Sky View Softball

My baby sister Rachel had some news for us at the beginning of the year.

She said she was trying out for Sky View's softball team.

My jaw hit the floor.

She hadn't ever played, that I was aware of.  Why the sudden interest?

Who knows, but it was obvious she needed some prep.  So Mark and I volunteered ourselves to the task.

I went to Logan and worked with her on the batting cage.
Mac was more than willing to offer his expertise.

Mark pitched to her at parks around our home, and gave her plenty of tips on batting, pitching, and base running.

She went to Open Gym practice every day after school.

And guess what?

She made the team!

Mac was so excited to watch a live baseball game.  At her first one, he started yelling, "Mom, Mom!  What is going on?  That guy is calling strikes balls, and balls strikes!"

So we knew we had to make it to St. George to watch their opening tournament.

Mac kept score.

Rachel touched the ball every single time.

And Belle playing in the drinking fountain.

The coolest part about this tournament?  My nieces Taylor and Natalie were playing as well!  So we ran back and forth, cheering for Sky View AND Snow Canyon.

I never would have guessed that I ever would have cheered for Snow Canyon.  When I used to play in this tournament, they crushed us every year.  Frustrating.  Yet there I was, yelling my guts out for #4 and #5.  True to form, they dominated the tournament.

Later, about halfway through the season, Sky View's head coach put on an Alumni softball game.  He invited every girl who had ever played softball to come back and play again Sky View's current varsity.

It was so fun.

I walked into the dugout, and there were all my girls ... yelling and cheering and slapping butts ... it was hilarious.

And I had my own personal cheering section.

The Alumni beat the Varsity but lost to the JV.  I guess that's one of the problems with getting old ... your stamina goes.

Nevertheless, I had a blast.  And I loved going back to Sky View's field, knowing that Coach Jones was still yelling at a bunch of girls.  And my sister was one of them.

All is right in the world.

My Baseball Boy

Spring is certainly dominated by baseball in this household.

Mark was thrilled to have a yard that we could fill with baseball gear.  He did just that, and Mac played outside constantly.

He was in heaven.
One of our neighbor boys is also in love with the sport, and we got them on the same team together.

 He actually made some great plays at first base; he usually tried to get one inning there and then would move to the pitchers mound or third base.  If he got someone out, he usually followed up with, "You're out, but you can stay there.  This is just practice baseball."

Belle loved to be back at the park .... she yelled "Go Mac!" on occasion.

He did really well.  Every time he got up to bat, the coaches would alert the kids in the field ... had to be sure nobody was picking grass or rolling in the dirt when Mac was up to bat.

He only ever hit a coach though, so nobody really got hurt.

At the end of the season, the guy who runs the league told us Mac could try out for the next level; the one that includes real outs and base running.  I won't lie, my heart was in my throat a little ... I mean, a six year old trying out for a team?  That's just ridiculous.

But after that game Mac came up to me and said, "Mom, when do I get to play real baseball?"

So. I guess we'll give it a shot next year.

Easter Weekend

Easter this year was extra awesome.

Our neighbors go a little crazy.

One family hosts a neighborhood egg hunt and pancake breakfast every year; we loved being a part of it.

The host family lives in a cul-de-sac and designates each yard to a different age group.

Genius idea.

Belle made it to the 3 and younger yard, and was more interested in eating the candy on the ground that she was filling her basket with eggs.

Mac dominated his yard and returned with a full basket.  Then he quickly took off to the blow-up slide.

From there we headed to Logan and hit Baby Animal Days.

Belle rode a pony, dominated the petting zoo, and never ever ever wanted to leave the baby chickens.

Mac just wanted to ride the train.

Another successful Easter.

I'm going to have to look into getting our own chickens someday ...

Girl's Night with My Girl

Belle and I had our first-ever girls' night.

My sister-in-law Rachelle called and asked if we wanted to get all the girl cousins together to go see Cinderella.

Umm ... YES.

So Rachelle brought sweet little Gwen, and Katie came with Gracie and Eva.

I was in tears through half the movie, and Belle liked Cinderella's "beautifully blue dress" and the squeaky mouse family.

And I was reminded of something a friend from California said when she found out she was having a girl:  "Everybody keeps asking me if I'm excited to do all the bows and clothes and girly things.  Yeah, that'll be fun, but mostly I'm excited that I'll have a friend in 20 years.  Somebody to help me remember birthdays and get pedicures with and watch girly movies.  It'll be awesome."

It is.

Birthday Weekend Getaway

Not too long after being robbed, my birthday rolled around.

The big 2-8.

I am getting reeeeeal close to thirty.

Despite being frustrated by our small recent misfortune, Mark was determined to have a good time.

He went above and beyond.

I was wined and dined and surprised and loved ... I couldn't believe it all.

First he told me I wasn't allowed to schedule anything the entire weekend.  Then he said to get ready for a plane trip ... but changed his mind.  (I was relieved.)  See, we still have a sweet little baby that is quite attached to me, and I wasn't ready to drag him around the world yet.  Maybe next year.

