Baseball

Jake loved playing "coach pitch" baseball.  He improved a lot from the first game.  In the first game he was tagged out and he started crying and didn't want to play.  He didn't really know how to react.  It is a big change from T-ball.  By the end of the season he was okay and just walked it off.  He is a really good hitter.  He's getting better at catching.  In the last few games he was able to catch the ball and get some players out and he really enjoyed telling us all about it.  He liked playing first base or any base.  Devo got to help out at practice and the games and Jake really liked having Dad out there.  Emily enjoyed being the bat girl.  She was very helpful.  She may try softball next year.

Cousin Fun

In June Sammy and Tommy spent a week with us.  While Jill and Paul got to vacation in Cancun.  We had a lot of fun at the beginning of the week.  We went on a bike ride and had a picnic at the park.  Jake and Tommy had fun feeding their lunch to the seagulls while trying to catch them. Sam loved the swings.  We also had tons of fun on the slide and slip-n-slide.  They have become dare devils by jumping and do flips down instead of just sliding.  Crazy!  

Sam was content with the squirt bottle.  He asked for a paper towel and said he was cleaning the outside of my house. He did play in the sprinklers with Emily and actually got wet later.  We also went to the Provo Library and saw a Movie (Kung Fu Panda).  The last part of the week Tommy and Jake were sick with a sore throat and stomach ache so we watched a lot of TV. We love hanging out with our Cousins!

Jake's kindergarten graduation

In May Jake graduated from kindergarten!

They had a fun little program singing songs and reciting an alphabet poem.  Jake loves singing songs. 

Jake received the Reptile Specialist award from his class.  He was very pleased with that.  He knows a lot about snakes and crocodiles.

Birthday fun!

For my birthday this year Devo bought me a ticket to visit my sister in California all by myself this year.  I stayed for three days and we had lots of fun even though the weather wasn't good enough for the beach.  I sprained my ankle a week and a half before I went so I was still limping a little but we managed to still get some fun in. On Sat. we had lunch at Devo's and my favorite pizza place when we lived in Pasadena called Palermoes.  We have been craving it and it was just as I remembered.  Yummy!  We went on a little hike and yes we saw a rattlesnake right at the beginning of the trail.  Terri and Troy have been telling us all about the rattle snakes they see, so I'm glad I got a picture for Jake.  We saw some movies, went bike riding, shopping, and of course for tradition, I took Britney and Lauren's place (since they're not around anymore) and got a pedicure with Terri.  I can't believe she is an empty nester.  We can't be that old can we?

When I got home Tues. night the kids surprised me and had waited up for me so we celebrated my birthday.  Emily's new tradition is to design my cake and Dad helps her put it together.  This year she made me a flower cake like the sun in Tangled.  I just love my little family to death.  They are awesome!

Dance! Dance! Dance!

Emily had her dance recital last week.  It's fun to watch her.  We think she is awesome!  She doesn't know if she wants to do dance next year but we hope she does.  She might try basketball.

Ok I finally figured out how to put video on but not all on one clip.  I don't know whether it was too long or I'm computer illiterate!  This way you don't have to watch all of them if you don't want.  

Happy Graduation

In May Jeremy graduated From UVU in communications. We helped him celebrate with a family lunch and then we had fun BYU bowling.  It was game on! We had three teams The Kids, The Boys, and The Girls. The Peterson's were victorious in all 3 groups.  I beat Britney by one point on the last ball and can I just say it is really hard to bowl when you are being heckled and you are laughing like crazy.  Jake beat the kids team.  Sam was cute he was all smiles and high fives each turn.  It was tons of fun hanging out.  And we found out later that Jeremy is actually a really good bowler. He bowled a 198 after we left.  Sure glad we played him while he was still warming up.      

Easter

Easter was pretty laid back this year.  Devon was on call so it was just us and Aunt Terri.  The kids really enjoyed coloring Easter eggs this year.  Jake was all about drawing bunny rabbits on his eggs, and Emily liked writing messages and decorating with sequins and glitter.   We would love one year of warm weather so we can actually have an Easter egg hunt outside instead of in the basement!  Aunt Terri introduced us to the Smith tradition of the money eggs and the kids loved that.