Summer Clips

We are off and starting another year of baseball this year. Jordan is playing in the Babe-Ruth league in Idaho Falls this year, and Blake of course will be coaching again. He loves it! Jordan played 2nd base all season and did an awesome job at it. His team only lost 1 game all year long and took 3rd place in the end of the year tournament. Blake was way excited to do so well the 1st year in the league. The beginning of the season they put Firth in the JV league and they killed every team, so they were to put us in the varsity league the 2nd half of the season and messed up and didn't do that, so we stayed JV the whole season. Well when tournament time came they all decided that Firth was too good to stay JV for tournament and put us in the Varsity, so we ended up taking 3rd. It was good for the boys to have a winning season and go into tournament and take 3rd. Jordan had fun and learned a lot. He was the only one on the team that was a consistent hitter all season. WAY TO GO BUD!!!!

Here is Kiel pitching in his 1st All-Star tournament in St. Anthony. He got chosen to be on 2 different All-Star teams this year. Kiel played 3rd base and Pitcher throughout the season for his team this year and in the All-Stars. He is more at home on the mound though!

This year for the 4th we decided to get away and go to Island Park for the weekend with Blake's

family and grandparents. It was so much fun and relaxing. It was a hot weekend and the water felt good.

Blake enjoying the lakeside view, while Jordan and Kiel decide who is going to take a swim, i think Jordan won!~~

Kiel and Courtney ( Kiel's cousin) on a tube ride with water splashing in their face.

Saturday afternoon before the fireworks we took a drive to Big Springs to see the fish, we got eaten alive by mosquitos so we left really fast. Up above we are all waiting for the parade to start. They had a parade around the Island early Saturday morning, my boys ended up with a bag 1/2 full of candy. It was a really nice day full of festivities.

The Chapman reunion was held in the middle of July this year at Grandma & Grandpa's place. We started off the reunion with a hotdog roast at our home on Friday night. It was fun to all sit around the campfire roasting hotdogs and laughing. We had all kinds of fun! Lots of food, laughter, and games. Volleyball is always a big hit in the heat, and the kids played some water games with grandpa Blaine getting in the middle of it.

Kiel was chosen to be on a Firth All-Star team this year, they played in Blackfoot and did awesome. Kiel pitched 2 games holding the 1st team to only 2 points, and bringing Firth their 1st win of the tournament. The 2nd game he pitched he held the other team to only 4 points, and Firth another win. Kiel did awesome, and he enjoyed every minute of it. He had a couple of nice hits with a 3 RBI's, and some nice playes and catches for his team.

This summer we are lucky enough to be building a garage, FINALLY! We have only been waiting for 10 years for one. It has taken us longer then we had thought, but we are happy to get it done. Here is my brother Troy ( who flew all the way from Romaina to help us with it ), Blake and Kiel. Troy and Blake are teaching Kiel how to work! lol :) I will be posting more pictures soon of the progress on the garage. As we are all so excited for it. We also have Ben Mackowiak ( Blake's cousin), Blaine ( Blake's dad ) Ted ( My dad ) and Jeff ( Blake's brother in law ) all giving their time to help us build this monster of a building. Thanks to all of you for your help we really appreciate all your hard work and time.

Summer is going by so fast we don't have enough time to do all that we plan to do, but we have had lots of fun doing all that we have so far. The end of July we are planning our big potter reunion that we can not wait for, we are so excited. Have a happy and safe summer.

Everything Hits at once

Sometimes I wonder why everything has to hit at once, is it to teach us patience or if that is the way life goes.

Anyways this last 2 weeks has really taught us patience, if that is the word you could use.

4 days before Blake's week vacation started ( he had a week left to use before July 1st when his new vacation starts, if he does not use this week he loses it, not worth losing so he took it) his car just decided to stop in the middle of the road while he was driving it. Go figure right! Well he started working on it over the weekend and on his 1st day of vacation he worked on it and decided he could not fix it. The timing belt broke and blew the engine. How nice........ He towed it to Blackfoot to have the place be bought it from look at it. They said they could fix it for $1,000.00 WOW. Blake and I have always owned Honda's and have never had any of them break down to where he could not fix them, so I guess 1 out of 14 years is not bad, but unexpected. We have been in the process of refinancing our home, it has been over a month of waiting they keep telling us oh next week, or in a couple of days and then something else needs to be evaluated. Our home appraised for enough for us to build a garage ( we are so excited) and now we have to pay $1,000 to fix the car. I hope we have enough for the garage.

And then my dryer was making a noise so Blake tour that apart on Thursday and came to the conclusion that a fan is broken ( that would be why i have to dry my clothes at least 3 times) and needs to be replaced. $30 for a new one. So I am hanging clothes up all around my deck and home, it kind of looks like white trash. How embarrassing. OH well!

