T-Ball

Garrett has started T-ball/Coach Pitch!

They first held a clinic where they taught the kids a few things about throwing, catching and batting.

Then they started games twice a week. Here are some pictures of his first game.
He did a really good job of making friends with the kids on the other team as he took his turn as 1st and 3rd baseman.

Still need a little bit of practice hitting the pitches but does well with the T :)

Go Garrett! His biggest little fan!

FHE

A new spin on family home evening the other night was spending it with our friends the Graybill's. My friend Nickie asked us if we would like to come over for a short lesson and we could have treats and do sparklers. When I asked what I could bring or help with she asked if I could do the lesson! Ha ha! tricky tricky! Invite people over then ask them to do the lesson! (I've got to try that one!) I'm kidding. It was fun! We did a short lesson outside and then went in for treats (because it was the last cool day we had before finally getting the summer heat wave). And then we came back out for some sparklers.

The last time that Garrett had a sparkler I think he was about Embrie's age and . . . he got burned. yikes! So we hadn't tried them since. I was pretty sure Garrett would be fine this time around being older but I was just a little nervous about Embrie.

As you can see she did just fine!

Thanks Graybills!

Camping - Kind Of

Our friends and neighbors down the street had a little "camp-out" a couple weeks ago. Most of our yards on this street are not fenced in so we have a big area to pitch a tent. This was a really fun idea! Last year Garrett and Brad camped in our backyard just the two of them, this time we had friends and neighbors together it was really fun. And easy because if you forgot something you could just walk home and get it!

How many men does it take to start a camp fire?

Will it light?

Man has made fire!

We had hamburgers for dinner and what is camping without s'mores and roasted marshmallows?

The kids loved moving from tent to tent. They had a lot of fun together!

Now as for the sleeping in a tent part . . . Brad could not do it because he had to go to work early the next morning. I was planning on just going for the evening, coming home to sleep in our own beds, and then returning for breakfast in the morning. But before any of us could get out of the house Garrett was in their yard with his sleeping bag in tow. I guess you could say that my mind had been made up for me. So me (7 mo. pregnant) and the two kiddos slept in the tent. I was a little worried about being uncomfortable, but I am pretty much uncomfortable in my own bed anyway right? It was actually pretty good though. The air mattress fit us all nicely.

This was Embrie's first tent experience and she did pretty good except that she woke up at 5am. Of course she was a little confused and not quite ready to be awake so I had to work double time to get her to stop crying and keep her quiet so that we didn't wake everyone up. Finally after what I thought was probably an hour of us just whispering in the tent I decided we walk home and spend a little time there to make sure the kids were quiet enough. I thought it was about 6am when she woke up imagine how surprised I was when Brad was still home and just getting ready to leave - that is when I realized it had been about 5 when we woke up.

So Embrie had some cereal and we headed back to camp around 7am to wait for others to wake up.

Breakfast was doughnuts and muffins, juice and milk. Yum!

needless to say after staying up until 11pm and waking at 5am I carried Embrie home in my arms around 9am and she took a good 3 hour nap from there.
Then about 5pm that day Garrett zonked off for an hour. But it was worth it we had a lot of fun, just wish dad could have stayed to sleep in the tent.

I love our neighborhood and friends!

It finally happened

I left the nail polish in a place where miss Embrie could reach it and didn't notice when she took off with it. Luckily when she decided that painting her toes wasn't going the way she'd planned she came to ask for help. And lucky for me that most of it ended up on her leg and just a little on the carpet. What a lovely shade of purple :)

Father's Day

BRAD

First of all I knew that I married a great man, I of course thought that he would be a good father or I would not have married him right? Well I can't say that I am always right about everything but I was right about this! He is such an amazing dad!

"A truly rich man is one whose children run into his arms when his hands are empty." ~Author Unknown

(With Garrett)

"There are three stages of a man's life: He believes in Santa Claus, he doesn't believe in Santa Claus, he is Santa Claus." ~Author Unknown

As parents together he is a good balance for me has patience and helps me remember to let loose and let go when I need it.

"You will find that if you really try to be a father, your child will meet you halfway." ~Robert Brault,

(with Embrie)

He puts all the complicated toys together (the ones I can't do) he plays games with the kids and he knows all the answers. He is the one Embrie calls on the phone when she gets an "owwie" and Garrett's favorite Wii partner.

"By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he is wrong." - Charles Wadsworth

It's no wonder that our kids both ask about dad all day while he is at work.

"Every father should remember that one day his son will follow his example instead of his advice." -unkown

I hope that they follow both his example and his advice, they'll be on the right path if they do!

SCOTT

My dad died unexpectedly in a motorcycle accident when I was 11 years old. But I cherish the years that I did have with him. He was a very good man and a fun dad.

Old as she was, she still missed her daddy sometimes. ~Gloria Naylor

As I remember things from the past and hear stories about my dad I am so proud to know that he was so kind and generous to so many people.

"It's only when you grow up, and step back from him, or leave him for your own career and your own home- it's only then that you can measure his greatness and fully appreciate it. Pride reinforces love." - Margaret Truman

I remember that he was pretty goofy sometimes and we loved that. He would do all kinds of things to make us laugh. No matter how long of a day it had been he always carried 3 "sacks of potatoes" up the stairs when he got home from work. (The potatoes of course were me and my brothers.)

