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Sports!

Selah has started gymnastics and Asher has started soccer.  They both are doing well, but I have to say that Asher’s soccer experience this morning was surprisingly awesome.  

He gets frustrated easily with himself so I was preparing him for the worst – I told him that he is just going to practice and that he needed to stick with it, have fun, and keep trying hard because other kids might have a lot more soccer practice (as in, any) than him.  I just wanted him to not be dissapointed in himself – it has happened over and over in swimming and writing, two things he gets very frustrated because his sister outperforms him by so much.  But soccer?  He was actually really impressive!  

Here’s a video of his first time kicking a soccer ball: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jzvzS89k9s

We were pleasantly surprised – and so was he!  The absolute best part was seeing how proud of himself he was.  

Selah has always been strong and coordinated, so it’s equally as fun watching her (just not as shocking 😉).  She originally only wanted to go because her friend Madeline was going, but she’s now started to enjoy going even when Madeline isn’t going.  She still enjoys piano and singing more (which I know, family, I’ll video next week!), but we might have an athlete yet, and we’re happy that gymnastics keeps her practicing strength and coordination.  Here’s a little video mashup – nothing fancy, but is our scrapbook to compare how the kiddos grow:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9iUCtHbrBU

The other sport I’ve been meaning to try is biking – I’d like to take Asher to the pump track in town because that kid is crazy on a bike!  It must be the triceratops helmet!  😉

Happy Saturday family and friends!

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Love

Couldn’t think of a better way to spend Valentine’s Day then to have all three of mine pick me up from work (play on some construction equipment of course), dinner/dessert downtown, then home in bed by 7 snuggling and reading in bed (Captain Underpants, courtesy of Selah’s Valentine to Daddy).


When I put Asher to bed tonight, he really summed it up for me:

Me: Ashy, how’d I get so lucky having God give me you guys as family?

Asher: I don’t know. (Pause).  Whoa, Mom!

Me: What?!

Asher:  Oh!  I thought you were an alien for a second.  But aliens don’t talk, so then I knew.

Well, that clears up that question, in case anyone was wondering!  ❤️ ha!  I love my most random little boy, and his sister and Dad to go along with him.  Still don’t know how I got so lucky, but at least I’m not an alien, so I guess I’m still winning.  😉

Happy Valentine’s Day!

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Date Night 

Nothing like our favorite night of the year to make me post finally!  I have to go back and recap basically from summer of last year to now, but first, the annual Daddy Daughter Dance!

Who can resist, right?  The cutest couple there is around! It literally is Selah’s favorite night of the year, which was scientifically proven when she got home from school and asked to shower to get ready for it!  It was so sweet.
And Daddy was no less excited then Selah, and played the part of the prince very well, flowers and all.  I mean, the look at these faces here when he brought home a perfect bouquet for his princess…Their looks show it all in every picture, so of course I went overboard and am having trouble narrowing it down so am doing a classic over posting!  

And, shhh, don’t tell, but it’s one of my favorite nights because I get my own handsome prince to hang out with.  Tonight, we chose pancakes for dinner, bath time with a new Pokémon figure, topped off with two games of Monopoly with Superman.     Good times were had by all, and although I haven’t posted in quite awhile, one thing remains the same:  we’re sure blessed to get to be parents of these two growing babies of ours!

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And Other Things to be Thankful for

There are a lot of random things I take a few pictures at, then never post or don’t have a full thought about them.  But in the spirit of my online ‘scrap-booking’….we are also extremely thankful for:

Good friends and swim meets:

Mok, best dog in the world:Santa Barbara sunsets and bike rides along the beach:

Family to help with new backyard construction projects!  And new knees for Jesse to be able to do so:

Mok somehow got out of order, but could list him twice we are so thankful for him!

And just plain old family time together laughing – lots of times with this guy, but always together:

Sounds trite, but no other way to put it – we are very blessed (& when I don’t remember that, I come back here to upload! 😉).  When I have little time for friends or groceries or cleaning…this is what I’m doing!  Life with our little family.

