Baby Kittens - April 24

Just one day shy of 3 weeks old.  They are starting to get more adventurous and curious about their surroundings.  This is a shot with all 5 babies in it.  It's a little blurry. Any takers for a new little pet?

SCHOOLS OUT FOR JAMES!!!! - April 23

Celebrating James finishing school with a quick dinner at Rubios (thanks to getting 3 free kids' meals from a friend)-in between dance, activity days, scouts and a middle school drama production. He is completely checked out of classes and clinic! Yay!!

Easter - April 20

Baskets

Kiddos and Baskets

Finding their color coordinated eggs!

Soccer Game - April 19

Andrew is the little guy blocking a corner kick.

Andrew loves to play forward.

Andrew and his team (yes they are huge compared to Andrew!)

Running over for a drink

He gets in there and hustles.

Playing defense and getting the ball away from the other teams goal.

Ward Easter Pancake Breakfast/Egg Hunt - April 19

Loves his pancakes with nothing on them.

Ella and Kaitlyn

Kaitlyn, London and Haley

Andrew and Gage after finding some eggs!

Baseball Game - April 17, 2014

Playing 1st Base

Love how he keeps his foot on base if possible to catch the ball and get the runner out!

Grandparents - April 13

Love how the kids are still in the p.j's for this photo.

Track Meet, Baseball Game and Baptism - April 12

Ella waiting for her turn in the 400 meter relay race.

Ella in the 100 meter dash.

Practicing his swing

Great Game!

Our family with both sets of grandparents!

Two handsome guys!

Andrew and Owen

We had a wonderful and eventful day today!  Ella had a track meet in the morning and Andrew had a baseball game in the afternoon, followed by Andrew's baptism.  Both sets of grandparents were able to make the trip out and stayed at our house.  It was a fun challenge to share the house with so many people including a cat and her 5 babies!  There were a lot of friends from school that were not members who came to the baptism.  It was really nice to be able to have our own personal baptism.  We only found out two weeks before that he was the only one in the Stake getting baptized for this month!  Afterwards we had everyone over at our house for dinner. I am so happy for Andrew and his decision to be baptized a member of the true church!

Field Trip - April 10

Andrew with his good friend, Logan

Skate Park and Soccer - April 5

Erin and her kiddos at the skate park with us!

Playing Spring Soccer-Go Team Germany!

Erin and Jeremy came down late last night on their way through to visit family.  We went to the skate park so the kids could ride their scooters and enjoy the wonderful Southern California weather!  Later on Andrew had a soccer game.  He had an amazing save playing defense!  I enjoy watching Andrew play because he plays with his heart 100%.  He gives it everything he has all the time.

Our stray cat that adopted our family back on February 15, had her kittens on April 4.  She usually stays outside, but when we had a few days of rain, we would let her come into the living room.  She would always try to get into the bedrooms, but we kept the doors closed.  When James woke up at 3 am to do his usual studying, he saw she was standing up on our bench outside and was scratching on the window screen.  She has always been pretty well-behaved and this was really not like her.  James let her in and she made a dash to our bedroom, but James made it first and closed the door.  She then went into the kids bathroom, where she as spent a few rainy nights, and stayed in there.  James continued to study and thought a little while later her heard a whimper.  Then when he went to check on her he heard more noises.  He got me up and it was around 6:30 or so, and we peeked in, she had three kittens!  We woke the kids up and let them peek in too.  Then by the time James went to school, we counted four.  I went and took a shower and then Ella and Andrew came in as I was getting out and said that she just had another!  So we have five little babies and a momma cat in our bathroom.  Two are mostly black with a little white, and two are grey and white and one is white and grey spotted like a cow.  She was very clean about it all and stayed on one bath mat, which after the last one was born I switched out with a clean bath mat and threw the old one away.  Luckily my bath mats are super old and need to be replaced anyway.  She is a good little mom and she is very patient when we want to come in and see her family.  We don't intrude much and have just been using our other bathroom.  Right now the babies can't see or hear so they don't go far.  We made a little circular bed with old towels that she keeps them in.  She never leaves their side.  When the babies get a little more adventurous, we may have our hands full!

Kaitlyn's Birthday - April 3

Hand Sanitizer and fire = inexpensive "candles" to burn out.

Apple Pie and Ice-cream for dessert!

Kaitlyn suggested we go ice-skating as a family.  It just so happened that James had the afternoon off from school, so we headed to a local ice rink.  Kaitlyn and Ella both had lessons when they were 6 and 4.  They don't really remember much, and it took us all some getting used to.  Andrew was by far the most fearless. He also got around the fastest by not caring if he fell.  He has a bruise the size of an apple on one of his thighs to show for it.  It was a lot harder than I remember from the last time I went skating in junior high.  But it was a lot of fun to try something together as a family.  By the time we were to leave, we all had improved. We came home and had tacos and our home teacher came over for pie and ice-cream.  Earlier in the day I had taken Kaitlyn shopping.  She has been desperately needing clothes and has been trying to find stuff that fits her.  She's in between girls and women's and it's tricky.  We found some cute dresses and will go shopping to a few more stores tomorrow too!