The Noehren's

Our sweet Haley has many talents.  Controlling her moods is not always one of them.  I've learned over the years to just roll with it, do my best to help her with her anger, and not take it so personally (since I am usually the target of her verbal tyrants.)  Suffice it to say there have been multiple mean spirited notes left on my bed, many long "talks" and even a few tears.  Did I mention she's only 7?  Well, tonight when I ran upstairs to get something, Haley came out of her room and randomly said "Mom, I'm really sorry for being so mean."  Ummm - ok?  I said "Thanks!  Is there anything that made you think about that?" and she goes on to tell me how she was reading in her journal (the place she's written me many hard-to-swallow notes on how I could be a better mother - complete with charts for me to correct my behaviors!) and she said she realized she's been really mean and wanted to say sorry.  Later she came downstairs and ha...

After a year and a half of soccer practices and games - Haley made her first goal EVER in a game today!!!   We were soooo proud of her!  She's been what I'll describe as a timid defense player for a long time, but somewhere over the last month it all seemed to click and she came out of her soccer shell.  Today the coach put her in as offense at the beginning of the game and she did great, but it wasn't until the end of the game that her moment of glory came.  She had 4 goal attempts, but the goalie caught them...and then boom - one finally made it through!!  We celebrated by buying hot fudge McDonald's sundaes. On a totally unrelated note - do you see that shiner on her arm/elbow?  I first noticed it last Sunday night and it was even uglier then.  She said she bumped her arm climbing our tree.  Hmmmm - that must have been some bump!  I was skeptical and was concerned about the large dime...

This weekend was beautiful and full of fun!  Friday night the boys headed out for the yearly father/sons church campout, while us girls went to see Rio (very cute!) and had ice cream.   Snuggly Grant  They woke up to a chilly morning.   Grant is getting better at taking pictures - this one of Brian isn't blurry at all!  That night we went to a friend's derby party.  Grant helped me pick out my over-the-top hat.  It is part Arethra Franklin, part Mad Hatter.  Grant loved my "fancy" hat.  I was hoping for a big, big hot pink poofy thing, but this one did the job.  To push the look over the edge, I also bought the necklace/earings with the biggest, shiniest rhinestones I could find.   The ladies.  Annie's homemade Derby hat was by far the cutest thing ever.   3 boys, 1 ipod touch.  So cute!

This Easter we invited my parents down and had a blast!  We headed off to Keenland for the spring races in town on the only sunny day of the week.  It was a ton of fun!  For some reason horse racing here is regal and fancy - not scuzzy and seedy like it can be other places.  Girls in pretty sundresses, men in sport coats and ties.  I would have never thought of going to the horse races when we lived in Delaware, but here it is a real destination!     One of the "worker" horses that parades the race horses around.  ...and their off!!  Beautiful Haley  Here are the two die hard horse betters watching their horse lose at the last mintue.   We colored eggs.  We went to church with our new Easter dresses,  and found where the very large manly bunny (named Brian) hid the Easter baskets and eggs this year. Grant not-so-patiently waited for almost a month for his mini pillow pet.  He even...