Ward Christmas Party 2013

 

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New Family Member

Meet our newest member of the family: Brown. 

His hobbies include playing the piano, looking up girls in the first grade year book, and word searches. He also begs for math homework on his days off.

He is rumored to be the 2nd cousin of Tom Selleck.

  Get some rest Brown.

Sour on Baseball

Eric is practicing with the 8u travel team right now.  The coach is so nice to us and so inclusive.  He even lets Lisa practice and makes a big fuss over her (make no mistake Lisa is good though).  Although it sounds fun as a parent playing games in St. George, Reno, and Las Vegas, I’m about to pull the plug on this whole thing.  Six year olds don’t need to be playing travel baseball.  Baseball has become ridiculous.  I only want my kids to be well rounded.  I’m not really sure what the end game is because I don't care if they high school baseball- I want them to play high school golf.  I wish I would have played golf in high school.  Golf goes with my world view of herding these cats into becoming engineers.  Anyway,  the kids are all having fun right now with all of the playing and practicing.  I'm having fun too.  I'm doing my best to keep it that way.  I love baseball and I don't want the kids burned out by age 10.

Lisa- Lisa is playing softball for the first time.  She likes it a lot.  She is making a lot of new friends and she is very good.  We should have played her up at 10u, but being the first time we did not know the level of competition.

David- is participating in the primary program this Sunday for the first time.  When I asked him what his part is he said: “The prophet has commanded us to pay his tithing.”

Wendy- has been busy canning salsa.  I love canned salsa!  We have three recipes we use that are all different. I can’t touch salsa sold in the store anymore.  Wendy has also been involved with some Farmington City issues.  I think she should run for City Council.

Dad- I feel lucky I have a job that requires no stress and only 40 hours a week.  

Also- another thing that makes me happy- I’m getting feedback that Lisa and Eric are very well behaved in school.  I expect this from Lisa, but I’m pleasantly surprised with Eric.

Biking Rant 

I was out on the Legacy Trail the other day when a group of 4 men on their bicycle started yelling at this woman on her bicycle as they passed her, I think, because she broke bicycle etiquette somehow.  Let’s get one thing straight. Biking takes zero athletic ability.  It’s something old people like me do to stay in shape.  It’s like bicycling is turning into the new church basketball.  They all think they are athletes. 

OK, yes I feel better now.

Courtney's Wedding

Our family had a lot of fun at Courtney's Wedding last night.  You could really tell Shannon went to a lot of work to plan this.  They picked a really nice venue.  The food was spectacular-- barbequed stake, chicken, brownies, ice cream etc. Most of all, our family had a lot of fun!  We took a lot of pictures.  I will have to steal more pictures off Shannon's blog.

"Don't mess with our sister!"

Gangnam Style

 

Eric and Lexi

Lisa and Emily were attached at the hip the whole night.  Josh was really good at dancing.  Lexi looked darling!

State Tournament

7 11 2013 was the last day of the state tournament.  I have been taking half-days off work all week. Monday and Tuesday Eric was at the field playing at 3:30 and did not stop until 9:00 at night. 7 10 2013 against Mt. Olympus the team played its best and crushed the ball.  Today Eric had a fantastic game.   He hit well,  ran well, and fielded well.

 Funny memory- Farmington Invitational Consolation game last Wednesday- Eric eating his sandwich in one hand and glove in the other as he ran out to the outfield.

 Fun memory- Eric having a lot of fun during the cooler 7:00 games.  Eric yelling at us when he was headed toward the dougout that he caught two balls. 
Eric made a lot of new friends.  Too bad only two of them go to his school.

Stepping up up to the plate against West Jordan

 

 

Ireland giving Eric high-five after score

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eric running bases after he hit a line drive over second base

 

 

 

 

Coach Jensen ordered pizza and a Mom brought drinks, oranges, and dessert.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dad cringes looking into the sun

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Team pictures before game

After the last game

Bryan bought them all cupcakes with their number on it.

Bobby McGuire and Bryan Jensen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Farmington Invitational

This last week Eric  played six games and had one practice in just seven days.

The team split a doubleheader with Centerville, split a doubleheader with F1, beat Millcreek, and lost to Mt. Olympus.  They play a doubleheader again this Wednesday.

 

Pictures of Eric in 103 degree weather.  He has been tough.

