Kayda's Twelfth birthday!

I can't believe this girl is twelve. She is growing like a weed.  I keep having to buy her new pants because she'll wake up one morning and her pants will barely reach her ankles.  Fortunately she's not growing around so I don't have to buy her new shirts as often!  She has taken more and more to making teasing jokes, tries really hard to be a good big sister (Carson doesn't make it easy for her), loves volleyball and swimming, likes to draw and do crafts and is OBSESSED with reading.  She is crazy smart and ends up reading and doing puzzles at school because she gets through her work so quickly.  Her favorite genre is fantasy.  I don't know how many people have had to say this to their child but when she was arguing about doing something the other day I had to say "Do I have to take your book away?"  It's a great problem to have.  Her best friends are Adrienne and Miracle but she's got other people she considers close.  She loves middle school and having different teachers and classes.  She is very rarely nervous about anything, the only two times I've even heard about it were right before she ran for ASB president (she didn't get it) and yesterday, when she said she was embarrassed to wear the Christmas sweater she chose.  Other than that she just doesn't seem to care what other people think.  I tease her about her hair (she brushes it and it fluffs up like a big poof ball) she just laughs and says she loves her hair and doesn't care if it's frizzy.  

Anyway, we had dinner with Grandma and Papa H and then went home to blow out candles and open presents.  We have pretty relaxed birthdays for the kids, fortunately they don't seem to mind not having parties.  We're definitely looking forward to seeing what her next year will bring!

Carson's Soccer Season

One post for the entire season!  Carson started out being played as a defender a lot.  He and his friend Ty made an outstanding defensive team.  Our team desperately needed more offensive players, and with his playing last year, Daddy was able to get him moved to midfield.  He took to the position really well.  He was aggressive and worked his tail off.  This boy can RUN.  He goes and goes and goes, often keeping up with boys older than him.  His team only won one game, tied two and lost seven.  The rest were losses.  Most of that was because they didn't have enough kids for an under 8 team so they ALL got played up to under 9.  Carson and Ty played up on purpose, the others did not and you could tell.  Carson was a good solid player and almost always got himself just exactly where he needed to be.  He really improved his ball control, started to recognize where the ball needed to be and passed it there.  He only had one goal but he was normally the one setting other kids up. He took complete control of his side line.  It was a frustrating season to watch because our kids were so tiny compared to the other teams, there would be a good 12 inch height difference for most of the games.  I'm really looking forward to next year when he will be playing his age group again.  We just really wanted him to have seven on the field and he really needed it to keep advancing as a player.

Daddy, Eric, Hunter, Liam, Ty, Carson, Tucker, Coach Austin

Jackson, Alex, Wyatt, Blake, Carson, Eli

Dillon's Soccer Season

I decided this year that it was best to wait and post it all together.  So here are some pictures from the fall soccer season for Dillon.  Most of his team carried over from last year, it was fun for the kids to know each other already.  Daddy took over coaching this team this year and Coach Austin did the younger team.  Dillon got to spend a lot more time playing midfield this year.  He wanted out of the goalie box, which broke my heart a little bit.  The other goalie stepped up his game some but you could still see a definite skill difference between him and Dillon.  Goalie is just a natural position for his and he outshines most of the goalies we've seen.  He was able to make 4 goals this season.  One of which was the only goal of the entire game, for either team.  Many people commented about his natural leading ability.  He tends to set the tone for the rest of the team, helps everyone play better, he lead the team but helping everyone get into the right positions and generally guided play.  Goal box or not, this kiddo is a rock star.  In my personal, biased, opinion he was the most valuable player.  You put him anywhere on the field and he could do the job and do it WELL.  Soccer has become my absolute favorite sport to watch.  We actually had pretty good weather, only a couple rainy ones and a couple windy ones.  Generally it was decent out.  There were a LOT of really fun games to watch this year.  I love having my group of moms to sit and cheer with!  We've been together long enough that we'll often yell the same thing, at the same time.  As much fun as we have doing it, it doesn't do any good, Dillon said he doesn't even hear us! His team had 5 wins and 5 losses this year.  The were often played against the older age group.  They had 3 wins and 2 loss against the other under 11 teams.  2 wins and 3 losses against the under 12 teams.  They placed 6th out of 11 teams. 

 Coach Austin, Daddy, Coach Houser
Landon, Brandon, Jude, Zach, Carter, Dayton, Angel, Issac, Aiden
Dillon, Leelan, Logan, Timmy, Aiden, Anthony
He had one more on his team, Quincy, that didn't show up in time for pictures before the game.

 This kid has NO fear as goalie.  He'll dive on top of the ball no matter how close the offensive player is to it.  He makes me nervous a lot of the time but I LOVE it!