DigiSoftball

My husband works for a company called DigiCert, and over the years we have decided that anything related to them can be called Digi____. We wear DigiShirts all the time, we take DigiTrips with the company, and now we have a DigiSoftball team. Complete with DigiJerseys with whatever name they chose on the back.
I was so excited when they organized the team! Chris used to play for some intramural teams at BYU, and I loved going to watch him play with the other wives. And since we honestly love hanging out with everyone that he works with, I get to have a blast on the sidelines with the other moms and toddlers while he plays.

Isn't she adorable? My kids finished off their juice boxes very quickly, and then every other toddler wanted to play with the empty boxes the rest of the night.

So cute!

And here is Kaitlyn, trying on shoes that once again do not belong to her. She is such a girl! She loves shoes, getting her nails painted, getting her hair done, and playing with her dresses.

Anyway, back to the game. This was the third week they have played, and well, let's be honest: they stink. This is a team of computer nerds, not jocks. In fact, the first four games that they played were ended early by the mercy rule. The first game lasted 20 minutes.

But not tonight! They had an awesome night, and actually finished both of their games! It was fun watching them make some great plays and run the bases tonight. Go team!

First day of school

I can't believe I am making this post! After months of looking at preschools last spring, I never did find one that felt right for Tyler. He needs someone who understands kids with special needs to pay particular attention to him. But then he made it into the school district preschool this year! I am so happy. My friend around the corner says that it has done wonders for her child, and they are in the same class together this year. She had to stop by and drop something off today, and apparently Tyler was doing great, sitting there and paying attention to the lesson on the weather. She said there were about 9 kids and 5 aides to help the teacher. I don't know if that is just because it's the first day, or what, but wow! I didn't think I would be sad when the big yellow school bus came to take him away, because I have been so excited for him to have this help. But I have to admit I got a bit teary eyed watching him leave! And now he'll be gone four days a week, from noon to four. Good luck litle guy!

Free food, anyone?

I have a problem.

See all of those apples? That's just a small section of the tree. We have some fruit trees that were in the yard when we bought the house. Most of the cherry trees have died, but the apple tree and the pear tree have made it through a couple of rough years with the yard leveling. I was actually grateful the year that the apple tree didn't produce a single apple, because picking rotten apples off the ground is no fun. Now, keep in mind, we never really planned on eating the apples. Usually we find a few that are blemish free and eat them, throwing the rest away. We don't spray for that reason. But of all the years, this is the biggest crop yet. And miraculously, hardly any of them have bugs or worms.

But what in the heck do you do with all those apples? And pears? Because the pear tree did the same thing. Bumper crop, first year with no spots. They are delicious. I go out and pick one for Kaitlyn, and she is happy for a half an hour with her prize.

Now, if I was truly a domesticated woman, I would can for the next few weeks. But I have never canned in my life. And you know what? This sounds spoiled of me, but . . . I really don 't want to learn! I have other talents, I swear. Gardening is not one of them. And my kids won't eat canned fruit (believe me, I've tried and I think they are crazy). We are just eating fruit like maniacs for now.

So the moral of this story is, if anyone reading this lives near me and wants some apples or pears, could you please come to my house? PLEASE!? Because every single one of those apples and pears is going to fall to the ground and have to be picked up soon. I'd rather they got eaten. And picked by . . . not me. So you want 'em? Come pick 'em! I'll get the ladder out for you and help you and everything! There are some with spots, so you avoid those, and the pears aren't all ripe yet, but many are. I don't care if you want a snack on your walk around the block and just wander back to pick a couple off or want to stay for a while and grab some to can for yourself. Just . . . please . . . help me!

Go-Karts!

Last Saturday we got to go up to Miller Sports Park and play with Go-Karts with the rest of Christopher's awesome company. It was so much fun! I tell ya, though, these karts are intense. Supposedly they go up to 45 mph, and gripping that steering wheel was actually a work out. But it was a blast! After trying them out a bit, we had teams of three that competed in a relay, 20 minutes each person. The team that did the most laps in the hour won. By the time my 20 minutes was up, I was car-sick and my arms were tired! But still worth it.


These were Kaitlyn's favorite sunglasses, right before she lost them. Sad.



And at the end of it all, Christopher's team won! Nice work, babe!


Tyler liked the kart that was in the shade so he could play on it.

Oh yeah, you're tough now, hubby! (His shirt says "Built Ford Tough")

After the karts, we had lunch up in the box before the race started. Dang, those things go fast! And LOUD! Unfortunatly, by then the kids were kinda fried, so we ended up leaving not long after the race started. But it was still a lot of fun!

