Carter's 8!

       Carter finally had his birthday.  He's been reminding us about his birthday and counting down the months, weeks and days for over six months now.  And his gift ideas have changed several times over the past several months as you can imagine.  He really truly wants a motorcycle he can ride but those don't come cheap so the second choice was a train and not a "kid" train. These also don't come cheap but they're not as much as a motorcycle so that's what he got.  He was playing with it all night and was up this morning at 6:00 a.m. to play some more so I guess he likes it. We won't officially celebrate his birthday until next Saturday when he's baptized. We figured it would be easier to have everyone gather just once so cake and ice cream are still to come.

The traditional birthday balloons.

Birthday mail.

Even better, birthday mail with cash inside!  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Baker!

Another card with a little more cash from Great Grandma Baker.

Finally it was present time.  He had to wait until nearly 6 p.m., pure torture!

This is no little kid train!

And here's a little more track to go with the train set.

This is the test run with a train his dad already had.  One benefit to this kind of train, it doesn't require batteries or charging time,  just plug it in and play indefinitely,  perfect!

Now it's time for his birthday trains test run.

Just what every boy needs!

         Well that's Carter's birthday in a nutshell.  I sure hope he can hold out discussing his ninth birthday for at least a few days:-)

Baseball!

          Baseball season has begun and I'm not going to lie, I love watching my boys play baseball. We had a total of four games this first week which will continue until the end of May. This is Carter's first year and I don't want to brag, but this is my first boy who seems to take to sports naturally. It doesn't hurt that the pitch's come from a machine but he really does well and has a killer slide.
          This is Mark's sixth year playing baseball and he's doing pretty well. He's playing with the older boys this year and so there are 12 to 15 year old boys all together on a team. The only draw back to watching baseball games is cold weather but as long as I come prepared it's all good and Mark's games are all at the park by our house which makes it a lot more convenient for all of us.
          Isaac didn't love baseball last season so he's taking a break from sports but in a way that's good because I have no idea how we could juggle three boys all playing and only one car.

Carter playing "pitch" which means he stands by the machine to grab any balls that come his way.

Carter with a mean swing.

If you zoom in you can see the ball coming his way.

And here's Mark ready to "give it a ride."

      So that's our week.  We also switched some beds around last night and Greg and I are now in a king sized bed and hopefully it will make for a better nights sleep for Greg who's been whining that our bed is too small.  Surprisingly the king sized bed doesn't seem too cumbersome in our small room.  Our old bed frame definitely took up a lot of space so without that we've actually gained almost an extra foot of space at the foot of our bed which is kind of nice.  Now on to another week of baseball games and better nights sleep!

Too Tired!

He was too tired to even make it up the stairs to his bed.

Easter and Spring Break

        We keep it simple around here when it comes to celebrating Easter. We just do a simple egg hunt in the backyard on Saturday and our Sunday is left for regular church service and hopefully some reflection on the true meaning of the Easter holiday.

Before the hunt.

A slightly less silly photo except for Mr. Ham/Carter.

McClane got to start out on his own and he was thrilled with the whole idea.

Brock got to go next and he didn't do too bad loading up on eggs.

Carter didn't do too bad either.

And Isaac also did great.

And here's the final result.  And don't feel bad for Kayli, she hid the eggs so she didn't really get to do much hunting.

         Every kid got one special egg that had a little money in it and they all had different ideas of what to spend their cash on.  To the boys great delight the nearby candy store is having a moving sale so you can just imagine the load of sweets they bought themselves.  As a mom who loves sweets I really couldn't say too much so it just might be possible that for a few days the kids ate little more than sugary treats for nearly every meal.

Here's one of the purchases Brock made because every five year old needs a box of edible sugar balloons, especially when they're only a dollar for the whole box.

        We may not have gone on vacation for our Spring break but we did manage one day of the week for some fun.  We decided to take the kids to Trafalga with our Pass of all Passes.  We went to both the Lehi and Orem fun centers where the kids could play miniature golf, ride a few rides and just have some simple fun.  Greg went on the bumper boats and although I don't have a photo to share, he was drenched.  Apparently some 10 year old kid he didn't know put a hit out on him and kept his water gun on Greg the entire time.  Greg was a bit peeved but he managed to keep his cool.  He figured a grown man swearing at a 10 year old boy probably wouldn't go over too well.

Here's Isaac, Brock and Carter on the airplane ride at the Lehi Trafalga.

Greg and McClane on the inside miniature golf course.  This photo was taken with the flash.

This is actually what the miniature golf course is like, black lights and fun art all over the walls.

      And just for fun here's my side profile at the 20 week mark.  We're half way to baby number 7!

     Spring Break may be over but we still have General Conference weekend to enjoy!  Oh and don't let me fail to mention that Kayli is now officially a "learning driver".  Tune in to Facebook for the official photo if you care to see it.  It only took her ten months to finally take the official test.  If she only knew the freedom this responsibility can bring.  She may be her mother's daughter in some respects but her lack of excitement at being a licensed driver is definitely not from me!  Now look out Utah drivers, she's coming!!