Fall Weekend

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Yesterday, Evan played two baseball games in Liberty Hill.  That is about 45 minutes, or so, northwest of the city. Rachel's cousin, Lauren, and her family live there.  Rachel's Aunt, who is going through chemo, has been staying with them.  Rachel decided to join us to watch Evan play and also visit with Aunt Susan.

Rachel dropped Evan and I off at the field for warmups while she went to Lauren's.  She sat in the backyard with Aunt Susan.  She said Aunt Susan looked good.  Her coloring was good and she seemed in a good mood.  She had shaved her head as her hair has begun to fall out.  Rachel said it was a nice visit.

In the two games, Evan was 4-6 with several RBIs.  He played third base the entire first game and catcher the entire second game.  In the first game, he had one play at third base.  On a steal the catcher threw a little wide of third base.  Evan caught it and made a nice dive to tag the runner out.  The coach was very pleased with Evan's athletic tag.  At catcher, only one runner tried to steal on Evan.  Unfortunately, the shortstop dropped the ball or Evan would have thrown him out. 

We come home for a bit, then went out and picked up dinner.  We got dinner from Cypress Grill.

We didn't have anything that we needed to do today.  So Rachel and I decided to go the Hamilton Greenbelt and take Chewie for a while.  Chewie was able to splash around in the creek there.  He was quite happy.

On the way home, we stopped at Black Rock Coffee.

Evan and I watched the Steelers game.  It was a tense game.  Noah didn't want to watch because every time he watched last week, the Steelers played poorly. He'd come downstairs to check on the game and see how things were going.

We got pizza from Domino's.  Then we went to HEB to do our weekly shopping.

The boys are playing on the Playstation now.

Good Weekend

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

I think it's been a good weekend.  Yesterday, Rachel started her morning going for a bike ride.  She had a nice 15 mile bike ride before it got too hot.

I decided to smoke my first brisket.  We bought a 12 pound brisket but I decided to cut it in half to try with a smaller size first.  Really, after trimming the fat, it probably was closer to a 9 or 10 pound brisket.  So the brisket I cooked was between a 4 and 5 pounder.  I put the meat on the smoker around 11am and got it off around 7pm.  It was a lot of work but it seemed to work.  Evan said the brisket was better than Rudy's.

Rachel went to a baby shower for Laurent in the afternoon.  Noah and I watched the Dark Knight.

Evan actually didn't eat the brisket with us last night.  He went to Reid's house and stayed over night.  When I picked him up to take him to baseball this morning, I brought some brisket so he'd have protein for baseball.

Evan had a 3 hour scrimmage in very humid and hot temperatures.  He pitched and inning and caught two innings.  He did well in both positions.  He struck out and walked in his two at-bats.

We got home in the late afternoon.  Evan was home just a little while before Reid and his dad picked him up and they went to play tennis together.

For dinner, we picked up Grandma and Papa, then picked up Evan from tennis, and went to Chen Z for dinner.  The service was just ok, but the food was good.

The boys are upstairs playing right now.

Until next time...

First Baseball Games

This morning we took it easy.

We took a walk and around 11:30 Noah was picked up to go to his friend Ben's house.  He was there until about 3:30.

Evan came with me H-E-B.

When we got back, he got ready for baseball.

Morry and Evan left to go to Georgetown, where Evan's baseball tournament was.

Evan had 2 games.  They lost both.   The other two teams were in a higher division.

Noah and I came to the second game.  Aunt Susan and Lauren's family met us at the game.

After the game, we had dinner together at Mellow Mushroom.

Now the boys are getting ready for bed.

Hanukkah, Birthday, and Globetrotters

Yesterday we had a busy day.  Morry and I had two phone meetings with clients in the morning, then he had more meetings later in the day.

We were invited to Mandy's parent's house for Hanukkah so I was busy in the afternoon making Rice Crispy Treats and Brownies.  We left around 5pm for the party.

We had a nice time with Aaron and Mandy's family, Lauren's family, and Grandma and Papa.  Yesterday was also Grandma's birthday so we also celebrated her birthday last night.

Today, we went out to brunch for Grandma's birthday since we didn't get to go out yesterday.  Noah, Evan, Grandma, Papa and I went to Snooze.  It was very good.

