Soccer and friends

Last night was Blake's third soccer game of the season. With the weather cooling off I decided it was best that Nathan stay home where it was warm. His team was playing the orange team and there were 3 brothers on the team that Blake knows from school one of which is in his class. He was so excited to get to play soccer with Hunter (even though they were on opposing teams). I was able to catch up with their mom Ashley whom I hadn't seen since Highschool, it was very nice getting to watch the boys play soccer and chat a bit. We had been trying to find a date and time to finally get to meet and catch up a bit and things never worked out for both of our very busy schedules. 
After the game we were able to get the kids rounded up for this picture.

All of our children minus Nathan, I wish that it would have been warm enough for him to be there as the would have liked playing with the younger kids.
I hope that in the near future we are able to get our schedules to match up so we can have a play date with all the kids. I know Blake wants to get to know Hunter's brother's Blake and Silas better as he only gets to see them on the playground. Although having two Blake's may be a bit confusing at first but I am sure it will work out just fine.
Several of my friends have children most are a lot younger or older than mine, or they live to far away to get together for play dates. It's nice getting reacquainted with friends from school and finding they have children Blake's age that he attends school with and is friends with. Living in the country you don't have the privilege of having friends right down the street so I want to do my best to allow him to get to know his school friends better and for me to get to know their parents better.

Blake loves soccer and is continually getting better and understanding more about the game and how it works. He likes being the goalie and isn't afraid to tackle the ball when it comes at him.

Not a real good picture as I was across the field but here is Blake getting ready to block the ball.

Turning One!

On Saturday Nathan turned one! I can't believe that a whole year has already flown by. Amazed at how much he has changed, grown and learned. He loves following Blake around the house and when he wakes up in the morning he starts pointing across the room at Blake and going bubba bubba super cute.
Saturday he woke up super happy see picture below.

He woke up super early which was both good and bad, but he took a really good nap before the party started and a small nap during the party.

Here were some of the people attending his party, there were probably about 10-12 more sitting on the porch.

His cupcake that he got to dig in to. He wasn't sure what to think about it and then tried it.

Oh yes then he decided it would be fun to smash it all up and throw it down.

Here was his monkey cake, he really wanted to dig in to it but I wouldn't let him.

Opening his first gift he wasn't quite sure what to do

Ahh then he got the hang of it by about the 6th present.

Don and Mark getting his gifts out of the packages. So very glad they did that for me I very much dislike that job!

Nathan decided he likes the taste of rocks. I was after him all day to quit picking them up. He would just put one in his mouth then spit it back out.

Elizabeth and Nathan she is exactly two days older than Nathan. Her older sister is exactly 4 months to the day older than Blake. And no we didn't plan it that way either.

Nathan had a great day for his party everyone had a good time visiting and watching Nathan enjoy his day. Blake had several friends come so he had a good day as well. Very pleased that all my hard work on getting everything ready for his party was a success. Not sure I will want to do all the kids parties at our house, we decided we liked doing them at Dwayne and Connie's Lake better. But who knows maybe our house will be done by Blake's birthday and we can have his birthday in our new house.

Nathan's Cake

Last night I headed to my grandparents house with both boys to decorate Nathan's 1st Birthday cake and cupcakes. My grandma always made my cakes each year for my birthday and always had them decorated real pretty. I know she would still love to decorate for her great grandsons but having arthritis in her hands keeps her from it. So we have a good system she will bake the cake and mix up the icing and then I will decorate it at her house. We have been doing this since Blake's first birthday and now we get to do it twice a year.
I normally have an idea of what cake I want to create well before the day I decorate sometimes even 6 months in advance I will have my plan. Well as of 4:15 yesterday I still hadn't got an idea so I searched frantically online for something that I could draw on the cake. I am by no means an artist heck I can't even  draw a stick person but I was determined to have something on his cake other than Happy Birthday Nathan.
I decided on a monkey at 4:55 I was to be at Grandma's by 6. We get there and I start mixing my colors for icing while the kids play. Almost two hours later I had the cake with the monkey all drawn on it done. Blake came in and looked and knew right then it was a monkey so I figured I must have done something right. I decorated a special cupcake for Nathan that he will get to dig in to on Saturday at his party, then I let Blake ice the rest of the cupcakes. His method of icing is put some on the cupcake then eat a spoonful then ice another cupcake. Kept him busy and he was quite proud of himself.
I was plenty wore out by the time we were done and had everything cleaned up, not to mention it was super humid in their house. I thought I may sweat to death before finishing the cake! But the cake is done and ready for his party. I will post picture of it next week!

Blake's First Soccer Game.

