Soccer Boys

I have posted jack squat about soccer so I though I would throw a bunch of pictures up there and call it good.  Truthfully, I don't love having my Saturdays interrupted with games, but we have a beautiful field with a good park so the kids enjoy it and I do too for the most part.

We take turns playing while either Cooper or Fisher have their games.  They have only had back to back games one time.  It is nice that the field is only five minutes from our house.

One thing I noticed as I was sorting through pictures is that Cooper still is our happy, smiley guy.  He is stubborn and angry a lot too, but when he isn't that, he is such a joyful little guy.

His team is called the Purple Minions.  They are so cute scoring goals in the wrong goal, running after each other but not necessarily after the ball, playing duck duck goose on the sidelines and lots of not having any clue about the game.

The first game Cooper played in, he had the ball taken from him and he started to cry and refused to play any more during the game.  We have improved from there although I wouldn't say he understands the game yet.  :)

He loves being on the sideline, especially when the brothers are all choosing to be nice and be friends.

This guy is starting kindergarten soon!

Grandma and Grandpa Church came to visit (more on that next post) and were able to come watch the boys play.  It was such a pretty day- perfect for soccer!

He was supposed to be playing soccer but he was smiling for the camera instead. :)

Smiling again.

For all his complaining, he does seem to enjoy playing.

At this point in time, Cooper and this other kid kept kicking the ball in play WAY off the field.  No regard for the lines. :)

Fisher has actually had a decent season this year.  He loves checking girls.  I had to tell him to stop knocking them over and he was like "but I want to win."  We had a little chat about winning v. losing and how to treat women.

Probably telling everyone how to play. :)

This is what Tucker and Cooper do anywhere in public.  Todd was telling me how just yesterday after church when we were all looking for each other, he looked away for a minute and when he looked back these two were on the ground in the hallway wrestling.  It is embarrassing at times and other times I am kind of like this is my life and if people have a problem with it then tough.   

I love this time of year outside before the humidity and heat really kick in.  It is so pretty!

Cooper scares me half to death on these monkey bars and he has taken a few spills but the kid is determined to do whatever he sets his mind to and without and help.

That's all for now.  Off to go pack my bags since the packers are coming tomorrow.  Augh!!!!  It is all happening very fast. 

March & April Update

***I posted this and then realized that I never updated our current situation.  The movers come next week and all of our belongings will be sent away to storage until we can move into our place.  After a series of events we ended up decided to buy a house in San Antonio to keep as a rental after our two years there.  I am so excited!!  It makes moving a little easier to have something like our cute house to look forward to after three years in base housing.  :)  Todd will be leaving before us so me and the boys will be living in TLF (temporary housing) on base for a few weeks until Fisher finishes school where we make our way to OBX and then on to Texas.  We will be traveling vagrants for the month of June. :)***

So I thought I would try to dump some pics before we move and things get even more crazy.  Here are some March & April pictures.  Cooper and Fisher started soccer.  This year was Cooper's first time and there have been some highs and lows.  :) I have more soccer pictures coming up soon.

 My handsome boys.  They are all getting so big!  Cooper graduated from preschool last night.  It is so hard to believe he will be in Kindergarten!  He will do kindergarten and first grade in Texas.

 These two have actually been best buddies lately.  Cooper is always so excited for Fisher to get home from school and I think it makes him feel good which then makes him be nicer to Cooper.  I hope this phase lasts through the summer.

 Funny faces is their favorite type of picture.

 With the upcoming move looming over our heads, I realize how much I don't want to leave this part of the country.  I love our part of town.  I would even go so far as to say that I could live here (but only if I convinced my parents to pick up and leave the west coast because Reno is a whopping 2,735miles away and that is just TOO FAR!  It is so beautiful here- everything is lush and green.  Flowers and plant life thrive.  There are so many beaches to choose from on the Chesapeake and the Atlantic.  We are close to big cities and can go either north or south for great coastal vacations.  There is history galore, Busch Gardens in Williamsburg is one of our family's favorite hang outs.  It has been torture not having our season passes the last couple of months since we chose not to renew for only a short period of time.

We haven't even made a dent in everything that we wanted to see and do so I would be completely happy to be stationed here again.

 I have enjoyed learning more about gardening (with plants and flowers.  I don't live anywhere long enough to really get into fruits & veggies.)  It makes my heart happy seeing the boys help me out in the yard.

 Our mornings normally consist of putting Fisher on the bus and then working in the yard for 30 mins or so before it is time to get ready for preschool.  I normally sit on my porch and chat with my neighbor in the morning and evening.  I hope we find great neighbors like the ones we have now.

 I went light on the flowers this year compared to last year since I knew we were leaving  this spring.  Last year I actually won garden of the month which gave me a cleaning waiver which is just awesome.  Cleaning checks with military housing can be brutal.  We ended up paying someone hundreds of dollars in NE when we moved because it was easier.

