Home Run!

Oh, my. I have a new favorite sport: T-Ball. Watching little people try to understand baseball, could quite possibly be, the best thing I have seen in a while. Chase was thrilled to finally play this fall, especially since his daddy was his coach. Truth be told, seeing Sam try to coach baseball while corralling 8 little 3-year-olds could be written into a primetime comedy. 

Chase actually played pretty good, for his first year. He understood most of the rules. Actually, if you combined football & baseball, he understood all of the rules. He and his best friend, Marcus, got a big kick out of tackling their teammates to get to the ball first.

I was so proud of my boys for having such an awesome season. Chase loved playing, and Sam survived coaching. I call that a win-win!

We are looking forward to spring when he gets to play again. Having a little "sporty" boy is the best! Go Little Slugger!

The Happiest Place on Earth

Our family was in dire need of a vacation. Sam and I knew that we wanted to take the kids to Disneyland again, but this time, we decided to surprise the kids. A big box with balloons, shirts and a puzzle was delivered to our house to tell the night before we left. Halle & Chase put the puzzle together, telling them that they were going to Disneyland! Lots of screaming and jumping ensued, and Lizzie kept walking around in a circle saying, "Mimmie! Mimmie! Mimmie!"

We flew out early on a Thursday morning, and went straight to the park upon arrival. It was so much fun! Each of the kids were so happy to be there, and Sam and I think we are kids in Disneyland, too. It's the best!

 

All of the kids loved the characters, especially Lizzie. The girl LOVES Minnie Mouse, so when she saw her in person, she went slightly crazy. For three days, all we heard was, "Mimmie. Mimmie." Even now, at home, she tells everyone, "Mimmie. Hand." Minnie touched her hand, and she walks around holding her hand out, acting as if she'll never wash her hand again. I love that Minnie is her hero.

One of the main reasons we went, was to see the new Cars Land. It didn't disappoint. The rides were so fun, and we literally felt that we had walked into Radiator Springs. Chase loved going on the fast cars. So did Sam, for that matter. He just might love Disneyland more than the kids.

Luckily, all three kids behaved wonderfully, especially Halle. She was beyond helpful, and never complained. She's an amazing girl, and we love her!

It was the best vacation. I love spending time with my family. Disneyland is the best! I want to go back!

Preschool x 2

Chase is adventurous, to say the least. The boy runs from the beginning of the day, until it's time for bed. So, since about May, I've been looking forward to preschool starting again. What can I say? I'm tired. 

This year, Chase gets to go to two different preschools. That's four days a week, people! Happy me! He is going to Miss Karie, the preschool extraordinaire. She's in our ward, and has been teaching preschool for many years. Chase loves her! We hear about Miss Karie all the time, and he's only been there one day so far. He's certainly happy there.

The other days, Chase is attending the special preschool through the district to continue working on his speech. He went there last year, so he's pretty well versed on the happenings at Rosamond. And, bonus! He gets to ride the bus there. By himself. That's your tax dollars at work, folks. He loves it, and I'm so glad that he is able to be around a speech therapist twice a week to continue working on his speech.

We have seen so much improvement in Chase over the summer. He certainly doesn't love speech practice, but he does it, and we are seeing a big change in the way he talks. Other people notice, too. I've learned over the last year, since we received Chase's apraxia diagnosis, that there is no greater joy than seeing him master a new word or sentence. We are hopeful that by attending both preschools, along with individualized speech therapy, it will further his progress. He's a champ!

Welcome Fall!

We have had a crazy summer. So, my little clan is thrilled to welcome fall. In a few weeks, my kiddos will be collecting colored leaves, and planning out their Halloween getup. But, for now, we are full-on geeked to welcome our favorite fall activity: BYU football. A few days before the first game, we went to the Cougar Kickoff to celebrate the return of football season. The kids, especially Chase, had a great time. We are certainly raising some mini-Cougar fanatics. 

Chase and Lizzie did some little football skill footwork activity. Lizzie just ran across the lines, but Chase was quite particular on making sure his feet hit every square.

They also got to improve their tackling skills with the tackle dummies. I'm half-tempted to buy one of these things, just so they have something to tackle other than each other.

We met some super cute cheerleaders, with super cool pom-poms.

Chase worked on his quarterbacking skills, and on the first try, threw the ball right on the money. I don't mean to be "one of those mom's," but I'm pretty sure we have a future little Steve Young on our hands.

We met some of our Cougar faves. Riley Nelson...

and Ross Apo, Kyle VanNoy and Cody Hoffman.

We are looking forward to each weekend to cheer on the Cougars. We've even taught Lizzie to say "BYU." We teach our kids early, what can I say. Here's to a great season!

Geez, Has it really been 2 months?

