BP

Just cause its the "off season" doesnt' mean we take a break. The kids love to go down to the cages and work on their skills. We took the boys into the cages and Dan & Chad worked with them then of course Olivia had to have a go at it. Check it out: She's a lefty.

Junior Spivey was in there too and I was all dumb. I don't know why, he isn't the first celebrity I have met - in fact I wouldn't even consider him a celebrity at all. My kids have no clue who he is. Maybe it's because I had a very open crush on him in the early 2000's and now I feel like a weird-o. Although, he is still pretty cute.

We brough Cousin Garrett along too! I think he had fun. Dan makes it more work less play.

Vegas Baby!

Dan & I got to take our VERY FIRST vacation together - that right FIRST {in nearly 13 years of marriage}! We went to Las Vegas for a long weekend with our friends Ethan & Jen. We had so much fun! We found these amazing flights on (nickel & dime you to death) Allegiant Air. The cost of the flight was like $40.00 round trip - per person. However, our hour flight was delayed a hour and a half....But good news! The captain announced during the flight that he had "found a shortcut" to Las Vegas! hahaha!

I had to send Livy a good night, I love you picture and this was it!

We stayed at Bally's. The hotel was mediocre but it is connected to Paris which was SO FUN! We had lots of fun lounging by the pool watching all the men peacocking around.

 We did get to go see Phantom of the Opera at the Venetian. This was not the first time I have seem Phantom, but it was AMAZING! This stage was specially built for Phantom and it was wonderful. I have never seen anyhing like it. If you can get to Vegas in the next month or two go see it! I think it ends its run in September.

We had amazingly close seats, we were in the 9th row - center! I could have touched the chandelier with the top of my head if I had better posture when it came crashing down! Amazing.

Did I mention we hung around at the pool?? Ya.. its cheap and relaxing.

I WON! I had no intentions of gambling while in Vegas but Dan and I were waiting around for Ethan & Jen in the casino one afternoon and so I decided to take the $2.40 I had in my purse and put it into a penny slot! Just when I was down to my last .20 cents I won!! I imediately cashed out! To stressful. Then we went out to eat with my "earnings".

Finally, we were on our way home! Yay! We had so much fun, but we sure missed the kids.

10-11 All-Stars

 Alright! I am SO MAD at myself. I didn't get any pictures of all-stars this season. I don't know what happened. No excuses. I do have our panorama "preview" picture. It was our banner again this year, and like last year, it was AWESOME!! Our team was very similar to last year with the addition of 3 boys. The team was a good set of kids that were good at baseball. We took 3rd place in our district. We have 3 boys (Spencer, Ryan & Nate) from the Raptor's on our team and our first game we played Gilbert National who also had 3 Raptor's (RH, Robert & Ben) it was a fun game but we ended up beating them and sending them into the losers bracket. It was a pretty sweet victory. haha!

Swim Lessons

Olivia is taking swim lessons again this year. Hopefully she will be able to pass the class this time and move on to the next level. She is probably a year older than all the other kids in her class but shes okay with that. She gets lots of one on one time while the other "babies" cry for their mommies.

 The only problem is: when her teacher is not 100% focused on her she is off in Livy-La-La-Land... he is constantly asking her to please return to the wall and wait her turn. She doesn't really listen or care what he has to say.

Notice Livy off on her own.... :/

Clash Softball

This year for Little League Ryleigh played in the Juniors division. It has been way more fun than in years past. The level of ability has been really fun to watch.

Ryleigh has naturally  fallen into a team leader position and is a great addition to her team. Most of the year her coach had her playing 3rd base and occasionally at 1st and batting clean-up. (She did finish the season with 1 grand slam!)

 The unfortunate reality of this season is that her little team struggled with being able to bring in a win. They would usually start out very strong. The score would be within a run or two for several innings and then in one inning the wheels would come off and they would bury themselves in a pile of runs. The errors would be more than the score in some games. They were able to win 3 games this season but unfortunately they were unable to make it past the first round of the tournament.

The bright side of things is Dan is thinking about coaching her fall-ball team! I really hope he can pull it off!

Noelle

Back in December we got our sweet little dachshund Noelle back! She was on a 10 month sabbatical in Washington state. She was never really a problem dog before she left us (our grumpy old man neighbor called the police on her twice for barking {when I believe it was the shih tzu that lived on the other side of us}) but we felt we needed to try and keep the peace with our neighbor so we sent her to live with some friends who were very excited to have her. Well their living arrangements changed and they couldn't take care of her anymore so they asked if we would like her back. Of course we jumped on that! I was so excited. I don't think we realized how much we missed her until we knew she was coming back.

Since she came back she has been SO wonderful! Better than I remember her. She is loving the kids (although, she did bite our nephew one day (rrrg!)) and she is so well behaved. The kids argue over her and just want to snuggle her. She's not complaining.

Dubb, of course is happy to have his mama back too!

Noelle is so good with the babies. She really understands age, once they get about 2 years old, she doesn't put up with their crap anymore. Addi doesn't seem to give her much crap though.

She even loves to tag along to our many sporting events.