A first for Jameson!

Amidst the chaos of the Whittier fire, Jameson lost his first tooth! It took me a little by surprise because he just seems TOO YOUNG for this first. But he is 5 years old and he did get his teeth starting at 4 months old vs 9 months old like his brothers. Not sure if that makes a difference or not...

Here he is with a his slightly shocked smile on July 15th

And one more really cute smile with his sweet little sister

A few Summer highlights so far

We have been enjoying summer break from school!

Swimming at the ranch pool

A day picking blueberries in Buelton

  Arts and crafts

And always- beach days!

This makes me realize I don't get the camera out enough. (even my phone camera).. but at least it's better than nothing!

4th of July 2017

Soon after Baseball ended came the 4th of July. This brings a big event and a lot of busy-ness to our family too. Billy, for some reason, has been in charge of the huge Montecito station pancake breakfast for the past few years. This year they were celebrating 100 years of service to the community and so it was free and HUGE.  I know that Billy was happy when the event was finally over- lots to coordinate and do.
We enjoyed the breakfast, bought some Montecito Fire swag, and walked down to the small little Montecito parade that follows. It was a nice morning.

 On the old fire truck in the small side engine bay.

 New hat and shirt- gotta give this cute guy new stuff once in a while ;)

Leila needed a shirt and hat too!

Champions!

Just a couple pictures of Williams championship day of his tournament. They went undefeated and William was the starting pitcher for the final game! He did awesome and pitched 4 out of the 5 innings. We are so proud of him.

He was the only one on the team that was given a nick name... Bull Dog! For being so darn tough.

Baseball Madness

The regular baseball season has come to an end... but I think our baseball days have gotten even more busy! Both William and Zachary were selected to be part of all star teams. Zachary is on a 7u team that will be practicing for 2 hours every day this week until their tournament starting this weekend in Ventura.
William has already been practicing with a club team that has now turned into the 8u all star team. He had his first weekend tournament last weekend and did awesome. They played 2 games on Saturday and he was the opening pitcher for the second game in the afternoon! He pitched 2 innings, struck out several batters and the team only allowed 1 run for the game. I didn't realize how nerve racking it is to have your son be the pitcher! A lot of the game is up to him. He has to throw strikes so that the batters don't walk bases. He did amazing for his first time pitching. The 3rd inning (and final inning, since it was a timed game & there was a 15 run mercy rule) William was the catcher. Also a hugely important spot! He had to make sure he caught all the pitches thrown across the plate so that the runners wouldn't steal bases. Man, it's a whole different game with kid pitch.
Anyway, this is what takes up our every afternoon and evening. We are hardly ever home at "dinner time" anymore because we are at one field or another at a practice or game until 7 or 8pm.

Jameson is content to help field balls during practices and run around with friends during the games. Leila is a trooper and knows that every day we will get in the car to go to brothers baseball. She doesn't seem to mind one bit and has come to understand that the baseball field is her second home right now. She just smiles and makes friends with all the players, she knows all of them by name faster than I do.

Looking forward to July 1st when hopefully the craziness will all come to an end and we can get in the pool more often.... cause that is really what my pregnant body would love right now :)

Two May birthdays!

I have been so tired and busy between baseball, school, and pregnancy that I have not had the energy to sit and record what has been happening around our home for over a month!
Well, we celebrated Jameson's 5th birthday & Zachary's 7th birthday with the help of a fun surprise visit from Grandpa Mills. He came to town to watch the boys play some baseball and it happened to be our big birthday week too! It was so nice because I had no idea what I might do special for them besides a favorite dinner and birthday cake... no time for birthday parties when every weekend is filled with baseball games and church. Grandpa took each one of them on a special outing to get lunch, pick out a birthday present, and have some nice one on one time. He even managed to think of me too and bring home a mothers day gift. It really was so sweet, thoughtful, and special to have him here for a few days right during a special yet chaotic week. (William had 2 days of state testing this same week at a testing site in Carpinteria! His and ours first time having to deal with this)

I think that both Jameson and Zachary felt very loved and appreciated for their birthdays. Jameson chose a big BBQ tri tip birthday dinner which we shared with Grandpa as well. Zachary went with breakfast for dinner and I made all sorts of types of pancakes with toppings like chocolate chips, strawberries, and whipped cream along with eggs to balance it out. We went to a celebration of life the evening of Zachary's birthday, so afterwards we went and got frozen yogurt for a birthday treat.

Really, I am so very blessed at how well behaved, easy going, and pleasant all of my children are. There was no whining from Zachary that I made them all sit quietly at a "funeral gathering" on the evening of his birthday when he could have been opening his birthday gifts at home. I'm certainly a lucky mom :)

Happy Easter

We had a nice Easter weekend this year. Friday we spent the afternoon at the river with some friends and finished off the day with a nice dinner. Saturday morning, Jameson had a tee ball game and he played awesome! He played pitcher position in the first inning and made 4 outs at first with his great fielding and throwing. Good thing the team mate on first could catch that inning ;)
After the game we headed to our neighborhood OSH where they were putting on a cute little egg hunt for the kids. We headed home, Billy did some mowing and weed whipping, the boys helped clean up the yard, and then we went back to the river for more swimming. We dyed eggs in the evening (it's possible to dye brown eggs!) and then Billy hid them a few times for the kids to find.

This whole week we have been following a Walk thru Easter Week on Mormon.org. Just a short reading each day to help us remember all the events leading up to Easter Sunday.  Last night I made Easter rolls for the kids (and my primary class) to eat today. They were made by wrapping dough around a big marshmallow and then once baked... the rolls are hollow! Representing that Jesus lives, his tomb is empty, and we have much to be grateful for. It was a neat visual.
Church was nice. The kids all had a nice time in their classes and we relaxed for the rest of the day. I did manage to snap a couple pictures of the kids before we left for church. Billy had to work today, otherwise we would have tried for a family photo.  I will have to try for one of those soon.
Happy Easter.