Baseball Boy and Softball Girl

Manti is intense. I got a flyer from school for city league baseball and softball sign ups. I asked the kids if they wanted to do it and they both did. Meg did tball when she was 3 and dropped out. Hee hee. She thought it was so boring and would inevitably be sitting in the outfield playing with the grass or just leaving the game to come get a drink from us on the sidelines. You know, because she was working so hard out there. We actually moved to Ogden from Orem so she had to quit. Granted she was only 3, but she didn't request to try again until now. Adin did tball last fall in Salt Lake. He liked it quite a bit and was definitely was one of the best all around players on the team. Both of them had games on Saturdays. Meg had one practice a week and Adin's coach just had them show up a little early for each game and got a little practice in. I assumed that was what I was signing up for. Ha. Ha......HAHAHAHAHA. Not at all.

 Adin got unlucky or lucky depending on how you look at it. He got put on a team whose coach is most likely aspiring to be the high school baseball coach and his drill sargent father. Brian went with him to the first practice and came home extremely concerned. His protective instincts had kicked in and he mentioned pulling Adin out. Adin was by far the smallest on the team and his skills were nowhere near on par with the boys on his team. They had all obviously played before and played a lot. Then pair that with super intense coaches. They yell at the kids if they do something wrong. One kid sat down in the outfield and he got reamed and told if he was going to sit down he could do that at home. Eeesh. They say stuff like, how many times am I going to have to tell you and what is it going to take to get you guys to get this. My blood has boiled numerous times at practice. The boys who have been on his team before were used to it and don't bat an eye. Adin is overall pretty darn easy going, but I was still surprised that he didn't complain about the coaches being mean. One time after practice he said, that old guy yells a lot, but he didn't seem bugged by it at all. We started working overtime with Adin. I would go out in the back with him every day after school and work on catching and batting. Brian was shocked by how fast he improved. Just when he hit his stride and started getting pretty confidant with catching, disaster struck. Brian took him to practice and called me for ice. Adin had taken a ball to the eye. He was hysterical. Poor kid. That was a setback because we had to work even harder because now  he was a little scared of the ball. Over time Adin has started to LOVE baseball. He had his first game last week and he was so excited he couldn't contain his little body. He was off the wall. He got a great hit in the game! His coaches have told us a couple times how impressed they are with his improvement and say he is by far the most improved on the team. When we practice in the backyard together he can hit the ball over our back fence and into the second back yard. The first time he did that, he was so proud of himself. He talked about it the rest of the night. He was like a broken record talking about it. He even had to call Brian and work and tell him about it. The best part about the team he got put on is that their family are Yankees fans as well and the kids ended up with awesome Yankees uniforms and hats. Adorable! I've been super proud of him and how hard he has worked. The other day we were walking home from school and Adin found a dandelion to blow. He made a wish and then blew it. Then he told me that first he was going to wish that he could get really good at baseball, but then he realized if he got really good he wouldn't get to practice with me in the back yard everyday and he didn't want that so he changed his wish. Heart melter.

Meg didn't luck out with her coach either. Her coach is the opposite end. She has only held 2 practices compared to Adin's three practices a week (probably 10-12 practices before his first game). Meg, of course is upset about that. I kind of am too, which is funny because I came into this with quite low expectations. She went into the season really pretty good. Brian said he could tell that things have clicked for her. She is good at catching and only took a little work on batting. I took her to her first practice and she was a nervous wreck. She was pretty timid during all the drills and you can just read anxiety on her face. She was even running timidly when they were base running. We left the practice and I planned to talk to her about not being so shy, but before I could she exploded into how her outfit wasn't right and she didn't have a special softball bag like all the other girls and could we please get her a softball bag to carry her mit and treats and water. Haha. That's Meg for you. Always concerned about her outfits and making sure she looks that part. I did get a chance to talk to her about her shyness and her next practice she was super brave and looked way better. She was sprinting around those bases. I have practiced with her in the backyard too. The problem we have run into is that the girls pitch and none of them can throw strikes. Brian took her to her first game and said that it is two innings of straight walks. No hits. No fielding. Apparently once you've walked 8 then the inning is over. This makes it so the only people playing are the catcher and the pitcher. It's boring for all the other girls and not the greatest learning experience. Too bad we aren't in the position to change anything about that. On a side note, I was talking to Meg about running and how she is probably pretty fast with her long legs. She assured me that she could beat Brian in a race. In my mind that was craziness. I told her she was crazy, and that we would have to test it sometime. She was confidant. This past weekend we took them to the school to practice and I mentioned to Brian that she was sure she could beat him. Of course, the race was on. She is a speedy little thing. Brian beat her but not by much. I was sure that he maybe held up a little for her, but he assured me he was going all out. She wanted to race me. Darn it. Brian kept warning me she was fast, but I was still thinking he had been holding up a little even if it was not consciously. I put everything I had into that race and we tied. She is fast. I'm bummed that her coach hasn't worked with her much, but thankfully Brian has been able to and she is looking awesome. We're trying to encourage her to pick something and stick with it to become really good. She really liked basketball and maybe this season of softball will give her some clarity on what she might want to focus on.

