My Sweepers

 This fall soccer season was special,  with a last minute gathering of a team. Scott stepped up to be the coach and  Brooke joined the field as daddy was skeptical but she wanted to play with Parker.  

Everyone got along great and work so well together! 

All these friends had been in preschool together since they were two years old. Just so cool! 

Now they are in elementary school together, their bond is pretty tight knowing each other so well. 

I do think it helped them have better teamwork throughout the season. 

This is the only year the league allows boys and girls to be on the same team. 

Also, at this age group you're not able to have goalies but we created a sweeper position. 

It was both of their strongest position protecting the goal and kicking the ball away from the goal. 

After the first game, I thought "wow, Brooke is pretty good... hope she doesn't score a goal before Parker" she will never let him down to that!  ... very focused and her strong competitive bone came shinning through.  Last season Parker was unable to score, but by the second game Parker scored his first goal! We all cheered and he was so proud! It was his big moment we all had been waiting for. 

The very next game Brooke had her moment... the field was open and she ran it down to make a great kick in the goal. We all jumped up and screamed " Way to go BROOKE"  and Scott ran over to pick her up lifted her up in the air. When she came over to me she started crying. All the extra attention was too much for her to handle and I think she was a little embarrassed :) 

#3 and #4 

Kick the ball Parker! 

Kate ran to give Parker a big hug!! Congratulating him on a good game. 

We were an undefeated team until the last game. 

 I was so proud of them and how much they improved over the season. 

I'm not a big sports fan but I can tell you I have become one cheering on my own kids! I have all the years ahead to look forward to... I can't wait. Especially, as Jonas is biting at the bit to get into sports... hopefully this spring he can try out soccer. But until then this season will hold a special place in my heart with my Hubby as coach and Twins as great sweepers and awesome friends make up the perfect team and season!  

Way to Go Blue Tigers! 

A Mess

Our cozy cute new house is a total MESS! 

They started the work last Thursday to find so much more damage than we could have imagined. The leak from the AC (read about it here) had been going on for a long time. I hopped on the emotional roller coaster of updates every hour of how bad the damage was going to be. Plus having Kate with me made it even more stressful while trying to keep her outside so she wouldn't breath the junk! After hearing many times we have no idea where it stops and how much they were going to have to rip up... Friday afternoon walls had been torn up and a lot of flooring gone. They treated what they could but waited until Monday to move forward with the rest of the damage... as we needed to live there for the weekend. After camping out upstairs with windows open and pinic dinners. They continued their work on Monday, not knowing what to think...ripping up the bench seating, moving out the couches in the living room... I held my breath and prayed for dry flooring somewhere.

They then found some mold under the kitchen cabinets...a huge problem! Then within minutes later it looked to only be on a corner of one cabinet that they were able to treat. Amen! 

Yes this is mold... within our walls! 

 we thought we would have a little over a 100sq ft of damage but now it's tripled that amount 

It was in our 2x4's ugg...

The worst mold you can have .. fuzzy and black  

It's been a continued drama with trying to find hardwoods, no washer/ dryer, non-stop cleaning up mold partials and with having moments of being really upset. 

I just feel so frustrated on why we have to spend our money on someone else's fault can burn you up inside, but we're trying to keep a good perspective as it could been much worse! We are on a hunt for a lawyer but our case just might not be big enough to fight for this or do we really have the time or energy? 

After a day of drying out the moisture and treating the mold we are starting to see HOPE! Progress is being made and the worst is behind us .. we are moving forward which makes me happy! 

This is one chapter in life I would just like to skip over:) 

Inspiring!

Grab a box of tissue for this sweet inspiring video! How one life on this earth can change the life of 5 beautiful lives. I inspire to do the same with my time left her on this earth!

Birthdays

With moving and getting unpacked we couldn't do birthday parties this year. Jonas and the twin's birthdays are only 3 weeks apart. They were fast approaching, so we decided to do a surprise joined birthday weekend. After a Saturday soccer game, and Kate heading over to Mimi's house for some extra lovin, we started driving away from town without the kids knowing where we were going... the questions started "mommy where we going?" " Are we going swimming?" Are we going to Sea world? ...  for about thirty minutes everyone tried to guess where we were headed. Finally they guessed it and were pretty excited....not sure Parker enjoyed the surprise part as he wanted us to just tell him as he just wanted to go home to play with his new Lego's he had gotten for his birthday .. he is my little homebody! ... little did he realize that he was going to be playing Lego's at Legoland. 

He had talked about going to Legoland ever since it had opened up. 

After arriving I could feel the true excitement from the kids!  

We had mixed reviews about Lego Land and not knowing what to expect. 

It was a cool crisp day which made it even more enjoyable. They had a extra Halloween trick or treating part the kids loved. The lines weren't bad and while you're in line your kids build Lego's while they wait... what a genius idea. 

For us it was great, every ride was just perfect for their age, nothing too scary. 

Good thing Jonas needed a haircut it helped with his height to get on the rides:) 

 

My cute boys

The twins turned 6 ... CRAZY 

It was a fun day! 

We missed Kate but it was so much easier not chasing her around and just pouring into the 3 birthday kids 

So, the verdict is out .... our family loved Legoland and anytime your down in FL it's worth the trip. 

Oh J-man you crack me up... 

All day we kept telling them if you're good, there might be another surprise coming your way...

We headed to the Nickelodeon hotel to stay the night! 

The kids went down every water slide and enjoyed two nickelodeon slimed shows. 

It was a great time celebrating my PB&J! 

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The House Issue

  

This picture was taken the day of our house inspection. 

