new hardware

I wish I could say that I was putting new knobs on my kitchen cupboard doors or putting some fancy new appliances in my kitchen or laundry room. Instead, I am paying an orthodontist an insane amount of money to do that for his own house.

Nick and Andrew had their orthodontic consultations last week and Nick was the first victim today and Andrew starts the long journey to a beautiful smile on July 12. I think Andrew's smile alone will buy the good doctor a brand new Mercedes.

But it is worth it. I had braces and am so happy that my parents sacrificed their hard earned cash to give me a beautiful smile. Now if I just had that beautiful face to go with it.

Nick will have his braces on for about two years which means he will get them off right before eighth grade. How great is that? Junior High is the most awkward part of growing up in my opinion and he will be a smokin hot babe before he even leaves there. I wish I could scan my eighth grade picture on here. Short, tightly permed hair, braces, an oversized hot pink shirt. And I wondered why the boys weren't knocking down my door.

Here is the handsome hunk before the transformation process has begun:


Ahhh...the price we pay for beauty. He looks like something out of a sci-fi movie. I told him this is a great blackmail picture to show his future girlfriend.


He was such a good little patient. He did not move a muscle while he was laying in the chair except once to itch a little spot on his leg with his toe. He would giggle as much as he could with that huge apparatus in his mouth while the orthodontist was putting on the brackets.


All finished!He chose dark green and white elastics because of his baseball team's colors. Bring on the next two years.

the next chapter

In the midst of all of our adventures this weekend, Liam graduated again from preschool. Even though he attended the same preschool with the same teachers for the second year in a row, he truly graduated because he will not need any services for speech and occupational therapy anymore and so can now go into mainstream school. Most of his classmates will be going to kindergarten next year and although that is where Liam thinks he is going, he will be held back one more year since his birthday is the day of the cutoff. Hopefully going to a new preschool next year will make it seem like he is in kindergarten! I will miss his teacher, Miss Kirsten, and her aides...it is truly evident they love what they do and have worked so hard to get Liam to where he is today.

They had a little program where the kids sang three songs and then there was a slide show of the past year. I think slide shows should be banned. Or else just have a boring silent one where there is not music about letting your kids be little and that they grow up too fast be playing in the background. It is just asking for a huge waterfall to start from my eyeballs. Don't get me wrong, I am loving this stage in my life and that Liam is growing up to be such a fun little being, but I just can't believe that my baby is big enough to technically be in kindergarten.





showing off his certificate

Liam with Miss Kirsten and his speech therapist Jackie




I absolutely adore this little boy. I hear all the time, even from perfect strangers, that he is the happiest little boy. He loves to cuddle with me and hold my hand everywhere we go. He sings all the time. His favorite songs are primary songs and quite frequently as we walk the aisles at the grocery store he is singing one at the top of his lungs. He is also obsessed with the name game. He gives the best hugs. He is very curious and asks a million questions about how things work. He still asks questions about space. His latest one was "Why does the Earth spin around in a circle?" He loves to count, read stories, watch "his shows", take baths, dance, and play with my cellphone. He has a contagious laugh and laughs often. I am so glad he is still my little boy and I am so excited for all of his adventures to come.

let the fun begin

Ahhhhh, summer.

I never thought it would come. But it came in full force. To start things off I saw ten of Nick's baseball games and two of Luke's and a soccer game each for Andrew and Liam in one week...now if that doesn't say summer with a big fat exclamation point then I don't know what does.

We hit the zoo and didn't even make it past the merry go round. We looked at the monkeys, saw the new nature's nightmares exhibit, saw the cute baby elephant again, took in the bird show, and rode the merry go round, perused the orangutans on the way back to the car, and that is it. It was a perfect 70 degree weather day to wander around outside and be thankful for the annual pass that allows us to not feel gypped when there is a game to go to and the clouds decided to drizzle and some of the kids got cranky because we did what we wanted to and were able to leave. The freedom is wonderful.

My niece Caroline turned 3! My sister threw the cutest tea party for her. Seriously, it needs to be in a magazine. Here is a pic of me and the darling birthday girl...



And shut the front door...isn't this the cutest cake you have ever seen? My sister MADE this by herself from scratch. I know, she is amazing.


We also celebrated by having a girl's luncheon (plus the boys) at Mini's. Cupcakes are all the rage lately and this quirky little bakery does not disappoint. They have yummy sandwiches but more importantly, they have yummy cupcakes. I got the Twisted Sister cupcake that consisted of a chocolate cupcake with caramel in the middle and the frosting was chocolate and caramel mixed with a pretzel on top. De.Lish.Us. They had all different kinds and one of the most aesthetically pleasing to me was the Breakfast at Tiffany's. It was a white cupcake with blue frosting with little silver balls on top. So clever.









