Bad News Bears

In an effort to continue to help Brad get some exercise, meet new people and just generally have fun we signed him up for soccer again last month. This is the outdoor season and there are a lot more participants and it's taken a bit more seriously than the indoor season was. You might remember that while Brad enjoyed indoor soccer he wasn't really "into" the game. We were hoping that being six months older might help, but really, not so much. He would rather:

chase bubbles, or

hang out in the net

Now the fact that Brad's not really into it isn't that bad. The problem is that the whole team is like that! They are a very young team, mostly 3 or 4 year-olds, with very little experience and they would rather drink their gatorade, chase the babies on the side-line or play hopscotch. Their team name is the Bears and we quickly nicknamed them the Bad News Bears. They lost their first game about 40 to 1 (and the 1 was made by someone on the other team going the wrong way). The only time they kicked the ball was when they kicked off after the other team scored. We were really hoping Emelio Estevez would show up to turn things around!

To top it all off the woman who signed up to be the coach went MIA before the first game and so Joe became the de facto coach. Coaching the kids at this age is fairly involved and you have to stay out on the field with them the whole game telling them where to go and what to do. Considering the fact that Brad won't even stay on the field Joe has been a real trooper. It's good karma, right?

The two good parts of the story are 1 - we did get one late addition to our team, a little boy named Jesus who is 6 and is great at soccer who has helped make things slightly more even, and 2 - Saturday is our last game. Gotta love community sports. There's a tumbling class next month...I think we'll try that instead.

Here are some more pictures:

Brad being a "Bear" which for him consists of running around growling at the other players.

Brad and Harrison wrestling while Joe marches down the field to try to get the rest of the kids to play.

Stretching - Brad does participate in that.
Team photo - Brad, Joe Alex, Sefyia, Harrison and Jesus. The Bears!

You want to watch T.V. at my house?

Good Luck.

Lucy's Birthday Party

So, I've decided that it's much easier to upload pictures to Facebook than to Blogger. I hate how it loads them backwards. Anyone with me? I had these up on Facebook on Monday and am just getting them here now!

Anyway, back to the point - We had a fabulous birthday party for Lucy on Saturday. I was a bit worried that it might rain, but it stayed just overcast enough to keep it cool and everything was perfect. We served Frito Pie and of course cake and ice cream. Here is a picture overload, enjoy!

The backyard all all decorated and ready.

Grandma Tibbs with Lucy and cousin Lincoln.

Lucy and uncle Alex.

Cousin Chelise, Grammy Lynne, Lucy & Grandpa Larson

All the kids got to decorate a foam visor with stickers which was good because not too much later Brad dumped a bottle of bubbles over Corbin's head and the visor kept it out of his eyes!

We had a lot of good friends that came - in the picture are Jen, Shannon, April & Shawn.

Lucy and Grandpa Larson

Lucy's cake which was made by Julie Hoskins from our church. It was SOOOOO good. You don't get that from Costco.

Lucy Loved the cake too. She wasn't quite sure what to think at first.

But then she realized it tasted really good.

Good enough to rub into her hair (it's her highest compliment).

This is one of my favorite pictures ever. "So good I'm going to lick the plate!"

Lucy enjoyed opening presents and did not enjoy Brad's help.

She was very curious.

And even shared her toys with Great-Grandpa Burnett.

With the party winding down cousin Hailey and Lucy spent some time on the slide.

Overall I think everyone had a really good time. Thanks to everyone who came and especially to April for taking the cake pictures!!

Happy Birthday Lucy Mae

At 2:30 this morning Lucy turned 1 year old. It has flown by, but that's to be expected. I can honestly say that Lucy has been a joy. She was such a mellow baby and very rarely cried. I remember asking her doctor at one of her first few appointments if something was wrong with her because she just never cried. By the time she was 6 months old she found her voice, but she's more likely to use it to sing and laugh than to cry. I will say I have seen her dramatic streak. If she falls or gets bumped she will look around to make sure someone is watching before she bothers to cry. She's learning and growing every day and I can only hope the next year will be as fun and challenging as this one has been.

I did a little photo shoot with her last week to get some pictures for her party invitations. She hated being in the grass and tried to keep every body part possible off the ground.

It helped when daddy lifted her up in the air and made her laugh.

I got to snap the best blackmail picture. It doesn't get more lady like than this:

I had to take about 50 shots, but it's totally worth it when you get the perfect one.

Happy Birthday baby girl!!

Lucy is walking!

It's official, Lucy is walking. Last night she took about 3 steps between Joe and I and I thought maybe it was fluke, but tonight she was going back and forth like crazy taking up to 5 or 6 steps. My grandfather was disappointed that she didn't do it by the 10 month mark like he did, but I think 11.5 months is just fine.