Our 2013 Year In Review......Happy 2014!!

At the start of every year I look back on the previous year and think...."How did we manage to do all of that in just a year?" and this year was no exception. So this is our 2013 in a very long and overloaded nutshell.

January
- Dave moved to Utah to start a new amazing job.
- Alicia started working part-time to stay home with the boys more.
- Alicia and boys traveled to Austin to see some of the Nelson family and to say "Good-bye and hope y'all come visit us in Utah!"
- Dave flew to Texas for a weekend visit.
- Our beloved dog Jack died.

February
- Alicia and boys traveled to Lubbock to see more of the Nelson family and the Martin family and to say "Good-bye and hope y'all come visit in Utah!"
- Alicia, the boys, Abby and Jacob all flew to Utah for a week of family and winter vacation fun.
- Abby turned 12 years old!! (We will not say how old Alicia turned!)

March
- Alicia and boys flew to Utah for a long weekend of winter fun and house hunting.
- The house in Texas was prepared for selling. This included lots of pool maintenance, painting, sheetrock work and a kitchen remodel.
- Dave flew to Texas to help with the final move.
- Abby and Jacob came to Texas for Spring Break fun.
- Jacob turned 11 years old!!
- Alicia quit her job at the end of the month to become a full-time Stay-at-home Mom!!

April
- The house was packed and shipped to Utah. Thank God for amazing professional movers.
- The family and Annie (our dog) made the final three day drive to Utah.
- The family moved into a temporary apartment while we were closing on our new house.
- Dave started a Turnaround at work that had him working 7 days a week, 12 hours a day with 14 days on and 1 day off. This turnaround lasted until June.
- Connor turned 5 years old!!
- We closed on the new house in South Weber, Utah!!!

May
- Our furniture and stuff was moved into our new house in South Weber. Again.....Thank God for professional movers.
- Alicia and the boys unpacked the house while Dave continued to work the turnaround.
- Connor started Kindergarten (since he was in Kindergarten in Texas) at South Weber Elementary.

June
- Dave finished his turnaround!!
- Abby and Jacob joined us for the summer.
- We adopted our new dog Doug.
- Jacob started his summer tutoring. He was so dedicated and did a really great job!
- We sold our house in Texas! Prayers were answered.

July
- Lots of summer fun in Utah with all four kids.
- Abby was in the 4th of July parade with her tumbling class. So proud!
- Dave and Alicia celebrated 5 years of married life.
- We had a large BBQ for our friends and neighbors to say "Goodbye" to our summer time with Abby and Jacob.
- Abby and Jacob went back to Louisiana to start the school year.

August
- Abby started 7th grade (Jr. High) and Jacob started 6th grade in Louisiana.
- Preston started Pre-K at Layton Christian Academy.
- Our exchange student from Switzerland, Stephan, came to live with us for the school year.
- Papa Vroom Vroom, Terry Nelson, came to visit us for Preston's 4th birthday.
- Preston turned 4 years old!!
- We found out that the dog we adopted in June had a broken hip. The vet thinks he was hit by a car before we adopted him. This discovery started a long process to fix Doug's hip that would eventually included Doug's primary vet in Layton, UT, the board certified specialist vet in Salt Lake City, UT and the specialized surgeon in Boise, ID.
- Connor started Kindergarten (for the third time!) at South Weber Elementary.

September
- Stephan turned 18 years old!!
- Stephan started playing American football for the first time. By the end of the season he was a starter on the kickoff special teams!!
- Connor and Preston started the fall 2013 soccer season for AYSO. Dave was the coach of Preston's team.
- Alicia drove Doug to Boise, Idaho for his hip-replacement surgery and two nights in the animal hospital. Luckily while there she was able to spend some quality girlfriend time with Jamie!

October
- Doug's recovery continued and required alot of time and energy.
- Stephan was playing football every week with team dinners on every Thursday night.
- Dave worked the chains at the LCA home football games while the boys and I cheered from the stands!
- The family walked on the football field with Stephan when he was honored on LCA Senior night. We were very proud Host parents!
- Connor and Preston were playing soccer every weekend with practices on every Thursday night.
- Happy Halloween with lots of festivities for the boys.

