Going to State...

Back in February when I signed my kids up for baseball I had no idea that 5 months later we'd still be in the thick of things. T-ball and Softball both ended for Brayden and Madelyn the end of May, about when school got out. Baseball for Hunter however seems to have become the energizer bunny, it keeps going and going and going. 

Hunter up to bat; he swung and he missed. He swung again and missed. Kory got up to the fence and told him this was his last chance. Told him to swing as if he really meant it!

Love this picture with his facial expression.

He really meant it!

And it worked.

He smacked it hard and landed himself on 2nd base!

Woo Hoo! With team mates help he made it home! 

While in the outfield....

He covered 2nd base (his favorite position). 

He caught the ball despite the lateness of his opening that glove.

He was touching the base but missed tagging the opposing player.

Ump called him safe. Better luck next time.

And the better luck came. 

Hunter caught the ball as it rolled into his glove.

He threw it to 1st, runner got out. 1st basemen threw it to home and we got our 3rd out for the inning. Had some pretty happy boys. We got two outs for the other team. 

In the end we won the game. Couldn't have been a happier ending!

This year our little league "Major" team has done exceptionally well.

We've done so well that we were invited to state! Something that our little valley has never done.

Boys couldn't be happier. Last weekend we were in Panguitch all weekend for the State Qualifying Games. 

We start State tournaments July 10 at 8:30 pm in Richfield. These games will be single eliminations which means when a game is lost your out and get to go home. If you win you hang around till the next game. Last game is scheduled for Saturday night at 10:30pm. It's crazy to me to see these little kids playing games so late at night. I'm a little torn.  Part of me wants these boys to loose so baseball can finally come to an end and we can enjoy our last few weeks of summer. The other part of me wants to win this tournament and claim victory of this particular Utah region. What an awesome thing for our little Valley to claim despite the long weekend away from home. If we win this tournament we keep going for several more weeks until in the end Utah's State Little League championship is won. 

Hurricane Splash Pad

While Kory was working his day in St. George. The kids and I made a day of it. We started off by going to the summer movie, Epic, that was playing that week. I love only paying a $1 per person. Afterwards we changed into swimsuits and went to the splash pad/park for a few hours. 

Brayden loves the water spouts.

We invited some cousins to come play with us. Here's Jamie.

Madelyn loved how she could sit under the water spray and poke holes in the water.

Took Kylie a few minutes to warm up to the "cold" water.

She loved the water spouts too. Just not when they shot up higher into her face!

Here's the girls; Madelyn, Kylie, cousin Ruth and Emily. 

Kylie loved going down the slide with her big sister's help!

We had such a great day getting out of town and spending some time in warmer weather with NO wind. 

Kylies Photo Shoot

Kylie's 2nd birthday photo shoot. 

I took this baby girl of mine to the church to snap some pictures of her in her FAVORITE dress. We call it her Daniel Tiger Dress. She loves it! This birthday gift was most definitely a hit. This is the outfit she picks out every time she sees it hanging in her closet.  

Not sure if I captured a wall worthy picture but I did capture some cuteness!

                            Trying to keep the experience a fun one we played a little here and there.
                                                            She loves her new phone. 

I love this one, playing peek-a-boo with the use of a tree. 

And then we saw some birds and took off chasing them.

Took some time to stop and smell the flowers or pick tree leaves in this case.

And then we saw birds walking on the grass!

She really thought she was going to catch them.

I tried. I really did. I tried to get a nice one of her looking and smiling at the camera.

But..... she's 2. I'm thinking I captured her perfectly!

Happy Birthday baby of mine!

Horse

Uncle Klynt asked if he could put his horses in our yard to eat down the grass and weed again this year. This works perfect for us. We don't have to mow!

This year was an added bonus, we got a fowl. Stinkn' cute! 

Kylie doesn't speak very much. She still signs more than we hear words come out of her mouth.

Having this baby horse at our house she has learned to say "horse".

The kids love going outside and petting the new "baby".

Kylie turns 2!

My baby had a birthday. She's two!

 How could this be???

 For dinner we put candles in her food. She was pretty proud of herself when she blew them out. The bigger kids had helped her practice all day long.

When it came to present time she seemed to be a bit unsure. 

Her siblings quickly volunteered to help her.

Kylie like my other kids at this age does not watch movies or tv. It just does not hold their attention. Recently however she discovered a 23 min. show Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. It's just like Mr. Rodger's Neighborhood when I was a kid except the start of the show is Daniel Tiger a little cartoon character. While in Prescott I found figurines from the show on clearance at Target. I was able to use some of them as her cake topper saving me hours of trying to make them out of fondant! I gave the ones I didn't use to her a a gift. She loves them!!

