So Much Soccer...

Do you feel like I have posted a lot of soccer posts recently? It's probably because soccer takes up a good portion of my Saturdays. And since I had the fancy camera to play with, I had to take photos of what I could! 

I may complain a little bit about how much time I spend with soccer, but at least the boys really seem to like it. Though if I had to be 100% honest, I think Henry likes the fact he gets some iPad playtime when he's not actively playing soccer. (He's no fool!)

When I posted a photo of the new dome last time, I realized the 80mm lens didn't let me show much of the space. So I brought along the 20mm today to show you the arena. It's clearly much smaller than the old dome, but we like it! Also, you can see the dark blue on the back side that loves to make my photos challenging...

Fortunately for me, this time when we were in the wrong spot and got to move to the front of the dome for practice. I think there is an app you can actually check the spot you are playing in ahead of time, but I have never remembered. In my defense, our coach was gone this week and none of us knew where we were supposed to be. We finally found the right spot - the blue "candy canes" were letting us join in with them. Thomas seems very confused as to why they are sitting down listening instead of kicking the ball. 

This coach definitely had a different style of practice than Thomas' usual coach. The kids all went along with the new "techniques" he had them try out. Not really sure what pushing the ball with your head is supposed to teach them, but it sure was fun to watch!

The crab walking the ball backwards to the coach might have been my favorite though!

Thomas was pretty excited about being asked to help make a tunnel for all of the other players to kick their ball through. 

The Candy Canes have always had a blue Candy Cane on their team since the first day, so the red & white stripes were severely outnumbered by the blue striped shirts. So instead, everyone got mesh jerseys to wear over their normal kit. I was muttering "not yellow, not yellow" under my breath when they were handing them out and mom thought it was hysterical Thomas got yellow. It's not my favorite color in photographs, ok??

Also, why is he doing his hand on the hip thing again? The last few weeks he has been running with his hand on his hip. He doesn't seem to realize he is doing it, so he can't explain why this is a new thing. A mystery!

Not really sure what this kid is doing, but I am 100% sure that is not a legal move. And way to turn on a fellow Candy Cane just because they are wearing a different color today! ;)

Also notice Thomas' yellow jersey is nicely tucked in now. At his first water break, he asked me to tuck the yellow jersey in because he didn't like the way it felt on his arm. I guess the mesh is a little scratchy. 

Look at him scoring a goal! Go Thomas! I may have missed the first goal he scored because I was looking something up on my phone for my mom. And she got a video where you can see him score the goal and his mom clearly not noticing. Thanks Nonni...

But I got this one! :)

Finally it was time for Kiddie Soccer! I tried to get a few good photos of Henry before it actually started because lugging the lens around while chasing him was not going to be very fun...

Lucky for me, Nonni stepped in and offered to help. Henry, of course, immediately darted across the stadium and she had to chase him down. He clearly thought this was the best game ever!

He did eventually get interested in kicking the ball. I'll give him this - he does love kicking into the goal. And while he looks like he isn't paying attention to the coach 75% of the time, he usually does exactly what the coach told them to do. Sneaky, Henry...

This is the second time I bought him this style of shoe because it is so easy to put on his slightly pudgy feet. But I obviously forgot they didn't always stay fastened. Kiddie Soccer has definitely reminded me of that flaw. Thankfully he's pretty good at fixing them!

Look at that intensity! We spend so much time telling them not to use their hands while playing soccer that they all get super excited when the coach tells them to pick up their ball and run with it. :)

Since they changed the time of the practices by an hour, Henry always starts to get tired before it is actually over. Usually he gets a little crazy when he is tired, but sometimes he just wants hugs. Nonni was more than happy to give him hugs. Pretty much the most adorable photo from the whole day too, huh?  

