last sunday may 1st was evan's last soccer game of the spring 2011 season for mountain brook soccer.

there's evan (yellow shorts) at the line at his last soccer practice.

he did awesome, and even made is first goal during the game...we really don't think that it matters that it was into the other teams goal!  oh, threes soccer league is so sweet.

mima came flew up from florida to watch evan's last game!  he was so happy to have her as his cheerleader.

evan was so proud of this photo that he took of his papi.

we're really gonna miss sunday soccer.  it was a nice family time that we looked forward to each weekend, and the other families were all so supportive.  evan had lots of friends from his class on other teams there too.

restful easter

we had a wonderful weekend celebrating easter for the first time here in b'ham.  the boys and i went to an easter egg hunt at evan's preschool on saturday that was sponsered by mountain brook baptist church.  they got way too much candy, and even got to interact with a non-creepy easter bunny.

getting ready to start hunting on the playground of evan's preschool.

evan was so excited, but joel just liked dumping all his eggs out onto the ground.

still hunting...

notice all the open eggs...evan would open them, and dump them out into his basket.

checking out the easter bunny.  they were both very interested, and evan did all the talking.

i accidently hit the record button.  it's funny to watch us try and get a photo set up...not so smooth!

joel got stanley in his easter basket.  this is a new face for joel!

happy easter!  we love you, jesus.

First soccer game of the Spring season

Here's a short clip of Evan's first game on Sunday March 27.  He's on the blue team this season.  They've been doing great, and have one all their games so far.  Each season he gets better.  Last season he ran up and down the field, but wouldn't touch the ball.  This season he keeps on running, but is now making contact with the ball.  It's fun to watch him, and the watch has been perfect for Sunday Soccer. 

(This is my first video upload!  Matt got me a Kodak video camera, like a Flip video for my Christmas gift.)

Sew In Love

Sew, I mean, So! Can you tell where my brain has been lately. I have really been having fun at making burpies and bibs for new babies. Hobby Lobby has the cutest materials. They always have bits of fabric left over that you can buy for a steal, and burpies require very little fabric. I am still perfecting the closures of the bibs. I had been using velcro, but I'm gonna try it with snaps next time. Next time will be tonight. I've got a couple new babies coming up, so time to sew!

Our January

Here's a brief run down of our January 2011...

Keeping to tradition, each year we celebrate Three Kings day on January 6. All that's left out of the Christmas decorations is the nativity sets. The formal Willow Tree collection, and the boy's Little People set.

It snowed a couple days later. We had just had snow on Christmas day, but this one lasted for a couple of days. It was so much fun to play in, cause it came down big and fluffy. Matt and our neighbor Paul took on the big hill that's across from our house. Matt used the lid of our trash can...yuck. Can ya'll tell we're from Alabama now...hahaha.


On January 20, Joel turned two! We celebrated with a cake from Publix once Matt got home. It was a quiet day, but a good one. Joel knew it was his special day. Sometimes I feel bad that Joel's birthday is in January. It's easy to still be recovering from the Christmas presents and the all the traveling from the holidays. I decided this year that from now on I will try to throw Joel a party for his birthday.


The following weekend we celebrated Matt, Mark, my Dad and Benjamin's birthdays down in Chiefland and Ocala, Florida. We stayed several days with Mark and Wendy. We enjoyed these really cute mini animal cakes that Wendy made. They were so cute! The kids also got to go to Sun Country to play among all the gym equipment. Unfortuantly, I wasn't able to do anything that entire day. I was suffering from a very bad head cold. I spent the day in bed! I was really disappointed not to be able to spend quality time with Aidan and Ben. On Saturday before going down to Ocala we had the boys photos taken by Amanda Cannon. They turned out great! Later that evening we surprised my Dad with a party at a restaurant, Latinos Y Mas. Some of his friends and family were able to make it all the way from Miami. Even his brother, Alfredo came up with his wife Maria. It meant the world to him. He was in total shock. I'm so glad too. It was his 75th birthday, and he needed to know just how special he is to everyone.


Thanks to Ruth for taking the pictures, and to Marty for picking up the cake!

