Friday, May 27, 2011

blogworthy

Last night at Luke's baseball game, Justin and Luke had a conversation that Justin said was "blogworthy."

It is pretty darn funny but a bit inappropriate although it was not meant to be. So if you are offended by words describing male body parts, the first part of this post is not for you. However there is a totally appropriate quote by Liam after so you can scroll down.

Justin had a golf tee in his pocket and was playing with it twirling it around his fingers. Luke came over and asked Justin why he was playing with a golf penis.

"Uh...what did you say?"
"A golf penis."
"Luke, uh, why is this a golf penis?"
"Because it holds up the ball!"

Yes...this is my life people.

And the Liamism:

Liam and I went on a walk to the park the other day and he was riding his scooter. He fell a few weeks ago at this same park going too fast down a hill so we have many discussions on how it is important to go slowly and in control. Apparently he was caught up in the moment and I will spare you the details but he fell. Hard. He has a pretty good gash on his knee, bent his glasses, and scraped up his face.

I ran over to him to comfort him and he was apologizing to me for going too fast (*melted my heart*) and we walked home to wash and dress his wounds.

Later that evening we were at one of Nick's baseball games and one of the dads asked him what had happened. Liam recounted the story in great detail and when he was done the dad asked him: "Did you say "ouch"?"

Liam said (in a bit of a sassy tone): "No, I was crying!"

Friday, May 20, 2011

nine

Luke celebrated number nine.

Seriously, time needs to pause just for a moment. I love, love this time in my life right now with the boys. They are still young enough to play but old enough where I am not having to do every.little.thing for them. They can carry on fun conversations and have super fun personalities. Every one of them different.

Luke took forever deciding what he wanted to do for his birthday and changed his mind a million times. Nick decided that if Luke had an Indian name it would be Dawdlehorse or Indecisivebear. Luke just likes to make an informed and calculated decision with everything. If I buy him a treat at the convenience store I have to plan on at least 5 to 10 minutes extra while he peruses the candy to find the perfect treat.

He finally decided on Boondocks. Again. We went there last year and in my opinion, it was a fiasco. We had the older two boys' party there a few months before Luke's first party and it went so smoothly so when Luke wanted to follow suit I was game. But it was super crazy, we invited way too many greedy and needy kids, I made Luke cry, our party host was clueless, I hated it. Until I just let Luke do whatever he wanted and realized that I couldn't create his perfect party. He would. And after that it was fun.

So this year I was prepared. Less invites. Less control. More fun. It was perfect.

He invited his two best friends and his darling cousin who he adores. Andrew also was able to invite a friend and then my sister and her girls came and Justin came and we all had a blast.


I think he was having fun. I can't get over how much I love his smile. It has been the same since he was little. Big and toothy.


There was a serious discussion about the lego set he received.





I finally caught the entire group together...they were running around like wild banshees the entire 3 hours.


The weather was fantastic which was lucky since the weekend before and after were super rainy and not too conducive for a successful outdoor party. We did, however, get completely soaked on the bumper boats. My niece, Caroline and Liam laughed the entire time. There was a time when Liam was pushing the button to squirt the water and Caroline was steering us in circles over and over and over again. I was completely dizzy and wanted to barf but their giggles were priceless.







Happy birthday my darling. I am glad that I was able to relax this year and let you have the party that YOU wanted.

And I have to admit that it was fun for me too.

Friday, May 13, 2011

over the moon

Last Friday night the third grade hosted a star gazing party. One of the teacher's dads and his friend each own one of these babies:



The email I received from Luke's teacher said that we would be able to see the moon and Saturn's rings. I didn't really know what to expect although I was pretty stoked to be able to see the rings even if I didn't get to see the whole planet. And you bet your bottom dollar if I was stoked, my darling 5 year old was beyond excited.

He basically would tell anyone he met that he was going to see the moon and Saturn's rings. I told him at least 2 weeks in advance and he never forgot.

It was pretty darn amazing. The detail of the moon was absoulutely pristine and we did infact get to see the entire planet of Saturn and even 3 of its moons. To me it looked like you were looking through a telescope the wrong way at a little white sticker on a black piece of paper with lots of little white dots.





