And since I'm in the mood...sort of...

I might as well keep posting.  You know this son of mine had a birthday.  Nine years old.  Yep, for the past two months the 3 oldest have been 11, 10, and 9!

Andre has such a good heart.  He is truly a kind boy.  He is also so messy.  But he's smart as a whip at school.  Here are a few (ugh...not editing...not even cropping again) pics from his birthday.

He is a mighty funny boy.  Sometimes very silly.  Sometimes very serious.  Like when it comes to soccer.

So...a note about things that matter.  I don't know why something seems so important to the Lord and other times...well...not that they aren't important but I just go about life, trying to do things that best I can and trust that the Lord will tell me if I'm doing it wrong.  Most of the time that's how it seems things are.  But then there is this thing with Andre and soccer.  He definitely has some talent in the sports arena and we have wanted to give him opportunities.  When we first came to Texas we had him playing on some recreation teams that were quite frankly a waste of time as far as developing any talent was concerned.  But they were fun.  Jason really wanted him to be able to be part of a real academy or select team where he could have excellent training and good opportunities.  I was surprised at how distraught Jason became when he could not find anything for Andre that didn't include games on Sundays.  He was truly depressed about it.  I didn't take it that seriously...but Jason just really seemed down.  We prayed.  I felt impressed to pray.  And then a seeming miracle happen.  We found an organization that told us they would play games on Saturdays.  The Coach was a very outspoken, ex-professional player, and ex-college coach from Sierra Leone (played in England) name Ade (pronounced Addie).  We immediately joined, despite having to drive fairly long distances for Andre to begin training.  It was at the end of a fall season.  For winter they played indoor and Andre enjoyed it very much.  Then spring came around and Ade told us that he was wrong and they were going to play on Sundays.  So, we bid him farewell.

For the next year Andre played football in the fall and spring...then Jason got a call out of the blue from Coach Ade telling him that he wanted Andre back, that he was switching to a new organization, and that he promised to honor our wishes to avoid Sundays if we would bring Andre to him.  So we did.  And its awesome.  It has been a sacrifice but we felt strongly we should do it.  Andre's trainings were about 25 minutes away.  I'd meet Jason there after work twice per week and then Jason would stay with him and bring him home.  Ade is the director of this organization in the area here (RUSH) and Andre's current head coach is a youngish guy named Aaron.  We like him a lot.  Very skilled.  Very good guy.  Totally happy to honor our desires to avoid Sundays and seems to respect us for it.  Another boy from our ward has joined the team as well.  So...anyway...I'm kind of rambling but here's where it gets interesting to me...the Coach sent an email asking if any of us parents could help out at all because he didn't have a manager like the other teams.  Something told me to say I'd help.  I don't know why because I don't have time.  But I offered and he immediately got me helping with organizational things and contacting parents.  But he said that he'd try to get lots of people to help out.  I wouldn't have to be the sole manager.  Then something else amazing happened.  RUSH got space and a training facility and put up lights at a field LITERALLY (or, as many friends like to say "LITRALLY") that is 4 minutes drive from our house.  I found that out and then I heard a voice say, "Okay, so I'm giving you back all this time.  I need you to give it back to the team and be their full time manager."  I was like, "What?  Why?  Are you really telling me that this is something important enough that you had to really tell me?"   A couple days later Ade called me up and asked me to be Aaron's full-time team manager.  So, I said yes.  I don't really know why I wrote all that except that for some reason this thing of Andre being a part of this soccer organization RUSH, him being coached by Aaron, and me being the manager are all really important things that we have to do right now.  I have had many missionary experiences with Coach Aaron, Coach Ade, and the parents already and perhaps this is why.  I don't know.  Sorry for the rambling.  You're probably not even reading anymore.  But here are some good soccer photos I took of Andre.

Here he is with a posed shot with Coach Aaron.  The funny thing is that I didn't even notice until later that Coach Ade is doing the same thing in the background to little Andrew, but his pointing and yelling is real.

 Andre busts a move between two defenders...

 ...and scores on a very sad keeper.

 That shot above is what we call a "nutmeg".  I don't know why, but you don't ever want to get "nutmegged" like Andre just did to that kid.

 By the way...I'm sure I've mentioned this way too many times, but I absolutely love the diversity we have in our area.  The two kids behind Andre on his team are Andrew who is Indian and Kamil who is Lebanese/Mexican.  We also have Nate who is Thai, JP who is Phillipino/Mexican, Jett who is Asian something, Xavier, Trey, and Yamil who are African American, and then Ben, the lonely blonde kid, and a few more white kids.  Its just really really cool for Andre to be proud of his heritage but not to have to feel different all the time.

 Isn't he so cute?

And now I'm hitting "publish" with out a single read thru to fix the many typos I'm sure I made.  Oh well.  That's how I roll these days.

A post I started about Addie several months ago...

