AB Colonials 2015 JV Baseball season

May 29, 2015

Andrew enjoyed a great season of baseball on the AB Colonials JV baseball team. He really made some great friends and grew his social and baseball skills. We are so proud of him — it's hard to come into a new town, try out for a team, make the team and then play well. Way to go Mallett! His teammates call him 'Utah' or 'Mallett'. He played 1st base and pitched most of the season. Here are his stats in Chris' words:

Andrew had a terrific Freshman season. He was the only Freshman to make the JV team at AB. Played nearly every inning. He didn’t hit all that well (ok, but not great), but he played a terrific defensive 1B and couldn’t have been much better on the mound.

Andrew pitched a lot. He finished with 4 wins and 1 loss with a save and a no decision on the season. He pitched in some very clutch spots and did well every time. His only poor outing was the loss. The team from Wachusetts hit him hard. His no decision was a 4-3 win in extra innings against Bridgewater Raynham. He gave up just 1 earned in that one – his first start; pitched terrific. He pitched complete games in his last two starts for the win in both. Three games back, he gave up just one hit through 4 before getting pulled in a blowout win for AB to let others pitch. Today (the last game) was his best effort of the season. He threw a one hitter, struck out 9, walked 3, and got the complete game win against Concord Carlisle.

Here are some fun photos of the team and shots taken at various games.

Andrew and Henry at the Miracle League game

Look who just turned 5!

May 27, 2015

We are floored that our baby is now a great big 5 year old boy! We are so excited for his birthday and so is he. Nic has been counting down the days this last month to the big day, and it's finally here! He has already received a few gifts from loved ones in the mail and let me tell you - happy mail makes his day! He's anxious with anticipation to open all of his presents.

Nicholas is a super smart and fun loving boy. He is hilarious and also kind. He is the most social of all of our children and makes friends easily. He even makes friends for me! Everywhere we go he introduces himself and asks to play. Regardless of the kids age/gender. At Andrew's last baseball game he talked a 10 year old into playing freeze tag with him for almost an hour! At the vet he asked another dog owner if their dog wanted to come over and play with Lucy. We are so blessed to have sweet Nicholas in our family.

Nicholas favorite things at age 5:

Pokemon!, My little pony, Super Heros (Flash and the Green Lantern), board games, red licorice, playing the in the dirt, collecting sticks, spotting animals to check off his list - chipmunk... check!, freeze tag, dancing, making up songs, singing and making videos (which he calls "radiations"). And he wants his own You Tube channel. "I really want to make a video and put it on You Tube so everyone that likes videos and watches You Tube can watch my video..." "Can you just get my video on You Tube?"

So... as a gift to Nic on his Birthday here is his first video... posted on You Tube. I'm not super familiar with You Tube posts but I think if you click on this link you should be able to see the video.

We celebrated Nic at preschool with cupcakes and treats. Nic wanted everyone at school to receive a pokemon ring. Tricky but I found some online, only problem is they never arrived in time. I ended up placing the #5 cupcake toppers I made sans ring. When the rings finally do arrive Nic will have another gift to open!

Below are the other crafting cuties I created for his birthday. I can only get away with this for another year or so. This color scheme would have worked nicely with Pokemon, don'tcha think? A card, cake topper, tag and the cupcake toppers. It's always so fun to create with a purpose. I used the new Build a Birthday stamp set and other sneak peak products from the new SU catalog. I found it was really easy to create a variety of projects. I even ended up with another card sample that I'll share later this week.

Nicholas 5th birthday card using Build A Birthday

Build A Birthday Cake topper for Nic's cake

Build A Birthday Photopolymer Stamp Set

$16.00

Boho Chic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder

$7.50

Banner Triple Punch

$23.00

2015-2017 In Color 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock & Classic Stampin’ Pads Kit

$32.50

Cherry On Top Designer Washi Tape

$8.00

Table by StampinBuddy. Try it FREE.

Remember these?

How about a little trip down memory lane - Nicholas first year. Happy Birthday Nicholas! We love you. Happy tears, five years vanished overnight.

March Updates (in April)

April 9, 2015

Days are flying by, filled with school, unpacking, and basic tasks. As we try to catch up and get back to normal we are realizing it'll take some time. Patience. I've been neglecting the blog, not taking photos, showers, basically all letting things slide as we unpack and settle in. I've still got to do our taxes and really need to focus on some work. Here are a few random pics from the last month. Hoping everyone is well. Thanks for reading. We miss you - say hi sometime.

Nature walks - Nicholas loves to walk our land and find treasures.

