A little note to my lil'man. I love you!! You light up the world around you with a smile that starts in your eyes and covers your whole face. You love with your whole body! You bring joy and laughter in all you do. We call you smiles and with good reason.
You started Smiling at 6 weeks
And haven't stopped sinceIt's official. Josie is crawling!! After weeks of being able to do this thing with rotating and sitting up she is now moving forward on all 4's. The rest of the siblings think this is very cool and keep placing things just out of her reach . I must admit that I also do this. It is so cute to see her moving. She is still tiny which adds to the amusement. She also pulls herself up but then gets upset because she can't get back down. I love this stage!
I know that you are used to getting the updates from Cat, but she has convinced me (read blackmail) to contribute to the family news. So for this weeks edition I will cover Sophie's recent soccer match FC Green Dragons vs. The Orange. So it started out as a typical Thursday afternoon. I rush home from work, get there in time to see Cat and give her a kiss as she hands of Josie to me as she makes the mad dash to my still running car hoping that a moose hasn't found the front end of some Subaru causing her to be late to her softball game. This time she did take Benjamin though so I am only outnumbered 3 to 1.
So here we with a little game time coaching , of which Sophie (number 7) seems to think that she doesn't need, and then with the classic "Let's go Score" we are off.
Meanwhile Josie is asleep, and Carsten, well, it looks like this may be a long game.
Here we go for the opening kick. Sophie really hasn't gotten the competitive spirit yet. She more skips across the field than runs but she has fun and is always trying ...sort of.
Carsten meanwhile has found dirt. Need I say more. Back to the game.
Sophie has by now played her time and is now supporting her team from the sidelines. This is pretty tame soccer. It is 4 on 4 and there is no score kept (except in the minds of the parents, Sophie's team is undefeated thank you very much.)
Carsten...yep still in the dirt.
Half-Time score The Orange 1- Green Dragons 0. Better get going Green. Undefeated season is in jeopardy. But we are not keeping score.
OK what is this. Apparently Carsten isn't the only Mower interested in dirt. Sophie, get listening to your coach!
Second half is off and wow look at that kick.
And the follow though leads to a goal. Sometime I think that Sophie may really just be cut out for cheerleading even though my mind is screaming NO!!!
Carsten...looks like he has moved on to rocks. Josette...still good.
On the field it looks like things are getting a bit rough. But that is ok. The game is over and the Green Dragons have come back to win it 5-2.
Great game Orange.
Mom has showed up just in time to help us get home. Carsten seems to be a bit resistant to the idea.
Well, tune back next week to see the Green Dragons battle the Blue Blueberries.
I haven't written in a while and it's mainly because I'm in this horrible funk. Summer just isn't visiting us this year. It has been termed the summer that never was. And for those of you thinking that it's only the first part of July...our fall begins in August! We've gotten maybe a handful of really sunny days and it doesn't seem to be getting any better. It is just so strange, we usually have spectacular summers. I was even grumpy about going on a hike with the kids and achievement day girls. Of course once we got up there I momentarily forgot about the grey clouds and just enjoyed the breath taking beauty of the mountain pass. I just hope that this means it will be a totally awesome August. I must also add that this funk is probably helped along by the lack of sleep I get at night. This little girl of hours just can't sleep longer than a 4 hour stretch. Aah, well someday, I will look back and miss those sleep deprived times and wish for them back, when at least I knew exactly where my kids where!
On a completely different note we had a great visit from Matt's sister and her family. It was fun to be around cousins. We have never really had that since our kids are the oldest of the bunch and when others came along we moved to the North. I still feel very lucky to have married into a great family and born into a great family. It does make me wish we were a little closer, especially since it doesn't look like we can convince everybody to move up here.
I've been taking lots of flower pictures lately and here are a few. We have so many wild flowers everywhere it's crazy. And since I don't know what order the pictures are in. The bucket with Pop for a $1 and the creek was taken at a mine in Girdwood. You really put your dollar in the pail and picked your pop from the creek. There is no electricity thus the creek is the refrigerator. 
