A little MORE of this, and a little MORE of that!

I feel like I always have more on my plate than I can handle!  And football season only magnifies it!  With 3 boys playing football and Reagan playing soccer it becomes a lot to juggle!  If it weren't for good friends to carpool with I don't think we could do it all!

 This year Carsten is playing on the 5th grade A team.  It's pretty much the same team he was on last year but last year they didn't have A and B.  This year they have moved him to playing corner which I am NOT a fan of!  I feel like I sit there all game long waiting to take an action shot with my camera and NOTHING EVER comes to his side!  David says it's good for him to learn a new position so I guess it's not all about my action shots!

Carsten's team has had a good season.  They have only lost one game and they should make it to the championship game if they keep it up!

 Grandma Adair has her own Caveman jersey that she wears to all the games.  She's the kids #1 fan!  I tell you that there's never a dull moment around here!  It's a good thing that she likes watching sports because we sure provide a lot of it!

 Reagan is on the Purple Pixies soccer team this year.  She was excited to have the same color jersey again.  Her favorite color is purple so it worked out perfect!

Her team is doing pretty good.  They don't technically keep score and they don't have a playoff or anything but the purple pixies are hanging in there!

Reagan likes to play forward and midfield the best.  She likes to run!  She's a good little soccer player and has even scored a goal.  This year the field is a lot bigger and they are starting to play by more of the real soccer rules.  They are getting good at passing the ball and using some strategy apposed to running around in a swarm around the ball!

 Bradon is playing on the 7th grade A team this year.

Playing football with diabetes has been very interesting to say the least!  We have learned all sorts of new things about diabetes.  It's been an everyday struggle to keep him in range so that he can play.  Bradon has a lot on his plate and it's not fair in the least bit but he's working at it.  Coaches don't understand and they have a hard time being tolerant of the situation, and so it hasn't turned out to be the year Bradon was hoping for but we are all learning and hopefully Bradon will only become stronger in the long run!  His team has had a great year.  They have only lost one game and if all goes according to plan they should make it to the championship game as well.

 Talan started preschool again!

But if you ask him, it's not at a school, it's just at her house!

 We bought him a back to school outfit that he refused to wear on the first day back to school!  All I can say about that is, "WHATEVER!"  This kid is seriously opinionated!!!

Now that he's 4, almost 5, and in his second year of preschool... he can open the big heavy storm door to his teachers house all by himself!

We have officially made the switch!

 Since living in Utah we have always had BYU season tickets.  But this year we gave them up so that we could be ERIC SCHULTZ super fans!  We decide that it's not everyday that you get to watch your cousin play division 1 football, so we might as well watch him play!

 Because of the kids schedule and Eric's schedule there were only a few games that the whole family could go to together this year.  All the rest of the games David and I have tried to make, sometimes bringing a kid or two.

Lucky for us the whole family was able to make it to the game against UTAH.  And Eric was a team captain that night too!

 The game was absolutely awesome!  It went into overtime and we won the game!  The crowd rushed the field and we all partied with Eric on the field!

So that's a little MORE if this, and a little MORE of that!  

In other words, I'm just trying to hurry it along and blog what I can in an attempt to get caught up so that I don't have to feel bad everyday for being so far behind!

A little of this, and a little of that!

 The last 6 weeks have been EXTREMELY busy!

Too busy to even take pictures!

I've always loved picture books!  Pictures have always helped me to understand the story.  They also help me to remember the story!  Maybe that's why I like to blog with pictures!  I've realized that pictures do the same thing for me while blogging.  They help me to remember my story!  And yet sometimes they tell me the story!

