tee ball adventures

elise has been taking "tee ball lessons" for the past month. she and two of her cousins, kyleigh & emmy have had several classes teaching them the basics of tee ball. they have learned how to hit, catch & the finer points of a game (i.e. running the bases, going for the ball...) last night i didn't get to see the whole class, but heard about what happened from kyleigh's mom. melissa said that when they were divided into teams, elise was on one team and kyleigh & emmy on the other. when elise was in the outfield, she was standing somewhere between first and second base. when emmy got her hit and subsequently was supposed to run from first base to second, she never quite made it to second. she started off running to second, but stopped about halfway....to talk to elise. i mean, who cares about the game when two girlfriends need to catch up on life! i thought that was hilarious. melissa said that the "coach" was going, "come on emmy! run! run!" and emmy and elise are just chatting along the baseline! =) melissa also said that elise did a great job of running after the ball when the other team hit the ball. that's my girl! =)

ian gets hurt

yesterday morning, cory & i & the kids were working in the garage. ian was playing right outside the garage in the driveway in elise's pink jeep (the one the you can drive). somehow he busted....none of us are exactly sure how, but it looks as if he caught himself with his face. poor little guy! he cried, but he was brave!

owies =( 

cheesin' it =) 

germs *sigh*

well, germs have once again invaded our house! elise has been coming down with a cold for several days. today she seems to have more of the full blown thing...runny/stuffy nose, cough, etc. then ian threw up about 3 or 4 times during the night. actually he hadn't eaten much lunch or supper & b/c we were out of juice he had only had water to drink. so what little he threw up was just clear liquid *whew*! still a long night, though. he seems better this morning, though. hopefully, anyway. and if we can just keep him from giving the tummy bug to elise & keep elise from giving her cold to him and keeping cory & i healthy, we should be perfect! oh well....

busy few days, etc.

thursday night was craft night for us girls again...at my house. we had a blast as we always do, but it was a late night...about 1:00 or 1:30 by the time everyone left. then the next night was a family temple trip, but b/c the session was full & we were getting ready for a yard sale, we stayed home. but we did baby-sit a couple of the kids in what turned out to be a LATE night....11:30 maybe. the kids sure had fun, though. the next morning was early with our yard sale preps and stuff. it turned out to be a success...we made about $80.00 or so. cory's parents had spent the night with us and went yard selling (it was a neighborhood affair). they came back with a double stroller for me to look at. it was in great condidtion and i liked that the front seat could either face forward or backward, depending on who needed entertainment or who needed not to be touched or looked at. they also got each of the kids a stuffed animal which has been desperately latched on to. why those were such a hit, i cannot figure. ian got a Barney (odd at first since he never watches barney) but since i've realized he liked it b/c it was a dinosaur. he runs around growling & roaring that barney at everyone. elise's was a teddy bear that she just adores. its like a teal color with blue tips (sort of like the teal was airbrushed with blue) that has a tag that says its name is blueberry. LOVES IT! anyway, after the yard sale, we at breakfast at golden corral with some of cory's family (which was delicious!) and fun. afterward we hit the road to cory's parents house for a birthday party for ericka. we had a great time visiting with everyone & of course the kids were having so much fun they had to be dragged out! yesterday we actually had a fairly relaxing day, no one to visit, no one to visit with us except our home teachers in the evening. it was a nice catch up after the weekend. now....on to this week!

patterns

cory is one of seven children, four boys, three girls. all the girls have seven letters in their names (like their dad) , all the boys have four (like their mom). so now, six of the seven are married with two children each. the four boys have all had a girl first, then a boy. the two married girls have had two girls. so that means that everyone had a girl first! if you want to get even deeper in to the similiarities, there were 5 of those "first girls" born within about 10 months of each other. the first two were born to cory's sisters and have names beginning with "k". the next three were born to the brothers and have names that start with "e". the "e" girls were also all born on a sunday. weird coincidence or lucky break or whatever, i just think the patterns are neat.

yum!

a couple of nights ago i made something delicious. it was these jumbo pasta shells stuffed with a ricotta cheese/spinach, etc. mixture & then placed in a pan with spaghetti sauce and drizzled in a little more of it, along with a little alfredo sauce. it was topped off with some cheddar cheese and baked until bubbly. eat that along with some crusty french bread and a salad and you have a wonderful meal....can't wait to eat leftovers for lunch!

what's in a name?

i think it is official....we have decided what our baby's name will be. drumroll, please......she will be Merry Grace & we will call her Gracie. Merry is after Cory's grandma who was named Mary, but we changed the spelling to be somewhat original. Grace is after me, and grandma jarrell, & gracie is from grandma delia's mother who was Gracie. so i think we jam packed all the family we could into this name, but we're immensely pleased with the result.

that should do the trick

while we were on vacation, elise and ian were eating goldfish & playing in one of the bedrooms. after a little bit, elise screams and then says, "mama, ian hit me!" this is a somewhat typical occurance, so i said, "ian, come in here." after a few seconds, he still hasn't appeared, so i said more firmly, "ian, come in here right now!" then i hear elise say softly & conspiratorially, "ian, go see mama. she wants to give you some more goldfish!"

odds and ends

okay...so i've been slack this week. here are two totally unrelated items that have been on my mind. first, i hate it when business don't put their flag at half staff like they're supposed to. i think if you're going to have a flag you need to be responsible enough to keep up with what to do with it. that includes the respect of having at at half staff when called upon. a pet peeve of mine.

second, do people say sir & ma'am other places except in the south? i get called ma'am a lot & i've noticed that i say it to others. i wondered if that is a southern thing or what. any ideas?

our vacation

we had a great vacation last week. we spent most of our time at the pool or just hanging out, but it was so nice, so refreshing, & so relaxing. i'll post some of our fun highlights later, but i wanted you to know we were back in action again! it's good (sort of) to be home!

elise in the pool 

elise getting ready to jump 

ian testing the water 

elise jumping into the pool... 

elise floating on her back all by herself! 

some goggles elise got from one of her new friends at the pool.... 

ian loved playing with these plastic frogs all week 

ian waving from the pool! 

our last morning 

elise wore her daddy's shirt every time after the pool. 

ian looking for airplanes 

ian's mad face...he can't see any planes right now!