Party at Crossfit

Friday evening, while Willem was a ball boy at the UO soccer game and Cade went to the Haunted Corn Maze with friends, Elle, Nev and I went to the Halloween Party at Crossfit. We all had a blast, playing games, eating, chatting with friends and doing a workout with pumpkins as weights and apple bobbing as the final workout station. I haven't bobbed for apples in forever and I forgot how tough it is. I wasn't planning on getting soaked but we all did! I am so lucky to have a great group of friends I workout with most days (and who were nice enough to share their pictures)! I was supposed to go to another fun costume party on Saturday night at my friend Sheri's house but after a full day of soccer in Portland and a long week without Chad (hunting), I was so tired, I just couldn't get myself back out after getting home after 8:00 pm. After nine hours of sleep (yeah!) I'm looking forward to more soccer today and treat-or-treating with the kids this evening!

Gabe got some great shots of all of us bobbing for apples!

Kendall, Heather, Cheryl, Me with Ty, Malia and Nev (after we got all wet and much of our costumes came off)

Gabrielle started out as an 80's Pop Star but lost some of her costume along the way :)

Elle bobbing for apples!

Me at the costume judging

Cheryl made chicken feet as an appetizer!

Me during the workout; notice Nev in the back in her butterfly costume

Our new gym was decorated!

Nev and me all wet after bobbing for apples!

Go Kendall!

The Stecker Family as Wizard of Oz!

Halloween at School

I was so bummed I forgot my camera today when visiting the kids' school for Halloween parties. Thankfully, I always have my trusty phone as a back-up. It is always so much fun to see all the kids in their costumes. I love it! I also love that my kids really wanted me there for all their parties and were excited to see me arrive in each of their classrooms. So fun!

Jace, Cade (Robin Hood), Caleb, Joey, Conner, Ben

Jorja and Gabrielle (80's Pop Star)

Willem (Mario) and Ben

Sisters on the Playground

Last week, Gabrielle and cousin Athena took Genevieve to the playground while Willem played a soccer game. I sent them with the camera and they got some fun shots. Genevieve is such a daredevil on the playground. She climbs up everything, runs across swinging bridges, swings on the big kid swings and goes down the longest slide. It always makes me a little nervous but she loves it!

Sisters! Elle is very good to her little sis.

Genevieve loves the playground!

Willem Playing Soccer on a Gorgeous Fall Day

We got lucky Saturday and were able to watch Willem and Cade play games in nice weather before the rain arrived in the evening. And, we were treated to two great wins by both boys' teams (4-1 for Willem vs. Roseburg and 6-0 for Cade vs Westside). Gabrielle's team tied their game in Portland in a nail-biter against the top U11 team in the statewide league (FCSC who was 8-0 before tying Elle's team today). I took my camera out for Willem's game and got a few good shots. It was gorgeous out with the fall leaves. As always, I love capturing Willem's passion and intensity in pictures of him playing soccer.

Notice the untied shoelaces which is so typical Willem though it does not seem to bother him!

Genevieve is 22 Months!

My mom always said she loved most to see the change in children from age one to age two because their personalities really come out in that year. She is sure right, once again, with regard to Genevieve. We learn more about Nev everyday. She has so much energy, loves other kids so much, is very smart, she is very physical, strong & fast, she loves to talk and she loves to dance....

We love our sweet Genevieve so much and cannot imagine our family without her!

A few more things about our sweet Nev...

- Nev is sleeping great again lately. She's sleeping through the night from about 8:30 pm to 7:00 am and then napping for about 1 hour to a maximum of 1 hr 45 min. She loves going to bed the same time as Gabrielle and they both will read for a little while then fall off to sleep.

- Nev is obsessed with The Wiggles. I think she would watch it all day if we let her!

- Genevieve is throwing fits from time to time mostly over not wanting to change her clothes, not wanting to get in her car seat (this happens about once every other day) or wanting to watch a second or third episode of The Wiggles. I haven't given her a timeout yet but I can feel it coming! I did take her nuk away today and told her she had to stop crying before I gave it back; and it worked!

- Genevieve talks a ton and loves to jabber away telling us stories, laughing, etc. We can understand some of it but definitely not all.

- Genevieve loves to be with her cousins and siblings and often seems to prefer them even over me as long as she is not tired or hurt. She cries when I drop her cousins off at their house after school because she wants to go with them and play on the trampoline and with the kittens.

- Genevieve also loves going to Ty and Payton's house and gets really excited when I tell her she is going there for a playdate (i.e. Kendall and I run and she stays with a sitter there!). She loves it! She is obviously very social!

- Genevieve is so sweet in saying, "I love you, mom" even without prompting. A couple days ago she was upstairs and I was downstairs and she starting yelling it to me from the top of the stairs. It melted me!