We were so excited but nervous as we didn't want anything to get in the way of buying our beautiful new home. As we had many attempts of actually buying other houses every one had fallen through for varieties of reasons. We had never made it to a house inspection, we were excited to finally make it to this step. With our busy schedules we weren't able to stay during the whole time.We trusted the report to be fully accurate to give us the TRUTH. It was completed and we reviewed it told the seller what we wanted repaired. It was a bumpy few weeks up until the closing. 

Communication was lacking and I felt uneasy about everything. 

Our final walk through of the home was the day of closing. A few repairs had not been made but we were in a want of closing and choosing to overlook somethings. 

We closed on our new home that afternoon. 

We headed straight home to pick up the kids and Lucky (our dog) 

to show them all our new house! Everyone was more than excited!!! Kids were screaming running from room to room with excitement... such a fun day! We were thinking finally our house journey was over! 

We needed  to do a few things before moving in like painting, cleaning, new carpet etc... 

Within two days after closing,  I found water coming from the AC .. huh I thought?

 I hoped it wasn't a big issue, called the AC service guy the next day to find out we had over a foot of water in the AC handler....with mold and algae growing... I couldn't believe it! 

The unit had been leaking  for a long time! The hard wood floors were pulled up to find mold and all the walls around the unit had over 2 foot of water damage up them. 

It was a mess and really we didn't know the total extend of the damage. We acted quickly and got a  dehumidifier and air purifier to clean the air, and then called our home insurance. 

We filed a claim and waited to see if any damage would be covered. 

In the meantime, we decided to move in despite the fact. 

 One of the last mornings before moving out of our rental,

 Jonas saying goodbye (in his under roos of course) to our duck friends we met

 bye bye rental 

Moving day was an adventure with four kids...we have WAY too much stuff! 

Plus, seeing things you had in storage over a year ago you forget what you even had. 

We had two storage sheds to unload... you can see a lot of it ended up in our garage!

 It was a mess and really no organization to anything!

At the end I had thrown stuff in a box and had lost track of what was where.

After finally over a month of unpacking and cleaning out like crazy we only have three boxes left in our master closet... a miracle.  It's been a challenge..... I AM NEVER MOVING AGAIN!!

 I know, famous last words but I hope this is it! 

Just a week ago we heard from our home insurance company that they denied our claim because the condition was pre-existing. Then a day later they sent us a cancellation of our policy! Heartbroken we were going to get stuck with the expense when it was someone else's fault. So frustrating! We tried the inspectors but they put a nice little one line in their report that protected them. After being upset, with a few other problems arising, feeling like we bought a lemon of a house I was able to move forward.

 My perspective has changed to surrender it and be thankful we have a house! Be thankful, that we have the money to repair it that we don't have to live in a house that has mold. Be thankful, God has provided us the money, it's not ours, and if that's what we are suppose to spend it on then we will. Be thankful, in the grand scheme of life it's not a big deal but it did take us by surprise. Be thankful, we are moving forward.. tomorrow is the BIG day we are finally  ripping up all the wood that had gotten wet. We are praying the damage isn't a costly amount but if it is we will deal with it.  So many lessons learned through this LONG House chapter in our life. It's been a whole year starting with the selling of our house. If you asked me "would I do it all again?" I would say that is a really good question... one I don't think I can truly answer yet. But I do know even in the middle of our house situations for the last year God has been with us throughout the entire time! I know as time unfolds it will be more and more clear on why we went through this but in the meantime I'm just going to focus on being thankful. 

                                                                                                             

Halloween 2012

It's only appropriate to do a Halloween picture for embrace the camera.

 As you can tell for Halloween this year we were a GATOR team! 

Parker our football player, Brooke our cheerleader, Jonas our Super Hero Gator and Kate a little cheerleader. 

Daddy and I were just normal gator fans cheering on our sweet team! 

My sweet "Pa" and Kim have a fun annual tradition of picking out our costumes. Most the time the kids can't ever decide on what they want to be, so this eliminates the problem and I promise you they are much nicer costumes than I would ever buy. It's a surprise usually, this year really we had no idea. The kids opened up their gift to a overflowing amount of gator things. It was perfect as Brooke had mentioned she wanted to be a cheerleader and even more Perfect as my husband loves him some Gators! Even extra points for my family to send gator outfits when they are Tennessee fans, must of been hard for them to do. 

 

Brooke opens the box up first ... 

A Tim Tebow jersey... "YES" he says..

We got some Gator Pride around here! 

Our youngest cheerleader

 

 Our little Gator mascot as a pillow pet definately a fight around here of who gets to sleep with it .. 

you can see who is winning 

The twins had the hang of trick or treating trying to run ahead and get the most amount of candy they could.

 

Kate had trick or treating down marching up to each door holding out her bucket and placing her candy in .. such a big girl until she saw doggies ... the candy was thrown to the side and she couldn't wait to get her hands on the puppies!! EVERY single one of them.. she had to stop and run over to them. 

She would laugh and scream trying to say "doggie doggie!" It was adorable! 

Who needs candy when there is cute little dogs to play with.  

Jonas was nervous this year with all the creepy Halloween sounds... he didn't know what to think of all the haunted decorations. It was too much for him and really not worth being scaredto get a piece of candy. He held on tight to my leg most of the night and unless I was making the trip up with him holding my leg he wasn't getting any candy. Towards the end of the night he got a little braver to do a few houses on his own. But really I enjoyed him needing me and holding on to me as he's not a cuddlier so I take it when I can get it. 

This is our gang...missing a few this year due to sickness which is also an annual tradition. 

Someone is always sick. 

We've had our Halloween Party for the past 5 years. 

Oh how our families have grown over the years...

This was taken only 4 years ago and most of our families have doubled in size. 

Thanks "PA" and Kim for the great costumes another touchdown for the memory books! 

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