Summer? Maybe....

Well, the kids only have 3 more days of school left until they are out for the summer. It always comes with mixed feelings because I do enjoy the little bit of quiet time I have while they are at school but I am also excited to do some fun things with them. We decided not to put Addison in her summer pre-school even though I do have a couple of classes.This past week we had some fun things going on. First, Evan had a solo part in a song presented to a retiring teacher at his school. The song was performed in sign language as the music was sung...Evan had a solosigning part. It was so touching to see him do this and to know how excited he was to be doing it. He came home and practiced all the time. The song is beautiful and written by Masa Fukuda the composer I have spoken about before. He has been a wonderful part of Evan's third grade experience. I posted a video of him at the end of the post...

Here is a picture of Miss Priss at the performance...

I took this picture of her and as I was putting the camera away, she huffed "Only one picture?!".... I figure it must be the sunglasses or her inner diva making an appearance. So, I took a second one to make her happy :)

I love watching my kids when they are concentrating on something that they find very important and engaging. Ian is a book worm, just like his mom...I can often find him this way with his nose in a book.

Addison is my artist (so is Evan actually) she is constantly creating her own masterpieces. I cannot tell you how much paper we go through in this house because of her and her pictures...here she is drawing something in the car while we wait for Evan to finish scouts.

She is also starting to show an interest in cheerleading, or gymnastics...I think it must come from some of the girls in her pre-school class. They have competitions to see who can kick the highest.

Here are a few more instagram shots. This will be a regular appearance on the blog until I get sick of it...if I ever do. I love the way it makes my pictures look.

This morning was Addison's spring dance recital. This year it was done to all the music from the movie "Tangled"... they were little Rapunzel's. We have finally overcome the stage fright phase and Addie was excited to dance up there with her friend Abbie (brown haired girl that Addie partners with in video) She was quite proud of herself when she finished the first number, clapping vigorously on stage....I just love watching her twirl. I hope she stays in dance forever. Here are a few pictures of the morning and a video at the end of her ballet number.

Today was Evan's last soccer game of the season. They really did a number on the other team winning 15-1. Addie and I enjoyed sitting in the shade.

She was a bit tired from her big morning. Evan had previously decided that after 3 seasons of soccer he was ready to do something different and planned on signing up for basketball instead this fall. After the game was over today he ran up to me and said he changed his mind...he still wants to play soccer. He has such a great team...they are all friends and his coach is wonderful. I guess we will just have to stay tuned as to what Evan will be playing this fall.

The weather is gorgeous today! 83 degrees finally! I am getting ready to go on my girls trip next week to Colorado so the next post will probably be an update from my trip. Happy Summer!!

Soccer Season Returns....

The crazy soccer season has begun again. I have to say that Spring session should be better than Fall because most of Evan's games are at noon and most of Ian's are between 8am and 10am. So that means that with the exception of one or two games that cross into each other, I should be able to see ALL of both boys' games this season rather than half of one and half of the other. Still have to go back and forth between two different fields but it makes it a lot nicer that we arent rushing just to see 10 minutes of each game.

Since Fall season ended, Ian has seen a podiatrist for his heel pain and it turned out he had some cracked growth plates which made even walking painful for him. He has since received a pair of special orthotics to wear in his shoes and they have really made a big difference for him. He actually ran during his soccer game and this is a pretty big deal. Normally he would sort of gallop slowly...which now we know was because the one foot was really hurting him. I am so happy that he might actually enjoy this soccer season so much more than last.

Sadly, his team lost their first game...time for practice!

Evans team remains intact each year and so he plays with the same kids and same coach every season. They even play soccer at school during recess together.

Because of this their team is quite cohesive and they rarely lose. I think this is the biggest problem with Ian's team. The boys dont go to the same school so only a couple of them actually know each other. Not to mention the coaches son plays on the team and can be pretty mean. There just doesnt seem to be any unity especially when your own teammates are critical of your playing skills. I hope that it is better for them this time around otherwise I dont think Ian will want to play again next year. Evan plays Goalie, which kills me.

It makes me sooo nervous because every time the ball gets near the goal I am praying that Evan doesnt let it through. Such a high pressure position, it blows my mind that Evan actually wants to play it. I would sure love to see him actually play soccer on the field but he is content being the Goalie and no one else on the team wants the position. It makes for some great action shots though!! Go Evan!

Addie asked me Saturday if when she turns 5 can she play soccer? I dont think I can handle 3 games and practices without Denver here to help me juggle so she is just going to have to stick to Dance for now :)

Soccer Fun....

