Lil' Phillies

Just another one of my "catch-up" posts. Rece played his third year of t-ball and loved (almost) every minute of it . It seemed like the season went by really fast this year. It's so much fun to see how their skills progress year to year.

Just happy to be here!

Nice action shot.

Team picture.

I can't believe next year I will have two playing. Zach is so excited that he gets to start playing sports next year. Rece has played t-ball, soccer, and basketball but has had no desire for football. Zach, on the other hand wants to do it all. He even told us he wants to play golf, which made Ryan really happy.

7 Years Old!

At the end of May, we celebrated Rece's 7th birthday! Happy Birthday Rece! We had a family party first. Everyone really spoiled him. Thanks to everyone who was able to come!

The cake picture wasn't the best. Just for the record, Rece isn't picking his nose. He didn't want me to post this picture, but I promised I would make it a point to clarify this. It was a really cute ice cream Spiderman cake. It was so windy outside, that Ryan had to light the candles inside and we sang to him really fast before the candles blew out. I hope he got a wish in there somewhere! Rece is a fantastic kid with amazing qualities and we are so blessed that he is a part of our family!

This is from the friend party. I had planned it as an outdoor party, but I'm sure everyone remembers June. It rained. And rained. So I hosted it indoors. Ryan says next year we are going to take them all to the movies. Yes, things got a little wild. I thought for sure I would have a little boy shaped hole in one of my walls. What is it with boys and wrestling?

This cake I made. Rece always requests chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. At least he got to blow out these candles without any help from the Idaho wind.

We love you Rece!

First

This is the first in my series of catch up posts. I feel like this happened ages ago, but here are pics from the last few days of first grade for Rece.

The other pictures I took were just not good enough. You couldn't even see his face, so this is after the performance. The first graders sang the alphabet backwards, did the numbers rap BABY!, sang a song about America and my personal favorite...recited Sick by Shel Silverstein. They did awesome.

As we were leaving I just couldn't resist snapping this picture. Even from behind they are so cute!

We also went to the school carnival. I didn't get any pictures while we were there because I was busy helping out at one of the jump houses, but I think Ryan and the kids had a great time. As you can see Rece had his face painted. Just darlin'. First grade was a great experience for Rece. He had an outstanding teacher that he really liked, he made lots of friends, learned to read very well, and had fun mentoring in the autism class. As for me, I really enjoyed going to his class each week to read with the kids. I wasn't able to help out in his kindergarten class, and it was so great to get to know each of the kids in his class. I can't believe this guy is going to be a second grader!

Lessons learned and time on my hands

Our plans this weekend were to go on the ward campout. But I came along and messed everything up. I had been having some pain in my hip for quite some time, and at first I blamed the mattress I've been sleeping on. But as time went by it didn't go away as I expected it would.
I don't like going to the doctor so I have been putting it off and putting it off, but Thursday morning my body said "NO MORE!!!!". I woke up in agony. I could barely walk and the slightest movements brought tears to my eyes. So I went to the doctor. Diagnosis: Tendonitis.
He gave me a prescription and told me I needed to "rest". If it doesn't get better I will have to have physical therapy because I let it go for so long. So I am trying to be good, which isn't that hard since I am still in a considerable amount of pain. Moral of the story: Go to the doctor BEFORE things get really bad. I guess some things have to be learned the hard way.

In an effort to make things up to our boys, who were really looking forward to the campout, we let them sleep out on the tramp last night. They were super excited! Ryan slept out there with them too, and they all made it through the night (I was a little worried about Ryan). Good job guys!

Happy Campers!

Can you see how excited Rece is! This smile scares me a little. I think Zach is already asleep here.

" Just take the picture already Mom!"

There is that scary smile again. Still so cute. Good night guys! Don't let the bed bugs bite! I mean that literally.

Okay, so since I do have some time on my hands I will be posting some "catch up" events since school ended in May. Yes, I am embarrassed to say it has been that long. So to those of you (Jill!) who have complained that they are "bored" when they pull up my blog because I haven't posted anything for so long...stay tuned.

Thank you Poison Control Center

This morning I walked into my bedroom and found Megyn happily munching away on a tube of sunblock lip balm. I grabbed it and checked to see how much she had eaten. She had actually gotten quite a bit, and the active ingredients that were listed didn't sound too healthy, so I decided to call Poison Control just to be safe. This was actually my second call to Poison Control; Rece ate sunblock when he was a baby so I didn't panic this time (dejavu). Kind of funny (funny as in hmmm...not haha) that they both like the taste of sunblock. Anyway, the nice man at Poison Control found our brand of lip balm (Melaleuca Cranberry Tangerine - I have to admit it does smell yummy!), and said that there really isn't anything toxic, but over the next day she may experience some unpleasant side effects (nausea, vomiting, etc.). Is there such a thing as pleasant side effects? Kids definitely keep life interesting!

