Jupiter Florida and the Grapefruit League...aka: Spring Training!!

Back of Shayn'e head with Lou Brock, MLB Hall of Famer, signing autographs...he's the older black guy with the red ball cap on.

Lou Brock

Budweiser Clydesdale's taking a tour of the ball park

Yadier Molina

Matt Holliday

And this is what Shayne would look like with hair!  :)

So what do you do when you've flown all night down the Canada and then across the country...and then can't check into your hotel for about 3-4 hours?  You get a rental car and drive about an hour up to Jupiter, FL to watch a MLB Spring Training game between the Florida Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals who are part of the grapefruit league of course!

Ya...we were a little bit tired, not having slept for about 36 hours, but it was so fun!  The sun was out, we saw some cool players and over all had a good time.  I'm pretty sure we'd do it again in a heartbeat!

BTW...the Cardinals slaughtered the Marlins...not even close really.

Grammy Jo comes to Visit...and help Mommy & Daddy

Shayne had a Nursing Leadership Conference in Ft. Lauderdale, FL and so I decided to tag along.  We used a companion ticket and the rest was essentially paid for b/c it was a work conference.  But...we needed someone to help watch kids.  We asked Grammy Jo if she'd come up and watch kids in February, which is really not so fun for her b/c of the cold and snow, but she was excited to come and spend some time with her Alaskan grandkids.  We were SOOOOO glad she came up...and so were the kids.

I only took these couple of pics the day we left, but she stayed for 6 days.  She did Tiny's hair super cute...I have yet to recreate it.  :)

It was hard to leave them, this is the longest I've ever left my kids...I cried just a little, but they had a great time with Grammy.  They went to the jumping junction, they went to McDonald's, they played outside, they just had lots of fun and I'm so glad she was able to come up and spend some time with them.

Thank you Grammy!!

Art by Shordy McGoo

This is the scenic picture complete with house, orange tree w/ green leaves, rain, river, and the sun.  :)

This is the Pond family portrait...if you can't see there's a new addition to our family.  It's the baby brother,  "Trontin" that Shordy is convinced is in our family.  Hmm...

When Tiny is sleeping, sometimes Shordy gets to paint.  He can only do this when she is sleeping b/c if she were to participate in painting my WHOLE HOUSE, would be painted.

So...this day Shordy wanted to paint and these two paintings are what he came up with.  He painted me a house, and then proceeded to add an orange tree with green leaves, the rain that then went into the river that went around the house, and then the sun to dry the rain up.  :)

Then there was the family pic.  I was taller than dad, and we had a new addition to the family.  There's a baby brother Shordy named, Trontin, that is now a part of our family.  He's talked about a baby brother named Jacob in the past, but this is the first time he came up with the made up name of Trontin.  Kinda funny.

I'm amazed by his imagination and how he expresses it.  So fun for me.

Casting w/ Dad

Dad busted out the practice rod for fun one night...and he had a little competition on using the rod, and it wasn't just Shordy.  Tiny made sure she had just as much opportunity to cast as Shordy.  Then if they weren't casting, the game was to catch the end of the yarn while the other, or dad, was casting.

It made for a fun evening activity.  Who says you can't cast in the house...in the winter time?

Snowmen, and Other Daily Happenings

Dezi's family gave us a snowman kit for Christmas, but we had yet to bust it out.  Shordy found it and decided we needed to use it...that day!  Well, our snow is never very good for making snowmen...it's too dry b/c the moisture freezes out of it.  But we improvised.  We used a bucket you use for making sand castles and made a snowman instead.  :)  Shordy thought it was awesome after we added all the buttons and the corn cob pipe and the carrot.  Tiny kept wanting to pull the stuff off and Shordy wasn't so keen on that idea so he kept pushing her down...hence the pic of her crying in the snow.

The other pics are just funny stuff that happens during the day.  Shordy watching his PBS shows while using Tipz as a pillow...good dog.

And then of course, a Tiny mess.  She found a package of rice crispies and promptly dumped them on the floor.  I had no idea they were open.  Arg!  However, she, Shordy and especially Tipz...good dog...thought it was a great treat to eat off the floor!  I didn't mind, I didn't have to sweep up a single rice cripsy.  Yeah for me!

Welcome to the life of me. :)

Makin' Valentines

Of course we had to make and send Valentines to all our cousins in the lower 48.  So, Shordy picked out his own Valentines, Cars of course, and he then proceeded to sign his own name 25 times!!  He knew exactly which letter was next in his name and drew all the letter without any help.  Mom was pretty impressed.  We sent them to Grandma's & Grandpa's and some Aunts & Uncles and ALL his cousins!  He did such a great job!

Tiny was completely content to eat the candy bracelet we got in the mail from Grammy Jo earlier in the day.  It took Shordy awhile to figure out it was candy and you could bite it...but not Tiny!  She had that thing GONE in about 10 minutes!  Nothing gets past that girl!

Playin' with Agent

I watched a friends boy, Agent, for a couple of days while they were out of town and her mom took care of his twin baby sisters, Copper & Maggie, who are almost 2 years old.

Agent and Shordy have the BEST time together!  They went outside and got stuck in the deep snow while Dad was chopping and hauling wood, they destroyed the play room, and watched many a movie.  :)

So glad Shordy has such a fun friend to play with!

Zane Zollinger Baby Blessing

Right after watching the T-200, we left and headed to Anchorage for our friends, the Zollinger's, baby blessing.  They had their 3rd little boy in November, but waited for Ty's parents to be there for the blessing, and they couldn't get here until February.

We've been there for Zachary and Alexander's (Xander) baby blessings, so we knew we needed to make it up there for their newest little boy, Zane.  All their babies have a mop of hair...it's pretty impressive to say the least!  Liz has complete strangers approach her in the stores to touch her babies hair...kinda crazy.

Anyway...we stayed at their place that night and then us and the Tuia's attended their ward to participate in the blessing.  Afterwards we went to their house for dinner where 2 of Ty's brothers joined us.  Shordy had a blast playing with Zach, Xander, Malia, and Ty-Ty.  Tiny was just loving this little baby.  As you can see from the pics while Zane was lying on the floor she kept going over to him to "talk" to him and just look at him.  When I sat down to hold him she was instantly in my lap wanting to hold the baby too.  It's amazing the difference between little boys and little girls.  Shordy liked babies, but wasn't at all interested in holding them.  Tiny however, LOVES to hold the babies.  So dang cute!

After dinner I took a minute to get some pics of the Zollinger family.  They are a cute family, and we are so glad we are friends and could be there for an important day in their lives.