Baseball Buddies

 The league Dylan played in this year allowed for Jayden to play up a year and be on his team, so we decided it would be fun for these boys to play baseball together, since it might be their only chance to be on the same team.  They were on the Diamondbacks and had a great time playing together.  Their coach did a good job rotating the boys around to just about every position.  Dylan even played catcher a time or two, and was such a hustler!  I wish I had a picture of him in the catcher's gear!  That was my favorite position to play back in my Bonnetball (softball) days.

 

Back to School

The summer has gone by so incredibly fast for me!  I don't remember it ever going so fast.  I am totally behind on blogging.  Totally behind on keeping up my house. Totally behind on keeping up my yard.  So here's to hoping I get caught up in a lot of aspects of my life now that I'm not trying to live up the summer with the kids anymore.

Dylan and Jayden started school last week. Dylan is in fourth, and Jayden is in second. They were excited, but kind of bummed about not getting to play the day away anymore.


Ethan started kindergarten, and he was so excited!  He kept asking me how many more days until he got to go school over and over again.  He has a fabulous teacher, so this first year should be awesome!  And, he has two of his neighborhood buddies in his class, which is also perfect.

Okay, now here is a demonstration of why I should take some photography classes.  I took my pictures with a SLR camera - the Canon Rebel.  I get pretty good pictures, but I really don't know how to use it.  The next few pictures were taken by my neighbor with a nice camera.  Yes, it was nicer than mine.  And yes, he actually is a professional - he takes all sorts of pictures that get published in magazines and elsewhere, but still... look at the difference!  Thanks Kevin!

Bits and Pieces

Austin loves to play, and plays with all sorts of everyday things in the way I remember playing with them as a kid.  I don't remember doing this with laundry baskets, but I do remember doing them with chairs.  We would even get out the hand mixer to use for our gear shift.  I haven't passed that idea down, but it is fun to watch my kids play like I did.  Austin reminds me a lot of how Dylan used to play (and still does) but on a much smaller scale.  

Here is a display of more of Austin's independence.  He came to me with his hair all combed by himself.

Dylan played baseball during the spring.  He was on the Giants.  He loved it!  The only downer was that his team was made up of a lot of younger kids, and none of them were "super leaguers" so they got squashed in every single game.  Well, I guess there were a few they only lost by a few points.  They keep the teams the same for two years, so hopefully next year the kids will have improved some.  Either way, he had a lot of fun.

Jayden played soccer, no surprise there.  His best friend Zane, (in the picture with him) is getting pretty good at playing, and they have started to help each other out and play more "real" soccer, and a little less "herd" ball (although I wouldn't say Jayden has ever played "herd" ball as much as the rest of his team).  There are a few other kids starting to get it too.  They have a good team of all boys, most of which are his best buddies.  It has been so fun for him!

Devon got older this year.  Big suprise.  I won't reveal his true age - but you can get the idea by the mass of flames on his cake.  =)   And yes, that is a Darth Vader holding a candle lightsaber...

Ethan graduated from preschool in May.  This year was so good for him!  His class was of all kids from our neighborhood with the exception of two.  So these kids are some his best friends, the kids he plays with all the time, although there are a few more friends he loves to play with that weren't in preschool with him.  He is so lucky to have so many fun kids that live within a few houses that he can play with.   He learned so much at school this year.  He does great at letter recognition and sounds, knows all his colors and shapes, and so much more.  Thank you Miss Michelle for all your hard work!  One of my favorite parts of his graduation program was seeing him sing with confidence.  Last year he didn't want to sing - I'm not sure why.  He didn't sing anywhere, not even at home.  Then last summer he suddenly started to, and then now he loves it.   Last graduation I almost wanted to cry when he was sitting in front of everyone and realized he was supposed to sing the songs he had been practicing.  This year he smiled so big, and sang all of the songs so well!

This is Ethan and Ethan with Miss Michelle.  Ethan is one of Ethan's very best buddies.  We have all gotten in the habit of calling them both by their first and last names to distinguish them.  Its pretty funny to hear them talking to each other that way.  Sadly, we don't have to do that anymore since Ethan moved to New Zealand during the summer for a few years.  How we will miss him!



The yearly dance festival at the elementary went great!  Jayden's class did "Dance Like an Egyptian" and Dylan's class did a medley from Grease.  In the pictures, Jayden is 6th from the right, and Dylan is in orange in the middle.