Nearing the end of our summer break it felt as though the kids volume got louder and their presents became... well, more present!  Grandma Adair had the kids doing jobs around the house to earn some spending money.  Once enough money was earned they bought an Xbox game.  It sounded like a good idea at the time but then ended up adding to the louder more present problem!  One day while I was out running errands I got a call from one of the kids.  "Mom can we take the T.V. that's in the garage out to the backyard?" I told them that the T.V. weighed over 300 pounds but they were welcome to try.  Seriously anything to keep them busy!  When I got home I found all the kids in the backyard underneath the trampoline that was draped with multiple quilts to create a tent like affect.  Under the tramp was that 300+ pound T.V. and the Xbox all hooked up and plugged in with an extension cord.  WOW! Impressive!
I have to hand it to them, that was pretty creative, but why?  Why would they go through such a huge effort to play Xbox outside when they could have just played it inside?
Grandma had kicked them 
out of the house!
Way to go Grandma!
Well since the sprinklers where going to come on we made the kids move the T.V. back to the garage.  And that's when they created their MAN CAVE!  But like I said earlier... Anything to keep them busy and quiet!  And most importantly, out of our hair!  After the man cave was built, Grandma and I asked ourselves why we hadn't thought to kick them out long before then!  The peace and quiet was beautiful!

The High School puts on a RED and WHITE game each year just before school starts.  This is when the Freshman team scrimmages the Sophomores, the Sophomores scrimmage the JV,  and then the JV team scrimmages the Varsity team.  They make it into a big fundraising event serving dinner prior to the scrimmage.  Ethan is playing on the Freshman team this year and McKay Rasmussen is on Varsity.  This is just a picture I snapped after the scrimmage of Abby, Davis and Reagan hanging out together.  The Rasmussen's and the Adair's get along so well.  It's fun to see them all love one another so much!  

Talan the Tasmanian devil!

This is a series of pictures that told me a story.  You've got to love when you download your pictures and find thing you had NO IDEA even happened!

I have to say, at least they put a mat down to break the fall!

Olympic week at our house was exactly how I remembered it as a child.  Every sport played was reenacted in the family room in front of the television.  Talan told me, "Mom, you should put me in the Olympics!"  Of all the sports reenacted gymnastics was by far the scariest!  I worried that someone was going to get hurt.  Namely Talan!  I swear that Talan is a little Carsten Jr.  He has no fear and seriously thinks he can do anything!  I kept telling the kids, "Stop it!  You're going to get hurt and we don't have insurance right now!"

We have been extremely busy with football this summer!  Next to putting on the Caveman Kickoff, taking care of all the jerseys was one of the hardest parts of our job.  We went to every practice and personally sized each boy, got their jersey number request, ordered them, sorted them, got them off to the embroidery lady and then handed them out!  With every big job their always seems to be mess ups here and there and so we became well acquainted with Kyle the Sports Authority rep we were dealing with.  One day while at Kyle's house he gave us a few old sample items.  This green jersey was one of them.  Now I don't know if you know this about Ethan but he LOVES jerseys!  He loves to design them, look at them and he can tell you off the top of his head the smallest of details about most college team jerseys.  This jersey is from Nike's Combat line and one of the more expensive jerseys.  It's very similar to the ones Utah State wears.  Ethan just about died when we brought this home!  He loves it and wants it to be his!

This year I didn't do the whole first day of school picture thing.  But this is a picture of Reagan wearing her back to school shirt!  Very cute!  We took her shopping and it didn't take her much time at all to decide what she wanted.  This girl knows what she wants!  

Adam Rasmussen just recently left on a mission to Florida.

Before he left I took him to build a bear workshop to have him build his mom a missionary bear.  He was so cute and cooperative! 

Then just before he was set apart as a missionary I met them at the church to take last minute family pictures.  These haven't been Photoshopped yet, but that's something on my to do list.  Well actually the first thing on my list is to learn how to use Photo shop!  (Just a minor detail!)

And now FOOTBALL SEASON is upon us!

Ethan's games started first. 

Ethan is #66 playing right guard.

I took about a million pictures at his game messing with my camera and determined that I'm not all that good at taking pictures.  That or else I need a new fancy dancy lens!

Ethan has really good form!

At this game Ethan played O-line and D-line!

They won the game and Ethan played great!

CYF in the AF Steel Days Parade!

By the skin of our teeth we were in the American Fork Steel Days Parade this year!  I keep trying to tell people that I shouldn't be in charge of things yet somehow I'm still in charge!

I was true to my license plate and once again I found myself L8ASUSL!  I got the okay for us to be in the parade and then I forgot to submit our application.  Organization has never been my forte!  When it dawned on me the week before the parade, the lady in charge asked, "Why so late?" 

I explained that it was my fault 100% and that I was really sorry for dropping the ball.  She told me that if we wanted in at that point we were going to have to be the very last float in the parade and that they wouldn't make any announcements in the microphone about us! 

