I know I have a ton of stuff to catch up on still from the last few months but I decided to do some current stuff and sprinkle in some updates as I go.

This weekend we took the kids to another Portland Beaver’s AAA Baseball game.  They were much better this time than last time.  Unfortunately the Beaver’s lost 1 to 0 to the Omaha Royals but it was still a good game.  Bubba got to practice his umpire calls from the stands.  I wonder if Matt gets tired of us asking him for ruling clarifications.  If so he’s a good sport about it and doesn’t show it.

We like to get the cups of frozen lemonade.  Here Matt is showing it off.  I have some pictures of him eating it too but I decided to be nice and not post them since he really isn’t a fan of having his picture taken, he did good to pose for this one.

The girls

After the game the kids got to go down on the field and run around the bases like the players.  From a photography stand I wish they would have spaced the kids out more so the parents could get pictures of THEIR kids running instead of a mass of little ones but the kids had fun so oh well.

Quinn is off and running on her way to second.

Jaxon is off trying to catch up to her.  Check out that long stride.

Here they are on their way to third base.  Bubba has made up some ground on Quinn but I think he was racing more than her, she was more jogging around the bases.

Running home for the score.  I love how Quinn’s hair is flapping up as she runs.

Jaxon crosses the plate . . .  He’s safe!  (To get the full experience you have to picture Bubba’s arms flapping out as he does the sign for safe.)

Quinn was already talking about how fun it was before she made it all the way up from the dugout.

Maybe next time I’ll purposely have them be towards the end of the line so I can get pictures with fewer random children . . . hmmm,  we’ll see. 

In June, while Quinn was in Hawaii, I took Bubba to a Lowe’s kids workshop and he got to build a pirate ship.  It was fun to watch him.  He got a kid size apron and a name tag and he used a mini hammer and wore goggles part of the time.  I was taking pictures of him working at first then he asked me to help him and I just realized I didn’t get a picture of the final completed ship.  Since it’s been home he’s painted it.  The ship even has a plank that pulls out to send someone overboard then retracts for ocean cruising.  The kid workshops are pretty cool, and they’re free.  You should check them out if you haven’t been to one yet.  And when he was done he got a patch to iron on his apron to show all the workshops he completes.

Ready for construction

Hard at work

The goggles were making it hard for him to see so he took them off.

In May Matt had a baseball game to umpire so I brought the kids with me to the monthly get together for recipe club.  They were outside jumping on the host’s trampoline when I heard Jaxon say Quinn hit her head.   I saw her holding her head and at first I was thinking she didn’t want everyone to see her crying then she moved her hand and I saw a river of blood pouring from her eye.  I rushed out to her and ushered her in to get a rag to stop the bleeding.  I tried to remain calm by telling myself that head wounds bleed really bad.  Because it was on her eye and it looked a little deep I wanted to have it checked out.  I called Matt before he left for work and my friend took Jaxon home to wait with Matt while I took Quinn to the emergency room.  We spent about fourish hours in the ER and she got 5 stitches on her left eyelid.  These pictures were taken with my phone on my camera which is not the best so please overlook the low quality.

Getting the numbing stuff injected into her eyelid so the stitches wouldn’t hurt was probably the worst part of the ER trip.  Quinn was trembling and squeezing my hand so hard.  She would curl her fingers so her nails would dig into my hand and I would try to relax her hand but she would just dig her nails back in again.  (She thinks this part of the story is entertaining when I retell it.)

This is after the stitches were put in.  I had originally guessed 9 stitches during conversation trying to distract Quinn during cleaning and numbing of the eye.  Quinn had guessed 5, I told her we’d see and  . . . . . surprise!  She guessed right.  5 stitches total.

This was when we were paying the copay on our way out.  She was tired and I had been playing with her hair while everything else was going on so she kinda has crazy/bed head.

