Handy Jeff

 Our kitchen faucet has been leaking for about 6 months now and finally I can't stand it any longer. We had already replaced it the year before on the day of Lucas' birthday party - that was chaos. Water was leaking on the counter, on the floor, everywhere. So I didn't want to buy the same faucet and then have it start leaking again in a few months. I started looking at faucets online from Lowes for a 2 handle faucet and sprayer. Well it turns out when you want that, you need 4 hole in the sink.......we only had 3. Jeff convinced me he wanted to take the task on of getting said 4th hole. Off to Lowes we go to get advice and find the faucet I love. :) We came to the agreement that if Jeff was going to move forward with this making of the hole, there is a strong possibility the sink might crack and we'd be back for a new sink. Okay. okay. okay.

 marked and ready to go.

 here's to an easy task of knocking out the hole.........

 out comes the drill.....

 the result is a small hole, not nearly big enough for anything.

daddy's helper

Several hours later, the next day and another drill bit, we have this: isn't it beautiful!?

 sidenote: the hose started leaking a couple weeks later and got all over the floor - Jeff repaired it and this time it's good to go for the long haul. I LOVE IT!

Zoo babies

 Take a little trip to the Phoenix Zoo with our favorite friends. My favorite place is the Spider Monkeys. I have a few more favorite places now - the lions and the Zebra - especially the 100+ lb baby. :)

 how cool is this shot!? :)

 Peyton, Jaron, Abbey, Ammon

 To the Zebras. This little one was constantly moving like any toddler. Sprinting and running circles around the momma Zebra.

 Love the Zoo.

Saturday mornings

October and November Saturday mornings were spent at the soccer field. We finally broke down and purchased a shade structure - it was totally worth it! We covered all of our friends and kids on hot days and provided cover from the wind on other days. We love our soccer friends as we shared our Saturdays with the same families for several hours - same teams with siblings and all. Not only those families but everyone else we knew on other teams. 

The end of soccer season brought some mixed feelings - 1: happy we didn't have to get up and rush to the soccer fields for 4 hours and 2: now what are we going to do without seeing our friends for some quality bonding time. There's always next season. :)

This was Abbey's team 'playing'.

 Orange Stars: Coach Hoyt, Nicholas, Ethan, Emi, Nena

James, Abbey, Drew, Gabriel, Kaden

 Grandma and Grandpa Sorensen came down to watch Tanner play football and were lucky enough to watch soccer games too.

 Ethan, Abbey and Drew - love these kids!

 Next game: Blue Tornadoes

Lea's - she has gotten more aggressive this year and has really started enjoying the game. She even took down a girl - bahaha....okay sorry. I just want her to play more like her cousins.....

 something like this: my nieces- Meghan is #4, Paige is #3

Lea's team: 

Savannah, Kadyn, Adrian, Josh, Lea, Nicholos, Caden, Jeramiah, Kamora, Brisa, 

Coach Cobb

Lucas' game was next: Green Lions

 Coach Andy, Reagan, Laila, Lucas, Samhith, Coach John

Estavon, Mason, Addie

 

We love SOCCER!!

US Womens Soccer

 When the Olympics were on in London 2012, I was so excited to watch the Womens Soccer team..........only to discover we could only watch it if we had ESPN Soccer. Which we don't, so I only got updates online, not nearly as much fun or exciting. I wanted to see the goalie play - Hope Solo. She is a year younger than Jeff and I and we went to the same high school and grew up in the same town. Jeff and I had just finished reading her book - wow. As a kid I was totally oblivious to things around me, I'm sure my parents knew more, but I did not. I remember Hope from little league baseball games our brothers played together and on the same team. I remember her dad coached the team. Even my brother remembers him coaching and that he was genuinely a nice person whom everyone enjoyed being around.

So when I found out the Womens team was coming to Phoenix, I jumped on those tickets! How many times in my life would I ever be able to watch someone I know play a professional sport?? Not many if any more at all unless it's the old person golf tour. :) We were going to go just us, but soccer season has brought out some new found love for our girls. Lucas was not interested in watching women play soccer.....he stayed home with Ammon and Alexis babysat for us. 

They played Republic of Ireland (had just played them in Portland a few days before) - they beat the socks off these women this time 5-0. Hope only played about 20 minutes and was pulled out as she was not seeing a lot of action and the other goalies needed a chance. The Ireland goalie had an AMAZING! night. She stopped countless shots on goal - I'm impressed that only 5 went in with how many shots she denied.

 The little girls in the red shirts were two rows in front of us when they returned to their seats. It was fun to see all the soccer teams and fans - girls looking up to their idols, hoping to one day be on this team. It was a little weird to sit next to the guy who kept yelling 'Marry me, hope!' and other odd comments.

 Hope is #1 in the blue

 She's in the black in this picture - this was the end of the game as they went to each side of the stands to clap for the fans. She ran around and signed autographs - fun to watch and be a small part of.

Turkey, birthday, party

34! Wow....we're old. We celebrated in true Risenmay/Thanksgiving style with turkey, pie, ice cream, mashed potatoes, stuffing, (wait scratch that, the stuffing was never served), gravy, pistachio jell-o salad, and watched a great deal of football.
 So happy birthday to Jeff - he couldn't have a better birthday than Thanksgiving - food, football and family, what more could you ask for?!

Started the day with the Turkey Trot - Jeff ran the 5k. I 'ran' the 1 mile with the kids. Lucas and Lea took off and I thought they were together. Lucas was finishing long before Lea was - I'm pretty sure he ran the whole thing which turned out to be longer than 1 mile as we took a detour.....oops. I walked (that's even a generous description of what I did) with Abbey and 2 brothers from our ward - 12 and 5. Ammon wanted out the whole time and I had 2 flat tires on the bike stroller I was pushing. (stay tuned for that story)
 We finally finished and people were finishing the 5k before us.......we were slooooooooooooooooooow, but we finished. :) We waited around, ate donuts, drank red gatorade (bad idea), then the kids did the kids dash. It's hard to take pictures and be at the starting line to tell them when to run.....I thought they would be able to follow those directions.....the pictures tell it all. Jeff was holding the tape for the finish line.

 Jackie Lee was giving some great instruction on how to start and run the Kids Dash
Lucas and Boston were messing around....not paying attention.
and RUN!

 Notice there are only little, little kids running with mine?? Notice there's no Abbey.....they took off without her and she just stayed put even though it was her turn.

Oh there's Abbey......ugh. She's already finished the longest 1 mile ever. :)

 I went to the church to play volleyball and Jeff went home to put the turkey in.

We celebrated Jeff's birthday with pumpkin chocolate chip muffins.

 accompanied by the 'you look like a monkey' and totally off-key-loud-as-can-be version of 'happy birthday'

 it was time for gifts: close your eyes!

 Good job Mo.

 a Nexus 7 - happy birthday Jeffrey!

Time for the more food/family portion of the Turkey day/birthday party.
Lots of yummy food, coffee flavored ice cream I threw out and the stuffing I forgot about (left it in the oven which was off) until everyone had left and was on their way to bed.....we had a great time inspite of those small errors - makes for a good story for the next year.

 there was playing with our cousins,

 football watching Tom Brady and Patriots.

Then there was an actual PLAY put on - a video to be posted.....

 of course a group picture was necessary and totally perfect.......if perfect is total choas, everyone looking somewhere else and personality everywhere!

 Good night all!! :) We love our Wickenburg cousins! Happy Thanksgiving and happy birthday husband!