Fall flag football

We're finally at the end of football season. The tournament was supposed to be last Saturday, but got rained out, so instead the team went to Peter Piper pizza, and we'll hope for good weather this Saturday (because I'm SO ready to be done with practices!). His coaches were really invested in the team this year, which was fun. It was their first time coaching, though, and many of the boys' first times playing, so they won only about 1/4 or a 1/3 of their games. Mister had a chance to play quarterback, receiver, running back, and defense.

The spectators: Sweetie reading, H wandering (after stealing Sweetie's pink hat)

Mister's Baptism

Mister's baptism was a special and almost surreal experience. It seems we've talked about getting baptized for, well, eight years now, so it was strange to actually have the event for which we've tried to prepare him come and go. Big milestones like these make me think about if I live in the moment enough as a mother.

Anyway, we were so glad to have both sets of grandparents and one family of cousins/aunt/uncle here to participate in the baptismal service and to celebrate Mister's decision with us. We also feel blessed to have good friends, neighbors, ward members, a school teacher, and a Primary teacher come to support us and to act as our family when other family members couldn't be there.

Catching up: Mister turns EIGHT

An 8 year old. How can it be that I have an 8 year old. I don't know, but I will keep him. He is sensitive, kind, helpful, fun, and obedient. I'm so glad that I get to be his mother.

And, this year, he was particular--he had definite plans for his birthday. Those plans included having his cousins over for a dinner of wings, little smokies, and mashed potatoes, followed by games (spoons and speed), followed by presents and cake--confetti with white frosting and blue writing. See--a boy who knows what he wants. And that's what he got! I didn't get any pics of the food, though, because we were too busy eating it.

Do you think I should be blogging?

when it's 9pm and I just finished the dinner dishes from last night (no time during the day to unload the clean ones from the dishwasher) and when I have 29 ice cream cone cupcakes to frost for Mister's class birthday treat for tomorrow, 6 loads of laundry to finish folding, and one 200-page dissertation to finish editing before Friday? (not my dissertation, thank heavens, but a little side job I took on that is taking over my free time). And to think that on the stair master at 6:00 this morning, I actually thought I might have 30 minutes to scrapbook one of Mister's past birthday's before his next birthday. (You know, it's kind of a lofty goal I have: scrapbook one past birthday before the next birthday. So Mister's scrapbook right now contains pictures of his birth, his third birthday, and his fourth birthday. Think I'll catch up anytime soon?!)

But I am in a pensive mood tonight. Maybe because it's the eve of my first child's eighth birthday, and I have been thinking about his birth because my little sister just gave birth to her first baby, also a boy. Wasn't it just 2 or 3 years ago that Mister was born? How did this 8-year-old thing happen? (And just for the record, I think we ought to revisit the accountable-at-age-eight principle because I look at my sweet, naive, obedient boy and I do not want him to be accountable yet--I don't think that he is ready. And I don't think that I have prepared him enough.)

A few months ago a friend asked me if my life so far has turned out as I expected it would. I didn't answer her right away. Outwardly, yes, my life looks much like I anticipated it would: I always thought I would get a graduate degree, although I thought I would stop at a master's, I always thought I would be married and would have children, I always thought we would own our own home, cars, etc. I always knew I would stay active in the LDS church. But I could never have expected the inner happenings of my life: I did not know that I would ache so badly to have a child before being able to have one. I did not know that I would love motherhood as much as I do, and I did not know that motherhood would be as hard as it has been and is. I didn't expect post-partum depression or occasional feelings of being stifled by motherhood. In other words, I don't know how I possibly could have anticipated both the highs and the lows.

Same thing for marriage: J and I just celebrated our eleventh anniversary on Friday (at Benihanas, hence the pic).

The five-year-old girl in this picture

and the almost 25-year-old girl in this picture

had no idea how many moments of pure joy and togetherness I would feel during the next 11 years or how much fun marriage would be. But she also could never have expected how much work it is and how angry she could get at her husband or how lonely she might sometimes feel, even in the midst of a good marriage, or how very, very hard it is to be truly unselfish and to let things go rather than hold on and let them fester.

So, there you go, random thoughts for tonight. Too random to rap up nicely (and too much effort to do so when the cupcakes and the dissertation editing await). If you want to view something a little lighter, go check out Sweetie's and Mister's entries in the Frost Family Peeps contest, a la the Washington Post's famous Peeps contest. Sweetie's is the last entry in the slide show and Mister's is the second-to-last entry.

All I Want for Christmas . . .

