Ball hog?

Some call it ball hog, others (like Cindy) say it's just getting your own rebound.

My family, by Mason

Mason and Felix are happily playing outside with a ball. Cindy and I are locked upstairs, as is Kenzie who is also behind bars.

The food my family eats:
1. Felix makes
2. New food and
3. It is good.

Funny because Felix has cooked for us two times...and it was the same potato pancake with salad recipe. It was delicious, but Mason refused to eat it. I find it interesting that's the highlight of Mason's food experience around here especially since Cindy and I cook rather frequently. Whatever.

And the things we like to do together include playing Xbox 360, hockey and football.

But I do like his answer to "what I love about my family"...that they love me! And that they play ball.

Soccer for a change...

We have the chance to go to Daniel's soccer game this weekend. It was another blustery soccer game. We made it through most of it until it started raining so hard that we ran for warmth. Mason found warmth wherever he could...including David's lap.

Mr. Fat

Tooth #2: Big Sister does it again

Ball dog

We had a bit of sun today so we cleaned off the basketball hoop and dug the soccer goals out of the garage. Nobody was happier than Bentley.

Vacations

Speaking of looking forward, we have two vacations coming up that we are very excited about. In April the five of us are going to Washington DC with Sarah, her 2 exchange students, Janel, Grammy, and Grampy. We rented a house in Annapolis and have no plans other than to hang out as a group of 11 and have fun.

Also, two days after Felix goes home we are following him. We have tickets to London where we will spend the day, and then meet Felix and his whole family in Mallorca, Spain. We are very excited about this! We have another week after Majorca in Europe that is unplanned (and driving me crazy).

We feel very blessed that we've been able to get away a bunch this year and have some vacations. The kids are at a great age where they can travel well, have fun, and hopefully remember it. Plus they still eat off of the kids menu.

Time

One thing that this blog does is help me track time. I like to go back three, four, or five years and look at where we were. I did that this morning. It's hard to believe that five years ago to the month we were in Mexico. It feels like that was just a couple years ago, but when I look at the kids it's obvious that they have changed tremendously.

The kids are more hesitant now to let me post things on the blog, so I try to be respectful of that. But I do love the notion that they will be able to look back over their lives and see the passage of time in their activities. We get so busy in our daily lives. Yesterday, we had early morning errands in Redmond then Kenzie had basketball, then it was Mason's turn. Cindy and I went to Gig Harbor to celebrate Mike and Mary's 40th anniversary with my parents and all their kids. The day flew by, as do most of them these days.

We look forward to things coming up, and we look back on things that we've done. But I think sometimes we forget to look at the day we are living.

#21 Varsity!

After three grueling days of try-outs, Felix just learned he made varsity soccer at Issaquah! We are soooo happy for him!

Cindy couldn't stand waiting at home so she snuck over to the high school to stalk him. This was her vantage point...a skinny tree was her hiding post. But it worked because he didn't see her. :)

The kids and I made him cookies. Mason was responsible for vanilla...

Happy birthday Bentley

Bentley is a year now and he has become such a good dog. He is super smart and very loyal. He's a good friend to us!

Funday

Devan spent the night with us and joined us at church. She quickly made her way to the front. When we came out it was snowing!

Oregon

Felix had a soccer tournament in Portland this weekend. "Unfortunately" they were out after one day, so instead of watching soccer in the cold and rain, we headed to Cannon Beach! It's still cold and rainy but it's nice to chill by the ocean.

Basketball begins!

Kenzie has never shown an interest in basketball, breaking Cindy's heart, year after year. However, because her soccer coach and her soccer friends were all going to be on one team, Kenzie opted in this year. Yesterday, when the first game started, so did Cindy's tears. Through the whole game Kenzie's face was smiling and she has tough defense...she isn't afraid of getting in there.

Mason is again with his basketball buddies and is a maniac on the court. This is the first year that we noticed that he's taller than his teammates. He truly loves the game. He tries to get every inbound play and then have the receiver pass it right back to him. If he had the ball all the time it wouldn't be enough. Let's not call him a ball hog just yet. Actually one of the other moms suggested the nickname of Bulldozer, perhaps due to the number of other kids who wound up on the floor in his wake. Yes he is a little bit lazy on the dribbling.

I see a skills clinic in our near future. Coach Bolam?