Boston and Baseball

For as long as I can remember, Boston and his brother have been playing baseball. I guess for a while, Boston has been telling his Mom that he wanted to play on the same team as Trace. Finally, the time arrived! They started the season and we discovered that Boston was going to be the star of the team and poor Trace would need some serious coaching on how to play the game. The best part for me was when we went to Cam and Boston's house toward the beginning of the season and Cam pitched to Boston and Trace and gave them tips on how to hit and catch. Cam is such a super star and Boston is following right behind him! We realized that Trace needed a bit more guidance in the sports arena during his first game. He started out great when he hit the ball and ran for all he could to first base, then, his teammate hit the ball so he ran to second, then third. When he was on third base, Boston was at bat. I was close enough to Trace to yell to him; "Trace! When Boston hits the ball, run as fast as you can home!" Sure enough, Boston hit the ball high and far, Trace took off like a rocket straight to the dugout and skidded onto the bench and removed his batting helmet and set it on the bench next to him. His coach, parents and teammates were all yelling; "No! Trace run to home, run to home!" I was laughing so hard I didn't think to grab my phone and record it for posterity. Turns out, the ball that Boston hit was a foul ball, so the coach got Trace to return to 3rd base and we got to try again. I was laughing, but this time Kevin told Trace to "run home" when Boston hit the ball. Trace nodded, got a really serious look on this face, and when the ball was hit again, he tore off again.....straight for the dugout. Now, the entire group of spectators, the coach, the teammates and opposing team were all laughing. I was laughing so hard I was crying! Finally, the coach went over to the bench and grabbed Trace's hand and walked him over to home plate and showed him how to tag in for a score. I felt so bad and was worried that Trace would be upset about the mix up, but he just shrugged it off, he was just sitting on the bench looking around like; "Okay, now what?" Now, I'm so mad I didn't video tape it, we could have won $100,000 from America's Funniest Home Videos! Anyway, the rest of the season, he got it figured out and hit lots of balls and scored lots of points.

10th book page break

Farmers Market

The day after Trace's birthday, Nana and Papa suggested we go to the Liberty Park Farmers Market. We hadn't been all summer, so Trace and I decided to go while Kevin was at work. We found a bunch of delicious fruits and vegetables and saw a lot of interesting crafts. Along one of the areas we saw a booth with a trained crow that would take donations right from your hand and put it in the box. Trace had great fun having the crow take his donation and even got to touch and get a picture with a huge owl. It was a fun day and nice to get out and enjoy the sunshine a little bit.

Happy Birthday Baby Boy!

I'm not sure, but if there is a potion out there somewhere for making time slow down, I'd buy as much of it as I could carry. Somehow, the day has arrived that my little boy has turned 9 years old! He's such an amazing young man with such a huge heart. I'm so blessed to be his Mom and watch him grow and learn every day. He still makes sure to lie to me and tell me I'm beautiful all the time and that I'm the "best Mom in the universe". He's almost 5 feet tall, about 90 lbs and he wears size 5 shoes. He's at the perfect height for me to rest my arm on his shoulders and he's definitely too big for us to carry up the stairs anymore, but I do enjoy cuddling with him in the lounge chairs and so far, he's still okay with it on a fairly regular basis. Every day when I come home from work he, opens up the garage door and jumps in the drivers seat with me to pretend to drive and honk the horn to annoy Daddy. He's got a good, large vocabulary, even though he still says "fums" (thumbs) and pasketti (spaghetti). Some of my favorite recent sayings of his have been, things like;

When putting the garbage on the stairs. "Sorry, force of habit."

When eating at a restaurant, he called the kitchen "Backstage"

When at Papa's house after school and Nana stayed home feeling sick "Nana, I'll come hang out with you, I don't want you to be lonely AND sick."

When shopping with me; "Mom, why do girls like clothes so much?"

When brushing his teeth, he said; "Ow! I have a handkerchief inside my cheek!" 

(Meaning canker sore)

Swimming with Dad; "Respect the beard!"

Trying new food at Costco; "This tuxedo (taquito) is delicious!"

