We have never done organized sports before, so we figured we would jump in with both feet and sign up all three boys in baseball. They all had a blast, and Brian even got to be Jacob's coach. We had to do some juggling scheduling wise, but it all worked out. Jacob had so much fun! And, he was so darn cute! By the end of the season, Brian was even able to pitch to him instead of using the Tee.
Ethan really loved playing. He played machine pitch this year and did really well. I was amazed at how far he could hit the ball. He rarely struck out. One of his favorite things to do was to slide into home. He did it every time he had the chance. His favorite position to play was catcher. I think it was because he got more action that way and didn't have to wait around in the outfield for a ball to come to him.
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It took Eli a little while to get used to the game. He would get really bored sitting out in the field. I would usually catch him dancing out there:) His best day was the day he had a Mohawk. He hit the ball farther than anybody, and got the first home run of the season. I think he felt the mohawk gave him a little more "coolness" so that gave him more confidence. Unfortunately, I was a horrible mom, and shaved it off Sunday morning.
We are still very much California people. Any kind of weather is amazing to us. Our kids were the only ones out playing in the summer rain.
One our favorite things to do this last summer was to head up into the canyon for cooking hot dogs and roasting marshmallows. I have to admit, I am a professional marshmallow roaster. My dad taught me the correct way to roast a marshmallow, and now I am a roasted marshmallow snob. I only eat perfectly roasted marshmallows. I will only eat sub-par marshmallows when my children make them for me and I have to be a supportive mom. So, imagine my surprise when Jacob handed me a marshmallow, and I LIKED it! He has inherited my talent for roasting perfect marshmallows! I mean, they are BEAUTIFUL! It's nice to know that when I'm old and crippled, and can't roast marshmallows for myself, I will have Jacob to do it for me.
This year, a very special thing happened in our family. Eli turned eight and was baptized and confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We are so proud of him! For his birthday, Eli wanted to go camping with Brian. They found a pretty cool camping spot, and the campground supervisor even made Eli a batch of brownies for his birthday. Brian and Eli were able to go hiking to a great waterfall. They both had lots of fun, and now all the kids want to go camping with Brian for their birthdays.
The morning they were to come home, it started dumping rain, so they decided to come home early. Since I wasn't done decorating yet, they went to see the movie, UP. Eli really liked watching it in 3-D. When they got home, we opened presents and had cake that evening. Eli's favorite color is green, so he had me make him a green cake. I wasn't too keen on eating it, but Eli loved it, and that's what matters.
Eli was baptized June 27th, the same day Joseph Smith was martyred, so it made it extra special. I'm not used to family being around, so it was surprising to me just how many showed up. They were all amazing and brought food for the luncheon afterward. Eli had his Aunt Bethany and his friend, Shayla give the talks. They did great. Eli is amazing, and I am so proud of him. He is my sweet boy. He is always trying to do what's right. He is always willing to help out and is so good with his younger brother and sisters. I know he is going to be a wonderful man and a strong member of the church.
Our summer sure was full! Right after Eli's baptism, we celebrated Emily's first birthday. I can't believe how time has flown! Emily looks more and more like Ethan everyday. I like having two dark haired book ends:) She sure is a crack up! She loves to tease. She absolutely loves dolls and necklaces. She'll leave her necklaces on all day if I let her. She loves to sit on the bottom stair and feed her dolls a bottle or even her own cup. Luckily, Katie is not that into dolls, so she is willing to share. Now if Emily wanted any of Katie's princess things, that would be a whole other story. Emily also got her first taste of chocolate on her birthday, and she has been addicted ever since.
Also during that same week, while my family was down for the baptism, we were able to go to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house. This was the third open house for my kids. Amazing. I only had the opportunity to go to one a a teenager. That was for the one in San Diego. I was one of the kids putting paper booties on the visitors. Anyway, this was my sisters' first time. I felt honored to be able to take her. Since my kids have been so many times, they now think that whenever they go to the temple, they get cookies at the end:)
We also got another special treat this summer. My sister, Bethany, got to stya with us for a few weeks. I was great having her here. We got some free babysitting, the kids had somebody else to play with, and I think Bethany had a good time, too. She made some friends and spent a lot of time at their houses. The girls here were great at including her in the activities that were going on. Everybody was sad to see her go back home.
For the Fourth of July, we opted not to go see the big fireworks display for the first time. We've always gone early and gotten a good spot, but this year, with all the chaos, I just wasn't up to it. Lucky for us, my dad and my brother Alex bought some for us to set off in our driveway. The kids all loved it! They had a blast with the sparklers and Ethan got to know all the names of the different kinds of fireworks. They were a little disappointed that we didn't see any big ones, but we were able to see some a few weeks later for our town's celebration of itself. They light them off in the school field next to our house, so we just sit on our front lawn, and we get an amazing view.
This was the main theme of our summer....lots of water fights. This was just one that the kids put together spontaneously.
Also this summer, a new splash pad opened up about a mile from our house. Nothing fancy, but it's free. The kids like going there, so I think it will be a summer favorite.
This was a big year for Jacob. He got to graduate from preschool.....
And start kindergarten!
Jacob loves going to school. He loves his teacher, he has a bunch of new friends, and he loves riding the bus! In fact, all the kids are loving school. Eli got a teacher that is amazing. I am told you can only get into his class by request, so we were really lucky to get him. Ethan has a teacher that really stays on top of him, and that is exactly what he needs. We started having the kids go to the later schedule, to avoid the bullies that were giving Ethan a hard time last year, and so far things have been much better. Ethan doesn't like getting home so late, but he seems to be much happier this year.