November
- LCA made it to the football playoffs! Unfortunately they lost in the first round but they had a great season!
- Happy Birthday to Dave!
- Abby tried out for her Jr. High's girls soccer team and made it!!
- Stephan played for the LCA indoor soccer team. They did not win the entire tournament but they did very well and got close to winning it all.
- Abby and Jacob flew to Utah for Thanksgiving holiday. This was Stephan's first Thanksgiving ever and our first with five kids. Luckily it all went well and was lots of fun!

December
- Lots of Christmas festivities and activities with friends and family in Utah.
- Alicia flew to Texas (Dallas, Marion, Austin and Friendswood!) for a week filled with great friends, an AUH-MAZ-ING wedding and lots of family.
- Abby and Jacob flew to Utah for the Christmas and New Years holidays.
- Stephan flew to Colorado to go on a New Years skiing vacation with his Dad and brother.
- Doug's 12 week rehabilitation ended and he was cleared by his vet to be off all restrictions.

During the year there were moments where is all felt overwhelming and unmanageable but in the end we survived and even thrived. We are loving being back in Utah more than we could have imagined but we are sad to have left all the great friends and family we have in Texas. We are looking forward to a great 2014 and hoping it will be a year of no life altering changes.

Connor lost his first tooth!!!

Tonight Connor lost his first tooth while we were out eating dinner. Since the tooth was not loose and showed no signs of coming out while he was eating pizza, I have to say that Mom did not handle the tooth coming out and the unexpected amount of blood as well as I could have. Luckily we were able to calm Connor down and get him to understand that losing a tooth is completely normal and everyone does it at his age. He is still a little nervous about having a hole in his mouth but he is pretty excited about the toothfairy coming to visit him tonight. I am hoping Mom will handle the next tooth alot better!! I am not loving how much this kid is growing up on me right now. I wish he was still my sweet little boy and not my rapidly growing little man. But atleast I can say I love the little man he currently is.

Third Saturday of Fall Soccer

Pictures from the third Saturday of Fall Soccer.

Today Preston played about a 1/3 of the game and we had NO meltdowns! PROGRESS!!! Unfortunately today Connor and Preston's games were at the same time and since Preston requires alot more attention, due to his history of meltdowns, I missed alot of Connor's game. But I did see Connor score an amazing goal where he took the ball by himself the entire length of the field and scored. We were so proud!!!

Here are some pictures of Preston and his growing love of playing soccer.

Preston kicking off!

My only picture of Connor playing. I was cheering too hard while he was scoring to take any pictures!

Second Saturday of Fall Soccer

Here is some pictures from our second Saturday of Fall Soccer. Preston played about 8 minutes today before he lost it, started his meltdown and had to be taken off the field. You can say.....progress? We will try again next week to see if he wants to play more.

Preston was throwing in the ball after it went out of bounds. He looks happy right?!?

GOOOOOAAAALLLLL!!! Go Preston!!!

Preston kicking off the ball after a goal.

He is playing!! Yup.....I know I sound too excited. But hey....his meltdowns are no fun to deal with! Also, I have to mention how much I LOVE the view of the mountains we have while watching the boys play soccer. I feel so blessed to live where we do.

Connor's game. He is loving playing and is doing really good! (And yes, he is playing a team with the exact same jerseys as Preston's team)

 Showing some great balancing and ball skills.

 Our happy little man!!

 Connor throwing in the ball to his teammates after it went out of bounds.

First Saturday of Fall Soccer - 2013

Today starts the Fall 2013 Soccer season for Connor and Preston. This year they are playing with AYSO so we are looking forward to seeing how it compares to Space City Futbol Club. This is Connor's third year in soccer and Preston's first year so this is a day we have been looking forward to for a good part of the summer.

 

Dave is the coach of Preston's team. Today Preston only wanted to practice and lasted about 5 minutes in the game before he started throwing a fit and had to be taken out of the game. But hey....we will keep bring him to the games and trying to get him to play and have fun.

 

 Preston was showing off his mad soccer skills during his practice time.

Look he is playing and smiling!! (I had to have proof cause his meltdown 5 minutes into the game would lead you to believe he hated soccer)

 After the game he was enjoying playing soccer again with Dad and Stephan.

 Connor's team. They looked so cute in their uniforms during their practice time.



Connor showing off his mad ball handling skills.





 Yup....that is Connor stealing the ball away from the Orange team. He was so happy during the game!

 My happy little soccer man. (And I just LOVE his teammate's face in this picture!)

 Go Connor!!!

 GOOOOOAAAAAAALLLLL!! That is Connor scoring one of his three goals!!