Parents vs. Kids Soccer Game

Towards the end of August, Cameron had his last soccer game.  It was a fun game, parents versus kids.  We used a giant soccer ball so that made it even more fun.  Both Tim and I took a turn on the parent team.  Not surprisingly, the kids kept getting the ball away from us and scored a bunch of goals.

My little soccer player

He's a cute one, my Cam  :)

And of course, the cutest spectator ever!  Actually, she was not really interested in watching the game.  She mainly wanted to drink water out of Cam's water bottle and try to get in the middle of the action.

 Before the game started, everyone stretched out.

Cam was the first goalie.  He LOVES being goalie.  He actually had a couple good blocks, including taking the giant ball right in the face!  He took it like a man though and was proud to have stopped the parents.

Cam and Mama going for the ball - can you guess who got it?

The kids loved bouncing on the ball almost as much as they loved kicking it.

After the game was over, there was a pizza party.  Cam does not love pizza, so he only ate a bit. Leah, on the other hand, chowed down and ate a couple pieces.  As you can see, she isn't shy about digging in.

First she ate all the cheese off, then she ate the pizza sideways.  She was a complete mess at the end, but she was a happy, full baby.

This was the best picture we got of Cameron with his medal.  He was pretty grumpy by the end of the pizza party and did not want a picture of him in uniform with his medal.  Instead, he allowed us to take a picture of him with his cookie.  :-P

It was a great soccer season.  We were very proud of how well Cameron did, he really improved every week.  He was able to score goals all season with no problem, but by the end of the season he was passing to his teammates and helping them to score goals.  That made us very proud!  He is also a very good goalie and isn't afraid to get in front of the ball.  We are looking forward to the next soccer season.

Weekend with the Tuttles

Prepare to be shocked and amazed - the content of this post is from this past weekend! No, it isn't a month or two late like most of our posts lately... it is actually an on-time post. Woohoo!


This past weekend Meagan, Ryan and Wesley came up to visit with us. We had a really fun weekend together. They arrived past bedtime on Friday night, so we chatted for a bit and then all went to bed. The next day we went through lots of things we could do, but in the end decided to stick around here. The kids went swimming before and after naptime, which they all loved.

Cameron, ready to splash someone with his bucket

Ryan shows off his slip and slide skills to Wes

After dinner we started a fire and made s'mores. Of course, everyone loved them. First Wesley sampled the uncooked marshmallows.

Leah thought this was a pretty good idea and went for her own

Cooking marshmallows over the fire

Leah, Wesley and Cameron loving their s'mores!

Ryan also loves his s'more

And apparently, he loves Meagan's as well

Messy face kiddo #1

Messy face kiddo #2

Another view of Wes, who showed his love for the s'mores by rubbing them all over his face, hands and clothes

Messy kiddo #3 (of course, since Cameron is the oldest, he has the most experience with getting the s'more into his mouth instead of all over his mouth!)

Our campfire

This is about all of the pictures we have, so it doesn't show all of the fun we had. We also went for a walk, played outside, and played with every toy in our entire house. The adults enjoyed some delicious chocolate mousse and we played many card and dice games. It was great having them up here - thanks again for visiting guys!

Meeting Baby Lucia

On Thursday, August 4th, our newest niece entered the world! Cathy and Ron welcomed sweet baby Lucia Hazel. She is just adorable and we were so excited to meet the little peanut!

Hello Miss Lucia! She was so alert the whole time we were visiting, her eyes open and checking out the world. What a sweetie!

Kristin with Lucia. She is so tiny - 6 lbs, 11 ozs at birth, so a bit smaller than that when we met her. My kiddos were both 2 pounds more than that, so it was fun to hold such a sweet little baby!

Tim and Lucia - she only has eyes for him

Leah got jealous and wanted to get up on her Daddy's lap!

Grandpa and Lucia

And of course, Lucia and her Mama, Cathy

Lucia spending some time with her Mimi

She loves her fingers and usually had at least one in her mouth while we were there.

