Spring & Start of Summer

Kyle, Knox, and Benjamin at Kyle's wedding - It was the most relaxing/non-stressful wedding ever (plus, lots of fun!). Great job Kyle and Kate.

Wow! I can not believe we are into summer. This spring has flown by. We finished baseball with a pain staking loss in the quarter finals of the tourney. Both our boys had a great final game so they were okay with it. Plus, we were in the middle of swim, so we just moved on to the next sport. For 3 weeks, we did both, it was crazy having b-ball practice 3 x per week and swim 4 x a week. Our lives slowed down once we just had swim team. The only thing I can say about swim team is " I LOVE IT"! Our whole family is involved and it is great. We practice 4 days a week and then meets on Saturday. We have had 2 and the boys are doing great. The both compete in the freestyle relay, both weeks their team placed 2nd. They each do freestyle and Carter tried backstroke this last meet. B is trying breast this coming meet. Ryan and I are zookeepers for the 6 and under boys, we have a blast trying to keep up with them. Ryan even competed in the parent relay. His team won, you should have seen the boys cheering him on. During swim team, we have to write their race and heat number on their back with a sharpie. When they found out that Ryan was racing they had to draw on his back too. Ben wrote, "my dad swims faster than your dad", and Carter drew a Stingray (our mascot).

I can't believe Kinder is already over. Ben's teacher retired, so we are starting over fresh with Carter next year. His teacher drilled in him not to have the "summer slide". So we are reading every chance we get! We have lots of activities planned this summer; plus, we will spend countless hours at the pool for my little fish!

Spring means BASEBALL!!!

Carter playing pitcher. Ben hitting a home run!

Excited about a team out

Carter hitting the ball

My sweet husband asked me Monday night if I was ever planning on blogging again!

Spring means one thing in the Merriman household - it's BASEBALL season. This is the first season out of 6 seasons of baseball that the boys are finally on the same team - THANK YOU!!!!! Since we have 3 baseball events each week, I am so thankful we only have 1 team. This season has already been incredible. Ryan is coaching and I am one of the team mothers that keeps the dugout in order, this is truly a family event - and we have a blast! Benjamin and Carter work so well together (especially as pitcher and 1st base), the years of playing and catching together are really showing! Plus, our team name is the Rangers, so how great is that.

Other than baseball, we still seem to work around the school schedule. That has been my biggest adjustment this year! Carter is 1 month away from Kindergarten round up and I am having a hard time thinking I will have an empty nest next year. Carter is ready and excited. He went for his 5 year check up for his birthday 2 months ago. He is telling everybody that the doctor said he was ready and signed him up already! Needless to say, he is excited!

Benjamin is loving school and looking forward to 1st grade. His goal for the entire year is to get all stars in his folder (in our school that means good behavior - no writing). He loves PE and time on the big playground, go figure! He complete the marathon kid event and received his T-shirt. It is amazing what kids will do for a T-shirt. He tries to wear his shirt weekly to show it off. If is hard to image summer around the corner. Our weeks and weekends are already getting planned. Our goal is to spend as much family time together as possible!

Carter's Christmas

Carter is my Star Wars guru. He know every character and description about each one.
It took mom and Cartera long time to put together this Lego set - I think it had close to 900 pieces!

Unlce Brad hit the jackpot when he gave Cnug the box set.

He like Benjamin had to open this first because it was the largest present - a hot whell skull crasher racer!

Carter loves taking pictures, especially of himself. A friend made these shirts for the boys last year, it has a tie sewn on the t-shirt, way toooo cute. Carter loves his.
His teachers at school told him he was handsome wearing this shirt. He informed me that meant he was going to get married one day to a girl!. Don't know where that came from, but we will go with it!

Ben's Christmas

The blizzard maker was given to both boys. We haven't tried it out yet, waiting for a warmer day!

Star Wars mania has hit our house. Ben got the AT/AT - didn't know what that was until Christmas!

If you are handing out gifts at Mum's house, you must be in costume!

He had to open this first because it was the largest gift, what is it? A 2-1 trainer (baseball, football toss back)

Acting so cooool at his class party (he really didn't want mom taking his picture)!

Christmas and New Year

I wanted to put up Christmas pictures, I couldn't find them on my computer. I realized I hadn't downloaded them yet - oops! Just a little behind. Here are several pictures of the boys from Christmas events. We all went to Ben's Christmas party at school. Carter has a blast pretending to be a kinder student and participating in the activities. I dressed up and read to the students. We spent the whole 2 weeks traveling to visit family. We were extremely tired when we returned, but we were loving the time we had with everyone! The boys seem to enjoy "presents" more and more. It is so fun to watch them open every package. I will try and download more pics of them from Christmas Eve and morning!