Then he took me to my parents', where we spent my actual day of birth.  We opened presents, ate cake and ice cream, and had a good time.  My family started up a new earring collection, and I was significantly less sad that the robbers had taken all my old stuff.

Mac washed my car windows for my birthday, and then we left him and Belle and headed back to Salt Lake.  Mark worked all day that Friday, while I cleaned like crazy.  Harrison rolled around at my feet and cooed and blew zerbits while I was in a cleaning frenzy, knowing that it would STAY CLEAN the whole weekend.

Such a good feeling when everything you do isn't undone within minutes.

Then when Mark got off work, he picked up Harrison and I and whisked us off for a little stay-cation in Heber.

We stayed at a hotel called The Zermatt; Swiss themed and really nice.  We swam, we ate french toast, we talked, watched t.v., and went shopping ... essentially, we did whatever we wanted.

Harrison experienced a swimming pool for the first time ... he loved it.

One of the best and hardest things about being a parent is that your lives revolve completely around your little people.  Showing and teaching them about the world is incredible; their awe inspires you and makes everything new and interesting again.  But it's easy get lost in, and I was so grateful for the opportunity to do things that only Mark and I wanted to do.

Of course, they were all things we could do while holding a sweet, squishy baby, but I didn't mind.  Next year he'll get to stay at Nana's.

And maybe Mark and I will see a little more of the world, who knows.

There's a lot of life in front of us.  Plenty of time to see and experience places.

For now, these little people are our world.

Robbed

So ... we thought spring was being good to us.

Unfortunately, robbers love good weather.

And they love Salt Lake City almost as much as we do.

Ever since we moved into the house, we had neighbors calling us if we left our garage door open too long.  "I just don't want anything to get taken out of your garage," they would say.  My next door neighbor called me to tell me she was going out of town for the weekend and could we keep an eye on things.  Um .... sure ...??

Mark and I would inwardly roll our eyes at these paranoid people.  I mean, we survived Los Angeles California!  We practically lived in "da hood" without any problems; surely nothing would ever happen to us here.

Well.

On March 19th, I took the kids to the Aquarium with my sister-in-law Katie.  We were about halfway through the place when I noticed I had five missed calls from Mark.

Five.

Yeah, all that coming from my sweet, anti-phone husband?

Yikes.

When I called him back, the first words out of his mouth were, "Have you been moving stuff around the house?"

Weird question.  "Nothing significant ..."

"I think we got robbed."

WHAT.  ?!?!?!

He insisted I stay; he had called the police and was waiting for their arrival.  Nothing I could do.  But I told him I wanted to help him go through our things to figure out what was missing, so I told Katie good bye and dragged the kids out of the aquarium.

The house was a disaster.

We assume they first tried to get in the back door.  There are knife marks all around the lock.  When that didn't work, the robbers broke a basement window.  We live on a corner that people walk by all day long.  It's the one road through the neighborhood, so we get a moderate amount of traffic.  But as I went door to door asking our neighbors if they noticed anything, everyone shrugged and offered condolences. 

We assume the robbers must have pulled their car into the garage and closed it, then loaded up all of our stuff.  

And they got a lot of stuff.

Our current list (we keep finding more things missing) includes t.v., Wii, two cases of 100+ DVDs, iPod stereo, a broken iPod, Mark's bag of tools, our shop vac, sleeping bags, tent, my camera and all its equipment, Mark's electric shaver, cologne, and my makeup, toenail polish, and a dish of earrings. 

And the clencher? 

My wedding ring.

My fingers had randomly swollen up a couple of days prior; my finger was cut and raw and it took some serious lotion and muscle to get off.  I had put it in my little dish of favorite earrings in the bathroom.  That dish was gone.

OH I was so mad.

How dare they?

This was our home, our little safe-haven we had scrimped and saved our money for!

A police officer arrived eventually; she dusted a few things for finger prints and took a list of all the things we had missing and their value.  Everything added up to about $7,300.  Ugh.  She was kind and thorough and left all her information in case we had questions.  She suggested getting security signs, leaving lights/t.v./stereo on when we left, and possibly getting a dog ... even though some burglars were known to bring dog treats.

And she left.

Months have gone by, and we have replaced most of our items.  It has been fairly uneventful, but it still makes my blood boil.  The worst part was having to explain to my kids (Mac especially; Belle doesn't care much) that there are indeed mean people out there who make terrible decisions.  Mark had always told him he put a force field around our house that kept out bad guys and fire (Mac is terrified of our house burning down).  But being robbed made us admit to our kids that we couldn't keep all evil away from them.

Sometimes, bad things happen.

But we are learning from this experience, and are finding ways to better protect our home.

We've got our security system signs, we've covered our garage window and leave a light on at night and when we go places.  Mac suggested setting up traps, which we stopped short at.

