Cameron's soccer is officially over. Happy day! The rain has come, the weather cold, and I'm glad we don't have to sit out in it anymore! This is a few shots from the last game...sunny amazingly enough! I didn't bring my camera to any other game so they are kindof funny pictures!
Cameron did have a great season this year. It was really fun to watch the games. It's amazing how the skills jump from age 5-6 to 7-8. These guys can get pretty intense at times! Here is Cam with his coach, Coach Tom. Funny thing is, we didn't volunteer to coach, they were desperate for help this year. So Tom said he would do it (this was a week before the first game and after all the teams were set). Well, come to find out, we aren't even on the team we sponsored! Even more ironic, Tom is coaching the OTHER pediatric dentists sponsored team. By the time we found out, it was too late to change anything. Oh well! Tom was a really good sport about it and just laughed it off.

We were lucky to have our cousin Max come to visit us from Las Vegas. He had a bit of dental work that needed to be done. One frequent flyer later, we got to spend all weekend with him! The boys LOVED it!

Jane decided Saturday night she wanted to sleep in her big girl bed. We've had this set up for a few weeks and suddenly the other night she was crying in her crib saying "big bedroom". I put her in here, mostly for kicks to see what she'd do, and she fell right asleep. Next night, same thing! Is this a foreshadowing of the future? When she decides something, she does it. All of the sudden she has to be the one to put her shoes on, she has to pick out her clothes (although if I distract her enough I can get what I want on her), she has to get out of the car by herself. Everything is "my do it".

But who can resist those blue eyes and white curls?

One down...

After 2 months of soccer games taking over our Saturday mornings, Braden's season is over. He did amazing! He was by far, the most aggressive player on his team (yes, I am talking about Braden) and scored at least 2 goals per game. Yesterday he scored 4...just wanted to end the season on a high note! It has been SO fun to watch him grow and come into his own. He had so much confidence this season and really just fell in love with the game of soccer. I'm really proud of him. He needed a season to be the best, and not be in his brothers shadow. Here he is getting his trophy.

And here is a clip I took of him scoring a goal. Glad to catch it on camera!

I wanted to post this picture of my boys...this is where they hang out with our neighbor, Ryan. We have since moved the tramp by the fence so they jump off the fence and land on the trampoline. When Ryan wants to play, he climbs up onto his fence and yells Braden's name till someone comes to the back door to tell him if they can play. It's pretty cute.

Jane picking flowers in front of our house. This was one of the last warm days of the year. We went to the pumpkin patch and animal farm. Jane LOVED it! Of course, every picture of her with an animal she turned away when I snapped it!

And finally, Tom's new baby...

A Lemon.That's the size of the baby right now. So why is it I'm only 14 weeks and TOTALLY feeling like I want to slip into those comfy maternity clothes? Unfortunately, my pride won't quite let me. Give me 2 more weeks and anything goes!

April 6th...my due date. And YES...we're really excited! :)

WICKED

What can be better than a weekend in Seattle with friends (and some family), shopping, seeing WICKED, more shopping, eating YUMMY food, staying up LATE, and more shopping?

Plain and simple...nothing!

We had a blast. Thanks Traci for hosting. Yummy treats to snack on till the wee hours of the night! Comfy beds to sleep in. Fun running trails for our early morning runs (8:30...that's early for not having kids!), a fun hike.

Thai food. CPK. Panera Bread. Bellevue Square. Ross. Ikea (although I skipped out on this one!).

Did I mention it was 48 hours of pure fun? Every mom needs a weekend away sometimes!

Can I tell you how much I love having a girl? I feel like I'm playing dress-ups all the time. I got her some new clothes this last weekend and it was so fun! I had so many hand-me-downs I couldn't justify buying anything for her. But alas, the hand-me-downs have slowed to almost a complete stop and although it stinks, it's okay too. Because now I can actually buy things for her and not feel guilty! This is one of about 4 new outfits I have for her. I'm sure the pictures will keep on coming b/c I can hardly stand how cute she is! One of the best things is that she loves bows in her hair. She puts them on and says, "pretty". Once again... reading, reading, reading!

