Baseball, Ballerina, and Back Surgery

BASEBALL:

Hayden is all about baseball right now. Playing, watching, practicing, even Wii baseball games--or just talking about it, it doesn't matter. Grandma F. sent a Mariner's schedule magnet that we put on the refrigerator and so he tries to tune in to them as much as possible, he has about memorized the thing.

Over Memorial day weekend, we went to a Mariner's game with our good friends Ted and Stacy and crew. In honor of little league weekend, we got to walk around the field at Safeco before the game-but were very careful that we didn't touch the grass! It was so fun. We started out the game at the very top of the stadium. Last row. Then, with a little help from the friendly seating hosts at Safeco, we got upgraded to just behind first. Pretty amazing. Aunt Angie even showed up to hang out with us for a bit. Really fun time!

James, Emma, and Hayden fighting to make the catch!
Kyle, Emma, Hayden, Marlee, Sage, Adam and James

Me and the twins-Happy Birthday this week Mom and George!

Team Blimpie wrapped up their season earlier this month. Hayden was very pleased to have Grandma F. attend one of the last games and performed quite well. His new glove and bat have really upped his game. Both Hayden and Sage were bummed to see the season end, Hayden for obvious reasons; Sage because she had made friends with many of Hayden's teammates sisters and was not pleased to end her weekly play dates.

BALLERINA:

Speaking of Sage, she finished her year of Preschool with a fun water party and graduation. Since I am working more now, I will probably not put her back in next year as the daycare is also a preschool program. 1 more year till kindergarten!

Teacher Michelle-she is amazing!

Sage just had her ballet recital a few nights ago. She was fantastic. Such a proud 2 minutes! She knew every step and the teacher had her be the flower girl- in charge of the rose that the girls all leaped over. So Cute!!!

Sage and two of her ballerina friends at a kids fair performing thier dance as a practice before the big show. Miss Katie is their teacher, she has some amazing patience.

My video is terrible, otherwise I would post it. I bought the DVD of the show, so if any one wants to see the actual performance, just let me know.

BACK:

And me, well, I finally had back surgery. After years of agony, I finally found a Dr. willing to help me. You rock Dr. Wilkinson! I had a micro discectomy at L4-L5. He said that when he got in there, it was bad. Lots of scar tissue indicating years of damage, and he told me it had ruptured and there were pieces of my disk floating around impinging on the nerve. Yeah, I sorta thought so. So, no bending, twisting or lifting more than 10 lbs for 8-10weeks. My mom stayed with us the week of my surgery, then Jamie and Avery took over. Now, since I am still totally useless, we shipped the kids off to Grandma and Grandpa G in Idaho. I have great family and friends that have been so willing to help me out, and am so grateful for them. With out all the help, there is no way I could have had this surgery. Thank you to everyone who has called, brought meals, sent flowers, brought me goodies, watched my kids or helped in any other way. I am very blessed.

Sorry, no pictures of my scar.

Lucky Seven!

Hayden has turned seven! yippee!

For his birthday, we got him a new baseball bat and DS game. Unfortunately, the bat was a bit too big and he had gotten his DS taken away for trying to smuggle it to school. Sort of a bummer.

We exchanged the bat for something more his size and he picked out a new glove to go with it, as well as a pitching net thingy thanks to some gift cards he had gotten. I was very pleased with his wise use of his money.

He is in the middle of Baseball season right now so the bat and glove were in need. He is doing Machine Pitch this year and is on team Blimpie. He plays 1st base, 2nd base and shortstop primarily. He had a game on his birthday and even helped turn a double play.

We had our friends the Chans over for pizza and had a tasty DQ blizzard cake per his request. It was a fun time.

At Seven:

Favorite color: Red

Favorite Restaurant: ShangHai Chinese

Favorite way to spend his afternoon: Playing DS or Wii
Hayden loves to go to Seattle and see his cousin Grady!

Favorite evening activity: Playing catch with Dad

He loves to tell jokes, watch the Mariners, anything involving electronics, read and be silly with Sage.

He is not so passionate about unloading the dishwasher, tying his shoes, cleaning up before bed and grocery shopping.

Hayden is finishing up 1st grade. He is an excellent reader, he has accumulated over 50 points in AR this year. He is quite the math whiz. PE is his favorite part of the week, however recess is great because he plays soccer with his buddies.

He loves to ride the bus still. He only wants peanut butter and jelly in his lunch, but on occasion is agreeable to buying cheese pizza.

Within the last month or so, he finally lost some teeth. The front bottom teeth. They were sort of pushed out by the permenant ones that were coming in, not enough room for all of them!

