Big Al's Bruisers

Big Vic on the pitching mound!

As I mentioned in my previous post, our softball team had our first game last week. We won by a land side but weren't so skilled last night and lost by 3 runs!

It was a little harder pill to swallow because the team that beat us were kind-of little jerks. (I am really not a complainer but seriously, JERKS!) The ump was buddies with a few of their team members and would chat it up and joke around with them when they would come up bat, which would explain a few questionable calls that went in their favor. And then one our team members, Jason, dislocated his shoulder on a base slide and had to go the ER and the other team was mad because it was taking up time from the game. Seriously? What is wrong with people!?!?! Someone is hurt and they are concerned about game time? Hummm, I just don't get people sometimes.

Anyway, despite all that, we still had a great time with our friends which is the purpose of having a team anyway right? We couldn't get a baby sitter for our game so we drug the kids along. They were great and seemed to really enjoy watching us play. They were cheering and clapping for us all on their own, even Mason would squeal and clap his little hands. Vic is our pitcher and Zack would yell, "Come on Dad!" It was cute. I discovered I happened to have my camera in the stroller so I snapped a few pictures to share. Meet our team, they are the best!

Chris, Kristen, & Paula

Amy, Bob, Kim, Caleb, & Joe

Noelle & Dani

Vic, Noelle, Caleb, & Joe

Cute little Mace.

Mason (it was supposed to rain, so we were prepaired!) and good big brother Conner!

Jason is up off the ground and on his way to the ER. I guess the one thing we do have in our favor in cases of injury, is that 3/4 of our team are nurses!

Our team is Big Al's Bruisers and one of our friends on the team (who owns his own insurance company) decided at the last minute he was going to buy every one's jersey. Thanks Caleb! So I quickly went back to the PhotoShop drawing board and put his company name on there. I think they turned out great!

Til' softball next week when we rally back from our devastating loss!

Spring

A pretty boring week for us, but it was well welcomed! We like boring.

Conner took an advanced math test. They gave it to his entire grade level (approximately 125 students). Only 3 of the kids actually finished the test and Conner was one of them! He got an 87%. Conner said one little boy got a 100% and the other kid who finished got a 22%. We are really excited for Conner and hope he keeps up the good work for the rest of his academic career. Victor taught him a long time ago, I think when Conner was three, that he should always remember 3 little words. What are those three little words you might ask. . "Full Ride Scholarship!" We tell him it doesn't matter how he gets it, sports, academic, the band, whatever. We just want him to strive for something and work hard to achieve it.

After lunch one afternoon I was doing flash cards with Conner. After we had worked through them I set them down and Zack ran over and picked them up then proceeded to hold them up for Conner to answer. If Conner answered something silly Zackie would tell him in the most serious upset voice, "NO Ca Ca!" He would only put the card down and move onto the next one if Conner actually answered some sort of number. We got a big kick out of it.

And little Mace. He just loves our black lab, Bear, and follows him everywhere. Bear is such a good dog. He doesn't even flinch when the kids climb all over him. Zack tries to ride him like a horse. We love Bear! Our other dog, Ben, runs from the kids!

Mason is definitely on cloud 9 here- his 2 favorite things, playing under the table and with Bear!

We had a beautiful spring weekend and spent every moment of it outside. Like I said, I love my dogs, but I sure do hate patching up their pee spots every spring! Our yard doesn't start looking good until the end of May!

The boys soaked up every ray of sunshine they possibly could. After all, where we live it could be 85 degrees today and snowing tomorrow.

Victor put together a co-ed softball team with some of our friends. We had our first game this week and had a blast! I am not going to say who won because I don't want to jinx us for the rest of the season. We look forward to our games and having a blast with our buds. I am sure I will be blogging more on this later.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

Last week we were all plagued by the flu bug so I am happy to see the beginning of this week starting off right! Poor Mason started the domino effect. It is horrible to watch your 10 month old puke his little guts out. Then it trickled to Victor and I and then on to Conner. It is a waiting game to see when little Zackie will get it. I guess the great thing about families is that we share everything. . . even if it is something the rest of us don't want it!

