Softball and T Ball Seasons

Softball continues to be one of Ellie's things.

It is fun to see her improve each year.  She would love to play infield or catcher, but the outfield seems to be her place for now.  Keep on working girlie.

She is a pretty good base runner.  I even caught her sliding into Home one time.

Tball was so much fun with Things One and Two.  I knew Cayden would love it, and he sure did, but Gracie, my girlie girl, also had a great time.  She loved having a uniform just like Ellie and marching in the parade at the beginning of the season.  She had a terrible throw, but she loved batting and running the bases.  Cayden was as much of a ball hog as most of the boys on thier team.  It was always a pile-up of energetic boys scrambling for the ground balls.  Cayden started counting how many balls he fielded and called them his points.

Seth had a hard time with them playing when he was not.  Too bad he will still be too young next year to play either. 

School Year End Fun- Field day and Preschool Graduation

Isn't this rainbow of children cute?

It was field day for the three middles(every class gets it's own color) and Ellie happened to match.

Field day is a whole day spent outside playing all sorts of fun games.  Nothing could be better on a warm-June-almost-the-end-of-school-day.

And it was also Preschool Graduation Day.

Songs.

Hugs.

And Done.

Simple. 

Then out to the field to meet up with the rest of the students.

Look who we found!

Happy Field Day to All!

My Traditional Before and After School Shots

2013/14 School Year

These kiddos make me so proud.  This year we had Cayden in preschool, Gracie in Kindergarten, Emma(a big dog on campus) as a third grader, and Ellie as a 5th grader.  All their teachers were super at managing thier little quirks, gifts, and inconsistencies.

Cayden was by far the one that got into the most trouble.  At least one day a week he'd come home with a frowny face on his take-home sheet.  But he kept trying to be good and to remember the rules and to help clean up and to be nice and share with his classmates.  We will be pounding the books this summer to help him get ready for Kindergarten in the fall.

Graice, our kindergartener, was stupendous to watch develope, just like all kindergarteners are.  I think it is just magical how you send them off in Sept and a few weeks later they are recognizing all their letters and are starting to read little words and then by the end of the year they come to you saying things like, "I don't even have to wait for anybody to read to me now, I can do it myself."  I love that little bit of freedom they earn.  She was a bit quiet in class but she made some good friends.

Emma was and probably will always be my little forgetful daughter.  Seriously, everyday I would wait for her to have some initiative to pull out her homework, get it done, and move on.  But nope.  She'd finish one part and go off somewhere and I would track her down to remind her that there was still Spelling or Math to do(Reading was the easy one).   She did good in class mastering the skills.  She had an old school teacher that spent some time teaching cursive.  Emma was one of the classmates that worked hard on learning it.  She is so proud of her new skill, especially since Ellie doesn't know how to write in cursive.  She has some good friends she has made along the years, but she is often the girl that feels picked on.  We try all we can to help her brush off these teasings, but any little thing is taken as an offense of the highest degree.  How do I help her work on that?

Ellie had a great year.  Its neat to see her confident and driven, but we are beginning to see signs of tween-ness coming on.  You can always tell when she is feeling a bit stressed.  Those little frustration tears come out so easily.  Its too cute(but of course I never laugh because it is a serious matter to her).  She had a good time in band and basketball and softball.  At the end of the year it got a little crazy with all three and more going on at once, but we managed.

 First day

Last day

First day

Last day

First day

Last day

First day

Last day

Check out how the teeth are doing;)

 First day

Last day

The Last of the Birthdays

Tis the end of birthday the birthday season over here.  With 4 birthdays from Sept 30 to Oct 30 this part of the year can be wild.  Maybe that's why I feel the urge to simplify.

Cayden always has the hardest time waiting for his birthday because both Seth and Gracie have theirs before him.  It is not fair.  Thankfully he had a little better concept of time this year so he was able to handle the waiting a bit better.

He had a grand list of presents, but we narrowed it down to a few good ones.

We had the gang over...and since Cayden shares a birthday with Adam and his bio sister, Brooklyn, we had to have three cakes.

(I didn't make any of them...shh).

The kiddos are all rosy cheek-ed because I made them play OUTSIDE.  

It's a little nippy on October fall evenings.

I almost made them eat outside too.

"My Birthday"

 Then Brooklyn and Adam got to blow out some candles.

Grandma Martha gave him some great puzzles.

That's her favorite gift to give.

I'll have to show her our stack next time she visits so she gets the hint that maybe we have enough sturdy wooden puzzles;)

Love her.

 After the party went home I let the boys open their presents from me.

Did I do good or what?

They had a blast with those Nerf guns and super heroes.

And they even let Seth in on the fun.

Write it Down, so It's not Forgotten

A day I wanted remembered.

Everyone had a really nice day, except.....I made my kindergartener cry.

It was Friday and the girls were buying hot lunch(pizza day) and so no need to pack lunches.  Only I forgot that they would still need their morning snack.  Gracie came home in a huff.  "Mom, I had to sit at my desk alone while everyone else got to eat their snack!" she hollered at me.  I could see little tears starting to form and I imagine there were a lot more tears earlier that day during snack time.  I felt really bad, but not bad enough to take all the blame.  I made her a deal(deals are mine and Gracie's thing), if she reminded me about her snacks on Fridays, I would remember to pack them.

Ellie had a friend invite her horseback riding.  She still loves those horses.  Maybe, just maybe, we can let her do a little riding this year.  She will have to earn half the money for the weekly lessons and that would mean working at least three hours a week at the warehouse cleaning or filing.  I think she is up for it.

