Catch up - Oct

Now for an October update. As I was thinking about what we did during October and it seems like it was consumed by baseball. Last season when both boys played I told Gabriel I did not want to do that again. So, we let the boys know that there were other things that they could do. And we thought that Zach might actually do karate. Then when baseball rolled around this season they both absolutely without reservation wanted to play baseball. So, I bit the bullet and signed them both up. It has been great for Evan, he has really lucked out and had some great coaches each season. But poor Zach, I don't know if it is the age group he is in is more competitive, but he has not had some good coaches. He loves the sport and just enjoys playing.

This is Evan's team this season. Gabe was also one of his coaches, but he had to leave for work right after their last game and then they decided to do a team pic.

I thought this photo was funny. It was Evan's last game and I was watching him bat and he literally watched the ball go by him and he kept his eye on that ball after it passed him. It was hilarious to watch him do this a couple of times.

This is my preschool group. I arranged for us to go and sing some Halloween songs at a Senior Care Center. The kids were so excited to go and sing for somebody and the residents there absolutely loved it. They kept begging us to sing more! We will have to go back again. But it was cute to see them all singing and dressed up in their costumes.

Here they are singing There's A Spider On The Floor and they are pulling a spider up. What cute kiddos!!!

We did a little carnival thing with a couple other families in our area. One of the games there was bobbing for apples and I realized that none of my kids has ever bobbed for apples. Which having Evan is a shocker. Anyone who knows us knows how many apples we go through at our house. We really need to look at growing an orchard before he gets much older.


My little comedian! We were trying on pants and switching all the summer and winter clothes. Evan put these on and we all died laughing. And well, the picture says it all.

I am a slacker scrapbooker, my camera was lost so I have no photos of our Halloween. My FIL sent me some photos, so hopefully I can get them scanned in and I will post them. That is all for October. Hopefully Novembers will not be typed up in January- we'll see.

Playing catch up!!! - Sept.

Once again I am way overdue for a post. I don't know if anyone still checks this blog anymore. I actually started this so that all of our grandparents and extended family could keep up with us, but I don't think any of them see this and I don't update it enough to keep them updated. Maybe if I did this as a journal of our family events I would be better at keeping it updated. I'll try that theory for a while and see where it gets me!
Life is busy as usual. Since I last posted we have stayed busy with baseball, preschool, church callings, hosting family and we've had 2 birthdays!!!

Evan turned 8 in Sept. and we had his baptism then. It was wonderful to be able to have both grandparents here, plus his cousin was able to come. Evan was elated. He is like his dad and doesn't really express his emotions outwardly, but as his mother there were signs that I could tell he felt special and he was happy that they could all come. He wanted a baseball cake for his birthday. And his dad had him convinced that mom could do a full stadium cake! Never mind the fact that I have never even set foot in 1 decorating class, Gabe!!! But sweet Evan settled for a simple field, "since you are so busy" he told me. What a sweetie.


As I was looking for a photo of his baptism to put up, I couldn't find one of the whole clan (grandparents and all). I don't know why we didn't take one. But here is one of the family.

And this is the cousin that was able to come. We can't wait to be able to see them more often, they are moving to Texas!!! It is like a dream that I am going to be able to live by one of my sisters! I am probably scaring my BIL with all my plans of when we can see each other!

Preschool has kept me super busy. At the end of school in May I had 5 kids in preschool, this year I started with 8! And I might add another in January. It has been crazy at times, but so much fun. Natalie loves having preschool and having so many kids to be able to play with.
This is not all of them, 2 were missing here. We took a field trip to a pumpkin patch and had a great time. It was so nice that most of the moms came. It made for keeping track of 8 kids so much more manageable.

I thought this photo was so funny. Who poses like that? She wanted her picture by this cat, because it was pink and she just laturally posed like this. I just have to chuckle at how funny she is sometimes.

First Day of School. . . And Look What I Did

Well, today was our first day of school. We have a new school right at the end of our street- so nice! And the kids were super excited to be "walkers". Zach was kind of put out that mom and dad were walking with them to school, but Evan was glad. Oh, they grow up so fast! Doesn't Gabe look super excited to be going to school!


Last night we did a special FHE about going back to school. I made these placemats for the kids to hopefully help them get ready for school without me having to nag them all morning long. (Natalie's is missing because she wanted to color it herself and it wasn't done when I took the pic) And I laminated them so they can use it for breakfast and remember what they are suppose to do. We shall see if my efforts were worth it. But I thought they turned out super cute, considering I am not an artist in the least!


