A Thompson Christmas

We had a great Christmas this year. It was a "Thompson year" meaning my side of the family gets first dibs on get together. Both Ryan and my family is in the area. Thompson Christmas's always entail a "gingerbread compitition." Past compititions were

Gingerbread bridges - the bridge who could hold the most weight before breaking won

Gingerbread towers - the tallest one won

Gingerbread catapolts - farthest throw won

Gingerbread race cars - fastest won

ect.

There are always a bunch of rules typed out a month or so before but the number one rule is and always have been, everything you use has to be edible. EVERYTHING. No glue, tape or anything else. If there is any question you have to eat it on the spot.

This year we did an egg drop. We made contraptions or protection covering for our egg and then dropped them at varying heights. The one that could be dropped at 16 feet (our tallest rung on the ladder) and the lightest contraption won. This was a great competition because in years past we have had time issues where now that we have little kids it is hard to find time to design and engineer and build your gingerbread entry which you usually had to leave a day or more to fully dry or cure for full function. For this competition we made our egg protectors right then and there and for the first year no one used gingerbread. Most the grandkids could make these too and so it was fun for all.

Here we are putting them together. We all brought a bunch of ingredient and it was a free for all. I had several nieces and nephew defect to my team. This is not because I am the best at these competitions. Actually contrary to what some of you are thinking I bring very little competitions to the table. Even though I am somewhat handy and build thing and am somewhat mechanically minded, I don't compare at all to more then half of my siblings. Those are not my talents in this family. As a nurse I can't compare to the mechanical engineers and computer geniuses that litter my family. Family members have been known to draw up plans in Cad for these things. Luckily everyone having kids has muted the playing field a little.

Most the entries. Marshmallows were really handy to have. Just sticking a bunch of marshmallows all over your egg and using a bit of fruit by the foot or won ton wrappers could get you to the 16 foot level......of course it wasn't the lightest.

You can't help but love the designs.

One of my many entries. This one was in Soren's name. What I lack in engineering I made up in sheer quantity. Lets face it, the funnest part of the whole event is dropping eggs from 16 feet up in the air and I got to do this a lot. This is an orange who's center is scooped out and the egg is placed inside with a marshmallow cork and some fruit by the foot tape to keep it all together. It survived it's first fall in which the orange partially split ruining the integrity of design. This wasn't our best one but the best picture. Soren took it well.
Everyone loved watching the eggs drop........except we did have a few nephews who got upset when their eggs broke. Not my boys. They were like, "awesome, destruction!" I had to grab a few eggs from their hands to prevent an "egg fight". Known potentials
I didn't get a pic of the winning design. It was by my brother Shem and it was truly awesome. He made a mold out of cardboard that had a cone with an inverted umbrella on it. Then he covered it with soft rice paper and let it dry. He put the egg inside with no padding. The thing gently floated down and the cone protected when it hit the floor. It was awesome. Upon impaction it broke part of the umbrella part making it lighter. So he re-weighed it and sent it down again. It survived 3 falls and came in at just over 3 oz of weight. His other design was also cool, sucessful but a bit heavier. It was a part of a baguet with the bread scrapped out and the egg placed. Then attached 2 semi circles of rice paper around the bread top at angles. The contraption twirled as it fell. Really cool to watch. My brother Corom made this awesome trophy that we will pass down every 2 years when we have the competition. My Dad was the one who started all of this and he would have really loved this year.

The real Santa

Soren's school had a little christmas craft night and Santa was there. He completly looked the part and was quite jolly. He tolerated all of Soren's touching and all of Xander's questions. I think he just might be the real thing.

Xander has been asking a lot of follow up questions about Santa Clause. Questions like, How is he going to go down our chimney? Where is our chimney? But there is glass blocking our fire place (it is a gas fireplace). Do the reindeers really fly? How does he get to all the kids in the whole wide world? This is my 3 year old. Soren has asked no such questions. I love Soren's blind belief in everything I say. Xander on the other hand argues about everything. I thought he just likes to be contrary but here is proof that he thinks through some things. The last question blew me away. I thought I would face this much later. Xander asked, "Mom, is Santa real?" Quinae, "Uh, Uh, why do you ask? Where did you hear that?" I don't care to lie to the boy but really I have to field that question now? Xander, "Nowhere. I just want to know." Luckily I was able to side step the question with, "So, what do you want for lunch?" Next year I may not be so lucky.