Overall the fancy camera did pretty good in the dome, but it's just too dark in there for amazing photos. I just have to get used to struggling with the ISO for photos until soccer moves back outside. Then I just have to worry about *too* much light! :)

The Rental and The Robot

The last time I got to rent a camera was when Theresa and I were on our girl's trip in Fredericksburg and I didn't really put it through the paces as much as I probably should have. Though in my defense, I was hanging out with one of my favorite people and was a teensy bit distracted. :)

Since I've been debating upgrading to a full frame camera at some point, I thought I should give it another try and decided to rent the Nikon D810 to test out. And Henry's birthday was coming up, so it was the perfect excuse! And because paying the shipping is a large part of the bill, I decided to add on a lens to play with. The 70-200mm lens was waaaaaay bigger than I thought it would be, but I guess the fixed aperture zoom lenses have to be bigger than their cheaper counterparts who can't maintain a constant aperture. Look at that amazing bokeh at a fully zoomed 200mm!

The general rule of thumb is that if I really need to get good photos (for "science"), my kids will not cooperate...

For some reason, Thomas looks much younger with this cheesy smile. In playing with all of the camera settings, I messed this one completely and it was almost fully black. Turns out - this camera can basically see in the dark and I recovered it in post processing. Wow!

Eliza was the only one of my babies being cooperative. Plus she looks so cozy in her sweater - I may have snapped quite a few good ones of Eliza today. Love you sweetie! 

Natalie was less cooperative, but I was determined to get a photo at the ultra low 64 setting. Clearly I had to use a super wide aperture, but when I zoomed in to 400%, her eye is still super clear and not at all pixelated. I was a little sad that the higher ISO photos didn't look as good as I expected, but this one blew me away. I was going to try to zoom in and post a photo, but I degrade the resolution so much for the blog that it wouldn't wow anyone.

Instead you get the full "Mom, why are you doing this to me?" image. 

Thomas was too intent on his kitchen helper duties to pay any attention to his momma when she asked for a photo. Henry was more than happy to ham it up for me though. In Thomas' defense, cutting potatoes requires much more focus than whisking eggs. 

On a related note - Thomas is doing awesome at helping me in the kitchen. He cut up a bunch of strawberries for our pancakes last weekend and all of the potatoes for breakfast tacos this morning. I let him take one cooking class at school and he's suddenly ready for his own knife and cutting board. I love it! :)

This kid... I took 6 photos and each one was completely different, but this one was by far my favorite - especially compared to the super smiley first photo. ;) 

Thomas looks pretty much the same. Cutting takes concentration!

I tried again when we were all playing on the floor. I managed to get smiles out of one of them, but not so much with the eldest. So serious, my little man!

I would also like to provide this as proof of the conditions I am forced to work with. I seriously doubt anyone was trying to pull off Ansel Adam's socks as he was learning the in's and out's of his cameras. The little toots ran off with both of mine. And it's a little chilly in Alaska right now!

But as much as they may not worry about me, these two are still a little unsure about the new robot! I've been threatening to buy some robotic help for the housework recently and finally bought myself a Roomba. The first time I went to use it, I had to pick up the mountain of couch cushions that were on the floor and the boys were pretty upset I was taking apart their "boat". I explained the Roomba needed the floor clear to be effective and that somehow led to them referring to it as a Shark.

So now, they run the other way when Sharkie comes after them. I love Sharkie!

Natalie was not impressed by or running from Sharkie. Unfortunately for her, the little robot seemed to want to go wherever she decided to lay down. Natalie would be excellent at playing "chicken" because she would not get out of it's way until it actually ran into her several times. There was one time I think Sharkie did a full pass on her side and she refused to budge. As the largest contributor to carpet pollution in this house, she apparently does not care if it gets cleaned up...!

It may be too early to say for sure, but I think Sharkie is going to be a welcome addition to the house. (Plus we are just one step closer to being the Jetsons!)

Soccer in the Dome (Take 2!)

Shortly after this soccer season started, a bit of tragedy struck... We got a lot of snow over a few days and it ended up leading to the collapse of The Dome! I didn't notice anything amiss during Thomas' practice, but Matt said the ceiling was definitely sagging during Henry's practice. They ended up closing the Dome around noon as a precaution and were frantically trying to fix the dome all afternoon until the snow won around midnight. 

Thankfully no one was hurt, so the biggest issue was the loss of a huge indoor practice facility in the dead of winter. They are estimating it will take about a year to get the Dome back up and functional. Luckily for us, the soccer club was able to get soccer time booked inside the other inflatable dome in town. (Is it now the biggest inflatable indoor space in Alaska until the other one is repaired??)

