BYU Soccer Game

Hallie was able to go to a BYU soccer with half of her team tonight! They stopped off at Costco and had pizza (which Hallie does not like but she pretended to eat. Haha!), went to the game and stayed after for autographs. She didn't get home until after 11 PM. I didn't hear from the other mom's that took her until 1030 PM so my mommy heart was starting to worry but everything was just fine. She had a blast! She got her newly bought sweatshirt for school signed by one of the players. I couldn't be mad at her because she was so excited she got it autographed. So grateful she has built such great friendships with kids she never would have had it not been for soccer. 

The other day I saw this posted online that describes perfectly how I feel about keeping our kids so busy in sports (of course only if they also want to be busy in sports). "A friend asked me, "Why spend so much money and time on your child to train for soccer or any other sport?" I will answer you. I don't pay because my daughter/son trains and plays. Do you know why I'm paying? I pay for my child to learn how to be disciplined. I pay for my child to learn to take care of his body and mind. I pay for my child to learn to work with others and be a good teammate. I pay for my child to learn how to deal with disappointment when he doesn't get what he expected, but they know they have to work harder. I pay for my child to learn to reach their goals. I pay for my child to understand that it takes hours and hours of hard work and training to get a championship, and that success doesn't happen overnight. I pay for the opportunity my child will have to make lifelong friendships. I pay for my child to be on the field and not in front of the TV. I pay for those times when my child gets so tired they just want to lay down and doesn't think or have time to be lazy or into bad things. I pay for all the teachings that this beautiful sport gives them: responsibility, humility, dedication, friendship, coexistence, etc, etc. I could go on and on but to make it short; I don't pay for the internship. I pay for the opportunities the sport has to offer my child to develop attributes and skills that will be useful for their entire lives." 

Russ and I couldn't agree more with this post. We both feel that sports has taught us more about life and how to handle it then it has about the actual sport we were playing. This. This is why we are okay spending our time and money on the field with our kids. 

Hallie

Hallie had a fun month this month! 1 soccer camp, 2 soccer tournaments, 1 Royal game with her coach and teammate, a Utah game with Dad, a BYU soccer game with teammates, USA Olympic watching event with her team, camping, starting and playing with friends any spare minute she has. We sure love our sports loving girl!  

Kids

August kids photo dump. Sure love my babies!

Russ' Work

On Tuesday, Russ told me that he was "90% sure his coworker and fellow director was getting fired this week and was 50% sure he was also getting fired." This came to me as a shock. All the directors at Cornerstone have been unhappy with how the transition has gone since being bought out by Standish. It seems that Standish says one thing and then does the other. They lie and are dishonest. They want to cut costs everywhere they can. Russ, being one of the directors, feels like he has to pretend to his employees that the buy out is a good thing and Standish has their best interest in mind when he doesn't really believe it. He has had to fight with Standish daily over several things (ie. getting everyone raises for the year to meet market demands) and it just isn't a pleasant place to work. He has hated his job for about a year now and every week just seems to get progressively work. It has affected his mental health majorly and the happiness of our home when he is home. Honestly, although getting fired is never ideal, I am ready for him to be done with this place. I'm hoping this will help Russ get back to the happy guy I know he can be.

Russ also believes that Standish is unhappy with the directors at Cornerstone and believes they think Cornerstone can function without the directors. Russ, as well Casey (another director) voiced their opinion about how they don't like Standish at a dinner a few weeks ago. Someone who was at the dinner decided to snitch to Standish that Russ and Casey didn't like them and weren't "bought in" to the Standish. Thus, giving them more ammo to let them go and start fresh with someone else. 

Russ wants to leave the job on his own terms, meaning he has another job in place before leaving this one. He also wants to make sure we get his full share of the buy out money. 

Fast forward to Friday 8/30... this is the day Russ believed he was going to be let go. I bought him cinnamon rolls and left this little note on the counter the morning of. Unfortunately Russ was too nauseous to even eat any. 