Aren't they beautiful!

Zach picked these for me today. He came inside holding one in each hand and said "Look Mom what I did! I picked these just for you!" I helped him put them in a vase with some water, and now every time I see them I smile and I feel loved.

Oh Yeah...Soccer!

Life has been so hectic lately, I forgot to post soccer pictures! These pictures are from the last two games. This is Rece's third season and he is having so much fun! We love soccer season!

Love the hair. I can't believe I didn't notice how bad it looked. Must have been in a hurry.

Run Rece! Run!

His turn to sit out a quarter. All of his games are at 9:00 on Saturday mornings, and it has still been very cold. We have had to take warm coats, hats, and blankets to stay warm. We are looking forward to warmer weather, so we can cheer without our teeth chattering!

Farewell to Steve

Four years ago my brother came home for a visit. He asked me if it would be alright if he bought Rece a fish. I responded, "no problem". I didn't realize it would mean four years of cleaning a little fish aquarium. A job I rank right up there with cleaning toilets. After about three years, I decided this was no ordinary fish. This fish was unnaturally durable. He had been dropped on the floor, underfed, overfed, his water had reached alarmingly low levels, and the list goes on...and so did Steve. Until today.

We had to have a proper burial. Flushing him just wasn't an option.

Rece dug the hole.

At this point we said a few words. Here is a sampling:
Rece: "Goodbye Steve. You were a good, strong fish. I will miss you. I love you".
Zachary: "Goodbye Steve. You died."
There were a few tears.

After our goodbyes.

Easter Weekend

We had a very busy Easter weekend. We spent Saturday with Ryan's family and Sunday with my family. The kids went on three Easter egg hunts so we have way too much candy at our house!

I'm not sure why Zach looks so worried in this picture. Just smile buddy!

Rece is by far the easiest to take a picture of. He always has this great smile ready! He is such a good big brother. He was very concerned that Meg and Zach would need help finding eggs, so he was right there to help them.

Almost every picture I took of Zach was blurred. He wouldn't stop long enough to pose for the camera. He's excited about the candy though.

This was Megyn's first Easter that she got to hunt eggs. She would get so excited when she saw one. She carried her little Easter basket around on her arm all weekend.

I'm mean. I made all the kids pose for a picture before they could hunt eggs. Here's a picture with all the cousins. Ethan and Myles are in the back. One of them is holding Evelyn (sorry I can't tell which one - I'm gonna guess Ethan?). In the middle is Brittney, and on the bottom row is Rece, Megyn, Lauren, and Zach. I just noticed all the girls are wearing pink. You would think we had planned that.

Here we are with my family. Actually I'm not there, but someone's gotta take the picture. My grandma came over and had dinner with us. The weather was so nice we stayed outside for quite awhile. We didn't have a traditional Easter dinner. My dad barbecued instead and it was excellent!

Our happy little family. Please pardon the little one picking his nose.

Here is our annual Easter Sunday "before" church picture. The before was definitely better than the after on this day. I might have to start doing an "after" picture. That might be kind of funny to see. Ryan had no meetings before church so he was there to help get the kids ready. It was so great! I especially love going to church on Easter Sunday. Even sitting alone with three wild kids couldn't dampen the spirit that I felt there. It was wonderful.

You Did What!!??

I did the unthinkable (at least in Megyn's mind) last Thursday. Are you ready? I got rid of Meg's pacifier! It was so much easier than I expected it to be. Neither one of our boys ever really took a pacifier, but Meg was seriously hooked on hers. I tried only giving it to her at naptimes and bedtimes, so as soon as she got up in the morning I would put it up on her shelf. Apparently, she had a stash of all the "missing" paci's somewhere in the house because she would come walking out with one hanging out of her mouth. It was driving Ryan crazy (okay, me too!). So the other night I made the quick decision to cut off the very tip of it (I had been told that this was supposed to work really well) and I handed it to Megyn. She stuck it right in her mouth and then took it right back out. She looked so confused that it made me laugh. Anyway, I put her to bed right after that and gave her the paci but she had decided that it must be broken and just gave it a toss. She cried for only about ten minutes and then went to sleep! I couldn't believe it. But that is how it has been for the last week, and now she doesn't even act like she misses it at all. The paci made life so much more pleasant when she was tiny, but I love that she is done with it !