Take me out to the ball game!

What a Summer?! It's been a busy one. Lots of baseball... Fort Collins doesn't do little league (which I think I prefer), they have their own thing and kids only play with their own age...so the boys were on separate teams. We had baseball 4 nights a week, which is fun, but I'm glad it lasts 1.5 months. We're heading out on vacation this Saturday for two weeks, so Nate is missing one week and play-offs (which isn't really a play-off format) and Mac is missing his last two weeks.


This was Mac's second season. We encouraged him to play when he wasn't so sure, because he was just seeming to get it at the end of last season. However, this season was a toughie. None of his friends played and this is the first year that it's only kid-pitch, and like I said before, it's only their grade, so it was lots of walks. They just keep going until there's 6 runs in an inning. We had one game that was two hours and 3 innings. Walk after walk. For a boy who was hesitant to play because he thought it was too slow...this did him in. We told him, just keep doing your best and have a good attitude and if you decide you don't want to play next season at the end of this one, that's fine. Right after his last game, the first thing Mac said to me was..."Mom, I've thought about it and I don't want to play next year." We're fine with that...:)


Mac got a hit his last game, so we were excited he went out with a bang. I think he got hit with about 5 pitches and walked a lot the rest of the season! He's not the strongest hitter and after getting hit and walked a few times, he started looking for walks which drove his mom crazy watching him take a strike when there were so few...so I made him a deal. Every time he swung the bat (I'd rather see him swing at bad pitches then lay off a decent one)...he got a quarter, every time he watched a strike go by...I took a quarter back. That got the boy swinging!


Nate's a different story. You don't have to convince this boy to swing the bat! Sam was his coach again and had a lot of the same players from last year, which includes a couple of Nate's really good friends. They were a great team. Nate's grade rules with pitching is kid-pitch one inning, coach-pitch the next. With the kid-pitch inning, the kid is relieved if they walk 3 batters, so there is much more hits at his level.




Nate's favorite position this year was pitcher. He did a good job. I personally love watching him at short though!


Our little entrepeneur decided to have a lemonade stand at Nate's last two games. He made $17 one night and $12 the next. He's been saving for a suitcase...I know random. Elly wanted one for her birthday, Nate just bought a nice duffel bag and we're heading to Walmart today for Mac to buy his suitcase. Not sure why they are so into suitcases besides the fact that they are super-excited for our trip to Montana and Washington!


And not to forget this little chickadee! She finds a friend at every game we go to, climbs a tree or plays at a playground close by. I'm not sure she's actually watched a full inning of a game...but is that a surprise for this mover?! We let her go off our zipline into the pool this year. She loves it!

Besides baseball, we started the Summer with a week-long sports camp for both boys, then the next week was VBS. So started off kind of busy. We've also gotten a lot of swimming in and had family reunion in Denver. We're having a couple slow days, then we're off to Montana and Washington on Saturday. We'll see a lot of you soon!

Mac's beginning guitar concert and another snow day

Mac had his grand finale of guitar tonight with a concert. He's been going to guitar every Tuesday morning before school and we got to see him perform before Christmas for some community concerts, but this one was for the parents and inside where guitars stay tuned. :) It was great. Mac will go on to Intermediate Guitar next year, and was asked by his teacher to perform at a convention in Denver next Fall. 50 of them were asked from Bauder to go, it's a great deal to play in, so he'll be continuing to practice with his teacher over the Summer. I'm excited for him.


Getting some nervous laughter out before the concert.


Singing his heart out!


Performing one song...


And another...


Ummmmm,was kind of trying to get a picture of our star!


That's better!

So it was snowing when we left for the concert...and snowing when we got out. Probably have 12-18inches. After we got the kids in bed, Sam checked his e-mail and saw that Poudre School District had already called tomorrow a snow day. He went downstairs, flipped on the lights, and announced this to the kids. Here's their response..



Major elation! If you need us tomorrow, we'll be on the sledding hills!

Eliason's are still here!

It takes me a snow day to finally get a blog out! Actually the boys had today scheduled to be off for teacher's conferences, but it's been snowing since we got up, so we've gone nowhere. It's nice to be snowed in once in a while... Here's some of what we've been up to...


We had a derby race for cub scouts. Mac and Nate started off the race against each other.


Nate's car is sandwiched between the McDonald's car and police car, and Mac's is on the end.


Boys waiting for their cars. Neither of them made ones with much speed...to their dismay.


However, little sister entered in the "open" round this year...


Here's got first and flew off the track! (Orange racecar)


Gettin' some knucks from Daddy!


Nate's birthday! He asked me for days for Madden. He is my one kid that really wants one thing. Mac was excited to get him a basketball...


Nate's been into basketball for a bit. We're trying to get him to work more on his dribbling...he likes to work on his threes!


We've had a new addition to our family! This is Delaney, she's a beagle/lab mix. We got her from a shelter in town and she is awesome...such a good dog. She's very active, full of energy. She's also a digger...cultivating our garden on a regular basis and an escape artist.


Here Elly is looking over our fence for her. I've had to do this a few times as well, as Laney has dug under our fence. We think our back yard is finally secure....


Giving each other a bit of love!


Easter morning. Can you tell Daddy got the pic of the kids?! To his credit...it is hard to get a picture of kids and a dog with everyone smiling...looking at the camera. They did all look smashing that morning though.


Elly was excited!


I got to go with Mac's class to the Butterfly Pavilion. Didn't partake in the holding of Rosie though...assume they don't want a chaperone peeing her pants!


A butterfly landed on Mac. That I could have handled.


