Friday, June 4, 2010

Our Memorial Day Weekend

It was divide and conquer for our Memorial Day weekend as Cade and Gabrielle both played in soccer tournaments; Cade was in Medford and Elle in Eugene. Willem and I joined Cade while Chad stayed home with the girls. Elle's U10 Athletica team played in the U12 silver division the Eugene tourney and went 2-2. It was a good first tournament of the summer season and Elle played well, mostly at forward though she also played some defense. 

Cade's team seems to play to the level of their competition; they tied two games 0-0 against teams they should have beat and then played very well against two very good teams (Rogue Valley and a top California team) losing 0-1 and 3-5. Coach Joe said he was happy with their progress and Cade and Willem both had a great weekend hanging out with Cade's team, watching movies and swimming in the hotel. I really enjoyed the sunshine and was able to relax and enjoy soccer without chasing sweet Nev :). 

Luckily, for the other tournaments this summer we should be able to go as a family and won't have to split up.

Here are a few pictures from Cade's tourney...

Cade receiving the ball against Rogue Valley

...and turning; he got a nice pass off to his teammate

Cade was about to get a shot off here but was tackled from behind. Unfortunately there was no whistle from the referee.


It's fun to watch the boys fight so hard out on the field

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Trouble

Here's Willem at a birthday party with a couple of his best buddies from Kindergarten. Looks like trouble to me :-)

Ethan, Willem and Jackson

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

All About Nev at 17 months

Hard to believe our baby is 17 months already! It really does go by so fast with number four! Here are some classic Nev shots taken this past week...



And lots of info on our sweet little girl...

-Genevieve is fearless and very industrious. An example: she was outside in the backyard playing with her cousin, Jacoby. We had the door open so we could hear them and peeked out every couple minutes. Before they went out we moved the step ladder away from the trampoline and laid it on its side. We also put the chair that was nearby on its side. But she somehow still figured out how to get on the trampoline and when we checked her she was happily bouncing around in it. We still have no idea how she got up there! Amber was here for a few days last week and she kept shaking her head at the things Genevieve would do that her more careful Jacoby (five months older) would never think of attempting!

-Nev starting grabbing our finger recently to direct us to where she wants us to go to show us something or to ask us take her outside. It reminds us of Cade qho used to do that ALL the time!

-She is talking a lot though still not all understandable. She clearly says Cade, Will, Elle, Mom, Dad, Doggy, Ball, Ya, Boo (for cow) and a lot more I can't remember right now :)

-Genevieve will play on her own for long periods but then will go for long periods where she wants me to be with her either to dance or take her outside or watch the Wiggles with her or just have me hold her while I try to get things accomplished.

-She is very nurturing toward her little cousin, Nia, and she is very interested in babies.

-Nev will sometimes whine or scream when she wants something and is quite persistent in trying to get us to understand what she wants. This has been happening more lately and makes us a little nervous but if we spend the time to get to her level and have her show us what she wants she is quickly back to her happy self. But if we do not help or let her show us, she is quite persistent!

-Genevieve loves asparagus, bananas, nuts, eggs, sausage (apple sausages from Costco), peanut butter and jelly, yogurt, chicken nuggets, went through a stage this month where all she wanted was Angus burgers (another Costco staple). She doesn't drink a lot of milk, maybe a sippy cup a day but does like water (she hasn't had juice except at Grandma's house :).

-Genevieve is liking books more but she will not let me read to her. She wants to turn the pages and doesn't want to go slow enough to read anything. I have found that she will sit and look at books I put in her crib.

-The only TV Nev wants to watch is 'The Wiggles'. She will watch and dance away though only about once a day will she actually stay tuned in to watch it for 15 minutes. She does ask me to put it on but then will often only watch for 2-5 minutes.

-Genevieve loves balls, balloons and bubbles! Those seem to be the only real toys she seems interested in playing with. She much prefers playing with her or our shoes, my paperwork, plastic cups and bowls, sticks, her nuks, my printer, anything in my cupboards or drawers, bracelets, etc!

-It is easy to get a smile or a laugh from Genevieve. She is definitely a people person and still says 'hi' and 'bye' to anyone who will listen. 

-Nev is very proud to help us out. She loves putting trash in the garbage, putting shoes in the backporch, etc.

- Our little girl takes one, approximately two-hour, nap  beginning around 11:30 or noon and nearly always sleeps all night from about 8:00 pm - 7:00 am.

We Love Our Sweet Genevieve So Very Much and Are So So Glad She's Our Little Girl!

