NOT THE PINKY!!!

Cyanne broke her pinky practicing soccer with Nate and Foster. She has had to wear a metal splint for the last 4 weeks. She has not been a happy camper as she has been unable to participate in sports. This is her first week with the brace off and she is already talking about football at recess. Why do I see another broken bone in her future?

CYANNE'S PINKY ISSUE:

NOT CYANNE!!!!!

The end of the first trimester has come. That means report cards have come home. All the kids did pretty well. Ressa is achieving many of her goals, Foster is slightly behind in his English skills (but is making progress), and Cyanne made the HONOR ROLL!

For the first time in her life Cyanne had all B's. She met all her reading and testing goals, and after a rocky start to the year has become quite the student. She loves being in Mr. Baskent's class and seems to be making some great friends.

As a reward she spent last weekend in Long Beach with Hannah (our old nieghbor). The girls had a great time running errands with Ms. Sharon and Mr. Jim, watching movies, going out to lunch, and just hanging out.

Cyanne is very excited to try to do better. Her competative drive has kicked in. She says she wants to have at least 2 A's next term, but straight A's would be better! We will see how that goes, but in the mean time she has surprised us all!

WE ARE STILL ALIVE!

For most of you it has been forever since we have caught up. I know I have been bad about keeping everybody up to date, and am sorry.

It seems our summer started off in a whirl and we merged right into the school year full steam ahead. We moved twice this summer. First into a friend's rental house in Rowland Heights and then again when our home purchase in Lake Elsinore closed. We moved into our new home the day before school started so you know we were running! We also made a trip to Lake Powell with the Smith side of the family, went to a couple swim dates in Long Beach, attended a Dodger game, and have spent most of our time unpacking and fixing up our house.

HOUSE!!

We were lucky enough to be able to purchase a new home for our family. We could not justify the cost of Long Beach foreclosures and so decided on Lake Elsinore. We bought a very clean foreclosure that sits on a huge (by cali standards) lot. We now have 6 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and loft to our names!







We are loving our house. I spent the first week and a half covering all the shelves in the kitchen with vinyl flooring. It took some experimenting, but in the end I got pretty good at it!

Nate got out all his tools and hung ceiling fans in the house. Those seemed to be a hot commodity for the previous owners as they had taken them all out. The monster one in the living room was a pain to put up. We were laughing because on the box it said it was a "5 minute fan"... try 55 minute fan!! It looks and runs great now though.



Nate also switched out the kitchen faucet for me. The previous one leaked and looked like it had never been cleaned. I am loving my goose neck faucet now!

Our yard is dead, but that is okay with us for now. We have grand plans for the front and back yards, but will have to wait until it isn't quite so hot around here. The first couple weeks we were her the temps ranged from 102-111 everyday. We recently had a nice week in the high 80s, but as of today are back up over 100! When will it end?

Brandi, my best friend from growing up (also know as Aunt Brandi), moved in with us a couple weeks ago. She has been a lot of fun to have around. The kids love her! She is working over the Ortega in San Juan Capistrano in a medical lab. She plans to stay with us for a few months until she is ready for her own place.

SCHOOL

The kids school is incredible! Such a change from the Long Beach schools we are used to. Rice Canyon was just built 8 years ago. The classrooms are larger than the standard, and there are a few more kids in each class (mostly due to so many new families moving in over the summer) but the teachers and principal are fantastic. The teachers are really gearing the kids for the responsibility of middle school. The kids favorite details of the school are, of course; the huge grassy sports field, the fact that every grade level has its own computer lab, and the fact that they can actually bring home the library books that they check out. Like I said... way different to LB!

Cyanne is loving 5th grade. This is the first year she has a male teacher and she just thinks that is the coolest thing ever! He is very strict, but fair with the kids. I like his style! She is doing fairly well in his fast paced class.

Foster is in 3rd grade. He is struggling a little with the fact that there is daily homework as well as weekly homework. Over all though he is liking school much better.

Ressa started kindergarten! She is loving the half days of school and is excelling in getting her homework done. She is very motivated to do well. She has these little flower clips that she won't go to school without. Her teacher makes a comment everyday, and I hear about it every afternoon... followed by her princess giggle. Tina makes the clips and sells them online. I would suggest anybody with girlie girls check it out! http://www.princessjanesbows.blogspot.com/





Ammon is loving having the house and my attention to himself. We hang out every morning while Ressa is in school. He has gone on a couple mommy dates with me too. His favorite was the first day of school when I took him to IHop. We had blueberry pancakes and he was all smiles! He has also been getting into all kinds of mischief. He found a sharpie the other day. In the time it took me to use the bathroom, put on yoga stuff and put up my hair he had colored all over himself and one of the couches. Fun!