To Know Your History Will Grow Your Future

Here's a formal apology for not keeping up with our family blog.  These last few months I've had time to do a lot of reading at night.  I've gotten to indulge myself with historical fiction and non-fiction on American greats.  I love to read, something I've acquired from my father's love of reading books, and my mother's love of reading magazines, and her devotions, and for that I thank them.  Anyways, I've come to realize that I haven't been practicing what I preach with regards to value history.  This blog is an historical document of our family, and I haven't given it the attention it deserves.  So here we go again...let the blog continue.

weekley savings

Can I get a big woo hoo?  I went to publix last night for my weekly grocery outing and I saved more than I spent!!!  I bought 32 items, spent $50.54, and saved $50.96.  I know, I know, there's not much of a difference there, but don't take my thunder away.  Woo hoo!

homemade love

We just wanted to show you the sweet shirts Manina (Susie) made us, even though she's about to have her third baby anyday.  Aren't they just darling!  We love wearing them and hope to get good use out of them.  I hope to try my hand at making some of these too.  I have a wonderful template to follow now.  Thank you Manina!

A week of giving Thanks

The boys are down for their naps, but I know that at any moment they will awake from the sweet slumber.  I'm pushing my luck with this post, but I've gotta try.  I've got my coffee right beside me helping me through the afternoon slump.  It's especially tough today...it's cold and rainy outside.  I should me curled up under the covers...ahhh sweet bliss.  Our last two weeks have been so much fun.  We were able to spend time with family in B'ham with my mom coming up early to head up with us to Ellijay, Georgia.  We also finally found a Sunday afternoon to make it to the Birmingham Zoo with Papi in tow...shoot Evan's up! 
Crud, I hear Joel.  Gotta wrap this up...Evan had his school play.  OMG...it was so funny.  He just started saying hi to people in the audience while the play was going on.  That child is not shy at all.  His role was that of "cook" for the American Indians and the Pilgrims during the first Thanksgiving feast.  He followed the role by stiring the pot the entire 5 minute play.

Enjoy, and bye for now!

it's become a monthly thing

Fall is a busy time.  I absolutely love the changing of the Seasons.  Palm trees seem less attractive to me these days, except for one thing, they don't loose their leaves.  If you've never been in Birmingham then you have no idea what I'm talking about.  Birmingham is "tree city, usa".  No, really it is.  I've never seen so many people out working on their yards, raking leaves.  Hey, on the bright side at least it gets us outdoors enjoying the beautiful Fall weather. 
In this post I've got a couple of October activities that I need to include in addition to our going ons from this month.

Today (11/18/2010) Joel had his Adeniodectomy and tubes places in his ears.  We are happy and excited for his future, which will hopefully include less ear infections and colds.  He's had it rough.  Thank you to all of our friends and family who called and texted us with messages of encouragement and prayers!  It worked.  He didn't fuss or cry one bit.  All the staff and doctors commented on his behavior.  Even though he was a perfect paitent we hope he won't be a paitent again. 

Our October was so much fun.  Matt and the boys carved a pumpking that we got at Evan's preschool pumpkin patch.  They thought it was the coolest thing ever.
We were able to spend sometime with two sets of really good friends, the Berrys and the Snyders in the same weekend...Halloween.  The Berrys really spoiled us rotten, and we always have sooo much fun with them.  Their little girl Lauren is all girl, and I really loved being around her since I never get to.  Tricia and I went and got a must-needed Pedicure...Thank you, Tootoo.  Eric took Matt and Evan out on his boat for a couple hours fishing, and Evan loved it.  The last night the adults went out for a kid-free night at Captain Anderson's in Panama City Beach.  It was soooo good.  The food was sooooo good.  We definitely left with our belly's feeling satisfied.  On Sunday (Halloween) we left and on the way back to Birmingham we stopped off to trick-or-treat with the Snyders in Montgomery, AL..  It's on the way, and it was the perfect excuse to get the kiddos together for some fun, plus it would be too late by the time we got back to B'ham to trick-or-treat.  I didn't take photos, but Heather did.  I'll try and upload them to my computer.  She has a great camera, so I don't even try when I'm with her. 
Evan's last Mountain Brook Soccer club game was two weeks ago, so I included photos from his last two games.  Luckily, it worked out that Mima got to see him in action for his last game.  He's a work in progress, but the most important thing is that he LOVES it, which makes us so happy to see him running back and forth. 
I also go to see and meet Dr. Condoleezza Rice.  I spent the seconds I had with her telling her how amazing she was and what an honor it was to meet her.  I so respect her as a minority woman, and leader.  She's done so much for this country, and she super smart.  I am not even sure if she registered anything I said to her, but I'm glad I had the opportunity to tell her.  I had a Birmingham Southern college student I met in line take my photo, so since I'm talking to her you can't see my face. 

The slideshow goes from Oct. 8th until Nov. 7th...