Mormon Night at Camden Yards

Yes, another post about going to an Orioles game!! This time it was Mormon Night at Camden Yards. What better way to spend an evening than cheering on our O's with a bunch of our friends from church?
Bring on the Minnesota Twins!!

Once again we headed down early so the kids could watch batting practice and hopefully get a ball.

Success for Savannah!!

And Xander! I was so glad Xander ended up with this ball because he had to fight off some woman for it. A Twins player had noticed Xander trying for a ball so when the player ended up with a catch he threw it specifically to Xander. Unfortunately his throw was a touch hard and it went over Xander's head by a few rows. About 20 rows above us a mom was sitting with her two boys and all of them were busy eating food. She saw the ball fly over Xander's head, jumped up, rushed down, and tried to get it before Xander. Then she acted all upset when Xander grabbed it before she could get her hands on it. I was really upset with her because it was obvious to everyone around us that the player had intended the ball for Xander. Some people! Good thing Xander has quick reflexes...and determination!

Whose kid is that? Some parents just have zero control over their wild children!

Here come our Orioles!!

A Mormon missionary threw the first pitch and he did a great job! Of course all the crazy Mormons cheered wildly for him!
We spent most of the evening hangin' with our favorites, the Pauls and the Maxwells. At least in baseball we all agree that orange is the best color!

I told Darby to smile - pure adorableness!!!

Noah wanted to sit with his fabulous Primary teachers, the Ingrams.

We were all pretty excited when Chris Davis hit a grand slam!!

This was Noah's pose for the "show your muscles" camera shot. What a ham!

The best part of Mormon night is seeing all those missionaries that have moved from our ward. Savannah and I were thrilled that we got to catch up with Sister Horn, one of our all-time favorites!

Xander hanging with his friends, showing off their muscles. Some other older members of our ward decided to join in! I love Dani Gebski's face peeking through!!

The cute girlies - Savannah, Brinley, Libby, and Addie.

Another fabulous night at Camden Yards! Orioles win it, 9-1!!!

Noah's New Wheels

When our neighbors moved they left us with a few of their possessions that they couldn't take with them. Noah was overjoyed to become the proud new owner of this hot red mustang! And he's already picking up chicks in it!!

Unfortunately there are problems with the battery but that didn't stop Noah. Somehow he has convinced Xander, along with the other neighbor boys, to push him around in this little car. What a character!

1st Day of School 2014

The big day finally arrived! This year Savannah decided to go back to public school and is now in 7th grade. Although she was apprehensive about having a locker (hey, I still have nightmares where I am back in high school trying desperately to get my locker open) and she was missing her best friend Celine who she was planning on having by her side, Savannah faced the day with courage and excitement.

Noah came out to take pictures with Savannah and then started to get in the car with us, wondering why Xander was staying home on the first day. He didn't realize that Savannah's school starts much earlier than his and that he now had a full hour to play before it was his turn to leave. Funny little guy!

There is only one other kid at Savannah's bus stop, an 8th grader who she knows and who is a really nice guy, thank goodness.  Their stop is the first stop so she got her pick of the seats. I must admit that I got a little teary eyed as I watched that bus drive away, taking my sweet daughter to the hood. She was definitely in my thoughts all day!
An hour later it was the boys' turn! They were extremely excited to go back, no joke!

Noah is in 2nd grade this year;

and Xander is in 4th.

One last hug...

and off we go to the bus stop!

Hangin' with friends while we all wait for the bus.

Noah was so fast getting on the bus that all I got was a picture of his SpongeBob backpack disappearing up the steps!

And the new school year begins! It was hard to hide my excitement that morning. I love my kids tremendously but it was so amazingly awesome to walk into a peaceful, quiet house and know that it was all mine for the next 7 hours. And what did I do? Ate chocolate and read, of course! Just kidding though I did take a picture doing just that. The funny thing about that was with my braces I can't even eat those delicious rum nougats. Well, I do cut them up and gnaw on them because who can resist those scrumptious pieces of heaven. I truly did spend the day reading and enjoying my day of freedom but that was only reserved for the first day. Chores and cleaning projects have occupied all my days since.