So, they ended up firing Casey. Here he is packing up his stuff to leave. And after weeks of back and forth, Russ will be employed until the end of the year, will receive his full payout, and Standish will pay for our insurance through April. I think this is the best case scenario. We still get our payout, which is a decent amount of money. Nothing life changing but gives us a cushion to not stress about Russ not bringing in any money. I hope that Russ takes a few months off of work to focus on himself and his mental health. Hopefully a job that Russ will like will fall into our lap and he can be much happier somewhere else.  

Brooks

Oh, Brooks! My little raspy voice, one dimple, likes to test boundaries, basketball lovin', steak eating, toothless grin boy. 

New Car

Our chevy traverse has given us more issues then it should have. It is a "newer" car and has low mileage yet we had to pay $3500 this summer to fix several things on it. So, back in the summer, we decided we wanted a new car. We have rented a few vans on previous vacations and they are just so nice and roomy for a family. The trunk space is incredible and deep and the functionality for kids just can't be beat. So, we started our search to find a van for ourselves. I think we lose some points on our "cool factor" if we get a van but we weren't really all that "cool" to begin with so what's the diff. Haha! 

After much research on Russ' part, we decided we wanted a Toyota Sienna. Sienna's are hard to come by. In fact, we couldn't even test drive the exact model we wanted because they had no inventory of it. We were able to test drive the sporty version of the sienna and it was really nice. So, we put in a deposit to get on the waiting list to buy one. Fast forward to July when they told us that a red van was being made and would be available in September. Red wasn't our first choice of color but once we realized it is "crimson red" like the Utah Utes we came around to liking it. Haha! We wanted the sienna for the all-wheel drive feature and decided to get the platinum model because we were already spending so much on a van that we might as well get the nicest one. We also decided to use Russ' buy out money from work to pay for the car in cash. So, here's to being a minivan owner and go Utes!

Ps. the kids absolutely love the minivan. Like way more then I thought. Hallie loves that her sit reclines with an ottoman. Brooks likes the extra space in the backseat (he was crammed in our traverse because half of the back seat was used has trunk space). Taco has mentioned several times how he "likes this new red car." Haha! 

First Day of School

First day of 1st grade for Brooks and first day of 4th grade for Hallie! Brooks is nervous but I think he will like 1st grade once he sees how everything works. Hallie is stoked to see her friends and her "crush," Jack. Oh boy. It will be crazy just having Taco home with me all day. Good luck B and Hal! You guys are going to rock this!!

Back-to-school Night

Hallie had a soccer game so, unfortunately, she couldn't go to back-to-school night. However, she already knew her teachers and felt comfortable missing. In fact, one of her teachers, her Spanish teacher, is the same teacher she had in 2nd grade. Brooks gets quite a bit more nervous about new things. So, I took him to school to meet his teachers. He discovered a few classmates that he already knew and is being so brave about going to 1st grade.

Hallie's 4th grade teachers are: Mrs. Hammer and Maestra Garza
Brooks' 1st grade teachers are: Mrs. Horne and Maestra Esparza 

Strawberry Camping

We went camping up at Strawberry this weekend! A few things to note...We went fishing and realized we are not fishermen. Haha! I died laughing at one of the casts Russ casted out to fish. It literally went like 10 feet in front of him. We ended up not even putting hooks on the kids' fishing poles because we didn't trust them with it. We invited the Naylors and Malmberg's up to go fishing as well. Unfortunately, the weather was not great and downpoured and/or lightning'd on us. We only got about 1 hour of time at the lake. We didn't catch any fish except Brielle, she caught the smallest fish ever Stockton woke up with pink eye that day so we stayed away from everyone to avoid spreading it. Rosie rubbed her back on the cement at Strawberry lake and reeked of fish until we got home to bathe her. We went hunting for crawdads every night and the kids loved it. During the rain storms we stayed inside the trailer and watched a movie with popcorn. One day, Hallie ran (pretty far, I might add) into a field to catch a birthday balloon that someone let go in the air. She was so proud of it. We put it in the truck to take home with us. About 10 minutes after we put it in the truck, Brooks opened the truck door and let the balloon out. Hallie freaked out! I think we made the best out of the conditions of this camping trip!