Hit the South Jordan pool, saw Toy Story 3, made s'mores in the backyard with the fire pit...I would have to say that summer is definitely in full swing.

**And as a happy side note...my camera has been found.**

another one down

Last weekend I was officially able to say that I have been to Colorado. I have been to the four corners monument once but I don't count that. I think to say I have actually visited a state I have to eat there. Airports do not count and I also do not think I need to visit North Dakota. What the crap is even there? I have quite a few more to visit but I after this year I have seen 4 that I have not been to before. Not too shabby.

And not only did I get to check another state off my list, I was able to spend some quality one on one time with Nick.

Nick's baseball team, the Utah Scrappers, had a tournament in Grand Junction. We were all planning to go at one point but then finances and schedules made it so I was the best candidate to drive down there. I was a bit nervous to drive by myself but it all worked out fine. And can I say thank goodness for modern technology. I love GPS. Most of the time.

We got there around 6 pm and checked into the lovely Rodeway Inn. I think we had the best room there...or else we are so used to staying in crappy rooms that we just didn't notice all of the things that the others were complaining about. Nick even said at one point during the trip: "Mom, this is a pretty nice room huh?" I just smiled and thought to myself: "Oh sweetie, I am so glad that you are so unaware of how truly gross this place is." But our air conditioning worked, our bathroom door closed, and there wasn't light coming through the bottom of the main door which is more than I can say about the other rooms.




We headed over to the JUCO (Junior College) Baseball Tournament to meet up with his team. It was the semi finals and we were rooting for the Iowa Rievers because if Texas won the series would be over. And to be honest, I love to root for the underdog. It was kind of boring though and it didn't help that it was super long, Iowa was winning by 5 runs, and I was exhausted. I am so glad that I have a responsible 11 year old who told me in the middle of the 7th inning that he wanted to be able to play his best the next day so he wanted to go to the motel and go to sleep.


Nick, Chance, Hunter, Tyler, Cooper, and Bridger at the first JUCO game.
The next morning we headed over to the first ball park and it was 88 degrees at 9 in the morning. They smoked the first team 14-6. Had some lunch and a break and tried to find the second field. This is when Miss Garmin let me down and whoever designed Grand Junction was on crack. It is a very confusing city. There is a 28th Street, a 28 1/4 Street, and a 28 1/2 Street but not necessarily in order. Streets will randomly change names and when you are at a main intersection there is one street name when you turn left and a totally different street name when you turn right when I would expect it to be the same all the way through. Where was Brigham Young when you needed him? Nick and I saw every square inch of that city driving around in circles. We even started renaming the streets like "28 and a Poop Street". Justin texted me right when things were getting a bit stressful and it said: "How are things?" We just laughed and texted him back saying we were lost. His response was: "Use the garmin." That made us laugh harder because we were following it and she was the one leading us all over creation. Luckily we ran into a fellow teammate's mom who was also lost but was on the phone with someone at the field and we finally got there right on time. We unfortunately lost this game 9-6 but were guaranteed a game the next day. Nick pitched 3 innings of this game and did pretty well for the first two innings but then not so well the last one. He starts worrying about how everyone else is playing and loses focus on what he needs to do. Luckily he pulled it together and played well the last couple innings. After the game Nick and I went to Dairy Queen for a yummy treat and headed over to the final JUCO game.


Hunter, Austin, Nick, and me at the second JUCO game.



This game was one of the best games of baseball I have ever seen. We rooted for Iowa again and by the time the game ended I was so proud of those players that I think I thought I was actually from Iowa. We were so excited when Iowa won and Nick was excited to see a team rush the mound in person. He told me he had seen it on TV and had always wanted to see it live and it lived up to his expectations down to throwing the hats up in the air. The added bonus was the coach who threw up his notebook and all of the papers scattered all over and when Nick retells the story he says "and he (the coach) didn't even care." I sat with Nick and a couple of his buddies from the team and it was fun hearing them talk and talking with them.


We always seem to go to Subway between games for lunch.


The next morning they played their first game at 11:00 am. It was super intense and they won 8-7. They played their next game right after that and won 13-6! At this point they were on to the championship game and qualified to go to the World Series in Steamboat Springs coming up in August. Great job Scrappers! They played their third game immediately following the second one which made 7 hours straight of playing baseball in 97 degree weather with no break and no food. They played their little hearts out but lost the third game to the same team they had lost to the day before. I am so proud of this team and was excited that they got a plaque and some awesome medals to commemorate their achievement of getting second place! We are lucky to have such an amazing group of boys on our team. I am glad that Nick is surrounded by good friends because he is seriously with them at least 5 days out of the week so it is nice to know that he is in very good company.



Look at that form! Yes, that is Nick. Get out your magnifying glass and you may see him.