The moving truck came (a day late) and the items were delivered (a little chaotic) and we've been unpacking (slowly). The house is coming together.

Still getting snow... in April. Ug.

We have trash pick up! A huge deal as our garbage has been piling up. Nicholas is pulling the right bucket up the drive.

Easter came, eggs were colored and kids were spoiled. We relaxed, a rare treat.

Nicholas continues to entertain and keep us laughing. This is his 'surprise' face. He'll pull it for you on command.

Snow days

February 3, 2015

We were home bound again yesterday. Another snow day. We received a foot of snow overnight and the local schools and the NEU campus closed. The boys have had only 3 days in school, and 3 snow days. Not such a great record. And hard to build momentum at school. This morning was clear but school started with a 2 hour delay.

Friday was my birthday. It was a busy day. I got the boys off to school, and then Nic to preschool. It started to snow so I carefully drove around town to run errands; opening bank accounts, getting Nic set up with a new doctor (so we can get someone here up to speed with his needs); groceries, etc. Our Nissan handles the snow on well but seems to be one of the bigger vehicles on the road. Not sure why. The boys took me to dinner and found a great cake. It was a busy but super nice day.

The kids are adapting to a new school and environment really well. Andrew has involved himself immediately with baseball practices and work outs. Ben had his first futsal game. School is going well. Andrew's math teacher had him take the math midterms to see how the curriculum matched up with his learnings from his old school at the first half of the year. He felt he bombed it, but in my opinion, he did ok given that much of the items he hasn't been taught yet. We are looking for a math tutor to get him up to speed on the curriculum here. Ben started French midyear (they don't offer Chinese). I can't imagine starting a class midyear let alone a new language. Our kids are tough and I am so proud of them!

Took the kids and dog to Burpee Steele Barn and surrounding land. The kids played in the snow and Lucy ran but it was way TOO COLD to stay for long.

On the house front - we think we have found the one! We put in an offer and it was accepted. The real estate process here is different than we are used to and has been frustrating. But we are under contract! I think... Ha. I do a house post soon.

This week in Acton - School, Blizzard, Home Search

January 28, 2015

We are slowly acclimating to life in Massachusetts. We miss Utah and all of our family and friends. We feel your love and thank you for your frequent contact.

All of the kids have started their new schools. Nicholas is really enjoying his new preschool and all the the new friends he has immediately made. Andrew and Ben had a great first day and came home is good spirits ready to take on new academic challenges.

We experienced our first Nor'Easter which resulted in two days of school closure due to weather and road conditions. The NEU campus was also closed as well as a travel ban instated for all motor vehicles. Chris was able to work from home and the boys enjoyed two more days of "vacation".

We have looked at and pretty much eliminated all the active home listings in both Acton and Boxborough. It's not that we are picky but we need a few more to choose from. I think I am almost over the sticker shock but still feel we should LOVE the house we will eventually purchase and not settle. While we are completely comfortable in our apartment, we miss our belongings and personal spaces. Lucy misses her yard. We are motivated to find a home!

The boys resume their second day of school tomorrow!

Random scenic shots from around Acton and Boxborough.

Acton, Massachusetts

January 18, 2015

Front door to our home for the next couple of months.

We are here and official residents of Massachusetts! Not quite moved but here together as a family once again. I flew with Nicholas and Benjamin, we arrived a few days ago and have been setting up the apartment. Chris, Andrew and Lucy came in our other car packed to the brim with things we will need for the next few months. It was a long trek from them but they are HERE! Chris has made this trek twice on the last 3 months.

Acton is the little town we have decided to live in. Little relative to Sandy. Acton has approximately 22K residents —Sandy has 90K in residents. We choose this town for a few reasons; excellent public schools, somewhat affordable housing, decent commute to Boston and the town has a great feel.

We are renting a nice apartment until we can find a home in either Acton or, the much smaller adjacent town of, Boxborough.

You can reach us as this address for the next few months: 5132 Avalon Drive, Acton, MA 01720. We plan to get a PO Box next week and will get that address out soon. All of our cell phone numbers remain the same. Call or text us! We would love to here from you.

Apartment living takes us back a few years. It's nice to live in a smaller place again. Feels fresh and easy to maintain, a clean slate. We will make it homey with few belongings.

Our cute Utah house went under contact again! Yeah. The inspection and appraisal happened and supposedly went well. Check, check. The buyers will be out of their due diligent phase on Jan 20 and are set to close February 11th. Just a couple more 'checks' to happen. Nerve racking. We will move our belongs out of the home and into storage on Feb 9 & 10th. I will fly back for that weekend to oversee the moving. Our belongings will sit in storage until we find a home here. Hopefully not too long.