The next day I stopped in to see her at school and have lunch with her.  She was told to stay out of the sun for about a week to minimize scarring so she played in the classroom during recess.  This picture she is inside her class’ big cardboard space ship they had been working on during their space unit.

The next week we had to go back to the doctor to get the stitches taken out.  The first one or two were okay, didn’t hurt too bad.  The scab had grown over the last few stitches so the nurse had to pull on it a little more to get those out which Quinn didn’t like.  Jaxon went with us for this adventure and during the first one he ran out of the room, he coudn’t stand to watch the nurse take them out.  I think it was mostly because he didn’t want to see Quinn hurting.  The nurse let Quinn keep the stitches in a test tube.  They look like little bugs.  Quinn was all excited to take them to school to show everyone when she was buzz group leader.

So way back in March Nana got Bubba some shamrock socks for St. Patrick’s Day.  They’re a little big but he loves it because he likes to pull them all the way up like baseball socks because everything becomes something baseball related with this boy lately.

What better time to wear fun socks then when unloading the dishwasher?

He was trying to tell me to take the picture when his swing was “here”

Here’s his batting stance . . .

and here’s the swing.

For Mother’s day this year Matt was going to take the kids and get pictures of the 3 of them together for me but then he thought about the fact that after seeing them I’d want to get updated family pictures.  Since he HATES having his picture taken he opted to skip the ones of him and the kids and we just did family pictures.  They turned out so good, I’m so happy with them.  I still need to get them framed and hung but at least I have them taken.  I did look at one store for some frames but I didn’t see any I liked that were the right size for the prints.  Oh darn, I have to go shopping again. There were some really cute ones of just the kids but since I can get those two to the portrait studio a lot easier than I can get Matt there I opted to buy the ones with my adorable husband instead.

This is the one I got a 10 x 13 of.   I love how it looks like Bubba is jumping up in the middle of us.

I liked this one too so we ended up getting two family pictures.

My two favorite most adorable boys.  Go ASU!

Quinn is so photogenic.  I LOVE this picture of the two of them.  It turned out so cute!

While we were waiting for the kids to get posed on our backs and around us we were just being us.  After being married for almost 9 years now I still love him more and more each day.

Boys + baseball = fun times.  Jaxon is so obsessed with sports.  Currently he’s all about the baseball.  He loves to set up his bases around the house.  Usually home plate is in front of the door, first base in the kitchen, second in the dining room and third in the living room.  Last weekend after Matt got home from umpiring a baseball game Jaxon set up the bases and they got to playing.  I of course grabbed the camera to capture the fun.  They stayed up after bedtime playing, hence the pj’s.  It was so cute to watch father and son playing together I didn’t have the heart to make them stop for bed, especially since it was a weekend night and there wasn’t anything Jaxon needed to be up early for the next day.

Quinn was passed out in the living room chair and totally missed the fun.

Jaxon and Matt played as all-in-one teams, with the help of ghost runners of course.  They would keep track of balls and strikes and outs.

A nice hit by Bubba.

Then he switched to a right handed player. For a southpaw he actually hits pretty well this way.

Tagged for the out.

Jaxon goes for the windup.

And Matt gets a nice hit of his own.

I have some good videos but they aren’t uploading right so I can’t share them right now.

Last weekend the kids spent the night at Nana & Papa’s house Friday night so Matt and I could have a date night.  I love spending time with him.    So Saturday I met up with my mom and the kids when my dad was getting off work and we all went together to the home & garden show.  They had the shamwow’s there from TV, they called the something different though.  I made the comment of “you’re gonna love my nuts!” like the guy says on tv but the group I was with didn’t get it.  Matt totally would have laughed with me if he were there.  Anyway.  So at first it seemed like it was gonna be a long day cuz Bubba kept hanging on me and begging me to carry him.  He weighs like 50 pounds and the section we were in had the fake fireplaces and heater and stuff so it was hot and I didn’t want a hot little monkey on me.  It was fine balance between letting him hang/climb on me and not burning up versus not having him and his heat all up on me and keeping him close by.  This is one of the things I found to occupy him for a moment.  He’s such a ham and loves to pose for pictures.

