Cavin's Fall Soccer Season 2016

Cavin began playing soccer when he was 5 and has been with the same team for 6 seasons now. He has loved playing with many of the same boys, and I have loved watching how much they have progressed in the past few years. Today was the U9 tournament. The boys played hard!

The first game was at 9:00 and they won 3-0 against Salazar. Next they played at 12:00 and won 3-1 against Alamia. They fought hard and it was hot outside. Finally they made it to the Championship game and played the Aquino team. They were ahead almost the whole game and then the other team tied at the end. The tie put them in a shootout.

Here is Cavin getting ready for his turn. He had a good shot, but it was blocked. Several other blocks and they ended up losing the game. The poor boys started crying, they were devastated, but they played really hard. I was so proud of them!

There team name was Iron Strikers. Coach Roland was the head coach and Ragnar was his assistant coach. Cavin loved having one on one time with Ragnar while going to practices together and doing something they both really enjoy.

They felt a little better knowing that only first and second place got trophies. 

Cavin is definitely motivated by a trophy!

I wanted to add Cavin's official season photos. 

We went to Culvers after the game to celebrate a great season! Ragnar unfortunately had to go to work, but we tried to enjoy ourselves nonetheless. We sure love Cavin and his hard work on the soccer field!

Mother's Birthday weekend!

My mom turned 60 last month and her birthday was less than exciting. She said that what she would really like is to have us all together. We talked about some plans and this past weekend we worked it out and celebrated.

Friday night we went to downtown Houston and stayed in a hotel. We ordered pizza, played a few games, and watched a little tv. Unfortunately our hotel accommodations were not as promised and so this hotel didn't even have a movie channel but we did the best we could. The kids had fun just being together.
Saturday morning Chira, Coleton, and Caden joined our famliy in the 15th annual Rockets Run. Our family loves this event every year. We were well within walking distance from the hotel, so we woke up early and walked over to the race! 

The kids were excited about the kids 1 k. Everyone in my family ran the 1k along with their two cousins and Aunt Chira. I later ran in the 5k.

 They were lining up!

Pre race selfie!!

Deacon saw a huge sign like this next to the start so he just kept saying "Ohhh James Harden" over and over until the race started! Caden finished first in 6:30 and then Coleton, Cavin, Ella, Channing and Chira who kindly ran with Channing, and then Deacon and Ragnar came through in about double Caden's time. Ragnar said Deacon ran the whole way! Nice job for a barely 2 year old! 

My race was right after and I finished in 22:52. Not terrible, but not as good as in my prime. I was 11th out of 580 women and 97th out of 1325 total racers. It was a fun, good race for me.

Here are the cute kiddos afterward minus Ella who was watching her friend finish.
After the race we went over to Discovery Green and played at the park!

After a long race for Deacon, you'd think he'd be out of energy! That boy was on a mission! He kept going on everything and going down the slides. At one point he went on a short version of the monkey bars. He held on for a couple and fell off, as I was watching I was waiting to see if he cried since he fell on his stomach. Nope, instead of crying he jumps up and cheers "I did it, I did it!" He is an active boy who loves to use his body!

Chris only had about a foot to go on the slide ;)

After that we went back to the hotel and had a late breakfast and got cleaned up to go back to my parents house. We played games and then my brother Corey who had flown into Dallas for a conference came in as he had driven down to meet us. We went to Lupe Tortilla as just adults and it was nice to enjoy a quieter dinner!We missed his wife Stephani and my sister Marisa and her husband but were glad to have 4 of the 5 siblings there.

Chris engaged the kids in a flag football game as we ate homemade icecream and hung out!

This is how the kids looked on the way home after about 10 minutes in the car. I would call that a successful weekend! It didn't go perfectly, but I hope my mom knows how much we love and appreciate her and that she felt loved. We are so grateful for her in our lives and I am so grateful for the example she is to me and what a wonderful support she is to our family. We love her!

Halloween 2016!

We sure love this time of year. The weather is hopefully going to start to cool down and I love all the family activities around fall and winter time. We got a visit from Daphne for her birthday weekend which we enjoyed. We always love spending time with her.

We carved pumpkins with her. Typically we just paint the pumpkins, but the kids wanted to give carving a try..You can tell from the picture that Cavin wasn't loving digging out the pumpkin! Needless to say, his molded outside fairly quickly as I was not doing his dirty work!

Channing opted to just paint hers which I much prefer.

Cavin finally made something work thanks to Daphne's help!

Daphne came down for her birthday but also to watch the kids in the yearly Primary program that they have every year.

Here is our before church selfie! Love this crew! The kids all remembered their parts and did a great job! They are good kids!

The kids also had crazy hair day at school the next week and the girls wanted spiders in their hair! I did my best!

The next week was filled with 3 Halloween parties. It started with the Rockets Trick or Treat in the Suites which the kids love each year.

Ella was Hermione since she finished reading Harry Potter this year and was excited about the character.

Cavin was Harry Potter, and a cute one at that! He also has been reading Harry Potter and he and his sister are pretty close and love to do things together still.