Around 4:30 we all headed downtown for dinner and the Harlem Globetrotters.  We ate at Blacks Barbecue near campus and then went to the Globetrotters.  It was a nice evening.

The boys are getting ready for bed now.

Here are some pictures.

No School and Flash at the Vet

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

It was nice sleeping in an hour and a half extra this morning with no school.  When I got up, Evan was in his room but awake.  Noah was sleeping.

I worked all morning.  The boys just played on their iPads.

We went to Wholy Bagel for lunch.

When we got home, Flash began to throw up.  He'd vomit a little bit every 2 minutes.  One of the times, a big clump of something came up.  Rachel and I looked at it.  We thought maybe it was some cable from something.  Then we realized it was three elastic hair ties of Rachel's.  He continued to throw up after that but finally stopped.  He went under my desk and looked weak and lethargic.  We weren't sure if that was because he was sick or if there was anything still in his stomach.  Rachel called the vet and they said to bring him in immediately.  They said of there was another hair band in there, it could get wrapped around something and cause big damage.  Rachel brought Flash in and they were able to take an x-ray.  The x-ray is not 100% definitive, but nothing was shown and no air pockets were visible that would be associated with something like that.  When Rachel brought Flash home, he seemed to be acting more normal.

Evan went to Jack's this afternoon.  They went swimming for a couple hours.

For dinner, we picked up Evan, then Grandma and Papa and went to the Chuy's up north.  Rachel's cousin Lauren was having a dinner there for her daughter's third birthday.  We were able to see Aaron and his family and Aunt Susan.

After dinner, we stopped at Aaron's new house for everyone to get to see it.  Jeremy and Nathan were very glad to have Evan and Noah there.  At one point, Noah was chasing Jeremy around telling Jeremy he was a zombie and was going to eat him.  Jeremy thought this was very funny.  When we went to leave, Jeremy insisted that Noah and Evan bend down so he could give them a kiss on the cheek.

The boys are in bed now.

Until next time...

Touchdown Evan

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Evan's football game wasn't until 11 this morning so we slept in some.  He had to be at the fields at 10:30.  Noah came with us.

Evan's team got the ball first.  The first pass of the game was thrown to Evan.  He managed to make the first guy miss. As the first guy fell, though, he hit Evan's foot which caused Evan to lose his balance.  Evan caught himself but it was enough time for the other defenders to come over and pull his flag.  The third play of the game they threw to Evan in the middle of the field.  He made the first guy miss again, hit the sidelines and ran all the way for a touchdown.  Unfortunately, there was an offside penalty on Evan's team so it didn't count.  The other team got the ball but were stopped with a 3 and out.  Evan's team got the ball.  They tried the exact same pass as the one that scored the touchdown that was called back.  This time the defender and Evan jumped up to get the ball and it was tipped in the air.  Evan came down with the tip, ran to the side and then turned it up and ran all the way for a touchdown again.  This time it counted.  He was really happy.  He didn't get another touchdown.  But when he played on defense he blitzed the quarterback and forced a bad throw that led to a pick-6.  He was very happy with the game.

Evan, Noah and I stopped at Smoothie King for smoothies on the way home.

Rachel had left to go to a baby shower for Lauren up in Round Rock.  She stopped at Ikea to return something while she was up there.

Grandma and Papa came in today but they went straight to their house to drop stuff off and look at the house.  Rachel was on her way home from the shower.  I had to take Evan and Jack to Wade's birthday party.  I was going to leave Noah at the house alone because Rachel was going to be home shortly.  Grandma called him and asked if he wanted to walk to their house.  So they met half way.  Noah left the house on his own.  He set the alarm correctly.  And met Grandma half way.  He then was worried that I'd get back from dropping Evan off and be worried he wasn't there.  So he made sure that Grandma called me so I knew where he was.  Noah is really becoming a grown up.

For dinner, we went to Flores restaurant.  It was just ok.  Evan is staying at Wade's house tonight.  I will get him early for our baseball games tomorrow.

Until next time...

Family Gathering

This morning Grandma and Papa went over to their new house to get some measurements.

