Dumb and Dumber To

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Evan came home with Jack around 11am today.  He had a good time over at Jack's house last night.  Evan and Jack rode their bicycles in the cul-de-sac for a while then they came in and had lunch. Evan and Jack watched the Steelers game with me until Jack had to go.

The boys had cleaned up their rooms in the afternoon as well as the game room.  Noah gave us a hard time during this process.

We had a surprise for the boys at dinner.  We took them to see Dumb and Dumber To at the Alamo Drafthouse for dinner.  The boys were really excited.  Evan has been begging me to go see it.

The boys are getting ready for bed now...

Noah's Night

This morning after Grandma and Papa left we all went to the park for a little bit.  Michael, Jen, and Maya went to lunch at Freebirds after the park.  We just had leftovers at home.

We took it easy at home this afternoon.  Michael, Jen, and Maya left for the airport around 4pm.

Evan went to Jack's house to spend the night.

It was just Noah, Morry, and I here at the house.  Noah got to choose where to go to dinner.  He picked Genghis Grill.  He ate very well there.

Noah's eating his dessert now and then he'll get ready for bed.

Thanksgiving 2014

This morning we ran in the neighborhood Turkey Trot.

We had everyone come over at 3pm for Thanksgiving.

Everyone had a great time, but we are exhausted.

Here are some pictures from today.

Texas Sledding with Maya

This morning we took Maya to the park went "Texas sledding".  There's a hill that the boys like sliding down using cardboard or plastic lids.  We also walked around the park a little bit.  Everyone had a good time.

We ate lunch at home and then I took Noah to friends house.  I dropped him off and came back about an hour later.

Evan played outside with some neighborhood kids this afternoon.

We dinner Papa picked up Torchy's tacos for everyone.

Soon, the kids will get ready for bed.

Here are some pictures I've taken so far.

Maya Walks To School

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

This morning, Grandma and Papa came along when we walked to school with the boys.  Jack came out of his house as we walked by and walked with us to school.

I went to work from Aaron's while everyone was here.

Grandma and Papa went along with Mike, Jen and Maya to Zilker Park.  They also had ice cream at Amy's Ice Cream.

When I got home, we walked to pick the boys up from school.  We bought Lizzy and Maya walked with us.  Grandma stayed at the top of the hill while Rachel, Maya and I walked up to the school.  The boys were excited to see Maya.  They each held a hand while walking her up the hill.  Part way through our walk, Jack came up.   He and Evan ran to Jack's house.

Evan and Jack played together this afternoon.  Maya took a nap when we got home.

Rachel went to tutor.  Grandma made salmon and I grilled steak.  The boys each ate both the salmon and steak for dinner.

Noah and Evan are both reading now.

Until next time...

Grandma and Papa Arrive

This morning we all went to the park for a little while.  After that, we ate lunch outside at Santa Rita.

In the afternoon we sat/played in the backyard.

Grandma and Papa got here around 3pm.

We had a pizza party at the house tonight.  Uncle Marvin, Aunt Sandy, Joel, and Jacob came over and we had Home Slice for dinner.

All of the kids are getting ready for bed now.

Getting Ready and Welcome Maya (and Jen and Mike)

This morning Noah woke up early around 6am.  He was sleeping in the game room.  We are thinking Flash probably woke him up.  Evan got up soon after.

Later in the morning we did some grocery shopping.  Morry dropped me off at Costco and then he and the boys went to Randalls.  They came and picked me up after they were done.  That was when it started pouring.  Costco was crazy busy, especially out front where everyone was waiting to load up their cars.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing and getting ready for everyone to come.

Michael, Jen, and Maya got in around 5:30 and picked up Rudy's on their way over to our house.   Aaron and his family came over for dinner.

We had a great time with the everyone.  The kids enjoyed playing together.

Our boys are in bed now and I believe Maya is in bed too.

Verizon

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

It was raining a bit this morning so we drove to school.

We had someone come to fix our oven later in the morning.

Then I ran to Aaron's for a meeting.

We were able to walk to pick the boys up from school.

We took the boys to get haircuts later in the afternoon.  They both desperately needed haircuts.

From there we went to the Verizon store.  We had to wait a long time. They had a deal going on for a few things.  We were able to trade in a iPhone 3GS for a $200 credit for a new iPhone 6 for Rachel.  We had to order the iPhone 6 though as they were out of the one that Rachel wanted.

After Verizon, we had dinner at Craig O's.  It was really good.  Rachel and I weren't sure if it really was good or that we were just really hungry.

