Zach's Baseball Season - 2011

This year's baseball season was one of the best yet! We all were so excited for the games to start up and even more excited that it would be machine pitch this year!

Zach's team was the Dodgers - and he informed us that it was one of his favorite teams! (Note: We had never heard this until he found out it was his team, but we thought it was cute!)


This was also the year that he got some official baseball pants and batting gloves - thanks to a birthday gift card from his Nana and Papa from California. He looked so cute in his complete uniform!


He played almost all of the positions in the field (unfortunately, I only had my camera the two times he played the catcher, so I only got pictures of that), but he was really good catching, throwing, and getting outs!


And even though it wasn't as exciting, he was darn cute in the catcher's gear!


His favorite part, by far, was hitting. I loved watching him walk up to the batter's box, he always had a look of concentration on his face.


I know we're biased, but he was one of the best hitters on the team. He had numerous infield and outfield hits during the season and even had 2 homeruns during 2 different games.


He looked so cute standing out on first base with his batting helmet.


I did get quite a few video clips of him, so I thought I'd post a few of those as well. This first one is of one of his hits.



And this second one is of him playing catcher - so cute!



Most of the games were attended by just our little family, we all sure loved watching our son/brother play! Tate would even squeal and point at Zach every time he saw him - it was so fun to watch!


We also had both sets of Nanas and Papas see a game or two and we're so grateful they were both able to see him play. He really loves when people come to see him.


It sure was a fun season and we're sad that it's over already. But we're looking forward to Flag Football for Zach coming up in September or October - should be another fun time!

Bybee Family Summer Reunion

Last Saturday we were able to attend the Bybee Family Summer Reunion. It's been quite a long time since we've seen some of the family since we didn't make it last year (Tate was so little and we were all still recovering from the delivery and just trying to survive with a brand new baby).

My mom and sisters had the great idea of doing the reunion at a splash park up in Ogden. It was so much fun and the kids had a blast! There was plenty of shade for the adults and plenty of water to cool down the kids. Both Zach and Hailey had a blast in the splash park - but Hailey was really the little fish this time around.


She kept playing, drying off, then going back in again. Most of the time she was with Zach, Branson, Jocelyn, and Mylee...


... but every once in a while she would just go and play by herself. Although for her, it doesn't take long for her to find a friend.


Zach thoroughly enjoyed the splash park, but after lunch they got playing a game of baseball and then tossing the ball around together. He decided he'd much rather do that than anything else.


So he ended up doing that the rest of the day and never got back in the water. He's such a funny kid, he always does these funny poses when I point the camera at him!


Tate spent most of the time being held by Jeremiah or I and playing with Libs on the blanket on the grass.


Of course, by the time we were getting ready to leave, he was more than tired - it had been hours since he had his morning nap and he wasn't afraid to let us know how upset he was about that! Luckily, he slept the entire 1 1/4 hours home so he was a little more happy when we walked through the door.


This was one of my favorite parts of the reunion - the great grandchild photo - Grandma sure has a beautiful family - aren't these the best looking kids you've ever seen? Grandma, you have one heck of a legacy!


We had a great time - so much so that we had to drag Zach and Hailey away from all the fun they were having. We're so glad we made the trip up to see everyone and enjoy the day!

Tate and Libby's First Time Swimming!

We decided last week that our weekly activity would be swimming at Nana and Papa's house. All the kids absolutely love swimming in their backyard and were thrilled when we told them. This was a special swimming day because it was the first time for Tate and Libby. Nana and Papa had bought Libby a little wading pool and that's where the two little ones spent their time - away from the jumping and splashing of the big kids in the larger pool.

At first the two didn't know what was going on - I can just hear Tate saying in his mind: "Why am I still in my clothes and in this silly looking tub and why are we bathing outside Mom? Libs, you have any idea what's going on here?"


They just kind of sat there for a few minutes wondering what was going on. After a few minutes, they started putting their hands in the water and moving their feet around.


Not long after that, they were splashing, having a good old time, and Tate was crawling all over the pool!


Once they got used to being in the water, Aunt Shell or Aunt Kylie brought out some plastic cups and they both had a blast playing with those and a little plastic football.


These two are hilarious together and I love pictures like this where they are just looking at each other - how cute is that? They definitely are going to be best buddies when they grow up!