He is very excited that next year he can be baptized. I love it at night when he teaches Sage the right words to the primary songs. (She gets rather inventive).

He is a good boy, very sweet, smart and funny. He takes good care of his sisters and is a huge help to me. Love You Hayden, Happy Birthday!!!

Totally Two!

My baby is two! We celebrated not too long ago with some good buddies and a bouquet of Elmo balloons. Her favorite part of the celebration was the Happy Birthday song. She sings it all the time now. So cute!
She has become quite a conversationalist and I love to have little chats with her.

Marlee: I want to go bye-bye
Mom: oh, where do you want to go?
Marlee: in the van
Mom: where should we drive the van?
Marlee to get dinner
Mom: what should we eat for dinner?
Marlee: Food!

She adores her siblings and copies everything they do. If they are outside, then she wants to be outside. If they color, then so does she. Even though she isn't as big, she is quite sure she can handle anything they can. IHer favorite and most used phrase these days is: "I'll do it!"

Heath had a very proud moment back in March during the NCAA tournament when him and his boy were watching one of the endless basketball games. Heath got excited about a particular play and jumped up and yelled, "Go Kentucky!" Marlee looked at him, and jumped up and repeated it right back at him "Go Kin tuck ee!"

She seems to have an internal calendar because she always knows when it is Tuesday and she gets to play with her buddies Adam, Kyle, and Josh. She never misses pointing out "Stacy's house" whenever we drive in our out of the neighborhood.

She loves Elmo, Dora, princesses and "hi shoe muse a coo" (high school musical).
She gets very excited when she hears the garage door open, because Daddy is home, and insists on Mommy putting her to bed every night. Every bus we see is "Hayden's bus!" Her and Sage are getting to be good friends; they love to prepare meals in their little kitchen together and share snacks. However, she will rat Sage out in a second if she feels she has been wronged, "mom, Sage took my ball," She can turn on the water works too when a little extra sympathy is needed. She is also a bit of a rule enforcer. Step out of line and she will let you have it! "No Hayden" when he gets into an argument with me. Love that she always sides with me.

Messy doesn't even begin to describe her. However she doesn't like messy hands and will demand a napkin or a wipe. Same for diapers. If its dirty, and I don't respond immediately, she just takes it off herself (lots of stress over this!)

She can make a mess and isn't afraid brag, "I made a mess!"

She would read books all day long if possible. Her favs are the puppy book I got her at a bookfair at the hospital, the lift a flap books that Hayden got as a baby (boy, are they in rough shape) and the Elmo colors and shapes books. She hasn't got to Twilight yet though...

TV holds no interest to her unless its the DVD player in the van, then she wants "Elmo on"

Favorite foods: Pizza, noodles, bananas, goldfish crackers and "oh git" (yogurt)

We have kicked the binky habit, however she still likes to sleep with three old ones that are completely chewed up and gross. She has learned to get in and out of her crib so she often climbs out to fill her crib up with as many toys she can get her hands on. I usually find her buried under a pile of blankets and dolls after naps.

I love to laugh with her because she has an amazing wicked cackle. She loves to have her "hummy" tickled. She is a total joy! Happy Birthday to you Marlee-girl!

Maui!

OK, this is long. If you just want to see the pictures, go to my facebook.

Heath and I celebrate our 10th anniversary in June, so we decided to go to Maui for the occasion.
Who goes to Maui in June though???
So, we went early :)
It was an amazing week.
No kids, gorgeous island, no kids, lots of fun stuff to do, no kids...

So here is our Maui Top Ten:

10. Its a tie: The Road to Hana and Island Shopping.

Hana: Our first full day, we thought we would do the road to Hana as the weather was not so great-the trade winds were blowing pretty good, it was cloudy and a bit rainy at times and the temp wasn't even in the 80s (however, a poor weather day in Maui is still pretty great). It is a 3 hr trek on a road with like 600 curves, and 54 one lane bridges. Lots to see along the way. Our guide book says its not about the destination, but the journey. It was very scenic and lovely waterfalls and beaches along the way. However at one point, Heath says, "This looks just like Kent!" Its true, being from Western Washington, I am pretty familliar with lush green forests. Highlights along the way: the $6.00 banana bread, it was good, seeing all the maui weasels (later discovered that they were actually mongooses), and Black sand beach. Hana itself was as advertised: not much. Heath did get a big diet Coke there though.

6 bucks for banana bread! it was even a mini loaf!!!

See that little guy peekin around the garbage can? Pretty cute!