And here are a few fun random pictures:

Happy Valentines Day

Jayden and Dylan were supposed to make Valentine boxes for school this year.  I remember making these as a kid.  I loved it!  My kids haven't had the chance to do this yet;  their teachers have had them make something at school.  So I was excited for them to get to make one at home this year. They both had some great ideas.  Dylan knew from the beginning he wanted to do an AT-AT walker (Star Wars, incase you didn't know).  I wasn't so sure it was going to work.  But he was persistent, and once I told him it was his job to figure out how to do it, He went to work.  It actually turned out pretty good.  Jayden had wanted to do one too (I'm sure he had heard Dylan talk about his idea), but he was the first to get to work on his, and I conviced him to find a different idea.  We got online and found a monster he wanted to copy in his own way, so that is what he did.  Ethan then wanted to make one too, so I helped him make his, and he let it be more like the one we found online for Jaydens.

I bought Fun-Dips for them to give their friends this year.  I thought they would be excited, but they were actually kind of disappointed.  Their reason:  They wanted to keep them and not give them away.  Silly gooses.  I explained that it is good to give something you like to other people, because they probably like it too. Hopefully something was learned here, but maybe not.  Either way, I'm sure they had fun giving them to their friends, and seeing what they recieved in turn. 

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone!

Teeth

Jayden has had lots of teeth being lost over these last two months.  The most memorable for me had to have been in December when I get a phone call from Devon telling me this story.  Devon was home with the kids while I was helping set up for a Relief Society Activity.  Here is the basics of his story:

He had made the boys some chicken nuggets for dinner.  As they were eating Jayden said there was something hard in his chicken nugget (as I'm listening to the story, my stomach turns).  I think he said he told Jayden to spit out whatever it was.  Jayden did that, then said something like "hey, its my tooth" or "I lost a tooth!"  Whew!  I don't know how he lost a tooth without knowing it, but I'm glad it was his own tooth, and that he didn't swallow it (he would have been one sad boy). 

He also has lost his two front teeth.  Here is the proof:

Happy Birthday Jayden!

Jayden is officially 7 years old! 

Jayden is still my good little helper, the one who will do a job no one else wants to, or share something with his brothers, or help with whatever I need.  He has such a sweetness that I truly appreciate.  He loves to play with his friends.  He loves to play Age of Empires on the computer.  The Wii is also a favorite of his (Lego Batman, Lego Indiana Jones, Lego Star Wars, Super Smash Bros., Madden NFL, Sonic's Olympics, Family Game Night, and Pacman Party are some of his favorites).  Jayden is very good at getting his jobs done so he can pursue these great interests (jobs must be done before TV or computer).  He also loves to watch Pokemon, Power Rangers, Beyblade, and Veggie Tales. He has now moved on to the Level 1 books for Piano.  His teacher says he is just moving along quickly through the books.  He really loves to play and is good at it.  There are so many times that I have to tell him to not play the piano and go ___ (fill in the blank... get your shoes on, brush your teeth, etc).  He just can't help but play it every time he walks past. He loves for me to massage his back when I tuck him in bed at night.  He loves steak.  Jayden is also beginning to love reading.  It seems like this is the age Dylan got hooked.  Jayden is seeming to follow the same pattern.  At night he wants the light left on for a bit so he can read before he goes to sleep. 

Jayden loves school.  He also loves recess.  I have learned that it just isn't worth having him buying him school lunch.  I can't get him to eat much of anything, unless its pizza day.  If he takes a lunch, he will take a few bites, then head out to recess.  If he takes school lunch, he takes a few bites, then heads out to recess.  If it is a home lunch, he brings it home and eats it when he gets home.  If he eats school lunch... yeah, in the garbage it goes!  Apparently he wants to play football with Dylan and his friends.  Since Dylan is in 3rd grade, they finish recess earlier than Jayden.  Jayden has found if he eats lunch, he misses them, so he has decided he will eat lunch later.  Silly kid, but at least he and Dylan are great buddies. 

Can you guess the theme Jayden picked for his birthday?  I think I did pretty good with the "cake." Its actually ice cream topped with dream whip and a tube of black frosting - easy, peasy.

Well, if you didn't catch the theme, it was Pokemon.  I found a few fun ideas for games online.  We had target practice using "Team Rocket" pictures we taped on the outside of our windows and suction nerf darts.  That was a lot of fun - an idea that would be fun other days too.  We also played "pin the tail on Charmander" and  hide/find Pikachu with a little figure we had. 

These are some of Jayden's best buddies.  We were missing about four more who either couldn't come or forgot. These boys just bounce from house to house since they all live within about 8 houses either way of us.  They are such a fun bunch of boys.

We had a bit of drama with the candles. Austin got to them first here. Then we had one sad Jayden.

But we just did it over again and all was well.

Grampo (Grandpa)

Jayden brought this home from school.  Devon had been telling the boys that his dad used to get coal and onions in his stocking as a joke from Santa.