Landon, A Dog's Best Friend

Today I caught Landon in the pantry with the bucket of animal crackers. (This was right before he opened a drawer and threw my favorite cute glass bowl on the hardwood floor, breaking it into a zillion pieces...but that's for another day's blogging.) As I turned the corner into the kitchen I noticed the dogs (my brother's family and their dog are still living with us) sitting by Landon. I quickly realized why they were sitting there so good. Landon had fed them each at least 10 cookies by then. While I took the time to go grab my camera I'm sure he fed them several more...but it was worth capturing the moment.

Hailey's Volleyball Team Wins 7th Grade Tournament

Hailey's 7th grade volleyball team won their tournament last weekend. It is fun to watch their team as I have coached many of the team members in the past. It's fun to see them continue to excel at this great sport. They were down 13 to 0 in game 3 of the semi-final match and came back to win the match. It was amazing! Hailey is playing the Libero position and doing a great job. We are proud of her hard work and accomplishment!

How many feet are there in your house?

Sydney came home with the following school project. It was a cute house that she colored with the title, "There are 28 feet in my house". Now we are known at the kids elementary school for having a lot of kids but I'm sure even this answer startled the teacher as she wrote on it "Wow! Sydney, how did you get your answer?", as I'm sure she was confident that Sydney was way off in her count. BUT...Sydney was right and if the teacher would have flipped the paper over she would have seen Sydney's clever little legend. She had drawn each member living in our house, including the dog. What the teacher wasn't aware of was that my brother and his family (3 of his 4 kids) and their dog, Snickers, have been living with us while they are relocating to Flower Mound. So Sydney was right..there are 28 feet in our house right now! Bet ya we got you beat? See her legend in the picture below.

In my rear view mirror

I just had to capture this memory. One of my favorite things to do while driving with Landon is to tilt my rear view mirror so I can see Landon and say "hi". It never fails that he gets so excited and just flashes me the cutest grin. It just makes my day!

The 1st Day of School 2009

  
On the first day of every school year we take pictures on "School Rock".  School Rock is located in our flower bed in the front yard.  This year I was taken back as I looked into the camera to take pictures.  My 3 school kids looked so much more grown up.  Hailey especially freaked me out. With her hair straightened and dressed up a bit (remember this is the girl that wore a camp basketball t-shirt for her school pictures in elementary school) she reminded me that she is on the brink of turning 13 in February and becoming an official "teenager".  Poor Landon was sad to be left home alone with just mom, after an eventful summer of receiving a lot of attention from his siblings.  

Summer Fun in Yellowstone and Idaho

Our family had a fun opportunity to go visit Eric's sister, Brenda, and her family in Rexburg, ID.  They recently moved into a beautiful new home and we had so much fun playing ping pong, Ticket to Ride (we came home and ordered it right away!) and doing a huge SLIP and SLIDE down the hill in their back yard park.

This summer we had a Freeman Family Reunion in Swan Valley, ID and Yellowstone.  What beautiful country.  We were lucky to stay at the Mooney "Cabin" (gorgeous and huge) right on the Snake River.  Literally the back porch is about 30 yards from the river.  This was a bit scary with Landon, however we had lots of helpers, including a leash.  

We traveled to Yellowstone and saw many beautiful sights and lots of incredible animals up close.  It was a very relaxing vacation and fun to be with our cousins, aunts & uncles and grandparents. 

The kids tie-dyed shirts and we all went canoeing, hiking, kayaking and ate lots of square ice cream from the local ice cream shop in Swan Valley, ID.

Our family had a fun opportunity to go visit Eric's sister, Brenda, and her family in Rexburg, ID.  They recently moved into a beautiful new home and we had so much fun playing ping pong, Ticket to Ride (we came home and ordered it right away!) and doing a huge SLIP and SLIDE down the hill in their back yard park.

Sydney Speaks

Sydney (7) is my child that speaks what she thinks. (More genes I'm convinced she received from her dad!). She often surprises me because Hailey and Dallin might think it (actually I don't even think they think it) but would never say it. Yesterday at her soccer game her team was not doing so well against what I can honestly say is the best 7-8 yr. old team I've ever seen . There were 2 girls that could have played on Haileys 12U Select team. At halftime they were up by probably 10 goals and I could tell Sydney was frustrated. I tried to encouage her to go back out there in the 2nd half and work hard. She just looked at me (sort of like one of those looks like "are you stupid?") and said, "Mom, we're pathetic! We should just change our name to "The Pathetics"!". "Wow"...I said, as I tried not to laugh, "that's not a kind thing to say. If you can't change your attitude then maybe you need to go home because you're team doesn't need you with that kind of attitude." She just looked right at me and said, "I'm ready to go, let's go!" I quickly backtracked and reworked my speech to try and be more encouraging. She did go out and work hard, and even scored a goal, which changed her whole outlook on the game. In the end I had been disappointed by her attitude but quite proud of her ability to use the word "pathetic" in the correct context. How many 7 year old even know that word? (in which my brother reminded me that kids get most their word use from their parents. Geez..I wish Eric wouldn't use that word so much! ha!)

Another Syd soccer story. After Sydney's first practice this season she came home to inform me that their team was changing from the red socks they've worn in previous seasons to white socks this season. So I promptly went out and bought not one pair of white socks, but three pairs. Below is a picture of her at her first game. Imagine my surprise. After the game I asked her why she told me they were changing their sock color when clearly that wasn't the case. She said, "because I'm sick of red socks, we always wear them and I wanted to wear white." Well, at least I know she is not a conformist, but we did have to discuss the need to be in the same uniform as your teammates. We love her.