i'm officially a soccer mom

I'm officially a soccer mom! And here's why: I now have a mini-van, I'm expecting baby #3, and my two oldest are in soccer! It's been so fun watching Kade and Ky in their first team sport. 5 year-olds playing soccer is more entertaining than watching professional soccer (unless maybe if David Beckham is playing, but that's besides the point). The kids all go from really into the game one minute, to totally distracted the next. The teams are co-ed, which usually means there is some crying every game when someone gets knocked down (sometimes it's not even the girls crying). The coach rarely puts Kade and Ky in the game at the same time, but on Monday, while they were both playing offense at the same time, Ky kicked it really well, and set up Kade for his first goal!! They were so excited and celebrated with a hip bump!

Kade
Ky

I know it might sound cheesy, but I can't believe that right now in my life I have everything I dreamed of having when I was a little girl. In my life, I am right where I've always wanted to be, and I hope I can treasure this time.

Plus, I get to watch every game with this attractive man (who also happens to be the father of my unborn child :) ), so life is pretty sweet!!

last day of school!

Last Monday was the boys' last day of 4 year-old kindergarten, or 4K. They have had a great year, and have grown a lot. It was hard for me to let them go, and adjust to having them gone 4 mornings a week, but we survived, and the boys did great!
Here they are on their last day with their teachers, Miss Stacie and Mrs. Kempf. They adored their teachers and are going to miss them.

Here they are with their best school buddy, Ashton. The three of them got along so well, and Kade and Ky always had lots of stories to tell us about what Ashton said, and what Ashton did. It's fun to watch them grow up and make friends, outside of the kids whose parents I hang out with. I'm sure Ky would have liked me to take pictures of him with a lot of the girls in his class, because Ky liked to make friends with the little girls, but everyone left too quickly for that. Oh well, I'm sure there will be lots of little girls in his kindergarten class next year that he can make friends with!

Way to go Ky and Kade! Mom and Dad are so proud of you for all you learned and did this year at school! You are amazing, smart little boys, and we love you!

viva las vegas

Last week, Bart and I went to Vegas just the two of us for a few days. Bart had a conference to attend out there, so we decided I should tag along and have a few days just the two of us before this baby comes. We spent the trip taking awesome hold-the-camera-at-arms-length-and-take-pictures-of-yourself photos. They don't always turn out the best, but it's fun that our photos all follow a theme!

At the airport

This is the awesome ceiling in the Bellagio lobby. It's made of huge glass "flowers." So pretty!

We spotted Micheal Jackson while we were there :)

This picture behind us is made of real, live flowers

Someone took pity on the fact that we were trying to take all our picture ourselves, so they took this one for us. It's nice to have a photo that's not so close up.

Bart in front of Caesar's Palace

This is the Monte Carlo where we stayed

If I look a little sick in most of these pictures it's because I was. Not horribly sick, but I was so congested-hence the Rudolph look I'm sporting.

ooh, yummy!

How patriotic!

Notice the palm trees? I LOVE palm trees!

In front of the pirate ship--which reminds me, we saw the new Pirates of the Caribbean while we were there. Awe.some.

Gelato! Doesn't it look awesome? Too bad we saw this fancy gelato 2 minutes after we bought some other not-so-fancy gelato. Oh well, ours was still tasty.

Our Vegas photo book wouldn't be complete without a picture of us in front of the slots!

We had such a good time and it was fun to see all the craziness that is Las Vegas. One of the funnest things we did while we were there was see a Cirque du Soleil show-Mystere. It was incredible, and it made me want to see another one before I left, but we didn't. The last night I was there, we went to a buffet with Bart's uncle Von who was out there for the same conference. It was fun to eat crab legs, shrimp, chicken, pasta, etc, etc, etc. It was yummy food and I liked being able to just take a little bit of a lot of different food (except the crab legs which I took lots of!).

But, the yummiest thing we ate while we were there was a chocolate crepe at the Bellagio. It was a huge crepe, covered in brownie pieces, chocolate sauce, and chocolate shavings!!! Wow! We had to wait quite a while for it, and while we were waiting Bart said, "This had better be the best crepe I have ever had." And guess what? It was!

Thanks Bart for such a fun trip!

lambeau kids run

The middle of May, there was a fun kids run that occurred in conjunction with a marathon and 5k that were being held in town. The boys still remember the "big race" they ran in Tampa and they were so excited to run in this one. Plus, they were excited to be able to run in Lambeau. Unfortunately, that morning was drizzly, and so cold. We were pretty miserable and it was so disappointing because it was really well put together.
Here we are before the race, notice how red our faces are, because they were frozen!

When it was almost time for the 5 year-olds to run, Bart went inside the stadium to video the boys and I went to wait in line with them. Just moments before it was their turn, I learned that they "highly recommend" a grown up to run with the kids at this age since otherwise they can't be seen as they run through the various tunnels, and kids this age have been known to stop, or cry, etc. So, I ended up running with them. I am not a runner to begin with, plus running while pregnant, with morning sickness, carrying my purse, 3 extra jackets and a sign we made to hold up at the finish line was a little less than fun. But, the boys had a great time, ran the whole way, and now I can say I ran through the players' tunnel, and around the field at Lambeau!