I always try to get my kids a new shirt or outfit for their big day. Something that they like. It took me way longer than I had anticipated but I finally found someone local to applique Daniel Tiger to a little smocked dress I made her. Pictures of her and her new dress to come...

Kylie was given a new baby doll, chalk and big girl panties. 

It is time to start potty training this little girl. 

I'm just waiting for baseball season to end so that I'm home more.

Brownies and Ice Cream. Her favorite!

I had grand plans for my babies 2nd birthday cake. Unfortunately I ran out of time. I am NOT a procrastinator but being at the school every day for hours the week before her birthday and then being in Prescott for four days right before her birthday I just didn't get everything done that I had planned. I didn't even start the cake until the early afternoon of the big day. So not like me and that is why her cake is as simple as it is. Miss Madelyn volunteered to make my top layer cake but forgot to add the eggs to the mix. Ooops!!! By the time the cake came out not normal it was after 4pm. So we ended up with a styrofoam cake only.  In the end it was fine. My family does not like cake so Madelyn furnished us with brownies and ice cream instead which we all enjoyed. 

 Beautiful baby girl.

Trying to hold up two fingers.

We have a cat that has adopted us. We don't feed it and don't let it inside. 

Over the past few months the cat has become more and more tame. The kids can now pet it and pick it up with all it's fleas and bugs I'm sure. This little girl really likes the cat. The cat decided to come see what we were doing. She gets so excited when she see's this silly cat. She's signing cat in the picture.

But then the cat got a bit closer. One of the kids suggested the cat was after her cake and new toys and she didn't like this. She started wagging her finger at the cat and telling the cat "go, go, go".

We got a bit frustrated that the cat wasn't listening and kept creeping closer and closer.

And that ended our mini photo shoot and we all came back inside... away from the cat.

Happy Birthday my scrunchy faced baby girl!

Love you to pieces.

Memorial Weekend

Kory and I picked the kids up from school on their very last day and headed to sunny and warm Prescott, Arizona. We stayed for 4 days and 3 nights with some close friends, The Schultz family who use to live across the street from us. 

We all had a wonderful time. Some of the kids slept in a tent every single night we were there. 

 Here's a picture of everyone right before church. We had 10 kids in the house all under 11 years old.

Kylie, Madelyn, Emily, Jenna holding Gunnar, Hunter, Brayden, Logan, Brystol and Josh.

Kylies favorite toy for the weekend was this really cute baby doll cradle. She crawled into it several times pretending to sleep.

That's all the pictures I got. This just means we had so much fun I didn't have time to take pictures. The highlight of the weekend was a group date that April had planned and we got to tag along. There were a total of 8 couples that all got together Saturday afternoon. We had a potluck dinner followed by a game of kick ball and than volley ball. It's been a long time since we've laughed and have thoroughly enjoyed ourselves with other couples. I have tried putting group dates together, planning girl's night out and other events for the past 3 years where we live and have failed. Even though I get many people saying they will come and are looking forward to it in the end no one shows up! It has been so frustrating.  People here just don't like to get out!  It really made me miss our Prescott friends. I can't wait to move. I hope we will be able to get involved with other couples and have friends to do fun activities with again. 

Track n' Field

My last event as part of the Booster Club this year was helping with the Track n' Field Day. I don't know why they call it this as there is no running on a track involved but that's what it's called. 

Bugs the crap out of Hunter! He thinks it should be called a "water day".

We played lots of water games.

Here's Madelyn's class playing a wet sponge game.

This is Hunter being the pitcher in Kickball. The bases were yellow tubs full of water.

Here is Hunter at the water gun station.

This is Emily racing the other team but having to carry a cup full of water over her head. Some of these kids got drenched!

Here's Madelyn participating in the obstacle course.

Brayden participated too. Climbing the rope and ringing the bell was the last to do in the obstacle course. 

This is Madelyn playing dodge ball with wet sponges.

We many many more games but I didn't get any with my kids participating at them.

After lunch everyone came back outside and watched our Principal, Mr. Blodgett take a turn in the dunking booth. He was a great sport. Being he is also the afternoon 6th grade teacher he let every 6th grader take a turn trying to knock him in. 

After Mr. Blodgett, students were able to take a turn if they wanted.

Here's Madelyn falling in....

We also had a HUGE slip n' slide for the kids. This was definetely a hit!

To help clean out the Booster Club closet we served all you can eat snow cones and cotton candy!

Pretty sure parents appreciated their kids coming home on a sugar rush.

It was fun day to celebrate the ending of another school year!