Every year our kids play baseball. Every year I moan and groan and whine about having to go to all the games. In the cold. In the heat. 3 different kids in 3 different levels, on 3 different teams, with games often on the same night, at the same time. Each year Zack would get hit by wild pitches and then he'd be DONE! No more hits the rest of the season. Poor kid was hit several times. Well, last year Zack's games were a little bit more entertaining because the kids were kind of getting the hang of it. Well, this year baseball is actually FUN!! We love watching the games. The kids REALLY know what they are doing not and it's just incredible to watch some of the awesome plays they make. Last week they had the Tornado Tournament. They had games every night last week. They are undefeated for the season. They made it through the week undefeated, too. They were so awesome! Zack got hit by a ball the first time he was up to bat this year. We figured it was all over but he has been an awesome hitter this year! His coaches are the best too! Very positive. Well, they were undefeated going into it. They made it to the championship game. Zack had a great hit that brought in 3 runs in the first game they played that day. His team ended up winning the championship! The boy in center field caught a pop fly, making the final out winning the game. It was THE COOLEST moment!! Everyone cheered! The team all ran to the middle and hoisted him up and cheered! It was like a scene from a movie. He was named MVP and gets an embroidered hat. The team gets embroidered hoodies. It was so much fun! So this year I like watching baseball. Matty and Max are on the same team and have their first game on Monday. We'll see how that goes. It will beat the heck out of watching T-Ball again. It was cute at first but we've pretty much been watching T-Ball for the past 12 years and pretty much all of the cute has been sucked out of it for me. :)

Stuff. And stuff.

~Church was especially wonderful today. (Besides the guy picking his nose a few minutes before breaking the bread for the sacrament. Seriously disgusting! Lucky for us, we got a tray that was prepared by the other guy. Brian was watching to be sure. I'm sorry for the other people in the ward who got the booger bread. I was too afraid to stand up and demand he wash his hands or that someone else get up there in his place.) I've been kind of down lately. It was just nice to have some spiritual upliftment. The speakers in our ward and the teachers were really great. You know how sometimes you leave church kind of, weighed down by guilt. Instead of feeling recharged and more able to face the new week ahead with a new determination to be a better person, you feel like you must be the biggest sinner ever and that you are surely headed straight to hell. That's how I've been feeling lately. And then during the week it just festers and makes you feel worse and worse. Maybe I'm the only one that this happens to. Well, today I felt that, recharged, more able to feel the week thing. It was wonderful. I feel SO ready to face this week. SO much better! SO uplifted and spiritually fed. It was just really wonderful. Also, I love prayer! Isn't it such a beautiful gift from our Heavenly Father to be able to pray to him. Always. I just love it! ~More Gracie cuteness. She got a hoola hoop from the $1 store. She twirls it around and it falls to her feet and then she starts shaking her hips back and forth. SO cute. She loves to sing the clean up song when she cleans up. She says kean, kean up, ebody do theyer shayers. Cracks me up every time I hear it! She's in that super great phase where she thinks she has to go to the bathroom everywhere we go. I mean EVERYWHERE! And 9 times out of 10 she doesn't actually go when she's in there. But since the potty trained thing is still fairly new, you just HAVE to take her each time, no matter what, just in case. The other day though, we waited outside of the family bathroom at Walmart and this employee that I really like came out of the bathroom. Judging from the noises coming from that bathroom, I was not about to go in there. So we went to the other bathroom and the bathroom was full except for one and it was really gross. She was totally cool with not going and just waiting til we got home. I'm glad to know she has her standards. :) ~I really wish I needed to wear a formal dress somewhere. It would be so much fun to get all dolled up and have somewhere fun to go. You know, besides the $1 store and Walmart. :) ~We watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding today. It's such a cute little show.

Ummm, yeah

~So guess what we got to put out for Hallmark now...a currogate with Justice Beaver (see previous post). Because an entire end cap just wasn't enough to curb your Bieber Fever. :) At least this one has some country music stars on it too. Oy ~Gracie has been so cute. Last night she put some frosted pink lip gloss on her lips and on mine too. It was really fun to watch her face while she was putting it on me. The other day she was helping me put ingredients in the crock pot for dinner and after I put one of the items in the crock she told me, "Good job Mama!". She has started this little jibberish language that cracks me up. Her little friend Tessa did that when I tended her about a year ago and I thought it was adorable so I think it is so fun that Gracie does that now too. ~I decided that I am going to actually use some of the bajillion recipes I've posted on Pinterest. We all love the Winger's Sticky Fingers knock off. So yummy! And super easy. You just bake some Tyson chicken strips and then add the sauce that you make. So tasty! We tried some Crockpot Hawaiian Meatballs over rice, that we all loved! Once again...super easy!!! It is so hard for me to feed us during baseball season so I LOVE finding super easy, delicious recipes to make so dinner is quick and easy instead of a daunting task. What have you tried from Pinterest? I'd love to hear about it! I just LOVE Pinterest!! :) ~I'm so happy about the weather forecast for this week. It's just going to be so lovely! ~I usually don't like Rihanna's music but I am LOVING We Found Love. It would be so much fun to dance to! One of my biggest weaknesses is inappropriate music. I'm trying to be better about switching the station when "bad" songs come on the radio. Honestly, I'm good at doing that when the kids are in the car with me, but when I'm alone I just turn it up louder and sing my heart out. One of my favorite artists is Pink. She almost always has a swear word in her songs but I LOVE her songs so much!!! Anyhoo, I don't know why this is such a difficult thing to overcome, it just...is.