Morry and Evan left around 12:30 to go play some baseball with some of Evan's teammates.

I went for a run.

This afternoon we got the house and food ready for later when everyone was to come over.

Jeremy, our cousin from Israel, is in town so we had a family gathering at our house.

Aunt Susan picked up Jeremy on the way to our house.  Uncle Jay, Aaron's family, and Lauren's family came to hang out.  We picked up food from Maudie's.  It was a nice night.

Evan got picked up to spend the night at a friends house.

Now, we are all getting ready for bed.

Here are some pictures.

Jeremy's Birthday Party

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

This morning, everyone got up a bit earlier.  When I got up, I did some work while the boys played.  When Rachel got up, we got ready to go to Jeremy's birthday party.

We were first to the party.  Eventually, Lauren and her family came as well as Aunt Susan and some other people.  Jeremy played with the boys the whole time.  In fact, they were so busy playing, they didn't eat lunch.

After the party, we came home and then Rachel took the boys to the pool.  After the pool the boys cleaned up.

For dinner, we had hamburgers and corn cooked on the grill.

On our walk, we walked by Grandma and Papa's new house.

The boys are about to go to bed now.

Until next time...

Baseball, Part 2

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

At 8:45, Evan and I left the house to go to his game.  We wouldn't get home until nearly 8pm.  His game was at 10:30 but we needed to be there at 9:30am.  By the time we got there, it was already hot.  We are having an unusually hot spell this weekend.  I don't know what the end result was for the high but it was predicted to set a record.  After warm ups, Evan was complaining he was hot.

Unfortunately, Evan's team lost and was eliminated from the tournament for the game.  He had one big hit, and another single.  The big hit was a very very high and very deep flyball to left field that wound up as a triple.  But where he really shone was in the field.  Because the kids were hitting it to the outfield he played some outfield and some third base.  He did very well in the outfield make sure nothing got behind him.  At third base, he actually bobbled a ball but still was able to fire a bullet over to first to get the boy.  He also made a nice tag play when a boy was trying to come to third on a non-force play.  Evan made a great catch and swipe tag.

After the game, Evan and another boy from his team Chase and I went to a sports bar restaurant to watch the Steelers game.  The fields are far enough away from home that it didn't make sense to drive home just to turn around and drive back up again.  Evan's coach and his family joined us as did Mario, Evan and Noah's former coach and his family.  We had a very nice time watching the game.

Then we drove back to the field for Noah's game.  It was a very very tense game with some, ahem, questionable calls by the umpire.  The other team's parents/fans also were a bit rowdy and got under my skin a bit.  Their kids were hitting every ball to the outfield.  One kid hit the fence on the fly hitting off of a tee.  It was unbelievable.  But despite all that, our team played hard and we only lost by one run.  In fact, going into the bottom of the 4th (the last inning) if we could have possibly managed to get three outs before giving up 3 runs we would have won.  So I was very very proud of the kids.

Aunt Susan, and her daughter Lauren along with Lauren's husband and two kids came to watch Noah's game.  After the game we went to dinner at Smashburger.  The boys ran around constantly with outside with Lauren's two-year-old.  I don't know how they had the energy.

When we got home, the boys had showers and they are now in bed.

Until next time...

Mottel's bday

Today is Mottel's birthday.  He's now 15! 

This morning after Noah got up and we had breakfast we went to Aunt Susan's house.  We hung out with her and Grandma for a little bit.  We picked up lunch at Zorba's and then ate at Lauren's house.  Noah and Garrett had fun running around together.  It was fun seeing Noah as the big kid.

We came back home in time to get Evan from school.  He was in a good mood, like most days.

Around 5pm I took Noah to his baseball practice while Morry worked from home.  Evan stayed at home.

When we got home I made dinner (leftovers), read with Evan, and put the boys to bed.  Morry is working on a big project now and is still doing work.

The boys are in bed, but not asleep yet.

Here are pictures from today.

 

Raining again

This morning I thought I would run, but when I went to take Noah to school it started raining. Noah did well this morning. He did not fight getting ready for school.

At 10:30 I met Lauren and Garrett to go shopping. We are planning a baby shower for Michael and Jen and we went to go look at some things for the party. We went all around north Austin to various craft stores and dollar stores.

