Alex Soccer

 

Alex has played soccer every season since moving to Plano with the same team. The original Bolts, turned into the Strikers when they went up to a bigger field. This season coach Roy was unavailable to coach, so Dan had to step up, along with Meg, an aunt of one of the players.



Here the team is celebrating going to the championship game! This was their best season yet.

The championship game was played on a cold and very windy Sunday afternoon. I stayed home with asthma man and missed the game. It was very disappointing for the game to played on Sunday, but with Dan as coach and with Alex being on the team 7 seasons, the boys felt like they needed to support the team and go to the game. They ended up losing, but they still got awesome trophies!

 

I'm proud of my soccer players. Dan is a great coach. Alex works hard and leads his team as captain by setting a good example on the field and on the bench.



November update

 Ryan had a birthday party far enough away that I didn't want to drive home in between. Sister and I went to Peter Piper Pizza while we waited.

 Dan decided to run a half marathon. After running a 100 miles in July, he was up to comfortably running 8+ miles at a time. No sense letting all that endurance go to waste!

 The race was early! The kids and I tracked Dan down with 30 min left of the race.

 We stopped and got him some surprises to reward his awesomeness.

 Dan had a running companion. Matt helped push Dan to do better than even his goal was. He finished with 9:20 minute mile. We were very proud of our runner!

 During the cooler months we find ourselves on the purple couch a lot!

 Snow! It snowed one night after the kids were in bed. It was just a dusting on the grass. It melted before the kids got home from school the next day.

 Lucy Lou can get some long claws and a messy face without proper grooming. Here she is looking sharp on her way home from her morning at the spa.

 Thanksgiving Day was a beautiful day. I was worried about the turkey not finishing on time, and over compensated. We had a very early Turkey Lunch. With Uncle Mike! He came down for a couple of days.

 We enjoyed our feast at home and then went off to play the rest of the day.

 Macey wanted to run around the pond with her puppy.

 Ryan wanted to wrestle his puppy.

 Everyone loves playing with this little pooch.

 The boys played both basketball and football.

 I remember being 8 years old and climbing the tree in front of my house. I would sit up there and read. It wasn't much bigger than this I don't think!

 Sister and I got creative and played rocks while the boys played football. We later went to the Contreras for Thanksgiving Dinner II. It is good to have 'family' here to spend time with!

 

Black Friday took us to the movies to see Big Hero 6. It also got the kids on the roof to help dad hang the lights. Only 3 weeks until we head to Arizona for the Christmas break.

Halloween II

These photos are from Dan's phone.

 

Ryan's best friend was a shadow for his costume. Hence his lying on the ground!

Macey's good friend Oliver was Picacho.

Halloween

I love Halloween!

For Family Night we carved pumpkins. Each kid got to gut their own pumpkin.

It goes a lot faster with many hands helping.

Macey and Alex both wore plastic gloves to clean out their pumpkins. A lot less crazy faces.

Dan and kids carved this Sofia the First and the Autobot pumpkins.

Ryan and I worked on Spidey.

On 10/30 I lit up the pumpkins and candles for a special count chocula breakfast. Alex pointed out that Halloween was the 31st. I knew, but I figured that they actual day would be too hectic for this fun activity!

2 weeks ago Macey was dying of anticipation for Halloween. She made this chart and put a cute shape for each day. She then faithfully colored in her chart. On the last day she drew this witch as the big last picture. I may have some competition for love of the holiday soon!

Alex was a store bought skeleton! Ryan was a handmade vampire bat. Macey was a borrowed witch. A super easy year for costumes for me.

Dan was feeling poorly but still got wrapped up for the evening.

Sister was so cute!

Sumners and I had a Halloween party for 6th graders and their families. Mostly the boys just got dropped off, and the girls families stayed. I'm sure it would have been opposite if we had had the event at our house instead! Chris is a party planner. He made the place look awesome. Felicity and I made lots of goodies.

My photo backdrop was super cool looking, but too small!

The boys and girls in the same room.

Oh yeah, I was a pumpkin.

The conclusion of our party was a round of trick or treating. I was responsible for the 6th grade boys. They were fabulous. I think they all had a really good time.

Some got thirsty and so we quit early, but still, the kids ended up with too much candy!

This was the awesome house on our block this year.