Day 5

Today marks the fifth day that Grace hasn't sucked her thumb. I'm totally impressed (and relieved, I'll be honest). She just decided the lure of going to Build a Bear was finally worth it and asked me to put the "yucky stuff" on her thumb (and it really is yucky, as both Anna and I can attest. We tried it the first time we ever put in on G's thumb to support her, and it is BAD). This has happened before, but she usually gets to nighttime and begs us to take it off (it has to be taken off with fingernail polish remover and then we have to wash her hands a ton to get the taste away). But, this time, she's sticking to it. And now we get to go to Build a Bear when Daddy comes home (or shortly thereafter, since we have something every day until Sunday, I think). Yeay!

Runnin'

Well, so far so NOT good with this whole blog thing. I actually have lots going on that may be interesting to you, but I seem to find it easier to get myself on here when I have pictures to post, so here I finally am. I've actually just finished three really great photo shoots in the past two weeks, too, so I may just have to put some of those pictures on here in a bit. For now, though, here are some pictures of Grace's soccer game today: the "Rainbows" (G's team) against the "Princess Care Bears." The names of these teams completely crack me up. I have yet to experience something quite as endearing as U6 girls soccer. As you can hopefully see in these pictures, Grace can totally kick the ball. She really is quite good. At this point, though, she has yet to get into the action of the games. It'll just take some getting used to until she feels brave enough to really get into the thick of things. And, with Grace, I've come to trust that she'll get there. And be stellar. In her own time.




In other news, this week has been busy with Anna starting violin lessons (which is TERRIFIC and she absolutely loves it), me helping in the girls' classes three days this week (don't know what happened; that needs to change!), me finishing two photo shoots and shooting another one (yippee!), I had a Brownie leader meeting, Grace had a field trip to Weber State (her alma matar) and did some track and field there, I worked at NPJ and am even going to start teaching knitting classes this fall, I knit a CUTE baby sweater for a model for the shop, both girls are loving their dance classes, and Adam left on Friday morning for his big Crossroads conference in Massachussetts. We'll miss him, since he'll be gone until late Wednesday night (hi hun!!). Suddenly we have found ourselves very busy, doing lots of different things. I don't like it. We all love everything we're doing, but added all together it's a lot. And, we're about to add Brownies... I'll keep you posted on how things work out and if we figure out how to simplify it all. But, we are all happy and healthy.

Today has been a beautifully mellow day: after the soccer game, we went to the bookstore and then came home and I got to listen to the girls play in their room together--a sound I miss hearing when we're running every which way and that. Now the girls are watching "Cars" in the basement where I'll join them in a few minutes with a freshly baked frozen pizza. Ahhh, life is good! :-)

Peter Turns One!

As you can see, Peter really LOVED the cake! I cannot believe he is already one... We absolutely love having him here (and his mom and dad, too). He is such a happy boy--and absolutely darling, too, don't you think?!

Soccer Stud

Here are some pictures from Grace's first soccer game today. Adam is her coach (and her friend's dad in the blue shirt is the assistant), so it's fun times indeed. Grace did really well and had a ball.

Warming up with jumping jacks.

Practicing kicking when the whistle blows and stopping when it blows again (soccer is very technical at this age!).

Standing in line to practice kicking it in the goal.

Playing soccer makes a girl thirsty!

Sitting with teammate Hannah.

I'll try to get more action shots next week.

My how it's grown!

Since a lot of you got to see "before" pictures of our yard, I thought I'd post some more recent pictures. So much has grown so fast! I actually just planted about 35 new plants since I took these pictures, but they're just babies and it didn't have too huge of an impact on the look of the yard--yet! We LOVE it.

And we're off!

I hope I don't regret starting this... :-)

It has been a common theme among those I love most dearly that I don't keep in touch well enough. There are those of you out there who seem to care about what we're doing and want to hear more from us (me). So, in answer to those pleas, I am starting a blog. Just so you know what to expect: I will try to post weekly--and I'm not promising juicy, tantalizing content all the time. A lot of the time, our lives are just plain mundane (busy doesn't always equal interesting, I'm afraid). But, I may surprise myself. I do plan to post lots of pictures, not just of the girls, but occasionally of my knitting projects and photo shoots. And perhaps you'll see an errant photo of me or Adam in there too. So, here it goes. I do hope to hear from you, too, in order to keep this from being a lonely venture.

And, for those of you who are grateful for me starting this, you really should thank Soley, who has been telling me to have a blog for at least two years now. I guess the fact that I obsessively check her blog started to leave an impression...