Happy Anniversary...

Today Clay and I are celebrating our 15 year anniversary. I can't believe how time has flown.

I have been joking with him the last few months about how you are supposed to do something exciting and extravagant for your 15 year anniversary. I always imagined it would be Hawaii, or something like that... Instead, I am at girls camp for a couple of days, spending some time with Kylee, and then heading to a family reunion with my side of the family.

We don't have the time or money to go to Hawaii, life is too busy with baseball, soccer, swimming lessons, dance, and work.

But, you know what?? I wouldn't trade what I have right now for a trip anywhere. I know that is sappy, but I am happy with the little life that we are living.

I am so thankful that I met Clay on a blind date in 1995, and I am thankful that I am married to my best friend. I am thankful for the hard worker that he is, and I am thankful for the father he is to my 3 beautiful children.

Happy Anniversary Clay!

I love you!

p.s. Thanks for the new wedding ring!!! I LOVE it :)

Fall In Review...

So, what can I say, blogging is not a huge priority right now. Who am I kidding, it isn't even a priority right now. I haven't updated in a long time, so rather than do 17 posts, here are some pictures of what has been going on in our lives the last few months, hence the name of the post...

There is no particular order, because I am not bright enought to load the pictures in order, so they are completely out of order, but you get the jist.

We carved us some mean pumpkins, Halle free-handed hers, Cayden did a cool skull, and had the perfect pumpkin for it, and Kylee did a cute bat.

We dressed up for numerous Halloween parties, and YES that is Clay and his mean handlebar mustache!!

My sweet Grandma Lee (Gale) passed away from a serious infection. I am still trying to wrap my mind around it. She suffered for so long, and I am sure is so happy now. Her funeral was beautiful, and Robert and my mom and her siblings did a great job at planning it.


Cayden took 5th place in the Pinewood Derby!!! Now for most of you, you would think that is pretty crappy, but last year he was dead last in EVERY.SINGLE.HEAT. So, he was uber excited when he took 5th out of 12!!!


Kylee's team took 1st place in a soccer tournament where they were playing up 1 age level. NOW, girls apparently develop and gain about 20 pounds between 12 and 14, because the girls they were playing against were H.U.G.E!!! WTG Ky!

Harvey Unga just happened to be at Cayden's championship football game, and he was so nice to let us snap a picture of him. He plays for BYU for those of you who don't know. This was the highlight of the month for Cayden!

As you can tell by the sad look on his face, they took 2nd again! They played hard, and had the win until the last 2 minutes of the game, and then it all went down hill from there. He was one sad hombre.

Yep, that is 5 players trying to take down my little guy. He is so tough, and it was hillarious to watch him fight off these guys! (Click on it to enlarge, and notice the weenie in the background wearing sunglasses...what? Under your football helmet...it wasn't even sunny...whatever!)

Look at that stiff arm, that kid didn't know what was coming!

There is nothing cuter that a cute boy in football pads!


There you have it, a jumbled mess of the last few months! Halle was in there somewhere, being the cheerleader for her brother and sister...what a trooper!

Disneyland '09

Ok, ok...long time overdue! Here is the low down on our recent trip to Disneyland. We left on the 7th of January, we left 2 new feet of snow...and arrived in sunny California to 65 degree weather! It was so nice, and seemed so HOT! We stayed at the Paradise Pier hotel...this is the "cheapest" if you will of the Disney hotels on Disneyland proper. It was really clean, really nice, and plenty of room. We were within walking distance of California Adventure...we basically just walked out our hotel, and across the little walk way, and we were there.

We haven't stayed on Disneyland property since I was a senior in High School... and it is definately worth it! We haven't been on a "real" vacation that didn't involve soccer in over 3 years, and we were so looking forward to this. I will say this, however, 5 days is 1 day too long! It was the perfect time to go, not busy at all, the weather was beautiful, hardly any humidity...(thank the high heavens, or I would have looked like Kramer from Sienfield), and just the perfect temperature to wear jeans, and a short sleeved shirt. The kids had a blast, we rode everything like 500 times, and they went on anything and everything they wanted. I do think that we spent our life savings on food...sweet nibblets, that place is a rip off! But...you have to just suck it up, unless you want to pack in your own cooler full of food, and this was the first year we didn't have a stroller, so that would have been miserable to carry around! We (my parents and Clay and I were laughing the whole time we were there, because here are 2 unemployed families spending a week in Disneyland...HELLO!!!!) (disclaimer, Clay isn't unemployed, it is just his slow time of the year...) Here are some pictures of the trip, I didn't really get any "great" pictures...I suck when it comes to taking good pictures. So, enjoy!!!

Cayden posing for the camera...this is the best picture I got of him, for some reason when we take a picture, he poses...weenie!