We were so excited to meet Lucia and loved spending time holding her. Cameron and Leah overall were not too interested in her. They did go over to her immediately when we got there, but once they said hi, they wanted to go play. :-P Cameron spent most of his time playing outside with Uncle Ron, and Leah just caused trouble inside. Tim and I took turns holding sweet little Lucia, it was so nice to meet her!

While we were in Swansea for the weekend, we were able to go sailing on our sailboat. It was not in the water at all last year because it was broken, but it got fixed this summer and was just put out on the water a few weekends ago. It was great going sailing!

Coming in to dock - Tim is on the front of the boat, Tom is steering. The rest of us are along for the ride.

Our sailboat, tucked into bed for the night (well, that is what we told Cam anyways)

Cameron was goofing around with Leah's life jacket on and asked Tim to pick him up by the handle on the top. Tim did and Cameron liked hanging there - he asked Tim to keep holding him off the ground. Tim got tired of holding him up, so he hung Cam up for a while...

Luckily, Cameron thought it was HILARIOUS. He was laughing and hanging there and was probably getting a giant wedgie. Fun stuff!

Cameron Plays Outdoor Soccer

Cameron has been playing outdoor soccer this summer. He has been having a very good time and we are really proud of how well he is doing. He loves to score goals as well as play goalie. He has been doing really well in the past few games, passing the ball to other kids so they can score. That is tough for a kiddo who would much rather be scoring the goal, but he has been doing great. Tomorrow is his last game, parents vs. kids game followed by awards and pizza.

These pictures are from a few weeks ago. Here is Cam in goal, waiting patiently. Actually at this age playing goalie seems pretty boring to me because they don't get down to the goal very often.

Cameron makes a save!

Kicking the ball! Well, actually I think he ended up stepping on the ball and falling over this time, but it is still a cool picture. :)

Cameron gets a breakaway...

.... and shoots and scores!

Cam with the ball again. He is getting better and better with dribbling the ball around the other kids.

If you look at this picture in large view (click on it), you will see that Cameron is making a crazy face. He makes fierce, concentrating faces while he plays, it is pretty funny!

Scoring a goal

It has been a fun season and Cameron has really enjoyed playing!

Miscellaneous Summer Fun

And now, a random mix of summer fun pictures from July!

For the few weekends we were actually home, we filled up the pool and let the kids swim. These pictures are from one night after work when Mama wasn't around. Daddy let the kids swim and they had a great time!

Smily Leah, loving the pool.

Cam's splashdown!

Two swimming kiddos. The pool is great for their ages because it is deep enough for them to swim but shallow enough to sit up and not be underwater. They love it.

Miss Leah, not so happy about going underwater.

She quickly got over being upset though, and decided to sample the water. Gross.

Cameron using a creative technique to get out of the pool. I am guessing that Tim told him not to get his feet dirty, so he was getting out any way he could that did not involve feet on the ground!

Cameron has been very creative lately, doing lots of imaginative play, building stuff with his legos, and coming up with elaborate scenarios that his Little People play out. These are some creatures that he made. It is a Daddy, a Mama, and a Baby. The big block behind his leg is their home. He had a big story about them, where they came from, why they look like they do. The baby doesn't have wings because, as Cameron tells it, that kind of bug doesn't grow wings until he gets older. It was very cute and he was so proud of the bugs that he made.

Cameron making goofy faces during his bug photo shoot.

One of the weekends, we went to the zoo with Nana while Daddy was working on the shed. I didn't really take many pictures, but here are a few. Leah, slightly sweaty, ready to go back into the air conditioned buildings.

Cameron roars with the tiger! He actually wanted to ride on it but it was such a hot day that the tiger was way too hot to sit on.

Cameron with an early harvest from our garden. It is actually funny to see it now because it is such a little harvest. Most times when we go out now (daily or every other day), we get 20ish tomatoes, 3-4 carrots and 5 or 6 cucumbers. All of the beans and lettuce are done.

It has been a busy summer, but luckily we have still had some time to have fun at home.