May I have this dance?

I don't know if I have already told you, but Soren has a thing for the ladies. He just likes them. Every day he is debating which one he should mary. It is pretty funny and a little concerning. Anyway, last night at our church Christmas party we had this great Christ centered program with lots of musical numbers. Most the kids started out sitting on the floor in the front watching, but by then end most of them are on the edges of the gym or running circles around the building. Too many brownies I suppose. Well, I was standing on the edges trying to keep the reverence and not start a full on revolt when Soren came up to me and verbatim said,

"Mom, how do you ask a lady to dance?"

Too curious to derail his plan and encourage him to watch the program I simply replied, "You say, May I have this dance?"

He then excitedly said, "Great! Thanks!" and dashed off.

Hmmmm, this boy is on a mission that I must watch. One of his favorite lady friends is his 5 year old neighbor named McKenzie. She is adorable and adventurous and I don't blame him. He dashed off to where she was twirling around to the music.

Soren then said, "McKenzie, may I have this dance?"

McKenzie just kept on twirling.

"I said may I have this dance."

She starts twirling farther away from him.

Not willing to accept defeat he runs after her proclaiming, "Dance with me! Dance with me!"

By this time it is not only quite evident he needed some additional pointers but he was also quite loud and beginning to disturb the program. I get McKenzies attention and ask if she wants me to show them how to dance together. She happily obliges which I was relieved and not sure she was going to do. I put them in ballroom dance position and tell them to twirl. It was soo cute and I was lucky enough to have my camera on me.

Here Soren is running after McKenzie asking her to dance while she is twirling.

Look at how happy he is. They were both giggling and really loving it.

Soooo cute

A blast from the past

This suit was Ryan's when he was little. Xader wore it to church last Sunday. Soooo cute!

Here is Soren in the same suit when he was 3.

This suit was Ryan's when he was little. Xader wore it to church last Sunday. Soooo cute!

Holiday fun

We had a great Thanksgiving this year. We kicked off the day going to Regional Hospital - the hospital where Ryan and I work. We take care long term ventilator patients - people who can't get off the breathing machine. Regional specializes in getting them off but as you could expect this is the end of the line for these people, so if they can't get off here they are ventilator dependent for the rest of their lives. Some of these patients are neurologically totally with it but can't talk due to the breathing machine and have been there for months. Ryan and I have been taking turns caring for these certain 4 patients. All of them are completely with it. One of the ladies have been there since July and had failed for a second time getting her trach removed. She was crushed and has been struggling. So I thought we could bring our boys in and make their day. Having a couple work as nurses at the same place is somewhat of a rarity, so to get to meet the whole family was really fun for them. We had to gown up in every room as by the time you have been in the hospital this long most people have resistant bacteria - if they didn't come in with it. The boys were great. Soren is so sweet to sick people. Xander of course was asking a million questions. "Why can't they talk?" "What is that bag?" "Why is it yellow?" ect. By the time we left he would meet some of the staff and ask. "Mom, why do they talk like us?" - like he forgot that most people can actually talk. We then went to a 3$ movie theater for the first time with our whole family and saw toy story 3. Xander had never been to a theater and he did awesome. Lastly we hit Ryan's parents house for the traditional part of Thanksgiving. Earlier in the week of course we got to play in the snow. We went to a local park and went sledding. Even though the grass is showing the sledding went great. They boys would trudge up the hill and sled down it all by themselves! It was awesome. I would wait for them at the bottom because there is a fence right at the end and I would slow them before they would ram the fence. A good time for all was had.