Halle on the last day, eating her beloved pink Mickey Mouse sucker. I think she looks so cute, becuase she isn't posing either!


Grandpa and Grandma Olsen, and the kids


We told them we were celebrating Halle's birthday, because it happened to be the week after we were there. The first night we came back to the hotel, they had this "birthday cake" made out of wash cloth's. It was really cute, and then they left her a plate of Mickey Mouse rice krispie treats. She also got a pin that you can see on her shirt that said it was her birthday. She was in heaven, because every ride she would go on, or every employee that saw that badge would wish her a Happy Birthday!!

Ok, I know...horrible picture, but there is a really funny story behind this picture. My parents were trying to talk Clay and I into going on this Grizzly Rapids ride. EVERYONE that came off of it was soaked. I kindly declined. My mom made the biggest stink that you don't even get wet if you wear the rain ponchos. I kindly encouraged her to go then. When they got off the ride she was SOAKED from head to toe. Apparently her rain poncho was a little small, and she wanted to keep the tops of her pants dry...so the rest of her was soaked...!

Here is Kylee pointing to some Lovely swimming suits on this painting in the lobby of the hotel...!

In Downtown Disney they have this huge Lego store, Cayden was in heaven...not only was it a Lego store, but they had a life sized Darth Vader made out of Lego's!

The obligatory family picture inside the "C" in California. Yes, Kylee is posing with a Diet Coke...bad dad for buying it for her!

At the end of the main street in California Adventure, they have this painting on the wall that looks like it goes on for miles.

The first day we got there, we bought a little book for Halle to get the characters autographs. It was so cute, because she wanted to get as many as she could. I thought this was a cute picture of her and Minnie Mouse.

We did go to a "Princess Luncheon" at Ariel's Grotto on one of the days, however the pictures didn't turn out the cutest, but she had so much fun. Each of the princess' come around to your individual table and talked to Halle, signed her book, and took a picture with her.

All in all it was a great trip, we had fun, and got away from the craziness of life for a short while!

6 Weeks & 2 days...

Got your attention didn't I?

NO, I AM NOT PREGNANT!

We are officially going to Disneyland, and we leave in 6 weeks & 2 days!!!

We have been wanting to take the kids for a couple of years, but with Clay's business, vacations have sort of taken a back seat! It has been 3 years since we have been there, and the kids are SO EXCITED!!! We are staying at the Paradise Pier hotel, and staying for 5 days! I can't wait, our little family really needs a vacation, and it is even better when there is no soccer involved, and you use your AMEX points to pay for the flights!

YA-HOO!!!!

Family Night Fun!!!

So...since I have had my new camera, I have been patiently waiting for the fall, so that we could go up the canyon and take some pictures! I love this time of year, it is by far my favorite! I love that we live 2 minutes from the canyon, and can see all of the beautiful leaves changing colors. I planned for our family to go up and take some impromptu photos. I am NOT a good photographer, I am putting it out there right now, but this camera is AMAZING!!!

We had so much fun walking around, looking for leaves and taking some photos. Here are some that we took. Kylee even took a couple of Clay and I, and she did a pretty good job, given the subjects that she was photographing!!! ;)

I don't know about the rest of you, but trying to get 3 kids smiling, and looking like they are having fun...is quite the feat (and my kids are old!)

Here is the one that Kylee took of Clay and I, he apparently forgot that it was 47 degrees up there...

Like father, like son...literally (both really wanted to pose for this one!)

I kept telling Clay that he could zoom...duh!
Then after we took some photos, we went to Krispy Kreme and got these!!! The kids were in heaven *(and so was Clay)!

Playing catch up...

To start off...we, I mean Clay just purchased one of these!!!

And one of these! It is wicked awesome!!! 2 weeks ago we were at a soccer tournament up in Centervile, and these people from Sony were there. They travel all over the country to youth sporting events, and set up a huge booth. They have cameras that you can "rent" (for free) during the games, you take all of the photos that you want, and then you bring the camera back, they download all of the pictures onto a disk, and then give it to you. Well, we did it, and we were sold! I have wanted a really nice camera for quite a while. I wasn't thinking quite this nice, but Clay really wanted to get one that we could take good pictures of the kids in their various sporting events. Well, long story short, he bit the bullet, and purchased it! I am really excited, they even give you a free class on how to use it! So...none of the pictures from this post are from that camera, but just watch out, the next ones from games are going to be awesome...or at least that is what they say!!!

So, now on to the post about my cute family!

I haven't posted in quite a while...except saying that I was going to make my blog private, which Emily convinced me not to do, for now!?! I have been so crazy busy...so here is a QUICK reeeeeee-cap of what has been going on in our lives!

