My kids are Great!!!!

With 3 teenagers and a preteen I hardly ever expected to have so much fun with my kids! I was such a rotten, grumpy @#$ &*() @!#$#%%$ of a teenager that I just did not expect to love this time in my kids lives! I am far more blessed than I deserve to be! I get to be friends with my kids, have discussions with them and know who they are, they're great! I'm sorry I was such a rotten kid mom, I truly robbed you of many pleasant memories.

Another First Day of School

Every year we experience birthdays, spring break, Christmas, too many other holidays to be named and THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL. Every year the day is approached with much hoopla, clothes shopping, supplies and bags bought and labeled with the many many questions like "what do you mean your shoes don't fit I just bought you a pair last month" or " Are you sure you need a new back pack I think the one you have is still nice" "Do you have your first day of school outfit planned" How are you going to wear your hair" ect ect. With all of the preparations being made I always forget to plan emotionally for the day.
It is always a day of mixed emotions, I am excited for them to be going off on their next adventure with new friends and new classes, I am glad to have some much looked forward to time for myself and to be able to enjoy the little kids with out the demands of the older kids pressing in upon me throughout the day, I am worried for them, will they make friends, will the need me?
I am also sad, my babies are leaving home, some happily like Minnie who is looking forward to being finished, graduating and becoming an adult, and Natasha who is a social butterfly and needs human interaction from some one other than her sisters all of the time, and Kylee who just rolls with whatever life hands her. I was truly sad to watch my 3 H.S. kids go, all laughing and happy and absolutley beautiful, looking forward to the day. My heart ached. Then as I dropped Chelsea off at the Junior High all by herself, knowing how nervous and scared she is to be in this big school all by herself, I'm not so much sad as worried. I know that she'll be ok but as a mother you just want to fix everything, even though you know that they have to be allowed to grow up and fix things themselves. Then as I dropped off my 5th grader, Madison who is very scared of going to a new school and making new friends, my 2nd grader- Lindy who is excited to make new friends but dislikes school because it causes her to work and 1st grader- Britten who has been pestering me to take him to school since we landed here in Fallon, all who have amazingly great teachers, well you can only imagine how quiet my life became as I left with just the two little boys. I'm excited for them, worried for them, sad to have them gone, glad to have them gone. As much as they all need these life experiences to help them grow up and become mothers and fathers, I as a mother I need these experiences so that I will be able to let go when they need me to let go. I think that having Minnie this close to graduating I realize that Wow, I'm at the beginning of the end. My first child is a Senior, Can you believe it? My oldest child will be leaving the nest soon. It doesn't matter if I'm ready for her to go, the time is near and I will have to let go. Wow, where did the time go?
So, like every year at this time I dropped my kids off at their various schools, entrusting their care and well being to another for the day and year, with joy and sadness in my heart. At least this year I did'nt cry, almost but not quite.

Soccer Begins

We began our first official day of our 8th soccer season today. Yes, of course we've had practices over the last few months and weeks but today we had games making it all official. Kylee's games were all scrimmages with 2 other teams one from Dayton and somewhere else. I was'nt able to see any of her games but she said that she did well. Because this was a set of preseason games for the coaches to see the kids in action Kylee did'nt play any one spot, everyone rotated. Chelsea's team the Bulldogs won. Chelsea had a good game playing defender most of the time. (Iactually know what that is now!) I was glad that I had redyed her hair yesterday because it was much easier to find her on the field! (She has blood red streaks in it, looks awesome!) Lindy did very well, she is holding back a little bit though, I think that she's afraid of injuring her arm again or she just hates being a defender because when whe was a forward she ran her little heart out. You may remember that she broke her arm last year during a soccer game right at the beginning of the season. Lindy's team name is the Leprchauns because the uniforms were supposed to be green with yellow trim, it seems that someone messed up because we have yellow leprchauns! Britten did a great job during his game! He's out there to have fun and he does! His team are the Bombs! Madison's team doesn't have a name yet because they did'nt know what color the uniforms were going to be. Maddn began the game by blacking out on the field during warm ups. It seems that she saved all of her water for the game which was at noon, not realizing that we had brought extra water with us to last our family the whole day. She spent the first half of the game recovering and was able to play the last half, running as fast as she could to beat the other team, she played midfielder and made a goal. It is amazing to see her out there on the field this year, she is the smallest player on her team. It was a long and hot day! I'm so glad that we have our portable canopy!
I wish that I could tell you more about the action of the kid's games, I'm not much of a sports person, so the fact that I know the difference between a midfielder, defender and forward is pretty amazing! I guess if I hang around long enough the information will begin to sink in! Just don't ask me what offsides is. During a game I spend most of my time trying to find my kid out there on the field because they keep moving see. So it seems like I miss a lot of the game itself.
Anyways, that was our day!

2009 Family Photos

Family Photos 2010. Taken at the end of June in CA over where we kept the pigs. There is this really cool tree that I thought worked great for background. It was our last Sunday before moving and I finally decided that we just needed to get it done. I grabbed Cordelia from church, we went home and changed then had our pictures done. The downfall was that the wind was absolutely horrible! I was a bit disappointed but the pictures still turned out ok. Cordelia did a great job!

Family time

All girls

All boys

A sweet one.

Daddy Daughters

Mommy and her boys

Not a bad looking couple for 18 years.

Our Family photos for the year.