Our first snowman. It was so cold that our snow was very powdery - odd for here. It took a while to get the snow to compact.
Lastly I finished putting up our Christmas lights. I am so excited. Every year I dream of Christmas lights bu felt a bit intimidated by them. I think it was because I did know how to secure them. All I could think of was nails and I never wanted to put holes in my trim. Well, today I learned of plastic clips, deposited a lot of money and became empowered. Lights are an investment! Gesh - that was half the pain, but now that the check writing is over and I super happy. I have a 5 year plan in adding more lights every year and then by the times Soren is 10 we will have a masterpiece! Until then I thought it was a good beginning.

72 hour car kit Power

Yesterday I worked at Regional Hospital located on Military road in South Seattle (near the airport). As you locals know, it snowed the night before a little and snowed all day yesterday. The seattle area is a mess whenever it snows. Between the lack of snow plows, hills, and lack of knowledge and good judgement of the people when it comes to driving in the snow, our region quickly become immobilized with stranded cars and accidents. My shift goes from 7am to 7:30 pm. My replacement didn't make it until 9pm. She came from Issiquah a 35 min commute on a normal day. Yesterday it was a 3 hour commute. I didn't work the next day and I was in the mood for an adventure and so decided to check out the road scene. The hospital parking lot is down the hill from the road and it took me 3 tries to get out of the parking lot. Challenge one concurred. I got on the freeway with ease. This freeway was closed a couple house earlier as it was a parking lot, but now at 10pm, we moved with ease past many, many stranded cars and a few minor accidents. Driving actually went real smooth until I reached the large hill just before my house (I was by Ikea). Cars were standing still. we inched along a car length every 10 minutes which I think was from people turning around more then actually making progress. I knew from getting out the the parking lot that even if I had the patience to wait, there was no way my car was getting up the hill. So I gave Ryan a call to have him google the distance from Ikea to my house. He said it was 1.5 miles.

"Ohhh, that is not bad. I am totally walking." I informed him.

I had a cell phone, there were people everywhere, there were warm houses, and even a hospital before I hit my house so I assessed it was pretty much a low risk activity. However, I wasn't really dressed for the event and although I thought I could probably make it in the clothes I was wearing (medium weight jacket, super thin cotton scrubs) I knew it wouldn't be fun so I sought out to rectify it. I parked my car and popped my trunk to see what I had to work with. I spotted my full leather hiking boots I left in my trunk since building our house. I smiled. "Sweet, my procrastination has paid off!" Then I cracked open my 72 hour kit, excited to actually get to use it. There were no clothes in the back of my car so I knew I would have to get creative. The helpful items that I had were 2 ponchos, 2 space blankets, 6 clothe winco bags, and a shake powered flashlight. So, I put on the boots, stuffed my pants and jacket with the clothe winco bags, wrapped each leg with a space blanket, tucking them into my sox and pants to keep them in place and topped it off with a poncho. I put the second poncho in my purse just in case I met someone who could use it. Things that I was sad I couldn't justify the use of - my crank radio, a simple plastic tent, the food bars (they are like 1,000 calories each in these little food bars. Although I hadn't eaten since lunch, the 3 days worth of bars are all sealed together and they don't expire until 2012, so I thought since this "emergency" was so weeny, I would save it for another one. One can only hope.) So in my new fashion statement, I set off. It was awesome. Wearing a poncho brought back all these childhood memories. Everyone was staring at me as I walked on my way. The space blankets were AWESOME! It was incredibly windy (they had high wind warnings of 50 mile winds with temperatures adjusted in the teens) and on one leg my space blanket kept blowing out of my sock. So I could feel the difference between legs, but the winco bags also did a lot and overall I was totally warm. I came accross several others on foot too. One lady was headed to the hospital. She was a labor and delivery nurse from Redmond. She was wearing comparable clothes as me - medium weight jacket and scrubs. She had been on the road for the last 5 hours. Yikes! She was blocks away from her destination by this time though. I told her what I was up to and what I was wearing. With every layer I described she would reply, "oh, you poor thing." I kept telling her, "no I am totally warm. It is awesome." But she couldn't help but reply, "oh you poor thing. When we were about to part she said, "Do you have any gloves? You could have mine." They were simple strenchy knit gloves. I relplied, "How nice of you, but I have pockets in the this cave of warmth with my poncho. I am tally warm" I was trying to instill confidence in her of my state, but she couldn't help herself and she said, "Oh you poor thing." It was a good thing we were parting.