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Sundays & Trucks

Today I took Asher on a Mommy & son “date” to the PEP Touch-A-Truck event at City College.  It had a ton of trucks – garbage trucks, police cars, fire trucks, sweeper trucks, construction equipment, a trolley, a postage truck, a delivery truck, a dump truck, a helicopter, along with bounce houses, Popsicles, and face painting….and I’m certain many others I’m forgetting.

Cute trolley driver, yes?! It was fun to have ‘just one’ and reminded me that it’s so important to get that 1-on-1 time with both our kids.  They thrive so much more when we’re intentional with them, and sometimes we just aren’t good at thinking of things to do, so this worked out great to have a specific activity.  

Hopefully the back of the police car is exclusive to this experience only!
It’s heavy Mama!
I had hoped we could get by the face painting without a request, but Spiderman it was…and I was too tired of climbing in vehicles and honking horns to resist.

 
Afterwards, we met up with Daddy and Selah who were at a schoolmate’s party.  They were having their own good time with a zip line, bocce ball, tree house, and hammocks!  Lucky boy got the best of both worlds!  I wish I would have caught more pictures of Selah, but she’s on the run with friends these days, and not much interest in having mom around documenting 😉.  

Fun Sunday all around, and just wish we had one more day before entering reality again.  Until next weekend!  ❤️

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The Bridge Arrives

Not the most exciting to anyone but me, but this past week the precast girders for the bridge I’ve been working on the past (almost) two years arrived.  Besides being a milestone of a major project of mine, it also is just special to share with my family who supports me every single day I work.  

the first girder!

I’m often wishing I had more time at home (or time in general), but when it comes down to it, I do love what I do.  I get the best of a lot of worlds – I get out of the house and mom-bubble each day, I show my kids there are women engineers & women in construction & women who run a business, and I create jobs for a lot of people who are happy to feed their families.  It’s fulfilling and I’m proud of it; again, even though I oftentimes wish I was less ‘busy’.  

So, the bridge for some reason reminded me of all of that.  And of course there are only so many bridge replacements in our town so I figured the kids might like to have seen one, so I had our nanny bring them.  Asher came in the morning and afternoon, and Selah came after school.  He was definitely more into it than she was, but not sure if that was a product of shyness or a product of the activity.  Either way, I was proud to have my babies onsite.


Sorry so many pictures – just couldn’t decide which ones to add!  I also just wish Asher could take a normal picture these days.  For some reason his ‘go-to’ camera pose is his Inner Peace stance from Kung Fu Panda 3 (see above, and every pic of him below).  Lucky us. 😉 I mean, he’s cute anyway, but I hate to have a whole year of pictures of my kid meditating.  Oh well, I shouldn’t complain – there are definitely worse things that could happen, obviously!  

So I’ll just live with my peaceful child (ha!), and my new bridge! 

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Sunday Funday

Today was full of the best things.  Family, progress on projects, cooking for the week, and play!  

My mom and dad came to help with a new concrete countertop for the outdoor BBQ area.  Cannot wait to see it finished, but here my dad and Jesse are – working hard to set it up and pour:For some reason, it placed those reverse chronological order…but since I write all these from my phone, we’re all going to live with that 😉.

Next up, Apple peeling, slicing, coring, and cooking!  Thanks to our picking at Nana and Papa last week we have *almost* unlimited apples!  Asher was my little helper and did every single one of them!  I would put it on the peeler, then he would turn it, grab the apple, pull off the end slices that still had peel, eat (or play) with those, then throw the apple in the bow I had to separate out.  Today I baked applesauce and another apple crisp, and had enough to freeze for a French toast casserole for next weekend…and one more bag to save for whichever of those is the most popular with everyone.


Love that kid and his goofy personality.

Last up for Asher – bike riding the neighborhood in a batman costume (like there’s any other way!

