found a football at some point and played for a little while. His expressions are too funny!

GENEVIEVE: Genevieve was a superstar! It was hot and she didn't get any of her regular sleep but she was amazing playing in the grass or on a blanket under an umbrella all day long! She (usually) enjoyed the attention she got from cousins and their friends though I did have to 'rescue' her a few times. She took her naps on us or in the car between games with the air conditioner cranked! I felt bad for her a few times because of the heat but she rarely fussed. After the last game on Sunday we took her back to the air conditioned hotel room and just let her play on the floor with nothing on. She was pretty cute and very happy (and of-course I got a few great pictures of it!).

Notice Willem pointing at Nev's bottom! He thought she was sooo cute!

Such a typical Willem expression!

Uncle Marcus chatting with Nev at a game

Happy girl in daddy's arms at a game. Notice the drool on Chad's arm!

Genevieve got lots of love and attention from all the girls!

'Help me, Mom'!!

Birthday Boys

Tonight we celebrated our nephew Daniel's 16th birthday with pizza and cake at Papa's Pizza! He is visiting from Nicaragua for the summer and has been great to have around. It's a good thing he comes from a family with six kids because he is surrounded by craziness here just like at home!


Yesterday Cade had his birthday party with his friends. We went to Chuck-E-Cheese for a couple hours and then to the new Harry Potter movie. Chad and I were impressed with how much they've all grown up in the last couple years. It was actually very easy taking all twelve (including Genevieve) kids to the movie with just the two of us. It was a great afternoon!

Pascal, Athena, Gabrielle, Max, Caleb, Cade, Jace, Mitchell, Ben, Conner and Willem

At the movies

Our Nev-Nev is Seven Months

Genevieve is seven months today! She continues to be such a sweet, mellow and happy little girl. She is such a joy to have around and we cannot imagine our family with out her!

Here are some recent milestones:
- Genevieve's favorite playtime activity is just being on the floor with toys or other interesting things around her. We brought out the walker this week but she hasn't starting really walking in it. She still spends a little time in the exersaucer and jumper but she doesn't enjoy them as much as she did a month ago (too confining, I think).
- Genevieve loves to sit outside in the grass and watch her siblings play while she sucks on a toy or anything interesting (though hopefully not a dirty flip-flop :)
- Genevieve is so close to cutting her first tooth; I felt something yesterday but it is still not quite through.
- Genevieve started her first little bit of scooting and moving around on the floor a few days after she turned 6 months. Now she scoots quite a bit and rocks on all fours. We have seen her (over a 5 minute period) move 5+ feet from where she started. She seems very close to crawling.
- Genevieve is so happy and always wanting to laugh and smile. She will sometimes start laughing or giggling when she sees her brothers or sister. So fun!
- Genevieve is sitting up on her own for a long time now though we have to be careful to put something soft behind her because she will fall back and hit her head sometimes after one minute or five minutes.
- She makes the sweetest sound when she sees her mom especially when she wants to nurse. It is not a cry but more a whimper like she really wants me. Too sweet!
- Genevieve is still just nursing. She will take a bottle of breastmilk if needed. No food yet...but soon; her siblings can't wait to feed her! She nurses every 2-4 hours but it takes just 5 minutes (unless I want to snuggle with her for longer :).
- Genevieve is still a good sleeper. We've been getting to bed later with it being summer so she's been sleeping from 10:00 pm until sometime between 6:00 am and 8:00 am (in her crib), drinking and then sleeping another hour or more with us. She usually takes one 2+ hour nap in her crib during the day then another two shorter naps (30-60 minutes) in the car or in our arms (usually at a soccer practice :) She is getting pretty good at falling asleep on her own but will often need us to put her nuk back in or stroke her head once or twice after we put her down.

Shopping with Two Babies & Two 16 Year Olds

Amber came down from Portland for the day to spend time with our nephew, Daniel, who is visiting for 6 weeks from Nicaragua. He's been working on the dairy and hanging out with his cousins. We decided we'd take him and Roman clothes (and video game) shopping for the afternoon to spend some of their hard earned dairy money! We started the afternoon with a great Chili's lunch with Marcus and then it was off to the mall. We thought the boys would be bored after a store or two but they were great to shop with! We went to at least six stores and even put things on hold so we could compare to other stores...it was real shopping like we'd do with our nieces when they come to visit! Daniel and Roman were fun to talk to and they were great with Jacoby and Genevieve. What great nephews we have! We decided that Daniel has a real sense of style while Roman was a more about sport shirts and jeans (not a bad thing either!) but he got into it and bought some good stuff.

Marilyn (Dan's mom and my sis) and Erika, Jackie, Leah and Naomi (Dan's sisters), you will especially love the hoody/jacket he picked out at PacSun as well as his new jeans, v-neck t-shirts, white belt and couple of T's he got at Aeropostal and American Eagle :)

Yummy lunch!

Jacoby and Genevieve liked looking at everything at Build-A-Bear.
Yes, the nuks came in handy during the 5+ hour excursion!

Cool dudes!

My sleeping girl! Both Jacoby & Genevieve slept for a while during our shopping

Jacoby and Genevieve actually really interacted several times during the day today.
It was all very sweet (except maybe the time Jacoby threw at toy at her :)