Viewer Discretion Advised: Injured Toe Picture

Gabrielle visited the foot doctor today and the news wasn't good. The growth plate on her big toe is fractured and she cannot play soccer for 6-8 weeks which is the rest of the season. There were some tears shed and Elle is already so bored as she puts it many times each day. She does insist she is still going to go to every practice and game this season to be with her team. We are all bummed but also figure it was bound to happen at some point with our active kids. Here is a picture of Elle's 'Frankentoe' as I like to call it. Pretty gnarly, huh?

'I Love You', 'Go Ducks' & More Dancing!

'I Love You' and 'Go Ducks' are two of Genevieve's newest phrases this week. It doesn't get much better than that!

Genevieve also continues to love dancing. Here are a couple pictures of her dancing on the table while watching the Wiggles:

And here she is dancing to Katy Perry's California Gurls, she gets bit distracted midway but then starts dancing away again 3/4ths of the way in:

Stitches: Round I

I have always dreaded my kids needing stitches and I am surprised it has taken our kids this long to finally require them. On Sunday, Gabrielle slammed our back deck door on her big toe and sliced it pretty badly, requiring 11 stitches. Her foot has also been in a soft cast until it can be looked at by a specialist because Urgent Care x-ray showed she may have also crunched the growth plate on the joint of her big toe. Needless to say, Gabrielle, despises the cast and is growing tired of the crutches. Mostly though she is very bummed she has to sit out of soccer for a little while. We are hoping for good news from the doctor tomorrow and a quick return to the soccer field for Elle.

Cade's Boca Jr's Team

I was in charge of getting a new updated picture of Cade's soccer team for the club's website. The coached lined them up and told them how to stand and, as you can see, some of them were a bit awkward trying to lean forward while looking at the camera but they are mostly 12 and 13 year olds so that's to be expected :) Cade sure loves this group of boys and especially loves being on the field with them. 

Coach Joe, Jose, Sawyer, Jay, Malachi, Ben, Edgar, Juan, Dana

Alex, Gio, Cade, Aiden, Josiah, Hunter, Ethan, Ryan

The past two weekends have been a bit of a breakthrough for his team. They compete in the top 7th grade (U13) division in the state (the Oregon Premier League or OPL) and are finally seeing some real success in this league as well as in the Northwest Champions League (NWCL) in which the top six teams in Oregon compete against the top six teams in Washington. Cade's team has always played tight games against the Oregon teams but so often have ended up losing a lead at the end and ended up with a loss or a tie (I think they were 1-5-6 last fall in the top OPL league). Against the top Washington teams, they have only lost, usually by several goals. But the past two weekends, the Boca Juniors got a convincing victory against a top Washington team 3-0 (last time we played them we lost 4-1) and they played right with probably the second best U13 team in Washington losing in the end 2-4 (last result was 5-1). Against three top Oregon teams in OPL games, they got a win, a tie and a very close loss (2-3). It has been a lot of fun seeing Cade and his team improve and play some very good soccer. It'll be fun to see how the fall season progresses for them and if they can continue to get more wins!

Oh, Willem!

It's corn harvest season (his absolute favorite season) and here's a recent conversation Willem started with me:

Willem: Mom, you know what the BEST smell is?

Mom: No, Willem, what?

Willem: Corn...it just smells so good. It just, it just smells like home. I just love it.

And here's a conversation his teacher told me about today:

Girl classmate announcing to the class (about something the 1st grade parents have to do that the kids must then return to class): I don't think my mom can do that. See, she has a baby and she's really busy and I'm not sure she can do it.

Willem in all seriousness and a bit of disgust (loud enough for all to hear): Um, my mom has a baby and she has four kids. It's not that hard.

Teachers: couldn't help but laugh

Gotta Love that Willem!

Genevieve at 21 Months

 

Genevieve is now 21 months old and her personality is really coming through. Genevieve...

~ recently learned how to give real kisses (sooo sweet!);

~ says 'hug' and then proceeds to give us hugs and kisses;

~ is a jumper; she shows off this skill often;

~ is a little exerciser; she loves to show off her push-ups, squats, jumps, etc.;

~ is a soccer ball dribbler; we often get comments that she must be another soccer player like her siblings as she dribbles (with her feet) any ball in sight;

~ is a climber and is independent and curious (scary combo at times); the other day she climbed into a drawer to get herself high enough to get into the pantry and then proceeded to take out the peanut butter, open it and started eating it with her fingers!

~ is a talker; Nev says well over 50 words and often says 2-3 word sentences. Recently she said: 'I have poo', 'I want up', 'baby go bye-bye';

~ is not so easy to photograph. She is constantly moving and isn't interested in looking at me whenever I have a camera in hand :);

~ still loves shoes and clothes;

~ constantly says/waves 'hello' and 'good-bye' to anyone (stranger or not) coming or going

~ adores and is adored by her siblings; Nev's least favorite time of the day is when her siblings leave the car to go to school;

~ LOVES to dance anytime a song comes on! Her favorites are 'California Gurls' and any songs on her 'Bear' cd;

~ is a people person; she loves talking to people and wants to engage with them;

~ takes one nap each day for 1-1.5 hours;

~ sleeps at night from about 8:30 until 7:00 or later if we sleep in and she's in bed with us. The last couple weeks Nev has digressed with her night sleep; she's been waking and crying around 3:00 or 4:00 am and we have been putting her in bed with us where she falls right asleep. We thought it would only last a day or two but it's been a couple weeks (not every night but enough!) so I'm ready to make her cry it out at night for a couple nights;

~ is a pretty good eater. She loves all things protein such as eggs, sausage, chicken and beef. She really likes asparagus and potatoes and she'll tolerate broccoli and green beans. She also likes fruit (bananas, strawberries especially) and nuts (cashews especially) and yogurt (which she makes a great mess of as she wants to eat it with a spoon by herself!). She's been liking power bars and other granola bars more and more so we have to limit her on those now. She is not the best milk drinker though she'll drink one sippy cup most days. So, it's mostly just water that she drinks;

~ LOVES the Wiggles! It is the only show she asks to watch and she asks often :);

~ started really enjoying books which we read to her before her nap and bedtime. Her favorites are 'Go Dog Go' and 'Are You My Mother' and we pretty much just read one of those each night;

~ loves to be outside especially with her siblings;

~ wants to be with her siblings all the time. If they go upstairs she begs to go with them, if they go outside, she begs to follow!

~ has such a fun and outgoing personality!

We Love You So Much, Sweet Genevieve!!

My Favorites...

It was so tough to decide, but here are my favorite pictures from our family picture shoot which will go in my blog book. Now I just have to decide which ones to print!

 

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!