Alyssa's First Soccer Season

Alyssa had her first soccer game on Saturday. She is in an all girls league and there are 5 or 6 other girls on her team. She is one of the youngest and smallest on her team. They play on a small field with three girls on each team at a time and no goalie. Here she is all dressed and ready to go to her game.
Here she is warming up before the game.

We get the worst parents of the year award for not putting a warmer shirt on under her uniform. We had no idea it was going to be so cold out there. Here she is shivering before the game.

Fortunately, we at least had a sweatshirt that we put on under her jersey shortly after this picture was taken. She was a little bit warmer then, but we were all glad to see the end of the game come so we could warm up. Hopefully none of the other games end up with weather like that.

Here is a short video of Alyssa in action.

As you can see, she is still figuring out how to play. She sometimes forgets what she is supposed to be doing but after yelling her name, she'll snap back into it. We have also noticed that she is not very aggressive in going after the ball, but that may just be because she is one of the younger girls. So far she is enjoying it.

One on One's

I've been meaning to write about this since January when we started doing it, but we never took pictures to post. So before we went out this month, I made sure that we took pictures.

A few months ago, we noticed that Ashley was getting really defensive of her toys whenever Alyssa would come near her, especially when either of us (the parents) were playing with her. We talked about it and came to the conclusion that it might be good to give the girls a chance to have one on one attention from us each month and time away from each other. So we decided that the third Saturday of each month would be a day for us to have a one on one date. We swap girls each month and it has been a lot of fun for all of us so far.

This month, Ashley went with Mommy...

and Alyssa went with Daddy.

Ashley got to go ride the carousel at one of the malls in the area. We don't usually go to this mall, so she enjoyed the play area as well. We ended the date at a Mexican Restaurant that didn't even compare to California mexican food. Ashley enjoyed dipping the chips in salsa and playing with her drink.
Alyssa went to a place called the City Museum. It's in a big warehouse and has all kinds of things to climb on and through. There was a 10 story spiral slide that they went down. Her favorite things were the little train she got to ride on and the ball pit. Alyssa got to enjoy a very late lunch at Jack in the Box.

I included this picture because I thought it was cute. Alyssa was jealous that Mommy was taking a picture with Ashley and not her so she wouldn't be happy until she got a picture with Mommy too. And that is one of the many reasons why we do the one on one's.

Ode to my 20's

I saw a friend of mine do this on her blog and I thought it was cute, so I am copying the idea. As I celebrated my 30th birthday yesterday, I thought back on the big events in my life over the last decade.

20 - Graduated from Ricks and started at BYU-Provo.

21 - Went on a mission to the Brazil, Campinas mission.

22 - Worked hard as a missionary and returned home just before the end of the year.

23 - Met my wonderful husband and got married.

24 - Followed my husband to Kansas City so that he could do an internship for the summer.

25 - Both of us Graduated from BYU, went on our first cruise, moved to Des Moines for his first job, and then had our first baby on Christmas day. This was a big year for us.

26 - Bought our first home and our first dog.

27 - Joined a book club and found a new love for books/reading.

28 - Had another little girl at the beginning of the year and moved to the St. Louis area at the end of the year.

29 - Sold our first home, thankfully, and started getting into the best shape I've ever been in.

My 20's were really great. The happiest moments of my life have happpened in the last decade of my life. I look forward to whatever the next ten years of my life will bring.

Here are some shots from my very low key birthday. Unfortunately, Danny and I were both sick and spent a good part of the day laying on the couch. We did get up to open presents...

and enjoy the ice cream cake that I requested. It was peanut butter cup, my favorite, and very good.

I appreciate all of the calls, gifts, cards, and facebook birthday wishes that I recieved. Thank you to everyone who remembered me on my birthday.