Channing had to be something that involved wearing high heels ;). She is in love with shoes and only wants to wear shoes with heels. She was Belle this year!

Deacon...well, he was tricky this year. He only wants to be something related to sports. He wanted to be James Harden because we all know he is obsessed with him, but he was a Rockets player last year. So... we settled on a German soccer player since his next love is soccer and Germany. He is often cheering through the house, Go Germany Go! Every flag we pass in America is a Germany flag to him, not a United States flag, but we will let it pass cause he's so cute!

After the trick or treat, we had a church trunk or treat and Halloween trick or treating. Between it all we had WAY too much candy!

Naturally the kids and I love to sort it each year. It was a fun Halloween holiday.

Gymnastics Tour of Champions!

Ella and I had the privilege of attending the Kelloggs Gymnastics Tour of Champions 2016. Ragnar found out there was access to tickets at the last minute, so we happily decided it was worth our money and went. Ella loved watching gymnastics during the Olympics and was super excited to see the Final Five gymnasts.  

It was a really awesome event. It made me want to watch the Olympics all over again.

The lighting was fantastic. They had lots of bright colors and costumes and it really was amazing what they can do.

I was lucky to get to go on a mother daughter date with Ella. She really is a special girl and I am so grateful she is my daughter. We had a great time!

Ragnar's 39th Birthday!

Ragnar turned 39 last week and it kind of turned into a week long celebration. Friday night the weekend before his birthday I organized a date to Comedy Sports Houston with our friends the Browns. I always enjoy going out on a date with Ragnar so I thought it would be fun to try something new. We tried out a new place called Persona Pizza which was good, then we headed over. 

There was a mixture of comedy performances and some were definitely more funny than others, but overall we had a good time and got some good laughs in! It was nice that it was a very clean performance.

That week I tried to do things throughout the week to help celebrate. I got his oil changed in his car, underneath the grill I got fixed for him since it had been ruined since the floods last year. We did simple things. Friday night Daphne came and we got to go see Ragnar play in his first outdoor soccer game of the season. I have seen him play in many indoor leagues, but it has been a long time since I have seen him play outdoor soccer. It was fun to watch!

He and Cavin are both #20 this season!

Getting quick on his feet!

There team name was the Rangers, so Daphne was happy to exclaim "Ranger Danger" when they would do well! The kids enjoyed seeing their dad play.
The next day Daphne was kind enough to watch the kids while we went and found Ragnar a new suit for his birthday.

Here is the one we chose. The Rockets season is back in session! 
After getting a suit we came home and Ella had put together a small surprise party which was sweet of her. Then we went to Cavin's soccer game. It ended up being cancelled after halftime due to lightening. We then went to Chilis for dinner early and celebrating there.
Sunday Ragnar officially turned 39! We just hung out until church and then we had church and celebrated afterward.

The kids made Ragnar a birthday sign!

Our family birthday shot!

Naturally Ragnar and Daphne always take a Sunday School selfie when she comes. I have always been in Primary, so this is my first time joining :) Sadly, I think that is the only picture we got of Daphne!

Ragnar wanted to grill burgers for dinner! We sure love hamburgers around here.

After dinner we sang a song and ate cake!!

I sure hope he wished for the year to go by slowly! I not sure I am ready to be married to a 40 year old!!

The kids love to watch present opening! 

I was so grateful that Daphne made the effort to come into town to celebrate with us. He sure loves her and I am grateful they have a great relationship. I am also grateful that my brother and sister and parents were able to come support him as well. I hope he had a special day. I sure feel lucky to be able to celebrate another year of his wonderful life. I am so lucky to have him.

Speers Family Summer Olympics 2016

My mom is great about trying to make a summer Olympics happen for the kids each year. They sure do love it. This year we got rained out, so it didn't happen til the weekend after school started. Nonetheless, she made it happen! The kids were really excited as it is so much more fun with cousins close to compete with. The kids made their flags a couple weeks before and were ready to go. Unfortunately, I did not get many pictures of the events, but they had fun regardless. They started with the Olympic Flag March led by Grandma to the Olympic music. 

They are adorable kiddos!

Deacon was carrying the American flag while shouting "Go Germany Go!" Everywhere we go he sees the flag and says Go Germany! I think he's a tad confused which country he lives in (and I think his dad has indoctrinated him)! haha!

The first event was the Obstacle course. Caden ended up taking the Gold in that event. Then their was the Javelin throw which Cavin won, and then shot put which Cavin and Caden tied on. Then they did archery.

We had a small problem with the target as it was too close to the neighbors fence and the first arrow when over, so we had to change the target and then Cavin took the archery medal. 

They also tried some Hockey. Then, it was so hot outside and so many mosquitoes that we headed to the pool to finish out the rest. We did individual swimming events which Ella won one and then water polo which Ella and I won. Ella is good in the water. Then when we came back, we ate Greek food for lunch and had Popsicles and then finished with a round of fly swatter balloon volleyball instead of beach volleyball. I am so grateful that my mom took the time and effort to keep the summer "tradition" going. I love it and the kids have a great time.