Take Me Out to the Ballgame!

Today Logan got the chance to be the pitcher at his baseball game. 

When I got to the game Logan yelled to me from the dugout that he was going to pitch today! My first thoughts consisted of: what?,  oh no, that's too much pressure,  umm... I don't know if he's ready to do that!  

I was panicking a little (okay a lot) when he stood on the pitchers mound!  

But let me just say, "I've never been prouder to admit I was wrong!"

With his FIRST pitch the ump yelled STRIKE!  And that's how it continued!  

He struck out batter #1, batter #2, and batter #3!  

Can I just say, it was so awesome!!  

After he got that third out- he jumped into the air, ran into the dugout to give his coach a high-5 (by the way, the coach is his dad), and then he ran out to the bleachers to give me a hug!  He had THE BIGGEST grin on his face! 

I was so excited for him to experience the thrill of trying and succeeding!  

This was definitely Logan's day!  Not only did he get those 3 strike-outs, but he also pitched the next inning and struck out 2 more hitters and caught a ball that was hit for out 3!

He also had a great hit right down third base!

I think all day I'll be singing. . . For it's one, two, three strikes you're out at the old ball game!

Keeping With Tradition

This was the first Memorial Day in a LONG time that I have been here in Utah.  

Every Memorial Day since I can remember, my family has visited the grave sites of my Grandpa Olsen's parents and of his brothers that had passed away.

The past 8 Memorial Days we were in Bakersfield, so I was pretty excited to take the kids to the cemetery and continue the tradition with them.  

Since we went a little later in the morning most of my family had already been to the graves, so it was up to me to find them!   

I found my grandpa's brother who served during WWII right away (the American Flag probably helped a little bit), but I have to admit I got a little lost in our search for my great-grandparents! Luckily after a little while, Jared spotted them-- right next to where we had parked (and I don't mean kind of by our van-they were RIGHT by our van)!  

I told Jared I did a pretty good job in getting us in the general vicinity!  If you consider that I haven't been there for 8 years and all the other times I've been there someone in the family was there to take us to the exact spot!)

I think the kids really enjoyed it.  I didn't hear any complaining!  Nothing.  Not even one "this is taking too long, or this is boring!"

There was one moment at the cemetery I tucked away into my 'I want to remember this moment' vault in my head.

Buried right behind my great-grandparents is my grandpa's little brother who died when he was only 4 years old.   When I told Janie that he was only 4 when he died just like her, she went and pulled of a flower stem from the flowers we had brought, sat down by his grave and placed her flower there.  Too adorable!

In the afternoon, we headed over to Jared's brother's house for a BBQ.  It was such yummy food and the weather was perfect!

It's always fun to sit down and chat with the family.  The kids have so much fun just playing with the cousins.  It was such a fun, relaxing, memorable day!

I Looked Out the Window and What Did I See?

*JUST FOR YOUR INFORMATION THIS POST WAS WRITTEN BACK IN APRIL, BUT I FORGOT TO POST IT, SO HERE YOU GO!

I looked out of my bathroom window the other day and this is what I saw:

(By the way, can you tell by the title that I spend a little too much time working in the nursery at church)!

Something yellow and way up high in the tree out back.  It took me a minute, but then I realized that it was Jared!

He had climbed up our huge pine tree in the backyard to saw off all the branches that had half-broken off in the last snow blizzard we had.     

(*ONCE AGAIN, SUPER OLD POST, THIS STORM WAS MID-APRIL!)

The snow was so wet, it was too heavy for the branches.  I kept hearing the branches snap and break all night long.  When I woke up the neighbors tree had completely toppled over!   And our trees in the back had HUGE branches just hanging there ready to fall at any second.  It was such a crazy spring snowstorm!

So, who said tree climbing was just for little boys?  Look at my man go!!

A Cinderella Moment

Here are a few pictures of my darling niece Rachel and her date getting ready to head off to the Prom.Doesn't she look amazing! She is such a beautiful girl and she looked so gorgeous tonight. All the little girls were so excited to see her all dressed up and were just bubbling over with excitement when her date arrived.  
 

I couldn't help but think, that in just a few short years that it will be my Maddie, Megan and Janie headed out the door having their very own Cinderella moment!!

They Make a Mom Proud!

I had one of those moments this week where you see a glimmer of hope that you haven't totally failed as a parent and that maybe your children are going to grow up to be the kind of person you hope they will be. 

It all started last Saturday when my parents held their annual Easter Egg Hunt. (Yes, I never posted anything about Easter or Spring Break, but we've all been sick around here and I decided NOT to play catch-up!)
So anyway, back to the hunt.

