Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Liam: Mom, I love you.
Me: I love you more.
Liam (hugging me close and whispering in my ear): I love you the mostest.

Holy cow, I love being a mom.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

march madness

Took a little trip down to St. George last weekend. It was a vacation of sorts except it was freezing and there was no time to even think to lay out by the pool. Liam and I did, however, have a great time watching Nick play baseball.

Andrew and Luke were super sad they couldn't come and I was super sad that I didn't want them to come but I was thinking that keeping 3 kids entertained for hours on end during the games would be torturous for me. And super expensive since keeping my boys entertained equals lots of treats and food. They also would want to do St. Georgie things which was not possible. Justin and I promised them a fun trip to St. George over spring break when we would have more time to play before we attended another tournament that same week. Luckily, they took the bait. And they ended up having a fantastic weekend themselves. Andrew slept over at a friend's house, Justin took Luke to a movie, and they got to see honest to goodness bear cubs at the Outdoorsman Show.

We were fortunate enough to stay in Justin's aunt and uncle's home while we were there. They were very hospitable and went out of their way to make sure we were comfortable. Liam loved hanging out with "Grandpa Bob" and playing with their dog Sam.

Nick had his first two games on Thursday afternoon. It was very cold and blustery and I didn't come as prepared as I would have liked but luckily I had a coat for Liam and a sleeping bag that I unzipped. During the game I put it in between the bleacher seats and put Liam inside and had him pretend that he was on Venus. He stayed in there playing his Leapster for quite a while.

We lost both games that day but the Scrappers put up a good fight. Nick had two hits, an RBI, pitched okay, and played well at first.





I thought it was cute that they were both number 9.





nick.chance.

chance.aaron.bridger.zac.cooper.tyler. I put this picture on here to prove that there are other boys on Nick's team. I just take a ton of my favorite player :).

liam and his buddy austin causing trouble.


Later that night we had a team party in Mesquite at the Virgin River where most of the team was staying. We were planning to go bowling but it was league night so the boys played in the arcade for a while. They each wanted to win over sized, colored tennis balls so they worked hard to get tickets. One boy one the ticket jackpot 7 times and Nick won twice. Between the 6 boys that wanted the balls they had over 4500tickets. They even "bought" one for Liam which I thought was super sweet. Liam did pretty well on his own though. He made out like a bandit with the tickets that he won. The prize selection was pretty sweet but what do you expect from an arcade inside a casino? He chose a pinwheel, a tube of bubbles, a slap bracelet, 3 packs of stickers, and a tootsie roll. He also drank my chocolate whipped cream concoction from Starbucks. I would say that he did pretty well for himself.

After the arcade they all went swimming and acted like goofy preteens.




The next day we didn't have games until 5:30 pm. We had a lazy morning, went to Red Robin for lunch, watched a teammates' brother play a game of ball, and then headed over to the fields. It was in the upper 60s and sunny--perfect weather to hang out in all day.

Nick really stepped it up for these two games. He had two hits, a triple, snagged every ball that was thrown to him at first, and did awesome in the outfield.

I love how everyone looks confused in this picture.

Some super nice lady leaving from the game before ours gave Liam some bubbles. Totally made his day. I need to be more spontaneously nice like that.


I love watching Nick play baseball. He loves it. He works hard and his skill is improving. He does not settle for mediocrity-he expects the best from himself and his team. He has quite an intense personality on the field which makes me smile because he is such a goofball at home. I am so proud of this young man.






We lost the first game and won the second. It is good to end on a winning note. Some of Justin's family was driving home from California that weekend and stopped in St. George to spend the night and came to watch Nick play. Then we all went out to dinner, my second visit to Red Robin for the day, and then tumbled into bed.

This is a fun time of year. It was so great to be back with our Scrapper "family". We have such great boys on the team because there are even greater parents. We are lucky to be a part of such a supportive, close-knit group.

Here's to a fabulous year.

Monday, March 21, 2011

darn those ears

Liam has been very predictable when it comes to ear infections. Once he gets a stuffy nose he ends up a nasty, pus filled eardrum. For years we have evaded tubes and I thought we were home free since he is older.

No dice.

He has had 5 ear infections this year, 3 within the last two months, 4 different antibiotics, including a 3 day course of Rocephin shots.

