The Ficek Family

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Momma Mary Day

To celebrate my sister-in-law and her soon-to-arrive little boy, we had a "Momma Mary Day" for her last weekend. Megan put together a delicious brunch, had custom t-shirts and set-up pedicure appointments for all of us. It was a great afternoon with Mary and friends! We are soooo looking forward to meeting Duane and Mary's 1st little one soon!

The guest of honor!

I am so lucky to have great sisters and sister in-laws!

Mary with her BFF Megan and a sweet little teddy bear which if you squeeze it has Duane and Mary's baby's actual heartbeat sound (my friend and sonographer, Brandy, gave the bear to Mary as a gift)!

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Special Preview...

...of our Christmas card!

Photo Card

View the entire collection of cards.

It always feels like the Christmas season has really begun when I order our family Christmas card which I did tonight! We had a rare Saturday at home today (just one basketball game and a boxing class in the morning). So after working a little, I decided to conquer our Christmas cards. We don't have any recent family pictures but I figured I must have enough pictures of our kids on my computer to choose from. But, I wasn't quite happy with the pictures I had of our three oldest kids (or, in Elle's case, she didn't like a recent one that I liked), so I convinced them to let me take individual shots of them on our back deck. Getting Christmas card pictures of them now is a lot easier than those years when I had three toddlers/infants four or five years old and younger but it was still quite humorous. Here are some of the pictures that didn't make it but I still want to remember.

Cade did not want a haircut, he did not want to be serious and he did not want to be out there for more than five minutes! I'm glad I got a few Christmas-card-acceptable shots!

Gabrielle posed perfectly for every picture and all of them turned out great, though she was picky and didn't really like many of them!

Willem was mostly business and just wanted to be done though Cade stepping outside in the middle did not help my cause :) Thankfully, Willem did let me cut his hair beforehand which was so overdue.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Hunting

I sometimes tell Chad he did a bait and switch with me...when we met, dated (for 8 years!) and married, he was not a hunter, just a sports lover (football, basketball, track, etc). He did hunt a little when he went to college for a year in Montana but I didn't know he'd caught the hunting bug until after we were married. At first it was a little hard having him gone numerous weekends and full weeks when he could. But since then, we've learned to compromise and he now just hunts for a 7-9 day stretch plus a weekend or two in the fall. And, Chad has started to take our boys along when he can. I've learned to appreciate how much Chad loves it and how he needs that time out in nature. I also love seeing how much Cade and Willem love to go along with their dad and I enjoy hearing their stories. This year Chad hunted in Idaho and Montana for about 8 days in September with Jake and two friends of Jake. And, Chad took Cade and Willem for a weekend in early September near the coast (those pictures are in a September post) and Cade for a weekend in November in Eastern Oregon. Here are some iphone pictures of the last two hunts...

Eastern Oregon:

One happy boy!

Idaho/Montana:

My handsome mountain man :)

One of Jake's friends got an elk the first weekend. It was the only elk they got that trip.

One of the camping spots

I'd prefer a nice hotel bed :)

Some gorgeous scenery

Jake

Idaho/Montana border

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

The Three Little Kids

When I was growing up in my family of seven kids, I was always very glad I was one of the 'big kids' (albeit the youngest of them). See, I have three younger siblings that are 3, 6 and 8 years younger than me that were very often referred to as 'the three little kids'. Now, I look back very fondly at those years and wouldn't mind at all being grouped with 'the three little kids'. Lately, cousins Jacoby, Genevieve and Antonia have been compared to 'the three little kids' and I LOVE it! The three of them have so much fun together, talk about each other when they are not with each other and I think will be buddies for a long time. Genevieve got to hang out with her cousins this past weekend and loved it. I loved seeing them together and, of-course, spending time with my sister :)

Amber and I did not take many pictures while she visited as we both have too many pictures as it is sitting in our computers to sort out! But, Amber couldn't resist taking a few and, of-course, I am glad she did! Here are the 'three little kids' playing in our backyard...

Nia is just adorable!

And a few with some of the other 'big' kids too...

Cade, Genevieve, Cousin Jacoby and Willem

I think Jacoby would love it most to be called one of 'The Three Big Boys'!

I love this pic!

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Happy Birthday to My Hubby!

I love birthdays and despite Chad never wanting to make a big deal of his, we had a great couple days celebrating his 43rd birthday! On Friday evening we had a family party for Chad's mom (who's birthday is November 3rd) and Chad at Chad's sister's house. Then, on Sunday Chad's mom was nice enough to take the kids for the night and Chad and I got to go out to dinner, stay the night at Valley River Inn, sleep in, workout together and just hang out until early afternoon. Today, Chad took the day off and we just did all the regular day stuff but got to do it together. We topped off the day with dinner with the kids at BJ's. I think it was a pretty great birthday and I hope Chad did too! He deserves it and a whole lot more!

Happy Birthday to the best daddy and hubby around! I love you, Hon!

Monday, November 7, 2011

Oregon Premier League Champions! Plus Two NWCL Qualifiers!

Gabrielle's soccer team, EMFC U12 Athletica Blue, won the Oregon Premier League (OPL) fall title with their win yesterday! Athletica plays in the highest premier division in the state against all the top U12 teams including teams from Portland, Vancouver, Bend and Eugene. There are 41 teams in U12 in the OPL and the top 8 compete in the premier division. Her team is the first from her club to win the fall league which is the longest and most competitive season with 14 games; they played each of the other 7 teams in the premier division twice and finished with a record of 9 wins, 1 loss and 4 ties (THUSC was 2nd place followed by FC Portland and FC Salmon Creek). Elle was so excited and happy yesterday, it was a lot of fun to experience the win with her. We are so proud of her and how hard she has worked, first to even make this team and then throughout the summer and fall to improve and earn a starting spot. She started most of the games this season at left back. Another cool thing about her team's 1-0 win yesterday is the lone goal began with Elle making a pass to Aja who then passed it to Elle's cousin, Athena, who took a beautiful shot into the back of the net! The team's top four finish also qualifies them for the 2012 Northwest Champions League (NWCL) which means more trips to Seattle next year!

Cade's team, EMFC U14 Boca Jrs Blue, also did very well this season, finishing 4th in the top premier division of the Oregon Premier League with a record of 7-5-2. This was also just good enough to qualify them for the 2012 NWCL which was a major goal for them this season. Cade started most of his games, playing in one of the forward positions. It's been a little tougher though this year for Cade as the boys, most of which are 18 months older than him, all seem to be growing very fast. Cade cannot wait to get his growth spurt to catch up with the size and muscle of a lot of the boys he's up against. But Cade's hard work, tenacity, speed and determination enabled him to continue to be a vital part of his team and also continue to make his mom and dad very proud!

Here are a bunch of pictures from the past month...