Oh May Oh My!

There's a lot to love about the month of May! For starters, Jared hit his first "official" home run (over the fence as opposed to in the park)! Here's two terrible pictures of the team running out to celebrate him as he ran home but they are all this over-excited mom could shoot at the time. Forgive my terrible photography skills and just envision it being really cool! : )

Mother's Day was very fun. Nate did a great job of getting the kids up very early since we have 9:00 church and they always make a delicious breakfast in bed. I love the coupons, cards, pictures and hugs and kisses. It is nice to be spoiled and I am thankful that I am a mother to four wonderful kids.
Megan started fastpitch softball and loves it. I am happy about that! All this ball playing prompted me to "come out of retirement" and I got nudged into playing a little rec ball myself. It has been fun and the games are late Monday nights so not too much of an impact on the family.
Happy birthday to me! Having Mother's Day and my birthday the same week is pretty cool. I felt loved by family and friends who were great to give birthday wishes, take me to lunch, out to dessert and all kinds of fun stuff. Shhh! Don't tell anyone but next year is a big one!
Probably better than a home run is seeing the little league boys host the Challenger Games. This happens twice a season for the Majors teams where they get the opportunity to host a community game and they are paired with a disabled player. The boys are so great with them and they have a lot of fun.
This is Jared with Kyle, the person he worked with for the second Challenger game.
And I can't post without showing the latest Bradley antics. I had to get a mask put on Megan's batting helmet while out doing errands the other day. Bradley was so in love with the idea of wearing this helmet that he insisted on wearing it everywhere we went. I had to go to the post office of course.

Maybe He Should Have Changed Clothes First

Bradley came home from church on Sunday and decided it was time to mow the lawn and play the kazoo at the same time. I wonder if this is how daddy does it?

When You're Fifteen . . .

Me: What do you want to do for your birthday?
Amanda: I just want clothes and to go shopping.
Yea! I can totally relate--she speaks my language! The problem was when??? We finally decided to play hookey and took a break from this:

to go do this:
We went to Spokane for the day with grandma and grandpa and had a great time and yes, I think she got some clothes.
As is the tradition, we had family over Sunday night for cake (check out the tie-dye cake. I think its pretty cool if I do say so myself) and ice cream.
Panicking a little bit that I have to start thinking about Driver's Ed and *gulp* only three more years with her at home!

First Scout/Deacon Campout!

It's been a challenging and relatively cold and dreary baseball season for Jared so far. The whole team has been in a bit of a slump to say the least. So, I am really glad he got to go on his first 12-year-old scout campout a couple of weekends ago at Rainbow Lake. He had a little break and realized there's more to life than little league baseball. Even though he goes out fishing with grandpa and dad at least once a year, he learned how to clean and fillet his own fish and brought some home for us to enjoy, which I promptly had him to give to grandpa. I'll go over there and eat some since the rest of the family aren't fans. Thanks Kristin (and Glenn) for sending this picture my way since we normally don't get pics from the scouting campouts. I'm sure they are glad moms aren't there taking pictures!

Spring Brrrrreak!

We had a nice half stay-cation half Idaho trip for spring break this year. It was cold here and colder there. I was determined to do something fun each day and also get things done around the house and I am happy to report we did.
On Monday we went bowling and met up with several other families. It was really busy that day for free bowling day but everyone had fun. I love that they even have shoes for Bradley!




We worked on slaying the giant tumbleweeds in our yard from all the wind we've been having. We also went to How to Train a Dragon in 3D which everyone loved. It's a great family movie. Then, at the end of the week we went to visit Kevin and Emily at their new home they had just moved into. They were so great to let us come for a couple of days while they still were getting settled.
Their home is beautiful but it was cold and snowy there! It didn't stop the kids from exploring their 10 acres, though.


We saw deer, wild turkeys and some little mice that seemed to want to share their new home with them. It's very beautiful and scenic but I think we'll try it again in July :)

After spring break was over, I realized we've encountered snow on the last three spring breaks--completely unintentionally! We don't even snow ski! Next year we're going to HAVE to change it up a little!

Here Comes Twelve!

Just have to post a couple of "child tribute" things. It seems like my oldest two have had a lot going on lately. Jared recently celebrated a landmark birthday--twelve is a big one where he was able to receive the Priesthood and become a Deacon at church. True to form, when we asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday he said have a few friends over to BBQ and play basketball. I said, okay; I can handle that!

We later had the whole family gang over for dinner on Sunday after church. We had a taco feast with mud pie--yum!
When Jared is doing what he loves he has a little brother that loves and adores him and pretty much goes along for the ride. This is little Bradley at Jared's last basketball tournament in Moses Lake.

Jared's team was short a few players so they picked up two of his buddies that he used to play with and remains good friends with. The fact that they are wearing Pasco colors is a big deal if you understand things here in the Tri-Cities--especially for these future Bombers. We're excited for Jared's growth and the opportunities that await him now that he has additional privileges and responsibilities from our Heavenly Father.

How Do We Keep Up?

Life with Miss Amanda is never dull. She has such a spark about her we spend a lot of time trying to get her to tone things down a little bit and focus. For this, we love her. Here's a few things she's been up to lately that have kept us on our toes but happy to be a part of her excitement in her life. She just started track (small picture of her nearest to the hurdles--about third from the left) and is working so hard! She was asked to participate in the last two varsity meets--one was last Saturday and she was unable to go due to church conference but her first one is tomorrow in Wenatchee!
We finally got around to getting her room painted. I actually really ended up liking the colors and they are totally her!
She recently received her Young Womanhood Recognition award at church. It was actually a great experience watching her grow and learn from working hard at each value and recording her experiences. My appreciation for this program grew immensely and I am thankful she had a chance to participate in this inspired program. It is fun to see her growing and progressing but a little alarming. I can actually see that our time with her is getting shorter and someday soon she'll be grown up! This could explain why I am totally reluctant to let her drive next month--I'm just not ready!