Happy Birthday

You have a birthday, shout Hooray!

We want to sing to you today,

One year older and wiser too,

Happy Birthday to You!

Yesterday was Larry's birthday.  I think when you get older your birthday becomes just another day.  So we tried to make it special for Larry as he stayed home from work.  I was planning on having our parents over for dinner and cake and ice cream but then we found out that last night (Larry's birthday) was also baseball tryouts for Toby's age.  Since Larry is coaching T's team, he needed to be there.  Good thing my dad and Larry's parents are retired so they could come over for lunch and cake and ice cream. 

We didn't have 37 candles to put on the cake so T and R tried to arrange the 20 candles we had into a Y.  So Larry blew out only 20 candles even though 20 was 17 years ago.  I was going to arrange them into one group of 3 and another group of 7, but I guess the 20 candles worked out too. 

(obviously I didn't close the blinds so the pictures aren't the best) 

We are grateful for such a great Dad and husband.  Larry always puts us first and we are so blessed to have him work so hard for our family.  WE LOVE YOU!



Baseball in St. George

St. George Utah is a beautiful place and it's especially beautiful when I can sit in the warm sunshine and watch baseball.  Here's how the March Madness Tournament went..... team wins: not so well, Ryan's playing: awesome.  So the team didn't do as good as we all hoped and after the first day of no wins, I asked Ry if he still had fun.  His eyes got big and his eye brows went up and he got a smile on his face as he said, "oh yea."  It's always more fun to win but Ry really just loves to play the game.

Ryan usually plays first base and pitches a few innings.  This tournament he did not dissapoint!  Not that he ever does.  I could tell he was very nervous batting but out in the field he was totally in his element.

The first day the games were in Logandale Nevada which is about half way between St. George and Las Vegas.  The game started at 3pm so the second game was under the lights. In the morning the boys hung out and tried not to use up too much energy, saving some for the games later that day.  Ryan was in heaven because what could be better than waking up and finding some of your buddies at breakfast and then going together to shoot some hoops.

After playing for awhile they tried to convince their coach to let them swim but finally settled on watching a movie in his room.

Then off to Logandale.  Here's Ry as we were leaving the hotel.

The whole Utah Havoc team.

Some warming up before first game.



 

First game against the Diablos.

Second game against the Titans.

  

 Games on Friday against Bandits and Hitmen.



Ry playing first base.  Not a great picture because I was sitting on a blanket by right field with Lacie.  This is taken through the fence.



Some play going on with Matt helping to cover first base.

After all that excitement a pool party back at the hotel was a welcome relief.  And the hot tub was usually filled with boys (and Alexa). 



..





Cool action shot of Toby and Larry.



Since we didn't make it to the championship on Saturday we decided to take a little hike up Snow Canyon.



Nice one, Ry!



This one is not much better.

 

Well, baseball has officially begun.  Last weekend was really fun and Lacie did awesome (for Lacie).  She put up with some very long days and as a result now has a cold.   

A quick "shout out" to Ry's wonderful coaches and all they put up with.  I'm glad he can play under (and we can associate with) such genuinly great people.

GO HAVOC!





Spring is here

In our house we know spring is just around the corner because baseball practice starts.  Well, practice started about 2 months ago (for Ry)!!  And his first tournament of the year is this weekend.  Last year I couldn't travel to Southern Utah/Nevada because Lacie was about 10 days old, so all the girls stayed here. I've really been excited about going for the whole year!  And finally the time has come. 

If you asked me what my top 5 things I LOVED in life, watching my boys play baseball would be one of them.  Do I sound excited about this tournament?  I'm doing a dance inside just waiting to see Ryan make one of his amazing catches on first base, he's an AWESOME 1st baseman!!!! 

                                                     

                                                    

 GO HAVOC!!!!!!!

Our Baby is One !

WOW - I can't believe that one year ago yesterday, we had our second little girl.  After two boys, I thought we would only have boys.  But our Lacie, last but not least, came at 11:10 pm on March 2, 2010. 
So her birthday is 3-2-10.  Get it? 3,2,1,0?  I thought that was cool.

Last night we had a party to celebrate this little girl who has made our life totally crazy!  We had cake and of course let her dig in first.  She wasn't really sure what to do but I think she liked the feel of the cake and frosting squishing through her fingers after a few minutes.

Then we opened presents.  What do you get a little girl who has a house full of toys already, being the fourth child?  I got her a couple of books because she loves to read.  And her favorite fruit snacks.  Her cousins got her some more treats and Grandma and Grandpa got her one of those ball popper things that you push.  None of our other kids had one of those!

After presents we were hanging out in the front room talking and I heard some commotion going on in the kitchen.  Then I heard the boys and my brother laughing and cheering and something about Minute to Win It.  The boys have fun with him because he can always think of something fun to do and get them laughing.  I found them pretending to be on Minute to Win It - doing a challenge.  I'm not exactly sure what it was I just saw cups of water, straws and puddles of water all over the counters.

When they figured out who won that (I don't know who, all we heard was the three of them cracking up) they were on to the next game, which again I'm not sure the exact title.  All I know was it had something to do with 10 books between their legs and going up and down the stairs.  I think there was a timer involved.

Again, not sure of the winner but they were all laughing.

We had a great night and Lacie was so tired because it was all over way past her bed time.  But here she is the next morning when she is officially 1year old.  We love her so much, she is the perfect addition to our family.