This and That...

~I must say that I was rather embarrassed to HAVE to put up a whole end cap at Walmart that was solely devoted to Justin Bieber. I'm not a fan of the show, The Office, but Brian and Zack LOVE it so I just endure it each week.  :)  I will admit, though, that I laughed my butt off when Jim said something to Dwight about Justin Bieber and Dwight said, "What's a justice beaver?" LOL! So ever since then I call him Justice Beaver. It's not that I don't like HIM or anything, it's just that I just...don't "get" it. Last night Justice was on The Voice and his pants were so far down it was ridiculous. Seriously, below his entire butt. What is up with that? LAME!!! Just had to get that out... 

~That baseball craziness has begun. Zack's games are so much fun to watch now that he's older. Add the kids are more competitive and more able to execute awesome plays and such. I'm so proud of Zack because he got hit with a pitch the very first time he was up for bat this season. I figured it would be a very crappy hitting season for him because of being afraid but he is awesome and has hit most pitches since he's been up to bat. Max and Matty are on the same team this year also so that will be a TREMENDOUS help!! Only problem so far is that a lot of the games are scheduled right during Y.W.. Tonight Zack has a game in a town really close to ours from 6:00-8:00 and has to be there at 5:30 and Matty and Max have a practice at a baseball field near where my parents used to live here in town from 6:00-7:30. And I visit teach tonight at 4:00 and 5:00. I don't have to work today like I did last week, which is so nice with all of this going on.

~Brian still hasn't found work. I am stressing so much! Ever since the Priesthood Blessing I had last week I've felt a lot better but it's just so very hard to deal with! We HAVE to figure out what we are supposed to learn from this so we can stop having this same trial over and over and over and over. It's so draining/exhausting/stressful.

~My house is looking more in order now that I'm not working so much. It will get crazy again closer to Mother's Day but for now it's been nice to have more time to devote to cleaning the house and more energy. I've felt so much better lately. I've had my share of pain here and there but for the most part I can deal with life better than I could before. Bending down to pick stuff up is getting increasingly difficult again, which I hate. Feeling like my head and face are going to explode is just not my favorite, call me crazy. I really can't complain though because it is so much better than before and I know it can always be worse. I really need to be more positive!!

~I am always so terrified when it's my turn to teach the Young Women's lesson. I seriously stress out for at least a good week over it. This week when the girls heard it was my turn to give the lesson they all were really happy that it was my turn and were like "Yay, it's Sister Freeman's turn to give the lesson". It just made my whole week! They are such amazing girls and I really hope that my lessons help them and that they I'm not just a blithering idiot up there. LOL!!! We were really early for Sunday School this week. We were actually REALLY late for Sacrament Meeting, but I'm trying to be more positive.  :)

~So, when Gracie was about 2 months old or so, I bought at darling light pink tutu and some cute fairy wings to match, so that I could have her pictures taken in them. Well, she wore them for her Halloween costume when she was one year old, but other than that it has been hanging in her room waiting for us to be able to afford to have her picture taken again. The only time we had her pictures done was when she was a month old in her blessing dress. My parents had some pictures of them with their grand kids when Gracie was about 6 months old. Other than that, this poor little girl hasn't had her pics done in all that time. She will be 3 in May. Everyone thinks she looks like she's at least 4. I worry they'll expect more out of her. Trust me, she may look 4 but she acts like she's 2!  :) Anyhoo, I finally got her pictures done a while back and I'm so excited to share them!!! I can't tell you how happy I am about it!! I'm sure Brian is happy he doesn't have to hear me whine anymore about it. LOL!! I usually only leave my kids' pics up for a couple of days because I don't want creapos to see them.  :)  I got the disc so prepared for a plethora of pics. Who can pic just one. I mean really...  ;)

~Please excuse the grammer and incoherent sentences. I don't have time to proof read...

Easter, Scary Stuff, Zackary, & Still looking...

~We had a lovely Easter weekend. We spent it in Spanish Fork with my family. The food was wonderful and we had nice visits. The kids were happy with their little Easter Baskets. They got to color eggs here and at their Aunt Stephanie's. They love spending time with her children Joshua and Emily. They are adorable! And on the way to my parent's house from Steph's, Gracie said, "I love J.J.!". So cute! And they also had a lot of fun hunting for candy filled eggs at my Mom's house.

~Steph, J.J., and his parent's, Lynn and De, are co-owners of 2 tanning salons. One of their salons was robbed last Thursday night, at gunpoint. And the guy was wearing a ski mask. Lynn and De were there when the robbery took place. The beds were full and the waiting room was, too. De snuck out the back door to go to another business to ask them to call 911. The police were there in 1 minute, but the guy had already gone. He only got a little cash and took cash from the customers. Anymore everyone uses debit cards so there is very little cash in a register and the employees don't have a key to the safe. Isn't that scary! And it was in a fairly small town. He went on to rob another tanning salon that night. A shot was fired there. I'm so happy that no one was hurt!

~I can't believe my little Zackary is going to be a Deacon. Time has just flown! I'm so proud of him! He's such a wonderful boy!

~Brian is still looking for a job. I'm still working for Hallmark. We're trying so hard to be positive and to count our blessings. I've had some really dark days, full of stress and worry. I asked Brian to give me a Priesthood Blessing and that has helped me tremendously! I am so grateful for the Priesthood. It's such a wonderful blessing isn't it!