I havent been as good about taking pictures of the boys' sports this year. But here is my attempt one weekend to capture the essence of our Saturday mornings. Keep in mind that I rarely get to watch an entire game of either boy due to the juggling I have to do between games. Both boys play on Saturday mornings between 8am and 10am on different teams and on different fields. It takes creative measures to get them both there and be able to actually watch a game.


This picture below shows both Ian's on the team. Their coach needed to call one of them something different to keep confusion to a minimum. The blonder boy is Russian and speaks little English and the coach kept yelling "Russian Ian" at him which seemed inappropriate so I offered him the name "Ike" for our Ian. Ian's middle name is Kenneth and so when he was little Denver often called him Ike. So this is what he is called now on his soccer team.


Here is Ian sitting....on break...his favorite part of the game. I have to say that Ian just isnt much of a runner. I think we are going to encourage the coach to try him out as the goalie so at least for part of the game he will actually have an excuse for just standing there!

One of the things that I adore about the games this year are the locations of their fields. Although the boys play at different fields, both of them are located on the same hill above the capital and offer the most spectacular view of the city in the mornings. Not much shade however...but oh, what a view!


And here is Evan...he is so enthusiastic about soccer. He really enjoys it and has improved so much this year! He goes to school with all of these boys on his team so they play soccer at recess together as well. It has really been fun for him to be on the same team again this year.

He is really improving on his running and getting to the ball faster. Last year he hung back a lot for fear of getting kicked but this year he is really digging in and getting a little more aggressive. If there is one thing my boys are not, its aggressive. Not that its a bad thing...unless there is a soccer ball to get to!


Evan likes to play the goalie occasionally and seems to have a knack for it. It makes me a nervous wreck...especially if a ball gets past him but he seems to take it in stride. Here he is about to stop a ball...check out the determination on his face...Love it!


He loves to drop kick the ball out of the box....he says this is what he practices the most at recess every day :)

And here is miss Addison....the mascot I guess. Poor thing gets dragged around all day with me...but she is a good sport as long as she gets a treat when we are all through! One more month of this craziness and then we can rest until Spring soccer!

The Boys and Their New Adventure.....

We have always encouraged the boys to be involved in some kind of sport. Ian started with soccer, as did Evan. They have both played baseball, Ian has played basketball and football. Evan seems content to stick with soccer at the moment as he is just finishing up his season with the Firebirds. Anyway, I dont believe in forcing them to play anything. If they ask to play, they are expected to commit to the whole season...and they always do. With summer coming, there are not a lot of sports to play and frankly, Ian isnt really interested in anything anyway. He decided not to play football again this fall; not a big shock there. But he really needs to do something active as I worry about his potential weight issues. I told him to pick something and he chose Tae-Kwon-Do lessons. I was a little hesitant at first because I would prefer some type of team sport. But Ian is who he is and once he gets something into his head its hard to change his mind. So.... happy that he will be doing some type of exercising 3 times a week, I enrolled him and Evan. They have been to 2 classes so far and it is lots of fun watching them try to coordinate themselves to these moves. Listening to them call their instructor 'sir' is fun too...maybe this wont be so bad :)

Here are a couple of videos of their class last night.....

We Survived.....

The last 2 weeks have been so full of busy-ness that I wasnt sure we could survive it, but we did! Ian had his final football game of the season on Saturday.....I think he learned a lot from it and it was generally a good experience even if every single day he whined and cried over having to go to practice. I have discovered that childbirth "selective memory" doesnt just apply to the act of having a child. Apparently, the trauma of having football practice 3 days a week has been long since forgotten in a matter of 2 days as Ian announced to me this morning that he would definitely be playing football again next year! What?! Wow. Didnt see that coming. Here is his team right after the game. Ian is on the back row, smack in the middle. Number 73.....

I wont go into the trauma of that day and how we ended up clear out in Riverton for the game only to find out it was back in Salt Lake City.....thankfully we made it just as they were getting ready to start.

Halloween was a total success....as it is every year. Kinda hard to fail getting free candy. Although we did run out of black hair spray and Addisons Snow White hair looked a bit like bride of Frankenstein with her blond streaks showing through.

Oh well, it was dark.....no one noticed. These are our pumpkins that the kids (read, Denver) carved this year. I thought they turned out great!


November is already starting out busy..... Evan's last soccer game is Saturday.

We leave for Monterey next week. My choir performance is the week after that and then the week after that is Thanksgiving. Nevermind that we have school in the middle of all this mess. Onward and upward right? Happy November everybody.

A Week in Review......

