The Little Things

While we were in Utah over the 4th of July, we packed our week full of fun activities.  I would dare say that it was our most fun trip home together yet!  The first day we were there we made a stop at Walmart with Tiff.  There is never a dull moment with her and Joe.  It doesn't matter where we are, these two always make it fun.  I had this idea to buy some blue kick balls for the kids to hold in our family pictures the next day so we ventured over to the toy isle.  These two could have played in this isle for hours I'm sure!=)  This first picture makes me laugh every time I look at it because they weren't posing.  This is them in real life!  A couple of crazies!=)

 After our Walmart trip, Joe went to go see his dad and Tiff and I made a trip to Menchies for frozen yogurt!  This place is amazing, and Tiff and I almost always make it a point to go together whenever I'm home.  The first picture we took, I totally blocked Braden and wasn't even paying attention.  Tiff had to say "uh, you totally just blocked Braden with your big yogurt cup!!"  I just busted up because I hadn't even noticed!

The second time was better!  Look at that sweet face!.......Braden's!=)

That night we went to the park with all of my siblings and their families, some of my cousins, and Britt's brother and his family to play a serious game of Skyball!  Now, some of you may be saying to yourselves "What is Skyball?!"  Well, my friends, it is one of the funnest games ever!  It involves a sponge type bat, and a small round ball that looks like this....  No need to wear a glove, it doesn't hurt when you catch it!  The rules are pretty much the same as softball or baseball, but we decided to add a little excitement and said we could also throw the ball at the players who were running, and if it hit them they were out!  We had SO much fun!  It takes skill to run to the bases, and also dodge the ball while doing it! It also adds A LOT of laughs!

While the adults played, the kids did this!

They seriously ran up and down this hill so many times!  They would yell as they ran down it, and since they were running it sounded so funny! Kinda like when you bounce a kid on your knee and they make noise while you do it.

These two couldn't be any cuter!  They are so fun at this stage, and I loved watching them run and play together.

Tate even took a turn at bat

Pretty sure he got a home run!=)  He'll probably play professional Skyball when he gets older=)

Don't know who had my camera and took this, but I look pretty serious!  I was focused on hitting it out of the park!=)  Joe did say that maybe our kids have some hope at being athletic even if they get my genes after he saw my mad Skyball skills!  Ha ha!

After a while, some people took a break and others filled in.  Aunt Vicki was so sweet to bring her kids and come watch us!  It's always so fun to spend time with the Afematas!

Brittany was the pitcher for their team.  Pregnancy never stops her!  She played like a champ!

Here's the whole group- minus Ty, Talisha, and Reggie.  I think Joseph is crying because they lost!=)  Ha ha jk, he's wiping sweat.  I like to believe it's the first reason though!=)

It's the things like this that I really miss....when everyone gets together and we just play games.  Nothing beats it really! This night didn't cost us a fortune, we didn't travel to some exotic place, we just spent time together laughing, joking, and making fools of ourselves.  Life doesn't get better than that!

After the games were over, Tate decided he was really thirsty and the lid on the water cooler was just slowing him down!=)  Ha ha he cracks me up!

Dallin dumped the water out before we left, and Tate and Braden were occupied for the next 30 minutes.

They sat on ground and chomped down on the ice.  I can't really blame them, it was the good ice from Sonic.  They tried to eat the ice on top that hadn't touched the grass, but I'm sure every now and then they ate some grass along with their ice.  They didn't seem to mind it one bit!=)

Braden's hand was SO cold when I picked him up.  Pretty sure he was close to giving himself frost bite!=)  The ice was just too good to stop eating it though.  It's ok buddy, I do the same thing with ice cream and brain freezes!=)

Love this boy!  Nothing is better than being around these sweet kiddos, and our sweet kiddos in Texas.

Being away from my family has really made me appreciate every moment I get to spend with them when I get to go home.  There were lots of things I took for granted before......not anymore.  I try to cherish every single minute I have with them.  It's the small things in life that mean the most.  

1,2,3 Strikes You're Out

Several weeks ago Anthony and Julie were here in Houston with the kids.  Joe forgot he had asked work for tickets to the Astros game, and had gotten them for that weekend.  We thought it would be so fun to take Jack and Addie, but we weren't sure what their parents would say since it wouldn't be over until well past their bed time.  Joe asked Julie and she said they could go as long as they took a nap!  We were totally stoked!!!  They are at the age now where we can take them to do things, and it's so much fun!

We went and picked them up and came back to our place for dinner.  We had pizza and salad and the kids were great about eating their veggies while the pizza cooked.  We set up their own table, and let them watch cartoons while they ate.  