So this is today. I'm guessing we have 8-10 inches of snow. Laney loves it....we love it. Although I'm supposed to be running in a half marathon on Sunday and wondering what that's going to look like. Starts at 6am in the morning...not sure why a race has to start at 6 in the morning in April in Colorado...but it does. I'm not going to complain about it anymore though. :)

I got a trip to Seattle to meet my newest nephew and be with family. Sam's working hard. He is busy, more busy than he has time for...but we are grateful for the success of his company. Mac has started playing soccer and Nate football...so our days are full. We are grateful for a snow day to slow us down. :)

Little Entrepeneur

We woke up to a beautiful snowy day...and it just keeps on snowing. Nate, our early bird, was up at 6:30 this morning and by 7:30 was out shoveling.


He started by shoveling our driveway and sidewalk...something Sam has been dreaming about for some time now! :)


He went on to shoveling the sidewalks down 3 neighbors, then hit the driveway and sidewalk of our next door neighbors. They gave him $2, which put a light bulb on in his head. Who else would pay him to shovel their driveway? He went to some other neighbors and asked if he could shovel their driveway and sidewalk for $2. They agreed...then paid him $10. Well, that jumpstarted this kid! He continued on to more neighbors...



This driveway was a little more than he bargained for!


By the end of the morning, Nate was up $18. Not bad...when his allowance is only $3/week! The good news is...it's still snowing! If there's a snow day tomorrow, this kid could get some major business!

A Beautiful Day for a Hike...

One of the biggest parts of cub scouts is getting hiking miles. Every month there is an organized "pack" hike, as well as a hike that your den organizes. When you hit 50 miles, you get to choose a pretty sweet hiking stick. Well, Mac and Nate are a ways off from achieving this goal. We're not the best at prioritizing them. However, the boys are now eager to get a hiking stick...so we'll be going on more hikes. :) The boys and I hiked at Gateway park up the Poudre Canyon today. It was a beautiful day.


We hiked up to Seaman Reservoir. Here's the kids that made the hike in Pack 90.


There's my handsome fellas! They got their cub scout jackets for Christmas. Patches they've earned our sewn on the back.


We went on a trail afterwards to a "scenic view". It was a bit sketch and the boys were way ahead of me. I had to take some deep breaths!


We made it down though...and I think Nate was happy about it. :)

After we got back to town, we hit TCBY for some frozen yogurt. It was a great afternoon! I'm loving the warm weather, although I could use one more dumping. We'll see if we get it!

Oh What Fun...

We had a great holiday season. As usual it went by fast and there were things I had meant to do that didn't happen...but it was good anyway. Here's some pictures.


This is Mac's guitar performance at the CSU's Lory Student center plaza. It started outside with temperatures in the 20s.

There's our little elf in the middle.

He's been taking guitar since August, and it was pretty impressive watching how far these kids have come. Mac loves it! He teaches his chords to Sam, who's also learning. After performing at CSU, they made another stop on their tour at a senior assisted-living center before heading back to school.

Papa Monte and Grandma Kathy came to spend Christmas with us. They got in the morning before a snowstorm. Lucky for me, Papa and Elly shoveled the sidewalk and driveway and still had energy to work on a pile that still hasn't fully melted in our front yard! :)

The kids got quality Coco time. Mac is constantly looking at our local animal shelter for our dog. We've yet to find the little one to be our dog.

papa helped Mac build a bird house for Cub Scouts. Well...he actually sort of got carried away and built it, but we'll keep it on the downlow with the den leader.


There was a lot of cookie making...


Grandma and Papa Eliason joined us for Christmas eve. Here they are opening presents the kids bought for them at the Kid's Giving store out church does.

Christmas Eve Service

A little more cheese...

Sam and I were there too...

PaPa and Sam got the job of putting together the Green Machines on Christmas eve. It took a bit, although the building of the trampoline by Uncle Nick and Sam in single digit weather still remains the biggest Christmas eve project.

The boys still have yet to use them as our temps have been pretty chilly and we have a lit of ice packed in the parking lots they'd use them on.

Almost done!

While they worked on the green machines, Grandma cleaned up an Imaginext Castle I found on Craigslist for Mac and this dollhouse for Elly. Got this for $15! Even has an elevator...what a deal?!

The finished job left by Santa.

Christmas morning. The kids opening their playdough from Aunt Kristina, Uncle Jay, Morgyn, Carter and Gracelyn

This is all Nate wanted for Christmas. An Eric Decker jersey...too bad the Broncos lost. What a couple heart-breakers with our Seahawks and the Broncos huh?! Major bummer...

We also did some sledding. It was cold...Cocoa's ears almost froze! The kids had a blast!

Nate did some shreddin'...

We loved having Grandma and Papa here during Christmas. It made it extra-special for all of us and helpful too! I got some good time when they first got here, then when Elly got sick with a cold, we could take turns finishing up shopping and Sam and I got to go to a Christmas party since Elly was happy to snuggle with Grandma. Grandma and I hung around the house finishing up projects while Papa and Sam were able to get the boys out to a rock-climbing wall and a date with Papa at IHOP. It jsut went by too fast!


After Grandma and Papa left, I had to think of some other quiet activities to keep them busy without extra company. Discovered they could do these latch-hook rugs.


They also got some wrestle-time with Sam.



And Nate and Elly did some tricks in the backyard...

We had a very chilly Winter break. It was a bit hard to get outside too much with elly being sick, then Mac after her, but it was still nice. We managed to get some sledding and ice skating in. Elly and Nate also got a sleepover at Grandma and Papa Eliasons when Mac was sick.

Here's a little video of Mac to end with...