It's The Most Wonderful Day Of The Year!

The last day of soccer games, that is!!!   Woohoo!!!

Brian and I were making up our own version of the song as we were heading to the soccer fields.....

It's the most wonderful day of the year.
No more shinguards and snack turns and "there goes my Saturday" and hauling our chairs,
It's the most wonderful day of the yeeeaaaar!!!

What horrible parents we are to be so excited for this!

Once we're there and set up, I do love watching these guys.
Soccer is Zane's favorite sport and he's surprisingly aggressive when playing.  Maybe a bit of a ballhog.  He plays like it's up to him to win the game.

It was a tough season this year.  I can count on one hand how many games both Max & Zane's teams won combined.....and still have a finger or two left over.  But I was impressed at how good they were about it & still enjoyed going to the practices & games.

The 'get out of my way' move.

I kinda miss that hair......

Zane is really cute about patting his teammates on the back when they make a good play.

Whoops!!!

His soccer buddy Chandler.

A goal!

Yay!!!

Cheers to the final game of the season!

And the favorite part (besides the after-game treats)......the victory tunnel!

And this is what Gus is usually doing during the games.....

....rolling down the dead-grass hills.

Or begging me for money to get junk at the snack bar.

I have a hard time saying no to that face.

Max is a fast little sucker.

He loves the fact that he was the earliest walker of all my babies (9 months), and now he's a super fast runner.

He also makes some great faces when he's running.......

He was so glad to have his buddy Braxton on his team.

They really had a good time.

And I'm so glad to put the shinguards & cleats away for a while!

Happy Christmas Moment

Dropping the Christmas cards in the mailbox.

Such a wonderful moment.

Almost as good as every time I go get my mail to see Christmas cards from all my favorite people in there.

This was Caroline's happiest Christmas moment so far.....

......discovering her first candy cane.

Good stuff!

Thanksgiving!

It was the Z's turn to host this year.  And man, it was a good one!

Championship.

My little Peanut's first Thanksgiving.  I think she had a great time.

It was such a beautiful, chilly day.  Well, chilly for us Arizonans.  I think it was about 68 and we were all putting our sweaters on.

Jake had a little too much Martinelli's.

Caroline hung out with Uncle Chris for awhile.

The big girls.

Kellie.  Workin' it.

The traditional Mason Thanksgiving Oreo mud pie.  And Brian just a little excited about it.

Ross was very excited about his pie too.

Some human rubberband on the lawn.

Man, that kid's hair was long!

Lip-licker caught in action.

No football this year......it was futbol!

Zack with his fresh-off-the-mish glow.

Max pretending to take a nap.

Good-looking people we get to be related to.

Good-looking man I get to be married to.

Oh yeah, it was a good one this year. And I think Max would agree.

We have so much to be thankful for.

Mmmmmmm!

Caroline eats baby food now.

This is not my favorite part of having a baby.  I have to admit.

Constant highchair mess & mixing up baby cereals & cracker-encrusted bibs.  Fun!

She's getting pro at it now, though.

At least a third of each spoonful stays in her mouth.  That's major progress!

Then she always steals the spoon from me........

And this is her fake smile.......

She does this alot.  We think it's so funny.

She also gets startled really easily & does this dramatic startled reaction to the slightest things.  We think that's pretty funny, too.

In fact, we think alot of the things she does are funny.

Like how she "dances" to music by shaking her head back & forth to the beat.

And how she's discovered her voice & will let out random screeches and yells.

And how lately she's learned how to stick out her tongue & jump up & down in her exersaucer.

Man, I love this age!

Except for the baby food part.