Soccer Game

Aidan's first Upward Soccer game was this weekend. His friends Taylor and Chase are on his team, along with a few others. They did great! Aidan scored a few goals and seemed to understand what way the ball was supposed to go, although it was hard for him to actually change the direction of the ball :) The games are longer than blastball (an hour as opposed to a half-hour) but it was lots of fun to watch. Go Hotshots!

Ready for the game! And by the way, I now know that the socks go OVER the shinguards, thanks to Daniel...but he didn't tell me until after this picture was taken!



Avery practicing!

Good game!

Swimming, Big Church, and Muffins

Aidan has been a swimming freak this summer, and he has gotten especially better over the past few weeks. He no longer wears a lifejacket and can swim to us. He's not completely self-sufficient (if we're not in the pool with him he stays close to the side) but is doing great! Here's a video.

Also, this past Sunday was his first time in "big church" with me and Daniel! Our church doesn't really do "Children's Church" and although part of me wishes they did, part of me is glad they don't. Daniel and I were both raised in traditional churches where kids attended the service with their families, and although I'm sure we both spent plenty of time daydreaming and drawing on the bulleting, being there was considered a privilege. I love that Aidan will get to be a part of grown-up worship, and although the sermon and other parts of the service are over his head at this point, I feel like this is his first real step towards developing a relationship with Christ! Anyway, Sunday went well...our Children's Minister had little bags prepared with their names on them which contained construction paper strips, crayons, and pipe cleaner. I had my own bag prepared as well, plus my iPhone as a last resort! Aidan was VERY good (although his whisper is louder than his regular voice, something we need to work on) and I didn't even have to whip out the iPhone! He was interested in the hymnal and when we got home he asked where our "singing" bibles were.

Here are the kids making blueberry muffins with me:

Avery-isms

I can't tell you how proud I am of my daughter. A few weeks ago she started making HUGE strides in her speech! Her word list has probably quadrupled if not more, she's repeating more, and she's putting together several two- to three-word sentences on her own. She'll continue with ECI and her speech therapist until her third birthday, and right now we're getting the ball rolling on getting her evaluated for the speech program through the school district. She will go to a nearby elementary school once a week for half an hour (I think) with two or three other preschoolers. I've met the speech therapist there and am confident it will be a good fit for Avery. Here are some of the things she's saying lately:
"Bugggg"...she loves bugs
"No co-co me!" Co-co means tickle...this phrase is kind of a no-means-yes kind of thing because she loves to be tickled :)
"Gucky!" Yucky
"Do-do, Daddy" Here ya go, Daddy
"No-no Woody Buzz!" Oh no, Woody and Buzz! (the girl loves Toy Story)
"No waaaaay!"
"Okaaay mommy!"
"Mommy woush!" Mommy, watch!
"No whine Bubba"
"La la Doda" Dora
"Oh! Pall down." She says a lot this when we watch Wipeout.
"Moh-mi Dory!" Morning, Dory (the fish)
"Pway Mommy's pone" Play with Mommy's phone
The funniest is one night when she kept getting out of bed...Daniel saw her at the top of the stairs and firmly told her to go back to bed. She cried all the way back to her room, and later I went up there to get some stuff and she was still in bed crying. I asked her what was wrong and she said "Daddy mean!!!" I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing. Daniel cracked up when I told him. Can you say drama queen?

Upward Soccer

I wanted Aidan to try a new sport after two seasons of blastball, so I enrolled him in Upward Soccer at a nearby church. He had his first practice Monday night and loved it! He loves playing at home (he would always run up and get his soccer ball when the World Cup was on!) and seemed to "get" what he was supposed to do at practice! His friends Taylor and Jake are doing it too so it should be fun.

Cunningham Reunion

Here are some pics from Comanche where we went this weekend to visit Cookie, Jeff, Gigi, and Leo the dog, and go to the Cunningham reunion.

Catching Up

Aidan did VBS at another friend's church last week and had a great time! It was a superhero theme and on the last day they got to wear superhero costumes. I bought him a cheap Spiderman outfit and he loves it.


One day while Aidan was at VBS, Avery and I went to a tie-dye party at my friend Julia's house. I made two shirts for the kids while Avery played on the slip and slide with her friends.



The shirts turned out great!

Aidan worked on a behavior chart for a couple of weeks. For every day that he didn't whine, was nice to Avery, and listened, he got a dollar. When he had $10 he got to pick out an Iron Man toy. He's so proud of it!

We went to a swimming birthday party for Aidan's friend Cade:

Here's Aidan and his friend Tate at our church-wide pool party a couple weeks ago. These two are good buddies from MDO and church and I've tried to make sure Aidan sees plenty of him during the summer break!

Counting to Five

I have some catching up to do and I'll probably wait until after the weekend (we're headed to Comanche for the Cunningham reunion) but I wanted to post this video that I am super proud of. Avery surprised me and her speech therapist today by counting to five!! She has always loved to count, but wanted others to say the numbers while she pointed. She's had quite a word burst in the past few weeks, and now loves to say her colors. I'm so proud of her!!

Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming

We went on a field trip to the local Petco with our moms club yesterday and ended up making an impromptu purchase...a blue Betta fish named Dory! She (he?) is named after everyone's favorite forgetful fish from Finding Nemo. Aidan was more excited about the pirate statue we picked out for his bowl.

Cedar Creek Lake

This week we took a mini-vaca and headed to Cedar Creek Lake with Daniel's family. We rented a couple of small lake houses which were right by the water. It was relaxing and tons of fun! The kids loved swimming, and one of the tall trees had a swing which the kids loved playing on. We ate, played games, and the last night we roasted some s'mores. It was great to get away for a few days!

Going to check out the lake:

Making cookies with Gigi:

Playing with Cookie:

Gigi with all her great-grandkids:


Ready to go swimming!

Cousin Hugs:

Headed to the dock:





Logan laughing at Uncle Daniel:

Playing on the floating island at Cookie's friend Mary's house:


View of the lake from our yard:

The two houses we rented:

A game the kids played outside:

S'more time: