Maya's First Soccer Game

Coach Henry, who was Mason's soccer coach for the last 2 seasons, is now Maya and Zoe's soccer coach. Coach Henry's nephew is Jack who is 4 years old. So, 3-4's play together, but Kindergarten or 5's move up to a new league. We were glad to get Henry for Maya, but are sorry to loose him for Mason too. Anyway, I said all of that so I could say that now Maya is on the WILDCATS! But it will be confusing because about half of the old Wildcats team moved up with Mason, so they are still the Wildcats too. So Maya's team is the Orange and Mason's team is Blue, but they are both Wildcats. Maya had her first game -- Mason had a BYE week the first week of the season.

Maya did do better at her 2nd practice, but we really were not sure what to expect come game time. I was pleasantly surprised. I will say, though, that I did a little bribing. I took Maya with me Saturday morning looking for smaller black shorts -- you will see in these pictures I was NOT successful in that mission. But, I did find a head band that had orange in it and told her I would buy it for her and let her wear it to the game if she promised not to do any "Keeleying."



Maya thinking of her next move on the field.
Coach Henry giving Maya, #3, some instruction.
Down and ready position...
Water break!

Time on the bench and hugs from Mommy. The significance of the team we played was that the REAL "KEELEY" was playing on it... she is the girl right behind Zoe in the blue shirt with blonde curly hair. It was SO GREAT that she was there, because she did her normal routine of crying on the field -- and I could remind Maya that she didn't want to look like that. She didn't stay focused the whole game, but she definitely got in there and ran, as Mason advised her. I shot a little video and actually got Maya kicking the ball.. and then one of all the team's favorite parts of the game... their Wildcats Team Huddle.

Lauren came to see the girls in their first game, and Maya took her picture!

Maya takes time to love on Raider.

We could see that Maya's friend, Hannah, was playing on the next field over. After the game we went to say "Hi." We tried to get Hannah on the same team, but Coach Henry had too many previous players and additional requests, so it didn't happen.

How do you spell DESTRUCTION???

How do you spell DESTRUCTION????
R-A-I-D-E-R. And no, I'm not talking about the Texas Tech Red Raiders, although so far they are doing well.
The pictures that follow were taken on a series of 3 days -- each day worse than the one before. Within less than a day of getting Raider these dog toys, each of them was torn up. Not really surprised by most -- but the blue frisbee you see was supposed to be pretty indestructible -- well not so much.. he already chewed the edges off.



Then one morning in a matter of 15 mintues while Nesha was walking Mason to the bus stop, Raider proved he could get out of his kennel. He was found on our bed tearing up our comforter. This comforter is not old. I have had it less than 6 months, so this was especially maddening.
We figured if we put an additional pad lock on the kennel, we could keep him contained, and it did actually work a few times. However, Sunday morning, I did not get the lock squeezed tight enough to where it clicked in place. This was a mistake I won't ever make again. We came home after church and lunch to find out house ransacked. Quickly we discovered, because of the smell, that Raider had managed to turn the gas on 2 of the burners on the stove top!! So DANGEROUS! We had to open the windows and air out the house. The previous day, I bought a big box of oatmeal -- 40 packages to be exact. Every package was scattered throughout the kitchen and living room. Some of them were opened and the oatmeal was sticky and gooey on the floor.

I had also purchased a big box of 120 kitchen trash bags. These were also scattered and torn about. I saved a good amount of them, but many were also bit and torn and were themselves, trash.

Mason's backpack was ripped from the hook in the laundry room and completely ruined. the strap and back part of it were left hanging on the hook, while the front zipper part and pockets were in shreds. The same was true of Brian's lunch cooler. Pieces were found around the house. Maya's backpack was touched, but not ruined -- he just pulled Sleepy Beauty's dress off.

My laundry basket, which was back in my closet was obviously dragged thru our bathroom, bedroom and into the hallway where I found it. My dirty clothes were strewn around the house. The fake tree knocked over, the comforter and sheet off our bed and drug into the living room. A pillow from our bed stripped of it's pillow case, the case ripped in shreds. Plastic cups, a plastic water spray bottle, various toys all chewed and ruined. One of Maya's soccer shoes - he chewed the toe off of and they are ruined as well. 23 of a 24 pack of Zyrtec (allergy medication) was also scattered all about. The cable remote control was chewed and ruined... I'm sure Time Warner will charge us a pretty penny for that!

And these pictures just show a little of what I have described. I was shocked. We were gone for roughly 5 hours. We will be coming up with some new way to contain him and protect our stuff!

Cuties

Maya modeling one of the cute "back to school" outfits that Grandmother got for her.

And then one more with the cute Raider.

Maya's first soccer practice

Although you can't tell it in these pictures, Maya's first soccer practice didn't go all that well, Maya did have a cough and wasn't feeling totally well, but she took every opportunity to run over to "tell you something" or to "get a drink of water." Ocassionally she would get into what was going on, but by the end of practice, she was crying and wanted to go home and eat dinner.


Mason here is telling her "you just gotta get out there and run like I do"....

He tried to encourage her and even took her out on the field a few times trying to give her pointers.


On the way home we discussed how she acted like "Keeley" who was the little girl on Mason's first team that cried all the time. She doesn't want to be "that girl" so we are looking for improvements in practice and during game time!! We will keep discussing it to be sure!

One thing is for sure - she looked cute!

Meet Raider

We welcomed the newest addition to the Happy Harris House on Friday. We adopted Raider from Lab Rescue. His rescue name was "Caleb," but since he only answered to that for a few weeks, we wanted to give him a name that fit a little better.

He is such a pretty dog. He has lots of energy and can fetch as many balls or frisbee's as you will throw. He knows commands like sit, drop, and no -- but he needs further training for sure. He is so sweet -- FABULOUS with the kids.

Just an hour or less after taking him in, Mason had his first soccer practice for the season. Brian was not feeling well and wanted me to take the new dog and kids with me. So, I'm thinking "no big deal." OH MY GOSH!!!!! Raider is incredibly strong and wanted to run after all the soccer balls being kicked around the various practices going on. I was drug around the entire hour and was so hot, exhausted and with roughed up hands from holding on to the leather leash by the time we headed back to the car. He was a big hit among the kids though. At one point there must have been 10 kids surrounding him touching, petting, talking in his face and he was not bothered by the smothering one bit. I love that. In that sense, he is so easy going.

The first night at our house he whimpered a little and just made noise that made Brian and I not sleep well.. But by the 2nd night, he did great. Probably because Saturday we were mostly indoors due to all the rain (IKE) -- and the kids found plenty of games to play with Raider so by bed time they were all 3 worn out!


As we were putting Maya to bed, he jumped up in bed with her. We pulled him down moments later and continued on to tuck Mason in. Again, he jumped right up on the bed, but this time he was not moving.

He was so cute I ran down for the camera. Of course, I knew he was not going anywhere if he wasn't being made to. Mason would have preferred him to stay and have a sleep over in his room, but we aren't ready for that yet. We want to make sure he stays on his bed and isn't chewing things up while we are sleeping. We finally got him out of Mason's bed and on to his own.

We are all happy to have a dog again. It's been a long time (about 16 months) without Emmitt. It's going to be a lot of work at first, but I think it is worth it. I think having a pet is good for the kid and they trully enjoy him.

LaLa with M&M

It was "Curriculum Night" at Mason's school and Brian was out of town. LaLa was nice enough to babysit for me briefly so I could go and actually pay attention.

Thanks Lauren!

(M&M are always asking "when is LaLa going to come babysit us?")

Paloma turns 3

Paloma turned 3 on the 4th. Her birthday party is coming up, but we wanted to go ahead and let her open her gift. One thing we got her was a tea set she had seen at Target. Maya, of course, thought this looked like a fabulous gift --- and wanted it for herself.

Thankfully, Paloma wanted to have a tea party that included her cousins. Happy Birthday P-Lo!

Maya's first Day of school

Maya walking out the door trying to get her back pack on --
It was her turn for the first day of her 3 year old class. We met her teachers back in August and they are really sweet.
She seemed like she was going to be fine -- but when I left, she cried. I was in the hall way where she could not see me filling out a form and by the time I completed it and left it at the door for her teachers, she was no longer crying, so that was good.