Ella was cold after a bath . . . and this is what she found to make her warm!

love my little girl! She is the bees knees! She constantly has me giggling and chuckling at all the things she does. Example: she was cold after an afternoon bath and decided to put every piece of warm clothing she could find on. That is one interesting outfit!

For Jon, Not John

y amazing cousin is having a baby! Have any of you noticed that this is the year for babies?! I am in love with all of my family and friends have all these little bundles of joy! It's so much fun! Isn't it funny how you never can think you could love more than you already do and then a new little life comes into yours and your heart grows exponentially?! Fabulous!

Anyways, back to my lovely cousin . . . my mom, sissy and I got together (see Me-la's Back In Town post) to get some cool duds for the little one to be. I paired each outfit together and wrapped them with different blue and brown ribbon. I put them in a white basket and made a card for Jon. Notice, I write Jon, not John. After I put everything together, I was speaking to Shauna and verifying the spelling of Jon's name which is when I learned there is no "H" in his name. I rushed to re-do the basket and card and finished in time to send it down to Tucson to get to her. I am soooo glad I verified the spelling! I would feel awful if I had misspelled it! But I think the gift turned out cute and Shauna said she is already using the basket as a diaper holder! Fantastic!

Me-La's Back! (At least for the time being!)

y Mama is back in town and of course we had to make a trip to Nordies at Fashion Square, for cafe and shopping! It's like she never left! We love dragging all the crazy kids around and shopping and eating and this trip I even let my kids play at the playground. (I usually freak out because of the germs.) Nothing really exciting happened, but I love sharing pictures of our day, we had such a lovely time.

A few days later, we took a trip to Chandler Fashion and they now have this little train that you can board and it drives you through the mall. A little weird and different, but of course the kids LOVED it!
Check it out . . .







Ava and I sporting our Ray Bans . . .

Soccer Fall 2009

t's a new season of soccer! Go Kar! We are trying out a new league, AYSO, which is a huge organization, but seems to be run very well. The team size is smaller than his last, only 10 kids. Also, the games they play are 3 on 3, and the all the kids get rotated in. This is such a great thing, if there are more kids on the field, it's just a big mess of kids trying to get to one little ball. We have had three games so far and four practices. Last week at practice, I was watching Kar and it just seemed liked something clicked. His ball control was great and he looked more sure of himself. Well at the game last week, my little baby boy scored SIX goals! I couldn't believe it! He would get the ball away from the other team and he was off! He dribbled down the field and kicked it in! Over and over again! Even the coach made a comment about how he was on fire that day! I never needed Karsten to be number one or win lots of games in soccer, that was never our goal. I want him to be involved with sports and try his best. That's our saying, "Just Try Your Best". That's all I'll ever ask of him.

His best is the most I ever need.

But it sure is so much fun to see him EXCEL!

These pictures are from his first practice and game. We would love to see you at one of his games sometime. They are held at Greenfield and Warner, just behind Polar Ice. His games are on Saturdays, but the times vary week by week. Please let me know if you'd like to come and I'll let you know what time he's playing at.










































He's number 6 . . . he was so excited to get that number because he just turned 6!

Grandparents Day at CRRE

arsten's school had a lunch for grandparents/parents. We were all invited to join them for recess, then stay to have lunch with the kiddos. We had a lot of fun! My dad was able to make it and so were Mark's mom and stepfather. Karsten was so happy and excited to have them there!

Here are my dad and Ava in Karsten's class before recess.


Jen and Taylor, our fab neighbors. We are so lucky, Taylor is in the same class as Karsten; it's the best having this fantastic family share Kindergarten with us.


Grandma Blackhair and Papa (Karsten made up Grandma's name. For awhile, he was identifying people by the color of their hair!)


Dad and Ava


Mama and Karsten


It was a great day - thanks for sharing your lunch with us, Karsten! And thank you grandma and grandpas for coming! Karsten was over the moon that you came! He's so lucky to have such wonderful g-parents in his life!

Ella Starts School!

So two days after our fabulous vacation to Indiana, my littlest munchkin started preschool! It was so hectic, trying to get things settled from the vacation, back to work, Karsten back to school, it seemed like her first day just snuck up on us. This was Ella's first little steps into the world of school!

Ella had been so excited to go to school. Especially since her older cousin (older by four days) was going to be in her class. Gracie and Ella have a really special, solid friendship; they play so well together. Because of our vacation, Ella missed the open house and the first two days school. Her first day was on a Friday, and the drop off didn't go so well.

Grace wasn't in class yet, and Ella started crying so MUCH! I was very surprised. I guess I thought since she was excited, she wouldn't be nervous - I was wrong. She was was a little, sad, crying Ella. It broke my heart! Gracie showed up and that seemed to calm Ella down a bit, until I tried to leave and then the little sad tears came again! I finally left and then I started to cry. All the Yori girls were crying that morning!

But of course, when I picked up my favorite little girl, she was all smiles and happiness! She was so excited to show me her school work. And my heart was bursting with pride and joy! She loved school and was so proud to share the things she made and learned. What a wonderful thing!

Here are the pictures from the beginning of the morning . . .

Pied Piper Contest

i Everyone!




Check out the Pied Piper's Blog. She is giving away two mini sessions! Go here!

Love, Lizzie