 

 

 

 

Awesome Play

Eric had a doubleheader today.  Memorable play- this whole season I have wondered how fast Eric really is.  He doesn't hustle, and no one has ever challenged him.  We have the kids do drills in the back yard, and they have him run in practice...  At a critical juncture at the game, he was a base runner on third base.  The batter hit the ball down the third base line, Eric started trotting towards home plate.  Eric looked behind him as a very athletic third-baseman made the catch and started to run down Eric.  Eric looked like he saw a ghost and put it into high gear and outran the third baseman all the way up the baseline.  He beat the fielder by inches all the way to home plate.  No one has ever seen Eric run that fast.  Eric's score made them one run away from tying the game. We ended up scoring two more runs that inning to end the game.  It was awesome!

Update

The last couple of posts I doubled up on some of the pictures Wendy already posted. Wendy is good at capturing what the family is up to, so I think I will primarily post odds and ends, what ever I want to rant about, and small updates.

Dad- Is sad he is no longer coaching baseball.  I had a lot of fun. 

Wendy- Everything is GPP, even though the Stake President said not to do that! Ha! Ha! Ha!

David- “Us is Hungry!” He said this as we were driving out of the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon on Sunday.

“Is the Holy Ghost Creepy?” Question at FHE.

Eric- While Eric attended nursery during church, I used to joke with Wendy that as far as girls go, it will be downhill from here on out for Eric.  The Nursery leaders were the H girl and DH and they would always give him hugs and kisses and all of the attention in the world.  Now in kindergarten, he has these girls that like him.  I call them “Barbie” because a couple of them (i.e. the Poulsen girl) look like Barbie dolls.  Now I joke with Wendy “after the first grade, it will be downhill from here, you can’t top Barbie.”

Lisa-I find it mildly amusing three boys asked Lisa to marry them this year; However, if this trend continues, I’m going to homeschool her. 

Sorry David – nothing to report for you. 

With all of the parties and stuff going on with the kids I worry that they are being over stimulated.  So, I decided we are going to make the kids pull a lot of weeds this summer.  I told Eric and Lisa they could either practice baseball in the back yard or they can pull weeds.  They all decided they wanted to pull weeds.  Eric was getting into it.  As his hands were full of weeds with the roots sticking up- “I was born to pull weeds!”

6-Year-Old Baseball

I banned Eric from sports three years ago because we signed him up to play soccer, but he never wanted to play.  He was always complaining that it was too cold, or his leg hurt, or whatever.  This last spring we figured he is old enough to play. 

Anyway, Now Eric is playing baseball with kids that started at age three playing t-ball.   

So he is the best player on his team and he was invited to try out for the all-star team.  We thought it would be good practice for him. There were 70 kids invited to try out.   His league has 16 teams.  So we get to the try out on a Saturday morning a couple of weeks ago and Eric is totally uninterested.  It took two hours and with all the kids there was a lot of standing around.  He did ok batting.  His fielding was terrible.  He was not catching anything, and as the ball went by him every time, he would do his little walk in slow motion to get the ball.  While he was waiting in line, Wendy gave him a talk about his attitude and he hustled after that.  Eric needs to learn how to work.  I’m hoping baseball instills a work ethic in him.

Anyway, Wendy overheard the coaches talk about Eric.  They had scouted his games.  One coach “One  play Eric was playing third base and the ball was hit to him and he almost took the pitcher’s head off throwing to first base.”  “He hit the ball really hard when I saw him play….”   I was shocked that these four coaches knew Eric.

Since the coaches knew him, he made the team despite hsi abysmal tryout performance.

At a game last week Wendy overheard one of the wives make a comment that they thought the coaches were mean. (I’m one of the coaches)  I was complaining to Wendy how some of these Mom’s coddle their kids and how I thought the Moms are crippling their kids for life.  Then I would complain how some of the coaches (not on our team) are taking things too seriously.  Isn’t there a middle ground? 

Birthday

Lisa had a three day birthday celebration this month.

 

 

 

Baseball

 

I blog about whatever topic is on my mind at the moment.  I usually blog on Sundays, so church, or the people I spoke with that day may be on my mind when I blog.  So, I decided I need to blog on different days of the week. 

 

What's up today

 

I have the kids for the next four days while Wendy attends a graduation ceremony in Chicago with her sister. 

 

On Tuesday Eric had another baseball game.  I’m still having fun as one of the coaches.  Judy and Garth both came to watch him play – which was nice of them.  Eric showcased his talents as the best player on the team-Which is good because sometimes he strikes out, and sometimes he never gets the ball hit to him.  He hit the ball and scored.  He also fielded a ball and made a difficult throw from third to first base.  It was an identical throw this kid made last week-I was telling Wendy about how we got killed at the game last week and how there was one kid that was really, really good.  Eric also got two people out at first base.

 

The bottom line- Eric is having a lot of fun. 

