Game Day and Game Night

On Saturday we went to the BYU vs. UCLA game 59-0 need I say more? Afterwards we decided to keep the fun going by having a gamenight with my cousins and Snow's brothers at my parent's house. We resurrected some college favorites like Mafia (our version is called werewolves) and the sign game. Good food. Good People. Good Times.

Soccer Star

One day snow was in a local sporting goods store and they were have soccer sign ups. He thought this would be great for Saylor (who is not yet 3) and signed her up. She is now on a team of 5 other 3 year-olds named the white sharks. She loves her soccer ball, she loves her soccer shoes, she even loves her soccer socks (shin guards) what she does not love is playing soccer. Actually she really likes kicking the ball as long as no one else gets in her way and as long as it is only for like 3 minutes. Her amazing coach has a practice every week, during which time she usually does somersaults in the grass or begs to play on the slide. On game day Saylor usually only gets contact with the ball when it is her turn to kick it in from out of bounds. She even cries when other kids come and kick the ball away from her saying "it is my turn to kick the ball and they taked it". Her only goal this year may be the one she scored while they were warming up. I love that sharing and taking turns are virtues she has assimilated. I also like that she is not an aggressive girl, but what this translates to in soccer terms is that her soccer skills are about as good as mine. Those of you that know me well are now feeling really sorry for Saylor! It is fun for her to be a part of a team, and I am sure we will sign her up again next year. Oh yeah, the highlight of last weeks game: finding a "magic wand" (ie music baton) in the grass.

Cousins

Mary Ellen (Snow's sister) and Jeremy were in town visiting with their kids early September. It was nice for Saylor to get to play with her only cousins for a couple of days. We went to Jeremy's parents house and they had all kinds of fun stuff: a jumping castle, a giant ball you can be rolled in, a swingset etc. Saylor could not get enough of the ball. Honestly, I don't know where she got her sudden drive for extreme sports. We tried to get a picture of them together, but it is always tricky to try to get 4 kids looking happy at the same time. This was our best effort:

We miss you Ashton, Sydney, and Raymee!

Yuba Lake August 30th

My parents took us all to the lake to do a little boating. We had planned on wake boarding, but it was a little too cold and windy. We ended up getting out the tube and my daredevil of a daughter hogged it most of the time.

She loved riding it, she just sat there singing songs and protesting when her ride was over. She was also the only one, along with her Uncle Lot, to get in the frigid water voluntarily.The rest of us spent most of the time enjoying the boat ride and soaking in what sun we could.

Question: what do you do with a recently potty0trained child on a boat for several hours?

Answer:

It was a short trip to the lake because we had a BYU football game to get to, but it was really fun. Thanks Mom and Dad for your work to make it such a fun day!

Pool Party

Snow had a retreat for work the end of August. I didn't want to stay at home with Saylor by myself, so we decided to go spend the weekend with my parents. It was really fun. The highlight of the weekend for Saylor was going swimming at the Provo pool. We went with my Mom, Jan, and Gabby. Saylor was really excited about the beach ball Grandma had for her to bring.

She loved swimming with Gabby and worked up a serious appetite--for candy!She waited patiently when they had to do a safety check and made everyone get out of the water. But her favorite thing about the pool were the big slides. I was hesitant to take her at first--I just knew she would hate it and be traumatized--but she LOVED it. We rode about 6 times and she threw a serious tantrum when we had to leave.Side-note story: I don't know about kids these days. While Saylor was swimming with the aforementioned beach ball, it got away from her. An older boy (maybe 6) got it and started playing with it. Gabby tried to go to the rescue and asked the kid for her friend's ball back. The kid responded by holding it above Gabby's head and laughing while she tried to grab it. I decided to intervene so I walked over to the kid and asked if I could have my daughters ball back. He gave me a dirty look and threw it in my face. What the!!! I couldn't believe a kid would be rude like that to an adult. I said really loud "you need a time out" hoping a parent would here, but they were probably too busy reading twilight to pay attention to their child.

Haircut

So what did you do last night? Have a nice, cozy FHE? Watch the women's Olympic trampoline finals? Me--I cried my eyes out. I will explain. We had a nice family dinner then I started doing the dishes, and Snow had a paper to write, so as a special treat he let Saylor sit in the computer chair and watch an episode of Wonderpets online. She was, of course completely mesmerized. In fact she didn't even make a peep. I took advantage of her being occupied and started cleaning a bathroom. What a rookie mom mistake! Isn't it rule number one that a too quiet child is getting into trouble. So once the bathroom is done I come to get Saylor and this is what I see:

Yep, Saylor climbed onto the desk and found her kid scissors and went to town. She sees me and says "Mom, I breaked my hair, you gotta fix it." Sorry kid, no Dora band aid is going to fix this problem!I will say this for her: she was very thorough. No half-hearted snip of the bangs here, the top of her head is pretty much hairless.I don't know about where you live, but here EMO bangs on a mullet are not the latest toddler hair craze.Yep, she looks pretty repentant right?Psych! I don't even think my talented stylist sister can salvage this do, at least for a few months. So do I take a page out of my elderly neighbor's handbook and go for the comb-over? Maybe I pretend she is a newborn here in Utah and put a giant flower band on her head. Really, I am at a loss. So much for the pictures I had planned for next week. Snow and I did come up with one positive each.

Snow: at least her bangs won't be getting in her eyes (ha, ha, ha--I am not amused).

Summer: at least I have something to put on the blog.

Saylor's Cover of Old MacDonald