Sometimes I just want to scream, Blake keeps telling me it could be worse, I guess he is right about that but still frustrating at this moment. So instead of enjoying his vacation much he has been trying to fix everything that needed fixing or done around the house. Bless his heart, my house was even clean when i came home from work. What a gem he is.

I guess I will keep him around as well. :)

I think I will keep him around for a while :)

The other day just out of the blue Jordan came up to me and gave me a hug.  I would have fallen over if he were not hugging me and holding me up at the same time.  It just seems that since he turned 13 he does not like to show affection much, and that is ok, I have given him his space but have still told him daily that I love him and appreciate him( even if some days he is not easy to love)  So for him to come give me hug MADE MY DAY.

Well on Wednesday this week, I already told you that i had a house full of boys all week.  I had to work everyday on so on Wednesday when i came home my house was a little unkept.  I could tell everything they ate, it was all over the table and counter.  So I called for all 4 boys to come to the kitchen and fast, so in they came i started by asking them what color I was?  They looked at me like I was stupid and answered white, so i said so why should i have to clean up your mess? How old are all of you?  they answered, and so it went.  Well Jordan just finally looked at me and said Mom are not feeling loved, do you need a hug?  I could not help myself from laughing, he gave me a big hug and said do you feel better?  Yes actually I do, I responded it's just what I needed.  But just between us, I think he needed it more then me!  ha ha. yah right! 

This is why i have kids, boys actually, it makes being a parent worth every thing we go through. I do have a feeling that it will get worse until about ---------- well heck his dad is 33 and still difficult so who knows.  jk

Why I only have 2 boys!!!!

Well this week has been interesting enough.  Every year firth high school's boys basketball coach puts on a camp for 3rd-8th grade boys.  My sister lives in Star Valley Wy. and has 2 boys close to the same age as my boys.  So every year she sends her boys to come and stay with me to go to the camp, and it was this week.

It is not so bad during the day as all the boys are at camp all day long until 4 pm.  And then usually they have baseball every night to keep them even more busy and gets them really tired, or so I thought :)  This week went relatively well until the rain set in and cancelled all the baseball games, then i had to think of what to make for dinner or how to entertain them :(

Well Wednesday night my brother called and asked if his son could stay over as well, I said sure why not.  I had 5 boys stuck in my small home on a rainy night.  What to do?  So Blake decided we have a movie night, they picked Open Season, if you have not seen that you need to watch it.  It is so funny, those boys (even Blake) laughed and laughed.

Anyways the moral of my story is, I have not picked up more dirty underwear or socks in my entire life! and my house stunk so bad and I cooked more food to feed any army or so I thought again! But i hope they all had fun, and enjoyed their stay at the Chapman Hotel. My house is now quite and semi clean and smells like lemon.  AHHHHH!

I love that my nephews love coming and staying at my home.  It is fun and good memories.

love you all!

lots of fun on Memorial Weekend

What a weekend! Earlier in the week my Dad turned 70, all of us kids just called him and acted like no big deal.  Well on Saturday we threw him a surprise party.  His younger brother and sister came from Utah to be in on the surprise.  And surprise it was,  my dad has never had a surprise party before and he was so excited and grateful. We all had a good time and yummy food.

Here is Jordan and Kiel with their grandpa.

On Monday we kicked off the Summer with our annual Chapman hot dog roast.  It was nice weather and lots of yummy food.

Here is a picture of my mothers headstone.  Every year my dad buys a new precious moments and glues it on her headstone in remembrance of her.  She collected precious moments so he decided to continue it for her.  No one has ever bothered them to took any off.  It is so neat and something us kids look forward to every year to see what one he picks  every year.  this year was for the boys.  It is neat, and the grandkids love it.

He is 70, boy he does not look it or act it. This year on his birthday he was finishing a big job of concrete.  Do you know anyone who is 70 and still does concrete work?  AMAZING!

This is everyone (almost) who showed up for the grand event. On Sunday morning Dad and Chris made dutch oven breakfast for everyone and then we went to the grave.  So we were busy all weekend.  It was fun.  We love everyone and thanks for making it a great weekend.

KARISSA'S GRADUATION DAY

SHE DID IT! Congratulations  Karissa............ She is absolutely beautiful.  We were lucky enough to be able to attend my nieces graduation.  And it turned it nicely and it was fast 1hr and 5 min.  WOW! 
Katie and Liberty having fun at the graduation.  Liberty and Karissa share the same birthday.  May 28th Liberty will the BIG #1 and aunt Karissa will be the BIG 18. and gets to go to
Romania to spend time with her dad.  What a graduation gift.

have fun Rissa, we love you!

Kiel's baseball game

Oh how I love baseball season, except for the weather that is.

