Soccer and Stuff

I am clearly barely keeping up with the blog since I'm just now getting around to blogging about soccer!  Actually, I knew I needed to blog about it, but I kept forgetting to take pictures and a blog post without pictures is like a cupcake without frosting.  So, here we go, a nice frosted post for you.

Weston signed up to play soccer with a whole team of friends back at the end of the school year.  They all were friends from the neighborhood/school/ward.  He started practices at the end of August and they are almost halfway through their Fall season now.  Weston is doing great.  His games are really fun to watch.  He is learning to be more aggressive and go for the ball.  I am glad that we didn't start him playing soccer really young because now he's old enough to understand the rules, work together with his team, and is slightly more coordinated than he was when he was five.  :)

This last game we finally got some pictures and video.  Weston had an awesome game.  Ian challenged him to be more aggressive and even told him he would buy Weston a Slurpee if he scored a goal or got hit in the head with the ball.  We did notice this game though that Weston flails his arms really funny when he runs.  Once I noticed it I couldn't stop laughing.  Such a cute soccer player!

Beckett is a cute spectator too.

Before Weston's game on Saturday Ian got our new-to-us bike trailer in working order and took the kids out for a bike ride.  The weather is practically perfect right now and Talia loves riding in the trailer.  Weston got a new-to-him bike that is the next size bigger than his old bike and so it was a fun ride with new wheels.

Finally a bit of creativity.  Weston painted/colored (I'm not sure what the medium is) this chameleon in art class at school.  I thought it looked really cool.

Davin drew the temple during his primary class at church this Sunday.  I just think it's so cute.  Every time he says the prayer (family prayer, dinner prayer, etc.) he always is thankful for the temple.  I sure love that kid.

Beckett's 1st Haircut

Yesterday I took Beckett to Cookie Cutters for his first haircut.  It was definitely a need.  His hair was grown out long and was always flipping out over his ears.  I was really not sure how he would do on his own in the little chair with someone else touching him, but he did awesome!  He loved the little car he sat in.  He "drove" the whole time.  He also had Jake and the Neverland Pirates to watch and that kept him entertained.  He squirmed a little, but didn't cry at all.  I'm glad that he still looks like my baby just with a nice haircut.  He's so handsome.

Before the cut.

During.

After.

When we were done at Cookie Cutters we went for a little outing to the dinosaur museum.  It was the first time that I let Beckett out of the stroller to crawl around.  He loved it.  I always like running through the museum with the little ones when it's not crowded.

Lastly, I finally got Beckett walking on video!  He still doesn't walk all of the time, but he tries all the time and he is getting better.  I think his record is 7 steps now.  It won't be long until he is running laps around the house.  :)

Happy Birthday Beckett!

I am always surprised at how quickly the first year of my childrens' lives passes by me.  This weekend we celebrated Beckett's first birthday!  I was kind of nostalgic realizing this was my last baby to turn 1.  His birthday was on Saturday, but due to a certain big rivalry football game that night we decided to party on Sunday when Auntie Mel and Uncle Brad could be there with us.

I still was very much aware that it was his big day on Saturday and I felt slightly guilty that we didn't do anything focused specifically on Beckett.  We started the day off at Weston's soccer game.  Beckett came home and took a nap, then played outside for awhile and watched his favorite show on TV.  That afternoon a birthday package came for him.  I let him open it and play with the new fridge magnets from Grandma B and Grandpa Bob.  He was pretty excited just to bang on the box!  He went to bed really early that night because he only had one nap and was so so tired.

Sunday was a long day.  Ian and I tag teamed meetings all morning from 8:45am until church started at 1pm.  By the time church was over I was ready for a nap, but instead we had a birthday bash!  I am so glad that Mel and Brad could come over and play with us! Beckett got a good nap and woke up just in time for his birthday dinner.  I made tuna biscuits because I thought he liked them.  I was right.  He ate a whole biscuit plus a few bites.  Yay!

After Mel and I cleaned up dinner I set up the party decor.  It was cute and colorful and I thought the cupcakes turned out cute with the multicolored sprinkles.  I had also gotten a pack of colorful necklaces for all of the kids. They loved them!

We opened presents while Grandma Denny and Papa watched on facetime.  Beckett wasn't very interested in opening the presents.  Not even to eat the wrapping paper!  Once he saw the toys inside though he was excited.  He loves his fun new things.  He got lots of cute toys, some clothes, and his very own remote!

When I helped him open up his cards from his grandparents he went straight for the money.  Apparently he knows what's up. It was funny.

After presents we did cupcakes.  Beckett didn't know what to make of the candle.  He just stared at it.  He didn't try to touch it or blow on it or anything, so I blew it out for him.  He made the same grossed out face as the other kids did when he touched the frosting on his cupcake, but once I put a bite in his mouth the got the hang of it.  He made quite the mess and didn't really smile the whole time.  He was concentrating too hard.

Once he was cleaned up he was ready for bed.  It was a successful, fun birthday.  I know he won't remember it but I think he had a good time.  We LOVE Beckett!

A few things about Beckett at one year.  He has LOTS of teeth.  I think he's at 14 teeth now.  It's nice that he can eat pretty much anything.  He is over the baby food thing, so it's nice that he can chew most foods.  He likes bananas, graham crackers, Oops All Berries cereal, cinnamon bread, green beans, tuna biscuits, ice cream, and has started drinking regular whole milk.

