Soccer Update

It took four games, but we finally have success! The second soccer game Molly wouldn't play the first half, then she agreed to play the second half as long as I was holding her hand playing with her. I also promised her a pair of soccer cleats if she played; I noticed her interest in another girl's "spiky" shoes and I took advantage. The third game she held Chris's hand for the first half, then agreed to try playing without holding his hand, but still having him on the field, with the promise of a McDonald's ice cream cone if she tried. Then by game four she was finally ready to strike out on her own. She did great! She had a few really good kicks, and came very close to scoring a goal. The coach also told me that she is very fast for her age, which I believe because I have to work pretty hard to beat her at a foot race these days (not sure if that speaks highly of Molly or poorly of me. Probably both.).

Molly's First Soccer Game

Molly started in an AYSO soccer league, and this is her first time being involved in a sports team (or really any extracurricular activity). It was rough. Since they're so young they just have one practice, then the rest of the season practices are just 30 minutes before the game starts. Molly has been so excited to start, and was always talking about how many goals she was going to score. I always tried to bring her back to reality a little bit because she's so competitive that I knew she would get upset if she didn't score lots of goals per game. But I didn't anticipate her being so intimidated by the crowd of girls on the field. She started the game, and for the first couple of minutes she held it together, but I could tell she was really nervous. She was biting her nails and twirling her hair like crazy. And when she went to run after the ball she did a strange little prance, like she wanted to run after the ball but was really too scared to. Chris was yelling "Go Molly!" and "Kick the ball!" and once she made eye contact with him it was over. She broke down and came crying to the sidelines. She stayed balled up in my lap until it was time for the halftime snack. After the orange smiles she perked up and thought she was ready to go back in. She got onto the field but before the first kick she came running off the field again crying. But this time she was crying that she wanted to go home. We sat for a few more minutes, then the coach came over and said Chris could come out on the field with her if that helped. After a little convincing she decided to do it. It was looking good until the ball came her direction, then she got scared and came running off again. She still wanted to leave, but I reminded her of the post-game treat and drink and that was enough enticement to stick it out. I hope things get better or this could be a very long season!


Molly's favorite color is purple, so you can imagine the excitement when they got purple jerseys! Plus she is number 4, which is also exciting because that's how old she is. These pictures are during the pre-game practice.





Go Purple Rainbows!


Claire wanted to play so bad she could hardly stand it. She actually made it on to the field a couple of times when I was too slow to catch her.



This is a little video of Molly trying to play again with Chris holding her hand.

New Penny Pictures

Penny will be two months old this Thursday. Time really flies! A couple of weeks ago she started smiling (real smiles, not gas), and it's the best! The picture I got isn't that great, but it's better than nothing. The second picture is Penny sleeping on a lazy Sunday.

Chris Turns 30

Chris turned 30 on August 3rd. Unfortunately Penny was only about two weeks old so he had a pretty lame birthday. But we did go get his free birthday meal at Joe's Farm Grill and I made him a triple chocolate mousse cake, which was pretty awesome. There was also noisemakers and party hats, so it couldn't have been too bad right?

First Day of School

Molly is going to the same preschhol she went to last year, but now she's going three times a week instead of two. She was really excited to go back, and she and Claire were doing some impromptu first-day-of-school dancing.










This is Molly's teacher, Ms. Nancy.

Some of Penny's Firsts

First day at church. The first two weeks we went back Chris was working. It wasn't fun, but we survived.




First "swim." We went to a ward swim party and it was the perfect excuse to get Penny in her new suit. She didn't get in the water but she looked adorable!



First bath. She was at a doctor's appointment at 2 1/2 weeks and her umbilical cord still hadn't fallen off, so the doctor ripped it off. I wasn't too happy - it seemed a little aggressive to me - but at least she could start taking real baths. She hated the sponge baths but is pretty happy about her new fishy tub.

Claire and Penny

The transition to being a family of five has out a strain on us all, but I would say no one more than Claire. These are a few of her interactions with the baby:

-Smothering lip gloss all over her face while she was in the swing
-Tripping and falling on top of her during tummy time (at least that wasn't one purpose - so I think)
-Lifting her out of the swing and dumping her on the floor (I had to go upstairs for just a second and didn't realize the baby would be so unsafe without me there)
-Sneaking into her room while she was asleep and covering her face with her thumbie (think animal head with a blanket attached)

I know there are so many more but I can't think of them right now. I really hope this is just Claire behaving like a two year-old and not her trying to actually injure Penny! Things can only go up from here...