Pictures from Fall

It has been a fun and busy fall for our family.  Cody played soccer and loved every game.  He just can't seem to get enough of it.  He plays every chance he gets.  His skills have improved so much over the season.  I am excited to see what the future holds for him as an athlete! 

 Shelby also played soccer this year.  She has taken a couple of years off from soccer since she was doing both dance and piano.  This year she decided to drop dance and pick up soccer again.  I worried that she would be behind because of her break, but she jumped right in and was a great asset to her team.  She scored several goals for her team throughout the season.  

  The picture below shows her just after scoring a goal.  Way to go Shelby!

Dallin has had a lot of soccer games this fall and they have all be so exciting to watch!  

 Most of the time we had pretty good weather, but we did get rained on during one game.  But the rain didn't seem to slow the boys down any.  They just kept on playing.  

 This was one of Dallin's goals.  He was able to score at least one goal in most of his games. 

 During his last game of the season he scored three goals in one game.  It was his first "Hat Trick" and he was super excited about it.  (I didn't know what a hat trick was before that game.  It's what they call it when a player scores three goals in one game.)  What a great way to end the fall season!  Their team won all but one game and took second place in the league.  I believe they will advance to the Select level next Spring.  

Darcy has been a happy little girl throughout all the games this fall.  She's such a fun little person and I'm so happy she's in our family.  

 Dallin has also been playing flag football.  It is really fun to watch them play.  Their team also won all but one game.  Dallin is really good at pulling flags for the defense.  

  He is also very good as a receiver.  He caught several touchdown passes.  

  But my favorite thing to watch is when he catches a kick off or punt and runs the whole length of the field for a touchdown.  (I think he's done it 5 or 6 times this season.)  He is so fast and is somehow able to weave through the entire team without getting his flags pulled.  

It's hard to believe that October is almost over.  I love the fall season and have really enjoyed our good weather lately.  I know that cold times are on the way which makes me appreciate the warm sunny fall days like these ones even more.  

I sure love my kids!  

First Day of School

I woke up this morning to the sound of my kids getting themselves ready for school.  I heard them each take showers and then help each other make their lunches.  When I got out of bed at 7:30 am the were all ready to go...school doesn't start until 9 am.  I was so proud of them for being such responsible independent kids.   They were all super excited for the first day of school!  

 This year Dallin will be in 6th grade, Shelby in 4th, Cody in 1st, and Darcy in Kindergarten.  So all four of my kids will be going to Foothill Elementary.

 The bus came 10 minutes earlier this year than it did last year, so it was a good thing my kids were so early today.  I was hoping to get a picture with all the cousins together at the bus stop, but because the bus was early the Cherringtons arrived just in time to jump on the bus and the Esplins missed it alltogether.

 I'm going to miss having my kids around.  This summer was a lot of fun.

Heading off to school...hope it's a great year!

Soccer!

This past week has been a fun one for our family.  Dallin is on a competitive soccer team called Utah Valley United.  He has been practicing with them all summer long and they had a tournament this past week.  It was the Adidas Cup Tournament and was held in West Valley.  They played on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evenings.  Only the top two teams from each bracket would advance to the semi-finals on Saturday.

The first game they played Dallin scored a goal within the first 5 minutes of play.  It was really awesome. Here's a picture of the goal kick.  I was so excited that I jumped up to cheer and missed taking a picture of his arms raised in victory.  So you'll just have to imagine him running with both arms raised and the biggest smile on his face!

They went on to win their first game with a final score of 2 to 1.  The second game was a hard fought game with a final score of 0 to 0.  But we were super proud of the boys for keeping their opponent from scoring any goals.  It was quite an accomplishment.  Their 3rd game we played the number one team in our bracket and tied them with a score of 1 to 1.  That was another hard fought game on a 100+ degree day.  

Our team advanced to the semi-finals and played a game on Saturday morning.  We played the number one team from the other bracket.  It was a crazy game.  We held them off the entire 1st half but unfortunately they scored a goal during the second half.  In an effort to get a goal we pulled all of our defensive players up to press for a goal and they were able to turn it over and score another goal.  So we lost that game 2 to 1.

 It was a brutal game with lots of fouling being done by the opposing team.  We were proud of our boys for having good sportsmanship and playing fair, even with the other team was playing dirty.

