dance

whitney's loving dance again this fall!

She loves to pick her outfits for class each week, such as this old recital costume of Katelyn's.

Here she is in class on parent day doing ribbon dancing. She is one of the more obedient children in her class, and has fun with the 6 or 7 other girls.

whitney's loving dance again this fall!

kate being silly in her soccer game

our first team sport- soccer!

Finally the soccer post. Katelyn had a fun season, so we were successful in the first team sport our children have played!

Here she is in one of her first games taking a corner kick- I don't think the ball went much farther! She did improve the strength of her kicks a lot during the season.

Here she is doing her silly run (#27)- half the time she was running around on the field she would flap or circle her arms or swing them crazily! So funny. This is towards the end of the season when she learned to follow the ball more.

doing a throw-in. I didn't really get a picture of her kicking the ball ever, since she never really dribbled it, just kicked it whenever it happened to come to her. :)

lined up before a kick-off. They played 4-on-4 on a tiny field! And I love this picture because she was the tallest on her team by far.

This is her team with their trophies at the end of the last game- 3 of the kids weren't there that night!

So she started out the season halfway paying attention and asking to be put on defense (I think because she understood it better and she's not that aggressive so on offense she hardly touched the ball!) and after the 2nd game I asked her what she liked about soccer and she said "well, it is good exercise." I was not convinced that she was enjoying it! Oh and she told me "if another kid on your team is trying to get the ball, you can let them have it." (so this is why she never really "went after it"!) But she improved and learned a lot during the season and it turned out good.

And it was so cute, she had the nicest coaches. In the last game, she was the only kid on her team who hadn’t scored a goal all season. We didn’t care at all, and we never stressed that with her at all. She was just out there to have fun. But the second half of that last game, her team was dominating like 10-1, and so her coach decided to try to help Katelyn score a goal. He kept telling her to run towards the goal and then he told the boys to kick it to her. Several times it worked, and she had a couple of good shots and a couple of assists (she would kick it toward the goal and then one of the boys would kick it in- then we were all like “great pass Katelyn!”). She didn’t score a goal, but I could see she understood the game better after that, and it was so cute of her unselfish teammates to keep trying to help her. I love 5-year-old kids, they are so cute and accepting of each other. She had fun playing with the kids on her team and I'm glad she liked it overall!

Preschool

Thank goodness for preschool. Without my awesome friends who keep agreeing to do this with me, my girls and I would not survive. :) Whitney has been so excited about her one-morning-a week preschool for months. And now with Kate in school, it's so nice for Whitney to have her own little thing. She has already been more motivated to learn her letters and practice writing them since it started. She just was NOT interested before! But I've been happy to discover that she is a quick learner when she actually cares about learning, and that she DOES have the ability to focus on something academic for longer than 2 minutes at a time. So we're having fun.

So her first morning of preschool she woke me up 2 hours before it was time to go, wearing this exact outfit. Which she had picked out and laid out the night before with zero advice from me. :)

She looked so haphazardly cute! And she wanted her picture taken RIGHT AWAY. And that's how we ended up outside before eating breakfast, the sun barely up, taking this picture.

And this one. We love how huge her backpack is!!

Yay for little Whitney.

Lydia

I've forgotten to post about something important- my newest niece! And the girls' 3rd cousin! We were excited to go to her blessing a few weeks ago, because we haven't been able to attend the other cousins' blessings in California. She was beautiful and so was her mama (way to go Katrina!)and it was so sweet to hear her blessing by her awesome dad. I'm kind of attached to my siblings, and I am SO grateful that Katrina is nearby for the time being. While she was on her mission I had no siblings in Utah and it was sad. But since she's been back we've also had Donny for a semester, and in January Derek will be up here to spend the next 4 years or so! Wonderful. And now we have a cousin close by. Thanks Katrina- I know this isn't your first choice of a place to live, but I'm sure thrilled about it. :)

our favorite hike again

We have done this hike in Santaquin canyon several times, but we hadn't done it yet this year because a landslide was blocking the road for part of the summer. So we finally went last Saturday and it was beautiful.

We've discovered with Whitney that she can only walk about 100 meters before she gets bored and claims she's too tired to go any farther. BUT, if we find things to catch her interest or challenge her- " look a butterfly! Let's see if there's any more up ahead by those flowers!" "Ooh, a rocky part of the trail. How many rocks can you step on?"etc.-she can go for miles. It's a bit exhausting, but can be a fun way to hike. She just does not care at all about getting to a destination (besides the car) whereas Katelyn is all about destinations, goals, plans, that kind of thing.

So anyway, we went quite a bit farther this time than we had gone before, because we finally got to the part that we'd been told about, where you have to walk in the river for a while. It was SO cool!! The water was FREEZING and several times Eric and I carried the girls through deeper parts- okay not even up to my knees- and I almost felt like a pioneer! I couldn't feel my feet they were so cold, and it was 70* outside! So I could imagine why, if it was actually cold outside, they would come to a river and just cry because they knew what it was going to cost to get across.

Here are the girls venturing in for the first time

walking on a trail of rocks in the stream

Eric carrying Whitney through this really cool part with rock walls on both sides

katelyn bravely making her way

and later with dad's help

It was fun to discover something new on a trail we already liked.

And Eric only carried Whitney for the last half-mile or so. :)

First day of school! First day of school!- name that movie...

We have entered a new phase in our lives. I knew it would never be the same, but still. You can't really know until you're there. It's a good thing Katelyn was completely ready for it in every way. She's smart, she's friendly, she's confident. She's obedient. Excited to go off and do something on her own every day. It's also a good thing I feel good about her school. She'll be safe and taken care of there. There's only 12 kids in her class, so she won't be overlooked. I'm glad I didn't have to worry about any of these factors. But I didn't think Whitney would miss her as much as she does. I knew I wouldn't really miss her for only 3 hours a day, but the impact of what we're getting into has definitely hit me. This is the beginning of her life outside of her home becoming more and more important as it takes up more and more of her time each day as she grows older. When I was in High school I felt like I was never home. And I know you get to that point gradually, but still. The time of me having control over everything she sees and hears is over! We had a good talk about how I want her to talk to me about anything that goes on away from home that doesn't make her feel good inside. Anything that scares or upsets or bothers her, I want to know about. I've realized more than ever how much I want my home to be a sancuary, a safe and peaceful, happy and loving place. Because I'm not worried about her surroundings yet, at school and music class and soccer. But I have a better sense now of how little time I actually have with my children before they're out in the world. Of how few years and how few hours in the day I will be with them to influence and teach them. So I've got to step it up a notch. Just be aware and more deliberate about the things I do and say with my kids. Because our lives got a whole lot busier a couple of weeks ago, and I can only imagine the years ahead. So I have to make sure the most important things and feelings find a place in our lives.

Whew.

Okay now on to the cute pictures.

Here she is on her first day. She asked me every 2 minutes all morning- " is it time to go yet??"

first day again- different pose

of course Whitney wanted a picture taken too

Second day- I made this skirt but she didn't love it because it was "too hard to climb on the playground" in it :)

Another day. I made this jumper out of an old dress of mine that I hadn't worn in years. It has ruffles all down the front, so cute. And she says it's comfortable too.

And here she is before her first soccer game that same week. She looks so cute in those shin guards! I'll save all the soccer commentary for a later soccer post, but let's just say 5-year-old soccer has been entertaining. As expected.

Hooray for the first day of school! And the movie is Finding Nemo by the way.