Eventually we wandered to the part that was for the kids.  They LOVED the fire house the fire department had there.  They watched a little video and got some good fire planning info from the fireman then went upstairs and when the fire alarm went off they got to climb out the window and down the ladder and meet up at the mailbox which had stickers and erasers in it.  The kids also got to plant a green pepper seed and play hands on at the science booth.

Quinn so proud of her planting.

Jaxon adding dirt to his pot.

I found a book on square foot gardening that was inspiring.  I’ve been wanting to plant a garden for a while I’ve known for a long time I* should* have one but I didn’t really think that was feasible on with our little backyard.  After seeing the examples in the booth at the show and reading the book (and of course looking at several people’s gardens online) I feel like I’ll actually be able to do this.  The below picture is just an example of the concept from someone’s website.  Once I get mine up and going I’ll post pictures of it.

I decided to take advantage of being home from work due to snow to update our blog.  I looked at my last post and wondered out loud “What’s happened since the 5th?” and Bubba sitting close by answered with a sigh “nothing”.  He’s a funny little man.  I don’t know how he comes up with so many little one-liner phrases.  Sometimes I wish he had a recorder on him at all times to capture some of them.  So I don’t have pictures of what we’ve done lately but here’s the run down anyway.
Bubba got a haircut from Matt leaving a fuzzy bathroom to be cleaned.  His hair had gotten so shaggy and long.  Its crazy how different he looks with short hair.
Matt got strep throat really bad.  His tonsils swelled up and he could hardly talk.  He was on antibiotics for 2 weeks which is longer that I typically see prescriptions for.  He was quarantined to the bedroom for about a week total to keep the kids from getting it.  Thankfully I seem to be fairly resistant to strep as he’s had it a few times since we’ve been married and despite the close quarters and caring for him I’ve yet to catch it.  *Knock on wood*
Quinn is wicked excited to be on her new unit at school.  They finished up their geography unit and had a share night where we toured her classroom and she told us all about land formations and showed off  her paper mache globe.  Now she’s working on her main street unit.  The kids all have different business and despite being the last person to choose she wound up with the pharmacy as she’d been hoping for.  I’m willing to bet it has just a *tad* to do with me working in a pharmacy.  It’ll be fun to take a walk down her main street when this unit is done.
I’ve just been working and doin house stuff like cleaning and cooking.  I got a new class at church.  I went from CTR 7 back to CTR 5 like I had when I was originally called to primary in this ward a year and a half ago.  They’re so fun, just out of sunbeams and still so excited about everything.  They love to talk and share their thoughts and ideas.
So that’s us so far for the month.  Bubba’s birthday is coming up next month so hopefully a more exciting and photo-ful post is to come.

Christmas is a beautiful time of year.  I love how it makes so many more people focus on the gift of the Savior.  I recognize and am grateful for the reason for the season, but I also love to watch people’s faces light up as they open the gift that was sought and found just for them.

I think this picture pretty much sums up the kid’s excitement about their Christmas presents:

We got a Wii!!!

Jaxon’s face couldn’t hold a bigger smile I don’t think.  Quinn popped up and squealed with delight when she realized what it was while Jaxon was unwrapping it.  This video is much better but I can’t get it to upload so you’ll have to settle with the picture.

Once we got through the snow & ice & slush on the road and made it to our destinations we had fun with family.  We hit up my parents on Christmas eve.

After dinner and chatting we gathered in the living room for presents.  Here is Quinn posing for some not so candid shots.  She was waiting so patiently and I got her attention and snapped a quick photo.

Among other fun things (like a new Spiderman video game) Bubba got a 3-D I Spy book.