 It was really fun to watch Dallin and his team play.  They had Dallin playing offense and it was great to see him kick in the turbos leave everyone in the dust.  He has several great shots at the goal that were just barely stopped by the goalies.  I'm excited for the rest of their games.  They are really exciting games to watch.  I had a hard time sleeping Friday night because I was so excited for the Semi-final game the next day.  I woke up at 3 am and couldn't get back to sleep until after 6 am.  Dallin woke up around 6 am and came in saying he couldn't sleep either.  So we kept each other company for a little while until we were able to fall back asleep.

25 Days of Birthday Celebrations

First a little background...we have had a longstanding joke at our house about how we don't celebrate birth days, we celebrate birth months.  I think it started as a way to rationalize doing more fun things and eating more fun treats.  If we felt like going out to dinner we would say, "Well, it is your birthday month, so lets do it."  We always do a true celebration on the actual birthday, but we try to have some fun all month long.  

This year James and the kids stepped it up and gave me a present every day of the month up to my birthday which was on the 25th.  On March 1st James came home from work and handed me a new novel he had bought for me and said, "Happy Birthday Month!"  I was very surprised and pleased.  I love reading and was excited to read the book he picked out for me.  

The next morning I was greeted in bed by my kids saying "Happy Birthday Month" as they gave me a bag of peanut butter M&Ms and a coupon book Shelby had made.  The Coupons included: love letter, half hour of nice free cuddles, one night of babysitting, a nice hot bath totally free, massage, your choice of movie at movie night, a warm hug with 50 kisses for free, sleep in one hour late, a good morning kiss, as many pictures as you want, a plate of homemade cookies made by Shelby, kid free hour, free car wash, a plate of homemade muffins, clean up the house by Shelby, breakfast in bed, unlimited hugs and kisses, free dish washing, one chore done for one week.  I loved it!

 On day three, I woke up to Darcy bringing me a present with her own coupon book.  This time it was a silver necklace.  Darcy's coupon book included the following items:  fold clothes, good morning kiss for mom and dad, lots of stickers, 50 kisses from Darcy, 50 hugs, unload laundry, good for 1 hug, clean one room in the house.  Super cute!

 Day 4 I discovered this bag of Swedish Fish with a note from Dallin sitting in my closet on top of my shirts.  

Day 5 brought a set of cutting boards and an adjustable measuring cup.

Day 6 they really outdid themselves.  James got up early and went for a run.  When he came in from his run he was carrying a beautiful bouquet of gerber daisies, and my favorite dessert from Kneaders - a fresh fruit tart, and a loaf of honey wheat bread.  While I was ooing and ahhing over the flowers Dallin came walking in and said "Look what I found," as he handed me a handful of stargazer lilies.  Then Shelby walked in with a gerber daisy and said, "Look what I found."  She was followed by Cody who brought in a handful of red roses and said "look what I found."  Then came Darcy with a handful of fire and ice roses and also said, "look what I found."  James had taken the kids to the florist last night and let them pick out their favorite flowers to give to me, in addition to the original bouquet of gerber daisies they got.  He could have just given me the flowers, but he really wanted to include the treats from Kneaders so he went for the run this morning just so he could get the treats too.  Then he carried them home for the rest of his run.  What a great husband! I also loved the little card they picked out...it said "I just wanted to show these flowers how beautiful you are.  We love you! Happy birthdye love, Dallin, Shelby, Cody, Darcy"

Day 7 - Some much needed additions to our kitchen came as the gifts for the 7th of March. I am pretty hard on spatulas and have been known to break more than a few of them.  Hopefully these ones will last a bit longer since they are steel lined with silicone and the handle and top are seamless.  I'm excited to try them out!  I also noticed the other day that my liquid measuring cup was cracked and didn't hold liquid anymore.  So I was super excited for these three kitchen tools!

 Day 8 - This might seem like a strange gift, but I was really excited about it.  Some of my kids have perpetually stinky shoes.  I really don't like smelling stinky sneakers.  So I am excited to use the shoe deodorizers on my kids shoes!

 Day 9 - Love, love, love this present!  James picked out these new shoes for me and I love them.  They are super comfortable too!

