Baseball Video Bryce

Since I was posting baseball/softball updates from the other kids I thought I might as well include Bryce. He already knows how to swing the bat and will put the ball on the tee and hit it off. Here is a video of a sweet hit he got the other day while we were outside playing.

Baseball Games 6, 7, 8, 9

Game 6-Tanner sat the bench for an inning (lol), and played third and pitched. He played well but the team they were playing is a really great team-a lot of Tanner's friends happen to be on that team-so it was a tough game for him. Anyways his team lost.

 Game 7-Tanner got a nice double. He pitched an awesome game. His team won.

Game 8-Tanner batted lead off-he walked his first at bat and struck out the next two. He caught the whole game and did an awesome job behind the plate making sure people weren't scoring on past balls or dropped third strikes. This was his first time catching this year, so his legs were pretty sore afterwards. His team won by 1 point.

Game 9-Tanner got an awesome hit his first at bat, and scored runs his first and second at bat. He caught the first two innings and did really well with that. He pitched the next two innings and really struggled-he also struck out his last at bat so kind of a rough second half of the game. His team lost.

Splash Pad or Not

Last week we decided to go to the splash pad...I thought Bryce would like it since he usually likes the water. Well he kind of played in it a little bit until he found a tennis ball...and then this is what he thought of the water-get me out of it-

 and let me get back to my game of wall ball-

(Note to self-if going to a splash pad leave all balls at home-haha)

Preslie was with us too and she didn't care for the water one bit-she wouldn't even touch it at all without screaming-ugh it might be a long summer with these two ;)

Softball Games 6, 7, 8

The second half of the season they take things a little more serious and kind of switch it from instructional to a little bit more like regular softball-so they have started calling three outs and stuff like that. Chloe's coach only has Chloe and one other girl pitch and they both rotate and pitch 1 or 2 innings per game. Chloe overall does a really good job with it. Sometimes she is a little off, but rarely will she throw four straight balls to a girl-she usually will at least get 1 or 2 strikes on them and a few times has gotten a strike out.

 Her best friend Brydee bats lead off every game and Chloe bats number 2. They both are great at hitting the ball. Chloe has gotten several nice hits that have brought Brydee home. They are a dynamic duo-last week Chloe was pitching and Brydee was playing first, the girl batting hit it to Chloe, Chloe scooped it up, and tossed it to Brydee for the out at first. After they got the out the both smiled at each other and gave each other the thumbs up sign. It is so fun to see them play together. Having a best friend on the team with you makes a big difference. The season is quickly winding down, but I think Chloe is glad she decided to play this year-it has been a fun year for her.

 Bryce is always happy as long as baseball is involved.

Here is a video of her striking a girl out...

Big Hit...

Priesthood Newsletter

Landon had to write an article for the Priesthood Newsletter in our Ward. I thought I would share it because he did a good job with it and it has a good message.

Strengthening our Testimonies

Two years ago my daughter Chloe decided she wanted to be on a summer swim team. She had her first swim meet on her eighth birthday. She was in the 7-8 year old age group and did very well for her first year usually taking first through third place in most of the events she competed in.

The next year she wanted to compete again on the same summer swim team. Since, she did so well the year before and had enjoyed it so much, she was excited to do it again. This year she turned 9 and competed in the 9-10 age group. Although, she did well she wasn’t getting as many first, second, or third place awards and became discouraged.

We compared her times in the same events from both years and were able to show her that although she wasn’t winning ribbons her times were actually better than they were the year before. When she looked at the progress she had made she became less discouraged and worked harder to be a better swimmer than she was before. She focused more on beating her own time than on taking a place. Although she is very competitive and likes to win, she realized that to better herself was a far better goal than trying to outdo everyone around her.

I’d like to compare this with our testimonies. I’ve caught myself at difficult times thinking to myself, “If I only knew the scriptures as good as him or if I only had as much faith as her, life would be so much easier”. It would be easy to be discouraged if we thought our eternal progression in the gospel was a competition and only a few could attain the top prize, but it’s not. The only competition is within us individually. We need to look at our testimony compared to yesterday, last week, or a year ago and ask ourselves if we’ve improved. Has our knowledge, faith, and understanding increased? Our Heavenly Father knows us all individually and gives us different opportunities to improve ourselves. Much like Chloe was surrounded with different skill levels of swimmers we will be surrounded by individuals with different strengths of testimony. As she swam with the faster swimmers it helped her improve her times. When we are surrounded with people with strong testimonies we can choose to be strengthened by them or be discouraged because we don’t know as much or don’t have as much faith. This life is a time to better ourselves not be better than everyone else. As you think about this I hope you will have a desire to do the things that will help you improve yourself and become closer to our Heavenly Father.

Landon Ellison

Easter Weekend

The kids were super excited to be going to Flowell for Easter. They could hardly wait to get on the road-they always love spending time with their cousins. Plus Chloe was excited because she was officially initiated as an Easter Bunny ;)

The Easter Bunny comes to Flowell per tradition on Saturday morning instead of Sunday-it is nice this way the kids get to enjoy all of their toys and candy Saturday and then on Sunday be able to focus more on the true meaning of Easter. 

The kids had fun searching for their Easter Baskets-the highlight in each of their baskets may have been the tennis ball-haha-they love tennis balls-to throw and hit all day long.

What kind of crazy bunny gives this boy water balloons?! look out cousins the battle is on.

 Chloe was pretty stoked about her bow and arrow and of course the hit movie of the year FROZEN!

 The only thing Bryce cared about was his ball and mitt-he did enjoy the Cheetos and peeps that he received as well.

Later that day we went to the sand hills for some fun and a cook out. Bryce loved throwing the sand. He was completely covered from head to toe by the time we left.

 Grandma and the kids...

 Later that afternoon we enjoyed some rousing games of soccer, football, and baseball.
Sunday Morning we all went to stake conference.
The kids in their Easter clothes-notice the boys matching ties.

 Cousins/Friends=cute girls

It was a fun filled weekend, the kids are always sad to leave their cousins and are already looking forward to the next visit.

Easter Eggs

All the cousins who lived in town met up at Great-Grandma Marshall's house to dye Easter Eggs.

Look at this wagon full of cousins.

 We tried a few ideas we had seen on Pinterest. Some worked okay and some not so well. These baseball eggs turned out pretty well I thought...

 Look how excited Bryce is ...

 Shaving cream tie dye eggs didn't work out so well but the kids had fun playing in the shaving cream...

Decorating Easter Eggs is one of our favorite traditions-always lots of fun.