Around mid-June, we came to a final conclusion that we had simply out-grown our house. Of course, we had known this for a while, but we had put off selling our house because we simply loved where we lived. We loved our neighbors, our big back yard, our friends and our little place we called home. So after thinking about it for some time, we finally decided it was time to list our home. 3 days later, it sold. Come again?!?

There's a little problem with selling your house really fast if you don't have a plan. And, we didn't have a plan. So we house hunted. With 3 kids. That is literally the definition of "not fun." We didn't know if we wanted to build, or buy an existing home. We didn't know where. 

So, we looked at houses, started packing, fixed a few things on our house, fed our kids a lot of fast food, until we decided that we really just liked our little corner of the world. So, we are building a home  about a mile away from our previous home. 

And, then moving day came. On the 24th of July, we were set to move into the basement of Sam's brother's house in Lindon. That morning, I lost the U-Haul key for about 3 hours (major stress out), but luckily my mom found it in a pile of Lizzie's treasures. We moved most of our stuff to a storage unit, and the rest of it to Lindon. Since the paper work was a little slow on the sell of our house, we decided to stay on air mattresses at our house for a few days until it finally sold. This would give us a few more days until we over took poor Peter & Annie's house. 

The next day, the 25th, Halle started 2nd grade. Our new house required a change in school boundaries, so we decided to just switch her at the beginning of the school year, rather than make her change mid-year. Usually, the start of a new school year is the only thing we worry about for a couple of weeks leading up to the event, but this year, it was just another crazy day in the midst of a crazy week. But, Halle, like always, understood our craziness, and never complained. Her only request? Cute clothes. I'd say we fulfilled her need.

On the evening of the 26th, we got a call from a good friend in our ward, who was in the process of moving out of her house, and she said that she would like us to stay in her home for the time being, if we would like to. Ummm... YES! So, on Saturday, we moved again. We unloaded the storage unit, and moved back up from Lindon. So, we get to stay in the ward, and our kids still get to play with their friends. What a blessing.

Our house is scheduled to be done at the end of November, or first part of December. We are so excited for our new place. Even though our summer has been busier than usual, we certainly can see the Lord's hand in our lives. We feel incredibly blessed. We have amazing family and friends, and we are looking forward for our adventures ahead. Bring on the building!

Dip-a-dee-doo

To say that Lizzie loves her some ketchup, would be an understatement. This little one like really, really, REALLY LOVES ketchup. We gave her the first taste of the red wonder in a bottle about a month ago, and ever since then, ketchup has been a staple on her plate. When the fridge opens, she runs and grabs the ketchup bottle and brings it to us.

Liz is seriously in Ketchup Heaven. Have a graham cracker? Add some ketchup. Some grapes? Dip them. Heck, even if you don't have anything, just drink it.

And, then, when you are done, the stuff doubles as paint! Bonus!

And, yes, I know the stuff is laced with sugar. But, I'm counting it as a vegi. The base is a tomato, and that counts as something, right?

So, lick away, Sweet Pea. Just try to avoid your clothes, and your hair, and your shoes, and your ears....

It' a ZOO out there...

If I'm being honest, Hogle Zoo is not my favorite place. I always leave feeling so bad for the animals.  Other zoos I've been to--San Diego and Seattle--seem so much more life-like. But, this zoo is the best we have, and my kids love it there, so I'm happy to take those little buggers to see the monkeys, elephants, and giraffes a few times a year. 

We decided to go to the zoo over the weekend on a whim. We certainly weren't planning on it, but Halle insisted that we "do something fun," so off we went. Our cousins Mikey and Lincoln, and Sam's brother Peter joined us on our "something fun."

Cute Lizzie, who napped a total of 5 minutes all day, loved it! She pointed to all the animals and said, "woof woof." She loved the carousel, and just by chance, she ended up on the lady bug. Quite fitting.

Halle, who desperately wanted to ride the dolphin, had to settle for a giraffe after "some old lady" perched herself onto Halle's favorite animal. Too bad. The rest of the time, Halle took pictures of every animal, insect and random thing she could find with her camera.

And, Chase, I must say, made us proud. He didn't run off--a first for him. He stayed by us the whole time, and we pointed out all the hiding animals to him after he kept saying, "My wanna see really bad!" (The English teacher in me knows that I need to correct his sentence structure. The mom in me is proud of his improving speech. Mom wins! For now, anyway.)

So, even though it was incredibly busy, we didn't lose any kids, we saw all of the animals, and we rode all 2 rides. A pretty good day. But, alas, an hour after we arrived home, Halle was already bored, and exclaimed, "there's nothing fun to do." Oh boy, entertaining her all summer is going to be a real treat.


Side note: Why are "Salt Lake's finest" (and by finest, I mean strangest) folks always hanging out at the zoo?