The boys will take placement tests this coming week to determine classes and schedules at their new schools. They will start school again on January 26. I'll also meet with a preschool and get Nicholas enrolled for the second half of the year.

Lots to do, see and get familiar with. I'll try to post to keep you all updated. Much love!

Week in review!

December 15, 2014

Last week was quite busy and packed with activities. I returned from Boston to normal life activities filled with work, house cleaning and showings, an empty Open House (BOO), the boys school, preschool, after school peak, open gym for baseball, and card club up in Ogden.

Nic had his preschool program where he sang a couple of Christmas songs, complete with dramatic faces and hand movements. It was a super cute program. Afterward Santa stopped by and Nic sat on his lap for almost two minutes telling him all sorts of things and asking for a few NEW items. A hippo game and 4 cars that you can pull back and drive. Last minute list items... (Boo).

On top of all of that we had a couple of additional trips up to Ogden to celebrate some fun happenings. Friday, Beau and Nickole bothe graduated! Yeah! The boys and I made it up in time to see them in their cap and gowns, get a few pictures and enjoy a nice celebration meal at Javier's. We are so excited for them. Congratulations!!!

Since we were up in Ogden we stopped by to visit Gma & Gpa. It was nice to chat and get caught up. Mom missed graduation to help with my Grandma. My Grandma Great fell again (her balance is not so great lately and she has fallen over a half a dozen times in the last few months). This last episode caused her to break her collar bone. She is in a bunch of pain and really banged and bruised up. Lots of family have come to her aid. We sure love her and hope she recovers quickly.

We left Ogden to pick up Chris at the airport. He planned a quick trip home for the weekend which involved two long travels days for about 36 hours of family time. Worth it but hard. We sure miss him when he is not here. Long distance relationships are not for us (Boo).

Saturday we lounged around for most of Saturday (a normal family day with Chris) and then headed back up to Ogden for the annual Holiday Christmas party at Geoff and Ky's. It was a blast and the boys LOVED it. Games included things like egg roulette, a gum/whipped cream eating contest, ice bucket marble grab, crazy face match up to name a few. All the kids enjoyed fun prizes and we topped the night with a white elephant exchange and a vista from Santa. Nic got to see Santa twice in one week! Thankfully his list stayed the same.

Grandma Great was there to enjoy the festivities but I could tell she was super uncomfortable. She needed lots of help walking and basically getting around. She was in great spirits but it's hard to see her get older. The party was LOUD! I'm sure she was happy to turn her hearing aids off.

And, WE GOT AN OFFER ON OUR HOUSE! What? Turn a crazy week upside down. A pretty great offer came in on the house Saturday from folks in a fairly similar situation to us. I am so glad Chris was here when it happened. While this is super exciting and exactly* what we wanted it left me feeling really overwhelmed and introduced a whole new set of things to do. Tick - tock. I think my quote was "holy crap!". But I didn't cry. I kept it together which is good. Too many tears this last month - I am a wuss and apparently handle stress like a baby. The house selling thing is tough business. We didn't expect an offer yet, only 3 showings in 3 short weeks (time of year). I wasn't prepared. I guess it's true that it only takes ONE. This is a really great HOUSE. Anyway - they accepted our counter this morning! Fingers crossed the process stays positive and continues through the due diligence phase and onto closing. We are set to close JANUARY 15th which means we are moving mid year after all. To where? Ha. Still deciding. We will probably be renting for a few months while we work out the details. The boys school term ends here on the 16th and would start in MA on the 24th. That seems fairly neat and tied up. A real blessing.

Chris flew back to Boston Sunday afternoon to start another busy week. His to do list just got a lot longer! Hang in there.

I am hoping for a quiet week here but that's not really likely. More of the regular life stuff, plus work and a day trip to Vegas for work, Christmas shopping, neighbor gifts, and such. I really wanted to do a Christmas card this year but I don't see it happening. Please forgive and expect a New Year 'we've moved' card sometime in February (maybe). I hope to get up to Ogden again to see Grandma and deliver some gifts. We'll see.

HAPPY DAYS!

Side note: you know my head is really messed up when it takes me a solid minute to spell 'exactly' because I keep typing out EGGACTLY - stupid puns.

The official announcement!

November 17, 2014

North Eastern University has issued an official announcement about Chris' new role. This story has been shared and pass around through Facebook and email but I thought I would also post a link to the article here as well.