Catching up: Mister, manic football player

Mister played flag football this year for the first time. It was a good experience. I survived the 3-days a week practice schedule, thanks to 2 good friends who each took a day. On my day, I spent a very long hour and a half chasing H around, feeding him fruit snacks by the dozens, and keeping him from drinking everybody's waters, emptying everybody's duffel bags, and from falling into the monster grates covering the storm drains. Sweetie made best friends with the 3 girls from another family and spent the blissful time bossing them around and eating their ranch goldfish crackers. Mister was one of the smallest on the team, but he practiced hard and by the end of the season, he was getting a few passes and carries per game on offense and he rushed the quarterback on defense. Their team--the Falcons--got to the semi-finals of the tournament at the end of the season. (I, personally, would have been fine with an earlier loss because that would have meant a shorter season, but I was glad for him!)

Brothers

Oh how I love my boys!

Why playing battleship with Mister is important

I had J bring home take-out yesterday so I could play battleship with Mister instead of making dinner. I had promised to play with him Monday, but after putting H down for a nap, helping with homework, dinner prep, feeding H while dinner cooked, there was no time for battleship, a fact which Mister did not understand: "But you promised!" So Mommy-guilt overtook Mommy- frugality, and we broke out the game board and played while we waited for our food to arrive. I decided I should do this more often for the following reasons:

First, sometimes you just cannot put a price on getting a break from dinner prep/clean-up.

Second, I learned all kinds of school-related things from my reserved child while playing:

• Mister can't wait to change seats at school so he doesn't have to sit by Cheyenne anymore because she puts her arm on his desk, "even though I told her like about 80 times not to."
• Mister's favorite part of school yesterday was recess because they played War. Now I know all of the rules for playing War.
• Mister's worst part of the day was missing the reading exercise at school.

Wait a second.

"Why did you miss the reading exercise?" I asked.

"Because I was crying all morning."

"Why were you crying all morning?"

"Because I left my backpack at home and it had my red folder and my lunch in it."

"Yes, but I told you I would bring that to you before lunch," I reminded him.

He looked at me. "But you don't always do what you say you will. Like battleship."

I looked at him. He was right. I don't always do what I say I will. Because there are like about 80 things I'm supposed to do every day and never enough time or energy to complete all of them.

"But something as important as your lunch," I said. "I would never let you go without lunch. And besides, I usually get around to doing what I say I'm going to do. Like battleship. Right?"

"Yeah, I guess," he said. Thanks for the vote of confidence, buddy.

So third, I need to do this more often to reinforce my trustworthiness in the eyes of my children!

1. Clean carpets, 2. Warm afternoons, 3. A quiet house

Working on our talents

Mister is nearing the end of another great season of soccer. The kid never stops smiling while he's running up and down that field.

Sweetie loves her tap/ballet class.

And little H is now a pro at bubble-blowing.

1. A day off of school, 2. A day off of work, 3. Bedtime songs

Growing . . .

There are signs of growing everywhere these days. I will not be showing my own growing (due to Halloween candy). J will proudly show anyone his growing muscles from the gym time and all of those protein shakes/bars he's been downing lately. And the kids are growing up and older. (They warned me this would happen . . . ).

Here's Mister, with his 2 new bottom teeth:

And Sweetie, with her new older "do":

And little H with his new thumb (new to him anyway! He thinks that new fist and thumb are the best things to have happened to him lately).

What have Mister and Sweetie been up to?

I've been neglecting my "mommyblogging," which means I haven't been very good at documenting what the kids have been doing, not only for our own records, but also for our family, all but one of whom live far away. So here's a recap of what Mister and Sweetie have been up to during last few months:

Both had birthdays and parties galore (it's all a blur to me now since I was trying to finish up my diss while throwing shin-digs, making cakes, and wrapping presents). Here's Mister and company at his Secret Agent/Spy party, with the birthday boy posing for his secret agent ID, then the whole group decoding one of the clues to find the "bomb," then trying to destroy the bomb before it went off, and finally blowing out the candles on his cake.

At Sweetie's requested Superhero party, we decorated bats and spider cupcakes, navigated the obstacle course to rescue the stuffed animals stuck in the net, and did other various super-human feats.

Before we left for the East coast, both kids had their last day of school. (Mister's last day was also water day, hence the swimsuit.)

Mister finished up another action-packed T-ball season:

Once we came back, we've been trying to keep busy in ways other than fighting (which is harder than you'd think). Here are some of those ways:

Making our own bouncy balls

4 Weeks of Swimming Lessons for Both:

Bear-Catching (first picture is initial booby-trap, followed by dinosaur decoy, dressed in Mister's own clothing to confuse the profusion of bears we seem to have in our house, and finally Mister, hiding behind the dresser with his gun).

Selling the family food storage from the shop in the open door-way. (I highly recommend the chocolate chips and applesauce--I bought a few of each myself.)

And that's about it for now (at least that's about all the pictures I can manage to upload at this time). Consider yourself good and updated!