Shopping: yeah, ABC stores galore! We loved Whaler's Village in Kaanapali. Close second was the boardwalk in Lahaina. We enjoyed strolling around looking for souviners for the kids(who were at home with Grandma and Grandpa, not running around hiding and me yelling at them to stay with me). Fun resaurants in Lahaina that we ate at were Cheeseburger in Paradise and Hard Rock Cafe. The Maalaea harbor village was fun to look around too. Loved the cookie store.

9. The hot tub. Felt so good on my aching back and Heath's sore knee. We were sorta pathetic with our ailments, but hey, we got to use the handicap parking. The Mahana, where we stayed, seemed to not be very crowded. We sat in the tub by ourselves every night. One night it sorta rained on us, but that was OK. Not real popular during the day, but great after the sun goes down!

8. Yummy Food. I think our favorite place to eat was the Barefood bar and Grill in Whaler's Village. It was on the beach, in the sand. Live music and some really tasty moonfish. mmm.
7. Watching the sunrise on Haleakala. Everyone says you gotta do it. Since the 3 hour time differance was on our side, why not. So we got up at 3am to trek up the mountain. It was so COLD! Who brings their winter coat to Maui? Not me. The top of the mountain is above the clouds so when the sun pops up, its quite spectacular. It was a bit shocking to see tons of other people half frozen, half asleep, all waiting for the sun to come up. Heath thinks its a scheme of the Maui businesses, convince the tourists to get up extra early to have more time in the day to spend money.






6. Whale Watching. We were at the "tail" end of whale season. From our Lanai, we could watch the humpback whales frolic in the ocean. So cool! We went on a dinner cruise and talked to a naturalist who told us all about the whales. The cruise would have been on the top 10, but we chose a very windy night and the boat got tossed all over. No whale sightings either because it was dark.


This is the view from our room. I can't think of much that's more relaxing than watching the palm trees sway with the trade winds along with the crashing of waves in the sand.

Our view!


5. Old Lahaina Luau. I won us a free ticket to the luau! It was a traditional luau, no fire dancers (Heath was a bit disappointed) but the food was great and the show was too! Loved that it was on the beach and we got to watch the sunset. Great service there too!





4. The Lounge chairs. Oh, paradise found! We loved these loungers for napping in the sun. We did find out that the vinyl removes sunscreen-poor Heath looked like a zebra after laying down on his chest for a bit, then flipping.
You can see the island Lanai in the background shrouded in clouds.

3. The Big Island Breezer. Yes, an ice cream sundae from the Hagen Daz store is #3 on our list. Really, it was amazing. 2 scoops of pineapple, coconut ice cream, 1 scoop of macadamia nut ice cream, hot fudge, short bread cookies and whipped cream. We shared it. However we did go two separate times. so good.


(total side track, but on our honeymoon, we had a phenomenal sundae at the Ghirradelli shop that we still talk about-we like our ice cream!)

2. Snorkeling. We rented snorkel gear on our last day. We checked out Black Rock at Kaanapali beach, down a ways from our hotel. So awesome. We were both worried that our injuries would limit our fun, but it was not too taxing for either of us. The fish would swim right up in our faces-perhaps a bit too friendly for my tastes. We saw the famous humuhumunukunukuapua'a. Heath worked hard on that one. I wish we would have attempted snorkeling earlier in the week because it was so cool. Guess we will just have to go back sometime and do it again.
1. Helicopter tour. There are just not words. So amazing!!! We toured the West Maui mountains and Molokai. Breathtaking! I got the front window seat so my view was as good as it gets. The Molokai sea cliffs were awesome, 3000ft, the tallest on the planet. The pilot pointed out a 20ft tiger shark swimming in the coral near Molokai, sorta made me want to stick with the hot tub.

Early Easter

Sage and I found her dress when we were in Seattle last. We both fell in love with it. We decided that Marlee needed something just as fancy and thought this dress matched fairly well. Both were so pretty. To complete the look, Sage and I found this shirt for Hayden. Love my shopping partner, Sage!


Gotta do eggs! one of my favorite activities! Heath was burning the midnight oil at the office trying to get things ready for a week's absence. Just me and the kids Friday night. Set up took FOREVER! We got table cloths and smocks and egg holders and crayons. The kids were so excited to color eggs. Finally, I gave the green light and, for the next two minutes we had a blast. It was over so fast! For some reason, I figured that 18 eggs would be plenty. Hey, I wasn't going to be around to eat any of them anyway right? 7 for Hayden, 7 for Sage, and 4 for Marlee (she needed a whole lot of supervision so that she didn't drink the "juice"). Not nearly enough.
Note to self, eggs are cheap and lots of fun...next year, two dozen at least.




