Yet again, I am extremely behind in updating here.  Why hasn't anyone yelled at me yet? Joking of course!  Well, a lot has happened since the last time I updated here.

I have a new nephew!!!  His is so cute!!!  His name is Nathan and Matthew and Riley just love him.  Matthew seems a lot more interested in him and Riley is more cautious.  I can't wait for them to teach him how to play baseball and how to fish!  There are going to be some really fun times ahead for the three of them!  I wish that we were able to see him more than we have been able to see him so far.  Hopefully that will change.

We got a puppy!  His name is Cullen and he is an English Cream Retriever.  For this "crazy cat lady" adjusting to a puppy has been an adventure for sure!  Cullen is very well behaved though he does do the usual puppy things of course.  He is smart and a quick learner.  The best thing is that because of Cullen I have started taking walks around the neighborhood which is really good for me and I hope to really get into it and try to feel more fit.  Cullen loves the boys and daddy but he is a mommy's boy for sure which I find hilarious since I  have always been the cat lady.  I think it's because I am the one with him the most..or maybe I just smell like food hahaha.

School is officially over and I am so happy to say that summer vacation is in full swing!  I love summer vacation.  I love having my kids home and I love being able to go places and do fun things with them.  They both did very well in school this year and I am so proud of them both! I really can't believe that I will have a fifth grader and a second grader come the end of August.  Crazy!

We are currently enjoying baseball season.  I look forward to baseball so much.  I love to watch them play!!!

Summer also brings fishing!!! Our favorite family activity!!!  I hope that we get to go a lot this summer!  Matthew and Riley were in a kid's fishing derby not too long ago and Riley won the casting contest for his age group! He was very proud!! I keep a record of all the fish we catch and I have been doing so since 2010.  So far this year Matthew is in the lead, I have competition!!

We have been lucky enough to attend two Pittsburgh Pirate games this season.  So exciting!! My baseball boys really loved it!!!  We had such a great time at both games!!  We went on kid's day Sunday both times and the boys got to run the bases after the game, what a thrill!!!

All in all it's shaping up to be a very busy but very fun summer! I hope that everyone else has a great summer as well!! I will try to be better about updating here..TRY being the key word :-)

summer, baseball, school, and fall-oh my!

I can't believe I haven't updated since July! 

We had a really great summer full of baseball and fishing!  Matthew and Riley both entered a youth fishing derby and had a blast.  Here is the trout Riley caught:

Matthew caught quite a few big fish that day, here he is with one of his catches of the day: a nice catfish!

One of the most fun things we did was go camping for the first time!!  With as outdoorsy as we are as a family I can't believe it's taken us this long to go camping.  It's definitely going to become a regular thing.  Matthew and Riley had such a great time and even this reformed indoor girl has to say-it was fun!  We went to Audra State Park in West Virginia. 

The park was absolutely beautiful.  I really can't wait to go back.  The boys had a great time swimming and climbing and just being boys!

We also spent a lot of time at Kennywood this summer.  Some of my favorite memories with our family are from Kennywood.  The sweetest thing that happened at Kennywood this summer was that I got to see just how protective Matthew is of Riley.  He would put his arm around him and hold him tight.  So sweet for a mother to see her sons love eachother like that.

One of the most exciting things that we did this summer was go to our first concert as a family! We went to see Big Time Rush!! It was such a good show! I remember how I felt when I got to see my favorite band in person and it was great to see their eyes light up when they saw their favorite band right infront of them!

This was Riley's face when the band first came out on stage!

Matthew and Daddy enjoying the show!

So, as you can see we had a very busy but very AWESOME summer! We made memories that I know we will always remember.

Now it's finally my favorite season-FALL!!! Fall means pumpkins, hayrides, Halloween, and Fall Ball! 

Both of the boys have started their Fall Ball seasons and they are doing great!  Matt is helping coach Riley's team and it has been great seeing him enjoy it so much.  I know that Riley really likes having Daddy coach just as much as Matt really likes doing it!

Matthew has had a great season so far! He's even recieved the game ball in two games so far! He was and is SO happy!  Here he is after getting the game ball last week

School is in full swing and infact, we just had Riley's open house tonight! Matthew's is coming up later on this week.  Here they are on the first day of school.  My 1st and 4th graders!

Tonight we got to go to Riley's open house.  I look forward to Open House every year.  I love going to see their classrooms and meeting their teachers.  This year the school is having two open houses-one for the lower grades and one for the higher grades.  So you know what that means?! TWO open houses for me! Woo hoo!  Here's my 3 favorite people waiting to go into open house tonight

Here's my first grader!!!!

Well, this has turned into a pretty big update! I really need to keep up on this better.  Hope you're all still out there ready-I promise to check in more often!  In closing-here's to a Fall that is filled with as much fun and as many memories as this summer!

 

School's out for summer!

Well, this post is almost half a month late, but better late than never. I actually do have a pretty good excuse for falling behind in this blog. I was really sick and really the only thing I could think about when I came to sit and write was how on Earth it's possible for the human body to produce that much snot. So, I figured I would wait until I could sit and type without having a pile of tissues flooding my computer desk to come back and make a real entry.

School is officially out for summer. So much has changed since the beginning of this school year. Matthew now wants us to call him Matt, which admittedly Matt Sr. and I aren't doing very well with, but hey I'm trying. Matt Jr. made a lot of friends, learned a lot, over all it was a good year. Riley completed his first year of headstart which is preschool and he learned so much. He can write his name and draw wonderful pictures. I wonder what 2nd grade will bring for Matt Jr next year.

So, how to spend the summer? That is the question. So far in the first couple weeks of summer vacation we've been doing quite a bit of fishing and spending most of the day out playing in the yard. I hope to make this summer fun for the boys. So far I think they are enjoying themselves, they spend most of their day eating and playing haha..that's the life!