As I headed up "snake hill" an incredibly steep and windy side hill and was shocked to see cars still trying to go up and down it. Wow, people are more stupid then I originally thought. I saw a couple staring at their car that is in a ditch and practically on it's side.

"Is that your car?" I asked

"Yup" they confirmed

"Do you need any help?" I inquired, fully ready to bring home anyone who didn't know where to go.

"Oh no we live just up the hill. We are trying to decide if we can dig it out." Wow, they are glass half full type of people as there was no way they were getting that thing out without another vehicle.

Then the girl sizes me up and ask, " Do you need help?"

"Help? No way I am totally warm. Space blankets are awesome. I live just up the hill too."

Hmmmm, I guess my outfit didn't instill confidence in others. I was thinking I was totally cool using anything and everything to be sucessful........and I was.......sucessful.

No one wanted my poncho. Their loss. I got home at 11pm and checked on my chickens before I went inside.

So without futher ado, I present to you a warm Quinae

And here is layer 2.

It was pretty much awesome. I had a great time. I was a bit disappointed It wasn't more challenging. I was in suburbia, it was totally light out with the street lights and snow reflecting - I didn't even use my flashlight. There were lots of people everywhere. So many ways for help if I needed it. It was only 1.5 miles. To keep myself entertained as I walked I did try to figure out how I would hunker down for the night in the elements if such a situation arise. I decided it would be hard and miserable. I thought of Bear from Man vs. Wild. One day though, I will have a better story.

Halloween backlog

I am a couple weeks behind on my blogging. Everything I have been writing has beed delayed but for the most part you can't tell except when holidays date me. Anyway, October was our busiest one since having kids. Last year was the first time the boys went trick or treating and this year we went "trunk or treating" (at our church) and hit 3 different parties during the month to kick of the celebration. Sadly Ryan missed every single one due to work. Honestly I as glad when it was all over. Too much solo celebration for me. I can't wait for him to be apart of something. When it is just me and the boys I do a pretty poor job with taking pictures. This is the best I have of our costumes.

Some good old halloween fun. They had lots of fun trying to eat the donuts.

Born that way

Minutes before the boys got in my room jumped all in my nicely folded laundry. I just said, “guys that makes me super sad. Why would you do that.” No one responded or seemed to notice me talking and I just left it at that. A few minutes later Soren starts to cry and I have no idea why.

Q: “Soren, why are you crying?”

Soren: “Because Jesus is mad at me.”

Q a little stunned at such a response: “Why is Jesus mad at you?”

Soren: “Because I jumped in your clothes.” (still crying)

Q: “Oh, buddy. (enter big hug) Hmmmm, well, how could you make it better.”

Xander who I remind you is also a culprit in the crime excitedly spits out with his hand raised, “Ooooh, Ooooh, you could say sorry!!”

Q (trying to hold in the laughter, because seriously, having one child bawling and the other child unfazed and even energized by the same problem is a bit funny): “Yes, you could say sorry and then ask if I will forgive you.” I love it when they ask for forgiveness. It melts my heart.

Soren still crying: “sorry for ruining your clothes. Will you forgive me?”

Q: “Sure. Will you help clean up these toys?" (laundry had already been refolded.)

Xander then pipes in all chipper, “Mom, you need to say sorry to me and ask if I will forgive you!”

Q: “Oh? For what”

Xander: “For making a mess with my toys!”

Q: “Excuse me?”

Xander then bursts into laughter. I laughed too, which was a mistake because for the next day he kept requesting I apologies and ask for forgiveness to him for a variety of crazy things. Nice. If a lesson can backfire, Xander will find a way.

Wow - My kids are really different.

For sale

Xander has been throwing tantrums all morning. It started when Soren put on the exact pair of white underwear he wanted to wear. Mind you we have a whole drawer full of them - but those where the ones he "needed".

