America's Pastime

I was reminded last night that I really enjoy watching live pro-baseball*. We took our family to see the Boise Hawks play the Spokane Indians using the tickets the kids earned by reading lots and lots of books this summer. We got to sit on the second to the top row on the 3rd base side. (I didn't have my fear of heights make itself manifest, but Ryan sure did watching Roderic and Hyrum sit close to the end of the row -- a puny chain link fence was the only thing between them and a drop of 100+ feet.) Roderic is showing off the popcorn we got and amazingly enough, you can see the runner approaching homeplate in the background. I don't know how I lucked out with the camera! We sang, "Take Me Out to the Ballgame"...my kids don't know what Cracker Jacks are. The Hawks won 3-0. What a great night.

*During the summers of 1994, 1995 and 1996, I worked as an usher at Franklin Quest field in Salt Lake City and got paid to watch the Salt Lake Buzz play. Usually I worked in the elevator lobby and heard the play-by-play on the speakers (except for the day when OJ was being chased down the freeway in SoCal), and I'd give breaks to the other ushers and watch the game from all over the field. Rained out games were fun and double-headers were brutal. I even got to sing the National Anthem with my sisters once (we sang it so slowly because we weren't used to hearing ourselves in the speakers) and once with Keturah and 2 friends. I first used a cell phone at this job - the phone was gigantic - the ushers were given them as a promotion for guests to be able to use while at the game. I used it a couple of times to call Ryan at BYU in 1996, but I don't remember ever being asked by a patron to use it. It was while working the ball games that I learned to love to put pickles and tomatoes on Polish dogs. YUM!

What would you do?

What would you do if you were teaching the Sunbeam class (3 & 4 year olds) and one of them had to use the toilet, really, really bad?

A Would you send the 4 year old to the bathroom by himself (not thinking about the ultra heavy doors he would have to open in order to get in and out of the bathroom)?

B Would you wander the halls of the church with the 4 Sunbeams looking for the dad (the mom teaches a different class), hoping that you'd find the dad with plenty of time for them to make it to the bathroom?

C Would you take the whole class to the bathroom (with another child saying that they also needed to use the toilet on the way there) while carrying your 2.5 month-old sleeping baby in a sling? And then when they enter the cavernous room and start shrieking, because it is an echo chamber (and what 3 or 4 year old doesn't like the sound of their own voice), would you start laughing as you try to quiet them and hurry them along on their business, knowing full well that this bathroom is separated by a thin accordion wall and a baptismal font from the Relief Society room and a lesson about Jesus Christ?

I went with option C yesterday as I substituted in Hyrum's class. When I was talking it over with Ryan, I told him that I had always pictured the scene in the new testament (Mark 10:13-16) when his disciples turned away the little children, that the children were walking quietly, with their arms folded towards the Savior. After my experience yesterday, I think they may have been running, boisterous, shrieking (because their voices sound cool bouncing off the walls), laughing children and the Savior wanted to enjoy their enthusiasm. (And remind us that it is OK to be like them.)

Enjoy a picture of my smiling baby!

Notice anything different?

Yep. My girl has braces. Most likely for the next 2 years. Right now she only has 6 brackets on her top teeth, but at the end of the summer, she'll get the full set. The orthodontist has said that her case is a 9 on a 10 point scale. Apparently, she has inherited teeth issues from both of her parents. What a lucky girl!

Overheard in the Dining Room

While coloring pictures/writing letters for Uncle Colter:

Hyrum: "Sabrina, I'm using your favorite color."
Sabrina: "That's not my favorite color."
Hyrum: "But it's PINK!"

Leo's Blessing

We had family in town last weekend for Leo's baby blessing. We got to see both sets of grandparents, my sister Shanda, my brother Carson, Ryan's sister Genette and 4 of her children, Melissa, Brad, Cameron, Matt, and Ryan's sister Meggan. Leo didn't fuss at all during the blessing and slept through the rest of sacrament meeting in Aunt Shanda's arms. Our kids were the quietest I've seen them in quite a while. Roderic fell asleep on Grandma Gibby's lap, Sabrina sat between Cameron and Matt, and Hyrum sat on Cameron's lap (he really liked it when Cameron helped him lead the closing hymn).

Before church, after he got in his blessing outfit, he did cry, though. He was really hungry. His blessing outfit (that I made in February) fit him much better at 9 weeks than it did at 1 week.

My mom wrote down the blessing for us. We had some disagreements on the order of what was said. It is cool to have it written down for us.

Happy Birthday Roderic

So excited to have Uncle Carson here for Roderic's birthday! And he got firetruck LEGOs!




Roderic wanted to go home and play with his new LEGOs instead of playing with his friends at his party.

Sam, Roderic, Clara, Taryn (Blake had to leave early) When the sun was not behind clouds, it felt warm enough (barely) to swim.

When the party moved to the swings, Roderic joined in again.

At Roderic's request, I made an R2D2 cake. I call it "R2D2 on Dagobah" because of all the 'dirt' on the cake.

Play Ball!

Roderic played T-ball this spring. All of the teams in the league were given university names/mascots and Roderic got to be on the hometown favorite -- BSU Broncos! I think this sport was a bigger success than soccer last fall, where he liked to run up and down the field waving at us with a big smile.

He made considerable improvement as a batter from the start of the season, meaning he would hit the ball on his first attempt instead of hitting the T many times before.

He liked to sit in the outfield and pick grass. When he was a base player, or runner, he liked to pick up the dirt. When he wasn't on the ground, he liked to run at the ball and tackle another player if there was one to tackle.

All of the players wanted to be the catcher, so they could dress up like a "Storm Trooper."

Thanks to Amy for taking good pictures of my boy (and the rest of the team)!