Blake had his first soccer game last night and loved it. I wasn't sure how he would be out there with all the kids and then seeing all the parents watching. He ran right out and chased after the ball and did better than I had expected. He wants to practice soccer with me tonight when we get home. My mom and stepdad came to watch him and hopefully next week some good friends will be able to come and watch him play. He sure liked having people there watching him.

Blake and his friend playing before the game

He got knocked down but jumped right back up and went after the ball

He finaly got out in front of everyone and got to kick the ball down the field

Blake and soccer.......

Well tonight is Blake's first ever soccer game. Everyday since their practice last Tuesday he has asked if today is the day they get to play a real game against a real team. I hope that his excitement lasts and he has a great time tonight. I hope to get some pictures of him playing, I got a few last Tuesday but it was hard keeping up with Nathan and getting pictures of Blake.
Nathan loved watching his brother run and play with the other kids and was all excited when he would see Blake run by.

Times like this I almost wish I had a video camera to capture the memories but I will have to settle for pictures instead. Plus I dislike being on camera and if I owned one I would have to guard it so no one could get me on tape.

Hopefully tomorrow I can have time to post about his game and attach some pictures.

I love living in a small community. Yes it has its moments when everyone seems to know your business before you do but then there are lots of times its great. Sunday in Church me and the kids always sit next to my grandparents. We sit in the same pew in the same spot each Sunday, in fact every member has their "spot" they always sit in which I find funny. The pew behind us has two couples one I know really well, Don and Brenda and the other I am just getting to know Scott and Tammy. They are older and their kids are grown and both couples have grandkids so they love making faces at Nathan and entertaining him as he stands up in the pew backwards to look at them.


Some Sundays Don and Brenda want to hold him and play with him and other Sundays the younger girls who sit in front of us hold him and play with him. While it used to bother me others passing Nathan around it no longer does. I never ask anyone to hold him they just reach over and grab him because he was smiling at them or was reaching for them.

Well this past Sunday Nathan was making funny faces to Scott behind us and the next thing I know he picks Nathan up. They had a great time playing and making faces at each other. I hadn't really ever talked to him or his wife I had only met them thru Don and Brenda and was around them some at the fair over Labor Day Weekend. Very nice people and you could tell they love kids.

After church they had a dinner downstairs which Nathan and I didn't attend I ran to town to get groceries instead. But after returning home I decided to go to the park to where our church was having a softball game. I knew I probably couldn't play since I didn't want Nathan out in the sun and didn't want him close to the action, but I decided to go ahead and attend and be a spectator.

To my surprise I got there and within minutes of the game starting Scott and Tammy told me to get out there and play and they would play with Nathan. I was hesitant as I don't want to burdon anyone with my children but they insisted again so I went. I had a blast playing and laughing at all the kids and adults playing. I of course was teased for being a left handed batter when I am right handed person in general. I kept looking over to make sure Nathan was behaving and all three of them had a constant smile on their face.

I was very grateful for them playing with Nathan and I know they really enjoyed it. I later found out that their grandchildren don't live close by so they rarely see them. It made me happy knowing that Nathan could fill a bit of that void they had not being able to play with their grandchildren.

What a bummer

I had Saturday all planned out my mom was going to watch the kids for a few hours while I went to a lunch with some fellow bloggers. However at 9am she called and backed out, I should have seen it coming that's just how it is. I was very upset and disappointed as I had been looking forward to it for quite sometime, yes I was very anxious and nervous about going to lunch with people I have never met but I was ready to conquer that fear. Guess it will have to wait until another time.

Then Kenny's grandma called and she has been wanting us to come up and see her for a few weeks now so we loaded up and headed to St. Louis to spend the afternoon with her and Kenny's Aunt. We had a good time but was a very long day for the kids in the car.

Random thoughts on a rainy day

Days like today I would much rather be home with the kids and not have to get out in the rain umpteen times.

Blake loved soccer Tuesday night, he was one of the few who wasn't afraid of the ball and not afraid to try and block it from going in the net. He is super excited for his firs real game this coming Tuesday.

I am still getting used to my new hair color quite a change to go from blonde to dark brown with red highlights. I have got lots of compliments on it but still a shock every time I walk by a mirror.

Nathan turns one in 15 days, so hard to believe a year has already passed! I still need to get him a couple gifts and buy all the food and supplies for his party.

Blake loves school and is really getting good at writing his alphabet and numbers and wants to practice all the time which excites me. He came home yesterday and said that a girl who sat with him on the bus read him a book. The boy loves his books which is also a great thing.

I could really use a shoulder massage and find relief for this sinus headache that has decided to take up residence in my head for the past 4 days.

A good friend has a birthday next weekend and I am excited that she and Nathan get to share a birthday dinner next Thurs at a local favorite restaurant. We had hoped that Nathan would be born close to her birthday but he came 6 days after but still close enough to celebrate with dinner together. However I think the only thing on the menu he will eat is fries and bread.