I made pancakes with strawberry toppings this morning. First I cut the pancake wrong so now he can't eat it. Then after a few minutes of whining he proclaims in a most hideous complaining voice, "You forgot syrup. I want it now!" (remember the delicious handpicked, homemade strawberry topping that he loves that is already on the pancake?). I then proceeded to have a very familiar conversation on how to get what he wanted and how to ask for it. He has perfected snotty, demanding, entitled statements that I have ethical issues cooperating with. It lasted for a few minutes when he accidentally said "please" among all the demanding. Trying to encourage any positive behavior I quickly changed from my "it would be wise for you to behave" voice, to "helpful nice mom who is ready to listen" voice and said, "oh you said please. I love it when you say please. What can I do for you?" Realizing his own semi-polite mistake (he was whining when he said it), he decided it was better to abort all together then actually do something I wanted him to do. He quickly responded with resolution "noffing."

Did anyone read/memorize "where the sidewalk ends" like I did? If so you will understand this poem I dedicate to my youngest son. Originally it is "sister", but for my needs I have changed it.

For Sale

One son for sale.

One son for sale.

One crying, spying young son for sale.

I am really not kidding.

So who'll start the bidding?

Do I hear a dollar?

A nickle?

A penny?

Oh isn't there. isn't there, isn't there someone who will buy this young son for sale?

This crying spying young son for sale.

Artichoke Tradition

The other day at the grocerie store artichokes were on sale for $.70!!! Wow! How could I not buy them. Now, I am under the impression there are a lot of people in the world who don't really eat artichokes, but in the family I grew up in, you ate them for your special birthday dinner - that's how much we loved them. We steam them up and dip them in a thickened lemon butter sauce. This was the 3rd time I gave them to my kids and like they say, 3rd times a charm. After the first 2 exposures being less then successful, this last time the boys devoured them with glutney and smiles. Eating an artichoke is more then just filling your body with nutrition, it is an experience. It takes time and knowledge to eat it properly and the whole thing is an event - from the long time it takes to cook them, to the process of eating them, to the major production of cleaning up the carnage. Why does my heart swell in joy seeing my kids enjoy such a treat? It was for more then just the prolonged silence as they slowly got to the heart of the artichoke. That day I passed on a Thompson family legacy - to love artichokes and believe you are special to get to eat one. Welcome boys, to a Thompson tradition.

pumpkin patch

We went up with some friends to a family friendly pumpkin patch farm that had various farm fall activities. It is about 40 min drive through gorgeous country. I truly have a farm girl deep inside me - or perhaps just below the surface that explodes through when I can't contain it any longer and forces me to buy farm animals. But right now it is just below the surface. I feel energized, excited, peaceful, and I feel all the goodness in the world when I am surrounded by green beauty and living things. I find well kept farms beautiful and have surge of wanting to buy one and run it when I pass them on a sunny day. I have a need to take care of things and for me the more living things I am surrounded by the better..........poor low stress seeking, relaxation searching, chronically over stimulated Ryan. I do try to contain myself best I can. And so you can guess how delightful it was to go to a farm that looked like this. The picture doesn't do it justice.

This place was really great. The boys got to rope a cow,

Play in a huge corn kernal pit,

and go for a tractor train ride. I love this picture. Soren was so exited and happy about the little ride and Xander was multi tasking.

This tractor just dove these kids in a large circle for 3 - 5 minutes and they loved it. I think we do a disservice to our kids taking them to disney land too young. Because once the go to disney land this sort of thing won't be exciting at all. We should capitalize on the simple until they personally decide it ins't very interesting anymore, and then introduce them to the next step. That way life will be more exciting for longer. As an adult who has done some really thrilling things, I can't quite figure out how this can get Soren to jump up and down with excitement, but it did and does and I love it for it.
We also went on a tractor pulled hey ride as a whole family. I told the boys to act like they love each other. My kids are queued up to know when I say that to give the biggest, hardest hugs you can dish out. Way to go Soren. So cooperative.

It's so beautiful!

Storage. How I love thee. Let me count the ways. 7 shelves of 17 plus feet ways!!