Remember Jane's book obsession? Here's a few pictures...
See that basket full of books? She dumps them all out and pics a few she wants to read with me. Then when we are done, she says, "One more book. One more book."

Sassy

I thought only little girls were sassy. Nope. Cameron has had 3 incidents in the last week where he has been completely sassy and disrespectful. What do I do? He has consequences, but to that he says, "I don't really care, mom" or "whatever, mom". It's all I can do to keep from physically strangling the boy! Worst part about it, Braden did it to me this morning! AHHH!
It's a stage, right? They are learning it from kids at school, right? The'll get over it, right?

I'm in need of a major mom-cation. Good thing this weekend I'm going to seattle with GIRLS ONLY to do some shopping and see the play "Wicked"! It'll be totally quick (2-days), but it will be spent with some of my favorite people. Pictures to follow!

I hardly ever post b/c I don't feel like there is anything very eventful to post about. Isn't that most of us? I mean, when I started blogging, people were checking blogs, updating, writing comments on an hourly basis. Seriously. I'd write a post and put up some pictures, and within 2 hours check back to see what kind of comments I got. Now I'm lucky if I post once a month.

Well, I've decided to start blogging more. I don't need to blog about the big things, just the little things. I'm working on turning my first year of blogs into a book, like a family journal, on Blurb. And now I'm sad that my posts have become so infrequent, and because I don't post as much, I find I don't take as many pictures. And because I don't take pictures, in turn I don't blog (because I love pictures on blogs). So my new resolution is to do both more! I need to remember all the little things about my kids that I'm NOT writing down!!! So here's a start:

Jane loves books. I'm going to start taking her picture when I find her with books. She is seriously obsessed. She brings us books no matter where we are. She has about her favorite dozen memorized. I find her in her room or the toy room on her tummy reading them sometimes. And if you listen, she's really reading them (well, the best she knows how based on pictures)! This week, I took her to heaven....the library. She LOVED it!!! It was so funny. She just kept bringing me book after book. And she was so excited she would only let me get through about 2 pages and then she'd close it and go get another one. Then after reading for about 20 minutes, we went to story time. Again, loved it! Oh, I'm so enjoying this little girl. When it's just me and her all day at home, I feel like I did when I just had Cameron at home and we just played. I am actually thinking about starting a little music class at my house like I did at student housing. Jane would love it. It's so fun seeing things come alive in her eyes.

The boys both scored a goal in their soccer games today. They were SO happy! Cameron said, "Mom, it's cause I was SO aggressive." After he scored, he got a huge grin on his face and sheepishly made his way back to his spot on the field.
Braden scores and turns to me and Tom and jumps up and down yelling "YES", while streching his arms high in the air. It's pretty cute. I must capture it on film while it's still okay to cheer for yourself like that.
I'll bring the camera to next weeks game and hope for the same outcome!

Last eventful thing this week...
My sister, Emily, adopted a beautiful baby boy. After hearing about a situation only a week before the mother was to have a c-section, a massive chain of events unfolded and many miracles took place, resulting in baby Jacob joining their family. www.samandemily.blogspot.com Read about it if you are bored and want a blog to surf to. Start with the "Adoption background" post and read about their journey the last 2 weeks. It's not long, but it is amazing. We are so thrilled!

We had a GREAT Labor Day weekend here in CDA with family visiting us! Maria flew up from SLC and Kirk flew in from Hawaii (Maria's boyfriend who came for a friends wedding here at the resort), Julienne & Richard & Jonny drove over from Seattle, and Dave & Channing & 3 kids drove over from Portland. It was all kindof a last-minute party and I'm so glad they all came!

Here is Janie LOVING her "Aunt Ria"

The kids were inseparable!
Happy Birthday to Maria! So glad we could sing to you and shower you with love!