I told her that that was perfectly fine with me!  So we were float #101 or something like that but believe it or not we were NOT LAST!  There was one float behind us!

Being so far back in the line up made for a really LONG WAIT!

While we waited the kids managed to drink all the water we had brought for them, eat a lot of the candy that was intended for the crowd, run around and act silly and have some fun!

We dropped Ethan and Grandma off on the parade route to sit under a shady tree to wait for the parade to start.  I think that Bradon wished that he could have gone with them because he seemed to make it a point to not be thrilled about any of it!

Carsten on the other hand is always ready for an excuse to party with some of his friends.  Especially when wearing his new Diamondback hat he got from his Grandma and Grandpa Haws during his trip to Arizona this summer!  Looking good kid!

Reagan loved it!

And Talan did too!

 And then finally it was our turn and we were off!

We used an old army truck that belonged to Hunt Electric! 

It's super big, super loud, and super cool looking!

We felt like it was a TOUGH way to show off our boys!  

The kids all loved it! 

 Here's a picture of our cousin, Davis Rasmussen.

At the tail end of the parade Talan started to get brave and strut his stuff!  He was dancing and showing his moves!  I thought it was hilarious!  He even had a little look on his face like, I'm so cool!

It was a fun thing for these kids to be in the parade!  I'm glad we did it even though it was a lot of work.  I think we will try to get into it again next year.  Just hoping I can delegate all the responsibility stuff out to someone a little more responsible!

Summer!

This summer has been going by so fast!

We had baseball baseball baseball, a few weeks off, and now football has already begun!  

Before school got out for summer vacation I remember thinking how excited I was for NOTHING!!!  A little time with nothing scheduled.  A little time of not feeling pressured that I have to be here or there, doing this or that!  A little time to relax!  Get some projects done or something.  Do something that I want to do!

Now we are nearing the end of July and I'm thinking I can hardly wait for school to start.  Get these kids out of the house so that I can actually get something done!  Like a project or something!  Or just do something I want to do!  

WAIT A SECOND!!!!

Seriously... school time or summer time it's all the same!  Since when did life become so busy and hectic that there NEVER seems to be down time?  Was it having 5 children that's caused it?  Or is it having the inability to say "NO!" when people ask me to do stuff?  Is it being too involved in too much!  Is it my inability to multitask?  Or maybe it's a little of all of it!

Well, I guess I had better enjoy it!

One of these days my kids will be grown, my house will be quiet, and I'll look back on today with the fondest of memories wishing I could be right back in the thick of it!

Happy Summer Everyone!

Stadium of Fire!

 Since living in Utah there have been a few things we have done as a family EVERY SUMMER that cost us money.  The Lehi Rodeo is one of them.  We love the rodeo and have made it one of our family summer traditions.  The Provo Freedom Run is another.  We have ran in the freedom run as a family for the past several years.  These are both things that we as a family always look forward to.

This year I got an email advertising tickets to the Stadium of Fire for half price on morning!  Without even thinking about it, I bought them!  After making my super spontaneous purchase it occurred to me that I had pretty much just spent our Lehi Rodeo
and Provo Freedom Run money!

OOOPS!

I felt a little guilt as the weekend of the rodeo rolled around.  The kids asked why we weren't going to the rodeo.  I told them that I bought them tickets to the Stadium of Fire instead!  And then the morning of the Freedom Run, we slept in!  When we woke up David said, "We missed the Freedom Run!"  I felt guilt once again!

Then it was time to go to the Stadium of Fire!

I had asked lots of my friends who had been to a Stadium of Fire in the past what they thought of it.  I got all sorts of answers!  Non that were raving though!  Most were like, "Yeah I went once!  Once was enough for me!"  Needless to say, I was a little worried!

 We got there a little early, parked a ways down the street and then made the trek to the stadium.  My mom and dad and David's mom all came along.  I got handicap seats for my dad and Jeannine so they wouldn't have to hike the stairs.  We all got settled in and then the show began.

We saw Scotty McCreery perform.

 And The Beach Boys!

It was really a lot of fun!  The weather was perfect!  

Our seats were in the shade the whole time and there was a little breeze.

