T-ball Camden

This is Scott posting for Courtney since obviously she has better things to do than blog.  I don’t know what, but I guess it may have something to do with having four kids at home for the summer.  And so I decided to post for her since I obviously have nothing better to do (although my “to-do” list next to me says otherwise, but if I write “blogging for Courtney” on my do-to list then I am being productive…. right?)   Ok, here it goes…

As many of you know Courtney is a HUGE baseball fan.  She has loved the game as long as she can remember.  Her favorite team is the Baltimore Orioles who play at Camden Yards.  So, when it was time to name our first born son, obviously she wanted to name him after her favorite team, but since Baltimore and Oriole were kind of lame and Ripken (her favorite player) was just too over the top (and trust me she campaigned for that one but I told her “no way”),  she settled for Camden.

As she has watched her son grow up she has dreamed of the day when he would take an interest in baseball and when the two of them could spend hours in the back yard playing catch (I think she cried at that part in Field of Dreams when the dead father and the son played catch because she thought “hey what about the mom, doesn’t she get to play too?”)  Well that time may have come for Courtney.

Camden started playing tee-ball last month.  He really seems to enjoy it, at least the hitting part.  He also enjoys tackling his own teammates or the opposing team’s players if needed.  Not sure how tackling fits into tee-ball, but I’m sure it does somehow.

Here are some pictures of Camden playing tee-ball.  His mom could not be prouder.

He is very focused

Prepping his bat for his next big hit

Playing his position (I think "left short stop" - they have that in tee-ball I guess)

Look for more posts from Courtney coming soon (school starts in a couple weeks and then she will definitely have nothing better to do  🙂  )

Ashlyn turned 10!

Ashlyn had her birthday on the 3rd.  I can’t believe she is 10!  I think she just got down the going to sleep at night thing.  Since she was a baby she has been a night owl.  She recently came up with the idea that if she goes to sleep good at night, which means not getting out and going to bathroom 5 times and staying up until 11, we will double her allowance for the month.  She can not miss even one single day.  I had lost all hope but this has really worked!  I feel like I am getting such a good deal!  

She is having a friend’s sleepover next week.  She is super excitied about that.  We are doing a girl and pet spa night.   

We did have a fun birthday with her on the 3rd.  One of her greatest wishes was to sleep in.  She can sleep a long time!  So we left her breakfast by her bed and took off for the gym.   We made pizzas that night and everyone got to shape their pizza and put their own toppings on it.  We had cupcakes with little chocalate flowers. 

One of Ashlyn’s favorite things to do is to design clothing.  Then she always wants to make her designs.  We thought it would be a good idea to get her a sewing machine so she can sew whenever she wants.  It is a children’s sewing machine that is perfect for her.  It doesn’t go too fast and it is a smaller then a regular one.  She loves it!

She also recently got glasses.  We took her into the doctor because she was complaining about not beeing able to see at school.  I was expecting the dc to say that she just needed to wear them to read the board.  Nope!  She is totally blind!  She has a hard time reading below the E at the top.  I felt so bad, poor girl!

This last one is us watching fireworks on the 4th.

Oh, I have to congradulate my brother an his wife for having twins on the 2nd.  They are both girls named Anna and Aubrina.  They each weighed 6 pounds!  Wow, I think Justine deserves extra blessings for that!

So I have a question?

They changed up a whole lot of callings last week in church.  I got called to be the 2nd counselor in Relief Society.  I kind of nervous because I am in charge of Enrichment.  Hopefully it will go well 🙂 .  It was kind of nice being in RS today.  I’ve been in YW for a long time.  I kind of miss them already! 

So I wanted to get your opinion.  I would like to have more groups and I wanted to see what you guys do in your ward.  Do you have a group that you really love?  Has there been an Enrichment that was really amazing?  I just need some good ideas!

It would be weird to post something without a picture so here are some recent ones.    

We went camping with the Petersons and the Boyers and it was so much fun!  I was shocked that I liked it!  There was this river nearby that the kids accidently fell in and then had so much fun playing.  It had real fossil footprints!  The kids had so much fun with the Peterson’s dog.  I think walking her was the highlight of their trip.  I think they got all their doggie love out that weekend.  🙂

Camden’s birthday. (Edited with recipe!)

Camden turned 5 on the 14th.  He was so excited!  For months he was asking when May would come.  We make a special dinner for birthdays.  They can request their favorite meal.  Camden wanted Taco Salad.  I love Taco Salad!  I got it from Hilary who got it from Erin.  It really rocks!  I love making salads in the summer because they are so fresh and I don’t have to bake something which make our kitchen a lot hotter.   Camden usually has 3 or 4 servings of Taco salad.  The funny thing is that he doesn’t like salad.  He loves the chips, beans, cheese, and meat part of it.  He will maybe eat a couple of bites of the salad.  Maybe I should make him nachos!

