Jackson, the Kindergartner, meets Mrs. Wise

 Jackson & I went to meet his supervising teacher for Kindergarten today. Her name is Mrs. Katrina Wise and she is wonderful! It's nice that she has a little boy close to Jackson's age. She is so good for Jackson and for me, too. She has been a great support already. We are just thrilled for this year!! Jackson is already off to a good start, having mastered most of the Kindergarten curriculum. We're just cruising right through it!

Jackson's Soccer Practice

 Jackson is obviously our favorite player, but it is so much fun to watch ALL the kids. This is their first year of soccer and they are so cute (and hilarious).

Jackson & Jaxon

Daddy & Jackson practicing after practice. I think these two would play soccer all night if they could. I think Parker thought he finally had Jackson convinced that soccer is the "best" sport, seeing how much he enjoys it. Jackson informed Daddy that he does love soccer, but baseball is the best sport. I didn't say a word; just smiled.

 Cute little soccer player!

Soccer: first "real" practice

 Jackson was more than excited for what he called his "first real soccer practice". Last year he and Kate did what I think was more of a soccer clinic through the YMCA. This year they have real coaches and real teams and everything! The coaches (husband and wife) were awesome!

 I didn't notice until I looked through my pictures... Jackson seemed really close to the girls  ;-)

Jaxon, Lillie, Paige, Katie, Jackson, Rhys, Rosemary, Luke, Caleb + Coach Blake

Football Fun & some goodbyes

Lucy loves Andrew

Jackson, Nate, Lucy & Katie went out to help hold the banner for the boys to run into after halftime.

I love this little girl... just not sure what to do about her hair; she won't keep anything in it!

Ben... we are special buddies.

Jackson

Lucy's "cheese" (she just notices the camera and says "cheese"... I guess she is trained!)

 Nathan & Jackson... Ben gave each of the kids one of his stuffed animals. Jackson got a teddy bear.

Spencer - post game

Steve, trying to fix my phone for me!

Nathan, Spencer, Jackson & Katie hanging out while we made some food for the road.

Maurine & Rachel

Parker (aka my hero!), me, Andrew

silly... they swapped glasses.

cute Ben

Parker & Benny

Dad & Ben... love this kid!

Rachel was being silly, but I'm pretty sure this is how she felt after taking care of our kids for a week!

Katie and Spencer saying goodbye

Kate & Andrew saying goodbye... she is pretty attached to him!

Thank you guys for letting us come and hang out! Thank you for letting Parker use your car to go to his conference/training everyday. Thank you for feeding us. Thank you (Andrew, Jordan, Katie, Rachel, Spencer, Ben & Nathan) for playing with our kids. Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to go to the Salt Lake Temple. Thank you (Andrew) for taking Parker out to eat yummy food and back to the temple for a second time. Thank you (Jordan, Katie & Rachel) for allowing me to walk down memory lane while we organized & cleaned out your things. Thank you (Steve & Maurine) for the good talks and for going along with us to stuff ourselves full of Brasilian food. Thank you, thank you, thank you! It was a fun visit!

Tennis: FuN with Jordan & Sarah

I met Jordan shortly after her 9th birthday. That was almost 12 years ago. She's still cute and fun (and still has a crazy vomit phobia--really). While we were visiting, she and I had a chance to catch up... such a fun time! One evening she and her (also cute and fun) cousin, Sarah, invited all the little kids to go play tennis with them. We loaded them up into the Mommy Missile, as Parker calls it (aka the van, which had all the carseats) and sent them on their way... mentioning as a sidenote that my camera was in the car if they wanted to take some pictures. They did a pretty good job! The kids were buzzing when they got back home. It was awesome! I did, however, notice that they conveniently didn't include themselves in the pictures. So, I included one I took last year so we can all see what cute & fun Jordan and Sarah look like.   ;-) Thanks, girls! The kids had a great time!

Cute Lucy trying desperately to carry all her gear.

Nathan, Kate & Lucy

Jackson (5 1/2), Nathan (4 1/2), Kate (4), Lucy (2 1/2)

Our kids have not had the opportunity to try out tennis yet. Sarah explained later that she was a little worried at first because after she served the first ball to Jackson, he nailed it... right over the fence. She thought, "this is going to be interesting!" Just like baseball, right? Isn't the object to hit it as far/hard as you can... if possible, over the fence?

Sarah is so patient and kind. She explained to Jackson about the lines on the court. Apparently, he did really well after that; she was quite impressed with his "skills".  ;-)

Sweet (and crazy) Kate

The man in action...

Lucy & Kate

It looks like Kate was pretty helpful! We wouldn't have expected anything less! Love this sweet girl!

Thank you, Jordan & Sarah!! Love you girls!