Markos life....

I took a few good pictures at baseball this week. Max is determined to get a hit every time he gets up to bat. It is cute to watch him bouncing on his toes getting ready to swing. His last game he got 2 hits and made it home each time.

Jack is making a little more effort these days and is doing a great job. He played pitcher this week and he even got someone out at first. I have a couple of great videos I need to post.

Here he is at 2nd getting ready to run, notice his foot's not even touching the bag, FUNNY!

This is how we watch a baseball game. Luckily, on each of their teams we have at least one family of friends to play with, which makes it fun for the kids who don't really care to pay attention to the game.
Doug decided he's going to cook Sunday dinners for a while. This Sunday was his first and he tried his hand at grilling wings. Yes, they turned out a little charred but the meat that was left was delicious. I just can't believe he's going to be cooking every Sunday, it is something he just doesn't like to do. He says he doesn't think he can handle Easter dinner though, so I'll be making that.

I finished making Jack's Ben 10 Jacket last week. You can read more about it at BlueSusan makes. He thinks it is pretty awesome.
We painted Luke and Mer's rooms on Friday, and carpet cleaned on Saturday. I'll take some pictures of the paint colors, Sharkey gray for Luke and a kind of seafoam turqouis for Mer. Spring Break began today and we have a week of relaxation ahead of us.

I almost forgot... I gashed my forehead pruning the Bougainvillea this morning. That evil bush is getting dug up and thrown out. I'm pretty sure that I'll have a lovely scar. Max reassured me that scars are good cause they make you look tough. I couldn't really explain to him that when you are almost 35 and your looks are going down the drain every year, the last thing you want is a 2 inch scar on your forehead. I'm hoping it won't be that bad.

And now I leave you with this peaceful picture of Meredith sleeping with the Activity Days pet horse that she is caring for this week. She made dinner for us tonight and taught Family Home Evening too. Though she has her moments, I sure am proud of that girl.

At the Movies

After a busy week of games, school, homework, and chores, the kids earned some much needed R & R. So last night they set up a movie theater complete with a popcorn stand in the corner and a line up of movies in the queue (on the arms of the blue chairs). Today they finished up Kung Fu Panda from last night and are currently watching Pixar's Short Films.


Luke is starting to put words together a little more. After he woke up from his nap today it was raining and there was thunder, he calls it BOOM BOOM BOOM. He came running to me and when I picked him up he said, "boom boom boom, scary." I told him it was just loud and not scary and asked if he wanted to go back and watch the show. He said "show, mama, me" and put his head on my shoulder. He wanted to watch the show, but wanted me to be with him. He's very cute, and learning by the day.
He also eagerly joins in the fighting with his brother's swords, and wants to do just what everyone else is doing. But watch out... he has no idea how to play fighting, he only knows how to hit with full force, and he's pretty good at aiming for the face.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Max is showing that his braces are green.

Success!!!

Two months ago, an audio cable (green) got knocked while it was plugged into the auxiliary port in our car. The tip broke off and has been stuck in it ever since, which means no one can use this port to plug in and ipod or iphone to play music. If you know Doug at all, you know that he can't live without listening to his music... a lot. So this has really been driving him nuts and we have stewed and brainstormed and tried A LOT of different tricks to get that little sucker out of there. Our final solution? The inner tube (white stick) of a ball boint pen, with epoxy shot through the center, shoved in and let cure for 24hrs....and SUCCESS! Yesterday was a good day.

Meredith went to a dance party for one of her friends of Friday night, where she officially caught the dance party bug. She has determined that she wants to have the same party for her birthday this year. She came home and recreated it for the boys the next morning, complete with a dance floor surrounded by snakes.And then she made official invitations and planned a family dance party for the next day. So after church yesterday we ate lunch at our "dance party" and then played all the party games. Pass the microphone and guess which song was playing, a singing competition, and yes, a one on one dance-off which unfortunately Doug didn't get into as much as he could have. Everyone was loving it, Jack had some serious dance moves, and Max sang ALL the words of "Party in the USA". Keep those parties coming Mer.

See these rocks?? Max and Jack are always picking up rocks for their "rock collections". I pulled this nice little pile out of the dryer a couple of days ago. I turned it on and heard the clunking, the familiar sound of stray rocks flying around inside. This happens all the time, usually it's one or two. But this time, I opened the dryer a record seven times before I actually found all of those little buggers. I took the handful in and showed it to Max and Jack who were in the tub at the time. "Does anyone recognize these?" I asked. Max grins and says,"yeah, there mine, I got them from school, they're for my rock collection." Thanks Max!
Along with Luke's B-day package, Grandma and Grandpa Newson sent matching shirts for all the boys in our family. They were super excited to have matching shirts. In fact, Jack loved his so much he wore it for two days straight, day and night. Here they are looking so handsome.
And yes they even sent one for Doug, who decided that Sunday was matching picture day. He did change back into his white shirt for church.

And that's enough for now.

Baseball Opening Day

Saturday our 2 1/2 month journey of utter craziness officially began with Little League's Opening Day activities. We started the morning at 8:30 with a presentation of all the teams, followed by two inning scrimmages for all the teams. In the mean time Mer had her first soccer game. By the end of the day (around 3:00) we were beat and ready for baths and early bedtimes. Here are some pictures from the day.
Max got to try out being catcher for his game. He was really good at it the first inning and nothing was getting by him.
His take on it was that it wasn't fun because he was too uncomfortable the whole time.
Here's Jack at bat. He loves running the bases though he sometimes stops to pick up a rock on the way. He also has a funny habit of running to each base in the longest route possible. It's pretty funny to watch.
Here he is playing second. Don't let the alert stance fool you. He's usually rolling around on the ground the whole time. More pictures to come soon...including the Team banner I made for the Braves.