Can you see that little stud running WAY ahead of the defenders??? That would be MY little stud of a son...Cayden!! He played on the turf field up at Juan Diego HS last Saturday. It was way cool to watch him, he had a pass play, (at this age, they aren't really common, because they hardly ever catch the ball!) he caught it, and ran it in 60 yards for a touch down!!! He was so stinking proud of himself, and he is faster than greased lightning! I love watching him do so well at something that he loves! (too bad I didn't have my new camera at that game, you could have seen him much better!)

This would be my dear, sweet, little... I mean really way too big for this bike Halle! She finally gave in and learned how to ride a bike! She is nothing like Kylee, and has been terrified of learning how to ride this dumb little thing! She looked so silly, because she has the longest legs, and with the seat up as high as it goes...she kind of looks like one of those clowns in the circus!!! But, regardless of my 1 long legged child, she is so PROUD of herself!!! WTG Hal!

We had an "end of summer" bbq at our house last Sunday night. My grandparents haven't ever been over here, so we invited them along for the event! They just celebrated 60 years of wedded bliss...or in their case, grandma getting pissy with my grandpa, and him just smiling along with it! What a smart man!

Here are Kylee & grandma...I think Kylee was afraid that she had something in her braces...she wouldn't smile!

Holy schmuck! I can't believe that I am posting this nasty picture of my toe...I am in desperate need to a pedicure...if only! But, I had to show you my darling toes! Meg does such an awesome job, she is so dang talented! This is black, with blue flowers, and then she went over the blue flowers with black lines! It is way cute in person...guess you'll have to see for yourself!

So, there you have it, a quick recap of some of the highlights of the last couple of weeks! Wish me luck with the camera!

Pool Fun!

For family night on Monday, Doug & Carey invited the whole fam damily down to their house for a little back to school/end of summer swim. We had a fun time, saying it was only the second time my kids swam this year! I have a sever phobia of public pools, and my children's mouths...call me crazy! We had a little bbq, and then the kids all swam, oh yeah, and Chris swam too! There had to be at least 1 adult to the 9 kids! Thanks Chris!

Halle & Abby, so cute together!

Kylee doing her "cannon ball", we really need to work on her form before the next olympics! I am not anticipating their coach contacting us any time soon for recruiting her, but she has fun anyway!

Here is Jaxson, Mason, Camden, and Cayden all attacking Chris with their water guns...Chris was smart enough to grab some protection!

Thanks Doug & Carey for the hospitality!

Summer lovin...

Ok, seriously, I don't post for a few days, and I get threats from my sister...what is all of that about? There hasn't been anything really life altering happening here at the Parke home, but I will update on what has happened in the past few weeks!

Kylee is the best big sister, I mean she turns 11 next week, and she still hangs out with Halle, and takes her on "scooter rides" when Halle wants her to!

Clay and I celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary last Sunday! He bought me some beautiful roses, and we went shopping and out to dinner! I keep hoping for that trip to Hawaii, or a cruise! I guess there is always next year?!?

(It was really windy, so her hair is blowing EVERYWHERE!!!)

I guess the most exciting, and emotional news of the week...Halle cut bangs! Well, Halle didn't cut them, Emily did...with A LOT of tears and emotions to follow! Halle has OCD with tucking her hair behind her ears, and she completely flipped out when she couldn't tuck all of her hair.

Holy cow she looks so stinking cute, and so grown up! After we got home, and she looked in her little barbie mirror, her whole demeanor changed! She loves them, she keeps walking by the mirror and looking at herself, and talking to herself! She even called Emily on her phone and told her "Thanks for the bangs, I do like them!" It was so cute!

Cayden has been swimming with his friends this week, and today he had a birthday party. He has had fun, but I haven't taken any pictures of him lately! I promise I will this week, and post them soon.

I may even copy Emily and post about how much I love each of my kids! What a cute idea!

Update on life...

So, here is the skinny on what is happening in our life!

Kylee had soccer tryouts on Tuesday, and also today, they had tons of girls try out, so that is always a plus. They are planning on cutting about 5, and picking up 5-6, really good players. So that is exciting to see their team actually all be on the same level. There are about 8 girls on the team that shouldn't be playing at the level we are at, but the way it works, you can only change 1/3 of your team, or you aren't allowed to "move up" in the league.

They are moving up to the highest level, they will be playing at the premier level, which is really exciting. They will have a lot tougher teams, and they will actually have to "work" to win. I do have to admit that it has been fun to see them blow away their competition!

As for the state cup, They played on Saturday, and tied that game. They should have lost by about 5 goals, but they hung in there. Kylee got the only goal, and it was AMAZING! There were a couple of really bad calls, and I am not just saying that because it was against us, but we have spoken with a couple of people about what happened, and they can't believe it. Anyway, they got a PK in the box, and scored. We were ok with a tie though, because we didn't play our best. *Also, one of the starting forwards on the team is out with a broken foot* That makes it tough.