DOGS
Daisy had puppies when we were in Rowland Heights. They were adorable! Foster just loved that he got to watch them be born. He has told everybody about how cool and messy it is. It was the first time I have been part of that process. It was actually very cool. She was a great mom!! Her puppies left the house a week and a half ago. They went to friends of ours. They will be very happy girls!

The day the puppies went to their new homes we picked up the doberman puppy we were waiting to adopt. She is adorable! Her name is Jackie. She is all legs and with any luck she will be a big girl. Her parents were huge! She is really sweet with the kids and calm for her age (10 weeks this week). Ammon pals around with her all day. She mouths a little, but is really good not to bite. Sometimes I look out back to see his hand or diaper in her mouth and them walking down the patio... nothing like holding hands. This new addition doesn't have Gretchan too happy, but she is getting along just fine. Daisy enjoys her play buddy for the most part, but has definitely showed poor Jackie who is boss. Jackie loves to cuddle with the kids and Nate. She likes me during the day, but once Nate comes home she is all his.






I think that is everything this time. I will try to be better about posting now that we have settled in some. I owe a lot of you phone calls too. Will try to start calling this week. Finally have a home number so will be able to really talk instead of rush off the phone due to minutes. Hope everybody had a great summer and will chat soon!!

CYANNE'S SUMMER TRIP

As most of you already know Cyanne is spending a good chunk of her summer in Montana. She left Lake Powell with Jeff and Sandee. Spent a week in Salt Lake hanging out with their family, and then was off to Montana. She has been having a fantastic time with her Grandparents and two cousins that went. She has also been doing some hiking and spending time with my Aunt, Uncle and Grandpa Harry. I thought you may all like to see what she has been up to!


Cyanne being our soccer nut had a great time in Salt Lake. Besides spending her days in Jeff and Sandee's pool with Nick, Jeff took her to a real soccer game. It was Utah vs. Mexico. She had a great time! Jeff bought her a ball, and then arranged for them to eat dinner with the players and their families. She had no fear when it came to asking for autographs. She now has a ball with every player's signature... even got the coach to sign! She was on cloud nine!


















Then it was off to Montana with Seve, Carla, Natalie, and Lexus. Heather also flew up this week to hang out with her cousins. They have been moving and shaking non stop since their arrival. The girls have gone to the water park there, gone fishing with grandpa, floated my favorite river in tubes (the Blackfoot of course!), and are soon to go camping on horseback in the mountains of Livingston!














When Cyanne isn't with the Smith's she has been speanding some time with my Aunt Denise, Uncle Jim, brother Sean, and has spent some time with Grandpa Harry. She has enjoyed hiking, movie nights, and swimming with them. I haven't gotten any pictures, but when I talk to her she sounds like she is having a great time!

Vacation isn't close to over for her so I'm sure I will have pleanty more pics soon! She won't fly home until Aug. 8. I will try to get more pics up soon!

CYANNE???

Cyanne asked a couple months ago to have her ears pierced, but when she discovered she wouldn't be able to play sports with earrings in she seemed to drop that notions. Little did we know the idea was still in her head!!

When we went to get Ressa's ears pierced we didn't have Cyanne and Foster with us. They were in school. When Ressa showed Cyanne she was upset we hadn't had hers done. She was actually VERY upset about it. We finally told her if she could proove she was going to do her school work for a couple weeks we would have them done.

Lastnight we held up our end of the deal. We took her to "icing" and had her ears pierced. She had been telling me she didn't want any "diamonds" or anything "sparkly", but when she saw the studs she had to choose from she picked the saphire blue cz. She was very excited to have blue earrings. She did great with the actual piercing, but did admit later to it hurting a bit.

For all of you that can hardly believe it... here is a picture or two!

CYANNE TURNS 10!!

Cyanne celebrated her 10th birthday in style. She, Foster, Nate, Brad and Abel all went skiing at Big Bear. They had a great time! Cyanne loves skiing and Foster took a lesson. He seemed to enjoy his lesson, but is not terribly excited to go again.












After skiing we did a spaghetti and meatball dinner. Cyanne's request.




We followed that up with lemmon cake accented with chocolate chips. She seems to have had a great birthday.

OH-WELL...

Cyanne's soccer team made it to the play offs. Last Saturday we had a double header. To move on to this weekend their team would have to win both games. Go DevilRays!!!

Anyway, the girls shut out the first team. 3-0 really had the girls happy.

