Jake's Game at Angel Stadium

As part of Jake's Challenger Baseball League, every year all of the teams get to come out to Angel Stadium and play a game out on the field. This is Jake's second year doing this and it has been a great experience both times!

First they check in and get a team picture taken and then they walk all of the teams in through the tunnel and announce them as they enter the field.

They warm up, sing the National Anthem and then they are ready to play ball! This was Jake's first at bat and he hit the ball really well. Notice who is pitching to Jake in this picture... If you can't tell, it's Jim Abbott, the one handed pitcher who used to play for the Angels! It was so cool to have him there especially since he knows what it's like to live with a disability. He talked to all of the kids at the end and told them to never give up and always try their hardest. He's a great role model for these little kids to follow!

Jake giving his buddy a thumbs up after making it to first base!

Running the bases.

Throwing the ball back to the pitcher.

Smiling for a picture with his buddy.

After the game Jim Abbott came over and signed the player's hats. I'm pretty sure that Jake didn't really have a clue who he was, but we all thought it was really cool!

They put a close-up of Jake on the jumbo-tron, but I was too slow taking the picture so I only got the back of his head. Bummer!

Jake was proud of his medal and ready to go home! He had another great experience and we are looking forward to doing it again next year!

Sacrament Program, Max, and School Activities

This year I had the opportunity to write our Primary Sacrament Meeting program. It was a lot of work and a little stressful, but it was so worth it when the whole thing came together. All of the kids did a great job and I felt like the spirit was really strong. Jacob and Nathan both said their parts and appeared at times like they were actually singing the songs!

What handsome boys!

One random Sunday after church Max decided that he wanted to go potty in the toilet! He went and so I put underwear on him and was hoping that we were on our way to being potty trained. WRONG! He had accidents all day and ever since then has refused to even try to go in the toilet or wear underwear. What is wrong with boys??? I still have a goal of getting him potty trained before this baby gets here, but I'm running out of time and no progress has been made so I'm starting to lose hope. So sad.

Nathan got a little rough with Max playing in the backyard and this was the end result. The sad thing is that as soon as it was almost healed, Nathan pushed him again and scraped his nose up again. Let's just say that Nathan was in more than a little trouble and hasn't pushed him since!

Max has sucked his thumb ever since he was born. It drives Jon crazy as it is making his teeth come in weird, but the doctor tells us we shouldn't worry about it and that he'll stop when he's ready. I'm pretty sure that he's not quite ready to quit since he has now added a head rub with the thumb sucking. As soon as his thumb goes in his mouth, his hand goes up to his head and he rubs it on his hair. Weird, but kind of cute!

Nathan had his Thanksgiving feast at school with all of the kindergarteners and their big buddies. Nathan always talks about his big buddy and was excited to get to sit by him and eat his Thanksgiving meal with him.

You might think his buddy is just a year or two older, but he's actually a 5th grader! I'm pretty sure Nathan is almost as big as him!

The next day was Jake's turn to celebrate. His class had a day long celebration of our Native American ancestors. They played with clay, made little satchels and beaded necklaces, baked bread, made butter and lots of other little activities. Jake had a great time and I think enjoyed the break from his normal routine!

Yellow Belts!

Jake and Nathan have been doing Tae Kwon Do since August and in November they had their first belt test to advance from white belts to yellow belts. They were pretty excited and a little nervous about it, but they both did great! They have to warm up, show that they know their forms and their self defense steps, answer a set of questions about discipline and what it means to be a Tae Kwon Do student and then they get to break a real board. It was quite the process, but when it was done Jake and Nathan both earned their yellow belts and are one step closer to becoming black belts!

Wild Animal Park

We've always wanted to check out the San Diego Wild Animal Park so we finally found time to go over Veteran's weekend. Randomly Rob and Bethany had the same plan so it was fun to meet up with them and spend a few hours there together!

We found out that Jon is almost as big as a gorilla! The boys thought this was pretty cool!

They had a ton of elephants that they let roam around in the open. It was cool to see the animals more in their element rather than cooped up in cages like at the zoo.

We took a tram ride through the park and were able to see giraffes, zebras, a lion and lots of other animals.

The highlight of the day was definitely seeing this lion stretch out on top of this car and then lay down. You can tell that he really is the king of the jungle!

After a few hours we had seen most of the park and were ready to go. I must admit that I'm not a big animal lover, but it's worth it to see how excited the kids get. We now have season passes to the zoo and the wild animal park so I guess we're going to have to go more often than once every few years. Great!

Halloween 2010

We were able to do lots of fun activities to get us in the Halloween spirit this year. Trunk or Treat is always a favorite for the kids, but especially this year since Halloween was on a Sunday. We went with the super hero theme and the kids left with their buckets full of candy! What more can you ask for?!!

The kids like passing out the candy almost as much as they like getting it. Almost.

Jon and I went to our friend's annual Halloween party. It was a pirate theme this year which was a challenge to come up with a costume I could wear with my ever expanding belly! We had a great time as always!

We did lots of Halloween crafts.

We made a foam haunted house...

Baked and frosted sugar cookies...

Carved pumpkins...

and decorated a gingerbread haunted house.

On actual Halloween day we went to my sister, Christy's house after church for a yummy dinner and to let the kids all hang out in their costumes. Jake loved sitting out front and helping pass out candy to the trick or treaters.

Nathan and Max had fun playing games with their cousins.

LOVE those cheeks!

Cute cousins!

I love these cute super heroes and am glad that they had a fun Halloween!