Itty Bitty Baseball

May was Itty Bitty Baseball for Isaac and Sam.  Isaac says baseball is his favorite sport.  They both loved hitting the ball and running the bases.  On the last day they get to play with the big parachute.  In January at Itty Bitty Basketball, Sam would not go in the parachute; then he made me go in with him.  This time I watched from above (per his instructions) and he acted like it was no big deal.  These boys are getting so so big.

Jessica and Matt come to visit

Jessica has been dieing to see Baby Cooper.  Every time I go to see Baby Cooper, I forget my camera.  It has been a bad camera week or two.  Anyway, they showed up late Friday night.  Late enough that we had time to run down to dinner with Fran and Becca and family.  Thanks friends.  The kiddos were in bed, but I stayed up to see Jessica's wedding pics she got back from the photographer.  Gorgeous!  Saturday was a lazy little morning.  In the afternoon we went to the BYU baseball game.  It was the second one of the week.  (We went to the UVU vs Utah game on Tuesday with Jake's family. No camera :( ) Sam was really interested in the game on Tuesday night.  He liked to say "Out" and make the thumb sign.  Isaac and Grace were interested in Alex's ipad.  So on Saturday, I just took Sam and Isaac to the game.  It was a hot, sunny Saturday and we had a great time.  After the game we met Grace and Jake in Provo canyon for a little barbecue.  Jake even brought his cotton candy machine to show off.  He has been so excited to use it.  I think the excitement may have worn down a little after we made 55 bags for Isaac's preschool on Sunday night.  I should have taken a picture.  Cotton candy everywhere!  Anyway, it was fun with Jessica and Matt, Allison, Justin, Wendy and Cooper.  Sam even delighted us with a gymnastics performance on the stage!  We were sad to see Jessica and Matt go on Sunday.  Of course, not until we took them to church with us and then stuffed them with food.  This week is the last week of preschool and I can not believe school is almost out!  I am tentatively planning the Annual Ellis parade June 18.  All are invited.

First trip of the season... in the canyon

 Ants? No, Uncle (and cousins) on a log.

 Grace in her element.  The outdoors and the water.  Thanks for a warm April!

 Big Jake and little Jakey throwing rocks.

 Isaac loves smores, hold the chocolate.

 Josh and Heather took the kiddos on a little walk.  Thanks!

 Thomas would like to push this log in the river.  Keep trying buddy!

We had a lovely family barbecue up AF canyon at the end of April. It was such a busy month I almost forgot to post it.  We missed Kelby and the new baby and Tom and Ruth, but everyone else in the area was there!  I am looking forward to some more smores.

I made it myself

Yes folks, I am just so proud I have to share it.  I made a little mother's day goodie for the family that lives around here.  I saw it on pinterest and so as you know it can go either way.  good or bad.  Flop or fabulous.  I made some nest necklaces for the gals and I was happy with the result.  It was cheap.  It was easy.  It was appropriate.  I hardly find a project that is all of these things!  Oh, And by the way, Happy Late Mother's day!!!  Thanks for all of your good examples.

Saturday with the Girls

Saturday started out rough with a really big mealtdown by Grace at her school 5K.  Jake took the boys to a model airplane runway near our house while Grace decompressed.  I needed a little recovery. Luckily, I had a coupon that needed to be used at the park city outlets.  Even luckier, Allison was avaiable to come with us.  She treated Grace to a new outfit and I bought the Isaac a few shirts.  (He has eaten holes in a few. I'm glad that phase was short, and it is over.)  It was lovely weather, and it was nice to have a little girl time.  Grace is getting so big.  She hardly ever melts down these days, and when she does, it reminds me how far we have come.

Silly Sammy

Sam is great, and what is really great is he thinks he is great!  (He might have my self esteem.)  He doesn't need to follow the crowd.  He is happy being him.  Sometimes this can be tricky because he is unlikely to be convinced otherwise when he thinks one way.  This may sound familiar...  Anyway, he got an idea in his head at bed time one night.  He came down and said, "Underwear is fun to wear.  It is fun to wear your underwear."  (Jake may have said this before.)  Sam thought he was sooooo funny.  He was so proud of himself. 

Say What?

