Isn't she a beauty?

Isn't she a real beauty?  No, no, not the dog, although she is my girl, take a good look at that couch.  Yes, that's in my front room!  Sunny seems to like it but we didn't get it cause it's so cool looking.  (Really, check out those colors.)  This couch is very special because it comes from Larry's grandma, who passed away in November at the age of 97. 

Larry used to work at a furniture shop recovering couches, chairs, love seats etc.  So he's an expert on knowing quality furniture.  Quality meaning, old stuff is the best!  A long time ago (like when this couch was made) furniture was really sturdy and made from real wood not the ply wood stuff they use now.  One day we will recover this baby and it will look great.  It costs about the same to recover something as it does to buy it new but like I said old stuff will hold up so much better, example: this couch!

It kinda brought me back to my collage days.  I could totally picture this in an apartment and hear someone saying, "look what we just picked up at DI."  It is actually very comfortable but I just couldn't bring myself to leave it like that.  And we have been talking about getting a couch or love seat for the front room.......

There, that's much better!!!  See, nothing a slip cover, a few pillows and a blanket can't fix. (Not sure what the black piece of paper sticking out from underneath is, just ignore that).  I think I can handle this until it's covered for real.

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.



Few random things

Here are a some things the boys have been doing, besides school and baseball practice.


Toby had to do a service project for school and of course we put it off till the last minute so he decided to help clean Grandpa's house.  He said he liked vacuuming the best cause he could hear the vacuum sucking things up.  I wish he was willing to clean at home like this!

Then the boys had a Blue and Gold Banquet for scouts.  Toby was invited because he will be a Wolf this year when he turns 8.  Before he turns 8, Ry will be done with Weblos and on to the 11yr old scouts. 

The theme for the Blue and Gold banquet was something about talents and accomplishments and confidence so they had each boy bring something to represent themselves and display it on a table.  Then each scout took a turn to tell what they brought.

Toby brought his All-Star uniform from last year and the ball that his team signed.

Ryan brought many of his trophies and his hat from last year.

















Lastly, since we're on scouts..... Ry had to do an art project using any art form and bring it to scouts on Friday.  Once again I dropped the ball and at the last minute we were doing a "mural" of Ry.  After school we traced around him (luckly I had a roll of the long paper) and he colored himself in his baseball uniform.  Here is the final thing before he ran over to the neighbors for scouts.

No more last minute things for me.  It stresses me out!!



Just to remember...

I have a funny story and I think I'll post it just to remember it in years to come.  Last Friday my Dad and I took the kids and a couple of friends to the Olympic Oval.  They were hosting the World Cup Long Track Speed Skating.  We really went because it was free to get in and sounded fun.  (We did go a couple of years ago to the short track race when Apollo Anton Ono was skating and it was really fun but not free admit.)

So we took R, T, A and L and R's friend and T's friend.  Of course I hadn't charged my camera battery lately and it was totally dead, so no camera.  But we did witness a little piece of history.  Some lady, just before we got there had broken a world record in the 5000m.  We saw her put her name on the wall. Don't remember her name but she was from another country and you can see her name if you go to the Olympic Oval :).

So, on to the funny story.  Here is Ryan and his friend. This was taken when we got home and the camera battery had charged a while. But this is what they looked like at the speed skating.

When we were at the Oval the kids would walk around in between the races and sometimes stand at the "fence" during the races.  When they would come back to the stands to sit, twice we had people come up and talk to us about their sweatshirts (notice above picture).  These nice people told about the rivalries in their own families and how they thought it was great that these boys could be friends while cheering for different teams.  It just so happened that the two people that came up to talk to us (at different times) were both wearing the USA hats that the Olympic team (and many others) wore here in Salt Lake in 2002.  You can picture that blue beret kind of hat that says USA around the rim, right? 

Here's the funny part.....  Right as we were getting ready to leave another man came and sat down behind us.  He was from another country (we saw Japan, China, Germany, Sweden and others there) I could tell by his accent and broken English.  He asked if I was from the US. I said yes. He asked if I was from Utah.  I told him I lived here.  He asked I was a former skater!! and if that's why I was bringing my kids to see all the skating!!  I laughed hard and said, "No, we just came for fun."  He said, "Oh I thought maybe you were a skater a long time ago and I wanted your autograph."  Now I was really laughing and asked where he was from.  He said he was from Holland and we did some more small talk, said good bye and left.

My dad and I had a good laugh as we walked to the parking lot!!!  On the way home R was sitting in the front seat and it totally hit me..... That guy from Holland saw a couple of other people come to chat with us (about the boys sweatshirts).  But he didn't know we were talking about BYU vs Utah.  He probably has never even heard of BYU vs Utah.  All he saw were people, obviously from the USA cause of their Olympic hats, come and talk to us, thinking they were recognizing ME from.... I don't know what.... some former team?  Now Ry and I had a good laugh.

My dad said I should have just signed the program he was holding.