One of our Easter egg hunt traditions, started long ago by my dad, is to hide money in the Easter eggs.  Each grandchild was allowed to find three green eggs which had money hidden inside.  The amounts ranged anywhere from a few quarters up to $20.  And so when all was said and done, Madeline and Janie came out on top, while Megan did okay, but didn't rake in a huge loot like her sisters.

Fast forward to Thursday morning.    First, I need to tell you that my kids have a new fascination with Build -A-Bear.  Maddie got an elephant for her birthday and Janie got a bear for her birthday, so poor little Megan is told she needs to wait until her birthday. . . in June!

So Thursday morning, I was woken up by three very excited little girls who had come up with a brilliant plan!  Madeline and Janie had decided that it wasn't fair for Megan to have to wait until June to go to Build-A-Bear.  So they wanted my permission to put their egg money with Megan's egg money, so that she could have enough money to buy an animal and an outfit.    Madeline had already gone online and  priced the animal Megan wanted and the cost of the outfit!

My first thought was, no way!  I know my kids and an hour or two after they had given up their money up they would be coming to me crying and I would be dealing with major meltdowns.  

But then I quickly realized that this was actually a wonderful opportunity for my kids to show their love for one another.  So after asking Madeline and Janie if they knew that they would each be giving up A LOT of their own money and that they couldn't have it back-they still wanted to do it.  

Even though I was so super sick, I knew this was a moment for the record books!  I dragged myself out of the house and over to the mall.  

The result:  THREE VERY HAPPY LITTLE GIRLS, a lesson learned in charity, and a new addition to the Norris Family: a stuffed puppy named Scruffles!

Conference Weekend!

I so enjoyed watching General Conference this past weekend!  

(If you aren't a member of the LDS church and have no idea what I'm talking about, you can click here and then click on General Conference to feel a little more in the loop or you can click on the button that says This I Know right there on the side of my blog.) 

It's always exciting when there is a new call to the Twelve and I think the call of our newest Apostle was very inspired. During the Saturday in between session break, Elder Andersen answered questions from the press and it was fun learning more about him.  

I always feel such a great spirit in my home during conference and lately I have just loved Elder Holland's talks.  They are so powerful and his talk this conference was no exception.  It's one of my most favorite of all the talks he's given.

He gave so many insights into Christ's final hours.  It'll be so great to ponder on those this Easter week.  If you missed it be sure to watch or read it before Easter!  

While looking through my past posts, I found this from October Conference.  I'd totally forgotten to post it, so I figured now would be as good as time as any.  I think it struck me so funny because we had just moved from California and I wasn't used to seeing commercials like this on TV.  They're more than a little cheesy, but they gave me a good laugh!   

Fabulous Friends, Family Fun, and Fantastic New Adventures!

The past few weeks have been full of fabulous friends, family fun, and fantastic new adventures!

FABULOUS FRIENDS!

Last week one of my most favorite friends Marlo stopped by to see me!  She had been in town giving her sister a baby shower and decided to come and say Hi!   I was so excited to see her!!  Although I'm beginning to adjust to life here in Utah a little more each day, I REALLY MISS all my Bakersfield Buddies. It was so fun to sit and visit with her. Visiting with Marlo was just like the old days! We sat and talked for hours!! (That's kind of our thing, we talk so much we lose track of time!)  I was finally able to see her new little guy Jace.  He is one cute, solid kid!

 And it was fun to see Janie and Marlo's little boy Kyler playing together again. Marlo is one of those people who will always be a treasured and fabulous friend!   Thanks for stopping by!

FAMILY FUN

My mom had one of her fun filled FHE's the other night!  She always has a yummy dinner and a great lesson planned.  (Ang, I stole this picture off your bog, hope you don't mind--I have to remember to take my camera to all these family things!)

The kids have sooo much fun just playing and hanging out together, but I think we adults have even more fun!  And, there is always, ALWAYS singing!  It's kind of a Sullivan thing!   I just sat there watching my brothers tease my dad, seeing the kids dancing around, and just relished the moment.  

We also have had a few birthday parties on Jared's side of the family and we had everybody over the other night for dinner.  The kids were so excited when Grandma got a Wii for her birthday!

It's all that crazy family stuff we moved home for and those moments are so worth any hard times that have come our way this past year! 

FANTASTIC NEW ADVENTURES

So, even though it's STILL snowing, Spring has officially arrived and apparently at our house this year Spring means Sports!! 

Maddie and Megan started their soccer season last week! They are on the same team (YEA!!) and have already had so much fun playing in their first two games.

I did have a slight panic attack when Megan was put in as Goalie, but she did an awesome job and had a couple of great stops!

Maddie has great ball control and has already taken the ball up the field a couple of times! 

 Logan had baseball tryouts last Saturday and did really well!  He can't wait for the season to start!!  

Luckily his games and the girls games will only overlap for a few weeks----I'm thinking it's going to be a very busy couple of months!