The boys are now showering before bed.

Until next time...

Warm Enough

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

This morning it was close to 50 degrees so we walked to school for the first time in more than a week.  I think Lizzy enjoyed walking.

Rachel had a hair appointment in the morning.  I ran out to the Verizon Wireless store as I was having a problem with my phone.

When it was time to pick the boys up from school it was kind of drizzling.  So we drove to get them.

Rachel made chicken and rice soup for dinner.  Noah tried some but Evan did not.

Rachel and Noah are reading.  Then the boys will get ready for bed.

Until next time...

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

It was another day of driving to school.  It is supposed to warm up soon so hopefully we'll be able to walk to school in the morning again.

I had to run into Aaron's for a bit.  I stopped at Smoothie King on the way home.

We walked to get the boys in the afternoon.  It was really nice by that time - around 70 degrees.

Evan went over to Wade's house in the afternoon.  Rachel, Noah and I went and picked up her car from the dealership.  Noah and I stopped at HEB on the way home.

I picked Evan and his friend up from Wade's and dropped his friend off at home.

For dinner we had hamburgers.

We went to TCBY for dessert.

The boys are in the rooms for bed.

Until next time...

Cars

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

This morning, we drove the kids to school.  Again the temperatures were hovering around freezing so we didn't walk.

When we got home, I took Rachel's car into the dealership.  It needed regular service plus there were a number of recalls on the car.  Nothing serious - no major airbag issue or anything.  But we wanted to get it taken care of.

Rachel picked me up from there and we went over to the Toyota dealership.  I decided to trade my car in and get a Toyota 4Runner.  For the whole baseball season, I was struggling to fit all the baseball equipment in the car.  Many of the parking lots as well were dirt, gravel or worse.  I really liked the ILX but it was time to change.  I had gone in on Saturday and started negotiations.  The dealership contacted me yesterday and then I engaged a few more dealerships and was able to talk up the price of my ILX and talk down the price of the 4Runner.  Last night we came to an agreement over email.  The process seemed to take a long time even though everyone seemed motivated to make it go quickly.  But we are happy with the car.

We walked to pick the boys up from school.  Lizzy came with us.

Rachel tutored Audrey this afternoon.

For dinner we used the leftover rotisserie chicken for tacos.

The boys are now getting ready for bed.

Until next time...

Broken Oven Before Thanksgiving

This morning we drove to school.

Once it warmed up a little I went for a run.

We walked with Lizzy to pick up the boys from school.  Both Lizzy and the boys were happy to see each other.

I tutored this afternoon and stopped at HEB on my way home.

I had set the oven to start at 5:30 while I was out tutoring.   A little after 5:30 Morry said he happened to be walking by the kitchen and noticed a flickering in the oven.  He went over to see what it was.  One of the coils has broken and started a small fire.  He was able to get it to stop by turning off the oven.  So, now we have a broken oven a week before Thanksgiving.  Hopefully, this will be an easy fix?

We ate a rotisserie chicken I picked up from HEB along with bread and roasted garlic that got moved to the small toaster oven to finish cooking.

Morry and Evan are watching the Steelers game.  Noah is in his room playing on his tablet.  Soon, they will need to go to sleep.

No Sports This Weekend

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

We didn't have any sports this weekend.  Nothing was scheduled for the first time since before Labor Day.  It felt good to not have to be anywhere.

Yesterday we went to Costco in the morning to get some stuff in preparation for Thanksgiving.

In the afternoon, Evan's friend Josh came over.  He was coming to stay the night.

For dinner, we went to the Alamo Drafthouse to see Big Hero 6.  The boys all liked it.

Josh stayed until just after noon today.

This afternoon, the boys and I made popcorn and watched the movie Sudden Death which is a mid-90s movie set against the backdrop of Game 7 in the Stanley Cup in Pittsburgh.  The boys really liked it.  Our friend Mike Gordon played the referee in one scene.  The boys thought it was really cool to get to see him.

I grilled steaks for dinner which the boys and I ate.  Rachel had fish.

The boys are in their rooms ready for bed.

Until next time...

Still Cold

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

It was cold again this morning.  Not quite as cold as yesterday morning when it was 31 degrees with a wind chill of 26 degrees.  This morning was 33 degrees with no wind chill.  We did not walk either day.

Rachel and I had our weekly lunch at Wholy Bagel.

We did walk to pick the boys up.  The temperature was around 43 degrees.  We decided to bring Lizzy since she hadn't gotten to walk the last two mornings.  She was very excited.