The Fox Hollow dome is quite a bit smaller and is mostly used as an indoor driving range. (There is obviously no golfing while the soccer practice is going on.) In my mind, the smaller footprint means it is less likely to collapse? Matt and I discussed where we would run in case of a collapse with the kids many times in the previous Dome, so it was pretty much always on our mind. (Except for me when it actually started sagging - ha!)

I was pretty excited about testing out the camera in the smaller dome because the lighting seemed to be a little better the first time we were in there. Of course, the time I bring the camera is the time that they schedule the Candy Canes in the back of the dome where it is much darker. The front part of the dome is white, but the back is dark blue - I think it's so the golfers can see their golf balls after they hit them?

Anyhow, you can see the field and location changes didn't faze the kiddos at all - they are just pumped to be playing some soccer! My favorite is the only (tiny!) girl on the team - she is so excited, she's not even touching the ground. :) Also, the little guy with the blue & black jersey is also a Candy Cane, there was a reshuffle of teams after they handed out the jerseys. 

For the first part of each session, they do practice and drills - the favorite of which is Sharks & Minnows. Thomas got chosen  to be a Shark first and he was pumped! Look how intensely he is staring down all those minnows.

The camera was clearly struggling a little bit with the dark blue background, so this shot was not in focus at all. But... he scored a goal and I had to include it anyhow! We are always encouraging him to keep after that ball because sometimes he tends to lag behind the group. But not today! He was on that ball and kicked it all the way down and into the goal.

I was so proud!! He was pretty proud of himself too! :)

The new dome doesn't really have much food to offer, so the first time we went out to get a snack. This time I planned ahead and packed us lunches. Thomas polished his off pretty quick (because he had clearly worked up an appetite) and asked if he could go watch the virtual golfers. There was already a tiny crowd, so I figured one more little watcher wouldn't hurt. The kids were all very cam and quiet while they were watching - good golfing spectators!

Finally it was Henry's practice time! He's got his full kit (outfit) on today, so he looks like an official soccer player. Kiddie soccer doesn't have quite the same set-up, so there are no teams names. I keep calling him a Blueberry anyhow.

The day Henry decided he had outgrown his snow boots, he also didn't seem to fit into his sneakers. (Growth spurt!) I bought him a new pair, but didn't think about him wearing them to soccer and the fact they *light* up*. He would be running and suddenly stop to stare at his feet.

Rookie move, momma! 

I think I had forgotten how all of the place the kids are during kiddie soccer... While they are all having fun, there is a bit of a challenge in getting them to all do the same thing. But part of the point of kiddie soccer is teaching them to follow the coach's instructions. We'll get there - Thomas is certainly proof of that! ;)

This week I got smart enough to addd Henry's name to the soccer ball - his coach kept calling him Thomas because that was clearly the name written on every soccer ball we have. Now they have at least a 50/50 chance of using the right name. Ha!

And I realized that I never blogged about Thomas' soccer when we first started  it, so I found a photo from the last day of his very first soccer club. How tiny & adorable is he?!?

Sledding Fun

Somehow we have managed to live here for 4 winters now and haven't taken the boys out for proper sledding. Since we've gotten so much snow lately, I figured it would be fun to try it with them! It took me 3 stores to find one that still had sleds in stock and our options were pretty much limited to saucers. 

These two were pretty excited about sledding no matter what the shape was! I went ahead and bought two and they both claimed a color before we headed out. Priorities... ;)

We took them to a nearby elementary school that we had seen a group of people sledding at the other day. The hill had a few different slope angles on it and we started them off on one of the more gentle sides. 

Unsurprisngly, they were pretty into the sledding from the get-go!

But I mean, doesn't it just look like fun?? I was having to alternate between catching kids and taking photos, but they were clearly having a blast! 

We decided to take them down the steeper side of the hill, but figured it would be safer (and more fun!) to ride down with them. Honestly, at this point I am not sure who was having more fun on the sleds. Thomas got snow in his face on this particular run and he was pretty upset about it. Really should have brought his face mask!