And then while the kids were at school today I made this! My neighbor and I have been wanting to start building projects from my fav website and we did our first one today. We still have to paint it, but I can't believe we finally did something. Hopefully our next project goes a lot smoother, this one took us a little longer than we would have liked. But it is done. Can't wait to paint it. That is tomorrow project!! But my poor house. Thank goodness I have an amazing husband that worked super hard on the house (even on his day off!) because our dishes are done, 3 loads of laundry have been done, he mowed the lawn and went to the dentist all while I was playing with wood. What am I going to do tomorrow when he is gone?

Little Halloween Preview

Sunday has become very relaxing here at our house. We have morning church, so we have most of the day to relax and spend time together. This last Sunday Gabe and I got a nap in- YES!! But while we were napping our boys were pondering. Zach and Evan decided that they were going to give us a preview of what they were going to be for Halloween. It was great! Have a look for yourselves as to what goes on in the minds of my boys!

While at my parents house the saw a show that my dad has a soft spot for-Walker Texas Ranger. And now that soft spot has rubbed off on a few of their cousins. They are both intrigued by the character and think he is great. Oh, the shirts I could buy them.

So, Evan wants to be Walker Texas Ranger, facial hair and all. Someone even gave us cowboy boots that are about 2 sizes too big for Ev, but he doesn't care.

Zach has a deep passion for baseball and a very good memory. He has started collecting baseball cards and will read the backs of them like it is an intense novel. It might be a little OCD, he will take them anywhere with him. In fact that was in his pack for the plane trip for entertainment, and they indeed do entertain him for hours. But he can remember almost everything he reads from the backs of those cards. So and so played for that team in this year- it boggles my mind. Anyway he wants to be A.J. Pierzynski from the White Sox.

I love the look on both of their faces, so serious. Oh the imaginations of children. I really hope they never loose that imagination. We shall see what really happens come Halloween. But for now we have quite the show at our house.

Family Reunions=Vacation Time

My family has been spread out pretty good for the last few years. And before that we had never been home all at the same time. So when my sister moved home from Germany we decided it would be a good time to have everyone home at Grandma's. My kids have never really experienced a family reunion, so I was excited for what was in store for them.
Grandma's house +cousins=a great time! I took so many pictures, but I picked just a few. We even had family pictures done, I will post those when we get our copy of the disk. It was a long trek to get there and we were very blessed getting there and coming home. The Lord is ever mindful of us and our prayers. We wouldn't have made it without His help.


The cousins enjoying a treat after an intense treasure hunt. It is an odd angle, I was trying to get everyone in on the shot.

Natalie got to experience cousins for the first time. Madyson is only 2 months younger than Natalie (they are the closest cousins in age). They had a blast together. They played so well together and were always together. I loved it!

Even Evan, who hates kisses, had a great time being with family. My sister loves to give him a hard time about kisses and he eats it up. I just realized I forgot to take a picture of something that he created while we were there. Evan loves dirt and there is a lot of it at my parents house. Right underneath a raingutter he started a "Grand Canyon" (that's what he called it) and he made it about 8 feet long. Then he would put the hose at the end and stomp in the mud. He loved it. What a kid! He is growing up so fast. I can't believe he is going to be 8 next month!

One of my kids favorite thing to do is play with Grandpa's sling shots. I can't tell you how many water balloons we filled, but it was a lot. Zach was really good at it. He could shoot it the farthest. He was very proud of himself.

After the reunion we headed down to Utah and spent half a day at Temple Square. We love to visit this place and the kids had not been in quite a while. Gabe and I envisioned this visit to be like most- see this and that, spend about an hour and be on our way. But the kids were so involved in everything and then some sisters took us on a family tour. That was the best part of the day! Gabe and I both were so impressed, we highly recommend it if you haven't done it. It was very well done. I still remember how I felt during the presentation.

We were able to see some good friends while we were there. Lots of fun catching up and just relaxing together. We did take the kids to a splash park, where Natalie experienced getting soaked with your clothes on. (We left her swim suit at Grandma's) At first she didn't want to, but the water was just too tempting.

After making it back home and into the intense heat we wanted to do something as a family. And I discovered one of the wonderful things about living in Texas- there is never a shortage of water parks and there is a price for almost anyone's budget. We really wanted to go to Hurricane Harbor or Hawaiian Falls, but once you pay for 5 people you might as well go to a beach.

