Happy Birthday Sydney!

Our cute, little Sydney turned five on November 3rd!

She was so exicted for her birthday...it just could not come fast

enough for her. We celebrated the day together with our

tradition of breakfast in bed followed by her opening up her

presents. She was thrilled with her American Girl Doll--now

she can play with her sister Allison! Later in the afternoon, I

went to Sydney's school and threw a little party for her class. We

finished off the day with yummy hamburgers from Red Robin

and an ice cream cake! Sydney is our tender-hearted sweetheart.

We love you Sydney!!

Soccer Weekends

If you ever wonder what our family does on the weekends, wonder no longer...soccer, soccer and more soccer is the answer. I wish I would have thought things through a little more before signing both my girls up for this! Practices are Friday night, games are Saturday. That means that at 5:00 Friday evening we pile in the car and drive 20 minutes away and then do not get home until 8:00. The big excitement is usually what fast food chain we get to patronize that night...will it Moe's, Firehouse Subs, or maybe the kids favorite McDonald's??? Saturdays aren't quite as long. We've been lucky so far in that Allison and Sydney's games usually overlap. In spite of the hassle of it all, I must say that the girls are doing great and really enjoy it!

School Blues

Today I kept Sydney home from school. She had a "rough" dentist appointment yesterday and now has three silver teeth. Poor thing...she calls them her princess teeth and loves them dearly. I try and tell her that having silver teeth isn't a great thing but she refuses to believe me. Well, she really could have gone to school today--she is feeling much better but I made her stay home because I have the school blues. I have to admit that having my two daughters gone all day has been more of an adjustment for me than I would have thought possible. It is just plain quiet and lonely. As cute and fun as Bryson is, I can only stand to watch Barney with him so many times and we are often looking for things to do instead of staring at eachother. It has been great having her home today and it has been a breath of fresh air for both Bryson and I! Don't worry, I won't get in the habit of doing this but it sure is fun having her here. Who ever thought I would get the school blues??...not me!

Once again, high time I contribute something to my pathetic blog. If anyone still checks up on me this way...yes, I am alive and my little family and I are doing good. We had a fabulous summer! A short recap: one awesome week at the beach in Destin, Florida, enjoying the white sand beaches, beautiful weather and the great company of good friends; two weeks in Utah packed with fun activities and spending quality time with our two great families and friends; some fun family activities here in Georgia--including a Braves game and Six Flags. It wasn't all play though. My girls still had swimming lessons and yes, I did TRY to get them to do some workbook pages in the their respective summer books I had purchased for them. I had high hopes that we would do better this summer at getting them to study a little bit and having a nice routine. The routine...never really materialized as I had hoped. Better luck, hopefully, next year. Here are few photos of our summer.

Classic picture of Bryson and Sydney playing in Grandma Kunz's backyard

Aunt Ruth taking Allison and Sydney on a hike

Brandon and Rebecca shortly after finishing our race on the 4th of July

Brandon, Sydney and Allison at the Braves game. I don't know what was more enjoyable--the game or the blue slushies

Random Ramblings

I guess it's no secret that I really am not the best at blogging. Every time I check up on my friends blogs I am so impressed at their dedication and abilities! I have wanted to post a slide show of photos of our recent family trip to Destin, FL, but the time needed to learn how to do that has just not been available...I guess I will settle for just putting a few pictures on.

Maybe I just don't get out enough but I have to say that Destin, FL is where it's at! We had an incredible time down there with our friends and loved every minute spent together as a family. We were pretty lucky--awesome weather and no one got sick. To think that it is only an 8 hour drive away from our house makes it tempting to go more often.

We love it here in Georgia. There is never a shortage of ideas of things to do or excellent restaraunts to eat at, or great short vacations to go on. It is beautiful with mild temperatures. We have a great ward and great friends. We have grown closer as a family being out on our own. We wish we could see our family more often is the only downer. Family is very important to us and it is heartbreaking to be so far away. We love them and feel blessed to have such strong, awesome families who care about us and pray for us. We can't wait to see some of them soon!

Allison and Sydney have swimming lessons this week. I found a girl who is coming to our neighborhood pool! They are both making a lot of progress and growing up too quickly. Bryson is hoot and does the funniest things--he some great cheesy grins that are hillarious.

Beans, beans the musical fruit...

Well, I burned a pot of beans today and now my house smells like an old, musty, smoking room at a motel 6--unfortunately I know what that smells like. I seriously thought I had a fire burning when I opened the front door--it smelled that bad. I am learning the hard way that things don't take as long to cook in Georgia as they do in Utah and that liquid evaporates faster. Running with my new found knowledge, I quickly started a new pot of beans and they were done in time for dinner. Too bad for everyone else... I was the only one who ate them :)

The big 7

I can't believe I am old enough to have a seven year old. Today is Allison's birthday and I keep looking at her in disbelief. I know it is silly but the girl is getting so big. In honor of her birthday, I thought I would do a little spot-light on my daughter. Here are some things you might not know about Allison but things that probably won't surprise you either:

1. If you ask her, Allison will say she wants to be a rocket scientist when she grows up. She asked her dad one day what job it was that builds rockets and he said a rocket scientist. Allison wants to build rockets. For those of you who know the creative girl, you really aren't surprised--right?

2. Allison has determination like I have only seen in one other person--her dad. If she sets her mind on accomplishing something, she really will not stop until she was has accomplished it. She taught herself how to ride a 2 wheel bike with no one helping her. She has the scars to prove it.

3. Underneath her sometimes stubborn exterior, Allison has a very tender heart. She loves to love and be loved.

4. Allison's a smarty. She is a quick learner and has an amazing memory.

I sure love my big seven year old. Where did the time go?

Happy Birthday Allison!

explicit

So I have become a regular watcher of "The View" on ABC. It is my general routine to tivo it and then watch it as I run on the treadmill. I think it is a funny and creative talk show. I don't know if I would ever just sit down and watch it but it takes my mind off the pain I feel on the treadmill. Well, today they had a great singer on the show named Kate Nash. I had never heard of her before but I absolutely loved the song she performed. It had a unique vibe. If there is a song I lilke, I generally just download it from itunes but today I took a risk and bought the entire album from amazon (there were a couple of books I've been wanting to get anyway). After I made my purchase from amazon, I went to itunes to check out the album only to see EVERY single song has the word explicit next to it!! AGGHH!! I am not a "explicit" person. What should I do? The song was seriously so cool--maybe I just couldn't understand the lyrics because I was on the treadmill.

"fathering"

My Sydney has recently been coming to me quite often to tell me that either Allison or Bryson (sometimes both) is "fathering" her. It took me a second to figure out that they were BOTHERING her. She refuses to believe that the word is bother instead of father.

it's official!

It's official...I am a blogger. I am what many would term " technology challeged" and rely heavily on the techy knowledge my husband possess. So that being said, the fact that I am attempting this is no small bit--just don't expect anything too fancy.