Sisters Weekend in Scottsdale!

This past weekend Tony treated Amber and me to a sisters weekend in Scottsdale, Arizona as a gift to Amber for her birthday. It was the perfect weekend which included:

~ an 80 minute hot stone massage;

~ an afternoon relaxing by the pool in the hot Arizona sun;

~ shopping at a great mall;

~ great dinners out including one enjoying the Duck Football win;

~ hours and hours of chatting with my sister;

~ having fun taking pictures of our trip and chatting about photography;

~ sleeping in under comfy hotel linens;

~ thumbing through the 600 page fall In-Style magazine with Amber in hopes of us moms catching up a bit on the latest fashions;

~ an amazing brunch each morning at the hotel and;

~ more chatting with my awesome sister!  

The weekend was so relaxing and enjoyable. The only thing that felt a little missing was our big sis, Marilyn, and we vowed that next time we would try to find a way for her to join us as well. I am so lucky to have sisters that are my best friends!  Thank you so much, Tony, for treating us to a perfect weekend!

Willem's Jamboree

This weekend was the start to Willem's fall soccer season. To kick it off, Will's EMFC U10 Rover team played in the Kidsports U11 Jamboree (seeding tournament) which consisted of four short games. I had to miss it (more on that in the next post!) but was so glad when a parent e-mailed us some great pictures from the weekend. Chad tells me Willem played very hard and well against the 4th and 5th graders he was competing against. He played goalie half the time and was on the field the other half. He was very excited that in one game he drew a foul which resulted in a penalty kick and he made the PK! It was also a lot of fun that Will's final game of the jamboree was against Cade's class team. Cade doesn't play on this St. Paul/O'Hara team but a lot of his friends do. So Willem got to battle against his older brother's classmates! The Rovers lost 1-2 against the St. Paul/O'Hara 5th grade team and the 5th graders were the better team but Willem did great against them. 

Will's team which is the 'B' team for the club's U10 age group (typically 4th graders but his team has several young players: three 3rd graders plus Willem in 1st grade) went 1-3 for the weekend but each of their losses was by just one goal. So I think they did great against the older boys. Most importantly, Willem had a great time! We are all looking forward to his season!

Nice drop-kick, Keeper Willem!

Willem is so focused and works so hard. I love his expressions.

Nice work getting around those big boys, Willem!

GO ROVERS!

Willem was upset after a goal was scored on him. Look at how big that goal is compared to him!

Coach Alex high-fiving the boys after a 0-1 loss. They look like they still had a blast!

Professional Pictures!

In August our family had photographer Bethany Fegles take pictures of our family. Bethany has taken professional pictures for Amber & Tony's family and shot Duane & Mary's wedding. She posted the first few pictures of our photo shoot on her blog this morning. To check them out and to see a great blog which I enjoy following regularly click on the link below. 

http://bethanyfphotography.blogspot.com

Update:

Bethany has updated her blog (link above) with the kids and full family pictures. To see the full gallery (142 pictures!) click the link below, then click 'client' on the bottom right and 'Ficek' for the password on the client page. Bethany did a great job! I am so excited how they turned out!

http://www.bethanyf.com/index2.php

Back to School!

How did our summer go by so fast?! And how is it that we now have a 5th, 4th and 1st grader?! Today was the first full day back at school and I don't think any of us were quite ready for it. I love summer with the lack of schedules, early alarms and homework and, I guess my kids inherited that from me! Though they all wished summer would last a little longer, Gabrielle said she was actually a little excited for the first day and Willem was okay with it all as usual (thank goodness for my mellow Willem) but Cade definitely was not happy to go back. It is always a tough transition for him. I'm thinking about them all day, hoping they are having a good first day back and looking forward to hearing about it all!

Willem, Cade, Gabrielle

Our Fifth Grader

Our Fourth Grader

Our First Grader

U of O Women's Soccer

I love that UO has a women's soccer team and we try to make it to a few games each year. It's a great atmosphere with a great field and cozy stadium where the fans are close to the action and the kids can run around and visit with the many friends from their soccer teams that are often there as well. Cade, Gabrielle and Willem have all gotten to be ball boys/girls already this season (we've made it to three games so far) which means their club teams were asked to provide kids to stand behind the goals and on the sideline during the game to retrieve balls that go out of bounds. I've enjoyed going to these games in beautiful 75 degree weather and have enjoyed visiting with my soccer mom friends! This past Sunday after our hike, Chad, the kids and I all went to a game and Gabrielle got selected to take part in the halftime activity which involved dribbling a huge ball around cones. Her team won and she got a free Junior Duck membership and a free burger. It was a fun afternoon! I didn't get my camera out except to capture Gabrielle in the halftime contest.