Poor Mason, not only did he get the flu this week, he also got his first bloody nose! He lost his balance reaching for something and fell face first!

The Easter festivities of this weekend have been fun! We took the boys to our community Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday and they seemed to really enjoy it. They divide the kids up according to age, so Vic took Zack and me and Mason went with Conner. Victor said when the announcer said "Go!" Zack ran out and grabbed one egg and then came back. Vic told him he could go get more and Zack said, "Oh nice!" and ran out and snagged a few more. (On a side note, Zackie has been peeing in the potty this week! Yippee! It is a start!)

Zack won this carton of candy eggs at the Easter Egg Hunt. He was so excited it had his name on it. He kept going and getting it and bringing it to me and pointing to the name and saying, "Za Za."

Conner tore it up. His basket was loaded. They also give the kids vouchers that they can turn in for gift bags, bikes, water guns, etc. Conner got a whole bunch for gift bags and after the woman handed him all of his gift bags he turned to me and asked me if he could give some to the neighbor kids since their parents didn't take them. Conner is my little sweetheart!

The boys coloring eggs.

The "Easter Bunny" hides eggs all over the house for the kids to find Easter morning. Conner took off and went right to work. When Zack woke up and saw the eggs he said, "Ohhhh WOW! Alright!!!!"

I love their morning hair!

Mason getting in on the fun!

It has been a beautiful day outside so far and we have definitely been taking advantage of it. I have spring fever so bad it isn't funny!

Playing in the yard.

We hope you had a wonderful day, Happy Easter!

The Boys, Spring Break, & SLC

Wow! Where the heck did March go?!?! March seemed to fly by for us, it was a very busy, but fun month.

The boys:

Conner-The day after we got home from Hawaii Conner had his spring music program. It was 50's themed and for not practicing for a whole week Conner did pretty good!

One night when I was getting the kids ready for bed Conner said, "Oh yea Mom, I got something today." He ran down stairs to get it and I thought for sure it was going to for something he wanted to buy or some sports program he wanted me to sign him up for. Well, he comes in and hands it to me and he was awarded Student of the Week! I am proud of Conner. He really is such a sweet compassionate little guy who is always so concerned about others. I know I certainly wasn't the nicest in school (and I am so sorry to those I was ever mean to!) so I try to make it a point for Conner to recognize other people's feelings. So, with that and Victor diluting my DNA for Conner, he is a pretty good kid!

Spring Concert 2009- Conner is on the second row from the bottom.

Student of the Week!

Zack-There is nothing really new with Zack. He was showing some interest in potty training before we left for Hawaii and now wants nothing to do with it. Ugh! I have a feeling it is going to be a long road with him. I am open to any of your suggestions in that area! Conner was to easy. We had to go down to my parent's house during spring break and ever since we have been home he has been asking to go back to Poppa's house and also asking every day where Poppa is. We did put Zack in a "Big Boy" bed and he is doing really well so far. We are also working on learning colors and Spanish this month.

We told Zackie to stand by Mace and say cheese. So he walked over and stood right in front of Mace.

Mace- Mason is getting so big! He says: Momma, Dad, Hi, Ugh-Oh, and he will get our cell phones and put them up to his ear and say hooo. He will not eat anything besides stage 2 baby food, maybe we will get him to stage 3 by the time he turns 2! When we were in Hawaii, we discovered he was getting 4 top teeth all at the same time. He is also pulling himself up on things and walking with our assistance.

Mace was crawling around then he stopped and laid on his side like this just smiling at me- almost like he was purposely posing for me. Funny kid!

Walking with Dad's help.

Spring Break & SLC.

