Take me out to the ball game

Matt Peterson, under the auspicious name of PR Youth Sports, you have done it AgaIn!! Wow and double wow to our neighborhood sports Coalition for your baseball season!! 108 kids, 3 divisions and 9 teams, at $8.50 per child you make our life of boys so much easier and happier!! This is our first try at organized baseball and I could not be more pleased about our first games of the season.

Seth hitting the ball and rounding third to home!!

Clyde also hitting the ball and then rounding third to home.

Monte Birk played a double header today. Phew! He was tired and hot by the end but those runs into home were well worth it!

I am so thankful for good friends and people that take the time to create and execute something so wonderful that my family can participate in. When I think of my sun burned neck from 3 hours of lazily sitting and cheering I think of how sore Coach Matt's knee must be from kneeling to pitch for these youngsters hours on end. I think of his sweet wife and children who support him as he puts in his time scheduling and organizing the games and rosters. You know it's a real service at $8.50 a child when we get t-shirts and caps out of it as well. It is such a rewarding experience for the kids with the supportive, patient and up-beat dads on the field helping them play.

Season End

The Basketball season came to and end for the brethren yesterday. In the Greyhawks last game they were playing against the first team they played in the tournament. In game one they were wasted by the Sharks but yesterday they came out ahead by 4 points!! Each team showed so much improvement this season. I am especially proud of our guys!

We are participating in a neighborhood program, PR Youth Sports. It is by our old house so we get to play with friends from our old neighborhood. What a great money and time saver for these boys to learn many different sports at a fraction of league costs.

The Greyhawks

Spencer Hawkins, Carter Marshall, Seth Gardiner, Clyde Gardiner

Tristan Vinal, Tyler Jones & Monte Gardiner

Monte's 3 pointer. Can you see the ball high in the tree? This kid really catches air-in this shot he is on his way down!

Clyde is learning to be a team player and made some great passes this season.

Seth has got the hustle down! He moves quick to get himself open and move from one side of the court to the other fast! He's a bullet!!

Bring on the Baseball Season PR Youth Sports we are excited and we LOVE IT!!!

the opening prayer

We've been focusing on prayers of gratitude at our house. I've been working on getting them to pray for specifics and not just the "we're grateful for everything that has been given to us" variety. Clyde has been doing quite well and tonight he topped the charts for Family Home Evening...

"Dear Heavenly Father,

We're really grateful that Jesus was born so we could get lots more toys. And we're really, really grateful Jesus walked the earth so we could have our sins washed away when we get baptized. In the name..."

twins just being twins

Clyde has had 2 loose teeth on the top for a month now. He keeps asking when they will fall out but he's too scared to wiggle them around. (Don't know why, he's already lost two on the bottom.) The other night, while I was out, he decided it would be fun if Seth had a lose tooth as well. So...while they were watching TV together Clyde reached into Seth's mouth and yanked one of his top front teeth forward. Seth did NOT have a loose tooth at the time, mind you, but when I got home that evening Seth's tooth was sticking straight forward out of his mouth. I now call him my snaggle tooth boy. He is a born tooth wiggler though, so his is sure to come out before either ONE of Clyde's!

BeWarE PiRateS!

The party was the week after the Ward Campout/Birthday...

now THAT's alot of PiRaTEs!!

1 pirate party. 2 birthday boys. 14 friends. 1 pinata. 1 scavenger hunt. 14 swords. 1 cotton candy machine. 14 eye patches. 2 cakes. 14 bandana's. 40 balloons. 2 rolls of streamers. 1 bounce house. 1 tired mom. 1 sticky and pink dad =

immeasurable fun

Camping Birthday!!

The twins' Birthday landed on the ward camp out just as Monte Birk's had last year...what luck eh? Read below to find out more about this exciting journey!!

What an experience it was! On the way up the mountain the car overheated. We had just repaired it from this very problem and were unsure of what to do. We had just finished our Prayer to Heavenly Father and gotten out of the car when a sweet family pulled over to see if we needed help. But he wasn't just any daddy...the father of this family was a car mechanic! He fixed us up and told us what to do and after a small family hike we were back on our way up the mountain. We talked the rest of the way about how Heavenly Father takes care of our needs and love us. We got there and just as we were setting up the tent...BAM!!...rain, rain and a little more, you guessed it...rain! We had so much fun and Monte Birk and I built an even better fire than the ward's group fire! I helps to cover your wood overnight with a tarp. The next day we stayed and played while everyone else packed it up and left. We were the last ones to go and when we got into the car...Nothin', nada, niente! no power left in the battery! (Of, course it just had to happen to us!) No one, outside of our ward, had come around the entire time we were there so we were getting ready to hoof it out to the main road. We said another prayer to Heavenly Father and just as we set off on foot a sweet couple from Flagstaff pulled right up with jumper cables and all! Thank you Heavenly Father for wanting us to go camping with our ward and showing us how much you care! What a great experience for our family!

6 YeArS oLd!

haPpY BirThDaY SeTh and cLyDe!!

Clyde

Seth

When Seth saw these bears in COSTCO his eyes welled with tears and he said, "Mom, I just have to have one." So, being the sneaky mommy that I am I dropped the guys at home and went back to get them for their birthday. Oh my...you should've seen the looks I got driving home. 'Hugeness', as he's been named, was in the passenger seat of my mini van. His head hit the roof and his feet hit the floor. I had to lean forward to see out the passenger window - TOO FUNNY! My neighbor was kind enough to hide them in her house until their birthday, where they took up quite a bit of space! They got to name them in the morning and when they came home from school I had put their names on the T-shirts.

Bringing them up to their room before school posed a bit of a problem but luckily they worked as a team and their big brother was more than happy to show off his muscles and help out.

HaLf - DaY GraDuAtiON!!

We can't call it Kindergarten graduation this year because they are doing kindergarten again next year. The difference is that next year is ALL DAY!! Clyde and Seth's birthday make the cut-off for Kindergarten by 5 days making them the babies of their class. This mean mom is giving them the opportunity to be some of the oldest kids in their class instead by having them do it again.

luCkY DuCkS!!

Best buds Malloy and Ben. We had weekly play dates with these guys all year!

We absolutely LOVE Mrs Mellow

BluE BuGs ReciTaL

I quit teaching Let's Play Music for many reasons...give me a call if you want them all...but one of the main reasons was the fact that my boys were awful, terrible, no good, very bad boys in my class!! I wasn't sure if they were learning a thing with me! Miss Jodi was kind enough to take over my entire roster of students and I became "just another mom" in the class...BeUtiFUL!! Suddenly they are participating and singing and dancing and answering questions...they are BriLLiaNT - GO FIGURE!! I adored going to their recital as a mom and not their teacher!

LoVin' IT!!

slightly overcast...

high 60's...
10% chance of rain...

slight breeze...

PeRFect for...

Seth-L, Clyde-R

Seth
Clyde

and then

the water

melted it

all away.