In the afternoon the boys played outside some.

We had dinner delivered from the Circle C Cafe.

The boys are showering before bed.

Until next time...

Cold

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

It was very cold this morning when we got up.  It was around 37 degrees.  But the boys wanted to walk to school so we walked.  It didn't seem to bother Lizzy.

For lunch, Rachel and I went to Genghis Grill which is next to Central Market.  We wanted to go to Central Market to look at the Greenberg Turkeys they had.  The lunch was good.  We decided that it was better to order the turkeys from the Greenberg site directly.

We walked to pick up the boys.  By that time it had warmed up to around 50 degrees.

Rachel tutored this evening.

Rachel and I ate our leftovers from lunch for dinner and the boys had pasta.

Noah is reading with Rachel.

Until next time...

Day Off

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

The boys were home today from school for Veteran's Day.  It was nice not having to get up early to get them to school.

A cold front came through this morning.  It was super windy and the temperature dropped into the 40s.

I worked out of the house for most of the day.

Rachel, Evan, Noah and Lizzy went for a walk around the neighborhood.  They also went to Whole Foods for a lunch with the Pink Ribbon Cowgirls.  Rachel said the boys were very behaved.

The boys cleaned their rooms in the afternoon and then played outside before dinner.

Noah is doing his homework and then they'll get ready for bed.

Until next time...

One Day of School

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Yesterday was a very busy day so we didn't get to write the blog.  Evan's team made it to the semi-finals of the tournament yesterday.  They played a team they had beaten 4 times this season but unfortunately they could not pull a fifth time out.  Their pitching didn't start out well but they made a furious comeback and almost pulled it out.  Evan played well.  He played at third base and second base.  At third base, he fielded a ball moving towards first and threw to first for the out.  He made several plays at second base including a diving stop.  He had a solid single while batting.  In fact, he was making good contact.

That was our last game of the season.  We won't play in another tournament until February.

After the game, the whole team went to a barbecue place.  The kids got to run around together.  It was nice.

From there we went to Uncle Marvin and Aunt Sandy's.  Aunt Sandy made us a nice meal.

The boys had school today but they are off tomorrow for Veteran's Day.  We walked to school this morning.  A cold front is coming in tomorrow.  It may be pretty cold on Wednesday for walking.

Both Rachel and I were home all day.

The boys were excited when we picked them up because it felt like a Friday today since they don't have school tomorrow.

Rachel didn't have to tutor today.

We had left overs for dinner.

The boys are getting ready for bed.

Until next time...

Evan "Mariano Rivera" Belkin

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

I got Evan up early for the start of his last tournament for the fall season.  We stopped at Donut Taco Palace on the way down.

Noah had gotten up just before we left.  Since Noah was up, Rachel decided to come to the first game.

In the first game, Evan played third the whole game.  At one point he fielded the ball almost on third base and threw across the diamond to get the out.  He singled and scored in the game as well.

There was some time in between games.  I packed some snacks for Evan.  Then we practiced a bit.

The second game was a tight game.  After two innings, we were losing 2-0.  We came through for 6 runs in the top of the third.  In the bottom of the third, our pitcher gave up 2 runs and walked the next two batters.  At that point the umpire announced that time had expired and we would finish up the game.  The coach brought in Evan with runners on 2nd and 3rd with one out with us leading 6-4.  Evan struck out the first batter that he faced.  The next batter worked the count to 3-2, though umpire squeezed Evan on two calls.  One of our coaches who normally is pretty quiet was giving the umpire a hard time on those calls.  On Evan's sixth pitch of that at-bat, he threw it in and the boy popped a weak pop up to shortstop for the win.  Evan was really excited.  He said he should be wearing #42 since that's what Mariano Rivera wore.

We came home and had lunch then watched a movie.

For dinner, we went to Trattoria Lisina.  Evan ate well there.  The boys enjoyed it.

The boys are about to get ready for bed.

Until next time...

Beautiful Day

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

It was not raining today.  In fact, it ended up being a beautiful day.  It got up to around 70 and there wasn't a cloud in the sky.

We walked to school.  I think Lizzy was glad to be able to go for a walk again.

I was in a meeting so Rachel picked up Wholy Bagel for us to eat at home.  Lizzy really wanted the bagel I was eating.

We walked to pick Noah up.  Evan went home with Wade.

I got Evan around 5:30.  He seemed to be having a great time with Wade.

For dinner, I picked up Torchy's.  Noah ate a beef fajita taco for the first time.  He really liked it.