Cabin projects

Using a wood burning tool for the first time to make a sign for our cabin. Because apparently, crafts is what I do. This was once again born becuase I saw it online, but the lady I liked on etsy didn't take custom orders, so I figured, how hard can it be? (Katahimikan, in case you were wondering, is Tagalog for "peaceful". My husband speaks Tagalog from serving his LDS mission in the Phillipines for two years.)

Testing out the new wagon. Christopher bought this a year or two ago on a Black Friday trip where this was a good deal. It just now found a use up at the cabin. Tyler adores it.

Having fun with the fancy camera and the stream, taking pictures. This is one of my favorites so far.

Moving dirt in the horseshoe pit, er, I mean sand box. Very important job.

Painting an old abandoned patio set with old abandoned stain left in the shed. My favorite part of this project was that it was entirely free. Woot!

Shopping for furniture. We bought the cabin furnished, and thank heavens because even just finding the finishing pieces has taken forever. Tyler needed a bed, an the funniest part is that his bed at the cabin is much nicer than his one at home! But I couldn't resist the bedspread, and I wanted a trundle bed for when we have friends come over. We also needed a bedroom set, given that when we moved we slept on a mattress on the floor for the first month.

Not pictured: I spent all day Tuesday painting the bedroom we sleep in. Wood paneling is fine and all, but this paneling was a grey I didn't care for. Man, painting in the grooves of paneling is hard work!

Girl's camp

So, the only problem with my parent's visit was that is overlapped with Girl's Camp. At least they could watch the kids for me one day! Their first job was to take them to the doctor's office, because they were so covered with mosquito bites that we needed to make sure it wasn't chicken pox before I left them at random houses all week while I was gone. It's kinda lame that I can't tell the difference, but I didn't want to leave them with friends who have other kids and not know for sure.

And with that, I was off. I love girl's camp! I am so grateful that working with the Beehives (12-13 year old girls) in church means that I get to go with them. One of my jobs every year is collecting the pictures and putting them in a slideshow for everyone, so that means I have pictures for this post.

The slideshow, by the way, took up the next entire week and a half. I was speaking in church the week after camp, so between preparing for that and working on the slideshow, my husband expressed relief once it was over because "the house is starting to get put back together again." Sorry babe!

July was crazy

I can't believe the whole month is gone already. Things were just really hectic for a while there!

The first, holiday weekend we were busy hosting at our cabin. We went up Thursday night to get things ready, and then Friday morning we had some dirt bike friends up to try out the track. And my camera died. And I couldn't find the charger. Which means I have no pictures of anything that weekend! Well, here is a picture of the little pit bike that Chris got.

The guys loved our track so much, they immediatly started looking for land to buy for themselves to mold into a track too. It was a blast. And we were glad they came, because the weeds over the track were about waist high, but they plowed right over it with their big dirt bikes and left a great path.

Then we had Christopher's extended family all up for lunch on the 4th itself. It was actually fairly painless, because my mother in law insisted on being in charge of the food, so I we just got the meat to grill for a main dish and that was it!

Then we went back down so we could go to church the next day. I wanted Kaitlyn to wear her July 4th bow, and this was the only red, summer dress she had. I bought these outfits in Maui before Kaitlyn was even born, so it was awesome to see them finally wear them together. The shirt is too big on Tyler, and the dress is nearly to small for Kaitlyn, so it's now or never.

Then we met my parents fresh off their flight from Cleveland and led them up to the cabin to host my side of the family that night. It was a much smaller group than the day before, but it was a lot of fun. Of course, since my camera was dead, these are pictures from my parent's camera that they just barely got to me today.

Did I tell you this place is so awesome, that the wind near the fire pit blows steadily one direction all night, so you don't have smoke in your face? Sigh.

As a side note, my mother HATES watermelon. So much that she gags and sends plates back at the restaurant if they have it on her plate. I have vivid memories of eating contraband watermelon as a child as fast as we could, out on the porch, because mom wasn't home and we had to hurry before she caught us with it. Unfortunatly for her, it is my daughter's favorite food.

So after a couple of days up at the cabin, my parents headed up to Idaho for the reason they flew out. My oldest brother has a cabin up there and flew them out as a Christmas present, which I think they loved dearly. His cabin is more of the 20 acres, fly fishing variety.

Lucky for us, SLC was the nearest airport, so we got them on each end of their trip as a bonus. When they came back, Kaitlyn discovered she could get a lot of laughs with this new favorite face:

This last picture was at my Aunt and Uncle's house- while Kaitlyn was busy playing with me and everything else in sight, Tyler found out that the little cozy coupe car went zooming down the hill in the backyard if you pick up your feet. And if you smile at Grandpa, he will push you back up the hill so you can do it again. For the next hour or so. Grandpa got his workout that night!