Nev Hearts Her Cousins & More

Genevieve so adores her little cousin, Nia. It is so sweet. She acts so motherly toward Nia, always wanting to hold her (a little scary) or give her a blanket. And Nia (strangely) doesn't seem to mind all Nev's poking and prodding. Amber and I hope they grow to be the best of friends! Nev also gets excited to see Jacoby or 'Cobi' as she calls him; they seem to have a more typical brother/sister relationship in that they love each other, then get annoyed at one another and then love each other again. Amber, once again, took out her camera and took some great shots of the three of them below.

Also, I didn't do a post for Nev at 23 months but still wanted to document a couple little milestones:

~Nev now loves to play tag or 'chase' as she calls it. She squeals with delight whenever we play! She will start running and say 'chase' which is our cue to run after her.

~Nev went poo in the toilet for the first time last week. I am not sure she totally meant to as she may have just been trying to go potty but poo came out and we were all excited for her! But then as I watched her happily wash her hands, another poo came out onto the step stool! Chad and I tried not to laugh! Maybe once a day, Nev will take off her diaper and go potty in her little toilet. She is far from potty trained but at least she gets the idea a little bit.

Nev 'taking care' of Nia

A sweet little shot of Nev

Jacoby and Nev, happy as can be

Moments later, Nev tried to stand right next to Jacoby for a picture but Jacoby had different ideas, gently pushing Nev away which brought on this reaction by Nev!

And then moments later, Nev laughing at Jacoby doing the monkey dance!

I love this little girl!

Thanksgiving II

On Friday we celebrated Thanksgiving at my Dad's house. It was a busy morning of cooking, followed by a great meal and then a great Duck football game! I love spending the day with my family, visiting with my siblings and their spouses and all my nieces and nephews. It always goes by way too fast!

Kathleeen made the turkeys; it was very nice to not have to worry about that early Friday morning! 

 Mariah, Searra, Denisha

 Sooo much good food!

 

Cousins and best of friends, Gabrielle, Meleesa and Athena

Mariah really did eat this turkey leg!

Amy and Frances

Chad giving me a hard time about something :)

Sisters: Selene, Searra and Mariah

 Amber and Tony and their gorgeous family!

 

 Antonia is so sweet!

 Me and my hubby for whom I am very thankful!

 These boys are all so good to each other. It is very sweet to see Pascal and Cade include Willem and treat him so well and then see Willem be so good to Jacoby.

 My boys!

 Cade and Willem getting frustrated with the Ducks early in the game....we all knew our Ducks would be just fine!

Our tired little girl. She did great all day without a nap and finally fell asleep watching the game with us.

Ficek Family Thanksgiving

We were all spoiled at Grandma and Grandpa's house on Thanksgiving Day. I brought an appetizer, salad and dessert but really just got to relax the whole day, eat great food, read the newspaper, watch football and visit with family. It was wonderful! The kids, as always, had so much fun with their cousins. I am so thankful to have fabulous in-laws and was happy to enjoy them Thanksgiving Day! I didn't take my camera out too much (I was too busy relaxing!) but here are a few photos from the day.

Getting so big: cousins Andrew (16), Colin (18!), Willem (7) and Cade (11) played video games and joked around most of the day!

Genevieve had a blast goofing off with cousin Andrew!

Genevieve hugged, played and danced with her second cousin, Nithera (18 months). It was very cute. Nev loves other little kids!

More cousin hugs!

Gabrielle loves her Auntie Cindy!

Cousins EJ, Nithera and Nev

Grandpa relaxing in his favorite chair!

Moms vs Daughters..Bring It On!

I had such a blast on Sunday at Gabrielle's end of season soccer party that I organized for her team. We rented a field at Kick City Indoor Soccer and played Moms vs Daughters for 40 minutes. I thought us moms would have to take it easy on the girls but I was surprised how tough and good our girls are! Or maybe how bad us moms are! Regardless, we all had a blast. It was especially fun when daughters came up against their owns mom; they were brutal and I know I couldn't stop laughing as I was battling Gabrielle. It's such a great group of families. I look forward to many years of soccer with there girls.

Here I am taking my girl down (she was really trying to take me down)!

Thank goodness we had Brandy W. (center), she played for Oregon State and scored nearly all of our Mom goals!

We all got quite a workout in!

Brandy S. (pink shoes) did an awesome job out there for us Moms!

Willem played keeper for us Moms and was very frustrated with our lack of defense

 Meanwhile, Nev was getting into the cupcakes as the Dads watched the game and no one watched the cupcakes!

 

 The girls celebrated their 10-9 win!

Us Moms catching our breath!

Nev wanted to play in the goal!

Here are Gabrielle and me taking penalty kicks. Does our form look similar....

Willem was amazing in goal as always! I am always so amazed by how he can get horizontal so quickly on dives like these.

 The girls were having a blast, being goofy with coaches Dean and Jes