A couple hours later they took on the toughest team in their age division. In fact we were the only team to beat them this season and that was a narrow 1-0 win.

It was an intense game to say the very least. The other team was super physical, and one of our girls was given a red card for hitting back. That just sparked the other team's parents and the coach rushed the field. Normally that kind of behavior would stop the game, but the ref let it continue.

The game was high adrenaline as we were tied (we would have won since we had more points for the shut out in the first game), and then in the last few minutes the other team scored and we lost. I think every single DevilRay was in tears... yes even Cyanne. They put themselves back together for the end of game cheer and hand shakes, for the most part anyway. Our team parents are great and didn't let them dwell on the loss, bad behavior or time controversy. The game went 3 minutes over on time and that was what allowed them to win.






Now we are planning the end of season party that will happen next month. We will miss all the girls and I will miss the moms. We were VERY lucky to have such a great group this season. Many of our friends were not so lucky. On to the next thing I guess... whatever she decides that might be.

4TH PLACE!!!

Cyanne's soccer team won their last regular season game over the weekend, 5-2. They are in 4th place and are going to the play offs!

We have a week off for Thanksgiving and then back to practicing. Will start the playoffs sometime in late mid Dec. or early Jan. I think. Then if they make the finals we will be going into march from what I understand. She is super excited to be advancing! It has been quite the season.

This Wednesday we are driving over to Jenn's for Thanksgiving and will come home Monday. We hope you all have a fantastic and safe Thanksgiving!

OPENING DAY...

Cyanne's soccer league had an opening day festival today. We skipped most of the events since there were huge lines and it was hot, but the banner I made was entered in the banner contest and pictures were in the afternoon. I got a few pictures so thought it would be fun to post! Season starts next weekend.

Team "Devil Rays", coach Joel, coach Doug, and team mom Lakota





Team Banner





Team and Parents that went

SCHOOL IS IN SESSION!

We didn't get out of the school the kids were in last year, but lucky for us the district did not let the little boys back in that caused so much trouble for Foster last year. We adore their teachers, both of whom are very strict! I hope this year will be great!

Awards and Medals!

Cyanne finished out her soccer season last weekend. She had a blast with the group of girls on her team. None of them had any team experience, but all meshed well and progress was quick.




She was one of the most aggressive girls for sure! The final game she scored 6 of the 8 points to help her team win the game! That afternoon she had an awards party at one of the girls houses. They had everything on the pool deck so everybody had a blast. She got a medal for participation and recognition for being the most scoring player on the team. A fact she was very proud of.



At the end of each year one child from each classroom is given an award in a huge school-wide assembly. These kids are chosen for a wide array of reasons.





This year Ms. Bahr chose Cyanne to receive the "Keller All Star- Exceptional Outstanding Student" award. Siting that, "She has made many fine contributions to our class and is an inspiration to her classmates. Cyanne has made marvelous progress academically all year long and has an excellent attitude towards school". In truth her fantastic teacher is her motivation to do so well. She has had a strong influence on her... we will miss her next year!

Soccer Update

Cyanne had her second game last weekend. Only 4 girls showed up for our team so it was a crazy game with lots of running. Cyanne scored 2 goals and another girl, Chelsea, scored another 4! They are really good about working together for the goal. Anyway, as promised, here are some updated pics... check out the uniform!

Soccer Chick!

Cyanne had her first soccer game ever last weekend. She was awesome! Maybe she was showing off for the neighbor family and her aunt and uncle that were in town, but I think her competitive spirit is perfect for the sport.

She has incredible endurance and was all over the field. Her first goal was, unfortunatley, scored for the other team. Once she figured out where her team's goal was she scored another goal. She then followed up the goal action with 2 assists. Her highlight was when she headed the ball to a team mate off a goalie kick. Of course I know nothing of the sport so, those of you that actually know what is going on, please bear with my poor discriptions.

I was so excited to get to her game I forgot the camera. This picture is from her first practice. Will get a better picture at this weeks game. Will keep you posted!

Avacados?

Over last weekend we had the missionaries climb the avacado tree in the back yard and see what they could do about the branches over the house. We must have ended up with somewhere between 50 and 100 pounds of avacados!! What to do with all those things...

Cyanne decided she wanted to sell them for profit. She signed on two of the kids down the street and her little brother and sister. They made signs and taped them to a wagon. Then they drug the wagon down the street and set up shop at the corner where there is a 4 way stop. She set the price at $1 each or 3 for $2... They made a killing! $43 to be exact.

She paid everybody for their efforts and is super excited to have WAY more money in her bank than she usually does. She seems to be quite the little business guru.