Last year I planted tulips and daffodils.  Their bloom is over now but they were beautiful while they lasted.  Then my azaleas bloomed and now the roses are in full bloom.  I know this is probably really boring for those of you reading this but I have to document for memory's sake.  :)

 I will not miss the spiders here although I doubt Texas is going to be any better in terms of critters.

 My happy azaleas.

The fence across the street is one of Tucker's favorite stomping grounds.  We live on a very quiet street in the back corner of the neighborhood.  There is a little stream and lots of rocks to play with and Tucker could stay there for hours.  We also happen to be the road that all the walkers and joggers use since we are along the perimeter.  Tucker stalks all the dogs that accompany everyone and pets them.  He loves dogs.  All the boys have been begging us to get one.  

I will miss my happy porch and am happy we will have one at our next house!

While we are playing outside, Fisher is off at school busy with work.  I will not be sad when second grade is over.  My child who loved preschool, kindergarten and first grade has hated school this year.  I have put him on the bus in tears so many times begging me not to make him go.  His teacher is a great and goes over and beyond what other teachers do but there is a personality clash that has been very difficult.  It hasn't affected his grades (which are perfect all across the board) but he has acted out a little.  Mostly he is jut miserable at home whenever we talk about school.  I hope next year is better.  

I am also relieved we still won't have to deal with common core. It think it is so funny that we have lived in three of the five states that have not adopted to the curriculum- Nebraska, Virginia and now Texas.  I even worked in Indiana.  :) We are just missing Alaska.

So I never got around to posting about our epic west coast trip last summer, mine and Todd's trip to Italy and then our family took a trip to Disney World in April.  I can't believe it because they were all such a big deal!  On our way to Disney World and Universal Studios at the beginning of April, we swung by Steve & Katrina's as a pit stop.  I am so grateful for the time we have had living close (ish) to them.  Our kids truly are buddies and it makes me so happy.  Katrina and I were talking and realized we had seen each other something like 6 or 7 times over the last year.  Too bad we didn't have the summer here so we could do more beach trips but we will be happy for what we had.  

I was reading to the little boys in this picture. They are so cute.  Beckett makes me smile.  He has such a cute little personality.

I pretty much want to steal Atticus.  My boys do too.  He is such an adorable and sweet baby!  We saw him at a few weeks old in Sept/October for his blessing and then at Thanksgiving.  Again in January for Fisher's baptism and April for this stop and last week when they came to visit.  So we have seen him as a newborn, as a smiley baby, rolling, sitting up and crawling on this last visit.  I think he will just have to come with us to Texas until it is time to potty train.  I am an epic failure when it comes to potty training so I don't want to screw him up.  He is welcome to join us again after that. :)

Cooper's favorite person in the whole world has to be Emery.  She is so cute especially since she has started wearing girly clothes.  :)  She comes across all quiet and shy at first and then her spunk and tom boyishness come out full force.  IT is so funny.  I love that she lets me paint her nails pinkandpurple complete with sparkles.  Hopefully she and my other niece, Abby, are ready to have their nails done at our family reunion because I plan on living the life of a mother with girls vicariously through them for the week.  :)

Their family enjoys silly face photos just as much.

I loved seeing this.  IT amazes me at how big Fisher and Chandler are these days.  They are little men.  Chandler has passed Fisher up by and inch or two although Fisher is starting another growth spurt.  

They had a lot of fun playing with legos.  Fisher tends to be bossy and Chandler tends to just tackle Fisher any time he is obnoxious so it works out. :)  Chandler was my buddy helping me make crab steam pots last week.  He was fascinated by the crab and became quite adept at cracking them. He's a smart kid!

The kids had fun playing pictionary with Uncle Todd/Dad.

Sleepevers are a little chaotic but I think we have had good practice for our OBX trip.

Watching Conference.

So here is a random and funny story from this last weekend, but my brother Steve convinced Tucker his name was Uncle Jeff.  One time Steve hid from him and Tucker was running around asking everyone "Where is Uncle Jeff?!?"  Later, as I was going through pictures on the computer for the blog, Tucker saw pics of Steve and was like "There's Uncle Jeff!"  This was a few days after they had left.  I was laughing so hard so then he started laughing.  I was able to get it on camera but the first time he was so serious when he pointed out who it was that it was hilarious.

We took a walk behind their house to check out the woods and it was just awesome.  I wish we had woods like that.  It reminded me of our house in Louisville with the woods behind it.

Cheese!  

Todd had his last day of work yesterday and a luncheon with tons of people from his office.  They gave little speeches and a plaque.  Each base gives them tokens of some sort when they leave so he will eventually have quite the collection of things to hang on the walls.  They are all unique so it is neat.

Me and my little nature pics. :)

We love our "east coast" cousins and will miss living close to them.  We can't wait to see the west coast cousins in a few weeks and hope they have braced themselves for a little craziness!  These seven pack it in real good. :)