Its a Day Late, but Happy Father's Day Anyway!

We had a great day yesterday. The morning started out with myself and the boys making breakfast. Usually Mark makes pancakes and I do the rest. I don't make very tasty pancakes and since I gave Mark the morning off, I made french toast instead. The boys helped with mixing and dipping and they had lots of fun. Taylor drew a picture for Mark that was almost the size of our dining room table..in other words, excessively huge! lol. Austyn also drew a picture for him, and they each (including Ryleigh) signed and wrote on their own cards. Taylor and I put together a book of coupons for Mark. The coupons get him out of things like washing the dog or the car, and some are more fun; like boys' day or golfing with Taylor. He enjoyed it. We ate our breakfast and cleaned up the kitchen and spent the next couple of hours getting everyone ready. We went to a Fresno Grizzlies game. They are a minor league team and our housing company offered free tickets and free lunch to the residents. They also offered free transportation, but we opted to drive ourselves. It was at least in the low hundreds and everyone was soaked in sweat. Mark received a free Grizzlies hat and a $25 gift card for F.Y.E. from housing as well. And since we were the third ones in line, each of us also received a free fishing rod. They handed them out to the first 1,000 people in line. The kids had a blast. Mark was able to play catch with them on the field before the game. After the game Austyn and Taylor ran the bases and got a coupon for Del Taco. Despite the heat, everyone did great. Our lunch was BBQ/Buffet style hot dogs, hamburgers, potato salad, chips, beans and watermelon. For drinks, they just had two soda fountains set up. There were lots of places with awnings, shade and misters for us to escape the heat. Taylor spent most of the game sitting down in the first row hoping to catch a foul ball. He didn't get one, but he still had a blast. He thought it was cool to be able to watch these big guys in such nice uniforms play. Oh, and by the way, the Grizzlies played the Portland Beavers and Portland won. And YES, Mark was probably the only person there rooting for Portland. I told him he was going to get us beat up. haha. The kids also enjoyed ice cold snow cones and helmets filled with dippin dots. At the end of it all, we took the boys to get some souvenirs from the team store, and they each picked helmets. Ryleigh picked a pink baseball bat that she didn't want to let go of! We finished the day off with some Chinese takeout from Mark's favorite restaurant, Jade Garden. The kids were exhausted and slept very good last night. It was nice to get out and do something fun for the whole family. It was great. Enjoy the slideshow. There were too many pictures to post all on here, so we opted for the slideshow. You can click on view all images to view each picture at your own pace and a little larger. If there are any anyone would like, I can email them to you.

Please, Excuse My Lack of Blogging

The last week has been long, hectic, fun and exciting. For starters, Mark finally returned home from a 4 month surge deployment. We are more than happy to have him home again. I won a first kiss ticket, which meant that Mark was to be the first person off of his flight. He was supposed to be on the 2nd flight, but the 2nd flight turned into the 1st flight and he was able to sit in the cockpit for the landing. Pretty exciting stuff. Anyway, he was the first person off of the plane and about a minute later, the rest of the plane departed. It was a great feeling to have him in my sights again. The boys took to him right away. No surprise there. Ryleigh on the other hand took a couple of hours to warm up to him. About 2 hours into him being home, she had already warmed up and had fallen asleep on her daddy! She loves him, and its great to see the joy on her face when he comes home. She kind of forgets about me when he is here. Its nice and sad at the same time. I love that she wants to be with him because it gives me a chance to make dinner without her tugging at my shirt the entire time. At the same time, its sad because she would rather sit with Mark after bath time and things like that. She and I would usually have our cuddle time right after her bath and I would brush her hair and run my fingers through her hair and she would just lay there and enjoy it. Now, she wants Mark to do it for her. lol. Oh well. You win some, you lose some.
Taylor also finished school last Thursday. He is a big second grader now. It kind of makes me feel old to say that I have a son in second grade! I remember being in second grade and what it was like, and all of that stuff. I can't even imagine what it will be like for him. I'm sure he will do awesome. He is such a smart boy. He excels in every subject, and I hope he keeps it up. He likes school for the most part and doesn't usually complain about it. He definitely does not like missing any school or being late. Those are great qualities to have even if you have a mom who tries to talk you out of Saturday school to make up a missed day!!! haha He also finished baseball up last week with a pizza party. He received his 8th trophy! What am I supposed to do with all of these things? I'm running out of space! He loves them of course, and it gives him a sense of accomplishment. And again, I can't say it enough; his coaches were amazing! They always offered praise and enthusiasm to the kids. lol Oh yeah, he just had his yearly physical today and he weighs 53 pounds and is 4'3"! He is in the 50th-75th% for his height and weight, and he's doing great. He will also be going back for another EKG sometime next year. He still has a heart murmur. Not to worry, it still isn't anything to worry about, and he can still continue his life like all other 7 year olds.
Austyn is doing great. He also finished up baseball and he received his very first trophy. He was pretty excited about that. He also just had his yearly physical today and he weighs 30 pounds and I don't remember how tall he was. Oops. But, he is in the 25th-50th% for his height and weight. He is also doing really good, health-wise. He will hopefully (keeping my fingers crossed) start preschool this year. We are going to try and get him in at the CDC (Child Development Center aka Day Care Center). You do have to pay for that preschool, but I think he would greatly benefit from the structure there. He knows his colors, some shapes and some of his alphabet. He also recognizes some letters. For instance, he knows what an A looks like, and he always says, "A for Austyn!" lol. He loves to sing and dance. He is also always talking. He always has something to say, or ask. He's constantly asking questions, and his favorite question of all is....WHY? It drives me crazy, but he is definitely a very curious boy. He is that kid who will poke the dog in the eye just to see what the dog would do. lol. No, he hasn't done that, but I'm sure he will one day. He also loves to draw and color in his coloring books. He draws me oodles of pictures and we hang the ones that he thinks are the best on the fridge. He's such a focused colorer. He colors inside the lines for the most part. I don't think Taylor stayed in the lines until he was about 4. He's a goofball and will do almost anything for a laugh.
Ryleigh is also doing good. No school or sports for her yet, lol. She had her 18 month checkup last week and weighed in at 21 pounds. Watch out! J/K She's still a little thing, but she is doing great. I don't remember how tall she was either, but she fell into the 15th-25th% for her height and for the first time in her life she is in the 10th% for her weight. She has never been above the 5th%, so that is good news. Her hemangioma or strawberry has not gotten any bigger, or smaller for that matter. It is steadily decreasing in color, so a good portion of it is her skin color. Which, by the way, that girl has got some serious pigment in her skin! She is so dark! The Dr. says that it should very very slowly start decreasing in size and they shouldn't have to do any creams or laser surgery, unless it leaves a very loose skin which is a slim possibility. Her social and or stranger anxiety is getting better. Slowly but surely. The Dr. says she still doesn't think it is anything to worry about. We visited the zoo on Saturday and she really started to open up. She absolutely loved the animals and she was upset every time we walked away from one. She also fed the giraffes. I was totally amazed by that because I didn't think she would want to. She just seems so unguarded and at ease around animals. When we are out somewhere and someone has a dog, she will pet the dog and love on the dog and smile at the stranger and sometimes have a conversation with them. Of course, you can't understand what she is saying, but it is amazing the progress she shows when you bring animals into the picture.