Is she cute.... or what!?

Officially a Soccer Mom

During the past couple weeks I have become a true Soccer mom (minus the minivan though---hopefully that will be remedied in the future). Reili started playing soccer a little over two weeks ago. At the first practice I was so impressed with the way the coaches could teach 5 year olds some basic skills and still keep them having fun. It is definitely entertaining to watch 5 year olds play a game of soccer. I missed the first game, but am told that Reili made two goals (one in the opposite teams net). In this weeks game she seemed to be much less interested in playing (though she did have her moments) and spent a good amount of time in random play with her team mates. At one point I think the 5 players were all down at one end of the field picking grass and throwing it while the other team prepared to kick off. They all seemed to have a somewhat short attention span when it came to actually playing soccer. I am glad to see Reili involved in a sport though and I definitely think all children need to learn some skill that can build team work and self esteem. Above are some fun pictures from Reili's soccer practice last week.

Chunky Monkey

Our little Wesley has made it to the 4 month mark. "Chunky" is a good word to describe him. I took him to the doctor today and he is still off the charts for weight at 18 lbs. 2 oz. For head and length he is in the 90-95th percentile. What a cute boy and I finally have a blond in the family. We all love him so much. What a good natured boy he is...and he showed how tough he was today when he got his shots. He barely whimpered after he got them.

We took a trip to the St. Louis Temple this last weekend with our ward. Actually, I stayed at the visitors center with Wesley while Tom went to a session with some of our friends. Wesley is still a little young to make it long enough for me to go (well really it is the long drive and trying to work around his feeding schedule). It was nice to go and be there with everyone though. Afterwards we had dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. YUM! I ate way too much and then cheesecake to top it off. If you ever go there, try the Farfalle pasta dish, it was delicious. (Would this be a true VanLeeuwen entry if I didn't talk about food?) And it was nice to be in a bigger city again and get to go to the mall and such. Not much else going on here.

Kids Camera

Our girls always want to take pictures with our digital camera. I am thinking that this Christmas I need to get a real camera for them (so they don't break ours). The question is, should I get two so I don't have to deal with any fighting? Reili actually takes really good pictures. She seems to center them really well most of the time. (Tom often adds the caveat that they are better than the ones I take.) Amberly...well that is another story. We get some really interesting pictures on the camera when she is taking them. (The ones shown below are ones not taken of things at her height...we erased all the ones of the kitchen cabinets). Here is a sample of some of their work.

Reili's:





Amberly's:

Fun in the Sun

This weekend we had some much needed family fun. Friday night we went to a birthday party for our neighbor's daughter, Teagan Springer. They had it at the place where Teagan takes horse riding lessons, so all the little girls got to ride the horses. We went as a family because I couldn't leave Wesley home for that long (he doesn't take a bottle). That afternoon it was really raining so the party was moved to inside. Even so it was so much fun for the girls, especially Reili. Amberly wouldn't ride the horses or anything connected to the horses. In fact, picture shows the closest we could get her to a horse. We all enjoyed the party and the hot dogs and cupcakes.
Saturday we went with a few friends from church to St. Joe's state park. The guys had fun dirt biking in the heat (too bad I didn't get any pictures of them, I had to watch the kids), while the ladies chatted and watched the kids play in the sand and swim. The kids really wore themselves out (and we were worn out too). It is as close to a "beach" as you can get here in this land locked state and the girls had so much fun swimming and playing. Wesley had fun sleeping and also managed to get a few handfuls of sand now that he is grabbing onto everything in sight. We certainly hope to do more traveling around the state while we are here.