But after a brief upset, they were back at it! Henry made it about half way up the hill each time before calling for a "boost, please mommy!". Thomas was able to make it up all on his own. One part of me is happy he's such an independent little guy, but the other part is crying about how big my baby is. Motherhood is hard. ;)

Henry was ready to tackle the big hill all on his own! He couldn't quite figure out how to sit up while going down the hill, but he was probably safer with a lower center of gravity anyhow. 

Safely down on another run! They were pretty insistent on using "their" sled at the beginning, but they weren't paying attention at the end. Also, check out Henry's new snow boots! As of this morning, he decided his old ones no longer fit. So we had a last minute run to buy him boots since his rain boots were also too small. I guess my youngest is going through a growth spurt! 

There's the happy guy again! Definitely a successful first attempt at sledding. Can't wait to do it again soon! :)

Happy Birthday to Matt!

Poor Matt had the misfortune of having his birthday fall on a Monday. Lucky for him, it was a federal holiday, so he got to hang out with his two little guys. By the time I got home, I had to rush to make dinner and a cake, so I didn't really get any photos.

That's not all I didn't get... I totally forgot to get him candles for his cake! I managed to scrounge up a 4 from a previous birthday and I substituted in an "i" for the 1. Thomas was not impressed by my efforts...

To top it off, the 4 didn't even have a wick and I couldn't light it.

Sigh.

But Matt didn't care because I bought him an amazing present! He's been hem-hawing about buying himself a pumper carb* for his bike for literally years. Looks pretty much like the happiest guy ever, right? 

I may have failed on photos and candles, but I win on the present! :)

*I literally have no idea what a pumper carb is, but Sam assured me I made a great choice when I told him what I bought. Whew!

Snow Art

When we were out shoveling snow the other day, Thomas told me that I should buy him a face mask. Apparently several of his friends at school have them and he felt that he would be much more comfortable with his face protected. It was a very fair point and I felt awful that other moms had thought of it while I clearly never had. Mom fail!

The next week, I went with Matt on a lunch shop trip to find warmer boots for his hunting trip and I got bored and started wandering around the store. I happened to find the kid face mask section and was super excited that they were exciting patterns. The Yeti pattern seemed super fitting for Henry (he loves it, btw!). 

I didn't get a close up of Thomas', but it is a Lego print - how appropriate! In the midst of a cleaning frenzy this weekend, I ran across the snow "markers" we had bought late in the season last year. The boys were super excited to use them, but they were a little hard for the to squeeze with their mittens on. So I borrowed them to write the boy's names in the snow - they love seeing their names written pretty much anywhere!

Except I suddenly had two little art critics on my hands! They were much more interested in destroying my art than thanking me for it. Whatever - I'm used to my efforts being under-appreciated. ;)

I drew them a few shapes just so they could destroy them, but when I went to take photos of them, tragedy struck!

*I* dropped *my* camera!

And not a gentle drop either. I keep my camera on a sling style strap and it hangs right next to my hip. When I am done shooting, I just let go and it hangs there. Except this time when I let go, it was followed by a loud bang. I cannot confirm or deny that any bad words were said, Matt would have to clarify. I just know my heart dropped and I was in a bit of a panic. 

Based on my test self-portrait, it looks like the camera is ok. The filter took the brunt of the fall and the extent of the damage to the camera might be some messed up threads on the front of my super favorite 20mm lens. I can't actually get the busted filter off, but I'm quite sure my McGyver husband can help me out there!

Happy Birthday to Me!

But first... The new season of soccer happens to coincide with my birthday. Which is perfectly fine with me since my birthday plans generally include spending all day with my boys anyhow. :)

Since it is the dead of winter, soccer is played indoors in The Dome. It's the biggest inflatable indoor stadium in the state (not that there is much competition...). Thomas has played here once before and apart from the lighting not being great for photos, it's an awesome venue.  

Even though it's been a few months since he's played, he got right back into it after just a few minutes. He's starting to look like a real soccer player too! This is the third club we've played with here and they are pretty big on teaching them specific ball handling skills, which is great! Also, his uniform is so fun - the coach convinced them that the team name should be Candy Canes - which I love because I had already declared he was an adorable looking candy cane. Ha!

