Happy Birthday James

Happy Birthday to my favorite pirate James!

James had several friends over for a birthday party - Pirate style!

He makes one cutie patootie pirate, doesn't he?!

ARRRRRR!  A surly looking crowd!

Pinata time!

Lots of Pirate Bootie!

One year older!

Happy Mother's Day

I am so grateful to be a mother and to be entrusted with 4 of Heavenly Father's children.  I love them so much and I thank Him every day for allowing me to be a mother and to have these sweet children sealed to my husband and I for eternity.  And you have to admit, they are the cutest kids in the whole entire world!!!  Happy Mother's Day to me!

Who Rocked the Pinewood Derby???

Ahhhh.... the much anticipated Pinewood Derby.  We were so excited about it this year that Joshua and Earl made his car the day before.  Such is life!  But it turned out to be a great night.

Cast of Characters

Pack 36 - All Dens

The STRESS!!!  Joshua is on pins and needles....

On your mark, get set.... GO!

A very proud 1st place winner!

Joshua ended up taking his car to the regional Derby and getting place in the top ten!

Good job!

Happy Easter

Easter came and went ... and I'm finally blogging about it!  I honestly can't remember if anything extraordinary happened except our usual morning Easter egg and basket hunt, but the kids love Easter (almost as much as Christmas!).  Here are a few pics:

 Jilly loved finding eggs all over the house.

 Some great Easter gifts...

I couldn't resist adding this picture.  What an adorable kid!

American River Half Marathon

Earl and I decided this year to keep our sites set on being physically fit and having goals to work towards in keeping this goal.  We signed up for the American River half marathon and diligently worked out to be ready for this race.  Our friends the Colborn's signed up with us and its always fun to run a race with friends!

These were the only pics I could find.  I look like I'm walking... ok, my run really isn't much faster than a power walk, but that's ok!  This was my second half marathon, and I loved the course.  Very simple... Up one path, loop around at the halfway mark, and back the way you came (for the most part!).  I liked being able to watch for Earl and see how far ahead of me he was running.  I finished about 2:19 and Earl finished about 1:52.
I love feeling accomplished.

We finished... that's all I have to say!
Except then we forgot where we parked our car.
And after walking for another 30 minutes we were very thankful that the Colborn's drove past us and gave us a lift so that we could scour the neighborhood and find our car.
We were really tired and cranky at that point.
But we found our car and made it back home ... to spend the rest of the day watching, yes, you guessed it... baseball games!  With no shower and no rest.  But that's what you do in April when you have 2 kids on baseball teams.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame...

It's the time of year that we run ourselves crazy going from practice to practice, game to game... and we love it!  Josh and James both decided to play baseball this past spring.  Here are a few pics...

This was Joshua's first year on the minor league!  What a change from coach pitch, but he did great and proved to be an excellent athlete.  He was on the Red's and had several successful plays throughout the season!

Look at the concentration....what a great year!

This was James' first year on a baseball team (on any kind of team!  He didn't play soccer in the fall and REALLY REALLY wanted to play baseball!).  His team, the Mets, was a tee ball team and he loved, loved, loved it!  His coach, Coach Kenny, is behind him in this picture.  He can't wait for next year already!

I love this picture!

 

And our fabulous cheer leading squad!

We kind of go a little crazy with the long days, countless practices and games, but we wouldn't have it any other way!

 

He's a FIRST CLASS kid

We are so proud of JON!  He is quite the scouter!!!

He received his FIRST CLASS rank award at the Court of Honor in April.

 Mom is becoming a very decorated Scout Mom!

 Ahhh.... He's going to be 12 soon!  Where did my baby go?

Most of our boys and leaders in Pack 36.  We love Scouts!!!

Happy Birthday Princess

Happy 3rd Birthday to my favorite little girl!  She had her two "bestest buds" over for a play date and we had cake and ice cream to celebrate.  Jillian was a princess for the day!

Blow out those candles! 

She got her very own Rapunzel Barbie and a dress that she could wear to match!

I love my baby girl.... she will always be my baby.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOSH!

Josh turned 9 this past March and decided he wanted to have a sleepover.  (Yay!  I LOVE sleepovers!)

He had 3 of his very good friends over and I think it was a hit!  We started out the night eating PIZZA, then moved on to a Nerf gun war, and later a movie and "calm down" time.  No death threats from the parents, but we got pretty close!

WATCH OUT!  It's the Nerf Gun Bandit!

The traditional Keith Ice Cream Birthday cake.  We aren't big frosting fans here!

 
Chow down little dude!  That's a huge bite of cake!
I'm pretty sure it was a success.  My 9 year old doesn't verbalize such things, but I think it was fun for him and his friends and I'm sure he's already planning for next year.  Heaven help us all!

A Great Family Weekend

It is a rare opportunity for my whole family to get together and last weekend we had the pleasure of traveling to Fresno for my niece Hannah's baptism.  My kids were so excited to see all of their cousins on my side of the family and we spent the morning with many of them at the park (Maddy, Emma, Christopher, Hannah, and Jon - great smile!)

My sis Heidi and her precious baby boy Rustin.

Cousin Benny - one amazing sports fanatic!

My sis Maree and her kids, Hannah and Christopher.

Jill chillin' with her new toy from her Auntie!

My sis Aimee and her daughter Emma.

We took a bunch of family pictures later in the day before the baptism (I'll post those later!  Gotta get them from my sis!) and had pizza with everyone afterward.  We were able to sneak in a quick visit with our Grandpa Earl and on Sunday with Grandma Geri and her family.  It was a very busy, very quick visit and we packed as much into the two days we were there.  I'm still trying to recover ;)