Ive really been slacking on this blog lately! We are just busy busy and I dont seem to have the time that I used to for sitting at the computer. It may also have something to do with my poor time management skills, but that is a post for a different day. Anyway, this past week was pretty good.... The kids had Thursday and Friday off for UEA weekend. This meant no soccer game for Evan on Saturday but Ian still had a football game. It was a great game and they actually Won!
Its their first win of the season and it was so fun to watch these kids get so excited over it. Denver's brother made us some team wear which we proudly wore at the game..... Go Highland Rams!


I ran 8.5 miles on Sunday morning and am constantly amazed at how well my body has adapted to each long run that I finish. It was an interesting 2 hours considering that I ran through rain, hail, sleet and then finished the run in a torrential downpour. I had people stop and ask me if I wanted a ride but by that point I was soaked from head to toe and didnt see the point. Besides, I had to finish the mileage. It was actually fun.....next week I have to run 10 miles. There are only 5 more weeks until my race! Im getting really excited.

Here is a fun little picture that I took last week of my nephew Soren. This was after Addie had gotten into my makeup bag and decided that Soren would be her model.

She is such a girl and is obsessed at the moment with makeup, perfume, and jewelry. She has also discovered the Disney Princesses and watches the movies over and over and over. Jasmine from Aladdin is her favorite right now. Its times like this when I wish I could just freeze time and stop my kids from growing..... you can never have this time back once it is gone. There are days when they exhaust me but I just cannot imagine what I would do without them. Love love love my kids.

Where to Begin....

So, here is a quick run down of what has been happening at the Shannon household for the past week or two. WARNING....this is a long post!

The first bit of news would be that over Labor Day weekend my parents flew into town for a visit. We always love it when they come and it never seems like it is a long enough visit. They got here late Friday night and first thing Saturday morning they came to Ian's first official football game. Friday night Ian was sick.... throwing up, diarrhea sick. Denver felt like it was just nerves because he was a little bit anxious about this big game with Grandpa here to watch him. So, when he got up in the morning, he seemed OK and off we went to the game. Let's just say that he confirmed to everyone that he was really not feeling well at all and it was not nerves. The game was horrible and he hardly played at all. I felt really bad for him because he had wanted to play for Grandpa.....but he was relieved when it was over and after we got home, he layed down on his bed and fell fast asleep still in full uniform with pads!

My mom and I spent the afternoon at a movie. We saw Julie & Julia and it was OK...it was fun to go out with my mom though. I'd love to go on a trip somewhere, just to two of us....shopping and seeing movies and laying on the beach. One day soon.....

Sunday afternoon, Addie started complaining and crying about having a stomach ache. I was getting ready to go shopping with my mom for my birthday, which was that very day :) Suddenly Denver is screaming at me to come downstairs as Addison had barfed all over the place. We got her cleaned up and bathed and not 5 minutes later Denver is screaming again because now Evan was throwing up all over the place. Good Times!! Mom and I left to go shopping anyway and when we returned, it was obvious I had some really sick kiddos.

The next day I woke up sick....like I said, Good Times. It felt like I was pregnant again ***( dont worry, IM NOT PREGNANT!!!)*** but every smell made me Gag. We were having Labor Day dinner at Nates that evening and we were in charge of the food. We made Kalua Pork (which is amazing by the way) and the smell of that liquid smoke on the pork was enough to do me in. I survived though without throwing up and enjoyed a nice dinner with my family. I love it when we can all be together. My parents left the next day to go back to Reno.

So, next on the list would be that Evan got placed on a soccer team finally (it was up in the air as he was on a waiting list) and it turned out that 8 of the 10 boys on this team are either in his current school class or were in his class last year. Needless to say he was ecstatic! His first game was yesterday and he did great! Looks as though Goalie might be his position....he blocked every ball the other team shot at him. It was awesome. Addie started Dance classes on Friday and she had an ear to ear perma-grin on her face all day. She loved it and Im so excited for this time in her life....she is becoming quite the girlie girl. I LOVE it! Ian had another game on Saturday and did so much better since he wasnt sick. In fact at practice this past week he actually enjoyed himself for the first time and couldnt wait for the game yesterday. Im so happy that he is finally gaining some confidence and having a good time.

School is going great for me although Im finding it difficult to get my homework done timely.... its hard to get used to remembering such a thing. Saturday night I attended my very first symphony. I had to critique it for my music appreciation class. It was the Utah Symphony playing Beethoven's 5th Symphony. My friend Linda came up from Provo and we went to dinner first and then the concert. It was really great....except for the horribly uncomfortable seats! I love this class and am excited to see more concerts throughout the semester including the opera, Macbeth.

I think that about does for it for the main events.....we are just busy as can be right now between school, work, football, soccer, and dance! Fun times!! Here is a slideshow of some extra pictures....