This year, I got old. I now have a son in the double digits! Ethan turned 10 this last September. I don't feel old enough to have a 10 year old. This year, Ethan asked for an ice cream cake shaped like a baseball. My kids sure know how to challenge me. Lucky for me, Ethan helped decorate it, so it wasn't a total disaster.
Ethan wanted a water party for his birthday this year. A friend of mine generously lent me her water slide and I went out and bought a few more water guns. I sure had a dickens of a time finding some! Unlike California, water guns are NOT sold year round here! Luckily, Big Lots still had some. Ethan had about 10 friends come and they all had a great time! I had the sprinklers going, two slip-n-slides, water balloons, and of course, the water slide. Ethan's friends brought some great gifts, so he made out like a bandit!
Halloween was fun this year. I was really relaxed about it all. I didn't buy any costumes. I told the kids they were on their own this year. Nobody complained. They all just wore stuff we already had. The girls did look cute, though, the Sunday before Halloween. I was able to put together some Halloweeny dresses, and made some bows to match. I got lots of comments. I am loving having girls!:)
The kids did really well carving their pumpkins this year. Ethan and Eli did theirs all by themselves.
I have been working on doing better at making bows. I have gotten to a point where I am not embarrassed admitting that I made them, and I am getting some compliments. I'm finding it fun to make bows to match their outfits. Katie's hair is finally growing out from her cutting it...oh...wait..I forgot to tell you about that. I was cutting the boys' hair one Sunday morning before church when Katie comes down the stairs and says,"How do you like my hair, Mommy?" I stopped breathing for a few seconds. I raced upstairs and saw the destruction. Piles of hair were all over the bathroom counter. She had given herself an 80's haircut. You know the one. The short on top, long on the bottom, with haphazard layers everywhere? Yup, that's the one.
Anyway, I'm glad it's growing out so I can make her cute. Emily is even letting me put things in her hair. Katie always pulled everything out of her hair, but Emily lets it stay. I'm sure it's because she sees Katie wearing them. Emily only has enough hair for me to do 1-2 very tiny ponytails on the top of her head, but someday, I'll be able to do cute things to her, too.
For those of you that have been to our house, you know we are the only house on the street with no trees. No trees mean no leaves in the fall. Or so I thought. The boys decided we didn't have enough leaves blowing into our yard, so they went to the neighbors and asked them if we could have their leaves. So, with trash bags in hand, off they went to the neighbors. The neighbors were VERY generous. I think the kids came back with about 10 trash bags full. Lucky me. These pictures show them only about half way done.
Brian also went hunting for his first time this year. He didn't bag anything, but he learned a lot and had a great time. He went with his brother, Dan, up into northern Utah. Beautiful country. Very cold. Glad I didn't go:)
Just a cute picture of Emily:
Told you she always wears necklaces:)
This is my absolute favorite dress of all time. I had to quickly make the bow before church that Sunday. I had forgotten to make one beforehand.
Jacob turned six this year! For his birthday, he wanted a sleepover with his cousin, and to go to Chuck-E-Cheese's. He had been talking about Chuck-E-Cheese's since his last birthday. I had signed up for the birthday club with them, so I got some free tokens. I think with all the coupons I found, they got a large pizza. drinks, and about 175 tokens for less that $40. Needless to say, it took a while for only 2 six year old boys to use them all up. They sure did their best, though! What a couple of troopers!
I got a little more into the Christmas spirit than I usually do. I even tried my hand at making a wreath. Not too shabby for a first try if I do say so myself! I even made the bow.
The girls looked beautiful in their Christmas dresses. Once again, I had forgotten to make Katie's hairbows, so I was up until 3 in the morning making hers. I seem to be making a habit of this. Anyway, you can see for yourself how beautiful my girls are! My boys are handsome, too, but they didn't get new clothes, and they hate getting their pictures done, so they aren't in the picture. How's that for a run-on sentence?
It seems to me, the poorer we are, the better our Christmases get. People were amazingly generous with us this year, so we were able to provide a very nice Christmas for the kids. They were all very spoiled. Santa gave some great presents. He even hid Ethan's in the tree and just gave him a card with a clue where to find it. He's a smart kid, so he found it in less than 30 seconds.
I couldn't believe how much the kids ended up with. I am so grateful for the people who cared enough to help give our kids a great Christmas.
I forgot to mention that Ethan was in the school chorus program this year. He had to go to chorus practice every Tuesday and Wednesday after school. The chorus director is also Eli's teacher, who is amazing. Ethan has had a great time in chorus. He wants to do the spring chorus as well. They did a Christmas program in December. Now, when i was in chorus in school, there were maybe, 30 kids there. In Ethan's chorus? 140! I guess that's the difference between California and Utah? Anyway, they did FANTASTIC! They even got to professionally record their program, and I got a cd! They were even asked to perform at BYU. I am so proud of Ethan for sticking with this and working so hard to do well. I just wish I could upload a video of him for you, but I can't get the darn thing to work. Anybody know of other ways to do it?
Well, that has been our year. Brian is currently working a temp job as a fraud analyst for credit card companies with the possibility of being hired on full time. Brian is also looking forward to doing taxes again this year, so let him know if you'd like him to do yours. He can do them from any state. We're hoping he gets a good job this year. It's been rough, but we've learned a lot and been blessed in many ways. Although this has been one of our toughest years, it has also been one of the best. Here's hoping this coming year is our year to shine!
3 comments:
Love the post. I've been wondering what you guys have been up to. I can't believe it's been almost a year since we've been gone. It's crazy how much your kids have grown. love you guys!
That IS a lot of typing, do your fingers hurt? Glad to see you back in the game :)
I spread it out over about 6 hours, so not too much pain involved:)
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