What we got ourselves into is games every single weeknight but Friday and Adin's coach is still having practices on the off days so he is usually at practice during Meg's game. Another thing we didn't anticipate is that all the cities in the county play each other. This has meant traveling for more than half the games and sometimes as far as 40 minutes. What were we thinking??? Problem is that there is a chance they will both want to do it next year.

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Gracie's ONE :( :) :( :)

Ahhh! Such mixed emotions. I adore this little girl, and I adore all the changes she has brought to our family. I am so beyond grateful she is here and this year has been filled with daily feelings of gratitude that she is here. Despite all the challenges of Gracie's first year, I have felt overwhelmingly blessed by her existence. She has made it a truly joyful year for me. The sad faces in the title are only there because I'm sad she is growing up. If only I could freeze time.

Another thing I didn't mention about our "not-so-smooth" move is that within the first 3 weeks here, we had 2 bouts of the stomach flu. I actually had the stomach flu on Gracie's birthday so we celebrated a day later (much to Meg and Adin's horror). I will let the pictures tell the tale of Gracie's day after her birthday. :)

 We kept it simple with presents. She got a couple books, a purse and a picnic set.

She was immediately intrigued by her cake and as soon as she found out it was food she set about eating it. She was pretty timid at first just taking little tastes.

 She got into it though. I remember Adin being fussy about being dirty when he had cake on him. Grace didn't care one bit about the messiness or about being washed off in the sink after. She thought it was all great fun. :)

I made a couple attempts at some one year old shots.

 She would not stop chasing and squealing at cats.

I haven't edited these, but I think once they are edited they will be exactly what I wanted.

 I think she is constantly teething because she is often chewing on this index finger.

 A perfect picture of her talking out of the side of her mouth. So funny.

Months 11 and 12 and a Big Hairy Move

I'm still planning to keep this blog updated. Hectic doesn't even cover what life has been like. We moved to Manti in mid February. Nothing about the move has gone smoothly and we are still having adjustment issues. It's made the blog take a back seat, but I'm really want to remember Grace at this stage and do a quick birthday post. This is more just for a remembrance about what she is like right now and next post can be her birthday post. This girl is hard. She is a picky, finicky baby, but I love every piece of her. We have finally dropped to two naps a day and that's working sooo much better with my schedule. She still doesn't sleep through the night and I spend a lot of time worrying about how I can wean this little girl. I'm wanting to wean so that I can start the timeline for my cancer treatments, but this little girl is pretty dependent on nursing and just loves it. She is still waking up a couple times a night to nurse, which is way better than 4-5 times but needs to be cut all together. Ha. Here are some tidbits

She is super active and has a speed walk that borders on a run.

She does not like to sit in church meetings and we often are walking the halls for the last two hours.

I ordered her her first pair of shoes, which she absolutely loves. The first day I got them I put them on her and she just stared at her feet and then proceeded to pace back and forth in her new shoes.

She tries walking with her eyes closed and even attempts to walk backwards.

She does this adorable thing where if I crouch down and open my arms to her she speed walks to me with her eyes closed, a big cheesy grin and a schrunched up nose.

