Iris's Volleyball season starts!

It has been so fun to go to Iris's volleyball games (it helps that they have won every game so far...) and I have certainly gained a great respect for sports photographers.  It is HARD to get a good picture of the action!  They start every game lined up and name the players.  At home games, when their name is called, they wave and throw a t-shirt into the crowd.  Iris (6) always gets called first and the first game was at Provo High and they totally butchered the pronunciation (basically they made took a Japanese name, removed a syllable and made it an American name.) and she didn't realize they were announcing her. haha

I really really really wanted to get a reel of photos that showed her serving, but it's pretty hard.  Jay and I both took over 200 pictures trying to get a couple that show you how awesome she is, but everything goes so fast it's super hard.  (and they move so fast they're almost always blurry...)  Here is a conglomeration of more than one serve to make a mini "reel" from their game agains Provo:

We call this next one the "crazy hair" shot:

 I think it's so awesome that even though she's only 5'3", she's one of their main hitters.

ka-BAM!

aaand she does it again...

We brought the whole family to watch her JV game and decided we will never do that again...  Now we just take turns going to JV and Varsity (the games she plays) for home games (or Provo 'cause it's close too).

Timpview and Provo are rivals and I think Provo has been the best in the league in the past, but we beat them this year- much to everyone's surprise.  It was epic.  They had to play 4 matches- won the first 2, lost #3, and won #4.

This is game 2 at Timpview against Timpanogos.

Again, they had to play 4 matches- it was intense.  Well worth being an hour late to my book club. :)

Game 3 vs. Springville, I gave up trying to take pictures BUT here is a link on The Daily Herald of a MOVIE of shots from the game and an interview with the coach.  Iris is pictured many times.  (it's obvious who she is because she's the only Asian...) I would just like to point out that I am in the background when the coach is talking- orange shirt, crazy crimped hair, and turquoise bag.  oh yeah.  I wasn't even trying.  I don't think they mentioned it, but Timpview beat Springville pretty easily, which is awesome considering their past (which they mention).

The Deseret News picks out names of players that were especially helpful in each game, and Iris is specifically mentioned vs. Provo and Timpanogos.

Though it's hard to pinpoint one thing that has made this year so successful for Timp, I'm willing to bet that Iris is at least one of those reasons :)

Too bad I can't claim any of her talent is because of me...

Nice job Iris!

Happy Birthday Frog!

The Frog turned 3!  3 is the first odd prime, so that's pretty cool...  I couldn't stand to make The Frog wait until dinner to open our present to him, so I wheeled it in first thing:

 We got him a Strider PREbike!  He really has been talking a lot about bikes lately, but he has a really hard time with the pedals on his tricycle, so when I saw these, I thought it would be perfect.  It helps you learn how to ride a two-wheeler, without the pedals- so it's appropriate for younger kids.



I had been asking The Frog all week what he wanted to eat for his birthday dinner and breakfast and he kept saying "an apple".  Finally I started suggesting things "how about pizza?" and he finally decided he wanted to have pizza for breakfast.  So here we are.  (notice the apple too)

Whenever we eat The Frog always asks me, "mom, does it stain?" and if I say "yes" he takes off his shirt and requests that Jay do the same.

Surprise, Iris!

The Frog often likes to "make cupcakes" when I'm cooking which means he climbs up on to the counter, gets out the cupcake papers, and fills them with sprinkles.  So long ago I asked him what kind of birthday cake he wanted this year and he said "pink."  I asked him several times since then and every time he says the same thing so I just dyed a white cake pink.

He, of course, wanted to put in his own candles.

Here he is getting ready to eat his requested birthday dinner- pancakes.  (I think the 3 turned out pretty well if I do say so myself...)  He's still learning how to put up 3 fingers- quite the challenge!

And finally, the moment The Frog has been waiting for...

He just loves to blow out the candles (on everyone's cake...) and they didn't even make it through "Happy Birthday".

The girls.

The pink cake.

The ever messy...

sugar coated...

I think this is the first year The Frog knew exactly what to do with the wrapped objects.

Nanie & Gampie sent these.  Thanks!! He loves them!

The matching set!  He has tons of fun in the sandbox, and now I get to find piles of sand all over the yard.  Hurray!  ;)  (ok, I admit it, I can't help but smile...)

And he's also showcasing something an older neighbor kid gave to him- a Spiderman car with a spiderman action figure inside (that can come out to play with).  He was going to take it to the DI because when you turn it on, it no longer drives around on it's own, though the headlights still turn on.  Our neighbor was holding it when The Frog rode by on his new bike and The Frog wanted to play with it.  Our neighbor gave it to him for his birthday and he has no clue that it doesn't even work properly.  As far as he's concerned, it's awesome.  He takes great pleasure running around the house saving things and casting webs at his sister.  (better than casting toys...) 

Happy Birthday Frog!  I can't believe how big you are and how much fun it is to have you around.

Now I'm Perfect!