A Little Downtime with Jacoby

Genevieve enjoyed sharing a blanket and a construction video with Jacoby this past weekend. They were really into it for a little while at least!

Duck Football!

Chad, our three older kids and I all went to the Duck game on Saturday and we had a great time! I love going to Duck football games and I especially love the first game of the season when the weather is so nice and everyone is excited for football season to start. Though the game itself was a blowout (the Ducks beat new Mexico 72-0!) the game was tons of fun because Amber, Marcus and Jacoby sat with us most of the game and we got to tailgate with good friends. The kids loved the game too. Gabrielle got to hang out with her good friend Jorja; Cade and Jace sat together much of the game; and Willem got to play football outside the stadium before the game, at halftime and for much of the third quarter and had a blast! Then Cade, Jace, Willem, Gabrielle and Jorja all 'stormed' the field (their word) right after the game ended and got to mingle with the players and, after that, they waited outside the locker room and got lots of autographs. It was a great day!

Elle, Me, Julie, Jorja                                           Me, Christy, Liz, Julie

More pictures of the tailgaters!

Willem LOVED playing football with friends

Jacoby loved watching the band during halftime and we all enjoyed frozen lemonade especially in the warm weather!

Cade with Jace and Me with Gabrielle

 

With my bro and sis!

Chad and I had our first date together at a Duck game....25 years ago this month!!

Cade and Jace (in matching green shirts) got by security and 'stormed' the field!

Jorja and Elle (holding hands) also got by security

Elle and Jorja with Kenjon Barner (who scored five touchdowns!) and Willem with all his autographs

Elle and Jorja got lots of autographs on their new shoes!

Mt. Pisgah Hike

Yesterday Chad, the kids and I hiked up to the top of Mt. Pisgah. It was a perfect day for a hike. Cade and Willem ran much of the way up and then ran the whole way down. Chad carried Genevieve up in the backpack and Elle and I walked along with him. Elle was sure she wasn't going to make it about 3/4 of the way up but kept plugging away and had a great time on the way down. Genevieve decided she wanted to walk down which she did for about a quarter of it but after two falls and a little convincing, I carried her down the rest of the way which was much quicker! I love this hike and wish we lived closer and could do it every day. It was so nice to do it all together.

The view from the top

Nev being very independent on the way down

Nev and Nia!

Genevieve adores babies but there is one baby she adores more than any other, her cousin Antonia! Genevieve gets so giddy when Nia is around and asks about her the second she wakes up wanting to see her. Genevieve loves to hold Nia but mostly wants to carry her around like her doll. We let Nev carry Nia a little with my assistance. Here are some pictures of the two cousins. We hope they are the best of friends throughout their lives!

Nia (almost 5 months) and Nev (20.5 months)

Nev can barely contain her joy!

Nev working hard trying to hold Nia

Nia was SUCH a great sport the whole time Nev was handling, kissing and hugging her. Nia never cried or fussed a bit!

A Who From Whoville?

Genevieve actually enjoyed her bath yesterday; she often does not like it. Maybe it had something to do with her Daddy styling her hair? Or maybe it's because Whos from Whoville (Dr Suess) are always happy?

If You Love Soccer and Cade...

...you may enjoy yet more pictures of Cade playing soccer, if not, that's okay, you may want to skip this post :-). Here are a few more pictures of Cade that I want to have for the blogbook. I love his expressions when he is playing. Cade definitely has a lot of passion! Some of these are from his first U13 Northwest Champions League (NWCL) game in which the top six teams from Washington and the top six from Oregon play each other from now through January. This league will be in addition to the Oregon Premier League which begins September 11th. In his first NWCL game, Cade played really well, scoring two really nice goals. Unfortunately, his team lost 2-4.

Look at that determination!

And the focus

Ready to make a cross

I think he looks a little like Cristiano Ronaldo in this picture and the one above this one :-)

Taking a shot

Here's some of Cade's team as one of their teammates is taking a penalty kick in a PK shootout (check out all the colorful shoes the kids wear now!)

Baby CrossFit

Since I finally took the video camera out, I also had to capture Genevieve doing the push-ups and squats that she does all the time! I also got her jumping (sort-of) and doing peek-a-boo. For you CrossFitters out there I think this would be a good workout: push-ups, squats, jumps and peek-a-boo!