I built a whole wall of shelves in our garage because you just can't have too many shelves is my motto. Of course if took a million hours but I ams as giddy as a woman wanting to organize her life can get. I did have to insulate and sheetrock the wall before I could build the shelves which was annoying but well worth it. I must admit sheetrock is heavy to lift and secure by yourself.

The best part is it cost less then 100$ for everything because 80% of the wood is recycled from building the house. I did have to wash the wood first (another annoying task) as the wood has been outside for the last 6 months, but it saved us a lot and it was the greener option.

I can't wait to tackle the laundry room and make it an efficient heaven of storage and utility. Bring it on yo!

Happy Birthday Soren!!

Soren birthday was 10/10/10 this year. I threw him a castle party as he is in love with knights, guards and castles. We invited 5 friends of his and kicked off the celebration making family crests, swords and shields. Giving weapons to multiple boys in one room even if they are made of cardboard is somewhat dangerous.
The shield was definitely a good idea. They would hit each others shields so hard that before the end of the party several were broken. Last year Soren had a pirate party and we did cardboard swards but it was much more tamer. I am not sure if it is one year older or the different crowd but wow.
My in laws came to help and my mother in law could work magic with the kids. She is a 2nd grade teacher and even when the kids were wild she quickly was able to calm them and give them something more appropriate to do. She has super human powers. We did a obstacle coarse (lance a balloon, save the a maiden from a dragon and return her to her castle, and then we played tag as a dragon chain.
I made a castle bithday cake wich I turned out best of all my cakes so far. That being said I still had to push the second layer to be straight again before the picture. Every year I think, Oh, I want to do a fun cake for the birthday boy. It will be lots of fun to do. And every year about half way into it I start to curse the cake's existence and swear of cute cakes ever again in the future. I just do not have frosting skills. It seriously doesn't look that hard and yet perfection keeps alluding me.

It was a great party and Soren loved it.

I love 5 year olds and I am ecstatic to finally have one. I have been looking forward to this day for sometime............5 yrs to be exact. ;) Soren is so delightful, fun and easy to be around. He can busy himself doing non destructive things for quite sometime. He can follow directions and sometimes takes it upon himself to keep Xander in line.......okay so it is only very occasionally but I LOVE it when he does. Although usually it doesn't really help, I love how he knows the rules and wants others to keep them. Ah, the last 5 years hasn't been going through one ear and out the other as originally thought. What a relief. He doesn't argue about much and is quite flexible and easy going.

We went to his 5 year check up the other day and a friend from my church who is a medical student was there. He was working with Soren's Pediatrician. Small world. It was fun to see him there but I must admit I was a bit embraced. You see I was wearing paint clothes as I was in the middle of building some shelves in the garage when I jetted down for Soren's check up. I didn't really see the point in changing since I would be going right back to working in the garage when I got back. I guess I don't care what the people in the office think of me, but a friend from church is another story. Perhaps it is because his family is the most put together, well groomed, cutes family ever. Or maybe because there is only a small handful of people who think I look nice always and I just made that group of people even smaller then it was. But I digress. Lets get back to Soren. So during his check up Soren was incredibly social, giggly, and cooperative. He was really cute. The Pediatrician said, "Wow, you should bottle up this kids happiness and sell it. You could make a fortune." He really is a happy adorable kid.

10 things I love about Soren

1. When he does things he shouldn't do it usually isn't in spite or because he wants to cause problems, but because he is trying to problem solve something.

2. He loves girls. He treats them differently. Is more gentle and helpful with them. He wants a little sister real bad. He said to me once, "I love Brynlee (a 2 year old cousin), I love girlfriends."

3. When I threaten to leave Xander by driving away because he is not getting in the car, Soren starts to protest and cry. Xander on the other hand is much less fazed by the threat. It is sort of sad because Soren really cry's and screams in fear I am going to leave him, but I sort of love it and find it adorable too.

4. Soren drawings. I love to see his pictures and what he is thinking about. He is not big on talking about this thoughts like Xander, so all the insights I get on Soren I really enjoy.