Happy Birthday to me!  It was pretty cool being a cube, but this year I get to be perfect!!  Note the factors of 28: 1*28, 2*14, 4*7.  Note their sum (w/out 28, obviously...) 1+2+14+4+7 = 28!!  Cool huh?  That is called a perfect number and that is why I am looking forward to my perfect year :)

It started off with a perfect day too:

Exhibit A:

 Jay squirms at the thought of crumbs breakfast in bed, so he snuck in (because he let me sleep in) and left this tray for me on a "table" (diaper box) in front of my nursing rocking chair.  I never thought I would ever get breakfast in bed, because of his aversions to it and so this was a most excellent, stupendous, happy surprise!

He also outdid himself and made lunch (frozen pizza) and dinner (spaghetti and meatballs).  It was so nice to not cook for a whole day!  I can't even remember the last time...

AND he made this cake for me at my request.  It was sooo good.  It was more like a brownie cake with ooey gooey frosting.  mmmm.  And it was malty.  I highly recommend it!

 The Frog insisted on putting in the candles.

 I insisted on lighting all 28 of them.

 The Frog insisted on blowing them out.

 I insisted on a pretend blowing out picture because it would take way too long to relight them.

 Peach insisted on rubbing the delicious cake all over her body.

 I insisted she have a bath in the sink.

Now, before all you ladies get jealous and down on your men for not being as spoiling as mine, I'd just like to remind you that this it was not only my birthday, but our anniversary.  So for my first birthday/anniversary gift I got these babies:

I can't WAIT to do my laundry!!

Then he said he would dedicate some of his monthly "fun money" to getting me 3 hours of cleaning service every month- for all those little things I just can't get to.  He must know how I'm a perfectionist and dusty moulding and fingerprinted kitchen cabinets really stress me out...

And THEN after the kids were in bed, we went shopping for a birthday outfit (which, I sadly couldn't find anything I liked.  How weird is that?) and as we left Down East Outfitters I asked where we should try next and he said.  "Sorry, we're out of time.  We have to be somewhere now."

And he took me to see these guys:

They're called 1964 the Tribute.  Meaning they are Beatles impersonators and they were AWESOME.  Seriously!  Without my glasses on, they totally sounded, acted and looked just like (my all-time favorite band) The Beatles.  They also happened to play a lesser known Beatles song that just happened to be the song Jay and I danced our first dance as a married couple to- "Til There Was You".  Couldn't have planned it better, eh?

 It was sprinkling a bit at the beginning of the concert, so we had to cuddle under the tarp we were sitting on.  Darn.

Basically, I can tell this is going to be a perfect year!

Phone Pics

I don't sync my phone very much, so here are a few pictures I took off it when I got the volleyball ones off.

The Frog ALWAYS requests a ridiculously unmaneuverable car shopping cart when we go to the grocery store.   I usually have Peach ride up top to avoid injuries and crying at the store, but Day's Market's car shopping cart is slightly smaller and more maneuverable than the other stores and it lacks the upper seat.  I thought I should document this "first".

 Since the car shopping cart incident didn't go too badly, I decided to try my luck with the bike trailer and go to the park.  The ride there was great.  The ride home... never mind.

 I have no idea what we were doing in these.  Probably just bothering Iris in her room...

 Peach LOVES Iris's Japanese cell phone.  Probably because of the cute things hanging from it.

I love this one.  It seems so accurate somehow...

Congrats Iris!

 Iris had her Varsity Bulldog Classic tournament on Thursday and Friday.  I forgot how fun it is to go to sporting events when you actually care about the outcome!  Jay and I traded off going to the games on Thursday- we had all planned to go but The Frog had some signs of sickness, so we decided not to bring him.

There were 6 teams competing.  First every team played every other to establish rankings (Timpview won all 5 games- even against their rival Provo High) and ended up being placed first.  Then they had the single elimination play.  The easily beat their first opponent, but their final game agains Provo was soo intense.  (Jay got to watch their first game with them, which I hear was just as intense...)

I'm so glad I got to be there Friday night while Jay stayed home with the sleeping kids.    Timpview lost their first match by 2 points, then won their second, but it was close.  The final match was sooo intense, but I would like to add that Iris was responsible for 3 points in a row!  She was on FIRE.  I'd love to think it was genetics, but then I have to keep reminding myself that we are not related.  I'm just her fake mom...

I seriously haven't screamed so much in a long time, maybe ever!  I thought for sure I would be hoarse the next day (but I wasn't).  Anyway, if you couldn't guess, we ended up pulling ahead from being behind and won the third match, 15 to 12.  It was awesome!!  From what I gathered, it's been a LONG time since Timpview has beat their rival team in volleyball.  They get to keep this gigantic trophy in their case all year.

I'm soo soooo sad I didn't bring my camera.  Luckily, I had my phone :)

This was just a pre-season tournament, but it got me way excited for the rest of the season.

P.S. Thanks to everyone who bought cookie dough or donated money to the team!  Rest assured the money will not be put to waste :D