Fall Fun

 We had an outdoor movie night for YW! I'm grateful to get to work with these girls. I am learning a lot!

I got to help with a few things for Les Mis!!!! Which Katelyn and Owen had been devoting hours each week to since the middle of August. So I got a few little sneak peeks of rehearsals:

This is One Day More, Katelyn and Owen are on the risers in the back. Even without mics or costumes, the set under construction, it gave me chills!

Costume sneak peek- Katelyn, Sulice, and Andrea trying on factory girl outfits.

Emma and Maris did the BYU race!  Emma ran the 400 and did well even though she was sick and had no energy- she went out strong and only struggled at the end because she felt sick- she literally laid down the rest of the day.  But she really wanted to do it, we had been practicing!  I was proud of her for taking 13th I think?

Look at her go!! She started out right in front!

I was so proud of her for finishing!!

Maris races like she was MADE to be a runner!!  She did amazing in the 800, shattering her practice PR by like 30 seconds!  She took 5th in 3:34.6, as a barely 8-year-old running against 7, 8, and 9 year olds. So amazing!

I also ran the 5k, and was thrilled to win my age group, I was the 7th woman!  And 4 of those ahead of me were high school runners which should't count haha. 21:48. I'm amazed I can still pump out 7:07 minute miles!!

Whitney had fall break in October and the other kids didn't, so one day after taking Emma to school, we went on a hike up Whiting Canyon in Mapleton. It was beautiful!!

Whitney loves photo shoots, so I was happy to oblige her haha.

On the last day before the first freeze, I harvested everything from the garden. All those pretty flowers and vegetables, and look at that giant watermelon!!  It grew under my magnolia bush!

I tried this for the first time-- brought my tomato plants inside and hung them upside down to ripen.  It worked for the small tomatoes, I got probably 30 more tomatoes in the next few days.  But the big ones didn't change at all!

I helped my new friend Ruth Walquist take pictures of the Les Mis cast for the program/senior posters. She took this one of me to test out her portrait mode and filters on her iPhone. So now I have this cute headshot haha.

They made one of these for each kid that we could share on social media/buy a yard sign of. So cool!

So here's Owen and Katelyn's famous pictures!

And last but not least, here's a few pictures from Katelyn's phone from this summer that I just stole from her; I'm too lazy to go back and put them on the right posts!!

On Eric's birthday, Whitney had a game up at Copper Mountain in West Salt Lake Valley. So I made him a watermelon cake to take along!  Literally cut a watermelon in that shape and brought candles haha.  it was perfect, it was hot so it hit the spot! And then here's Kate with the girls in her FSY group- late one night haha!

And 2 more from FSY- Katelyn with some kids from her group (Company?) and with her 2 roommates one night when they made a fort! Fun times that made her excited for college!

Maris and Emma’s Fall Soccer Montage

Maris had fun playing her first season of club soccer! She did great, playing mostly defense.  Here you can see her being agressive, and turning the ball around on defense!

Getting to the ball first! and with a proud mom and dad!

Running in on the right of this picture, and here on the end of the bench listening to the halftime coaching.

 But Maris's favorite part of soccer is the team!  The girls are so fun and cute. Here's Coach Alyson, Daya, Addison, Addie, Henley, Taya, Maris, Emma, Livie, and Taylynn. And Taya's Dad, I can't remember his name haha. He was the assistant coach. And missing one girl, Charlotte.

Emma enjoyed kindergarten soccer!  She was the best dribbler on her team!

She is very focused, and you can always spot her in those yellow socks!!

Sadly she didn't get to score any goals, because Salem City is dumb and insists on having goalies for 5 year old soccer. On the tiny goals. So the only way to score is to have an AMAZING shot or get lucky with a goalie not paying attention. Well all of Emma's shots were on breakaways, as pictured below, and she didn't get lucky.  Oh well, she still did great and had fun!  

Poor Emma's team suffered from their games being on the same nights as Whitney's HS soccer games.  So Eric and I were always scrambling to have one of us coaching Emma and one watching Whitney... it was CRAZY.  So Emma will be playing in SF from now on- they play W/F nights. 

Peace out Salem Rec Soccer!  It's been a fun 8 years.

Kid portraits

This year I was once again fortunate enough to find a quick 30 minutes one August evening to take pictures of the kids!  I **LOVE** my iPhone's portrait mode!! Insert 16 heart symbols here!!

I asked them to throw on something nice-ish, and maybe a little matchy? And we ran out to the sunflowers in the backyard/ across the street to the field background.  And this is what we got- not bad!!

Cutie Maris with her classic 8-year-old still-growing-in teeth!

I caught these few magical ones with the sunflowers and a ray of sunshine coming through! This girl literally IS a ray of sunshine, so it was perfect!!

Emma Anne!  

What a goof!  Love her! 

Sweet 5 year old who insists on straightening her hair often- I miss those little girl curls :( 

But straight hair or curly, she's one pretty girl.

Owen's photo shoot took all of 2 minutes. Quick and efficient, that's how he rolls with things like this!

Lookin' good.

I love my one and only son!

Okay actually maybe Katelyn's was the fastest shoot actually!  

Nice and easy!

Simple and pretty.  We love our no-fuss Kate!

Whitney Mae!  

She didn't end up liking her hair in the first shoot, or the fact that it ended up showing her shorts.  So We did another quick shoot a few days later after school. 

This cute girl has never had a shortage of poses or fun looks in pictures!!

So pretty!  We love our never-a-dull-moment Whitney!

Hehe lookin' so cool.....and a great genuine laughing smile.

High five, I did it again!