Holy Cow, time flies when you're having fun...

Wow, I can't believe that it has been so long since I've updated our blog. It is baseball season so everything kind of takes a back seat to that. I am so happy that Mark takes care of the kids during the games so I can actually watch and concentrate. I LOVE to watch Brett play and it makes me sad when I get interrupted with, "MOMMY Kehli hit me" or "I'm hungry can we buy some gummy bears." His team is doing so much better this year with a record so far of 11-3. There's actually a possibility that we could win the All-City Tournament in June. I don't want to get ahead of myself, but the prospect of after season play is so exciting. Brett is doing well at the plate - I guess all the batting practice over the winter actually helped. His batting average so far is 0.316 which is considerably better than last year. When he pitches he does well also. One game he pitched the last two innings and only threw 19 pitches. Not bad!! He's been walked 10 times and hit by a pitch twice. As long as he gets on base he's happy! If you don't care about baseball stop here and skip to the next section as I ramble on about our last game...Saturday's game was disappointing - we were down by 2 in the last inning with one out. Our kid gets up and bunts the ball, but he was still in the batters box so it was called a foul. But then he hits it again with the bat and the catcher picks it up and throws him out at first - the outfield ump calls it out. Obviously we complain that it was a called foul by the home plate ump first - after deliberations and lots of exchanges with our happy coaches the batter is called out. Two outs, a player on first, and Brett is up to bat. He hits it out to center field just over the second baseman's head. They get it to second base and the runner is out. Game over and Brett feels it is all his fault for hitting it where he did. It was a disappointing loss and even worse when there were several bad calls by the umps. I am a good spectator though and only get upset for a while. I've only been told once to be quiet. I don't want to embarrass Brett too much!

Kehli decided to try softball this year and her first game is on Saturday. It will be fun to watch her play and so different from watching Brett. She is one of the only girls that can catch the ball most of the time so she's pretty confident. I'll post pictures of her next time.

Here are pictures of the lot that we are going to build on. It is about one acre and is on a hill. The first picture is from the bottom looking up and the second is from the top looking down. It's hard to tell on the second picture since the slope is considerable, but I like how it feels country a little bit. We are finishing up bids right now and hope to go to the bank with everything next month. It is such a process so far and we haven't even broken ground!! Mark puts so much time into gathering bids that I try to not complain about designing the kitchen and picking out plumbing & light fixtures. I have to do it all now though because with the kids home in the summer there will be little time for things like that. We are praying that interest rates stay low until we lock in our rate. We can't wait to get started!!

Right now we are also working on getting the yard done here at our rental. Mark finished the sprinkler system on Saturday and started on the fence - at least digging post holes. Hopefully the fence will be in by weeks end and we can get the dirt all leveled and the grass and garden planted before it gets too hot. There are so many rocks here. The kids and I have been gathering rocks for 3 weeks now - I almost believe that they are having babies overnight! I'm about to the point that I'm not going to make them pick up any more that are smaller than their hand. It will be fine, right!?

Erin loves to sing. Unfortunately she inherited my singing abilities so we are looking into voice lessons for her. Since she is not interested in sports or dance I figure this is one talent that we will try and help her develop. She is trying out for a solo at school this week and I think she'll be pretty disappointed if she doesn't get it. Luckily there are 30 kids trying out for it so I think she'll understand if things don't go as she has planned. She volunteered our family to sing the reverence song in Primary a few weeks ago and it was the most embarrassing few minutes of my life. It is a new song that Mark and I had both not ever heard before except for the kids singing it around the house - so it doesn't sound like it should. So the pianist plays it once through for us and I get through the first line before the giggles set in. I laughed all the way through the rest of the first verse and the second. There were tears rolling down my cheeks. I don't know what happened, but I couldn't stop. So, Erin basically sang a solo into the microphone as I laughed, Bubba mumbled a few words here and there and Mark sang as quietly as possible. I felt bad because I am sure it didn't help reverence the kids, but I'm happy to say that they will never ask our family to sing again!!

The kids have said a few cute things that I want to document before I forget:
The first was when I was tucking Evan in for his nap. I alway say, "Evan, I love you forever and ever." As I was tucking him in the other day he grabbed my cheeks and said, "Mommy, I love you never, never, never."

The second was on Saturday night after dinner. We are having an issue with ants coming in under our kitchen door. It could be because we are working the dirt outside and stirring them up, or the fact that there are holes under the door so they can walk in freely, or that Evan's chair is right next to the door and he drops a lot of crumbs on the floor - or a combination of all of the above. Anyway, I have to sweep the floor after every meal and I mop every night after dinner. So this was the conversation in the kitchen one night:
Bubba: You're cleaning the floor AGAIN!?!
Me: Yes, so the ants won't keep coming in.
Bubba: Well, the devil will keep sending them.
Erin: No Bubba, the devil doesn't send them, he TEMPTS them.
Bubba: You mean with our crumbs?
Too cute - I couldn't keep from laughing!!

Well, this is long enough. Hopefully it won't be two months before I post again. I'm a little better at Facebook because I don't feel like I have to write as much so check there for more pictures if you are interested. HAPPY SPRING!