"Dads are stone skimmers, mud wallowers, water wallopers, ceiling swoopers, shoulder gallopers, upsy-downsy, over-and-through, round-and-about whoosers. Dads are smugglers and secret sharers." - Helen Thompson

"A new father quickly learns that his child invariably comes to the bathroom at precisely the times when he's in there, as if he needed company. The only way for this father to be certain of bathroom privacy is to shave at the gas station." - Bill Cosby

Sometimes I think of all that my dad has missed - or I should say all that I have missed him being there for. But I know deep down that he is always aware of me and my brothers. I can't wait to see him again someday.

BLAINE

My step-dad stepped up to the plate when we lost our dad. He didn't try to take my dad's place, in fact I am pretty sure, since he has two kids of his own that he wasn't planning on being 'in charge' of three more. But he did it willingly.

" I talk and talk and talk, and I haven't taught people in 50 years what my father taught by example in one week." - Mario Cuomo

(Grandpa with Garrett, Embrie, Jerzee, & Jaxon)

"My father taught me how to work; he did not teach me to love it." - Abraham Lincoln

And ain't that the truth! We learned to work hard growing up. We may not have loved it but it was one of the most important lessons to learn! (And I am sure that if you ask him he'd tell you we still haven't mastered how to work hard, and compared to him that would be the truth.)

Two little girls, on their way home from Sunday school, were solemnly discussing the lesson. "Do you believe there is a devil?" asked one. "No," said the other promptly. "It's like Santa Claus: it's your father." ~Ladies' Home Journal, quoted in 2,715 One-Line Quotations for Speakers, Writers & Raconteurs by Edward F. Murphy

He has always been there for me. A source of great advice and example. He's treated us just as though we have always been his own.

And what a fun grandpa he is! Who doesn't wish that their grandpa had tractors and horses?

"Fatherhood is pretending the present you love most is soap-on-a-rope." ~Bill Cosby

CLYDE

I've always looked up to my grandpa Clyde. As a kid he took me hunting for the coolest rocks and the prettiest wildflowers. As an adult he's given me good advice and more help than I have deserved.

"He didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it." ~Clarence Budington Kelland

He's another one in my family who knows the meaning of hard work! He knows what he's talking about! What a good example he has been to all of us.

"My dad always used to tell me that if they challenge you to an after school fight, tell them you won't wait- you can kick their a-- right now." - Cameron Diaz

"It is admirable for a man to take his son fishing, but there is a special place in heaven for the father who takes his daughter shopping." -- John Sinor

His great-grandchildren call him Papa and they love him!

STEVE

Grandpa Watson, father of six and grandpa to -I can't count them all. He has always been a great source of wisdom and a good example too. He has many stories from his past that have always been interesting to me.

"If the new American father feels bewildered and even defeated, let him take comfort from the fact that whatever he does in any fathering situation has a fifty percent chance of being right."- Bill Cosby

"Sometimes the poorest man leaves his children the richest inheritance." -- Ruth E. Renkel

He has stood in to give me many priesthood blessings when I have needed him.

"When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years." ~Author unknown

This is one very intelligent man! He's one of those people that you could ask them anything and they probably know the answer.

MARK

My father-in-law is also a very good man. I'm lucky that he was the father who raised the man I married.

"Small boys become big men through the influence of big men who care about small boys." -- Anonymous

"A father is someone you look up to no matter how tall you grow." -- Author Unknown

The kids love grandpa Mark! He's always fun to play with.

"The father of a daughter is nothing but a high-class hostage. A father turns a stony face to his sons, berates them, shakes his antlers, pays the ground, snorts, runs them off into the underbrush, but when his daughter puts her arm over his shoulder and says "daddy I need to ask you something." he is butter in a frying pan." - Garrison Keillor

As the father of 3 sons and 1 daughter this is true for him, but he has always been good to his sons. He has helped us out many times and has good advice when we need it.

SHIRL

My grandpa Shirl passed away not quite 2 years ago. We miss him very much.

"A man never stands as tall as when he kneels to help a child."
-- Knights of Pythagoras

"None of you can ever be proud enough of being the child of such a father who has not his equal in this world - so great, so good, so faultless. Try all of you to follow in his footsteps and don't be discouraged, for to be really in everything like him none of you, I am sure will ever be. Try therefore to be like him in some points and you will have acquired a great deal. " -- Queen Victoria of England

Such a good example and a good man. He was always so kind-hearted and generous to all. He was a person you could learn a lot from if you took the time to listen.

My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard. Mother would come out and say, "You're tearing up the grass." "We're not raising grass," Dad would reply. "We're raising boys." -- Harmon Killebrew

He served in the Navy as a young man, which makes our family proud. I'm so thankful for the example that he was to me and I know I will see him again someday.

I've been so blessed to have such smart, strong, kind and giving men in my life as examples of fathers and grandfathers. Happy Father's Day!

Prince Charming

While watching Cinderella . . . .


Garrett asked Embrie to dance and then kept telling her when to bow, to look down or forward, etc. she was more than happy to do it as long as she could pretend to be Cinderella in her dress.

Lets Boogie!

Just a little update of Embrie's summer dance class. I have been so surprised at how well they've caught on as 2 year olds. They have so much fun and are so cute!

first position

leaps (look just like jumps, imagine that!)

tippy toes

I have some video to share too but it won't upload at this time, too bad cause they are soooo cute and funny!