For spring break I had to head down south for meetings. The boys and I drove down and stayed at my parents house. Going to my parents is seriously like Disneyland for my kids. They love their Gram and Poppa and my parents have everything imaginable for the kids to do and play with. Their wonderful Gram plays games with them, reads books, puts together puzzles, and makes them all sorts of goodies. The kids are in heaven. But I think their most favorite is wrestling with their Poppa.

The boys and their Gram! We LOVE Gram!

They boys also got to play with their cousins Shelby and Noah. Cute little Shelby loves to hug and kiss Zackie and he just thinks it is torture. She is so cute!

Vic had to work when we needed to leave, so on Tuesday he hopped a flight to SLC so he could be with us the rest of the week and drive home with me. The plan was for me and Conner to pick him up (without the little ones) and go to dinner and the movie Escape to Witch Mountain. But right when I was getting ready to leave Conner decided he didn't want to go. I picked Vic up and we were having a craving for a good Mexican meal. Not knowing where to go in SLC I remembered the name of a restaurant we always went to when I was little in Ogden. So we called our OnStar and they looked it up for us and sent turn by turn directions to the Yukon (this is seriously one of the best features ever- way better than a GPS). The food was as yummy as I remembered. . . great, another place for me to crave!

The week went by fast and the boys had a blast. At the end of the week Vic and I headed back down to SLC for a day by ourselves of shopping and visiting old friends. We first hit up Ikea. I miss Ikea from our old WA days, if not just for the shopping, for the Swedish meatballs! It was nice to be able to walk around and look with no kids crying or pulling on me.

We then went to see my best bud ever, Krista! I miss my little Krista. Her and her kids were so cute. I may have had to bribe them with candy, but I must say I think they kind of liked me! I am sure the next time they see me they will have forgotten who I am. Krista ditched us for dinner to go to a David Archuleta concert. I am still heart broken I got passed up for David Archuleta! However, before we left we had a little fun with Krista's life sized cut out of Edward. Krista had a little Twilight party that Edward was a prop for. You have to check out her blog about the party, it looked like fun! Sorry I didn't make it down in time for the party, but I will totally be there for New Moon.

Me and pretty little Krista.
Krista's son, Gavin, is our most amazing photographer!

Edward stopped by to see us.

Next up was Fashion Place. I HAD to hit up Nordstroms! I haven't been there for a while and as were looking for a place to park I noticed the part of the mall where Nordstrom was had the sign taken down!!!! I let out a huge gasp! What??? What the heck happened to my Nordstrom!?!? For those of you who know me well , you know how I LOVE my Nordstrom! Their Anniversary Sale in July is like a religious holiday for me. Victor laughed at me and told me to relax and that it looked they had added on a new section for Nordstroms. Thank goodness!

I really wanted to go to Park City, but Victor had made some plans with some of our other friends and we didn't have time (hopefully next trip). Our friends are well worth passing up Park City though. We then met up a couple of Victor's very best buds ever, Josh and his beautiful wife Robyn, and Casey and his beautiful wife Akiko. We had a scrumptious dinner at an Italian restaurant called Biego (I think it was Biego, or something like that) at the Gateway and I swear were laughing the whole time! All of our friends have come, and continue to come, visit us wherever we have lived, so it is fun to go see them .

From left to right: Casey & Akiko, Me & Vic, Robyn & Josh.

We then did a little shopping with everyone and headed home. SLC was such a great trip. We love being able to see our friends. Seriously, there is nothing like an old friend. I think it was Elbert Hubbard who said, "Your friend is the man who knows all about you, and still likes you". In fact, every time we visit these same friends Vic always starts talking about moving to SLC. It would be an easy move for us, but I just really love where we are at now. I think he just misses his buddies and their "male bonding".

We may be in our 30's now but it doesn't mean we have to act like it. heee heee Sorry Akiko, I totally put Casey up to that one!

It was great to see everyone. I can't wait for all of you guys to come visit us!

This is just a pic Conner took of us before a party recently- I just liked it!