Summer in Las Vegas

Before Grandma and Grandpa headed back to Utah we decided to try a fishing trip here in Vegas. We were not very successful but it was still fun. Just making good memories
Grandpa with his traditional spit on the bait trick. Hoping we might catch at least one fish.
Caden thinks it might be better to just eat the bait.
Of course, Brandon wins and catches the only fish of the day. He's a true fisherman.

Caden just received his arrow of light for cub scouts and is now an 11 yr. old scout.
I am kind of doing this blog thing in a backwards order but I will get the hang of it eventually. If you look closely at Matthews finger you will see that he has something sticking out of his middle finger. This was his attempt to help get the poles ready for Grandpa before we left for our fishing trip. I think Matthew is going to leave that job to Brandon from now on. And yes, he needs a hair cut. He was thinking he looked cool with his hair longer and after seeing this picture he understands why I buzzed his hair.

Matthew shows off the actual tools the Dr. used to pull out the hook. They called him Captain hook. I told him that it was a $500 hook and that next time we would just use our own tools.
A very happy Matthew, who just lights up my life with his smile and humor. No more hook!

These next few pictures are of Mandy's Birthday weekend. Amy came down and we had a blast. We went bowling, saw a couple movies and Amy made Mandy's B-day cake with a little help. She did a great job. Mandy was thrilled that Amy could come.




She was very exhausted after all the fun activities we did this weekend. She also enjoyed her chocolate birthday cake as you can see it is still on her face.

What an awesome family. We know how to have fun!

Nate at his first swim meet. He did fabulous. The only thing he is having a hard time on is the dive off the block. He has belly flopped so many times that he just too scared. So he jumps in with almost all fours and then has to work extra hard to catch up. He is still coming in the top three in most of races though. Taking after his brothers. Another fish in the water. His best stroke seems to be his back stroke though. He does it very well. Sorry the pictures aren't so good. He is just moving soooo fast.

Caden has swam very well this year also. He looks like his daddy in the water.

The butterfly is such a hard stroke. I don't know how they do it.
Go Matthew!

Matthew was really struggling to catch his breath in this picture. He has just been diagnosed with Asthma and is using a couple of different inhalers now. But this boy will not give up. He's working really hard in swimming and football. I have got to get that camera or I will never be able to get any pictures of the boys playing football.


And last but not least, my Brandon, the fish himself. This poor boy had to go up a level this year in swimming. They have this poor kid swimming against kids that are in High School already. He and one other 13 year old it seems are always going against a group of 15, 16 and 17 year old boys. It's good for him though. We just tell him to work on bettering his times and he is handling it just fine.

All the children are doing well. Jim still loves his job and so do I. Being a school nurse is something I always wanted to do, I love working with all the kids. Heavenly Father has truely blessed our Family here in Las Vegas.

Baseball Season

Brandon had a fantastic season. We were a little concerned about him because he had to go up to the junior league this year and he was the youngest kid on his team and smallest. Weird for me to be saying smaller when it comes to my kids. Anyway, the fields was so much bigger and it seemed like you had to run a mile just to get to first base. But for Brandon, it was great. His favorite thing to do was run the bases . Jim was able to help coach Brandon's team this year and he had a blast. If he had to work on a game night, he would just take his break at game time and come over in uniform. The kids on the team loved it. He did a great job. Brandon wasn't a power hitter but he could put the ball in play and the last half of the season he got 1 to 2 hits a game. If he got on base, you could bet he would do everything he could to steal to the next. He played 2nd most of the time and occasionally left field. We are very proud of him. There team finished in 2nd place and won the end of the season tourney so they took the big trophy. Go Gators!
Matthew had a great season also. He played 1st base most of the time and was able to pitch quite a few games innings as well. When he did pitch, he did very well. He struggled with batting a little but ended the season strong. In fact, he had the end of the season game winning hit that gave his team the championship title. He is like his mother and wants to be perfect every time he plays. I am not sure that is such a good quality to pass on. He is way to hard on himself. Matt will continue to play in the same league next year while the rest of his team goes up. He is looking forward to dominating next year and is working extra hard to get himself in tip top shape. So we ended up having 2 number 1 teams.

I would have liked to get more pictures of the boys playing baseball but my camera stinks and they just move to fast. Most of the pictures are too far away or blurry. Jim and I are trying to figure out how to buy a good camera so we can keep up with Rich, the expert picture taker.
Mandy had a ton of fun playing for the Pink Ladies this year. Ofcourse, pink is her favorite color so the team name was fitting. She was fabulous and won the MVP award for the team. She also won the farthest thrower and fastest base runner for her league. Fastest base runner, can you believe it, one of my kids fast.

As you can tell, Mandy was quite a bit bigger than most of the kids in her age group. We have signed her up again for fall ball but they have asked her to go up to the older girls league a little early and have asked me to be help coach. I figured that would happen eventually. Many is very excited, it should be fun.

Grandma and Grandpa enjoying one of Caden's games. Or maybe not, it's always very hot.
Caden had a great season this year. He was the best hitter on the team. Like I said, it was very hot but Caden never complained. He was the only good catcher the team had so he caught almost every game, even when it was 105 degrees. We had so much fun watching him play. His team wasn't so great but he was awesome and was even asked to try-out for allstars. Only 1 kid from each team was able to say that.

Brother Brandon was always there to give Caden a high five.

I am sorry to say that I don't have any pictures of Nate playing baseball this year. I feel awful, I was so busy running from one game to the next that I never got any really good shots. He was the star of his team though. Hitting quit a few home runs and pitching 2-3 innings every game. Nobody could hit him, he was terrific. People were always asking why that big kid wasn't playing with the older kids and I had many coaches trying to recruit him for their team next year. Will see what happens. We had 5 teams and I was able to be at most of the games. If I wasn't, Jim usually was, even if it was on his break. The kids always loved it when he would roll up to the field in his police car. It was a very fun season and we look forward to it next year. The little league program here has been wonderful for the kids and we have made some fantastic friends. I am sorry I don't have many good pictures but I am working on that for next year.