Bedtime happened as it usually does.  Jake puts the boys to bed and I do Grace's reading with her.  Then she goes to bed.  After I put Grace to bed, I folded a load of laundry.  Then the boys came down.  Water, a piece of celery, and then I sent them back up to bed.  Sam asked if I would come and read him a book.  Dismissively, I told him after I cleaned up the dishes.  I worked on wiping the counters, throwing the dishes in the dishwasher, and just as I was about to start the pots and pans, I stopped.  Sam is getting bigger and bigger everyday.  He is not a baby.  He is not a toddler.  There will come a day when he might not want me to read to him.  I better soak up every minute while I can. 
In the middle of book two, the boys decided they wanted to "read"  the book too.  So I said the words and then they took turns repeating the words.  Isaac can do "a" or "I" by himself.  They were doing well taking turns when Isaac had to go to the bathroom so we waited for him.  While we were waiting, Sam decided to read the book ALL by himself.
(Picture a dog and boy sitting in the grass.)
It went like this, "The boy loves his puppy.  The puppy loves the boy.  The boy loves his daddy and momma, and sister, and other boy.  They smell something.  It's a barbecue.  It's..... chicken!"  At this point, I burst out laughing ending the commentary.   I'm glad I left the dishes in the sink to spend a moment with some of my favorite people. Why is that such a hard choice sometimes?

I mustache you a question? Cuatro or Cinco De Mayo

Jake tells me a while ago that he has ordered an inflatable cactus. You may wonder if I was suprised.  No, not really.  It makes perfect sense to plan for a cinco de mayo party two months early.  His office was really excited about it.  I, of course, can't stand to left out of a party so I brought some food and it worked out for Sam and Isaac to come too.  It was a lovely day.  The next day was actually Cinco de Mayo so we had over Tom and Ruth, Jesse, Kelby, Liam and Adian (completely with matching mustaches), Jared and Trisa and family, and Allison.  I wanted to make sure we got our money's worth from that cactus.  It wasn't quite as grand as I wanted.  We had some emotional kids.  Jake painted Grace's "Summer Sweets Stand" and made cotton candy (but that is another post for another day).  We had neighbor kids over all day wondering when it would open.  Anyway, so Cinco de Mayo suffered alittle as result of kids who just wouldn't stay happy!  In the end, cotton candy made everything better and Allison and I hopped down to Provo to see Justin and Wendy and baby Cooper on his first Cinco de Mayo with the offering of a mexican wedding cookie.

Grace- a Star of the Theater

Grace has been attending an acting class since October in preparation to be a play the class puts on at the end of the school year.  Her big day was last Saturday and she did an excellent job as a fairy and a chameleon in Rapunzel.  She had speaking lines as a fairy.  Next year she'll move up to the 2nd to 5th grade group.  This year she towered over almost all the other little fairies.  We had a little melt down after the make up went on because she thought she looked too old.... So she covered up her face the whole time she was a chameleon.  By the time she came on as a fairy she was okay with it or she had wiped all the makeup off.  It was fun to have Grandma and Grandpa there.  Grace was super excited to have one of her most favorite cousins, Alex, there.  We were all glad that Allison could make it too.  We all celebrated Grace and her great performance at Cafe Rio afterwards.  We were happy to see Uncle Jesse there too. 

Allie the Athlete

Allison ran the Thanksgiving point half marathon on Saturday.  Go Allie.  Sam and I ran from the car to the finish line to cheer for her.  She is an inspiriation.  Behind my fat smile, I am thinking, I need to get myself to the gym.  I went today.  I hurt.  I am going to run one at the end of the summer.  Feel free to join me.  It feels so good to accomplish something and be in shape!  Thanks Allie for your good example... always.
Side note:  James, Marmee and Papa were  running the Kentucky Derby marathon this same day.  Go Runners!  My dad ran it in 2:08.  Great job papa!!!!

An Isaac Perspective

There was a time I would look through the pictures I had taken on my camera and find a group of odd, low to the ground, half faced pictures. This would mean Isaac found my camera. I loved to look at them to see a little of how Isaac views the world. Then I would say a prayer of thanks giving that the camera survived. It has been a while since I have found this little surprise on my camera.

                                     

He must have seen a squirrel because that is where it ends.