Here is Kiel's 1st game of the season. Blake was lucky enough to have to umpire this game so he could watch Kiel play.  Kiel got to pitch to close the game, and close he did.  He got 3 up 3 down.  Blake was a little nervous because he did not want to look like he was favoring Kiel but, no problem with that this kid of ours can throw and has good aim.  He was so excited, he struck out one of his good friends that is pretty competitive with Kiel. They won the game.  GOOD JOB BUD!

Busy May

Wow What a busy  Month May has been so far, it will only get crazier this next week for us.

Mother's day was just another day, good thing I have an amazing grandmother that makes it special for all of us moms.  She always goes all out.  We had a big dinner, yummy dessert, good company and Blake doing the cleaning and dishes ( I had to post a picture so you all would believe me, and I could remember it always ). My nieces Katie ( and her daughter Liberty ) and Karissa came and joined us, it was nice to visit with them.  Liberty is just so cute, and fun it was a nice visit.

Blake bought a new toy, as you can see it kept him and the boys occupied for many hours the other day.  Then it was time to re-paint the basketball court.  This year Blake wanted to add the jumpman symbol to it, so he spent some time to cut it out and paint it on the court.  It was a nice finish!  Mylie ( our cat ) decided it wanted to add to the finishing touches and so we have some paw prints on our court.  I am sure you know how that made Blake feel!

blogging has become boring........

For some reason everyone has gone to facebook and has forgotten about staying in touch through blogging.  I for one love blogging and check everyones blog for updates only to be rebuked.  

Life around the Chapman's has gotten crazy.  Jordan has started Babe Ruth baseball and has practice every night from 6:30-8:30.  So I kind of enjoy 2 hrs  a night to myself.  Blake coaches and Kiel goes with them to play as well.  I have kept myself busy with working out, reading and cooking dinner.  But none the less it is down time for me.  :)  Love it!

Kiel has started baseball as well but he has practice after school.  I can not wait for their games to start.

IT SUCKS, MAY I ADD SUCKS! Having new neighbors.  I keep (after 2 months) looking across the street looking for Deonne to be outside mowing or working in the garden, and all i see is a bunch of old trailers, junk, trucks, junk out in the yard.  It is not fun.  And no one to talk to.  I guess Blake and I will become hermits again.

 Jordan is getting excited for the end of this month he gets to go to The Grand Canyon with my Dad and his 3 cousins for a week.  he is nervous and excited.  He is not looking forward to the long, long, long drive in the car but looking forward to being with his grandpa and cousins.

And also about school almost being out for the summer.  Ugh, but I am happy for them, they need some fun times ahead. 

HAPPY FRIDAY!  HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A GOOD WEEKEND.

A teenager in the house!

Wow, where have the last 13 years gone!  I can not believe Jordan is  13 years old already.  I have a teenager, I believe I will be in denial for the next 5 years at least. 

Jordan I believe had a good birthday.  He has decide again to change the colors of his room.  He now wants to do North Carolina colors. So I will be painting his room again!  He got a NC trash can filled with his favorite, HOT CHEETOS from his aunt Melaine. He got money, Nike clothes, and a gift card for ITUNES and mom and Dad gave him a IPOD video nano, North Carolina Championship shirt, and North Carolina banner.  I would say he had a good birthday.  Oh yah and Kiel gave him his favorite candy bar COOKIES AND CREAM HERSEY.  

I can not believe how time flies while your raising kids!

Here comes Peter Cotton Tail..........

Playing games at Grandma's. Courtney discovered how to blow the middle of an egg out of it's shell without breaking the shell.  Then they decided to play blow the egg around on the table.  I have no idea what to call a bunch of people sitting around a table blowing an egg around!  Any ideas?  Oh well it looks like they had a bunch of fun. Jamie and Aaron came down from Rexburg for the day, it was fun to spend the day with them. $5.00 Oh Yah......

Jordan found his animal

Kiel loves reeses peanut butter cups

Jordan is a closet eater!

Don't tell Mom you found me

eating chocolate in the laundry room!

Happy Easter!  Luckily the Easter bunny hopped on over to our place Saturday night.  We didn't think he was going to make it.  The boys were up until about midnight.  But SURPRISE! he made it.  They were lucky with a $5 bill in their basket and lots of candy. We spent the day over at Blake's grandparents. His grandma Loraine had surgery on her back on friday, so we brought her dinner on Saturday night and on Sunday we cooked and cleaned so she could rest and relax.

We had dinner and then hid the easter eggs for the kids.  They also had a stuffed animal for each of them that they had to find.  Jordan had more fun helping the little boys find their eggs and stuffed animal, and Courtney had fun finding Jordan's stuffed animal for him that we hid harder for him!  Oh well they all had fun, and got lot's of candy.

I found my stuffed Froggie!