Emma was annoyed that Ellie had somewhere to go after school and she did not, but I made her favorite meal(baked mac and cheese) for dinner and her favorite babysitter came over that evening.

Cayden cried like a banshie when Adam and I were trying to leave for our date.  He kept yelling, "I hate Jessica(our really, really nice babysitter)!"  Which is ridiculous, he loves her, and has told us so many times.  He just doesn't like to see Adam leave without him.  It breaks his poot little heart.

Adam and I had a really nice date.  We hadn't narrowed down any plans before leaving.  I had a meal to drop off for a gal in my church that needed it and then we had rough idea about dinner and maybe a movie.  But I think we are kinda over "going to the movies".  All that money to sit and stare at a screen when really we should be spending out time talking, informing each other about our thoughts and worries and just general news. There is not a lot of time for that in our busy lives.  But after dropping off my meal, Adam got a call about a family in need and it was off to the grocery store for us daters for some neccesities for them.  He serves as the bishop of our congregation and one of his main responsbilities is to look after the welfare of those in his charge.

*More on how service in done in our chruch here in this link. 

So we flirted in the grocery isles, snuck in a kiss in the parking lot after checkout and headed over to deliver our goods to the family.  After a short visit we were ready for dinner.  The closest place was the Waterbury mall, but after getting out of the truck we just weren't feeling the vibe of the place-especially since Adam couldn't get his toolboxes to lock and the base music of the parking lot was making the earth quake.  We jumped back in an headed to our little hometome, stopped at the warehouse-cause we always have to stop and the warehouse for something- and dropped into the "Tavern" to have a great meal.  I am never driving to eat out again, the food was that good.  We had to wait a bit for a table, but we used that time to stroll down main street just talking about how much we have grown to love this town.  We've spent nine happy years here and plan on spending quite a few more.

A Sisters Weekend

It all happened kinda of suddenly.

It may have started with a bit of Mom feeling overwhelmed after a long Coverstar summer that hadn't ended yet and the never ending needs of her adorable children getting to her.  There was also a bit of homesickness in there too.  With three new babies in the family(all within the last three months) and her littlest sister playing her last year of volleyball, she was feeling a bit left out.

So she booked a trip to see them.

And she is so glad she did.

And so is her husband.  She came back a lot more cheery.

Thank you Adam for seeing that I needed to go and making it happen.  He got the girls out to school each morning and then drug that lovely 2 year-old we have around to his jobs sites during the day.  He made it home in time to get the girls off the bus and did the whole homework/dinner routine.  And he did splendidly during the weekend too with a trip to a corn maze and everybody dressed for church.

I really do love him.

It was officially a sisters weekend.  All the sisters and sister-in-laws were able to make it to my mom's house.  None of us could get away from all of our kids but we still did pretty well.  I took Cayden as my traveling companion.  He had been asking for months to ride an airplane to Papa's house and since all the other kids had had special trips to AZ(Ellie and Emma this summer and Seth and Gracie a year ago for my brother's graduation) it was his turn. He turned out to be a great little traveler and I really enjoyed our time together. 

First stop: Antelope vs Phoenix Christian

(Shanna is number 8 as the middle hitter)

I loved watching her.

It brought back so many memories.

I used to play that same team in that same gym.

They were a tough team back then too.

(My old camera hates to photograph in gyms)

Now for a girls get away you might be expecting lots of spa pictures or manicures or shopping, but surprise; this basement room of my mom's house is actually where we spent a lot of our time together.  This is my mom's craft room.  It is amazing.  She has anything your little crafty heart could desire.  Even my smallish crafty heart found some projects to do.  I commandeered her sewing machine and serger to sew Ellie and Emma some skirts and a super hero cape for Seth.  Lisa hemmed some shorts, made some cute little doll blankets, and glued up some hair bows.  

Then Mom got out her vinyl cutter and we never let that thing rest.  Everybody got a few iron-on Super Hero insignia's to place on capes and Halloween costumes. Christine made some cute monograms for above her kids' beds and a larger quote about big and little brothers for the boys room.  She had some Christmas ideas too that she worked on.  I was instructed by Ellie to get Grandma to cut her and her friends all the stickers they would need for their Halloween costumes- they are going as American Girls in the doll boxes.

You could tell it was pretty neat to my mom to have all her girls together doing things.  Things that she enjoyed too.  She is so happy to share her talents.

Even with babies napping or being fed by their mommas there were still a few children wandering around that needed looking after.

Here is how Uncle Eric watches children.

Coming from a time zone so far away is a bit of an adjustment(always waking up so early), but at least we got to see Shanna and Mom doing early morning seminary and then take her to catch her bus.

That there is the only "convenience" store within 30 miles.  Little Shan is about to hop on a bus for a 60mile ride to high school.  Shocking huh.  

And there was plenty of wrestling around even without the wrestling brothers here;)

I tried to get Cayden to hop on with me, but he's developed a bit of a fear for those loud noisy things.

And NOW for the babies.

Those handsome men I was just dying to see.

Mark named after his two grandpas is just as chill as could be.  He's a chubster and a happy one.

Dallin, the cutest little screamer ever.

He is a tough one, but if you hold him just right he'll be good for you.

And little Landon, the smallest of the bunch, but he's got the most hair.  He still loves to sleep alot.

Holly and Amy were feeling a bit left out.

(my poor little flash was pooping out on me)

And some Sunday looking cute pics.

Thanks mom and sisters for the weekend.

Sign me up for next year.