Selah joined us, but didn’t make the photo (she’s too fast!), but I did catch some of her on the trampoline.  She’s our athletic girl, that’s for sure!  Although gymnastics classes were full this semester, she opted to practice mastering her version of the one-handed cartwheel & somersault, and the jumping splits. She did well and told me – mom, I’m proud of myself!  (Music to this mother’s ears).

All in all, I’d say Sunday was a big success all around.  It’s especially great to see Jesse working on projects again.  And not just so he can tackle my ‘honey-do’ list (ha!), but more because he’s able to finally feel like he can accomplish things again even with the knee at less-than-100%, which is nice.  A big, big thanks to Grandpa & Grandma for making that happen.  We are so grateful.

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Nana’s Birthday

When I’m 92 I hope I’m as fun as this lady right here:

Last weekend we were blessed to go up to my Nana and Papa’s house and spend a pizza party evening with them for Nana’s 92nd birthday.  
The kids insisted on bringing bikes because they remember riding with Nana last time.  Not sure if we were racing or having a parade, but I think all three were having a blast:

We also made our way out back and picked apples and grapes in season (which I’ve been busy peeling and cooking all week in various dishes…so far, apple muffins, Apple crisp, and applesauce)…

If I have half the spunk of this woman when I’m 92, I think I’ll be doing pretty well.  I pray my daughter has heroes in her life like I have had in both of my grandmas.  (Pretty sure she’s off to a good start with her grandmas so far too! 😉).  

(Sidenote #2:  my Papa and Dad are also both pretty spectacular, so the men are not to be left out, despite not being pictured!). 

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First Day of First Grade

Finally!  School is back in!  Selah started 1st grade this year – and I can’t believe she is that grown up.  If I could stop time I would – love these years and although I’m often tired and can’t wait for sleep, I never feel like I have enough time with the kids after getting work and house chores done.  

Miss Selah is quite the student – loves her  teacher and class.  It was a tiny bit rough as we started since she expected to have the other teacher and was separated from one of her buddies, but she recovered well and it’s going to be a great year.  Here’s some pictures that summed up the first school morning with the family sending her off!

And a few at school with friends in her class and outside:

And this was the second day, but a sweet time of Selah watching the morning neighborhood activity with her best buddy Mok:


Ok, ok…one more…this same morning I caught a glimpse of her getting herself ready and just wasn’t expecting to see such a ‘big kid’ there.  My baby girl is getting so incredibly self sufficient!  Crazy.  

 Good thing I have this guy who still needs me!

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Colorado Day 4

Almost done sharing our trip a few weeks ago!  There’s just so many great pictures!


On our last day there Hannah had a flight so couldn’t join us, and Miss Kelly had the amazing idea to take a little mini-trip for the night to a cabin in the mountains where there were some fun hot springs.  Best idea ever!  Only thing more fun would have been to have the whole crew together, but it was the best time and so perfect.  


We stayed in a cute cabin that could have fit a few more, but had an amazing view and great location between upper and lower pools at the resort.  The upper pool had a waterslide into a main warm pool and then a lazy river connecting to another even warmer pool, along with two other small pools of varying temperature.  All with the backdrop of beautiful Colorado mountains – pretty spectacular.

view, complete with fighting children!
Asher found his inner peace
my favorite by far, with my baby girl

The lower part of the resort (our view) had a river with natural hot springs where you could make your own pools with rocks, and then two large pools of the hot spring water.  The kids loved it (minus the river – it was cold after dinner when we went and Selah had a good fall on the way there, so our timing was a little off, but the pools worked great and it was perfect).


We also had perfect timing walking by the store on our way back – and the ice cream man unloading his truck gave us a free ice cream!  If that doesn’t scream ‘perfect vacation’, I don’t know what does!! 😉

We are so thankful for these amazing friends we’ve made.  Kelly and Nels are the epitome of hospitality – I think if you look it up in the dictionary their picture is there.  And you know, they’ve raised a pretty cool family too – of course Hannah remains a favorite (of us – and our kiddos!). Looks like we’ll be back to Colorado soon! ❤️❤️❤️