Luckily we found a nice little one that fit the wants of our little family and the price was great!! And because we didn't fork out a ton we didn't feel like we had to stay forever to get our money's worth. The kids had a great time, the lines were not long for the slides, there were area's to just relax in the water. It was all around a great day! So if you visit us in the summer we might just take you here.

Now the summer is almost over and I am very sad. I love having my kids home. But I am not good at keep a structure of school work over the summer. They need structure. School starts in about 2 weeks. I have such mixed emotions. I really want to home school so they can have a more hands on learning experience and be able to be outdoors more. I registered them for school last week and found out that their recess has changed from 20 min to 15 min. They get one recess right after lunch and it is 15 min. That just makes me so sad that they only get 15 min to be have fun. Preschool starts a week after school does and that will keep me busy. But that is good, I need structure as well. Anyway, hope the rest of your summer is filled with laughter and smiles.

Summer Begins

Summer has begun! And this is a great picture to let you know what we do a lot of at our house right now. It has become a family favorite past time.

Here is a little bit of what else we have been up to.

School got out the first week of June, Yay! We had a little break the next week, but then this last week has been packed full of stuff. Zach had cub scout day camp all week and all day.

Natalie had a birthday and turned 4!!

Evan and Natalie started swimming lessons, which are every day for 2 weeks. And my sister, who has been in Germany for the last 3 years came for a quick visit with her husband. It was super good to spend some time with her and her husband.

This is my sister that visited and this is Natalie's cake. She wanted another castle cake this year, but pink and purple. This one didn't turn out as cute as I had hoped. One- the colors are not what I would have picked, but she is 4 and who cares! Two- the towers weren't as tall as I wanted. But Natalie absolutely loved it! She helped decorate it, if you couldn't tell. Those flags were not designed by me, although it does look a lot like my art work! And she picked all of these characters from her toys to put on there. I can't believe they grow up so fast.

Free Sonic Ice Cream May 29th

Here is a link to print a coupon to get a FREE Ice Cream cone at Sonic. It is for this Friday only. What a cheap way to celebrate the end of school!!!

http://printable.couponfeed.net/stores/sonicdrivein/12887c31b191b622.html

Life is getting away from me!

No excuses. I just need to organize my life better so I can post more. Here is what we have been up to for the month of April. We started off with a big bang and got snow! I really wonder what is happening to Texas. I'm freezing here! But the kids love it.

I have decided that I need to grow an apple tree, maybe even an orchard. However apple trees don't do too well where we live. Our soil is bad. This kid of mine eats easily 5 apples a day. Those 5lb. bags that they sell in the stores, we go through 2 bags in about 5 days. One cashier made a comment one time as he scanned my 3 bags of apples, "Wow, you guys really like apples." I told him it was for my 7 year old. He was flabbergasted and chuckled that he must be very regular. Oh boy, you have no idea how regular and I won't go into that here. But he is my most healthy child. Hence, 'an apple a day keeps the doctor away'. Evan loves this philosophy.

Spring is here and with it a little bit of heat. Now that it is warming up the kids can't understand why the pool is not open. But there's always a sprinkler. I love having a trampoline and a yard. Those are probably my most favorite things about being in a home. And I can grow a garden, which isn't doing as well as it did last year. I didn't get my onions in and now I have pest problems. Lesson learned-always plant onions in my garden to keep bugs away. But here comes the summer and I am so excited for all my kiddos to be home more and for us to be able to play. As long as we stay away from the 100 degree for a little while longer.

Gabe's parents were able to come and visit us for a few days. The kids love seeing their grandparents. Especially when they come to watch them play baseball. Gabe is Evan's coach this season and Evan has absolutely loved it. Natalie can't wait to be able to play soccer next year. Goodness they grow up so fast. I wish I could freeze time for just a little while.

My boys have become quite the baseball fans. They love playing, watching and talking baseball, more specifically Texas Rangers. They are FANS!! This was our first game as a family this season and we had fun, even Natalie (I was surprised). We made it through the whole game.

This actually is part of May, but I figured since I am on a roll why stop. My little preschool group took a field trip to a local zoo and we had so much fun. Their favorite part was feeding the giraffe. His tongue was soooo long. They are such fun kids and I am going to miss them terribly once school is out. Natalie will miss them too. Every day she asks if she is having preschool that day.

My kids. What can I say? They are so very different from each other. I wish they could stay this way for a little while longer. My memory is getting so bad, I can't remember things that they can. I don't feel that old, but I am getting up there. They love walking around our lake in the neighborhood and this is their favorite spot. Sitting on the dock just watching the water. I am so grateful for technology and being able to capture them for my memory sake.