"Last night I had my favorite dream I've ever had," Addie tells me as we are driving about 10,000 miles home from Grace's volleyball game.
"Oh yeah?"  I ask.  "Tell me about it."
She is leaning forward more dangerously than she should, while sitting in Miles carseat.  She is tiny enough to fit comfortably and is wearing her seat belt.
"It was the best dream ever because it was hilarious," she starts to giggle and as she continues, "I like, I didn't even want to wake up because in my dream I invented this bra that had a cape on the back and it was so awesome because you just had to flip it and SNAP IT ON!  And Kora had one and my friend Gretchen, too.  I never wanted to wake up and when I did, I wanted to just go back to sleep and keep on dreaming that dream."

My Adelaide is awesome.

Oh...and I don't suppose I've taken the time to mention that she turned TEN two months ago.  Oh well.  Here are a few unedited pics...which is killing me...but if I take the time to edit them...then I won't ever edit them which means I won't ever create another blog post again in my life.  Or something like that.

Addie still has some emotional break downs from time to time but things are getting much better.  In general she is happy...or...at least content and not angry and sad more than for a few brief moments per day.  I credit it to many things.  I'd say the biggest 3 are emotional/energy work, good school and Petey.

Sheesh...now I realize I don't know if I've even posted about Petey.  And I'm not up for looking back through my posts to see if I have or not.  But Petey joined our family last March or April.  I was not going to get a dog, then I started talking to Jason about it, then I started feeling more like maybe, but I really didn't want to, and then I saw Addie playing with a cat at the park, which was really strange because Addie doesn't even like animals...and I had a thought that she really need a dog, and then Jason's cousin Bug called us and asked if we wanted a dog that he roommate had rescued.  She said he was a Chiweenie named Peter Pan.  I said if he could be a Mexican Hotdog named Peter Parker it was a deal.  So, that's all I feel like writing for now...except that Grace was the one that really really wanted a dog and then he became almost completely Addie's.  Her most loyal friend.  Never holds a grudge.  Loves her even when she flips out.  He sleeps with her at night.  About a month ago he dug under our fence and got lost.  I wouldn't say he ran away because he seems to have no predisposition to be out of our presence at any time.  But anyway...we had to go driving around looking for him and Addie was switching from hysterical to grief stricken zombie.  We prayed and I asked lots of other people to pray and then I begged the Lord as we drove to let the sweet prayer she offered for her sweet Petey to be answered.  And it was.  Whew.  I guess I did want to write some more.

Hurt Finger

Miles just came in to my room, where I was making my bed, whimpering and holding his left hand in his right.  "Ouch, Ouch, Owie!" he cried.
"What happened, son?"  I asked.
"Its my pinky.  My pinky hurts so bad!!!"
"Oh no...that's sad.  How did it get hurt?" I asked gently.
"Well...I was just putting it in my mouth..." he looked around reluctantly, "And...then...I bit it."

Tonight while I was snuggling Miles for a few minutes before bed, he leaned over and kissed my cheek.
"I love you," he said.
I kissed him and loved him back.
Then he said, "When I turn 5, when I learn how to draw hearts...I'm going to...well, when I turn 5 and I learn how to draw hearts...AND ROSES!...I will turn 5 and then...when it will be Valentine's Day, do you know what I'll do then?  I'll draw them for you on...do you know what they will be on?  On LOVE cards!  I'll draw hearts and RoOoses on a LOVE card for you!"

Miles and Lila are such cute little buddies.  We've had an ice storm hit us and have been somewhat iced in for the past few days.  School was canceled Friday...and just found out it will be canceled tomorrow as well.  These ice storms are very interesting.  Lots and lots of trees down simply because of the weight of the ice.  Power outages.  But they are very pretty.  And I must say that I usually defend Texas and their fondness for canceling school at the slightest bit of slipperiness.  The ice storms are different than anything I experienced in Utah and the driving conditions are truly treacherous.  Plus, there are very very few vehicles available to do anything to remove snow or ice...sanding and things like that does not happen often or quickly.  So...it gets icy and we stay put.  Today there was only one hour of church.  Our leaders didn't want those with callings to feel obligated to drive on the ice if they didn't feel good about it, so we only held Sacrament meeting.  By the time we drove home at about 12:30, the temps were in the upper 30s and the ice was pretty well melted.  The ice continued to melt through out the day.  Then the kids went to bed and I got a call that school is canceled again because...the road "might" be icey again.  No new precipitation just that water melted and so it could be icey in places.  ?  Hm.  Sorry Texas.  I'm not defending you on this one.  That is very wimpy.  Anywho...the ice looked really cool.

Back to Miles and Lila being cute buddies.  Today he has just been loving on her so much, wanting to hold her hand so she didn't slip on the ice, playing fun games with her, and then wanting to tell her Christmas stories as they snuggled in his bed before sleep.  He had wanted her to sleep in his bed all night, which she was thrilled about, but then he said, "She..well...I sort of don't want her to sleep in my bed because she's kind of not that fun to snuggle with because...well...her hair is so messy and keeps getting in my face."  Haha.  He's used to only snuggling with bald mama!

Here are a few cute (if not edited) pics of the two of them together.

This one in the car is from when I recently locked my keys in my car at the store and my friend Sarah had to come pick me up...thus we didn't have car seats.