Monday, May 24, 2010

3 v 3 Tournament


Saturday, Cade, Gabrielle and Willem as well as five of their cousins played in the 3v3 soccer tournament hosted by our soccer club. The weather was wet and cold but the kids did not care (Chad's tarped canopies and propane heater were life-savers!). It was fun to see our kids' improvement since last year's 3v3 tourney. Cade played with his best buddy Liam as well as his teammate, Juan. They had no subs so they had to work extra hard. They ended the day with two wins and two pretty close losses against their Boca teammates. Cade played hard and well scoring more than 20 goals and, aside from a little frustration for half of one game, he was a good teammate and remained positive throughout the day. As you can see the rain came down hard at times...



Cade's best buddy, Liam


The most fun game for me to watch of Cade's was his battle against his cousin, Pascal's team. If only Cade had played as well in all the games as he did against his cousin, his team would have have had a chance to win it all :)! Cade scored eight goals in his game against Pascal and his team won about 11-4 (I can never keep scores in these games). Now, Pascal's team is solid and even tied one of the teams Cade lost to plus Pascal's team had another solid win. But Cade always plays his best against his cousin, and Pascal battled hard as well as you can see in the pictures...




Gabrielle's team went 3-1 in group play losing a close game 6-5 against a Sherwood team. They ended up losing 6-4 in the semi-final against the eventual winners, a team comprised of their Athletica teammates. As you can see in the picture below, Gabrielle was not happy after their semi-final loss...


But she had a blast the rest of the day with her friends and cousins on her 3v3 team and her friends on her extended Athletica team as you 
can see below...



We all had a blast watching Willem play in his first tournament. He was so excited! And he was so into it! He played hard every game and made it to the final where they lost in penalty kicks. His team played in the U7/U8 age group and the teams were mostly comprised of 2nd graders. Willem held his own, scoring at least a couple goals in each game.


I love his facial expressions, always intense and often tongue hanging out!







Here is Willem after their PK loss; he cried and was so upset but after giving him 30 seconds to pout, I told him to get up and be proud of how his team played and he jumped up and was just fine (so glad his recovery time is much quicker than his brother's at that age :)


This is what I think he will really remember about the tournament...the fun he had with his teammates...



And, finally here are a couple more pictures of cousins...

Jenn with Selene

Mariah

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Nev & Nia Love Opa

The quality isn't great on these pictures but the expressions make up for it and the love can still clearly be seen. Here is Opa (my Dad) with his two littlest grandkids, Genevieve (17 months) and Antonia (6 weeks). Genevieve was so interested in and nurturing toward her little cousin, Antonia, this past week when Amber and Nia spent a couple days with us. And Opa sure enjoyed them both!






Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Spring Sports Season Ends & New Seasons Begin

This past week Willem and Gabrielle finished their spring soccer seasons. Willem with the club's Little Metros league where he did great with the 2nd-4th graders. And Elle with her Athletica team in the Kidsports league where her 3rd/4th grade team finished in the middle of the top 5th grade league. Cade and Elle will also be done with basketball in the coming week; they've both been going strong with basketball since November and both improved a lot again playing with their Oregon Magic and Team Flight teams. 

And, last week Cade, Elle and (sort-of) Willem took part in the EMFC club soccer tryouts. It was a bittersweet result.  Both Cade and Gabrielle made the teams they tried out for; Cade made the U13 Boca Jr team and Elle made the U11 Athletica team BUT their best friends on the teams, Liam and Jorja, did not make those teams (they are both still playing on lower but still very good teams). There were some tears and it will not be the same playing without them but they are both hopeful that those friends will join them again next year. 

As for Willem, he was asked to play with the U10 team this coming year. He was SO SO excited about it and is just so happy to be with an official team, the EMFC U10 Rovers! He is the youngest on the team by 15 months and will be playing with some boys who will be in 4th grade next year but he is so tough and I know will do great!

So, this all means that our lives will be even more crazy with three kids playing on club soccer teams! Self-induced, we know! There will be no big family vacation for us this summer as we will be spending 16 days in hotels for tournaments but we will make those our vacations and have a great time together. The kids are excited and so are we!

Next up....lots of tournament posts starting with the 3v3 tournament next weekend and two tournaments Memorial Day Weekend.

Here are a few pictures from Gabrielle's soccer game this past weekend...


 Gabrielle and Athena

Jaida, Jorja and Emily (on the ground)

Jorja and Daphne

Jorja and Avalon (with Daphne)