But why did we try another soccer club?

Because...

Their kiddie soccer goes down young enough that Henry can play too! Sure, there groups are scheduled in such a way that we have a down hour between them, but that's pretty minor. Look at how excited my little guy is!!

He's wanted to play soccer every time he watches his big brother play and now it's his turn to play too. Kiddie soccer is really just about getting them comfortable with the ball and learning to listen to the coaches. And he did great for his first practice - he didn't quite get all of what was going on, but he got the gist of kicking the ball toward the goal and that's the start! :)

On to birthday time! Heather made the cake and Nonni decorated it for me. Henry clearly wasn't helping here, he just wanted to see the cake! 

Mom did a pretty good job on it. I may have insisted on the giant candles because I thought they were awesome. I figure we can re-use them in a few years when Matt turns 43. ;)

Even the girls were ready for a party! Ok, ready might be a strong word - Eliza was tolerant of the idea of a party. And didn't shake the hat off immediately when I put my birthday hat on her. Even Eliza is a good sport on her momma's birthday! :)

Bless her heart, Natalie tried. But she has the same blinking problem as I do apparently. I got a few photos, but none of them were any better. Love you anyways, sweet girl!

A Well Earned Break!

I finally got a break with work and took the vacation days that I had to burn before the end of the year. I had all of these thoughts for what I could get done, but I pretty much decided to hang out with the small people I live with and my family while they were still in town!

I had to go to work for a little bit this week and my dad built this awesome car garage to go with the boy's new Lego sets. As destructive as they are with Lego sets, this garage lasted for much longer than I expected. They clearly appreciated the hard word from their Grandpa!

I even dug out the play doh to play with. I bought these brown silicone mats for them to use with their play doh and they worked great! We only had one before and the other kid got shafted - unequal no more!

Also, you can see a "Matt" & "Jen" tally in the background on the door. It's our scoreboard for Klask and I am currently ahead. Woo! This is a recent thing, we have probably played well over 100 games by now. :)

Matt convinced us to make english muffin pizzas in his fancy new oven. Henry generally refuses to each pizza even though he claims to like it. They make this kind of pizza for them at daycare and I figured he would eat a similar pizza - especially if he made it!

He was a little messy with the sauce, but he absolutely made the pizza all by himself. 

And ate about two bites before not touching it again. Sigh... At least he likes pizza rolls or I would really wonder if he was switched at birth.

It's been snowing quite a bit this month and we have both been so busy that we have been driving over the snow in the driveway and compacted down to gross, hard snow. Thomas kept me company the other day when I cleared part of the driveway, so all of us headed out to *finish the job today. Of course, we had to play a little bit before getting down to work...

Henry really wanted to use the big shovel, but he couldn't quite manage with his mittens on...

I went in the garage and found him a Henry sized shovel and he was much happier! He didn't contribute *that* much help, but at least we were all hanging out in the great outdoors together! :)

Thomas was so amazed at the big pieces of snow I was busting up. He kept picking them up to show me how big they were. I couldn't quite convince him to throw them into the pile of snow on the side of the driveway, he was much more into throwing them down to break them into smaller pieces. And then I had more snow to clear. Sigh... ;)

*Ok, so we finished the right side of the driveway. Breaking up compacted snow is hard work!

I realized I hadn't posted a photo of my new oven. Isn't it pretty?!? It goes nicely with the new tiny oven on the counter next to it. And I have to admit, I use the tiny oven way more than I thought I would. You can preheat and cook pigs in a blanket before the big oven finishes heating up. Or cook cornbread in the tiny oven while using the big oven for dinner. I love both of the ovens!

And look at this evenly cooked blueberry pie. I had a game night for some friends and the only photo I really cared about was the pie. Sorry guys - I love you, but look at how nicely cooked this pie is! You understand, right?? 

Christmas Day

Just like the last 4 years, we got matching Christmas pjs! We went back to a traditional Christmas look this year instead of the Star Wars ones we did last year. And since there was still a giant oven next to the Christmas tree, we switched to the fireplace for photos this year!

The boys and I took a few practice photos before we even managed to get Matt out of bed. Eliza also joined in the photo trial run. Clearly everyone but one was taking this seriously. Henry, what are you doing?

