For Sophia...
Sena after her school carnival!

I decided that Rilynn is going to be the "scrapbooker" in the family. She is always aksing me to make her a "tag" or a "little book" out of my crafting supplies. Last night while I was sewing up some little jeans for a friend, Rilynn took a bunch of scrap fabric and cut "bracelets" out of it. We pretended that I was the pants lady and she was the bracelet lady. She is so funny.

What do you think?

Kansas City, KS

This Memorial Day weekend we got in the car (truck) and drove the 7-8 hour trip to Kansas City. Kristians soccer team had a tournament there. It was so nice to go somewhere warm! We got home late Monday night and it was only 50 degrees in MN and today is not any warmer. Again, I just don't understand why we choose to live here. It was a great weekend. The girls spent a bit of time in the hotel pool, they were loving that! Chad and Kristian went with the team to see Indiana Jones in the theatre on Sunday. I enjoyed watching some great soccer and soaking up the sun by the pool. On Monday it was rainy so the girls didn't come out of the car for the morning game. That meant that they were in the car from about 9:30 am to 9:30 pm. Rilynn had a few meltdowns. Monday was a loooooong day!

The Hotel

The hotel we stayed at was awesome. It was so modern and classy. Chad loved the large flat screen TV in our room. Rilynn and Sena loved the outdoor pool, especially on Sunday when it was close to 90 degrees! Kristian liked the basketball hoop in the parking lot where he had some much needed bonding time with his teammates.

Watching games

The girls did great during games playing on the sidelines. Rilynn even slept in her stroller through one whole game. It was warm and sunny. There are two other girls Sena's age that Sena plays with. On Monday Sena and Ri hung out in the car instead of standing out in the rain.

1st place winners!!!

The boys played 4 games over the weekend. They won 6-0, 5-0, 4-0, and 2-1 to take 1st place! That is 17 goals in one weekend! Pretty sweet! It is always fun to come home with a first place trophy!

Family dinners

On Saturday the boys had an evening game so we had a late dinner in the parking lot of the hotel. It was such a beautiful evening to eat outside, even if it was in a parking lot! On Sunday we all went to a fabulous Italian restaurant for dinner. It was all you can eat buffet style. Every kind of pasta you can think of, meatballs, pizza, fried zucchini, chicken, ribs... and you should have seen the desserts! Although the food was wonderful, the company was not so much. We stopped and bought a "bribe" toy before dinner in hopes that Rilynn would play nicely at dinner and let us socialize a little. That completely backfired. She was so engrossed in the new "Polly Pockets" that she peed her pants not once but two times! Needless to say that I spent a bit of my evening in the bathroom with my two year old.

Slippery stairs

Sena, sporting her new Raiders warm up jacket she got last night (Ri in her jammies)

Rilynn, 8 months old, a few days after falling down the stairs
Our beautiful and dangerous staircase

On Monday night Sena had to go out to the soccer field for soccer pictures. She was supposed to have practice after but she had a band concert she was in. On her way out the door for pictures she slipped and fell all the way down our full flight of oak stairs and landed in the ceramic tile entry way. Thud, thud, thud is all I heard as she bounced on her butt down. I left the water running in the bathroom and ran. Chad had gotten to her first at the bottom of the stairs. Thank goodness after a few min she got up and could walk. That brought all the memories quickly back to me of when little Ri was 8 months old and fell down those darn stairs....

It was one of the kids first days of summer break and we were all getting ready for soccer camp that morning. The two days prior to that day Kristian kept forgetting to shut the gate at the top of the stairs and I was all over him. I remember saying to him, "if the baby falls down those stairs, she will die!" Rilynn was not crawling at the time but she was doing the "butt scoot" rather quickly along the floor. That morning I had just pored myself a bowl of cereal and was going to stand and eat it quickly before leaving, and I heard that thud, thud, thud. I ran to see my beautiful baby girl hitting her head all the way down the stairs. I just remember screaming "Oh, God, no!". Kristian (who had just left the gate open) was at the bottom of the stairs with I am sure the same horrified look on his face that I had on mine. What happened after that is a little blurry for me. Kristian ran to get a neighbor who is a nurse and I called 911. Rilynn laid on the floor screaming like I had never heard before. I didn't dare pick her up in case her neck was broke or something. She had a huge bump on one side of her head that quickly turned purple. I remember calling Chads work and telling the secretary to tell Chad to go to the hospital right away. The ambulance came and told me to get her infant car seat and they put her in there and made a neck support for her. I rode in the ambulance to the hospital with her. We were at the hospital for quite a while so that they could observe her to see if they needed cat scans or x-rays. NOTHING, she was fine! To this day that was the worst day of my life. When the doctors questioned me about how this happened, I felt like the worst parent in the whole world. When it was all over with I cried and cried. For many days and weeks after I could not close my eyes with out seeing it happening. My neighbor who came that morning and helped with the other kids later brought me a Willow Tree figurine called "Angel of Miracles". It was truly a miracle that she survived with only a bump on her head. It took Kristian some recovery time also, still to this day I think it eats at him. Poor kid, I can only imagine that when I went off in the ambulance with Ri that morning, he must of stood there thinking "I just killed my sister". Thank you God for miracles.

Senas soccer team won for the first time last night with no help from Sena who sat on the sidelines too sore to play. I think I will be taking her to the chiropractors this week also. Life is never dull, thats for sure!

Letter from the coach...

Here is what Kristians coach wrote to the boys today knowing that they are bummed about not winning state;

Team, This is just to remind all of my players of how proud I am of how you've conducted yourself throughout the early part of this season. Yesterday's game was just another example of how classy you are in all aspects of your game. We still have a lot to play for and we can only accomplish our goals if we stay totally committed to working hard and making sacrifices. Thanks for your great work and dedication. God Bless each and everyone of you. See you at practice tomorrow. Coach Alex

Crazy dayz

Ri, looking good at Kristians game
This is Daddy's favorite outfit
Rilynn playing with Papa Don
Sebion krew; grandma, Chad, grandpa, Josie, Andrew, Sena, Emilie, Tim, Deb & Ri sleeping in the chair next to grandma
Kristian is in the bright orange shoes

We had a very busy week and weekend. Kristians team played in the Minnesota state cup semi-finals over the weekend, so he had practice every night last week. ( His practice field is an hour drive for us) Sena also had a game that was over an hour away.

Friday night Chad came home from work and while still in the entry way he some how pulled out his back. He has had a "bad back" for many years from a work related injury. Every so often he re injures it, this one seems like it is worse than the others. He can hardly walk and cant even put his own socks on. He is headed to the chiropractor this morning.

Saturday Kristians team played an awesome game winning 2-1. After the game we headed to my brothers for a wedding shower for my cousin. The kids had fun playing outside with their cousins. The weather that whole day was weird. It would be sunny and beautiful and then it would get really windy and dark and rain for 3 min and then go back to sunny again. It did this many times throughout the day.

Sunday Kristians team lost their semi-final game after double overtime in a shoot out. Its the worst way to lose! Grandma & Grandpa and Aunt & Uncle and cousins came out to watch. It was cold and windy! We are headed to kansas city for a tournament next so hopefully it will be warmer than 55 degrees there!

We have another busy week filled with soccer pictures, a band concert, dance practice, soccer games & practices and packing! Please pray for Chads back to heal quickly, we need his help!

Mothers Day

Rilynn played with a little friend at Grandmas
Grandma made yummy strawberry shortcake