Gotta love baseball season! As crazy as our schedules become, I LOVE it! So, for this years snack, I decided to be a little creative, and found this idea on the internet. Glenn's team was first, and the reaction was priceless! The kids couldn't believe their eyes, and were so excited to eat baseball cookies! Of course, James wanted them for his team, too. So, I made more, only to have his game rained out! So, they sit in my freezer, waiting for the make-up game... won't be till June! Hope they survive!

Ellie turns one this week! So hard to imagine that one year ago today, this little bundle came into our lives! She's not walking on her own yet, and to be honest, I think the reason why is not because she can't, but because she LOVES being with people. And if she requires you to hold on to her while she walks, she gets to be with you that much more! So, she already has her brothers wrapped around her little finger! James' favorite thing to do, is walk with Ellie, and look how happy she is!

Alex got dressed himself the other night... he came running downstairs, SOOOO excited! He yelled with his high pitched excited voice... "I got dressed by myself!" We took one look at him, and said, "Why yes you did Alex... how could we tell :-): Shirt inside out and backwards, pants backwards, but happy as a lark! Hey, I'll take it! His funny saying for this week is when he saw the Statue of Liberty in a book he said, "Look, Mama, Princess." I said it wasn't a princess, but the Statue of Liberty. That night he found another picture and told me, "Look, mama, Statue of Princess."

Ahhhhh, last Friday was the Extravaganza. It's basically a HUGE karate recital. Every belt rank gets to show his stuff to music. The kids LOVE it! And James was on the Demonstration Team this year, so got to do some extra routines, the most difficult was the Star Spangled Banner. With Saturday practices since Jan, it's been a long time in coming! But it finally came, and the boys were fantastic. It was wonderful to watch them, and see how excited all these kids were to perform! Alex wished he was out there!! I keep telling him... don't grow up too fast.... your time will come soon enough! Here's a clip of James practicing for the Star Spangled Banner right before the event... notice how all the boys have it memorized... even little Alex tries his heart out to follow in his brother's footsteps!

And last, but not least, here are the kids on a beautiful Saturday morning... no Demo Team this morning, and we were all Loving life! James built a patio table for me for Mother's Day, and the boys, especially Papa, kept up the house and cooking to perfection. It was a fabulous weekend. And I hope all you Mother's out there had a wonderful day as well.

Have a wonderful week!

Slacker!!! No, not you, me!

I have been putting off writing in my blog... sorry for those of you who look forward to our adventures! I am on a mission to get back on track. So, here are quite a few pictures from our recent activities that I thought you'd enjoy.


First off, the reason why I've been such the slacker on blogging, is because I wanted to share one last tribute to Todd's grandmother, and the kids great-grandma who passed away last month. I kept thinking I didn't want to write this, because I wasn't ready to only write one last time about her. But, I realized that this isn't the last time. We all have so many wonderful memories with MawMaw, and we are so thankful that we were able to go back as a family last year to truly visit with her, have some quality time with her, and have lasting memories. The kids LOVED MawMaw, and Ellie was her little shining beacon. I think the biggest reason, was because it reminded her so much of her days with Jeanne. I heard more stories of Jeanne growing up, after I had Ellie! It was priceless to see MawMaw and Ellie interact. And our little Alex, who is usually quite shy with people, went right up to MawMaw to drive cars on her leg! She was amazing. My 2-year-old put it in the best perspective, after she had passed away... when I talked to him over the phone (I was in WI at the time), the first thing he said was, "MawMaw's up in Heaven!" I replied, "That's right, Alex, MawMaw's in Heaven." Then he says, "I like to go to the beach!" As if to say, MawMaw's in vacation up in Heaven, and I like to go to the beach for my vacations! Out of the mouth of babes! I know we are here on Earth for just a moment in the eternal perspective. And it won't be long till we're all together again, as a family, for eternity, just as God has planned it! I am so grateful to truly believe this! It really does set the heart at ease. So, as I include this picture of MawMaw with my kids, know that this lady was someone amazing. Full of spit and vinegar, and sugar and spice. She told you how it was, and by golly, she was ALWAYS right! And if she ever wasn't, you never told her! I loved getting to know her, and look forward to many more laughs with her after I'm gone too! We all love MawMaw, and how our family can't wait to see her again! Until then, we know she's watching over us... so we better behave :-)