We arranged for Easter to happen on Saturday at our house this year as Heath and I were departing early Sunday morning, long before any bunnies get up. It was really nice, and I think I might make similar arrangements next year. We got up and discovered lots of surprises in our baskets. The bunny was a bit generous with the kiddos this year. (Was it guilt for leaving them? yeah, probably!) They each got a spring outfit, a new game, books, some silly little toys, and a bunch of candy.
We loaded up on chocolate bunnies and then headed off to the girl's daycare egg hunt.

It was a beautiful day for an egg hunt. Marlee didn't really get it, but when she is told to get eggs with candy in them, she can be persuaded. Sage frolicked about the eggs, while Hayden's style was more frantic. The eggs were jamb packed with candy and I was a bit overwhelmed with the amount of sugar we were taking home. Both girls were pleased to wear their pretty dresses, but Hayden was mostly ticked off that I would suggest such humiliation. He was sure he would be the only boy not in jeans. Lucky for me, lots of other moms are just as terrible.
The big, creepy bunny showed up. Marlee had already had enough of him and kept a good distance from him at all times. The ever popular refrain of "where did the Money (bunny) go?" was repeated over and over to make sure he didn't sneak up on her. Sage however needed more time with him and made sure to chat and visit and get some hugs in. She is a lover, that girl. She loves the bunny and made sure to thank him for all her surprises. Such a thoughtful little gal.
Hayden was too busy staining up his church pants with all the other boys to even notice.





Grandma and Grandpa arrived in time to go to our Bishop's house for another egg hunt and picnic with lots of friends and food. Again, more candy. The day was so busy, Sage had a birthday party somewhere in all that! (Can you believe that she got more candy in her goody bag from the party???)

Creepy Bunny

Poor Marlee wanted nothing to do with the creepy mall bunny, unfortunately, Sage refused to take no for an answer about a visit with him. I think Hayden sorta was siding with Marlee, but couldn't let his little sister make him look like a chicken.
Marlee keeps asking me, "where did the Monny (bunny) go?" When I don't answer fast enough, she tells me he is at the mall. Sometimes she is specific and lets me knows its by Macy's. She loves to look at the picture now. Me too--torturing your kids is hilarious!

Let Them Eat Cake!

OK, so hyperglycemia might be an issue around here this month. We have had a lot of cake. Sage loves to cook and looks for reasons to wear her apron that my grandma made her. So we bake!

Groundhogs: Who doesn't love Groundhogs day? We had made these cupcakes in the past, and they are so darn cute. We had a really fun night even though the nasty little rodent saw his shadow. The kids had a blast and made an enormous mess. Heath even hobbled over to the table to help. Looks just like Phil, huh?




Valentines: because there just isn't enough chocolate at valentines day, we needed cupcakes. Luckily, I sent most of them to Heath's office and some to my girls at work.

Mardi Gras Kings Cake: Growing up, I can remember some friends bringing us back a kings cake from New Orleans after they went down for Mardi Gras. Loved it. Beads too! Sage and I decided to make our own version this year. Very tasty! Marlee got the baby in hers. :)

March is national nutrition month, so we will probably try some healthier options for snacks.

My Student

This is my student intern. She spent the last 10 weeks at the hospital where I work.
On her first day she was chatting with my boss and mentioned that she was from Federal Way. Cool! Me too! So I turn to join the conversation and she looks at me and says, "you used to be my gymnastics teacher." Whoa!!! Sure enough, many years ago I had her in one of my gym classes at good ol Gymnastics Unlimited. Is it a small world or what???
Can I just add that she is an AMAZING intern and is going to make a fantastic dietitian someday. ...all goes back to those formative years at GU.

Heath

A quick update on Heath. His knee is doing really good. His physical therapist has been impressed with his range of motion and is ready to start him on a bike. -Stationary bike, much to Hayden's disappointment who had visions of him and his dad doing physical therapy all over town together-hold tight bud, its coming!
He is brace free, got all the stitches out and really doesn't need the crutches, but the doctor encouraged him to keep them one more week. Sage likes it when he "crutches around" the house. She chases him and says, "don't crutch me Dad!"
Unfortunatley the poor guy got Strep Throat a week out from surgery, followed up with a stomach bug and now seems to have some sorta flu. Can't catch a break! He was tickled to get all the bandages and stuff off so he could shower a week and a half after surgery.
He is pretty amazing. I admire his strength, he has been such a good sport, hardly complaining at all, so tough... and his handicap parking pass is awesome!

Hayden practicing in case he ever "breaks" his ACL