For the Love of the Game

Some of you may be wondering why I suddenly have fight songs, and other football themed music on my blog. What can I say, I've caught the fever. Football fever that is. I can appreciate a good sporting event. I love to go to Indians games. The Cavs playoff game we went to several years ago was AWESOME! I enjoy watching Katy play soccer. But, I usually can not sit in my house and watch sports on TV for hours. I get bored when I'm not actually at a game I'm watching. There's something about the atmosphere of a sporting event that keep me fascinated with the actual game. I especially find it painful to watch a game on TV that has no meaning to me. Take the baseball season... There are six months of games. Lots of games. Lots of games between teams that I don't care about that really have no meaning until the end of the season. But, all that is different with football. I LOVE FOOTBALL. A couple weeks ago as Jared was preparing his talk for church he turned the TV to a football game (wonder why it took him all day to write the talk? too many distractions maybe?) I came into the room to nurse Jacob and sat down. Before long, I found myself completely riveted by the game. I had even picked a team to cheer for. I'm not sure why I love football so much. Was it being at BYU while LaVell Edwards was still the coach? Was it being in the marching band in High school? (yes, I was a dork) Whatever it is, Football is by far my favorite spectator sport. Anyway, now that I've completely bored you.....

FHE activity

I found an idea for a FHE activity off of the LDS living website. I was looking for ideas to help excite the kids about conference when I stumbled upon this idea. The whole family loved it so I thought it was worth sharing with everyone. All you need is pictures of several latter-day prophets (you could play it with prophets from the scriptures also). We used the picture pack that has all the prophets through President Hinkley. It also has a sheet with thumbnail pictures of all the prophets-this was our"master copy". Then we played "Guess Who". One family member would pick a picture of the prophet. The rest of the family would gather around the "master copy" and begin asking questions. Does he have glasses? Does he have a beard" Is he sitting in a chair? Is he holding a book? Is his first name Joseph? Is your prophet ________ ?etc etc. We had to give everyone several turns to pick a prophet since they were having so much fun. Coupled with the lesson on King Benjamin and his people gathering to his words, it made for a successful FHE. With four little kids, I would not usually classify our FHEs as "successful".

Animal Sightings

Saturday we decided to take the kids to the zoo. They've been begging to go since we got here but the first two months were too hot to be walking around a zoo. We looked at a calendar and decided if we didn't go Saturday we might not be going until next spring. We met up with Jared's cousin's wife and kids. John was sick so he missed out on all the fun. Paul is in second grade like Katy, Megan is in Kindergarten like Xandy, and their little girl is only a few months younger than Jacob. The kids enjoyed seeing the Penguins since there aren't any at the Cleveland Zoo. (There were things I liked better about this zoo and things I liked better about Cleveland's). Xandy is constantly telling us she misses Ohio but on the way out she informed us that if we can "do everything" with Megan she'll stay here. She loved having a cousin her age to play with. Jacob was enthralled with the animals, especially the black bears, and the penguins. He threw a fit because I wouldn't put him in the water with the penguins. It was a fun day but best of all it was free! Gotta love the beer company- they pay for some neat things. There aren't any pictures of Elise and I, but we probably prefer it better that way (at least I do)!

Katy, Paul, Megan, Xandy

Jacob

Bella and Dad

Paul and Katy watching the Hippo swim by

The girls: Katy, Bella, Xandy, and Megan

Happy Birthday Baby Boy!

Today was a "happy sad" day. My little sweet Jacob turned one year old. This is always a bittersweet age. Its fun and exciting to see all his accomplishments and the way he starts to really interact, but its also sad to leave behind the baby stage. After church, Laura and Connell came over for dinner. It was great to see them again. We went to a nearby park so Laura could see the covered bridge. After we walked dinner off we headed home for cake, icecream and presents. Jacob had lots of fun. Maybe too much fun since he fell asleep earlier than usual. He enjoyed eating his cake and icecream. I had to give him a bath before he opened presents. I'm pretty sure there is a ring of chocolate around the tub now. The first present he opened was a Cleveland Indians eating set that includes a plate, bowl, cup, spoon, and fork. He was having so much fun with his big boy silverware it was hard to get him to open the rest of his presents. Jacob is a happy little boy, always ready with a kiss and hug for his mommy. I love the sweet spirit he brings to our home. Happy Birthday little Buddy!!

2007 (I couldn't find a picture from his actual birthdate)

2008

Here's a bunch of pictures from the day. We missed being near family but thanks to Laura and Connell for spending the day with us!

Apples, Apples, and more Apples

One of my favorite parts of fall is apple picking. Last year I even went with a 2 week old baby. The girls and I have been going for 4 years now. The first time we went with the Jannings and the Dastrups and had so much fun, we went back the next week with the Stevensons. The following year we went with the Jannings, Estons, and Tonya and Austin. Last year was a fun treat since Dad(Jared) and Grandma Reed came with us. But I'll stop boring everyone now and just post the pictures from our fun day at the Orchard on Saturday. The only bad thing was they were OUT OF CIDER!! Guess we'll just have to go back next week.


2006:

2005:



(I guess I didn't take any pictures last year. Wonder why I wasn't organized enough to snap some photos?) We've been enjoying apple turn-overs and apple crisp this week. I found the best recipe for apple crisp that also uses blackberries and pecans!!

Buckle your seats, we're in for a long ride!

No, we are not going to an amusement park or on a road trip. We are simply attempting to raise Alexandra the best we can and hope she turns out okay in the end. At dinner tonight I was recounting our day to Jared. Explaining how Jacob is sneaky and loves to pull Bella's hair. Jared's reply was "well, what are boys for?" to which Alexandra yelled ,very loudly I might add, "Kissing!". Then, there was silence. Complete silence. Jared, and I were shocked silent. Katy &Bella were relieved it wasn't them who had yelled that. They could tell by Dad's face that was NOT the right answer and sat quietly waiting to see what would happen. Xandra sat silent because she too could see Dad's face and knew she probably should not have yelled that.

Where did this child come from? I was not a boy crazy child. I was too unsure of my self to even speak to boys. Where did this giggling boy crazy girl at age 5 come from? What am I doing wrong as a parent? How do I fix this before she is older? Can LDS girls live in convents? What age is too early to send her? and WHERE IS SHE GETTING THIS FROM?????

What I learned today

There's a saying that "you learn something new everday". Today I learned 2 new things while running some errands:

1) Jacob can only take so much shopping until he's had it (he is definately a guy), at which point in order to help you understand that he is finished he will continually pull his sister's hair as hard as he can causing her to have a melt down despite her best efforts to be good and resulting in a quick dash to the check-out. (how's that for a run-on sentence?)

2)When shopping at Target, it is not a good idea to put your red and white purse in the back of the cart with your children in an effort to entertain them. This is especially helpful advice if you are frazzled and hurrying to leave the last stopto return home. The purse will blend in with the cart and you will (in your haste) inevitably drive away with your purse still sitting in the cart in the cart corral in the middle of the parking lot.