Birthday, champions and dreams

      Kayli is officially 17 years old and hopefully she enjoyed all the different birthday celebrations she had starting with tent city then moving on to cake with her siblings then off to dinner and a movie with her aunts and grandma and lunch with friends the following day. That should be enough celebration to keep her happy for another year.

17 balloons to start off the day!

A delicious tuxedo cake from Costco and an awesome photo bomb by Isaac.

Happy birthday from G & G Baker!  Kayli says thanks for the card and money.

      McClane has had a semi hard week. He's come down with a little virus and has had a couple of rough nights coughing and wheezing and here is a photo or two of him sleeping and visiting the doctors office.

He wasn't actually sick here but he was obviously tired to fall asleep all hunched over like this.

McClane was pretty curious about all the stuff at the doctor's office and he was happy to cooperate.

I just think he's so cute!

     Hopefully with enough rest he'll be well and happy in time for our trip to Oregon.  The doctor we saw wasn't our regular doctor and I felt his diagnoses was a bit off the mark so I won't even bother mentioning it here but I do plan on taking him back to our regular doctor in a couple of weeks to get his take on the matter.

      Mark's baseball team had their tournament games this past week and the final game was Thursday night and was quite intense. Mark was not at his best due to spending all day at our Stake Youth "Book of Mormon Live" activity but the team together did great and came out two runs ahead winning the championship. I can't say enough about how impressed I was with Mark's baseball coach who devoted more time than most to the boys and practicing hard with them and it definitely paid off.

The team lined up to receive their trophies.

Mark getting his trophy from his coach, Dave Lawrence.

The whole team at home plate.  I'm actually a little sad baseball season is over but what a great ending! (Mark's on his knee in the shadows on the right.)

    And let me just share my latest dream..... new patio furniture :-)

This was at Costco and a dream it will always be at that price. ($2499.99)

Or this one...

Again, too expensive but it sure is nice!

     So that's our week in a nutshell.  Next week should prove to be extra adventurous and the whole family is more than excited about it!

Random

    Schools over!!!  My kids are now officially BORED!  I'm officially already, ready for school to start again, NOT :-)

Carter's baseball season is over, Mark's will be done next week and right now his team is #1 and hopefully they'll win the tournament too.  

     The highlight was 'tent city' in our backyard this weekend with all of Greg's family minus his baby sister Melissa and her family.  Besides an "all nighter" by a few rebels it was fun and a family tradition my kids absolutely LOVE!  Now for the photos from our week's activities.

All six boys hanging out in bed together.

Charlie's new dress that Mom had to have!

Our Selfie Sunday photo.  She's such a happy baby.

Mark had the best game of his life this past week.  He had 3 out of 4 hits and at least two RBI's.  I've loved watching his team play this year.

He's finally become a hitter instead of a ball watcher.

Dinner at Tent City wasn't bad but it wasn't ligit camping food but no one was too disappointed.

Charlie enjoyed herself too.

Cousins!

Heidi made sure the birthday girls had 'cake'.  Happy birthday to Roxy (11) and Kayli (17).

Kayli loves tent city and might have been one of the 'rebels' who stayed up all night.

Kayli took this photo.  Another successful family gathering.

     Kayli's birthday is in two days and 'tent city' is part of her birthday celebration but I'm sure we'll still do a little more on her official day.  Life is good, busy and crazy!

Single Photo

     Don't be shocked but I only took one photo this whole week and here it is...

This hardly ever happens but on todays walk they both crashed. And yes, McClane is a bit big for the stroller but what can I do?!

     This one photo does not mean I didn't have activities this week I just didn't take any photos. There were three baseball games to go to. Mark sprained his thumb at his game on Tuesday and had to sit out at Thursday's game. Carter's team lost their game Tuesday and have one final game next week. And Greg and I bought cute decorative lights for the deck and they add a fun atmosphere in the evening. Ok, I'll take a photo right now so you can see for yourself making my title false but oh well :-)

    Life is great!  And only four more days of school!!

Nine months old and more

     Charlie Rose is 9 months old and still the best baby!!  She's not yet mobile but she is beginning to add to her diet and so far has enjoyed the additions of various baby foods and snacks.  She absolutely loves suckers and it took no time for her to master feeding herself a sucker!

She loves the little Gerber snacks.

Her first attempt at feeding herself a sucker and she NAILED it!

     McClane is at the age of frequent scrapes and bruises.

This is the result of riding the couch right off the edge of the deck and face planting in the grass and dirt.

You can still see the almost healed scratch above his eye from a couple of weeks ago.  Just call him "Bruiser".

     Greg is now on to a new project, putting Trex on the playhouse deck.

Here he's removing the old rotted plywood.

This is a definite improvement!

     I finally took a couple photos of Carter at one of his baseball games.

Cute #12 on 1st base after getting walked.  (Don't worry, #12 IS Carter.)

Up to bat and sporting his 'too cool' batting helmet.

     And here's a few shots of Greg being the cute Dad that he is.

Selfie's with Charlie, no one can resist.

When you need the three year old to go to sleep; snuggles with dad will do the trick every time!

      And in case you didn't see it on Instagram here's one of the most recent selfies of Kayli and Charlie, priceless!

The look of love in those cute blue eyes is just too sweet!

      Only two more weeks to go before school is done and summer vacation begins!!  And this week is the end of baseball season for my two boys, I guess I'd better get a photo or two of Mark before I miss my chance.

Finally a 'slow' week

     With the rainy weather and no birthdays to celebrate amongst our 'little' family our week has been pretty uneventful.  Mark and Carter only had one baseball game each and the other games were cancelled due to rain so next week we get to go to 5 or 6 games!

      Greg's been busy installing a laminate floor in our neighbors basement, which he finished up just last night.  And with more rainy weather forecasted for the weekend we'll probably keep the 'projects' to a minimum. Some day Greg will redo the playhouse deck with the extra Trex we have and maybe the kids recent photos will finally get hung but for now I'm just going to work on weeding the yard.

       And no post would be complete without a photo or two of our little princess :-)

All ready for church, and you're right, she didn't keep this headband on for long.

Who would put her on the counter with an open bag of pretzels within reach?! MOM!

   Happy Mother's Day to anyone reading this who's a mom, but especially my mom and mother-in-law, you're both the best!!

Mark's birthday and more!

      Mark had a birthday, shout hooray!

14 Balloons for this 14 year old!

Happy birthday card and money from G&G Baker.

    In honor of both Carter and Mark's birthdays we decided to treat our 'little' family to lunch at the Pizza Pie Cafe Saturday afternoon.  It's always a hit with the kids.

Greg and Carter

Why does he have to act so silly whenever the camera points his direction!?

   Right after lunch I decided Carter needed a professional haircut.  He's a handsome devil! (When cleaned up properly.)

    Then we had cake and ice cream for Family Home Evening Monday night.  Carter requested his own mini cake and Mark requested the chocolate, chocolate cake that we all LOVE from Costco.

I may have started out with the #8 candle instead of 9, whoopsies ;-)

He loved his mini chocolate cake.

What a cheese ball!

I'll take this cake every time!!

    We let the boys do their own birthday gift shopping this year. Mostly just boring clothes.

           Now here's the random photos from the rest of our week.

We have a small iPod addiction in this household.  Greg got a new iPad for work and McClane just waits for him to come home so he can get on and play his 'Minion" game.

Sisters chillin' on the front porch.

A selfie with mom's phone after his baseball game.

     So that's our weekly highlights.  I've really been enjoying baseball season and I'm especially happy with the lovely weather we're having currently and I'm looking forward to a nice weekend.