 We were up in the nose bleeds but it was perfect!

One thing great about The Beach Boys is that ALL generations know their music and know their songs.  All ages were singing along, dancing and having a good time!

After the concert they put on a firework show that was AWESOME!  We have seen The Stadium of Fire's firework show before from the outside of the stadium but being there in the stadium doesn't even compare!  It's all choreographed to music and the theme was James Bond!

We all had a wonderful time!

The kids all loved it, my mom and dad loved it,

and Jeannine loved it too!

I was relived!

It turned out to be a spontaneous purchase worth making!

Pre 4th of July family BBQ party!

Grandma and Grandpa Haws came to town for a visit.  They were here for all of the 4th of July celebrations!  Since we were going to the Stadium of Fire on the 4th we decided to have a pre 4th of July party on Monday July 2nd.  We invited all the family who lives in town and ended up with a great turn out!  Eric Schultz even made the trek down from Logan for the event!

We ate, played whiffle ball, set off fireworks, built a fire and had s'mores!  It was a lot of fun and I know that my kids had a blast!  They had so much fun hanging out with their cousins!  And as the night went on, the level of obnoxiousness only ramped up!

Good times!  

Good memories!

Sweet Marvene!

 The boys all star games were played in the west valley.  On our way to one of the games we passed the cemetery were Marvene was buried.  I told Jeannine that after one of the games we would go give Marvene a little visit! 

 

 I don't think Marvene's name has ever been mentioned when 

Jeannine hasn't said, 

"Sweet Marvene, Bless her heart!"

Marvene was such a wonderful lady!

I'm glad that we could pay her a little visit.

All Stars Baseball

This year Bradon and Carsten both played on the same city league team together.  We had Carsten try out for the Major leagues in an effort to simplify our lives a little bit.  He was picked which was wonderful for us and our hectic schedules, but it didn't turn out to be all that good for Carsten.  Since he was the youngest player on the team his coach would only allow him to play right field every other inning and bat every other time around the line up!  He told Carsten that he had to put in his time!  If we had ANY idea that this is what the coach was going to do we wouldn't have EVER had him try out.  Carsten hated it!  And it was so hard to watch him sit there.  Carsten is an amazing little athlete and had he been on ANY OTHER major league team or minor league team it would have been a whole different BALL GAME!

When the season was over Carsten was picked to play on the 10 year old major league all star team.  He was so EXCITED to play!  Finally he was going to be able to play HIS POSITIONS!!!!  Carsten LOVES to catch! And he's pretty dang good at it too!  And I'm not just saying that because I'm his mom!  You should have heard the parents from the other teams we played talk about him! They would say things like, "Man that catcher is good!"

 He made all sorts of amazing plays!  

One time the ball was hit foul and he dove sprawled out and caught the ball, but then when his body hit the ground the ball popped out of his glove.  Another time a ball was bunted up the first base line.  Carsten dove on the ground to get the ball, popped up onto his knees and then threw to runner out at first.  It was so smooth!  It looked as if he had been catching all season long!

 Carsten's all star team played really good together.

 Carsten did a good job hitting the ball 

and a great job running!

 I love this picture of him sliding into home.

SAFE!

 Our cousin Mason Rasmussen was on the team too.

Mason is a pitcher.  They had a good time playing catch!

 Carsten and Mason both think they are pretty awesome!

Carsten had fun giving Mason signs telling him what to pitch.  

The two of them crack me up!

 

 All stars was a great end to a frustrating season!

Bradon was picked for the 12 year old team.

 I took very few pictures of Bradon at the tournament.  Probably because Bradon plays in so many games.  With super league and city league we were watching Bradon play at least 4 games a week!

 Bradon had a blast playing all stars and played really well.  

He played a lot of 1st base which he really enjoys!

 I've decided that baseball season is kinda like a firework show.  And then the all star tournament is like the grande finale!  Well at least that's what it felt like having multiple kids playing in the tournament!  For awhile there all we seemed to do is eat, drink and breath baseball! And then it all came to an end!

Seriously though, I couldn't think of anything else I would rather be doing than watching my kids play a sport that they love!  The day to day may seem hectic and crazy but the memories are priceless.  And before I know it they will all be grown, and this season of my life will be over!