Christmas morning we opened stockings before heading over to Matt’s parents for their traditional Egg Nog French Toast breakfast.  We had to announce as we came in that we had NOT yet opened presents so no one spilled the beans about the Wii.

Aunt Beky played hairdresser to Quinn.  Beky wanted to try something with Quinn’s hair that she couldn’t seem to make work in her own hair.

When it was done it reminded me of pictures of my mom when she was younger, like in high school.  I tried to get a good shot of Quinn to show my mom but she was making a weird face and wouldn’t sit still for me to take more tries.

After breakfast we came home and let the kids have at the presents.  I laid the pile out in front of them and let them take turns opening stuff.  They started with their new webkinz.  Quinn’s horse is her second but the kitty is Bubba’s first.

He was so excited to have his own and be able to play with it online, although Quinn has been very gracious about sharing her dog she got for her birthday a few months ago.

We had them open the games and accessories first saving the actual  Wii console last.  Matt and I had thought ahead and while the kids were at Nana’s we got out all the cords and got everything set up (including making our Mii’s) before wrapping it up so when the kids opened it they could just plug it in and go.  We knew they’d want to get creating and playing as soon as they opened it.  So Matt headed the clean up efforts and got them all set up with the Wii while I watched from the kitchen getting our contribution to dinner ready before heading over to Matt’s sister’s for dinner with his side of the family.

Matt’s family has another tradition where everyone gets a gift that can be given to anyone else in the family, this year we divided the kids and adults in two groups.  Matt’s dad gets a book and we pick a word in the story and every time the word is said during the book we pass the gift to the next person until the end of the book then we open the gift we have.  This year I brought home an Orange Julius gift card and Matt got a picture frame with a mat that says Family.  I think it’s kinda funny that we ended up with what we did because I’m pretty sure that I’ll be the one who picks a picture to put in his frame and he’ll be the one who drinks most of the orange Julius I’ll get with my gift card.

So that’s the update on our adventures of Christmas break for 2008.  *Hopefully* the kids will be heading back to school tomorrow morning.  It started snowing again tonight.  As beautiful as it is I was no so totally happy.  I’m over driving in the snow.  Supposedly it will be all melted by the morning.  We’ll see. . .

The world looks so beautiful covered in a soft blanket of fluffy white snow.  We got a fresh layer of snow, covered by 1/4″ or so of ice (which by Sunday night was covered with another few inches of fresh snow).  When I was younger I would have been excited to suit up and go play in the snow, now i think I get more excited anticipating how the pictures of the kids playing will turn out.  When the kids went out to play they didn’t frolic and make snowballs or snowmen like normal, instead they were on the hunt for the biggest chunks of ice they could find.

Quinn liked to pile up her chunks.

Jaxon liked to suck on them.

He also liked to find icicles . . .

and suck on those too.

Quinn liked to get the snow out from under the layer of ice.

She did above the windows and Matt helped with the cave on top of the car.

“Oh man!”  Jaxon tried to make a snow angel but just laid on top of the ice.

Matt and I got out the snow tube and blew it up with the air compressor.  He’s so cute when he gets excited like a little kid.  Once it was inflated he ran to the hills in the middle of the block and I of course followed with the camera .

He had fun sliding down . . .

until the ice popped his tube.

So back into the house we went.  Matt was playing with the kids, they would jump onto him and he would wrestle and tickle them.  When Matt realized I had the camera out to capture the memories on film he put his head down so I couldn’t get a good shot of him.

And when I didn’t’ stop trying he retreated upstairs.  The kids tried to stop him but he was ultimately successful over them.  So they chased him upstairs and played in the loft with him.  (I left the camera downstairs so as not to interrupt the play this time.)

Sunday Matt’s parents made prime rib for dinner and his dad picked us up in his 4 wheel drive truck and took us to their house to join them.  Dinner tastes so much better when you don’t have to cook it.  Then as frequently happens after dinner we pulled out the board games.  Fun times all around this weekend.