March is here!

Friday night fish dinner, baseball, soccer, church, Sunday family activity, repeat, are what our weekends looked like during the month of March.  All great things but made for a full month! 

Joseph had his first baseball game on Saturday, March 2nd and with a game during the week as well as extra practice with Poppa thrown in there at least one day a week, the month seemed to be consumed with baseball.  Thankfully he is loving it though so it doesn't seem bad at all.  His first game he struck out every time he was up so the next day he spent a few hours with Poppa at the field and at his second game he hit two doubles!!  He was SO excited!  I loved how he looked over at us after each hit with the biggest smile on his face and even pumped his arms.  During that second game he also made an out from catcher as he threw the ball to first base getting the runner out which earned him the game ball.  His coach told him that it was the first time he'd ever seen anyone do that in that league!  However, after that game, his batting went into a slump.  For the next about 20 at bats he struck out.  He was swinging but just couldn't connect-we think he is afraid of the ball.  With some extra help from Poppa, his coach and even daddy though by the end of the month he was starting to turn things around and making contact and getting on base!  Yay! He gets so pumped when he does get a hit and it has been a good lesson for him to see that hard work and practice really does pay off.  Rich, who didn't know anything about baseball going into this, is now one of the assistant coaches (dugout Dad!) and has spent more hours at the baseball field this past month than he probably has for his entire life!  Poppa and Nani have been at pretty much every single game and we are so thankful for their support.  Poppa is loving it and it's been neat to watch he and Joseph really get into it together! 

Baseball fun for everyone! 

 

Cole is playing t-ball so one Saturday when Joseph had an afternoon game, he went to Coronado with Nani and Poppa to watch Cole play.  Cole thought that was really special! 

The girls do an excellent job of enteratingin themselves during Josephs' games.  The games are long-around 2 hours but thankfully most of the games are close to the playground so I let them play (I can still watch them and the game at the same time) and if we are on a field further from the playground they really just play really well together.  Such as this picture where they are pretending they are puppies and Ella is walking them!  Ha.  Whatever works.

Sleepover with the Ozecks on March 2nd!  The girls were busy doing performances on our bed while the boys were playing with Legos.  Love these kiddos and their special relationships!

On Sunday March 3rd we debated if we were going to head out in the rainy, chilly weather for the race that we signed the kids up but after some motivation from Uncle JP we decided that we'd brave the elements (which really were not that bad!) and had a fun, family race day!  The RB community park hosted their first annual Mardi Gras race so with it being right down the road from us we figured it would be a great experience, and it was! It rained a bit while we were waiting but by the time for the start the rain had stopped so it was perfect.  Joseph and Sydney ran the kids 1 mile and killed it!  Joseph came in 1st and Syd wasn't far behind.  They did awesome!  Ella, Cole, Julia and Charlotte ran in the kids race which was a little under a 1/2 mile and were also all awesome!  Julia got a side cramp so didn't finish the race but we are glad that she tried because for awhile she wasn't even going to run.  Charlotte, on the other hand, was ready to run for weeks before and ran the ENTIRE thing! With the biggest smile on her face!! She was so fun to watch!  Ella and Cole were super strong and fast and everyone had a great race! Uncle JP ran the 5k and did awesome, too!  

Post race fun! 

After the race we went to Nani and Poppa's for brunch and to catch up with Uncle JP and Aunt Carol which was a great way to spend our Sunday morning!

Hanging with the Botero crew at least once a week still...

and always love hanging with these two sweet girls during the day!  

Charlotte is obsessed with roly polies and always picking them up and wanting to bring them home.  She actually loves all things bugs and is always asking to bring bugs in her carseat with her!  

So much face painting this month!!  

The first week she didn't get anything except for a balloon and then the following week got her arm painted.  By the last week of the fish dinner she was ready for the full face and loved it!! 

We had early games on March 9th so met up with Laura and Linz that afternoon at San Dieguito County Park-this is the park where Linz and I tried to meet up last month but ended up getting hailed on so we tried again on a sunny, but chilly, afternoon!  It was beautiful and so much fun! The kids played for hours and we hiked (really short walked it) to the suspension bridges, despite Ella's request not to since she "hates hiking!!!"  She survived and I think enjoyed herself...imagine that :). The park is huge and we had fun playground hopping! 

