Better Late than Never

Wow, what a busy month.  We are experiencing for the first time having a child playing soccer.  You have the games, and the practices.  I can’t imagine it with several kids at the same time.  We have enjoyed going to Josh’s practices and games.  Josh has been taking after his dad and dominating the sport, its fun to see how excited they get when they score a goal. 

  

Josh also started kindergarten this past month.  He is  adjusting well and it is fun to see all the stuff he is learning.  We just had our first parent teacher conference and his teacher said Josh is doing great and is a nice kid and nice to his classmates.  Andrew started pre-school and is becoming quite the big boy.  It is relieving to see him overcoming some of his shyness.  There primary program is coming up so we are hoping he will be brave enough to do his part. 

  Josh also started riding his bike and within little time he was driving across the park, going off the curb, and going fast.  We were expecting that he would just be content going slowly up and down our street, but I guess boys need something more interesting.  Josh also decided to grow up and lose his teeth.  He has lost one and has another just dangling there as the new tooth is growing in already.   We need Grandpa near by to pull it out.

Andrew had his 4th B-day this past month.  He had a lot of fun getting a bunch of cool presents from family and friends.  He went to out of this world pizza for his birthday dinner.  He was really sweet about sharing his presents with his brothers and enjoyed the time playing with them while his brother was at school.  He wanted a Wii cake for his b-day and we attempted to make one.  He liked it and thought it was cool, so I guess that is what counts.  We definitely won’t be winning any cake decorating contests.

Andrew insisted that he had Jell-O for his Birthday.

Luke is still keeping us busy.  He is quite the busy body and a very curious little boy.  It is really starting to communicate and is getting really good with sign language.  He likes doing the same things as his brothers, especially when they rough house with their dad.  He is a lot of fun and we are just enjoying his delight in the world around him.

Kim remains busy taking care of kids, teaching, and volunteering at the school.  She just got a new assistant to help her as a Den leader.  They finally called someone that would help and not be a burden.  Kim is thoroughly enjoying her new assistant and all the help she is giving her with the scouts. Kim has been going a lot on girls nights outs and having fun with her friends.  Darrin keeps trying to get her to stay home and have fun with him, but I guess she doesn’t think Darrin is all that fun.

Darrin is trying to be young again and be busy with sports and being active.  This past week Darrin played in two soccer games and ran a 5k.  The 5k was one for Intel employees so Darrin tried to get Mike and Chad to run also.  Chad claimed to be injured and couldn’t run, but Mike took the challenged and whooped Darrin real good.  Darrin’s excuse was he had a soccer game the night before which drained him of all the super fast energy he needed to beat Mike.  Darrin is anticipating next year to hopefully beat both Mike and Chad.

Well that is probably more than you wanted to hear about us.  Sorry we have been terrible thus far.  We will repent and do better.

Love,
  Darrin, Kim, Josh, Andrew, Luke

Dear Family, Last summer on one of our get togethers, we had a watermelon for desert that esculated into a watermelon seed spitting contest. Well this summer we saw a plant growing in Mom's herb garden. In the later part of August the plant started to grow melons. Yesterday I picked the first of the melons, it was hugh!! I took it in the house to see how big it was. When I weighed it, it was 22.5 lbs.

That was Dad's contribution to the Blog. Sorry we didn't send anything last month. I was having a hard time figuring out this new-fangled system. We'll see if it works this time. It has been really fun reading the news from Brittany/Jason and Kaylie. I hope more of the grand children will let us know the happenings in their lives. Those of you who haven't blogged yet, get with it!!

Nothing too exciting has been going on with us. We are quite old and boring. It has been fun to have Brittany L in Utah and to be able to spend some time with their family. In August we helped Dona move to her new digs. I hope she writes about her new apartment, and living all by herself. She needed some furniture, so we gave her the chairs that were in our livingroom. It was a good excuse to get some new furniture. (I had been wanting some since we moved in five years ago.)

Jared was in a dance concert in September. If was fun going back to campus and seeing the program. He did really good as usual. I hope all of us get to see him dance before he's finished.

Every week after Cub Scouts we complain about how old we are. The boys are starting to progress, and that makes it worth while. Dad isn't as old as me though. The other day after Scouts he challenged the boys. We had gone about two blocks from the church to pick up garbage for a service project. He said he could beat them back to the church. Only one boy beat him, but he paid for it the next day. That old competitive spirit just comes out.

I helped with the election for Mayor and City Councilmen. It was really sad. Only about 6 percent came out to vote in the primary. I hope all of you take advantage of our freedoms and be good citizens and vote.

We are so excited for Natan and Kaylie. We hope all goes well for them. We love all of you and hope all is well in your lives. We hope to see you soon. Love The Parents & Grandparents

September...Survived

Seriously, I think it was a big accomplishment that we all survived September. Getting back into the routine of school, soccer, and such things was...intense.

I was going to make a Picture Post of our September, but Blogger is being slow and difficult. Thus, you only get a few pictures.

The boys spent a lot of time this September like this:

(These pictures were actually taken on the first day of school. Matt's in 4th grade, Jason in 1st, and Trevor is the king of the school in 6th grade.)

We've spent COUNTLESS hours to the pursuit of soccer. Nevermind, the countless hours of practices and games for 3 boys...but you also have to consider all the time it takes getting shoes, socks, and shin pads on AND gathering all the necessary supplies (AND having your Mom nag you to get all those things accomplished...). Plus, the travel time to and from such games and practices. See, I'm boring you now.

If you have wondered what Julie has seen the most of this month, it is unfortunately NOT the treadmill, but the dashboard of the van...running here, there, and everywhere.

Julie's parents came to visit for a couple weeks in September. It was a joy to spend time with them on our turf. They provided a bit of sanity to our crazy schedules. Amazing what a couple more sets of hands can accomplish!

I'm sure you've all heard about Chad's favorite activity for September...involving a larger than life stadium in Texas. I'm sure it's in his top 5 of best days of his life. (Maybe we should say "top 6" so all his kids' births are in there!). I couldn't do the story of the day justice, so I guess Chad will have to post about that. I did think it was funny that he and Mike spent the morning at Six Flags (trying to avoid too much dizziness) and then went back to the hotel for a nap in order to be ready for the game that night. Does that mean they are getting old?

Anyway, hope you are all well. We're looking forward to seeing most of you in November (thanks to LJ and Kaylie for making that a possibility!).