 Joe found out that the Stadium allows food and drinks now! Pretty sure that has something to do with how bad the Astros are, so they are trying to entice people to come=)   They let you to bring in one unopened water bottle per person, and you can bring in a gallon ziplock bag per person filled with food or treats.  So we stopped at Kroger on the way to the game and let the kids pick out a few treats. We just filled one bag for all of us. They were so excited to be able to choose their treats.

 This isn't the best picture, but it just makes me laugh!  I can't tell if Joe and Addie have their eyes open,  Jack is sliding off of the ball and I look awful, but oh well. We tried to get a good picture, and we failed=)

 Such cuties!  They were so well behaved and Addie even got into it and was asking questions about the game.

Jack just cracks me up!  The sun was starting to go down, and it was shining right on us and it was SO bright.  I asked Jack if he wanted to wear my glasses and he was happy to be able to get the sun out of his eyes.  He wore them for a long time, and every time I would look at him I would just start laughing. Do they get any cuter than that?!  He kills me!

 After the first couple innings we took the kids to the play area.  I think Joe was more excited about it than they were.  They had this little booth to take a picture so it looks like you are in the dugout.  If you look closely at the bench, you'll notice the ball players have no legs=)

I should have taken a picture at a different angle, but they have this big cutout of a baseball player that moves quickly down the line, and the kids are supposed to run as fast as they can and try to beat him to home plate.  I think Jack could have done this all night.  Unfortunately it quit working and they had to call for maintenance.  I don't think they got it up and running again that night.  We still found Jack over there a couple times just running on his own, without having anything to race against.  Talk about a good way to tucker kids out!

 While I was sitting there watching the kids, the Astros' mascot, Junction Jack, came over and sat down next to me.  It kinda creeped me out!  Joe came over and asked if I wanted him to take a picture. Not really, but it was getting awkward, so I just let him take one.  The kids hated him!=)  ha ha!

 They had tons of fun climbing in the play area.  It was so cute to watch them stick together and protect each other as they did it.

 I think I sat there and laughed for about 5 minutes when Jack did this!  I told them to climb in and let me take a picture.  Jack of course, smashed his face up against the plastic.  He is too funny!

 The game was kind of dragging towards the end, but on Friday nights they do fireworks after the game so we wanted to stay for those.  The kids were starting to get tired, and a little bored I think.  Then Uncle Joe pulled out his peanuts.  Jack was entertained for at least 30-45 minutes.  He would pull out a peanut, I would squish it between my fingers and crack it and then he would sit there and pick away at the shell until he could get the peanut out.  Look at that concentration!  I just kept cracking up!  The people around us and behind us couldn't get over how cute he was.

 Still trying to get that darn peanut out!

 He finally got it out, and he couldn't have been more proud of himself.  Then he would pop it in his mouth and start the process all over again.

 The kids loved doing the wave, and singing during the 7th inning stretch, and watching people on the big screen.  We really had so much fun with them.  The Astros lost, surprise surprise!  When the game was over, the roof started to open in preparation for the fireworks.  Addie was so excited as it opened further and further.  We told her once it was all the way opened the fireworks would start.

 While we were waiting, Jack started to get a little loopy.  He was just laughing and trying to tickle me, and he would laugh so hard when I tickled him back.  He would say "tickle, tickle, tickle" when he tried to tickle me back.   Addie thought it was so funny, and I knew they were getting tired.  There's something so contagious about a child's laugh, and it became a cycle.....they would laugh, I would laugh.

 Finally, the roof opened all the way, and the lights went out.  This was Addie's immediate reaction!  Anthony and Julie had both warned us that their kids weren't the biggest fans of fireworks.  I think it's the loud noise that scares them.  Julie said when they were at DisneyWorld there was an incredible fireworks show, and both of the kids were sitting in their laps scared to death.  Joe thought we'd try to help them overcome their fear=)

 Shortly after it started Joe and I just kept raving about how cool the fireworks were, and that there was nothing to be afraid of.  By the end, this was Addie's reaction.

 And this was Jack's reaction!  They both seemed to really like them!  The "boom" noise, wasn't extremely loud so I'm sure that had a lot to do with it.  We would call out which fireworks were our favorites, and we all just had so much fun! There's nothing like a good fireworks show.

I thought for sure the kids would fall asleep in the car on the way home, but they didn't!  They were both wide awake.  We had them stay at our place for a sleepover after the game.  They were so good about getting ready for bed, and then we read stories, said prayers, and they went right to sleep.  It's so fun for Joe and I to be able to have kids in our home.  We loved being able to do the night routine with them, and to wake up to their sweet faces in the morning.  Anthony came over in the morning and we all went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast, and then came back and went swimming.

We had SUCH a fun weekend!  We wish they lived closer so we could do things like that more often!  We're so lucky to have such amazing nieces and nephews!