Until the night somebody took a table saw off of our back porch.

Mark had been installing new baseboards around the house, and forgot to bring it back in.  The next day, it was gone.

So NOW I am all about setting traps.

We are installing cameras.

I want to set something really nice right in front of one so we can catch whoever keeps coming around.

Not cool, drug addicts.  Not cool.  Go work at McDonald's or hold a "Hot 'n Ready" sign and leave us alone!

Spring Fever

March was unseasonably warm this year.

My boys walked to the park next to our home regularly to gear up for baseball season.

Belle and I raced down the hill with Harrison and had jumping contests.

It was so warm, we decided to brave free-entry day at Hogle Zoo.  It was a madhouse, but one that Belle never wanted to leave.  Mac and Harrison were more indifferent.

We even started playing with the hose.

That warmth convinced us it was time to give a little shape to Harrison's fluffy top.

So he got his first hair cut at four months.  He loved having his head rubbed.

 We even trekked up to Logan to participate in the Shamrock Shuffle; a fun little 5k that the entire Thomas family participated in.  (I don't have any pictures!) Jamie took first in her age division, Michael took first in his, Mark took first in his, and so did Mac.  We have got some serious runners in the family.

The leprechauns outsmarted us once again.  Our sneaky traps and green mustaches were no luck to us.

But they were certainly cute.

Mark found a baseball game for us to go to.  The Utes were playing at the Bees field in early March, so he rallied the family and we took Harrison to his first ball game.

This Salt Lake spring was good to us.

Love Notes

I love love notes.

They are quite possibly one of my favorite things.

My mom used to leave little love notes in my lunchbox as a kid.  "Have a good day! =) XOXO" they would always say.

And I have written them since as long as I can remember.  I wrote one to my mom and left it on her pillow as a kid, explaining how much I loved dogs and needed one.

Mark and I wrote emails to each other while I was doing a service project in Obregon, Mexico and I have them all printed out in a book.  I love them.   He and I still leave a love note for each other on occasion ... they are the best.

So, I have forced my family to start a tradition of writing love notes to each other for Valentine's Day.  It's been six months, but I've got all the notes crammed in a corner of my desk and I wanted to record them on the blog before I tossed them out.

"Dear Belle, I love when you go downstairs with me!  Love, Mac"

"Dear Mac, I love when you play trucks with me.  Love, Belle" 

"Dear Harrison, I love you cause of little dinosaur.  Love, Belle"

"Dear Harrison, I love when you sleep 'cause then Mom gets to do something. Love, Mac" 

"Dear Mom, I love that you play with me.  I love you so much.  Love, Mac"

 "Dear Harrison, I love when you are sitting up and try to look at me out of the tops of your eyes.  Love, Mom"

"Dear Belle, I love when you sing songs to yourself.  You have the most beautiful voice. Love, Mom"

"Dear Belle, I love when you play games with me.  Love, Mac" 

"Dear Mac, I love to come to your class and see what a good listener you are and how nice you are to all those friends in your class.  You are so grown up and so smart!  Love, Mom"

"Dear Harrison, I love when you sit and poop and smile at everyone.  Love, Dad"

"Dear Harrison, I love when you laugh and smile.  Love, Mac" 

"Dear Belle, I love to see you swimming and being so brave.  I love your sweet kisses.  Love, Dad"

"Dear Mac, I love how your eyes get all squinty when you smile so big.  It makes my heart happy.  Love, Mom"

"Dear Dad, I love when you play baseball and games with me.  Love, Mac"

"Dear Mom, I love when you do makeup with me.  Love, Belle"

 "Dear Harrison, I love when you smile and wiggle when I change your diaper. Love, Mom"

"Dear Dad, I love when you watch t.v. with me.  Love, Belle"

 "Dear Belle, I love how worried you get about crying babies and puppies.  You have a heart of gold!  Love, Mom"

"Dear Dad, I love when you let me play your phone. Love, Mac"

And then of course there are the ones between Mark and I ... but those ended up being more personal. Hehe.
So they won't make it on the blog.

This 2015 Valentine's was momentous in that it was the first time we ever got to make valentines for a class.  I wanted Mac to do as much of the work as he could, so I ran through idea after idea of Valentine's cards, hoping one would spark his interest.

He shot them all down.

My mom even sent me ideas to help me figure out how to get my boy excited.  She sent a picture of a sucker with a cape that said something like, "You're super, valentine!"  Mac said no.  I asked if it would be better if the suckers were baseball players instead of super heroes ....

TA-DAH!

He was in.

That boy cut out heart after heart, and we looked up the numbers of all the players for the Angels and assigned them out to each of his classmates.  #27 was of course reserved for Mac himself.

And behold, we assembled an Angels team of classmates.

I think I found my son's love language ... it happens to be very similar to my husband's.

Baseball.

So I guess our family will continue writing love letters and watching ball games ... it has worked wonders so far.