March Madness

Baseball has started up again and now our lives are crazy hectic. Often I find we are leaving the house once the boys are off of school and not getting home until 7:30 or later. Its exhausting and dinner time is a mess. We either have to eat before 4 or after 8 or grab fast food in between. Really none of those options work well. Feed them to early and the complain about being hungry later, wait until after and every one is hangry, and fast food gets old fast. Maybe I'll figure out a solution one of these days. Nathan was drafted up a division because they were short on players for AAA. I would have much preferred for him to stay in AA and to be playing with more kids his age but as long as he continues to enjoy the game we will deal with it.

Earlier this month their school had the Pride Rally for the trimester and both boys received awards.

        Brady got student of the month for February. For always coming to school ready to learn, for being kind and friends with everyone , and for having almost all of his kindergarten standards mastered. His especially fluent at adding and subtracting.

   Nathan got Perfect attendance and his teacher is thrilled that he comes to school each day ready to learn. Always stays on task and is learning at a rapid rate.

Baseball opening Ceremonies happened last weekend. The Boys really enjoyed the experience. The local Sheriff did a fly over with the Helicopter and then the Swat Robot delivered the game ball to the pitchers mound. After all the kids were invited to go check out different safety displays put on by the Sheriff, CHP, and Firemen.
                                                  Nathan- AAA Athletics

                                                Brady- Tee Ball   Padres

It has been really cold here the past week, making watching baseball pretty miserable to watch. But its still fun to see the boys in action. Saturday was especially bad and with the boys playing back to back were were all frozen popsicle by 8pm. We started the night at 5 for Nathan's game and Brady's started at 7. We all dressed warm but it didn't matter, by then Brady was so cold that he couldn't stop shivering and started complaining about an upset tummy. He ended up throwing up as the game came to an end.  We rushed home and put him in a warm bath and he has seemed fine since. Here's to hoping the weather improves for the rest of the season.

Brady's First game.

Reading week

A couple weeks ago the boys had reading week at school. It happens every year for Dr Suess's Birthday/ Everyday they are given a different theme to dress like. Usually its really simple like wear red, wacky wednesday(clothes backwards or inside out), etc. the last day they are told to wear Pajamas or to dress up as their favorite character from a book. The boys really wanted to participate this year so to Hobby Lobby I went to find some ideas.

Brady requested Pete the Cat. I ended up just making some blue cat ears with felt and a visor and then had him wear a blue shirt and pants.

For Nathan I decided to try and come up with a Ash Ketchum costume because the Pokemon books are one of the few he actually likes to read.
I was in luck because Hobby Lobby actually had a hat that was close enough for me to make work. I just drew on the symbol from his hat with fabric markers and got him a black t-shirt along with a Pokemon belt he already had and he was good to go. If I had more time I would have tried to figure out the jacket, Maybe for Halloween?

reference pic:

Snow trip

The kids had a week off of school in February and I was kind of dreading a week with nothing going on. But after realizing that there would actually be snow at the cabin, I decided to invite a friend and take the boys for a few days of playing in the snow. Even though it was very last minute my friend Kristin was happy to join us with her kids. We all piled in my car and left Wednesday afternoon before the storm hit getting us safely to the Cabin with out any issues. The kids had a blast playing all day Thursday in the snow even though it was freezing. They spent all day in and out sliding down the driveway in the freshly falling snow. I often had to coax them inside for a break because Colin and I were tired and wanted to warm up. Friday morning we woke up to even more snow, so after breakfast the kids enjoyed more snow time while Kristin and I packed up the car and cleaned the Cabin. We had such a wonderful time.

The Start of the New Year

Wow, I have really neglected posting anything for the past few months. It's already half way through march and you would think we have done nothing for the past 3 months. This always seems to happen at the beginning of the year. Then towards the end of the year I look back at the year to start creating a book and realize that I have nothing until baseball starts.
We really have a lot going on but I just haven't been good about pictures, mostly because I am just so exhausted all of the time.
Towards the end of the year at church the 2 wards in our area were combined to form one slightly larger group. This move was long over due seeing as most of the adults in our ward had been doing 3-4 callings and were pretty worn out. during the change they released everyone from any callings they may have had in either ward and then they began restaffing the entire ward. I was hoping for a break but that was not the case and a couple weeks after my gallbladder surgery they called me as Primary President. While I do enjoy working with the children I have found it a difficult transition to try and get enough leaders to make a functioning primary. Currently I have only four teachers which means every week I am scrambling to find substitutes for all the different age groups. Here's to hoping I can get things organized and running without so much work soon.

January was pretty warm for us and Colin really loved being outside. We made many bike rides to the library  even on the days when it was not open.

I also made the decision this month for Colin to give up his naps. They had become a battle and he started waking up at 5:30 every morning. I would much rather deal with a slightly cranky baby then have to get up so early. Without a nap at least he sleeps in until 7:00 and I function much better as a mom. But there are still days when he just cannot stay awake in the afternoons and I find him like this:

At the end of January we took the youth from our church to the Cabin for a chance to play in the snow. Everyone seemed to have a great time and for many of them it was the first time they had ever been in snow.

For February we planned a Valentines party for the primary. We kept it simple with some outdoor games, crafts, and brunch. The Sister missionaries came and gave a short lesson focused on Love. It was really wonderful but of course I had plenty of left over sugar cookies. They boys were happy to decorate a few at home.

                  Colin's way of adding sprinkles was to dump the whole bowl on one cookie.