I was able to escape from work a bit early to bring a treat to his class at the end of school. It was so cute, the entire class sung to him and he decided that he wanted to have ice cream sandwiches as his treat. We found some that had plain vanilla ice cream, some with chocolate, vanilla and strawberry ice cream and even some caramel ice cream with graham cracker outside. Delicious! They were a hit with most of the kids since it's still really hot outside.
When we all got home, he opened his presents: He got some clothes, including a new black suit, and unlike most young boys, he was actually pretty excited about them. He got some battle bot robots, fishing pole, and of course, some Legos. The thing he was most excited about was an electric scooter. I was just driving by a yard sale and saw a family had several used ones for sale. I bought one for only $25, brought it home, bought a new battery, removed the seat, a new deck and cleaned it up. He loved it and took it outside to try it out the minute we'd let him.
Because he's the nicest kid on the planet, he "chose" to go to the Melting Pot for dinner. I think he secretly chose to go there to make his Mama happy, but we had a nice time and a delicious meal anyway. Happy Birthday sweetheart, I love you to the moon and back.

3rd grader in the house!

Every year since Trace started school, including Kindergarten, he has started school on his birthday. This was the first year that the school year DID NOT begin on the day he turned a year older. Yay! I'm not sure he cared, but I was thrilled that I didn't have to cram in birthday excitement with first day of school excitement. To me, they need to be two separate days, my emotions can't take it!
Anyway, this year, it was fun to get all the "Mom texts" during the preceding week asking what class our kids have for this year and find out who was in what teacher's class. This year the word on the street was that everyone wanted "Ms. Stroud". I had actually noticed her before. She used to teach the 4th graders and she would come out every morning and recite a military-type chant with the kids about the things they'd do in school and their love of all things East Sandy. (I tried to pick up all the words, but couldn't ever do it) So when I found out that Trace was to be in her class this year, I was pretty hopeful for a good year. Turns out that he wasn't going to be in class with his best friend from up the street, Wesley, but his long-time buddy Matthew and a couple of kids from the ward (Burton and Talan) were going to be in with him.
He wasn't nervous about starting another year in the slightest. He was just excited to see his friends and see what 3rd grade would hold for him.

First glimpse of Ms. Stroud this year

3rd Grade School Photo

Cuddle Time

Raven is specifically NOT supposed to get on the bed with Kevin and I. She has her own bed and Kevin does not like her on his messing up the covers and leaving hair everywhere. However, the rules don't seem to apply when it comes to Trace's bed. He constantly invites her onto his bed and then she acts all innocent when I walk in the room. Can I help it if they look cute cuddling together?

Car Show

Since my Dad seemed to be on a "car show circuit" we decided to stop by one at an elderly care facility one Saturday to check out the old relics. Oh, and the cars too. The set up was really cool and Dad got a great shady spot. They had FREE face painting, snow cones, popcorn, hamburgers, chips, water, cookies and even a raffle where they gave away some pretty sweet prizes! I didn't win any prizes, but we took advantage of all the other free stuff and had a really nice time! Trace even got to RIDE in the Corvette with my Dad, an honor above all others.

High Tide

It has been said by many that our current house is a little larger than our current needs. Therefore, we don't tend to venture into the basement that much. The other day, I went down into the storage room to grab something and thought that the carpet was colder than usual. I happened to not have any socks on, and as I ventured further and further into the guest room, I discovered that the carpet wasn't just cold, it was wet. I immediately thought that Raven had somehow gotten downstairs and decided to mark the carpet. I couldn't understand when or why that would have happened, but it seemed like the most likely explanation. When I told Kevin, he came down with carpet cleaner and started to spray it and rub it in. Then, I backed up into the closet area and discovered it was wet too. We started thinking that there was no way she could have marked the entire carpet. Then Kevin looked at the wall and saw a small bulge in the wall about halfway down. He leaned into the wall and it immediately buckled. Oh boy! Now we knew we were dealing with water damage. We had a plumber and disaster clean up folks come by and they discovered that our outside water spigot had frozen over the winter and when we turned it on, (to fill up our 80 gallon water tank inside our camping trailer) the joint halfway down the wall inside sprung a leak. They removed about half the wall of sheet rock, part of the ceiling and the carpet and pad. I did find it interesting that the window well, which would be where everyone would first look for a leak was the driest area in the whole room! We were happy to find out that our homeowner's insurance would cover the damage except for our deductible and eventually it all got fixed, but definitely something we'd not like to repeat.