I love you...

"to 'nafivity' ---and beyond!" My sweet words to hear from Leah at night. The kids & I have migrated from our "I love you more"'s to this. Each of the kids says it a little different, but Leah's is pretty sweet. It's one of those things I want to remember just like that - before she learns the right way to say it, which if you haven't figured out, is "infinity and beyond!" Nathaniel has his own way of saying it, too, and he'll always ask me, "Mom, do you like how I say it? Is it my own way of saying it?" It sure is and I love hearing it every way they say it.

Anne's working on it, but for now we get, "ook" (book), "un mor" (one more), then when you tell her you love her, she says "more-more-more", followed by "bye." Sure love her, too.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame...

Baseball is off to a great start. Leyton & Nathaniel are playing their first year of pitching machine and it has been great fun for all of us. Nathaniel really likes catching, and Leyton enjoys pretty much anywhere. They both are making great progress. We've all been playing in the back field a lot, too...the whole family. It's so much fun. The games are fun, too, and we all go and enjoy them. Jacob has three classmates that are usually there as their big brothers are playing, too. You know, it's that nostalgia associated with coming home later in the evening with a crusty kind of dust film on top of sweat from those summer evenings at a baseball game. Interestingly, they had a game last Saturday in 98 degree heat at 4pm, and not a single kid complained about it. Truly showed they were just out there having fun.

Nice Morning Greeting

These cute little girls sure made me smile in the morning. Cute sisters; they are really enjoying one another. Anne's face will light up and she'll say, "Lu-lu!"

Memorial Day Weekend Trip

For Memorial Day weekend, I took the kids to see Grandma Donna & Grandpa Jerry. We had a great time visiting and finding fun things to do. Patrick stayed home to get some projects done - the long awaited painting of our master bathroom & bedroom. It's been a work in progress since we moved in almost two years ago! It really looks nice and I love the colors. Just need to finish putting our room back together. He worked hard while we were gone!

So, while we were gone... On Sunday, we went to the Science Center in St. Louis and the kids had a great time checking out the mummy and all the hands on stuff, but I think their favorite was definitely the experiments/demonstrations. They had ones called, "Energy out of control" (they made a fire tornado using a mesh trash can, record player, tuna can, alcohol, and a lighter), "Boiling Hot, Boiling Cold" (used a lot of dry ice & fun stuff), and "CO2 where are you" (info on recycling & impact of us and cars on CO2 type stuff). They wanted to watch all of them. It really was a fun time. Then on Monday, Leyton & Nathaniel got to go fishing with Grandpa & Uncle Ben. It was their first fishing trip and they caught a combined 13 fish! It was a special time. That afternoon, I took the kids to the park to play and there was an American Legion baseball game going on, so we also watched that for a while. They boys really liked watching the baseball game. It's so fun watching them get so interested in sports these days. On Tuesday, we came back home and brought Grandma back with us so she could watch Mya for a few days.

The kids were really excited to go and I know the way the trip went, it won't be long before they'll be ready to go again - they're always ready to go there! And don't forget - plenty of dessert to keep your heart content! Thanks, Grandma & Grandpa for all the fun & great hospitality!

Back-tracking to Mothers Day & my birthday

So I didn't want to totally leave out the wonderful celebrations we had in May for Mothers Day and my birthday. Patrick sure made them special. Mothers Day was sure a busy weekend. We decided to make a trip to TX to watch our godson Nicholas make his First Communion. On Friday night at 6pm we decided to go and we left at 7pm. We arrived at the hotel at 3am, got everyone back to sleep by 4am, and headed to Mass at 10:30. We had a nice day visiting with the Grahams and the kids could have all played for days. I got to check out the infamous Ikea so loved by many, and before we knew it, it was 6pm on Saturday. That's when we decided to head back home to KS. We made it home around 2:30am and that was the start of Mothers Day. We went to Mass followed by brunch at Barbara's with Natalie, Stacy & Jon, Greg, & Grandma Sally & Grandpa Dan. After that, it was back home to settle in a bit before Patrick started making a wonderful dinner for all of us. I'm sure I've said it before, but it always sinks in that I don't need any kind of gift on days like that because the kids giving me the opportunity to be their mom is all the gift I need. They all made the day so nice. Each of the kids did make me a little something, though, and I loved everything.

That same week I got to celebrate again for my birthday! Another nice day. I had the day off work so I had lunch with the boys at school and Patrick came home from work early to make another great dinner. The kids got to have their once-a-year cake for breakfast, too, since we started doing that on Mom's birthday. A fun treat. It sure made for a very special week.

Mikey Needleman Band - New Video

Check out the boys' new music video! His band does a great job and he is a great teacher for the school. Just scroll down and you'll see where you can play the video for "All For You."