I will try and do better at keeping you updated more often. And I will try to comment on your blogs more often. I don't comment a lot. My life right now is so busy. When I get a chance to look at blogs it isn't for very long. I hope you are all doing wonderful and your families are healthy. Have a wonderful month and enjoy the last few days before summer!

Overlooked

Today I was talking with my sister and she pointed out that I had not posted Evan's cake on here. I feel awful I didn't post about my sons birthday. He turned 7 back in Sept and wanted a Phineas and Ferb cake. But of course there was nothing in the stores at that time to do such a cake, so I had to result to doing my own. It turned out pretty good and Evan was trilled, which is all that matters in the end. Evan is a great kid and keeps us all laughing, just see the side bar. And now this year he will be 8! I can't even believe it. I remember when he was born. Tomorrow it is suppose to snow here, which doesn't happen often, I hope they close school. I want a day with my kids!

The wording didn't turn out great. I didn't have much time to do those and by the time I got to those I just wanted to be done with this thing! But for not being an artist- at all - I was pleased you could just tell what it was suppose to be. (You should some of my artistic skills, Natalie is often questioning what my drawings are suppose to be.)

The elated birthday boy! I think they get cuter every year.

I definitely need to write about this! All Evan wanted for his birthday was a pet. Well, Gabe and I aren't too keen on those yet. So, we decided to start minimal. We got a fish. These 3 kids sat and watched 3 fish swim in a 5 gallon tank for over 1/2 hour! They were completely mezmerized! We let each of the kids pick out a fish, hence the 3. By day 3 Evan's fish died. He was so sad. Luckily the store has a 2 week period where you can bring back your dead one and get a new-how nice. Because our tank is so small and we have 3 inhabitants we needed to find something smaller. We found a cute aqua frog that doesn't need dry land in the tank. He thought that was great. Then, about 3 days later we wake up and the frog is dead. Evan just fell apart, "How come my pets are the only ones dying?" I felt for him. He didn't want to try again, because he felt like they would just keep dying. We finally convinced him to try again and we got another frog and that one is going strong still!!!

I had to remember our experience with our first pets. And after this I don't know if we will get any larger than a small tropical fish or frog! Some people just aren't cut out for pets.

Cartoons can be good

For right now, I love cartoons! I just recieved a back and head massage, plus a foot rub with cream. And it was all from my kids! They saw an episode of Phineas and Ferb, the one when they make their own backyard spa. So, my kids decided to do a spa here and I was the spa attendee, lucky me! They all wanted to take turns doing each one, so really it was like 3 massage rotations. Raising kids can be hard, but today it payed off!

Sorry for the break

I am so sorry that it has taken me a while to get back here. I have actually had my computer back since Christmas, but it just takes me a long time to get back into the swing of things. I wish life would slow down, it is all going by so fast. I have been super busy with Relief Society, we got a new president so we are busy restructuring stuff. Preschool keeps me busy, although I am hoping next year it won't be as busy because I will have the lesson plans pretty much done. And of course family. Evan decided he wanted to enter the science fair this year and it happened to be the same week as our Pinewood Derby and baseball tryouts! It is nice to be busy and not feel lazy, but I love a lazy day every now and then!
Here are a few pics of what we have done as of late.

This is for my sisters, who have waited a long time for Halloween pics- thanks for the costumes Mel! I promise Natalie was a lot happier than she looks.


In November we had Zach's birthday and I was relieved when he asked for something simple for a cake, although I was a little more pleased with how Evan's turned out than this simple one. But they all taste the same and my kids don't care, they think each one looks great! (He wanted what was on his baseball shirt to be on his cake, hence the number 7)


We had our first white Christmas in Texas!!! I think I read somewhere that the last time this happened was in 1929!! It actually snowed 2 times the week of Christmas. We had a blast playing in the snow, even dad came and had a snowball fight! Then we used all the snow we could find to make a snowman.


Last week Evan dressed up for Career day at school and he wanted to be a pilot. He was disappointed when we told them what they wear. Luckily a neighbor had some stuff from ages ago and he thought that was much better! (He was, however, afraid that the kids would think he was Amelia Earhart!) I love my little Evan!


Last week in preschool we talked about Space and this is what they did one day. We made space helmets and jet packs. We even tried astronaut ice cream!! Isn't being a kid so much fun.