5. His creative mind and how he enjoys making things.

6. His social personality. He loves to be around people and welcomes them into our home in the cutest fashion

7. His hugs when we reunite. Even if it only has been 1 or 2 hrs he always comes running up to me in full speed and wraps his arms around me and proclaims, "Oh Mom, I missed you so much!" I know this is temporary so I have to document it.

8. His sleeping skills. He goes to bed like a champ and he sleeps in until 7 on a regular basis now. Xander take note.

9. Just the fact that he can do more things. Pour his own milk. Ride his bike. Stop when I ask him to.

10. His cheerful happy go lucky, easy going self. We love you Soren. I am so glad I get you in my family.

70 year anniversary

Ryan's Grandpa and Grandma have been married 70 years in September. 70 YEARS!! I don't even know if I am going to live that long. They are one of the cutest little couples I have ever seen. I believe they are 91 and 92 years old. Howard (grandpa) is from S. Dakota I think and grew up on a farm with a twin bother - youngest of 6. He always loved working in his shop and was quite handy as far as I can tell. They use to raise honey bees. He still tinkers around in the shop building bird houses. I just love it. I like getting him on reminiscing stories because he has several great ones. I just think he is the most cutes and delightful 92 year old man I have ever met. His wife is as sweet as can be as well. They are always smiling and quite amiable. They tolerate my kids running around and asking them questions like pros.

Ryan's family never really dies. Both his mom and Dad's side of the family is going to live forever. Ryan probably will too. Which is why I married an older man. You see it was a calculated decision. Half my family can't make it past 65, so I figure with my age difference and my gender Ryan and I just might die around the same time......maybe. It helps Ryan justify eating all the stake and pie he wants anyway.
Here is Ryan's family along with his Dad's extended family. Children are somewhat of a scarcity on that side. We are so grateful for Theo, Ryan's sisters boy who is just a few months older then Xander. He is full of life and drama so he gets along with my kids just fine. It is fun to get a lot of attention for our kids as they are extra special since there aren't as many. On my side I think the 17th grandchild is brewing and as the youngest of 6 I wasn't the first to do anything. However marrying into Ryan's family I get to the first for a handful of things and that has been fun.

Way to go Howard and Phyllis. You are an insperation and a delight. Here is to many more years!!

Soccer!

My boys started soccer this year. I grew up playing soccer and loved it so I have been excited for the day I could watch them play. I started playing soccer when I was 7 and I remember asking some of the girls on my team when they started playing. When they told me 3 years old, I was shocked and a little horrified. That is weird to start at age 3. I mean how can a 3 year old play soccer? Well, I now know..........and it is as I thought when I was 7. Xander is 3 and Soren is 4 and luckily they are on the same team this year. They have a fabulous coach who works great with the kids. He coached last year and teaches great age appropriate excersizes. I am the "assistant coach". I basically just support Coach David and help round up all the kids and try to keep the focused - a mighty task at times.

Here is the team. I think Xander is the youngest and smallest and Soren is the oldest and tallest.

Xander has been grumpy for the first couple of games. Today was the first game he actually got into it.
During games it is 5 on 5 with no goalie or referee. The coach is on the field as referee but more importantly as the person directing all the kids. The ball goes out of bounce every 10-30 seconds. Once the ball goes out you have to move every child to an open spot and remind them they are playing soccer and which one is our goal. Here we are trying to position the kids.
The kids do a lot of bunching when the ball isn't out of bounds. When it gets really crazy, kids get too excited and start to dive for the ball, forgetting the no hands rule. Note here it is all orange (our team) doing the bunching.
Oh a good moment of running. Look at all the kids that remembered they are playing soccer and to run for the ball. The first 5 minutes most kids can stay focused. Then slowly over the course of the game you start to loose the interest of the kids and they begin talking, goofing off or day dreaming. Soren is notorious for this, but once the ball is on the move again he snaps out of it.

As for me, even though the kids are 3 and 4 and you can tell, I love it when it clicks and they remember they are playing soccer, where their goal is and make a score. I am seriously going to be (or am) that loud cheering parent that jumps up and down with every single goal. It doesn't even have to be my kid. In fact right now I am not even that bias which team scores it.