Baseball Andrew

Andrew is trying baseball for the first time this spring, and I think he likes it. What he really likes, is talking to the other kids out in the field or in line waiting to bat. 

He didn't know anyone on the team on the first day, but he is a boy who quickly makes friends and really likes to make people laugh. He craves an audience.

It's no-stress, everybody gets to swing until they get a hit, no worries if it's foul just run to first base.

Here he is at third waiting to run home.

This girl stole a batting helmet.

My other kids look longingly at the post-game snacks for the team. They don't think the kids worked THAT hard to earn a juice box and granola bar. At least not as hard as they were working on the nearby playground.

Kids in our ward that are younger than James are on the same league's pre-school/K teams. They play before Andrew's first grade age group. But we decided to give James another sports-free spring.  The scars have not healed from the experience with soccer and swimming lessons.

Volleyball Maxwell

Max is fulfilling my dreams of playing volleyball again. I don't want to say I pushed him toward the team, but I did show a lot of enthusiasm when he mentioned the try-outs.

And, without ever playing a game before, he made the middle school JV team. It's co-ed, and the season only lasts a month or so, but I think he is doing great. And hopefully having fun.

His serve is so nice. Underhand, and really smooth and high-arcing. But he hates to lose, and feels it if team members aren't giving their best or if he doesn't do his best.

Volleyball has been hard on his hands, though. I feel like the air is extra-dry in Salt Lake City still from winter, and he has been dealing with really dry, cracking skin. Any tips for that would be much appreciated.

Siblings

A little Throwback Thursday the summer of 1999, to one of the only pictures when all 12  siblings were all together at once. Rebekah and I were home from college, and Joe was a couple months away from his mission. My little sister Sarah had just been born.  The photographer called me the "second mother" and had me hold my little brother. Despite that awkwardness, I do look at this with fondness. I can't imagine the family without any of them.

I almost posted this picture and description on Instagram or Twitter or Facebook on National Sibling Day last week, but never did. Maybe some of my siblings will see it here. 

Sometimes when I see all my children in a row in public, I gasp a little inside and think, "whoa, we are a big family." Yet it isn't half of what my mom had (and this is it for us).

At the library

On Temple Square

I remember my mom saying when I was pregnant with baby number 2, that I shouldn't worry about splitting my love between kids -- my heart would grow. And it has!

I subbed in Primary on Sunday in Ben's class, and the lesson was on twin brothers Jacob and Esau. They spent years apart after Jacob got the birthright, and Jacob was worried what Esau would do to him.  But when they met again,  "Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him: and they wept."

I feel this way when I see my siblings again. I hope my children always count their siblings as their friends.

Sleep training here we go

I told JB that we should start sleep-training and weaning in earnest after our spring break trip. We tried before and she would fall asleep at random times on the couch and mess up the whole schedule.

Crying it out has not worked for this girlie in the past, at all. BUT, do you know what IS working for her? A binkie and a show. That's right, the baby who really never caught on to a binkie as a newborn, now walks around with one in her mouth and really wants it at night.

There she is above with the binkie as a young 'un, the same binkie she recently found again and loves as an almost-21-month-old.

She also found this random binkie and loves it, too.

I give her a show on the old iphone on Guided Access so she can't push any buttons. It's usually Boss Baby or Curious George or Finding Dory, and she stays in her crib without crying and falls asleep.

No shame.

I will not judge any parent for what it takes for them to be able to have some sanity.

So, with these soothers, she may not be nursing half the night anymore, but she still demands it plenty during the day. As I type this, she is pulling on my shirt and demanding "Side! Side!"

So we are still working on that.

A sense of Japan

I have been missing my brother Peter and his cute family since they moved to Japan a year ago. We got a taste of what they are experiencing, when he sent some Japanese treats and chopsticks to the states with his brother-in-law Sidney, who was coming to Utah for a friend's wedding.

Thumbs up!

James has been fascinated with the chopsticks. 

I tried to show him how to use them (I am not very good. My siblings are getting really good at it). He figured out a better way to use them to eat his favorite snack: bread.

Peter has been posting pictures of the beautiful cherry blossoms in his area of Japan.  At the Utah State Capitol Building, they have some as well! My friend Linda took Max and Ben with her Andrew to fly kites last week.

Easter dress

This picture is titled: Sadness when your mom won't let you run around the muddy wet grass in your brand-new hand-made dress from your Nona.

I just love this dress. It is so beautiful. I got so many comments on it at church -- "Where did you get that? Wait, you are saying your mother-in-law MADE it?" 

JB is gone for meetings Sunday mornings, so I had the boys help me try to take pictures to kind of be Easter pictures before church. Ben and I tried different bows on Millie.

But then James was sad he couldn't take the picture instead of Ben.

Different bow, more of a smile (I zoomed in and cropped it).

Back to the first pink bow, and Ben's turn to hold her and my turn to take the pictures.

 

Then the other boys came out, but then James wouldn't stand with them and Millie really wanted to get into that wet grass.

Then I took her back, and let James take a picture from his height.

And then we went to church! Living the dream!

Jordan River Temple

The Jordan River Temple was re-furbished and re-everything, so it will be re-dedicated, meaning they held an open house all this week.  We had tickets Friday.

We went to the Ogden Temple open house in 2014, to the Provo City Center Temple open house in 2016, and our first two boys to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house in 2009 but I don't see that I blogged about that.

The waiting, the crowds, the shuffling through, the hushing...it's all worth it for the awe and the beauty and the sweet feeling inside. Millie didn't want to be put down, and James hesitated about the white booties. But I think he did really well. Until he was hangry.

He thought the wait at In-and-Out Burger was unacceptable.

Millie however has lots of fun being entertained by brothers.

I am excited that the Saratoga Springs and Layton Temples have been announced. We'll go to those, too.