And not to leave the other little "fish" out - Zach, Hailey, Ashton, and Branson all had a blast too. Hailey could not hold still for a minute - hence the slightly blurry picture, but it was the best I got of her.


Zach on the other hand was fine to sit back and show his "relaxing in the pool" pose - too funny!


These four were just as hilarious playing in their pool - they were in, out, in, out, jumping, running, splashing, kicking, squirting, you name it - they did it. But they sure had a blast!


We did at some point get them all to stop and pose for a quick picture together - so cute. They are all growing up so much!


Needless to say, it was a fun time for all! We're going to have to do more little swimming parties together!

Coupons

Almost everyone that knows me knows that I am big time into couponing. Actually, that might be a huge understatement, but what can I say? I wouldn't say I'm obsessed or an extreme couponer like some of those who are on the Extreme Couponing show on TLC, so don't worry about that. But my love for using coupons to save money has spread into my family's way of life. I find my husband making comments about whether things are a good deal or not. For example, he came home and told me that for work, he ran into a store with one of the guys and they paid over $4 for a 12-pk of pop - he couldn't believe it. He knows that I don't ever pay over $2.75 or $2.80, so he knew that was a horrible deal! And my kids have gotten used to the following phrases:

"I know it's a lot of cereal, but it's on sale and I have coupons!"
"No, we can't get that today because it's not on sale."
"Looks like I'm going to have to rearrange the pantry, again!"
"We can't have that now because I don't have a coupon for it."
"I need to split this into a couple of transactions."
etc. etc. etc.

My daughter Hailey has probably been the one to be with me most of the time during my preparation and shopping trips - partly because we usually did our shopping while Zach was in school and also because Zach hates shopping (which is probably due to the time it takes to shop using coupons sometimes). Regardless of the reason, she loves to sit and clip coupons with me or Nana whenever she gets the chance. A couple of Sunday's ago, I was clipping some coupons and getting my list together for a trip to Target and Smith's (my new two favorite places to shop) and she decided to sit down with a paper and pen with me. I didn't really notice what she was doing because she's always drawing, writing, coloring, etc. When she asked if she could cut with the scissors, I still didn't think anything of it because again, this is a regular thing with her. What came out of all of that was not anything I could have imagined:



Yes, she had made me her own coupons for Smith's! I couldn't help but smile. You'll notice the different sized coupons because she's observant enough to know that coupons do come in a variety of sizes. Looking back, I realized she had asked me how to spell Smith's at one point and then had heard me say I wished I had more coupons for a particular item at Smith's. So in her generous way, she was helping me out by making me more Smith's coupons to use - how sweet is that?!? She even made a set for her Dad because she was just sure he would want his own Smith's coupons too! Of course he was overjoyed when he got home with his own set of coupons to use. :)

You might think this kind of silly and that I'm corrupting my daughter into thinking that you can only shop using coupons. I tend to think of it more as teaching her how to budget and be resourceful with money. Although there are plenty of people out there who do not coupon for reasons either of time, monotony, or just plain advertion to the process, I definitely understand that it's definitely not for everyone. I have found that I actually enjoy it and get a bit of a rush when I pay little or nothing for something I need. Because I'm an organizer and perfectionist, the organizing, planning, shopping, etc. has become more of a hobby and one that saves me money - how many of those types of hobbies are out there? I have seen my family's grocery bill cut almost in half from what it was just a few years ago, so for me, it's enjoyable and oh-so worth it. I'm happy and proud that my daughter is understanding and even learning some valuable skills she might apply later in life.

And as for those coupons she made us? Well, they are going straight into my scrapbook because I JUST LOVE THEM and I LOVE HER FOR BEING SO SWEET!

Our Trip to Yellowstone!

This year we decided our big summer vacation would be a trip to Yellowstone with my family. Jeremiah and the kids had never been and I hadn't since I was really young (like 7 or 8), so we were all so excited to go. We drove up to Malad and stayed with Michelle, Brian, Ashton, and Branson on Thursday night. We were so excited to see Branson's game and have a fun sleepover! Then Friday morning, we drove the rest of the way up to West Yellowstone. It was a long drive for all of us, especially since the kids aren't big fans of car travel, but we made it! We stayed at the West Yellowstone KOA in a cute little cabin. Unfortunately, I didn't ever get a chance to take a picture, but it really was a nice little place complete with bathroom and small kitchen.