The boys are getting ready for bed now.

Until next time...

Noah's Thursday

This morning I ate blueberry muffins.  We drove to school because it was wet outside.

At school I made a pumpkin on paper because my substitute told us the numbers to color in.  I didn't have recess because it was too wet.  I had indoor recess.  It was like free centers in kindergarten.

After school Mommy and Daddy picked Evan and me up from school.  We drove home.

While Evan went to baseball practice with Daddy, Mommy and I watched TV and snuggled.

We are hungry and waiting for Evan and Daddy to come home.

- Noah

Very Rainy

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Apparently we forgot to change the clock in Evan's room.  At 5:38 this morning, he woke me up to say that I hadn't gotten him up for school.  I told him that I still had some time.

It was raining in a way it hasn't rained here in a while.  Recently we've had really hard downpours that bring several inches of rain in a short time.  Today it just rained steadily all day long.  It was definitely needed.

Because of that we drove to school.

I had to go into Aaron's for a bit today and had lunch there.

In the afternoon we drove to pick the boys up from school.  It was kind of drizzling when we got the boys we parked near the trail walked down to get them.

Evan was very hyper when we got home.  He needs recess and he didn't get it.  In fact, he's still very hyper.

We had a rotisserie chicken for dinner.

Noah and Rachel are reading now.

Until next time...

Morry's Night Out

This morning I walked with Morry, the boys, and Lizzy to school.

We got a new (used) treadmill today.  We went to see it in Dripping Springs and then the guy delivered it to our house.

We drove to get the boys at school since it looked like it could rain.    It did start raining as we were walking back to the car.

I tutored this afternoon.

Morry went out to dinner with some of his old work friends.

The boys and I ate dinner here.

Evan and Noah are in bed now, but not asleep. Morry is on his way home.

Sick Rachel

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Rachel felt very bad yesterday and it continued into today.  She didn't feel well enough to walk to school this morning.  Unfortunately, that meant that I couldn't bring Lizzy with me.  Lizzy seemed very disappointed.

Later in the morning I ran some errands.  We needed some things at Target for breakfasts.  So I went over to breakfast.  I bought some Halloween candy on sale.

On the way back from Target, I stopped at Smoothie King and got smoothies for Rachel and me.

I drove to pick up the boys in the afternoon.

Rachel felt like she needed to tutor one of her students.  She cancelled on them a few weeks ago when she was sick and didn't want to do it again.  The student has a test tomorrow.  So Rachel left to tutor.

I made dinner for the boys and me while Rachel was gone.

The boys are playing the Playstation before bed.

Until next time...

Sports, Sports, Sports

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Yesterday, Evan's football team had their playoffs.  They had a 14-team division and they can only do a one-day tournament so they broke it up into 3 different brackets.  Evan's team ended up winning the "Super Bowl" in their bracket.  Those boys have been playing together now for a while and they know how to win.

After football, the whole team went over to Doc's Backyard, a restaurant where the kids could play.

Later in the evening, Noah had a baseball game.  His team did not play well, unfortunately.

Earlier in the week, I got an email from a guy who was trying to organize a round-robin scrimmage for baseball.  He asked us to participate.  We felt it was a good opportunity to get some kids an opportunity to pitch who haven't gotten to pitch much.  So we were scheduled to play 2 games.  In the first game, Evan was 2-2 with a single, a double and a walk and 5 RBIs.  He played well in the field too.  In the second game, he had an unassisted double play (caught a pop up and dove on third base to get the runner who had left the bag).  But he really shone when he played catcher.  He threw out his first runner trying to steal third base.  He threw several others over to third where the tag was not applied real well or otherwise he'd have thrown a couple more out.  He got everyone energized.  The coach of the other team stopped us to tell our coaches how good Evan was at catcher (he didn't know I was his dad).  Evan really enjoyed it.

Evan and I drove home and picked Noah up for Noah's game.  Not to be out done, Noah had a good game himself.  In his first at bat he hit a line drive that dropped just over the second base bag for a single.  In his second at-bat, he hit the hardest and best hit he's ever gotten.  He turned on a ball down the third base line that rolled all the way to the fence.  Unfortunately he was thrown out trying to take third on the play but it was a great hit anyway.  He was really happy about it.  He also played heads up in the field and was moving all over the place.  I loved seeing him have fun.

The boys and I stopped at Yaghi's on the way home and picked up pizza.  We watched a little of the Steelers game before the boys had to go to bed.

Until next time...