Batting Practice

Bryce and Landon have several sessions of batting practice a week. If Landon every does batting practice with one of the older kids, Bryce has to have his turn. Sometimes he will even ask to hit even if they other kids aren't.

The other day Landon and Bryce had been out hitting for awhile and I walked out to this tender scene. 

Just taking a break from hitting, sitting down, and chatting.

 I love them and I love that Landon is such a good Dad and spends time with each of the kids doing things they like to do.

Soccer Spring Season Begins with Ties

The Spring Soccer Season is finally underway. There was a little bit of a delay, due to issues with field scheduling, and other things, but it has begun. The delay actually worked out good for us cause it let us get basketball finished up before the soccer games began. So far Chloe's team hasn't lost a game, but they have tied like everyone besides one which they won. Ties are kind of frustrating-why end in a tie? I wish they would let them do a shoot off or something to break the ties. Anyways she is playing great and learning to play some defensive positions this season as well as her normal offensive ones.

 Bryce loves to kick the soccer ball around as well. I think we might be signing him up to play soccer this Fall.

16th Anniversary

We celebrated our 16th Anniversary. It's hard to believe we have been together for that long. WOW!!! Where has the time gone. Life isn't always perfect, but we have dealt with life challenges and learned to work together. Our love has only gotten stronger and hopefully will continue too.

We wanted to do something fun for our anniversary, leaving town on a vacation would have been nice, but it just wasn't in the cards, so we ended up going to Sakura 21, which is a Japanese Hibachi grill in town. It was actually really fun, neither of us had ever been to one before, and the food was delicious!

Here's to the next 16 years :)

Easter

For Easter this year we stayed home-this rarely happens-but it did this year. Tanner had baseball games that whole weekend, plus it was Landon and I's anniversary, so we stayed in town. 

As your kids get older the way you celebrate Holidays tends to change. For one, they usually have a lot of activities you have to work around. Also, this year I noticed that things that used to be really important in the past might not be so much as they get older. The only problem is that we have our little caboose Bryce and I don't want him to miss out on things. With Easter this year this happened to be the dying of Easter Eggs. Honestly if it hadn't been for a neighbor and my sister inviting Bryce and Chloe over to decorate eggs, it most likely wouldn't have happened this year-okay it for sure wouldn't have happened especially since I boiled a dozen eggs and they were still sitting in the fridge un-colored on Easter morning. We just were so busy with work, baseball games, and our anniversary, it just wasn't going to happen. So thankful for good neighbors and family.

On Saturday my Dad and Kathy had a little Easter get together. The kids had a blast playing on the bounce house and hunting for Easter Eggs.

Sunday morning the kids got up and found their Easter Baskets and the eggs the Easter Bunny had hidden. Tanner didn't really want to get up when the other two did, so Bryce happily found his eggs for him. The kids got their normal Easter Candy-with peeps at the top of everyone's list. They got their traditional new Sunday Clothes. Tanner and Chloe also each got a pair of "Jesus" Sandals, and Bryce got a Lion Guard Movie and Action Figures. They were all happy with what they had in their baskets.

After going to church we had a nice Easter Dinner at my Grandma Marshall's house. Followed by the best dessert ever! It was called Honey Bun Cake and it was so good. I will share the recipe at the bottom of this post. She did a little Easter Egg Hunt for the kids as well.
Even though it was busy. We had lots of fun and were really glad we got to spend lots of time with our families.

HONEY BUN CAKE
1 (package yellow cake mix)
2/3 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
1 (8 ounce) container sour cream
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup chopped pecans
2 tsp ground cinnamon

Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
1 TBSP milk
1 tsp vanilla

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9x13 pan with nonstick cooking spray. In large bowl mix together dry cake mix, oil, eggs, and sour cream and beat with an electric mixer for 1-2 minutes on medium speed. Spread half of the batter into prepared pan. In a smaller bowl, add the brown sugar, pecans, and cinnamon; stir to mix. Sprinkle the mixture evenly over the batter, then carefully spread the remaining batter over the pecan mixture. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until the cake turns golden brown. After the cake is finished, mix together the powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla in a small bowl. Using a toothpick, poke the surface of the cake many times, then spread the glaze all over the warm cake. Let cool and serve.

Three Billy Goats Gruff

It was my turn for Joy School again. This time we went with the Three Billy Goats Gruff theme. The kids all thought it was so fun to act out the play. They are a cute group of kids. Bryce was the Big Billy Goat and Madi was the Troll. Nobody wanted to be the medium billy goat, so Preslie and Brinlee were both the Baby-lol. Breckon was absent this week.

Warriors Basketball Season

Chloe's Basketball season has come to an end. Though it has been great and we have loved watching her basketball games, it has been hard to keep up with everything with her doing three sports simultaneously. I can't even describe the growth she has made playing in this league compared to just regular city league. Her coach is awesome and it has been fun playing teams from other towns. Her team went about 50/50 on their wins and losses. The team as a whole made huge improvements by the end of the season. Chloe is currently playing on the snow canyon team, even though she is in Dixie boundaries. After playing against the Dixie team we have decided that she will continue playing with Snow Canyon at least for the time being, we had previously considered switching her to Dixie when summer ball started. However, we know feel like staying with the team she is with will be more of a benefit for her in the long run, even though it means longer commutes for practices. It was a fun season-and it won't be long before Summer League starts up.
Some of the Highlights for Chloe during this season-she mostly played a wing, but sometimes played point; she learned how to pass better, and run screens; she learned play; she learned how to do a full court press, as well as how to get out of one; she learned to not be afraid to take the shot, and she scored baskets; and she made friends on her team-one of her favorite things was going to dinner with the team after games.

 Bryce was a trooper going to most of the games with us.

 He had to get some Nike basketball socks for the occasion.

 Time-Out Meeting with the Coach

 At times I was thankful for his Ipad to keep him entertained. Especially since each time they played they played two games, sometimes with an hour break in between.