She advanced on to the next bracket in first place, and she played last night against their biggest rival. These two teams have gone back and forth for the past 4 years, winning and losing to each other. We won them in the championship game last spring, even though they said that they won. It's funny, we got the tr0phies =). We cleaned their clocks in Futsol, and won 1st again. The girls were really nervous going in, because Natalie was out, and that is huge. I couldn't, I mean didn't go, because I can't stand some of the parents on the other team. They have said some really crappy stuff about our girls, and especially about Clay. I felt really bad not going, but Cayden had baseball, and I needed to be home for that. Kylee called, and I could tell by the quiver in her voice that the outcome wasn't as she wanted. They had lost. They were out. She cried, and cried. I felt bad. She is really nervous about school today, because one of the girls from the other team goes to school with her, and really taunts her...but she does it in a way that is really "innocent" if that meks sense. I told her to hold her head high, and go in as the gracious loser. There always has to be a winner, and a loser, and you can't always be the winner. (as nice as that would be!)

There is always this fall, we will have a much better team, we will be ready to take them on, and hopefully beat the snot out of them...I mean win graciously!

As for Cayden, his baseball team is doing pretty well, he struggles, because there are some kids that don't take it as serious as he thinks that they should. He is a good player, and we probably should have moved him up to little league, but we will next year. He decided yesterday to give up soccer. This was a little sad for me. He is really athletic, and a darn good little soccer player, but he wasn't committed, and it wasn't fair to the team. He would love it once he got there, but NEVER wanted to go. I am not going to force him, this is his choice. He was playing up a year, so everyone on his team was in 3rd grade, and that was hard.

...the real reason is that he wants to play tackle football. I don't think that it is smart, but he wants to, and Clay said it was fine, so I will sign him up and pray to the good Lord above that he doesn't get killed, or learn any foul language before the season is up! He is SUPER excited! It is good for him to have something that he isn't competing with Kylee in. He needs to feel special too, and not always be compared to her. He always feels like she is better than him at everything, so this may be really good for his ego.

Halle has her pre-school graduation today...I guess that means that she is going to Kindergarten next year. CRAP. I am going to miss this girl like crazy! She is my little shopping buddy. She is my baby. I don't want to lose that control. She on the other had is really excited, and can hardly wait to go to school with the big kids, and ride the bus. She is really looking forward to her program today, she has been singing the songs, and then she stops and smiles, and says that I wasn't supposed to hear that, because it is a surprise! She might be kind of, I mean really spoiled, but she is so fun, and cute, and loving!

Well, there is the latest! Soccer is going to slow to a crawl for Kylee, they have 5 tournaments that they are playing in this summer, but besides that she will just have a couple practices a week. I can handle that. Cayden's baseball goes until the middle of June, and then they have the playoffs. Halle is done with dance, so we may have some time to just chill, and let the kids actually play with friends. Now that is a novel idea!

Soccer, soccer,soccer...

it seems like that is all we do around here right now. I love to watch my kids play soccer, they are both really good at it, and really enjoy it, but after a season this long...I am really looking forward to a little time off! Especially since Kylee hasn't even had a "break" since last summer, they played in a couple of tournaments, and then they played Futson the whole winter.

Cayden's team was supposed to play his last game today, but because the other team forfeited they thankfully cancelled it (the weather has been more like January than almost May today!). His team starts into their tournament on Tuesday, and he has also started baseball. He is really looking forward to baseball, he really loves it. I think that he is brunt out on soccer, and may take a little break from it. His coach really wants him to stay and play, because he really is amazing, but he is playing up a year with boys that are 1-2 years older than him. He doesn't have any friends per say on his team, so he doesn't really LOVE it. I don't care what he does as long as he stays active, and has fun!

Kylee's team is doing really well, they are undefeated, and are getting ready to play in the state cup in May. She is having fun, she on the other hand has tons of friends on her team, no one goes to her school, but they are all really good friends. After the state cup, I think there will be a little down time, right now they are practicing 2-3 times a week, with 2-3 games...it is really time consuming, and tiring for both her and us! But, she loves it, and I want her to stay active as well, so it is all worth it!

Now for something not soccer related, Halle is preparing for her dance recital that is coming up the second week in May. She is really excited, and loves this time of year! She is quite the cute little dancer, as long as she stays on the same planet (she tends to day dream a little!). She actually wants me to sign her up for soccer this next fall, because one of her friends is playing soccer...we'll have to see how that goes, I have to believe that she will be the one out on the field that is singing, and picking the flowers, and not even watching the ball! But, to each their own!

I will post pictures of both soccer and dance when I actually take them!