The other day I was giving my kids a bath and I had to get a picture. The picture doesn't show how cute they were though. Jane just adores her brothers and she has a way of melting their hearts as well. What a bunch of blondies I have.
Okay so this is my first day of school picture. It's the best one, anyways. It was getting late, we had to go, it was super sunny, a little cool, and voila, here you have it. My first grader and second grader. It's been HEAVEN having school back in session!!!!!

I'm ready

I think everyone else I know has started school already! We still have one more week!!! We've had an AMAZING summer but I knew this day would come. The day I would be ready for summer vacation to be over and school to start again.

I will say, we do get one last party at our house this weekend when Dave & Channing and 3 kids and Maria and Kirk come to hang out over the long weekend. One last "hurrah" and then it's early mornings and 8:00 bedtime!

Las Vegas Surprise

Last week we flew to Vegas to surprise my family down there with an end-of-summer-fun trip! Jane LOVED her girl cousins!

We swam, swam, and swam some more at Greg & Whitneys pool. What else do you do when it is 105 degrees?

Oh, and you can play X-box, of course!

It was a constant party, and constant fun! I was so glad we decided to do it. We had some frequent fliers that were going to expire so we decided 3 days before to just jump on a plane that week!


Vegas tradition...bowling. Above...cam and marshall after BOTH getting strikes!

backyard

We've done a few things with our backyard.

We finally got a swingset!!! I love it! We just finished it a few minutes ago and I couldn't wait to take a picture. The kids are loving it. Hopefully the novelty of it doesn't wear off too soon.

We also built a deck. Tom actually surprised me and had it done while we were in utah in June, but it finally got finished (with the exception of a few big colorful flower pots I have in store for it! But I love it SO much!

August???

Could it really be August already? Where has the summer gone?

The Dance's have been pretty busy, but now we're home for the next 4 weeks to hang out, relax, play, and just do nothing so that we are really sick of each other and begging for school to start! Just kidding by the way. We NEVER get sick of each other! :)

The end of July took us to Seattle for a Family Reunion (Dance Family). It was at Zion's Camp, about 2 hours from Seattle, on the Peninsula. It was a great location with a little lake right on the property. We LIVED in the lake as it was super hot! And when I say that, I mean it. Temperatures were in the 100's, with highs breaking records at 106. It doesn't ever get that hot in Seattle! And because it never gets that hot, no one has air conditioning! Like I said, we lived in our swim suits!

Here are just a few pictures I took from Logan's blog (thanks guys) as I didn't take many pictures. Oops. I always seem to do that! Forget to take pictures, that is! The kids had a blast. I couldn't keep Jane out of the water. Really, she is a fish. Just unreal in the water. She loves it so much!

After the reunion, we went back to the Dance's where we roasted some more in the heat, and continued to be sleep-deprived with the constant up-late-at-night and babies-up-early scenario. Not that I always got up with the babies, I just heard them! :) We had a full house!

We stayed through the weekend b/c Tom's cousin, Jenna, got married on Saturday! Yippee! She looked amazing in her mothers wedding dress. Everything was great.

The only downer of the weekend is that Grandma Dance (looking beautiful and healthy in the first picture above), was rushed to the ER the night we got home from the family reunion. She had a severe infection in her body and golf-ball sized kidney stones. It was amazing she was at the reunion the whole time feeling good. Unfortunately, she is still in the hospital. No one knows how it will turn out, but she's been there a week and still can't breath on her own. She is in and out of sedation. We are all praying for her comfort.

Rock & Roll half Marathon......Seattle (SO fun! Amaing scenery, loved running in the I-90 tunnel...who does that? Bands every mile, a little over-rated, but still a nice touch!)

4th of July.....Portland (Dave and Channing hosted us in their NEW home...cousins had a blast...dave made a home-made water slide down their hill with super heavy-duty plastic. Did I mention the kids had a blast? Oh, and I had a blast too!)

today....home....thank goodness! (our life is back to normal. Only one more trip this summer and the rest of the time it's Silverwood, the Beach, and hangin' out at home!)
before the race
4th of july...grandma got the kids all matching outfits!

The two blue-eyed beauties!