Still so much trampoline fun!  

These two are pretty sweet together.  I'll often catch Charlotte saying, "I love you Joseph" and he, for the most part, is so great with her.  He will put her in her place if she is doing something wrong, but tolerates her 2 year old antics really well! 

Ella lose another tooth!!  This one happened the day before St. Patrick's Day so we had the leprechaun and the tooth fairy come to visit us both in the same night!  What fun!! 

Helping me with the never ending laundry one day!  

Ever since we moved into our home in November the bannister drove me crazy.  It was stained a light wood and the floors are a dark wood.  I immediately put garland up for Christmas at the end of November to hide it and left it on later than I probably should have, but once it came off I knew something had to be done.  I called around and found a great guy who came and refinished it in 2 days!  It looks SO much better to me now and I am so happy that we did this!
Here is a before picture (from when the house was for sale)
Here is the work in progress:

And the finished product!

And, with my model!  

Nani had the girls at the children's museum one day which they love!

I just love Julia's writing!  Such a great age!  She is really interested in writing and sounding words out and just has such a desire to learn right now so hoping that continues!  

Playing with play doh one afternoon.  

Lindsay, Paul and Pauls' parents took the girls and Finn to the Safari Park one Thursday when Nani was out of town and I had to volunteer. They had a great time and we're so thankful for our awesome family who always steps in to help!  Julia had forgotten her shoes in my car so they had to make a quick stop at Target but she ended up with these awesome gold, glittery flamingo shoes which made her day even better! 

This next picture brings up all sorts of emotions and epitomizes to me how parenting can be challenging.  I have been Joseph's church school teacher for the past 2 years and we are preparing the students for their First Communion in May.  For the past few weeks we have been practicing with pretend hosts (crackers from Trader Joes) and rehearsing walking down the aisle and what to do, etc.  Well, this day in class, I had just finished going over as to how we walk and act appropriately after receiving communion and then they lined up to practice.  Everything was going fine until Joseph came up, received the communion and then stomped off loudly and largely with this big smile on his face trying to be funny.  I immediately was so hurt and disappointed in his choice to do this.  Not only were there 2 other adults in the room, so it was embarrassing, but I was disappointed that he chose to disobey and not follow directions.  Well, we had a long talk about it (thankfully Rich was home early that day so he was able to be a part of it, too) and after some time in his room to think and pray about his choice he came down with this.  The Julia part of the note is because we also had to talk to him about picking on Julia and putting her down.  Julia is SO incredibly sweet to him and he sometimes picks on her and isn't his best self to her.  She realizes this and it hurts her feelings and it just breaks my heart, too.  We aren't sure why he picks on her (thinking because she is too sweet) but we're hoping that talking about it makes it stop.  Anyways, we hope that our message got through to him and that he always thinks twice before he does something that would hurt someone else's feelings.  Awww, parenting!!  

We also celebrated St. Patrick's Day this month, which fell on a Sunday. The kids all made traps that were laying around the house that night and were hopeful to catch the leprechaun.  Unfortunately, there weren't any leprechauns in the traps but there were little chocolates wrapped in gold and the leprechauns did play some mischievous tricks at the house.  Green sinks, green toilets and some green treats on the breakfast table were all fun to wake up to!  

 "What is your friend's name?" from Julia

We had some crazy weather this month.  There was a good amount of rain, a good amount of chilly days, but also some really nice days, too.  Nice enough where we met the Laugesens at the club one Sunday afternoon and then the following weekend we were swimming in Nani and Poppa's pool.

Cannonball by Poppa!! 

 This boy loves to read!  If he has a book he likes (which is often) he will just sit and read and read until he finishes it.  I caught him here one day after school so had to snap a picture.

Rich ran a half marathon this month.  We chose not to go (it was early and parking was going to be awful) but were glad that he had some supporters there! 

We had a few really warm days in March that called for sunbathing and jumping on the trampoline while being sprayed by the hose.  What fun!  

The kids are currently obsessed with Yogurt Heaven since you get todo the  fro yo and toppings by yourself so we have been frequent visitors here this month, especially with the improvements of Joseph's baseball skills! 

 

We'll finish off the month with a cool view from our backyard one morning!  The fog settled in right below the mountaintop and just looked incredible!