We tried to get one of all six of us looking at the camera, but no dice this year. A for effort?

This was my favorite one though, the boys actually look happy to be taking photos once they were sitting in our laps. Guess we can't do this when they are 18, so might as well take advantage of it now! Also, Eliza looks super disappointed that she isn't in my lap. Sorry, sweetie!

In the most random of coincidences, I actually bought Matt an oven for Christmas as well. A tiny, countertop one! He's always talking about getting a toaster oven and I think they are silly, but they have come a long way from just being able to make toast. In fact, these awesome cinnamon rolls were made in the "Smart" oven.

Santa may have gone a little overboard this year on stocking stuffers, but Santa forgot what "he" had bought already and kept buying more stuff. But my personal favorite had to be these adorable gorilla slippers! They keep stealing my tiger slippers, so I bought them their own.

I mean Santa did...

And as in tradition, I bought Matt a quadcopter. But since he wrecked his the next day last year, Santa brought him an entire crash kit with multiple of everything. Wreck away, sweetie. (He did manage to get it stuck on the roof this morning, but was a master retriever!)

Lego building time! They pretty much spent most of the day building all of their Lego kits. Matt and I spent a good bulk of the day playing that game on the right - Klask. I bought it for Matt kinda on a whim and we love it so much! Everyone should just take my word for it and buy it. (Heather already did after playing it!)

Henry putting together his first Lego kit. He needed a little bit of help from his dada, but he did pretty awesome for a 2 year old with a 4-6 year old kit. 

They got several new dress up sets, but Henry would not let me take a photo of him in the super adorable astronaut costume. I managed to get a photo under the train table of him hiding from me, but trust me, the full view was cuter! Either way, adorables! Love these kids. :)

Christmas Eve

It may not have been obvious from my post yesterday, but I love the little dinosaur almost as much as the boys do:

And I put him to work helping me make a gingerbread cake for my parents who would be arriving later today! He wasn't quite as helpful as the boys, but he also didn't make a mess... ;)

Another holiday and unfortunately I was back having to sit at the computer periodically. Luckily, I had plenty of help this time to make a proper Christmas Eve fondue dinner! The nice part of a big kitchen is that you can fit plenty of helpers in there!

The gingerbread cake Rexy & I made. Unfortunately, my crap-tastic oven decided to burn the top of it and I may have said some very nasty things about how useless it is. It has really been a pain lately. It will burn the top of something and the middle is still raw. I am not a bad baker, this is clearly an equipment issue...!

This little guy pretty much just asked for Legos. For awhile, he told me all he wanted for Christmas was me (after listening to the All I Want for Christmas is You song), but later amended it to be: Me, Matt, Henry and Legos. He really had his heart set on this space shuttle kit and it was discontinued not long after he told Nonni about it. Luckily Nonni and I were able to track one down for not too much more than it would have originally cost. Worth it for that smile!

Henry got a wider assortment of gifts since he was less vocal about what he wanted. But apart from the DVD, Lincoln Logs, etc - he also got a bunch of Legos. We are apparently a Lego family now... (Can I amend the "No Shoes in the House" rule??).

Heather went to Bali this year and bought most of us gifts from there. Mom was pretty excited about this hand carved elephant piece. I didn't get a picture of it, but Heather bought Matt a Digeridoo from Bali as well. Side note - he absolutely loves it, but I had no idea she hated me. ;)

But we had to save the biggest for last. Matt had to have Eric come help him to even get this present in the house and it took several rolls of wrapping paper to cover it. I had no clue what it was and it was driving Matt crazy that I wouldn't even guess. Dad was giving Matt a hard time about how they managed to fit a motorcycle in a box of that size. Ha!

When the time finally came to open the giant box, I had two helpers to get it open. 

And what was this awesomely large present...?!?

A new oven!!!! Aaaaaahhhhhh!!! I was so excited when I realized what it was! Matt has told me several times how it would be hard to find a replacement because it's a microwave / oven unit. But he found one and it is beautiful and I am sooooo excited to get this thing installed and put it to work! No more burned gingerbread cakes in this house!