Natalie's Last Soccer Game

Another season of soccer is over. The seasons are always crazy busy but I'm surprised again at how fast it went by. Natalie did really amazing this year. Every season she has just gotten better and better. Having never played soccer or known anyone who played soccer, I have really enjoyed learning the rules (even though they are very basic rules!) and watching her play. Whenever she is on the field she is very focused. She knows what she is supposed to do and tries her best to get it done. She goes after the ball but doesn't ever try to knock anyone down or push them out of the way. A couple times this year she has surprised us with her awesome moves. One time she ran the ball up the outside of the field keeping it just inside the line so it wouldn't be out. So impressive! Then another time it clicked that Shane had been telling her to get between the ball and the goal so the other team couldn't score so she ran to the goal and basically played goalie...even though I guess at her age she isn't supposed to do that. I was impressed again. And yes...I realize she is my kid and I am massively bias but whatever. :) I love watching her play and I love that she enjoys it so much! Here are some pictures of her last game...

 The first of like 5 goals she made tonight

 High fives all around

 You see the focus?!

 The cheering section...we took up the whole side line pretty much. :)

 Heidi gets to play next season...she is so excited! She has really been wanting to play with her sister!

  

The team with their medals. It was a good season!

Heidi Turns Three!

We celebrated Heidi's birthday today. The whole day was really perfect even though I am just now sitting down for the first time! Heidi woke up so excited that it was her birthday. She got to make pancakes with her daddy for breakfast and got to finger paint after lunch. After naps today she got dressed in her birthday dress and waited for the family to come to her ice cream party. We ate some good food and then watched Heidi open gifts. I was so proud of her. She was very good and gave everyone a hug after opening their gifts to her. She loved everything she got tonight...the gifts were perfect for her! The best part of the whole night though was the ice cream bar. We had 14 toppings, plus chocolate sauce, hot fudge, candy shell topping and caramel sauce. It was so much fun!! I will definitely do that again!!

 My cute little 3 year old!

 Natalie picked out her own gift this year...a Cinderella barbie doll

 A pony from Grandma and Grandpa...she loved it!

 Natalie and Shane

 I got Heidi a coloring desk like Natalie...now they can color together

 Shane and I got Heidi a purple tinkerbell guitar. For the past 6 months, if you asked Heidi what she wanted for her birthday she would tell you that she wanted a violin and a guitar. So cute!! Couldn't find a kid violin but I found the perfect kid guitar at Walmart...Yay!!!

So cute!!

  

 Our ice cream bar. Sprinkles, oreos, coconut, peanuts, hazelnuts, reeses pieces, chocolate chips, marshmellows, gummy bears, bananas, cherries, strawberries, blueberries and fresh pineapple. So so fun!

 Heidi blew out her candle while we were still singing. Seriously...she was just an adorable kid today!!

 Everyone making their ice cream creations!!

 The girls with their creations

Me and Daddy

Happy Birthday Mom!

We celebrated my mom's birthday today. It turned out perfect!! All of us kids have been stressing out just a little trying to figure out how to make her birthday special.  We really wanted to make sure she had a great birthday but nothing seemed to work out. Then it all came together and we turned this into the perfect day. Mom had a list of things that she wanted for her birthday and instead of getting a couple things off the list we got everything on the list. Plus an extra gift that we thought of on our own. We had dinner at my house so she didn't have to do any cooking, cleaning or dishes. We had a Mexican night with Tecate beer and a taco ring for dinner. For dessert we made her lemon bars cause she really loves lemon. To end the night we played a game of Apples to Apples. It was so much fun and guess who won....Mom! :)

Luke, Mom and Gracie

Matthew reading a story to Heidi and Nokie

Getting ready to eat dinner

We all wanted to get pictures with Mom on her birthday...Colie was first

Then me...you see Shane's face in behind Mom?? The bottom picture is better but the top one is funnier :)

Mom and Dana

Mom and Dad

Mom's new barstools with all the girls sitting on them

Heidi and Nokie were being so cute. They were talking and holding hands while Mom opened gifts

Matthew gave her a funny card

The last gift...she was a little surprised by tickets to the Guitar Pull. It's a country music concert where different artists sing with just their guitar. Really cool and very hard to get tickets too. Dane got in line at 4 in the morning and waited for 6 hours to get tickets. They sold out an hour after they opened!

Blowing out her birthday candle!

The History of Shane's Cars :)

So when I met Shane he was driving a 95 Ford Ranger that was "forrest green." At least that's what he called it. It was actually a kind of bright green but whatever. Shane drove that truck the whole time we were dating and then we shared the truck for the first 3 years of our marriage.

This is the only picture I could find of the truck...so not forrest green. :) Not a great picture but it's hard to find stuff before my digital camera! 

My car while we were dating was a red 97 Ford Ranger. 

Don't you just love old photo's of yourself when you're trying to look cool?? Anyway...when I got married my dad drove my truck but when he decided to get another truck he gave it back to me. So then Shane decided to sell his truck and take my truck and I got a new car with better gas mileage. A 2004 Ford Focus. It was a great car and a great deal. :)

So I drove the Focus and Shane drove my truck. Then after we had Natalie and I was 9 months pregnant with Heidi we...as in I...got a minivan.

Love love love! By then the truck was getting pretty run down so Shane took the Focus. We got him a good stereo and it had good gas milage so he drove it for a while. Notice the pattern here? I get a new car...Shane takes the old car! Then my sister Dana didn't have a car to drive so he let her drive the Focus so that she could fit a car seat in the back and he started driving the Ranger again.  By then it was dented and scratched and had no A/C. Poor guy!! He has been driving that for the past year. His dream car has always been a Toyota Tundra. Last week he was browsing through Craigs list and found the exact truck that he wanted. It was only a year old and was a great price. It has all the upgrades and honestly...it's just amazing.  He bought it yesterday! I am so happy that he finally has a car that is all his and exactly what he wants!!

Matthew's 16th Birthday

It's so nice having Colie and the kids back in Georgia!! We get to celebrate birthdays with them, hang out in the pool with them and even go on Target runs together! Yesterday we got to celebrate Matthew's birthday. The girls talked about it all day. 

When is it Matthew's birthday? When do we get to go to Mammy and Bumpa's house to celebrate Matthew's birthday? When do we get to eat birthday cake?? 

We headed over after naps and the girls went straight into the pool. Matthew was doing crazy flips and cool dives and Colie got awesome pictures. When Natalie saw what he was doing she wanted to do it too. Her jumps weren't so crazy but she did want Colie to take pictures of her while she did them! Dad grilled hamburgers for dinner and I made a cake. A cool pampered chef recipe...instead of frosting you melt chocolate and caramel topping together and then spread it over the top. Then  I topped it with caramel sprinkles. I have to say...it was pretty good. :)

 Me and Gracie...can't decide which one I like best

 Seriously...isn't this the coolest shot ever??

 Natalie showing off her cool moves

 Love this!

  

 Crazy diving 

 Scratch off tickets from my parents and an iphone 4 from Colie and Joe. He was so surprised!! He's had an old crappy phone for a really long time.