Micah's Birthday Party

Micah's 3rd birthday party was train-themed.

Train whistles from the pinata.

There were plenty of train tracks to set up and destroy!

The train birthday cake

This cake was the easiest thing to make! I bought a kit that has silicone cupcake shapes and it tells you how to piece it together so you can make a train (or a rocket ship or a dump truck) and after you assemble and bake it, you decorate and voila! It's a train cake!

Micah with all his friends

Happy 3rd Birthday!

It has been a joy watching you become a little 3 year old boy. I love hearing your cute little sing-song voice and listening to you stumble over sentences as you try to explain what's going on in that little brain of yours. I predict you to be either a sports commentator or a singer. It's fun to hear you give a play-by-play of what you're doing or what I'm doing, and I love that you always ask me what I'm doing. I'm waiting for the constant "why's" but in the meantime, I can deal with "what are you doing that for?" instead.

Your singing is awesome. I love how you get favorite songs that you ask to listen to over and over again. If I don't sing them quite right while practicing guitar you ask to have it on the ipod instead or you stop me and make sure I sing the melody correctly. I love hearing you sing to yourself in your bed or at the park or wherever the song pops into your head.

I am so thankful you are through with potty training. That was not a fun stage, but it didn't take you long until you got it. You were out of diapers by the end of the summer! Fantastic!

I love hearing you laugh. Love reading with you. Love seeing you learning and playing on the computer. I love that you can throw a Frisbee better than me. I love kicking a soccer ball around with you. Love teaching you to hit a tennis ball and I'm excited to play tennis with you one day! I love that you're not really interested in movies or TV and that you'd much rather pull up a chair to help me in the kitchen. I love that you help me with laundry and that I can check my email while you move the load from the washer to the dryer. You're a big helper with the vacuum and even with cleaning the bathrooms. Keep that up!

I love seeing you with your friends and with your friend's little baby sisters. One day you'll be a great big brother. You are loving and gentle with babies. If only you could learn that with the cat! It's fun seeing you talk and play with the cat like he's your sibling. I just hope the cat's limp is nothing serious. :)

I love you little man. I am so thankful for you.

Hope you had a great 3rd birthday!

Love,
Mom

Downhere's Christmas Album

Downhere is a rock group that formed at my college, Briercrest Bible College in Saskatchewan, Canada and I'm excited that their Christmas album is released today. It sounds pretty cool. I love Christmas music and I'm excited for their new songs and for the old classic songs that they have updated to make fresh. They always have awesome harmonies and theologically sound lyrics. Check it out!

Visit from Greg and Amanda

We were so glad to have my brother and his wife here for a visit in late June. One of the days while they were here they took Micah to the zoo while Dave and I could get out to celebrate our 7th anniversary.

Micah especially loved the "green ones" - the jelly fish in the aquarium.

They went out for ice cream after the zoo.

Micah feeding ice cream to Aunt Amanda.

Chelan, here we come

Unfortunately I'm having problems getting pictures to upload, and we're leaving today for our family vacation in Chelan. We have had a great summer so far: a trip to the zoo, some fun in the sprinklers, a visit for Micah from Uncle Greg and Aunt Amanda, swimming lessons and ice cream! I will get more pictures up soon, but it will be another week at least.

Spring 2009

I realize I am way behind in my updates and photos for my out of town family, so I'll do a couple of posts with just photos to let my family know what we've been up to these last couple of months.

Micah watering the flowers he and Dave planted for my birthday while I was out.

We had a couple weeks of really nice spring weather - warm and sunny. Micah got a taste of what summer would be like playing outside all day every day. Dave taught him to hit a t-ball.

He is very proud of his new Sounders hat. Go Sounders!

Dave probably won't be too happy about this picture! Micah found my lip gloss and tried to apply it himself while I was on the phone. :)

My Uncontrollable Obsession

After reading Audrey's post on Prost Amerika about her obsession with the Seattle Sounders, I decided to write a piece of my own. Ladies out there, if you feel you have something to say about your love for soccer, write about it and email steve@prostamerika.com. They want to hear the women's voice and perspective on this beautiful game!

Allow me to indulge you for a moment into my out-of-control addiction: Soccer! I have always loved soccer, playing since I was very young. I remember being on co-ed teams and driving by high school girls fields and thinking "I can't wait to play like that!" I played in high school and helped lead soccer clinics in our town with Portuguese guys. I played soccer all four years of college, even captain of the team for three of those four years. I was named MVP of the league one year and our team was undefeated in every tournament. I even went to Ireland for a summer to play against other women's teams and to lead soccer clinics for young kids in Ireland. These days I would play every day of the week if it were possible, but for now I play only about 4 days (since I should spend time with my family).

You could say I've always had a soccer addiction. But the thing that is now getting out of control for me is my obsession with the MLS and the Seattle Sounders. Seattle is in the middle of their inaugural season in Major League Soccer. Apart from the World Cup and the Olympics, I have never watched much soccer because there was nothing on TV and no close team to cheer for. I'm excited that Toronto also has an MLS team, and I hope they win every game they play, except against Seattle. Aside from the Sounders being exciting, fast-paced soccer and having the best goalkeeper in the league, we have the largest and loudest crowds in the MLS, which helps to draw you into an unnatural obsession.

My passion for this team gives Dave easy ideas for gifts. My birthday a couple weeks ago was spent at the Xbox Pitch in Seattle watching the Sounders win 2-0. Yesterday was Mother's Day and again we got to spend it at the Sounders game. Dave's brother got season tickets three rows back from the field near where the players come out of the locker room. The crowd is electric and is making the rest of the league envious of our sold-out stadium with 30,000 in attendance. I'm so excited for this team. The players are super fit and they play exciting football!

Audrey's article about her love for the Sounders made me feel somewhat normal. When I am sad that they only play once per week and I'm counting down the minutes in between matches, watching the games that I've saved on DVR more than once after watching them live, and reading every blog and news article out there on the Sounders, I think I am a little too into this team! I had no idea I would get so passionate about this, and I think it has surprised Dave too. I have always loved soccer, but didn't realize a Seattle MLS team was missing from my life!