Soccer Anyone?

McKinley joined a soccer team this year of 3 and 4 year-olds. It has been an interesting ride so far. We've had several practices and now a few games. The first game, McKinley basically refused to go in. She sat on the side enjoying her comfy chair and snacks. She did go in a couple of times and there was a fleeting moment of joy, but when she didn't get to kick the ball, she got sad and came out.

The second game brought Robbie and I to our game plan....bribery! We told her every time she went in she would get a Pringle, every time she chased after the ball she would get a Pringle, if she kicked the ball she got 2 Pringles and a goal would get her 3 Pringles. It worked like a charm! She went in the game and even kicked the ball a lot, we just need to work on turning it.

Now we don't even have to bribe her to go in, it's awesome! She loves to go in and last week she even scored a goal! Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Jon and Uncle Ty came to one game and Nana and Papa came to another, McKinley LOVED having them there! But this person right here is her #1 fan, for sure! (yes, this is Molly's hair before her first haircut, another post on that is coming)

The funniest thing about soccer so far is 1-how HUGE their jerseys are and 2-that parents run on the field with their kids to get them used to it....yes, we do this with McKinley. I think by the end of the 8 game season she may be willing to do it on her own!

Cartoons

So, many (most) of you know that I have two brothers that are quite a bit younger than me. One is 13 and one is 15. Well, when these guys were younger Robbie and I used to tease them about how weird the cartoons they watched were. We would laugh and talk about how the ones we watched when we were little were soooo cool!
Well, just the other night we found a channel that plays cartoons we used to watch. We found them in the middle of the night when we were up giving Molly a treatment. They had He-Man and She-Ra. We were so excited and nastalgic about getting to watch these cartoons again.
After making through nearly half of an episode of each we determined that our cartoons were totally weird as well.
Seriously, did any of you like those shows when you were kids and think they were cool? If you watched them again, I think you'd be surprised at how weird they are!

Molly is 9 Months Old

This was a draft I kept meaning to post.....here you go a month later!

Molly is already 9 months old and she just keeps getting busier and busier. Here are some things we've learned about our little miss:

* She loves to play the "chase" game. She'll be down on the floor crawling all around and we'll get down and say "MOOOLLYYY" and then she looks back, giggles and takes off. It is so funny. When we catch her we tickle her, but if we're taking too long to get to her she'll stop in the middle of her speed crawl, lay on the ground, look back and us and giggle with anticipation!

* Molly is always happy, but knows what she wants. If you take something away from her that she was enjoying she'll yell at you and then immediately go back to smiling.

* She climbs up the stairs, she can get to a standing position with no help if she feels like it and she loves to hold my fingers and walk.

* She's a real Mommy's girl. In Molly's book, there is nothing better than Mom. That's the opposite of McKinley when she was a baby, so Robbie and I joke that now we each have one!

* When she gets tired she like to rub the hair on the side of her head.

* One of her favorite things to do in the morning in crawl into McKinley's room, over to her bookshelf and pull all of the books off.

I took her in for her well-child check up on Wednesday and she's 18 lbs 8 oz (48%) and she's 24 inches long.

We love having her in our family, it just wouldn't be the same without her!

Raspberry Days

As usual, we spent some time in Bear Lake for our family reunion over Raspberry Days at Grandpa's cabin. We had a great time. We tubed, we skied, we swam and whole bunch of other stuff.

We arrived late Thursday night in time to go to bed. Friday started the day with some golfing for Robbie. He said he had a great time. Rumors have it Andy lost a club, Christian was nearly killed by a tree, Robbie had a great time and Jon golfed Happy Gilmore style on a couple of holes.

Friday afternoon we visited the craft fair, had some delicious roasted corn on the cob and swam at the pool. In the evening McKinley and I worked on our cupcakes for the competition. We made a lemon cupcake with lemon frosting and Raspberry filling...it was delicious.