Beckett is trying so hard to walk.  He is (unlike our other children) fearless about it.  He lets go of whatever he is holding onto and charges a few steps forward until he falls.  It doesn't seem to bother him when he falls.  He also started crawling up on his hands and feet with straight legs.  I think he's trying to go faster.  He can navigate the stairs pretty easily now.  I don't worry about him going up and down on his own, but if I watch it still gives me a heart attack.

Beckett's one year check up was this morning.  His one year old stats are:
Height: 25th %ile (I already can't remember the number and I lost the print out.  Oops)
Weight: 18lbs 3rd %ile (he's on the chart!  Woohoo!)
Head: 10th %ile

Talia Girl

Talia is feisty and stubborn and funny and sweet and bossy and loving and whiny and helpful and lots of other things all in the same day.  I can't hardly keep up with that girl sometimes.  Sometimes I just can't believe what a beautiful, sweet darling she is and other times I know she was sent to me as my mothering trial.  Talia has had some big stuff going on recently, so I thought a little Talia update was in order.

First big thing . . . she braved climbing up the big ladder at the park all by herself!  She has been wanting to do it all summer, but she would get scared and I couldn't ever really help her because I had a Beckett in my arms, so I told her to use the stairs instead.  Last week though she started up it and I just encouraged and told her where to move her foot next and she did it!  All by herself the first time.  I was so proud of her for being brave and she was so proud of herself for her accomplishment.  She climbed that ladder and went down the twisty slide over and over again.  Go Tal!

Not so much a big thing, but a funny thing.  Last week Talia was dragging things around in the kitchen while I was feeding Beck a bottle in the living room.  I asked her what she was doing and she ignored me.  Never a good sign.  When I finished feeding Beckett I went in there and saw this.

She informed me that Mickey and Minnie were on time out because they were talking back.  I had to laugh.  Especially since she still acts like I'm torturing her to death whenever she gets put on time out, but apparently the message is sinking in for this goofball girl.  This was around dinner time after I had been going through the clothes in her closet.  Everything I pulled out to have her try on she wanted to keep on.  Including her winter hat and next summer's flip flops.

If you are not a fan of potty talk then this is the end of the post for you!

Another big thing . . . Talia is learning how to use the potty!  I decided we would give potty training a try.  I've had two in diapers for almost a full year now and that's definitely getting old.  I thought she was ready, so last Monday night I took Talia to Walmart to pick out underwear and get some M&M's.  Tuesday morning when brothers left for school I got her dressed in underwear.  We put her froggy potty (which we have had for several months now) down in the living room in front of the TV.  She was pretty excited.  Especially about the unlimited juice!

Three cups of juice later and still nothing.  I knew she was going to have to go soon.  She started crying and said she needed a diaper.  I told her to sit on the potty.  She sat there crying and asking me to get her off the potty, but I just told her to sit there a little longer.  All of a sudden she started peeing and looked SO surprised.  I sat by her and told her what a great job she was doing.  When she was done she was all smiles and was so excited.  She was extra excited that she got M&M's (she always wants only blue ones).  As soon as she finished eating her candy she decided she wanted to go pee in the potty again so she could have more M&M's.  Unfortunately she didn't have any pee left and got a little frustrated.

I am SO proud of how well she is doing with potty training.  Davin was still the easiest to potty train, but Tal is doing awesome.  She's only had a few accidents and has woken up dry and gone in the potty in the morning almost every day so far.  She also keeps her pull ups dry on outings and waits until she can go in the potty.  I even took her to Sam's Club this weekend while she was wearing underwear!  She is still anti going #2 in the potty, so that is her downfall and causes most of her accidents.

We are definitely going to be sticking with it and I'm hoping that one of these days the enticement of picking a prize at the store will be enough to get her to drop a deuce (pardon the expression) in the potty instead of on the patio.  (Yeah that was a fun night.  This happened right after Ian had left for the evening. Blech!)

In the meantime I'm trying to be patient when she does have accidents and encouraging when she has successes.  I have to say, I am so grateful that this is not my first time potty training.  I know she will get the hang of it.

Just to end on a nicer note . . . Talia is a mama's girl.  She climbs all over me and wants my constant and full attention.  Often when I'm zoning on the phone or reading a book she will climb on me just so I won't forget she's there.  Sometimes I kind of like it.  She also obviously watches me pretty closely and mimics my end of phone conversations with (I assume) high accuracy.

BYU Babies

Last weekend was the season opener for BYU football.  We played Virgina.  We went over to our friends' The Smith's (Ian's boss) house to watch the game and BBQ.  We have done this before and it's so fun.  Steve brings his big TV and the couch outside and we eat and watch the game while the kids run around the backyard and jump on the trampoline.

This year was also a good time.  The food was delish.  The game was interesting.  It was raining in Virginia and just a little ways into the game it had to be delayed because of lightning.  The stadium was cleared and it took two hours before the game came back on.  In the meantime, we visited, watched US Marshalls on TV and ate some more.  While we were waiting for the rain delay to end we got rained on a little ourselves.  Once the game came back on we watched until half time then decided to finish watching it at home since it was getting close to bed time and the kids hadn't napped.

BYU ended up losing the game, which was a bummer.  I'm glad we came home for the end so the babies could go to bed, but you know I hate to be the first one to leave a party.  :)

As for babies, my baby Beckett is pretty much the cutest.  He and I got some one on one play time in the basement (his new favorite place) the other day while the other kids were at school/napping.  It was fun to watch what made him laugh.  Every time I glanced around me though I noticed Woody just flopped over on the floor.  I kept thinking I saw him move out of the corner of my eye.  It was a little bit creepy.  I expected him to jump up, brush himself off and try to escape out of the window wells at any moment!