Several of my friends are pregnant some early in pregnancy and some close to the middle and end everyone asks if it gives me baby fever and while I love babies I am very happy and satisfied with my two healthy boys. I very much dislike being asked why didn't we try again and try for a girl, not sure why people can't accept that we are happy with two and were very lucky to have two healthy boys. Pregnancies aren't good on me and my body didn't like being pregnant.

Hard to believe that in a month Halloween will be here and of course Blake will be a bullrider once again. This year he has new bullriding gear. Not sure what Nathan will be maybe a lion or a cow depends on what I can find cheap. Then Thanksgiving comes right after that is Christmas where oh where did the year go???

Well I think I have rambled on enough for one afternoon. I will post pictures tomorrow of Blake's first soccer practice.

The long 5 day weekend

It was very nice having 5 days off from work able to get lots of things done that had been on my to do list for far to long. Yesterday morning I was ready to return to work refreshed and no longer feeling burnt out by my job.

Wednesday night we went to the fair and Blake got to ride the rides for awhile, Nathan stayed with my mom since I knew it would be impossible to help Blake get on and off rides or ride with him and have Nathan with me. So Blake and I rode a few rides together and a few he rode alone.

Thursday I took Blake to school and Nathan to the sitter and decided to call my Grandma to see if she would like to spend the morning shopping with me. Of course she agreed and was more than happy to get out of the house, ever since my Grandpa fully retired she rarely gets to town alone to shop. We had a great time shopping I found lots of cute tops and some new shoes and clothes for the kids. My Grandma found her some new shoes and a new purse then she treated me to lunch at Chilis. I got Blake off the bus picked Nathan up and headed home to get ready for the fair. Blake loves watching the Demolition Derby and we found out that Nathan loves it as well. Other than the rain and getting wet 3 times it was a great night and went home with two very wore out kids.

Friday morning Blake was tired and unmotivated to get up lucky for him I was taking him to school so he didn't have to get up as early as when he rides the bus. I spent the morning and early afternoon doing laundry cleaning out closets and dressers packing away anything that was to big for me and to small for Nathan. Then I had an appointment to get my hair colored and while I knew I wanted something different I was scared of change. Well I picked out a color I thought I would like held my breath and went for it. Thank goodness it turned out great and I liked it. The stylist was worried I wouldn't like it or that Kenny would hate it (I have to admit I was very worried about his opinion) But I got lucky and everyone seems to like it. That night we all headed back to the fair for the Truck and Tractor Pull and Nathan loved it as well. He got very tired at times so I would push him around and he would take a few cat naps. Blake stayed up and going the whole time and the whole ride home.

Saturday we slept in which was a very nice treat then got ready to head to the fair so Blake could ride rides before the Tractor Pull started. Nathan stayed with my mom as I knew he was wore out and needed some down time from the fair activities. By 9pm I had about all I could stand of the fair we had been there since 2 and I was wore out from the long weekend, Blake was wore out and afraid to sit down he kept running and running I think he knew if he sat for to long he would be sleeping.

Sunday and Monday were spent recouping from the fair and cleaning and organizing things in the house. I packed away the baby swing, baby bath tub and all infant clothes and stored them away. It was a bit sad packing up his stuff knowing that we would never need it again unless we have friends who have babies that we get to spoil.

It was an overall great weekend full of fun and friends. However I am glad its over with because I don't know how many weekends like that I can take.

5 day weekend

Today is my Friday and I don't have to come back to work until Tuesday. I don't think I have ever had 5 days off in a row other than the 5 weeks of maternity leave with Blake and the 3 weeks with Nathan. Usually my days off involve taking kids to the doctor or having an appointment myself. Christmas shopping with my Grandma or doing all the odds and ends you can't take care of on weekends.
Well I decided that Thursday and Friday I was going to do what I wanted for me. Tomorrow I plan on shopping in Jeff City after taking Blake to school, would love to have a friend to shop with and get input on clothing choices but they all have to work bummer.
Friday I will once again take Blake to school and then spend the day deep cleaning and then get my hair colored that afternoon. I would love to go darker but I am a chicken so we shall see what happens there.
We are also going to be attending the Maries County Fair tonight thru Saturday, well maybe not tonight with the rain. Blake looks forward to the fair every year he gets to ride all the rides with friends of his from the Vienna area most of which he doesn't see very often. He really enjoys watching the Demo Derby and the Truck and Tractor Pulls he will give up riding rides and sit and watch the entire thing. Which is good for us saves money by not buying armbands each night. Just hope that Nathan enjoys his first fair experience and the Truck and Tractor Pulls, last year I was very pregnant with him and it was a very hot and miserable weekend.