 

 

 

Picture VB sent to Wendy.

LISA at BYU

Wendy already posted this on her blog, but I think it is cool and I want it on my blog too.  Lisa was selected to to be on a team to represent her school at a competition.  She received the highest marks and her school placed second.  Usually the teams that place are private schools and charter schools.  

 

 

Machine Pitch

Eric playing ball.  The team is comprised of all Eric's buddies. I help out with the coaching.

 

Eric on First Base

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shed

 

I'm going to build a shed right on top of our garden this year.  But I'm having a hard time deciding how big to build.  Eventually I want a two car garage but am not ready to do that now.  So do I pour concrete now, or build something that I will be tearing down in five years. I keep going back and forth but I'm looking forward to building something.  

 

Eric and Dad

 

 

Me practicing to hit a bowling-ball pin at around 40 feet.  It is kind of a hard shot.

 

 

Wendy enrolled Eric in Little League. I have been practicing with him and yesterday I threw the ball to him under-handed and it hit him square in the forehead.  Eric likes to play the piano. He is talented at it, and I'm sure if we still lived in Florida he would be the assistant piano player in primary.  He can play a lot of the primary songs and is good at it.  But I don't want him sitting around playing the piano all day.  I was asking around if people thought I should force Eric to play baseball and most everyone said yes.  My Dad forced me to play.  I'm glad he did because growing up it was part of my identity.  (along with several other things)

 

Anniversary was fun.  Went to Las Vegas for 4 days.  Wendy liked the defensive handgun class more than I thought she would.  This last week she has been trying to convince me to purchase a certain handgun. 

Super Bowl 47

it's ok if this is not great it's frist time bloging. friday night me ,my dad, and david went to harmons. we got pop, chips, olmost cake mics, and we got cookies. when we got home i took pickshrs with my camra i got from chrismas. wen my mom got home she sa all of the food she was  saprisd!

So I went overboard with the treats.  Wendy already had a Super Bowl food assignment and none of the stuff I purchased was on that list.  All the treats are now part of the year supply. 

Treats for the Superbowl:

Wendy made my favorite con-queso dip using my Dad's secret recipe that he only served on Christmas or New Years Eve. Interesting side note-- One New Years Wendy committed espionage and stole the recipe while my Dad was making the dip.  We make it on special occasions.  Wendy also made these chocolate-peanut butter bars and she made brownies.   Julie made some Delicious smoked barbecue  (it was so good I got the run down on how to make it),  this cranberry punch that was just great, and this chocolate cake that had a unique flavor that was really good.  She said the unique flavor was ground up almonds.  The Food was great.

The game was great too. 

A funny thing that happened that night--the girl friends of the Heer boys were making such a fuss with David.  These girls were cute and it was funny watching them flirt with David.  David had us all laughing. David was going after Stockton, sitting on the laps of the girl friends, talking to everyone, telling them how old he is, asking him if he wants more cake, drinking his bowl with the cake, and everything else that he does.  He likes the attention.  Julie is a great hostess and she is so nice to our family.

Also David was highlighted in primary today. Two things I thought were funny:

"I think a monkey would make a good pet"
"I'd like to serve my mission in hiking"


I let David watch 20 minutes of Home Improvement in my bed. Wendy doesn't allow kids in our bed so it's a big deal if I let them get in.  Notice how he makes himself at home and kind of takes over.  He looks grouchy but he sure is huggable.

Typical conversation at our home at 6:30 AM every morning.  Usually ends in a fight about Darth Vader.

Goals

Some possibilities for 2013 Goals:

1) Keep posting on blog.

2) Dad did a good job of teaching me how to work.  I'm lazy but he was a good teacher.  Growing up I had friends that never had any money, and I had friends with parents that would spoil them.  Neither is good.  The real world values work.  So I thought it would be a good idea to encourage the kids to work by coming up with some ideas that may help build a work ethic.  I thought it might be fun for Lisa and Eric to earn money to buy a family gift.  An idea for a gift might be a trampoline.

Ideas to earn money:

a. Weed (our house)  Would be good for Eric.

b. Grandma Judy -  Farmington/Centerville apartments
           Raking leaves 
           Maybe mowing the lawn

c. See if Grandma Saundra can have kids dig up sprinklers or something else I'm not aware of.

3) Studying scriptures

4) Studying something I want

5)


The first thing that pops in my mind right now as I think of the family:

Lisa- Very cute personality; Likes to ride to church with me.
Eric- Talked me into playing checkers with him today.
David- Attended sunbeams for the first time.
Scott-  Had a good day at church.
Wendy- 2nd thing that comes to my mind - Has her shit together.