We acquired 3 cats in the rental we are in. They live by our backdoor and try to come in when we open it. Meg and Adin have taken to firmly saying, "back, back" when they go out the back door. Now whenever we open the back door, Grace uses a firm voice and says, "ba, ba".

She loves loves books. She likes to flip through grown up people books and hymn books. She lifts the pages and watches them fall. She loves her board books and read them in an adorable high pitched voice and points at the pictures just like I do. Oddly sometimes she even puts the book up to her mouth while reading. Not sure where she got that.

She has a funny sense of humor. Brian is super goofy with her and she gives him a little half amused smile. The other two babies would have been laughing and giggling and she is just mildly amused.

She loves the show Sophia the First and squeals when we turn it on. Thanks to daddy and Meg, she also likes to watch Frozen songs on the computer.

She loves to empty cupboards and drawers. Usually I just love that it's keeping her busy, but when I'm trying to clean it feels a little like she is a one woman wrecking ball.

She has the cutest dance moves ever. Basically she has a spin, which sometimes includes one of her arms out behind her like a tail. Her other move is a squat. I must catch this on camera. Adorable!

She absolutely loves her blankie. If she is hurt or scared or tired she needs mommy or her blankie. At nap time, she loves to toss her blankie out of her bed and then cry until I come and get it for her. Then repeat. Argh.

She gives kisses...especially to daddy. Sometimes he has to work for them. Every once in a while she absolutely refuses and shoves people away with her little hands.

She loves bananas and hot dogs. It's hard to find "snack" food that she likes. She likes pretty much anything I make for dinner.

She often talks out of the side of her mouth and often whispers. Her favorite word to whisper sounds like "what".

We moved to Manti when Gracie was 11 months. Brian and I both felt really good about our decision to move to Manti. Our main purpose was to see if we could qualify to get our student loans paid off. Because it felt like a really good decision, I think we both assumed that everything would fall into place. Ha hahahahahahahahahah aahhahaha. It didn't. It wasn't a smooth transition. It started with moving day. We had sooo much stuff that we ended up filling an entire truck and had to go get a second truck. We were both pretty mad about that. We like some aspects of living in Manti. I love that I can walk to the kids school. That has been a welcome change after driving 30 minutes round trip to Oakridge for 4+ years. I love that I can also walk to do almost all my errands (post office, pharmacy, car repairs, market). We have an amazing view of the temple out our back door. We do not miss Salt Lake traffic and Brian has a really relaxing, scenic drive to work. We adore the house we are renting. It is an old pioneer home. It has tons of history. Brigham Young slept in Adin's room while visiting to check up on the building of the temple. There is a mantle from the Lion House. There is a bath tub that was used in temple. There is a trap door that leads to an underground room used to hide polygamist wives. It's huge and we have really been able to spread out. It has two backyard areas where the kids can finally play. It has been really fun living here so far. Before moving down here, Brian and I thought it was a high possibility that we may stay in Manti for a very long time and raise the kids here. Now that we are here, we know that isn't going to happen so we are reframing and looking at it as a fun experience (in some ways) for 2 years if we qualify for loan repayment (we find out in a couple months). Brian's job at the prison is absolutely not going to work. They run him into the ground and treat the therapists like they are completely unimportant. Brian dreads every single day that he goes there. They run their employees, especially their therapists into the ground. Brian has talked to many people who are close to retirement and they say that staying wasn't worth it and that he should get out before it's tempting to stay. They just seem so beat down. We do NOT want to follow that path. I could go on and on with stories of under appreciation and mistreatment because things happen daily that remind us that the prison won't work for us, but suffice it to say that Manti will be a short stay. Neither of us feel like we made a wrong decision. In fact, I still feel like things really fell into place to get us here. I still feel like we have been blessed with this opportunity. It just isn't as long term as we thought it might be.

Well that's a brief update. I wish I had had time to blog more, but it has been literally insane. Brian's parents asked us to host the family Easter party here this year.  It made it be a crazy 2 months trying to get this house and yard pulled together. That has consumed every  moment for the past 2 months for me. It's over now, so stay tuned for an Easter party post. :)