 Day 10 - My rollerblades have been due for a tune-up for many years now.  Today's gift was a new set of rollerblade wheels and bearings.  The best part of it was that Dallin not only gave me this gift, but he also spent quite a while installing them perfectly on my rollerblades.  He's going to grow up to be just as handy as his dad!

 Day 11 - I can  now work out in style.  Today's gift was a new Nike Dry Fit exercise shirt.  Darcy picked this one out because it was pink.  

 Day 12 - Over the weekend Cody had a mishap in our partially finished bathroom downstairs.  All the plumbing is there, but the finishing touches like toilet paper holders and towel bars are missing.  Somehow, the entire roll of toilet paper fell into the toilet while he was trying to wipe.  Then other things ended up on him while he tried to solve the problem.   So now that you know the back story you can appreciate how excited I was about todays gift of a toilet paper holder for the bathroom.  

Day 13 - I decided to grow out my hair for a while.  Having the exact same hairstyle for so many years gets a little boring.  So now that my hair is a bit longer I have been wishing for some hairclips to style it with.  Todays gift was perfect.

 Day 14 - We have two partially finished bathrooms downstairs, so I was super excited when I got todays gift.  Now we can have a toilet paper holder in both bathrooms.  They tricked me with the gift today.  Shelby brought in the toilet paper holder and gave it to me first.  Then Darcy ran out and came back in with another gift.  I thought she was getting the one they gave me a couple of days ago.  But when I pulled it out of the bag I saw that it was a towel holder instead.  I thought Darcy had accidentally given me a gift that was ment for another day.  But they just wanted to mix it up and give two at once.  Double score!

Day 15 - We are in sore need of a new kitchen timer, so my gift on day 14 was a timer. 
Day 16 - A new shirt!  Yay!

 Day 17 - The main part of this gift was a new charger for my iphone, but it came with some new socks, coconut M&Ms and a coupon book from Cody.  I'd say that's quite a haul for one day!

Day 18 - Today I came out to find a rather large present.  It was a new chair for our front porch.  I love the red color and how comfortable it is!

 Day 19 - A new skirt and some new temple socks.  I really love this skirt, the picture doesn't do it justice!

 Day 20 - The flowers they gave me earlier in the month all died out.  I was secretly hoping they would give me some more because I enjoyed the others so much.  I wasn't disappointed.  I got the most beautiful bouquet of tulips, lilies, and snapdragons.  Tulips are one of my most favorite flowers!

 Day 21 - Today I got a beautiful blouse to go with my new skirt from a couple of days ago.  But I also included a picture of the power supply James used to fix my computer today.  I was just finishing up a bridal session I had done for one of my photography clients.  Luckily I had completed the disc and was just closing down all my programs when my computer suddenly shutdown.  I couldn't get it to turn back on.  I had another photo shoot to head off to so James came home to watch the kids.  I told him about my computer problems and headed off to do a family portrait session.  I was worried about my computer the whole time I was gone, but it was unnecessary worry because I have such an amazing husband.  I came home to a completely fixed computer.  I appreciate him so much!

 Day 22 - Today's gift was a new umbrella for my studio light.  I accidentally broke my other one at a wedding reception when my light fell over.  This one is much nicer than my old one.
Day 23 - This was another photography gift that I am super excited about.  It is a shoulder strap for my camera.  The traditional strap really starts to bug my neck when I am on long photo shoots.  This one is super nice and goes over my shoulder.  Yet another perfect gift for me... James knows me so well.

 

 Day 24 - A beautiful new outfit!  The shirt is a beautiful plum color with intricate flowers on the neckline.  The skirt is long, black, and flowing.  I'm excited to have some new church clothes to wear! Yay!

 Day 25 - My actual Birthday!  I really wasn't expecting anything big for my actual birthday because of all the amazing gifts I'd been getting all month long.  But they surprised me with a new Kindle Paperwhite, a hot pink Kindle cover, a $25 Amazon/Kindle gift card, a new shirt and some Mike&Ikes.  I've got to say that my family sure knows how to make me feel special!

The thing that impresses me most about this whole experience was how much thought and effort James put into it.  Every one of the gifts was something special for me.  He said he tried to get things that weren't family gifts, but were really gifts just for me.  What a thoughtful and loving man I have in my life.  I just can't get over how special it made me feel to know that he would go to such trouble to do something nice for me.  Thank you James!  I love you so much!