He got a Webkinz from Ashlyn and Brinley.  He was thrilled!  He has been wanting to get a Webkinz for a long time.  It was a huskey which is his favorite animal so he was so happy. 

   

This is Beckem.  He is mad that he couldn’t have Camden’s presents. 

Camden is such great boy.  He has been learning so much this year so that he can be ready for Kindergarten.  He is going to start baseball in the summer.  It is amazing how far he has come.  He is getting more confident is himself too.  He even asked the people at Dairy Queen where he food was (it was taking them a while and he was hungry).  We love him so much!

Here is the recipe! 

Taco Salad

head of lettuce (I like bags and we use 1/2 of a bag)

2-3 tomatoes (I opt out of this because they make me gag)

2-3 green onions, chopped

1 can of chili beans

2 cups shredded cheese

1 lb cooked ground beef

1 bag of crushed tortilla chips (i just crush a bunch and see if it looks good)

Mix in large bowl and add sauce.

Sauce:

1 cup mayo

1/4 c taco sauce

1/2 pkg taco seasoning

That’s it.  Super easy and really good!

We have been up to something.

Is anyone freaked out that it is May?  Our kids get out of school in less then a month.  That is nuts!  Here is what we have been up too. 

Scott went to youth conference.  They went into the wilderness of TX and had the poineer experience.  Scott had a great time!  They walked 10-13 the first day.  Scott was an Indian and his job was to enhance the poineers experience 🙂 . 

The week after the trek Scott took the girls to MD for his Grandma’s 90th birthday.  The girls had so much fun!  They felt so special to be going just with their Dad on a trip.  Scott got to see family tha he had not seen for many years. 

The girls also did a 1 mile run with Scott.  They had so much fun!  We are going to try to have them do a 5K in the fall when it cools down.  This run was a dog run too.  They were running with a bunch of dogs.  It was a dream come true for them.  Better there then in my house 🙂 

 

Camden had his preschool program too.  His class sang 2 songs.  He does not like this kind of stuff.  We just found out recently that he does know a couple primary songs.  We were just happy that he got up there and did some hand motions.  For one of the songs he had to wear a hat.  He also has an adversion to hats.  So singing a song in front of a bunch of people while wearing a hat is way to much for the little guy.  He did not wear the hat.  🙂  Here is proof that he doesn’t like hats:

 

 

Scott and Camden went on the outing this month.  Camden wanted to go to a Rangers game.  Scott loves it that he likes baseball.  We are going to have him play T ball this summer.  Oh, the hat thing, hmm we will have to really work on that.

What have I been up to?  I have been trying not to go crazy since I can’t work out.  Scott and I were driving somewhere listening to a sports medicane guy and he was talking about cycling.  I can’t wait to cycle!  I have filled my life with lots of projects, I love a good project.  We put a ceiling fan in our kitchen.  It gets so in hot there! 

I redid our family room minus paint because lets be real I am not going that crazy.   

The kids each did their own painting.  They had so much fun getting messy.  I have a hard time with messy kid projects but I am really glad I let them have fun.  I think they turned out great.  I gave them all the same color paint so that it would be cohesive.

I did this painting a while ago and I wanted to just change it up so I swapped out the background color. 

These are from Target that I got on sale.  We got these Ikea shelves a while ago.  I decided when we moved into our house that I wasn’t going to put up anything that I did not love.  I hate filling space with stuff just to have stuff out that I don’t even like.  When we got the shelves I figured it would be like a year until I found suff that was cute, cheap, and kid friendly.  That is a lot of pressure :).   

I have done a lot more stuff but here is how desperate I am getting.  Yup, I cleaned the oven. 

Oh, I did get another layout published!  It is in Simple Scrapbooks.  This was their last issue.  It is so sad how the magazine industry has been hit so hard by the economy. 

This is from the summer when Scott and I went to Seattle for our vacation while my parents watched the kids.

Oh, for all you locals.  My sister in law Iris is having a jewelry party at her house this weekend.  It should be lots of fun! There will be snacks and free jewelry given away.  It is at her house on Saturday at noon.  The jewelry is from Lia Sophia.  Let me know if you want to go and we can ride togethor or I will give you her address. 

PS- Wasn’t General Conference amazing!  I love this one (especially during this rough economic time) and this one (I think that is my new motto, I am doing a great work and cannot come down).