The university photographer took a few photos of Chris and I appropriated this one from the article. Looking good!

He's been away a long eleven days. Thanksgiving can't come soon enough.

Trunk or Treat!

October 29, 2014

We spent a super fun night with the kiddos 'trunk or treating' at Mom and Dad's ward house.

The kids enjoyed a Halloween carnival complete with games, treats and cousins.

Nic as a fire-breathing dragon and Isaac as a Knight. Perfect combo.

The older boys helped hand out candy to all the little kids. Check out some of these spooky trunks.

Cousins in the back go Gpa's truck handing out candy.

Nic sent grammy a message before she started her drive.

Grammy's in town

October 4, 2014

Grammy (Chris' mom Leslie) is in town and we are so lucky. She drove out here from New Hampshire in mid September and has been in town for a few weeks now. She will likely be with us a few more weeks ... whatever her schedule dictates. This is a rare treat for us as we only get to see her once or maybe twice a year.

The Malletts are boring homebodies most of the time (work, school, carpool, sports, repeat) and having a visitor gives us a great excuse to get out and see a few things. We've mostly stuck to our routine of daily sporting events (practices and games) but we have branched out some and shopped, a trip the apple store, gone to the movies and visited the aquarium.

Leslie, Andrew and Nicholas (as a dragon)

Andrew was out of school Friday (due to PTC) and so we decided to head to Gardner Village and check out all of the shops and Halloween decor. I love Gardner Village this time of year. Always something fun to see. Nic had a good time at the farm and rode a pony and loved the petting zoo. Sorry we went with out you Ben.

It's been wonderful to have Leslie in town and she's been a great help with Nicholas. She watched him and the boys for us while we were in LA. She's also watched Nicholas a few times which allowed be to catch up with old friends for lunches and run errands. It's nice to have family close by.

LA weekend - dissertation

September 29, 2014

Chris and I spent another great weekend in LA. This time without the kids. It was a school / belated anniversary trip.

Chris needed to go to present his dissertation proposal and defend it so he can move forward with research. The proposal went perfectly and his chair and team have approved him to move foward! Words like 'brilliant' were thrown around.

Afterward we headed to the Hollywood Bowl to watch Trey perform with the LA philharmonic. It was a great day.

The rest of the weekend was spent lounging at the beach, eating, shopping and sight seeing. A highlight for me was visiting the Melrose Trading post flea market. Lots of goodies to be found.

It was a great weekend with my favorite person!!!

Taunya banner, Tissue POM POMs and other party decor

Mom is retired! Let's party.

September 25, 2014

My Mom retired at the end of May. So exciting. After 25 years of teaching she closes the work chapter and starts in on a bit of leisure (maybe). Woohoo mom!

Back in May the family threw her a retirement open house. It was so nice to catch up and visit with everyone. I created an invite (just for the fun of it) that was mailed and was emailed to extended family and also made a few items of decor. I tried to create those fancy tissue paper POM-POM's you see on pinterest. Tried and failed. I consider it a total pinterest fail. But the other items I made turned out cute. We wanted her to feel special. We had wanted to throw her a BIG party but she wanted something more simple with less fan fair. In the end it was a perfect choice.

Simple decorated water bottles (paper flower with button & patterned patter belly band)

We had all the family (including the kids) offer up any advice, places to travel, books to read, etc and then I compiled it into a tiny project life style book. One cute kid said she should try 'running with the bulls'. Hilarious.

I used a mini book from We R memories that is sized for instagram 4x4" photos and includes pages for 2x2 pocket cards. This small size was perfect for advice. I designed a few pocket cards to fit into the book. If I get my act together I'll show these in a future post. I'm please with how the project turned out... but like a dummy didn't snap any pictures before I finally gave the book to mom.

Dave, Taunya, Uncle Loren and Aunt Julie and Grandpa Brooks.

With all of these fun photos I forgot to get pictures with my family with mom. We WERE there...

Thanks to everyone who helped, offered advice and basically showed up to show mom some love. You are the best!

Our Labor Day weekend! Look back

September 20, 2014

Impromptu road trip over Labor Day to California. Beach day, Angels game, Disneyland and various roadside attractions. It was nice to get away and spend some quality time with the family.

Back to school

September 16, 2014

Earlier this month the kids started back to school. Andrew 9th (highschool), Ben 7th and Nic 4yr old preschool. With the blog switch over I never posted about it. Playing catch up.

We've survived the first few weeks. The homework load is heavy and we have lots of after school sports (Andrew Jordan high baseball, Ben soccer, Nic soccer) and other activities. Busier than ever.