While I was gone to see MawMaw, Glenn received his yellow belt! He was SO excited! He LOVES karate, and walks around doing karate moves like his brother, constantly! He's growing up so fast! And looking more and more like Todd! So, off with the white, and on with the yellow! Makes our karate schedule a little more crazy, but hey, it's worth it! This weekend we have the Extravaganza, which shows off all their karate moves... it's like a dance recital for karate! The kids are stoked! More pictures of that to come! Let us know if you want to come!



The night

I returned home from WI, the boys were up and waiting for me! It was 10PM, and Papa had made brownies, and we all had a feast, and just enjoyed being together again! Of course, all the kids (except for Ellie, who was happy to be in her bed, thankfully!), had to cuddle with us that night, and of course, I was ready for some serious cuddling from them! I was gone 4 nights, and I was ready to not be sleeping by myself! This picture is of the following morning. We all fell asleep together, and I just have to say, that by the time Todd and I had gotten up and ready for the day to take the picture, Glenn and Alex had started cuddling next to James. While Todd and I were there, those kids were cuddling with us... and we were close to falling off the bed... all night long! It was a great night, regardless!



Ellie had us all in stitches back in WI! She was picking her nose, walking behind a car with the cutest skirt flowing through the breeze... she was a doll! And thankfully she was a doll on the plane rides, also! Whew! Here's a fantastic picture of Ellie with Grandma D... but I need one of her with Grandpa D! We got some great pictures of her with him too! Here's a YouTube video titled "Top Ten Picks" of Ellie...



Aaaahhh... and baseball season has begun! These boys LOVE baseball, and Glenn is SOOOOO excited that it is finally his turn to do T-ball! 3 years of watching James do it... he is ready and roaring to go! This was Glenn's photo shot they took of him... but he's holding the bat wrong! So, I'll be taking that one again! James is in coach pitch, and he's getting better every game! The team is actually catching balls now, and getting outs! It's SO much fun to watch! And it's even more fun to actually play catch with James now, because he actually really can catch hard throws, and will wing it right back at you!

And the thing I love most about baseball games... is you get to sit back and enjoy them! People bring their chairs/blankets/food, and sit back and cheer and chill. I can't think of any better way to spend a nice sunny day! And when it's cold, we just bundle up a little more... life is great during baseball season, even if we are all running around getting to the games!


One last story... Todd took Glenn out for his alone time last night, and they went to GI Joe's, a sporting goods store that is going out of business. Anyway, Glenn had to go to the bathroom, #2, so Todd took him, and it was taking Glenn FOREVER! Todd kept on saying, "Come on, Glenn, hurry up." Glenn finally says, "Papa, sometimes it takes me a longtime to go to the bathroom. Sometimes it's hard to go. I need to eat more flakes on my cereal." Todd replies, "Did mama teach you that?" Glenn said, "Yeah, when it's hard to go I need to eat more flakes on my cereal." Man, when Todd told me this, we were practically rolling on the ground with laughter! I vaguely remembered a long time ago when we got this Flax seed powder stuff to try (Flax, not flakes!), and it's supposed to help you be regular! And when Glenn had a hard time going to the bathroom, I teased him that he needs to eat more Flax seed! Anyway, I couldn't believe he remembered that! So, moral of the story... if you have trouble going, I guess you need more flax on your cereal :-)

Well, I think this is long enough! I'll try to be more regular (I'll sprinkle Flaxseed on the keyboard :-))so I don't have so much make-up to do! Enjoy the spring rain/sun, and know that we miss you all, and hope all is well!