Oh, and David and I did celebrate by going to lunch! Another blessing of having David work from home - I have a steady lunch buddy!

Happy Birthday, David!

Yes, another birthday for David has come and gone and he has now found himself firmly entrenched in his forties, celebrating #42! For his family birthday dinner we headed over to Panera.

With his boys.

At home we celebrated with the usual - gifts and then pie. This year I tried to get a little creative and made him a candy/gift card bouquet. It's the gift that keeps on giving as we head out to lunch each week courtesy of the cards. I'm loving that I've been benefiting from this gift as well!

Noah spent an afternoon working on his gift for David - a battle scene with a bunch of knights! He taped all those guys onto the paper in different poses. Too cute!

David likes to guess what each gift is before he opens it and thinks he's pretty smart when he gets most of them right. It's kinda hard to hide the fact that he's getting a DVD, right?

I'm so glad that David loves history because it makes it entirely appropriate for me to buy books that I want to read and pass them off as gifts.

Definitely a necessity! With the Utes racking up some wins this season David has had plenty of chances to wear his Utah ties.

And a new O's hat from the kids!

Facts about David at 42:

• He started a new job with Diamond Wireless, a retailer for Verizon, in March and what a great blessing it has been!  Because corporate headquarters are in Utah David has had the chance to visit Utah for at least a week each month since March.  He has loved spending time with family and old friends during those visits.  He's been working on a bunch of projects for the company and really loves it!
• In the past few weeks the kids introduced him to some kind of electronic game called Clash of Clans and he's been hooked ever since, sending his guys out to battle and gathering loot.  (At least I think that's what's been going on.)
• He loves to play catch with the kids in the backyard or head up to the church for Daddy Soccer Camp where he instructs the kids on soccer drills.
• For his down time, other than playing Clash of Clans or perusing Twitter and the Internet, he has several favorite TV shows that he watches - Downton Abbey (which I got him into), Revolution, and Parenthood (which I tease him unmercifully about, hee hee).  There's also all the football, basketball, soccer, and baseball games that always seem to be on at our house.
• He was very proud of his Round by Round win in the annual Schaeffer March Madness Tournament.
• He loves to eat out (really, who doesn't?) and is such a great husband to always tell me about all the fabulous food he is eating.
• He's such a supportive dad, always helping the kids in their various activities including school, scouts, and sports. 
• He has been doing such a great job in keeping fit and eating right.  He still loves his sweets but has been staying strong in his resistance and only indulging every once in awhile.
• He loves to golf and has started taking Xander with him for some quality father-son time. 
• He is still serving on the Stake High Council and for the past two years his assignment has been Stake Young Mens President which he thoroughly enjoys.
• Where I can be a bit uptight, he's very laid back and keeps us laughing and having fun!

19 Years!

It's amazing to think that David and I have now been married 19 years. Those years have been filled with plenty of ups and downs but, after all this time, we're still crazy about each other! I told David that for our anniversary I wanted to go to a restaurant downtown since we have never done that. Once we found out that Bubba Gump was down there, we were all set! It's one of our favorite places to eat.

We got 100% on our Forrest Gump quiz...not too shabby. But one would think that they'd serve Dr. Pepper there, especially since it's Forrest's favorite drink! Oh, well, everything else about our meal was wonderful and quite delicious, especially their Hush Pups.

We then took some time to walk around the harbor, enjoying an evening together. It really is quite beautiful at the Inner Harbor.

Despite the looming clouds, the rain stayed away until we were almost home.

Goodbye, Summer!

We hated to say goodbye to summer but it's definitely time to head back to school when kids are constantly fighting or saying non-stop that they're bored. David and I wanted to give the kids one last hurrah so we took them miniature golfing. Despite the humidity that actually decided to show up that day, we had a great time.

There were a few minor mishaps - like that pesky water...

and more pesky water!

And then there was that shot of Savannah's that went in the parking lot. Thank goodness for little brothers and their nifty retrieval skills!

I won't say who won because there might have been some miscalculations regarding the amount of swings per hole that some people took but I will happily report that I got a hole in one! Good times!

And we had to have one last visit to Brooms Bloom, this time with Daddy in tow!

A great finish to another wonderful summer!