Saturday we ran/walked a 5k. Robbie tried to beat Jon, but unfortunately did not and this time it was not the fault of an old man in front of him! Truthfully, I have not run or walked in any sort f race since I suffered from bi-lateral femoral neuropathy. I work out and I run sometimes, but it doesn' feel the same. But, I decided I would do the 5k to prove that I could...even pushing the girls. I mostly walked it the 5k, enjoying the company of my sister who was pushing her baby and my dad and the occasional cousin, uncle and aunt. The girls were pretty set up with books, drinks, sunglasses and a blanket. The terrain started out mild...making me feel totally comfortable, then it became a little rocky, then really rocky and then up the side of a foothill on a dirt path! Needless to say, it was work and fun for Mom. Molly ended up falling asleep and McKinley didn't get too restless until the end. After the race they handed out ribbons and had a raffle. Robbie got 5th in his division and I won a purse that McKinley quickly claimed as her own!

Before the Race:

After the Race:

This is everyone who ran the race from the family. All wearing our matching family t-shirts:

I really hardly took any pictures at all. But, Saturday afternoon we rented a boat and this crazy tube was tons of fun. Robbie and I almost got it in a full barrel-roll a few times, my brothers were successful at least twice. The tube was so wild I nearly lost the bottoms to my tankini during a crash that left my elbow burned and my knee and arm bruised! I was grateful to catch them at my knees and for the boat to take a minute to get back to me floating in the water!

Saturday night was Cupcake wars, which were a lot of fun. The overall winner was a raspberry shake cupcake, which was awesome. Although, even outside the winner, there were a lot of delicious and good looking submissions.

Sunday was a day of church, family home evening, food, playing, cleaning and traveling. All in all it was another great trip to Bear Lake.

Swimming Lessons

If you've ever been swimming with McKinley then you learn one thing real quick: she is crazy in the water! She really believes she can swim and has no fear. It's a bad combination that leads to a lot of chasing, running and saving on the parts of Robbie and myself.

So, this year we put her in swimming lessons. She just started last week and has done a great job. She puts her face in the water, jumps from the side, kicks and moves her arms in a manner similar to a free style swim (with someone holding her of course), she's learning to float on her back and also do the arm motions for the back stroke. Obviously she's only 3, but I think she's doing really great for her age.

My biggest problem at swimming lessons is keeping Molly out of the pool! And yes, this day I did take her in her pajamas hoping that just MAYBE she'd fall asleep there or on the way home. I was wrong!

Family Pictures

We finally had new family pictures taken this week. Embarrassingly enough, the last ones we had taken were when McKinley was 6 months old. So, ya, if you do the math...that was just over two-and-a-half years ago!

We went into a place called FotoFly (www.fotofly.com) and I really liked how they turned out. Of course the day pictures came were crazy. McKinley had a fever of 102 and Molly was refusing to take a nap before hand. Our clothes didn't go together quite as I had hoped and Molly's hair was insane! All in all though, I think they turned out well. Here are a few of my favorites:

There are so many others that I really loved. I think I won't let two-and-a-half years go by before the next ones!

What Have We Been Doing?

A little bit of everything! We've been to South Jordan Days, a triathlon, 3 baby blessings (a niece and two nephews, a family reunion, the lady bug release, bowling, the zoo (more than once), the aquarium, a few birthday parties, fireworks, a carnival, a bounce house, Cherry Hill, the Aquarium, the doctor several times and Bear Lake. Robbie and I also celebrated our 8th anniversary and saw Harry Potter.
Everyone is growing and changing around here lately. Robbie has taken to calling Molly "Evil Kenevil" because she is so wild and adventurous. She crawls, she climbs, she cruises, she eats like crazy and she has no fear. She is also cuddly, really loves her mom, smiles all of the time and follows her big sister to the best of her ability.
McKinley has decided that making up words is the coolest thing ever. She's also learned all of the words to a few Taylor Swift songs and the Lazy Song. She picks up on music so fast. She likes to teach things to Molly and still prefers her Dad.
Life has been busy, but I'll post something fun soon, I just need to find the time! :)