He giggled when he received them. I felt so bad that he had to get these injections that I gave him a little treat after every one.

Here he is engrossed in his $1 Jo-Anns space color by numbers after round one of Rocephin:


We set up an appointment with the ENT and he thought it would be a good idea if he had tubes placed and possible cauterization of his adenoids.

The procedure was done on the 22nd. I didn't bring my camera because I didn't know how much time we would have since they kept saying that it was a speedy procedure and by the time I thought about it I had left it at home anyway.

I don't want to forget though how cute he was perusing a magazine in the waiting room with his little legs crossed, how he looked in his hospital gown covered in colored suns, how he answered all of the doctor's questions, how everyone who came in contact with him was smitten with him and his gorgeous eyelashes, how he was worried that I wasn't in the recovery room and thought I had left him but how relieved he was to see that I was in his room waiting for him to return, how well behaved everyone said he was, how I spoon fed him vanilla ice cream and held his glass of apple juice while he sipped it out of a straw, how when I asked him if he was ready to go, he was reclined in his stretcher, his head on his pillow pet, little ankles crossed snuggled in a blanket watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse with the remote right up on his shoulder and he said: "Give me 30."

I am glad that it was such a minor procedure and that everything went okay. They ended up not having to do anything with his adenoids so there was no intubation or IV. I hope this solves the problem with his recurrent ear infections and the ENT said he will most likely only have the tubes in for about a year. Liam was quite unfazed with the whole thing. He was be-bopping around at the park later that afternoon going against doctor's orders to stay down for 24 hours.

Oh well, what they won't know won't hurt them, right?

Sunday, March 20, 2011

stay puft

I am so sick of the t.v. that I have been trying to find cheap, fun activites to do during the evening hours.

I came across this idea on this blog and knew it would be a hit. Although ours are a bit more crude than hers turned out, it was a fun night of good old imagination. Oh, and eating marshmellows.








Liam's were all dedicated to space. The super pokey thing is a satellite, the second picture down is my lame attempt at a space shuttle, and the last one is of some aliens.




Anyone else have some fun ideas that you do to cure boredom?

Saturday, March 19, 2011

future occupation?

Andrew was chosen to be a guest meteorologist for KSL...check him out!

Video Courtesy of KSL.com



He was so excited to do this and never thought he would be chosen. He had a great time and said that Grant Wayman was "way nice and awesome."

Way to go Andrew!

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

primadonna

After school Liam and I enjoyed a healthy lunch from Wendy's and he decided that he wanted to visit the planetarium. Since I didn't have a whole lot going on except for a huge pile of laundry waiting for me, we trekked to the Gateway.

I heard him start getting frustrated in the back of the car and I asked him what was wrong. He said "I hate this thing!" referring to the frosty that was now spilled down his shirt. When I got him out of the car I noticed that he also had quite a bit of the cheeseburger's condiments adorning his pants.

We walked up the stairs to the entrance of the planetarium and I considered for a moment if people would notice what a mess he was. But Liam noticed. He stopped before going inside and announced: "Mom, I need some new clothes. I can't go into the planetarium looking like THIS!"

Sunday, March 6, 2011

quote of the day

Liam was looking at my status post 4 child, very undertoned belly and states:

"Mom, you are just a little bit fat but I still love you."

Love you too, bud.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

L squared

These two are good buddies. I am blessed that all my boys get along and play together well (for the most part) but Luke and Liam just love being together.

We took advantage of the lovely weather to venture over to the park. The boys rode their scooters and I took Maisy. It was quite an eventful trip. Liam is not super skilled with hills on his scooter. In fact, I don't think he has ever gone down one. So of course he takes the first hill going Mach 10 and crashed and burned. Amazingly, he didn't end up with any major injuries since he kept his hands and head up as he skidded down the pavement so just his pride was hurt.

We played at the park for a while and the tears and the threats of Liam beating up his scooter were forgotten.





Luke would pose and smile everytime I brought out my camera.



Then things got a little dramatic. Both Liam and Luke fell off this thing at separate times. Liam narrowly missed whacking his face against a pole and Luke's leg wasn't so lucky. After those two incidents I didn't want to press our luck any further so I called it a day.



Get a load of Liam giggling at Luke's pain.

Ahhhh, there's nothing like a brother.