Kiddie Soccer

Oh so cute!  Whitney had her long awaited first day of soccer.  I love it because it just a practice time, there are no games, they just learn the game and have fun.  Oh, and it completely wears her out which is no easy task for this child.  Oh, and she looks so adorable running around out there!  She did a great job for her first day.  She needed to be reminded quite a bit that she wasn't supposed to use her hands, but she was just trying to line up for a good kick into the goal.  :)  And when they played their little "game" at the end, she didn't like the fact that there was only one ball.  At one point she just sat down because she didn't have a ball to play with.  We think she just didn't understand that that was how the game was played.  She seemed pretty excited later when we explained to her that there is only one ball and that she was supposed to try to take it away from the other team.  It was almost like a little light went off in her head, "Oh, I get to take it away from someone! Yes! I can do that!"  We'll see how this translates on the field next Monday.

A HUGE Win

What a difference a week makes.  The Jets pulled out a huge win on Sunday against New England.  This is a big win because its a big rivalry and more importantly a division opponent.  Great job!

Opening Night vs. Baltimore

It didn't turn out to be such a great night for the Jets faithful...and they were happy to let you know about it!  Ruthless!  But, short week, time to move on, New England is coming here on Sunday.

Melt My Heart

Whitney: "Mommy, look!  I drew a picture from when I was born!"

Me, (excited to see her creation and wanting her to explain her picture to me): "I don't know what you mean, explain it to me."

Whitney: "You know, when I was in your belly.  But, I forgot that I didn't have hair in your belly."

Seriously. So. Stinkin'. Cute!

NYC Boat Tour

Ben's parents and their friends, Ron and Nancy Ratliff, are in town right now for tomorrow's Monday night game.  We went into the city to do a boat tour around the island of Manhattan, a three hour tour.  Good in theory, but too long for two precious little girls...

Another 5K

On Thursday night I ran in my next 5K that benefited Morris County Habitat for Humanity.  It was right here in our little town of Morris Plains, my "home turf" as Ben kept calling it, and in fact we ran right by our house.  I wasn't expecting to do very well.  I just started running outside again a week or so prior, and everyone kept telling me, but I didn't get it, the treadmill is different!  Anyway, I ended up just a minute or so slower than my first 5K so considering I wasn't really training, I was pleased.  I'm not for sure of my time, I forgot to set my watch at the very beginning, but it was somewhere around 36:45.  My sweet hubby and sweet girls were there to cheer me on again.  I love that Ben gets so pumped up for me.  He's so cute...enough blubbering, I know.  He's just super, what can I say? 

I love this picture because Lindsey is reaching for him.  He had just gotten home from work and was walking towards us.  She wanted her daddy!

Whitney said she was being the Statue of Liberty

The start

All done

The Jersey Shore

We finally made it to "The Shore" earlier this week.  We had been trying to go, but everyone kept telling us the traffic was just terrible on the weekends, and that seemed to be the only random times we had available, so we just didn't go.  But, Ben had Wednesday off so we went to Seaside Heights.  Now, all the locals had been telling us not to go there, that we should go to Point Pleasant or Asbury Park, other parts of the shore, but when we told them we wanted the most stereo-typical shore experience, they told us Seaside was our place...and it was.  Granted we were there during the day and it was after Labor Day, so it was very tame, but we could see how it could get completely out of control.  Mostly we had fun looking at the different shops along the boardwalk, had some pizza, custard (not ice cream) and played some silly games.  The "carnies" kept trying to get us to play their games, our favorite by far was "Shoot the Guido", we didn't play it, but consisted of Guido-like dummies falling down to shoot.  Funny.  Oh, and one guy was trying to get us to let the girls play a shooting game and a couple of his lines to lure us were "there's no kick-back from the gun, the girls could do it!" and "come on, you get to shoot them right in the neck!"  Hysterical.  It really is a different world up here.  We are loving our time in Jersey!

Whitney and Daddy on the boardwalk

Merry-go-round

Playing some games

Whitney wanted her picture with this shrimp for some reason.

We wanted to let the girls play on the beach, but the sand was so hot we found some shaded space up by the boardwalk.  It didn't take us too long to figure out this spot was the place for everyone to dump their broken glass bottles, cigarette butts, etc., so we didn't hang too long.

It's hard work being a Jersey girl...

Rub-A-Dub-Dub

Bathtime!  We realized we didn't really have many pictures of the girls in the bath, so here goes...

First Day of School

The girls started school today at Kings Kids here in New Jersey.  Whitney was so excited!  And little Lindsey just walked right into her classroom, waved and said "byyye" to me.  I feel so blessed to have children that are ok being away from us.  It makes my heart happy to see them happy.  Here's my best attempt of a back to school photo shoot... 

Whitney 3 1/2 years

Lindsey 17 months

Preseason Vs. The Redskins

Good game...til the end. L 16-11. Go get 'em next time.

Silly Stuff

Just the girls playing together.  For some reason Lindsey starting doing this and Whitney thought it was funny so they both started doing it and falling on their bottoms and laughing.  It was so sweet to see them having fun together.

Whitney and (one of the five) Elmos in Times Square.  We went into the city over the weekend while my parents were in town to visit.  Elmo could've used a good bath...

Fork!

Up and Running-First Preseason Game vs Giants

Monday Night Football!  The first preseason game for the 2010 season was last night at the new Meadowlands stadium against the Giants.  Unfortunately, we lost, but I came to the conclusion that it's better for teams to lose in the preseason so that they can see where their weaknesses are.  Right?  Ben played a good game through the first half, then he got to rest.  He rolled his ankle a little bit, so that may slow him up a day or two.  It shouldn't be anything major though.  We were lucky to have him home for the night and this morning, then he had to head back up to training camp in Cortland.  Booooooo!  But, there is light at the end of the tunnel, Friday they break camp!  Yay!

Whitney got to go into work with daddy to get treatment

Ch-Ch-Changes...

Well, we're moving again, but this time by choice.  Ha!  That's quite a concept!  Since we had bought our land, we put our house on the market in May thinking it would most likely take awhile to sell.  Well, we sold it!  We are so thankful for that.  The timing wasn't the best, but once again we were reminded that we are not in charge of our timing.  So Ben's been in training camp for two weeks and the girls and I have been in Georgia getting the house packed up and put into storage.  Well, really the movers packed up and moved everything, but someone had to manage that. :)  I'm proud to say that as of yesterday we are moved out of our house with all of our belongings, including our vehicles into four, yes, four (large) storage units.  We had to separate things into long term storage and short term storage because when we get back down to Georgia after the season, we will be most likely moving into a brand new double wide on our land.  We still have some hoops to jump through with the county about our "manufactured home", but we are confident it will come through.  We will build a house at some point, but probably not even start until Ben is finished playing, so it could be a couple years or it could be more (again, the timing thing).  We are excited to get moved over there and have a place to be settled.  And Ben is excited to have a place to ride his dirt bike every single minute of the day!  Until then, as of tomorrow you can find us in Jersey for the next few months.  Let the fist pumping begin!