It was a crazy day that day and I planned so many things and didn't realize that I had to work the night before. Silly me. We had Luke's birthday party that ended just a half hour before (to be seen in another post!) and I surprisingly not even tired. And I am so glad that I went because I would not have missed this expression for the world when he was able to see one of his beloved planets in its true environment.



Priceless.

Monday, May 9, 2011

st george vaca

Holy moley, we needed this.

Between two boys playing soccer and two boys playing baseball, violin, cello, work, school, homework, playdates, doctor appointments, and everything else that the joy of 4 children bring I was super ready to put everything on hold and get out of town.

I was able to finagle my schedule and take the boys down to St. George a few days before Nick's tournament began for some fun in the sun. It was so delightful to have temps in the high 70s while the poor old Salt Lake saps were having to hang out in their winter coats while it was in the 40s.

It also worked out that my in laws had their condo that week so not only did we have a place to stay for free, Justin's family was down there and we were able to have some fun family time. They are a great support to us and Nicholas was so excited to have his own little cheering section at the games.

What also made the trip even more fantastic was the fact that one of my dear friends also finagled her schedule and went down with her cute family. We overlapped a couple days and spent the day together on Wednesday.

We first went hiking up to The Crack. It was an adventure trying to find it since I had only been there once before and I led everyone all over searching for the darn thing. I don't think the kids minded a bit though...there were plenty of things to explore and rocks to climb on and get dirty on. The girls commented that we were kind of like the Brady Bunch since I had all the boys and they had all the girls. Since I was husband less at the time we decided that I was Alice.






We finally found it. The kids loved it and there was a shady place at the entrance where we ate our picnic lunch. The kids were covered in grime and most of us ate standing up. It was delightful.





After our adventure we went to the pool to cool off and we stayed all afternoon. I definitely could get used to that kind of life. Liam and Meg ran from the pool to the hot tub and back again. Annie and Kate and my other 3 played catch in the pool. Randomly another friend of mine who happens to be the mom of Luke's best friend showed up with her kids and so Luke and Jack were inseparable after that. There is truly nothing like a best friend.








It was so great to hang out with the family. The boys loved being with their cousins non stop. I wish I would have taken a picture of all their beds in the living room--I honestly don't know how they ever fell asleep! Besides swimming there was a trip to see the movie "Hop" and during the baseball games, Luke and Andrew got to go to Pirate Island and a waterpark so they wouldn't be "soo bored". It was super nice of everyone to accommodate them and let them tag along. They had way more fun and it is much more enjoyable to watch the games with out constant whining about how bored and hot someone is the whole time.

We celebrated a little bit of Easter while we were down there. The Easter bunny did not come for my boys but the the adult women put together a fun hunt on Saturday morning before I had to leave to get back to work on Saturday night. My boys had to wait for their baskets until they got home on Sunday and after I woke up from my nap. I don't think that they even noticed. They scored some pretty sweet treats. Although my kids do know the real meaning of Easter, I need to be better about doing more activities that focus on the Savior. Definitely next year.











The tournament was on Friday and Saturday. These pictures are mixed up over the two days but both days the boys played so darn well. There were high points and low points and lessons learned. One of the most heartbreaking things was when Nick hit an amazing run that hit the first baseline that would have won a game but the umpire called it foul. Then after that call he struck out. He came up to me after with tears in his eyes and gave me a hug and said "Mom, it was fair." I wanted to cry right along with him. But he will learn, unfortunately the hard way, that some calls are good and some calls are not. It truly was a bummer though.

I also can't take credit for some of the pictures--one of the moms on the team has an amazing lens and took some awesome pictures. I was very grateful that she took so many, especially on the second day since I had to leave early. Justin was in charge of pictures that day and bless his heart...let's just say I am happy for the extra camera that was capturing some of the awesome moments. Especially when Nick hit his GRAND SLAM HOME RUN! This was definate redemtion for the bad call the day before. I was not there when it happened but she took so many pictures of Nick during that run that you would have thought it was her own son. I am indebted to her!









Here is right before his big hit...


...and the celebration after!






I think I read this one hundred times to Liam. And then he found other willing subjects to read it another hundred times. He would beat anyone on Jeopardy if the subject had anything to do with space.






Until next time!