- Genevieve has such a definite opinion about clothes already (just like her sis); she often is insistent on a pair of shoes or shirt she wants to wear or does not want to wear. Sometimes I let her wear whatever but other times it is just not practical and so there is a little battle (which I, of-course, win but isn't always much fun :). She often just does not want to change into a new outfit in the morning or evening and then fights just as hard the next morning or evening trying to keep that outfit on that she fought about the night before :)

Gabrielle's Athletica Team

Though Gabrielle hasn't been able to play soccer since injuring her toe on September 26th, she has been to every game and every practice (except one). She just loves this group of girls and loves being a part of this team. Here is a picture taken on Saturday after the first of two games that day. You would never guess that Gabrielle is the youngest on her team and one of only two 4th graders (all the others are 5th graders).

Avalon, Katlyn, (cousin) Athena, Sara, Aliyah, Isabella, Gabrielle, Kyndsi, Jordan

Evyn, Jaida (the other 4th grader), Grace, Lindsay, Emily

Ashley and Cameron (also pictured: Coaches Dean Smith and Jes Smith)

Her team is currently in the middle of the Oregon Premier League U11 Premier division with a record of 3-4-2 (they started the season a little out-of-sync with three close losses but since then have been 3-1-2). Gabrielle has a doctor's appointment on November 3rd and hopes to be cleared to play not too long after that!

I should have known....

....if Nev is quiet for too long, she must be up to something. Just minutes before 'the incident', Genevieve was just lying on the floor with her baby doll and nuk; it was almost nap time...

She had been quietly playing with her doll, kissing her and giving her a nuk...

...the silence continued a bit too long though, so I checked on her again and imagine my surprise when I saw what she was up to and covered in!....

I think she was finger painting with the peanut butter and she ate a bunch as well!

...so we took a nice little bath in the kitchen sink!

Like Father Like Son

We recently came across this photo of Chad (with his Uncle Roger) and were once again reminded how much he and Cade look alike. I think Chad was a little younger than Cade is in the picture on the right but the resemblance is definitely there!

Still Drawn to the Shoes...

In Genevieve's world, being in the shoe department is about on par to being in the toy department. Oh what fun it is to try on all the shoes plus it's so much easier to try on shoes compared to getting those toys out of their packaging!

Another Soccercation

Chad calls our soccer weekends away 'soccercations' as they seem to be our only family vacations lately. This past weekend was spent in Seattle for Cade's Northwest Champions League Games. His Boca Jr. team played three games against three of the top Washington teams. They lost two tight games 0-2 and 1-3 (vs. Gig Harbor and Washington Premier) and won one game 2-1 (vs. Crossfire B). Cade played well and was a lot of fun to watch. It was actually a pretty relaxing weekend as we only had one of our kids playing so we didn't have to rush from field to field. We did take two of Cade's teammates (Edgar and Josiah) with us so the hotel was pretty packed but luckily we had a suite so Chad, Genevieve and I got our own room. Cade loved having his teammates along with us and said it was one of the best weekends ever. Gabrielle stayed home so she could celebrate her BFF Jorja's birthday and so she would not miss supporting her Athletica team in their game (in Portland) this weekend.

Amazingly, the drive to and from Seattle went really well. Nev slept three-plus hours of each of the drives and the boys stayed quiet watching movies and chatting

  Gotta love the DQ stop (and Krispy Creme, Subway, Wendy's, etc). We let the boys pick the food stops and it was definitely not the healthiest of weekends!

The boys watched TV in the room as well as played a ton of football. They had a great time together. Willem especially loved hanging with the big boys and the big boys were very good  about including him in everything.

It was a pretty wet weekend but luckily it only rained about half of one game for us. Genevieve is all dressed here but she constantly was taking her shoes and jackets of during the games!

 

Genevieve had fun running around during the games and playing with the dog. It was so nice having Chad there too so we could share the 'Genevieve-following' during the games. Willem was great, playing tons of soccer on the sidelines, during and before games.

The fields were pretty muddy by the last game!

 Cade playing his heart out. He played forward all weekend and got lots of playing time.

Cade getting some leverage!

The Boca Jr's after their final game

Showing off their muddy backsides!

I got a text from Brandy of this picture of Kyndsi and Elle in Portland. Such a good friend helping Elle out as she deals with her crutches going on Week 2 of her injury.

I Love My Ducks!

After a quick drive to Portland and back on Saturday morning for Cade's soccer game, I was lucky enough to watch the ESPN College GameDay feature game of the week: Our 4th ranked Oregon Ducks vs. 9th ranked Stanford with Chad and Amber! The game was so exciting, the weather was perfect, we screamed a ton, it was fabulous to spend the evening with two of my very favorite people and we loved watching another Ducks victory which moved them up a #3 national ranking! Go Ducks!