Once we got checked in, we had a quick lunch and headed into the park to see as much of it as we could. Our first stop was a beautiful waterfall.


Since we aren't big hikers or anything, the kids haven't really seen anything like this before and they were in awe. I got tons of pictures of them with their backs towards me because they couldn't rip their eyes away from what they were looking at.


Here's a picture of all the cousins that made it (we missed Libby - and Kylie and Jedd during this trip - they were busy putting in their yard!).


Zach absolutely loved the "real" binoculars Nana and Papa let him borrow during the trip (I don't think he took them off the entire trip other than to sleep and eat, although I think that more to my insisting than his!). He informed me they were a lot better than the toy set we brought - I think he's decided he needs a real pair for himself and he's planning to ask Santa for some this Christmas.


Hailey loved the waterfalls, she told me that they were so pretty.


Tate was happy hanging out in his stroller most of the time, he loved getting out of the car and being pushed around outside.


Both Hailey and Zach spent most of the time at the park riding in everyone else's car - we pretty much had only Jeremiah, me, and Tate as we rode around looking at things. So this was about the only family picture that we got. Seems we're not as fun and exciting as everyone else in the family!


Here's another fun picture of all the cousins.


And one with Nana and Papa with the grandkids that were there.


After the waterfall, we headed to the next stop which was the "Artsist Paintpots." The colors really were spectacular, although the smell wasn't so much so. Hailey kept plugging her nose and telling me it smells like cooked eggs (someone had told her it smelled like rotten eggs, but she got confused - I thought it was darling!).


We stopped at quite a few places and had fun seeing everything. Even the driving was nice because the views were spectacular!


By the time we made it all the way up to the Mammoth area, it was late and we were all starving, so we drove around the little area before heading back. What was amazing to me were all the elk just roaming around the area.


They seemed so peaceful and you could pull up right next to them and take pictures. It was amazing!


The scenery up at Mammoth was so beautiful, so many colors!


Tate spent a lot of time like this, poor thing was so tired without having good naps during the day. He was such a good boy despite the short driving naps though, we were really proud of him!


This picture is hard to make out, but if you look closely, you can see a Mama Grizzly Bear and her 2 bear cubs out in the valley. We were so amazed as we've heard that seeing grizzly bears is so rare!


There were little herds of Buffalo everywhere! We were lucky enough to have some right next to the road as we drove by several times. They were so big!


One of my favorite areas was the "Grand Canyon" area of Yellowstone. There was another breathtaking waterfall that I just loved.


There were quite a few places to stop and view the canyon and waterfall, so after a few times, Jeremiah and I just took turns looking and just let Tate stay in the car - he was all smiles and loving just playing with his toys.


After viewing the canyon from one side, we drove to the other to see it from there. At one of the viewing areas, there were quite a few stairs, so I stayed at the bottom with Tate and Zach took the camera to get some pictures. This was one that was taken up at the top of the viewing area, so cute!


This was probably my most favorite area to view the waterfall - it was just beautiful and I loved seeing it as well as the area below.


After lunch and some resting, we headed off again. This time we stopped at the dragon's breath area where there were more hot springs and clay pots. And of course more yucky smells!


And our last stop was Old Faithful. The kids had so much fun walking around the area, looking in the gift shop (where they each got to pick out a souvenir - Zach chose a flashlight and Hailey chose a little carry purse), and then finally out around the geyser where we waited for it to erupt.

Tate and Hailey both had little meltdowns while we waited, but were over it and in good spirits when the eruption came. It really was amazing that it shot so high up. The kids loved it.


After that we headed out of the park and back to the campground for dinner and smores. The next morning we woke up early, had breakfast, and began the long 5 hour drive back home. We were worried about trying to do so much driving at once, but the kids did great. Of course, they were so tired from all the sight seeing and sleeping in another bed. In fact, the last hour and a half of the drive they did nothing but this ...


Yes, you can always tell your vacation is a success when the little ones sleep alot of the way home! We had a blast at Yellowstone and enjoyed seeing it with our family. I think we'll go again in another couple years, the kids already can't wait!