Aaron & Julia Waldron: Summer fun and then some...

I am so behind as usual with posting. After my last post we celebrated Christmas and a lot of birthdays, other stuff that I can't remember and then we went on vacation and went to Florida for work and did a lot of fun stuff but I will have to fill in on all that later. I am going to start instead with our summer and spring festivities. This year we decided it was time to try extracurricular activities with our kids again after the horribly failed attempt two years ago:0 Gretchen has been asking forever to be in a ballet so after she turned 4 in December we signed her up for classes at a cute little studio. Julian on the other hand had been asking to be in baseball. So when I found a sign on a main street that said little league sign up here, I went there and signed up. Gretchen has loved her classes so much, and we have loved going to them and playing with the other kids waiting for their siblings to do their class. Ballet was very low key, until we started rehearsing for the recital. Things got pretty crazy with weekend and weeknight practices but she was sooooo, soooo cute. And she loved everything about it so much (except for when the lights turned off onstage). It was so cute watching her try on her real ballet costume and then go out and do her dance. Like seriously she was cuter than anything in the whole world!! It was so fun!!

Gretch is the second one from the left

I tried to make SnowQueeny looking cupcakes for the ballet bake sale:)

At the same time Julian's baseball team was playing about two games a week and then practicing two other nights. It was kinda crazy between the two but once ballet ended, baseball continued. After Gretchen's recital Julian had his last day of kindergarten and received an award for best penmanship in his class. I was so proud of him because he just did not care about letters and reading at all before kindergarten and now he reads and writes sentences and he his so careful to write well. It is so fun to see his hard work and see him come so far in one year. We had fun celebrating with his class at an end of the year carnival and helped by doing a super fun and easy fishy toss game. Btw I am so grateful for Julian's kindergarten teacher. I was really worried about him liking school and being focused and she just totally got him and he loved school so much. She was just the best teacher ever and I am so glad Julian could be in her class!!

After school was out we went with my mom and sister to Lagoon. My mom won tickets at her company party and shared them with us. Thanks mom!! Gretchen pretty much decided that she hated roller coasters after two rides but Julian was in love. He wanted to ride everything he could get on! He would ride all the kiddie ones alone and all the big ones with dad. The sweet smile on his face was just so rewarding. Unfortunately he had a little accident which didn't make him love roller coasters any less but when he and Aaron were riding the last one for the night I guess it was super bumpy and jerky and he hit his face on the front of it. Aaron looked down at the end and Julian was basically covered in blood. We waited and waited for them to come back and after a half an hour they did and Julian's shirt was all wet down the front and he had blood splattered all over his shoulders:( I guess Julian didn't even notice but Aaron had to take him to the bathroom to clean him up. It was so fun to see him so excited about all the rides and just the sheer happiness at the joy of riding them!

Almost 7 months pregnant with my big ol baby bump and the realization that I don't really fit in my suit anymore:(

After that it was back to baseball. So when Julian started he was not super focused and he was a little intimidated and I was just trying to prepare him for not winning and not making it to the major leagues or whatever illusion of grandeur 6 year olds are full of (and all of us;). However, his team went on to win every single game this season (except for one where they came back from being down 8 runs to tie) and were the division champions. Then his team went on to play in the tournament last week while Aaron was out of town and won every game again and were tournament champions as well and all stars. They got new baseball hats, prizes, awards, and trophies. He got more trophies in one week than I have gotten my whole life:) He's all, "I worked my but off for this!" and he did. His coaches were super dedicated and the boys practiced a lot. The best thing about their team though is that no matter how much they were down or having a hard time they never gave up and they came back EVERY SINGLE TIME. Their last game was the closest one and I thought there was no way they were going to come back and pull it off. It seemed like they could not get momentum or things together and they were getting injured right and left. But they still came back, got it together, and won the game. Going to all the games in the heat with our kids and pregnant has been, hard, but seeing Julian's face when he hits the ball and gets on base is pretty much the sweetest thing I have ever seen. And it was crazy to watch this little crazy experience unfold. I hope he learned that hard work really pays off but I learned from ballet and baseball, spending the extra time with my kids and seeing the joy that it brings to them, has been so worth it!!

Making a sweet childhood memory:)

Getting the game day ball on second game of the tournament

Another thing we crammed into the baseball extravaganza was Gretchen's birthday party last weekend (6 months late:( ) We just kind of threw it all together but it worked out great and Gretch had so much fun playing with her friends and jumping on her bounce house. She said her favorite thing was hitting the pinata! I am so grateful that we have done it and I can stop feeling guilty about her waiting two and a half years for her birthday party! I was also able to put together a Frozen cake for her that she has been asking for for a year. Anyway it was a lot of fun to watch her open up her super fun presents and just have a great afternoon for her birthday.

Next we went to the drive-in and ate fried chicken for Aarons's Father's day celebration and then we went to Aaron's parents the next day to celebrate with his parents. We tried to take some fun pictures and had lots of fun with Grandma and Grandpa.

Last but not least we went to Julian's end of the baseball season party which was a blast. The kids played for hours out in the hot Utah summer sun and water and ate lunch. It was great to visit with all the parents and great to see the boys just play.

Apart from all the fun activities for the kids Harry has been so fun to watch at games too. He is OBSESSED with bats and balls and everything sporty. We throw to him while watching Julian's games and he hits the ball with his little boy bat and then drops the bat and runs to his imaginary base. He also loves to walk around with Julian's mitt on and is really quite good at throwing, and he will sleep with Julian's game day hard ball. He is a very active, climby, into everything boy and hates to miss out on anything. His sleeping has finally gotten better and he takes naps now which is basically a miracle straight from heaven! He use to only say mama, dada, ooooh, and uh oh, but then all the sudden he just started to say lots of words and he loves to talk, jabber, and sing and is always saying something new to surprise us with. He says mama, dada, bb8, animal, baby, ball, bat, baseball, snack, cheese, popsicle, coco(for chocolate and anything sweet), up, go, hi, doll, that, uh-oh,

hot, cold, hat, weee, stuck, ouch, moana (for the girl from the movie), dog, no, help, and yesterday he said peppa when he saw Gretchen's Peppa pig doll. He also loves to read his Little Blue Truck story every day and make the animal sounds that go with it. It is so cute when he goes "mooooo moooo" whenever he wants his story and he makes the pig sound and starts cracking up every time. He is full of kisses and hugs and pinches and shoves... But he is getting so big and really is such a cutie.

Now that we are done with sports, recitals, school, traveling etc. we should be able to take it easy for a bit until Julian starts school at the end of next month and switch our focus to getting ready for a new little baby girl who is coming our way in two months as well as prepare for some even bigger potential changes for us. We have tried to squeeze that in up till now but we have been gone almost every night for like two months so it's time to get a little more serious about it;) Apart from all this we had a chance to go to the temple to seal my grandparents together. I wasn't sure what to expect but it was really an extraordinary experience and one of the most special I have had in the temple.

We have had such a hard time getting there since we had Harry but it is so so so so nice to be there and have the weight of everything just come off your shoulders. Being pregnant with three kids and all their stuff going on, and all of our stuff going on, and house, and church, and sickness and just everyday life starts to feel kind of heavy and I just wish I could be there more often to enjoy that peace:) Anyway it was great. Here's a few odds and ins of cutie kids etc...