Getting their medals at the award ceremony

Nick sporting his new bling


I loved that I was able to spend this one on one time with Nicholas. I have a pretty amazing 11 year old. He has a good, not to mention cute, head on his shoulders and he uses it well. One of his teammates was running around at the pool and gouged his knee and ankle pretty bad. Our room was on the top floor and as Nick started to run up the stairs he stopped and said: "Ooh, I better be careful. I don't want to hurt myself" and then just walked the rest of the way. He is polite, intense, quiet, goofy, and a great friend not only to his buddies but to his old mom. I can't believe that he is so grown up now but I can't wait to see what the future holds for my little man.

*Don't judge the pictures. They are super far away and you will break your neck looking at them but they won't rotate. That's what you get with a disposable camera.

finally

Isn't it amazing how fast 16 days can fly by? And it seems like an eternity while it is happening?

I have been meaning to document so many things like eating at the absolute best BBQ place in the universe and Clark and Kate's Utah reception just to name a few but I had a huge hangup. I lost my camera. I know. Devastated.

Luckily for me I have someone I can steal pictures from and so I am now coming back into the blogging world and pray every second that my camera will show up. Because really, I just returned home from a huge baseball tournament in Grand Junction, CO that Nick played in (another post coming soon!) that I had to use a disposable camera to document with. Not ideal but thank goodness that it was there in a pinch. But, I did miss my zoom and the digital-ness of my old one. Not to mention that I had not finished downloading the pictures onto my computer so I lost some pretty fun pictures that I am mourning. I need to stop thinking about it because I am getting depressed.

I am a carnivore. Love the meat. Ribs, steak, hamburgers...bring it on. But when someone suggests going to a barbeque joint for dinner I am a bit hesitant. I don't love the sauce, it always is so fatty tasting, and I feel gross and bloated for a few days afterwards. This was a serious connundrum since I do love a good hunk of pig and Justin loves him a good barbeque dinner.

The best of both worlds has been realized in two simple words. Pat's barbeque. This place is off the hook. And their baked beans...holy cow. Or I guess I should say holy pig. Pat's was featured on Diner's Drive-in's and Dives on the Food Network so you know it has to be freaking amazing.

On Friday night, May 21, my family and Kate's parents and brother went out to dinner to this wonderful dive in the middle of South Salt Lake. My family consisted of my little family, Andrea and her family, Erika, Clark and Kate, my Uncle Scott, my Aunt Joan, Hope, Melissa, my aunt Kathleen and Uncle Robert, my cute grandmother, and my parent's closest friends. It was a huge group.




And you know what? The service was impeccable. Our server was so courteous and handled our hugemungous group like an old pro. Like he was excited to refill a drink only to come back to another request for the same thing about 50 times. I loved it.

I also loved the fun time that we had to spend with family. Here are the first of many pictures that are courtesy of my cute sister:









The next night was the Utah reception. It turned out awesome. The unpredictable Utah weather required the guests to be inside the house instead of the garden reception in the backyard that was originally planned but with a little tweaking it turned out perfectly.



I think this is absolutely one of my most favorite pictures. Ever. One of the main reasons is not only does everyone look scrumptious but Nick is actually smiling. He is going through some weird pre-teen stage where he just does a grin and doesn't show his teeth. He says he doesn't like his smile but don't you think he needs to flash it more often?


Can I also just say that I love Kate. She is absolutely perfect for my brother. She is laid back, funny, sweet, grounded, plays hide and go seek and legos with the boys and she doesn't even complain, and she is beautiful. She really is a wonderful, wonderful person and I am so happy she is officially now a Winegar.

On May 27th the boys were out for Memorial Day and the weather was finally agreeable and I sacrificed sleep to enjoy the beautiful outdoors. The boys and I (with a friend of Nick's) met up with my mom and Andrea, Adam, Caroline and baby O to hike to Bridal Veil Falls and have a picnic. Andrew had just gone on a field trip there a few days before and when I asked what they wanted to do he said: "Mom, I have the most PERFECT idea. Let's go to Bridal Veil Falls!" and how do you say no to such enthusiasm? The hike was a bit anticlimactic for me--you seriously just walk like five minutes and you are there but the waterfall is breathtaking and it was so very nice to be in the fresh air.







My absolute favorite thing about this day was the fact that we were not in a hurry. We wandered up the path, enjoyed the sunshine, had a picnic, and the most interesting activity of the day for the boys was throwing rocks in the river. It made me so happy that such a simple activity kept them busy for a long, long time. I always feel like I am so busy and cannot seem to slow down enough to enjoy the simple pleasures and I am afraid that I am stealing away some of the boys' childhood with all the running around that we do. It was nice to have a day dedicated to just doing nothing.