On the way home I stopped at the post office to mail something. There weren't that many people, but for some reason the line was moving really slow. I was worried I wouldn't have time to get to the front of the line and pick up Noah. I called Morry and he was able to get Noah. I probably could have made it in time to get him or maybe been a couple of minutes late. It was nice Morry was able to do that.

While I was at Evan's school picking him up, I got a text that my tutoring was canceled.

For dinner we had pizza.

The boys just took a shower to help with congestion. Morry is reading to them now.

Playing with Uncle Mike and Aunt Jen

I ran 3 miles with the boys in the stroller this morning.

We went to swim lessons at 10am. Evan and Noah did well and Noah didn't cry at all today. Below is video from the swim lesson today.

The rest of the day we hung out at home. Michael and Jen were still here and they boys loved playing with them. Lauren and Garrett came over for a while this afternoon as well. We all had a nice time.

Evan and Noah seemed a little sad when Michael and Jen left to go to the airport around 4pm.

For dinner we had pasta and salad.

In a few minutes we'll start getting the boys ready for bed.

Rise and Shine

This morning both boys were up at 6:30am. That's very early for them. Evan said he heard the air conditioning come on and thought it was the garage door. When he ran out in the hallway Noah was coming out to use the restroom. Both boys were excited to see each other and never went back to sleep.

Evan and Noah were very hyper this morning, but then it turned to crankiness. I dropped them off at Clubhouse for Kids around noon. I packed a lunch for them to eat there.

I stopped in Target to get a few things and then went to the hospital to visit Lauren and Shayne. She had her baby last night. I visited with Lauren, Shayne, Aunt Susan, Aaron, Mandy, and of course baby Garrett for about an hour.

I picked up the boys at Clubhouse for Kids and then we came home. Noah wouldn't nap.

For dinner we had flank steak and corn. Noah ate really well. He actually ate our dinner, which was nice. Evan ate ok.

We tried getting the boys ready for bed a little early, but they are both still awake right now.

Lauren, Garrett, and Aaron

Mother's Day

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

This morning, apparently, Evan got up early and was in the game room watching TV. He didn't wake us up or anything.

I came downstairs around 9:15. Evan was drawing a heart on some construction paper and coloring it in for Rachel. He went up and delivered it to her. Grandma and Papa had cut up fruit for the boys.

At 10:30 we were about ready to go out to lunch. We were planning on going to Verde's Mexican Parilla. This is the place we went to a few weeks ago. They have a field where they put a bunch of balls (footballs, soccer balls, etc..) for the kids to play with. I had tried to make reservations a few days ago but they said they didn't take reservations, just call ahead seating. We said we'd be there at 11:15. Rachel's cousin's Lauren and Aaron, and Aaron's girlfriend Mandy met us there. Aunt Susan was at our house helping Bubbe get ready.

When we got out there Aaron, Lauren and Mandy were already there. They seated us right away outside. I'm guessing that people were having a later lunch and were still at church. It was a good lunch and everyone seemed to have a good time. Evan was tired by the end, and therefore in a cranky mood. When he crumpled up his menu and threw it, I took him out to the car and waited there until everyone was done.

At home, Rachel and Noah napped while I did some work. While I was doing work, Dax, Quin, Rachel and Lennon called us on Skype. Evan was very happy to see Quin and talk to him. Lennon was so funny. She didn't stop making noise the whole time.

For dinner, we just had leftovers.

The boys are in their rooms but not sleeping, of course.

Until next time...

Home again

We are home from Dallas.

I had been in Dallas since Tuesday and Morry and the boys came on Friday.

I'll post pics from Lauren and Shayne's wedding tomorrow.

Today is Papa/Lenny/Dad's 60th birthday. Last night we had a party at the house for him. Today, I went on a 24 mile bike ride with him around White Rock Lake.

We got home around 6:30 tonight, ate dinner, cleaned up, and now we are totally exhausted.

More tomorrow.

All Boys

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Rachel left for Dallas today. She's going for her cousin, Lauren's wedding. It was a very busy morning for her as she had to get herself packed, take Evan to school, take Noah to Alena's, tutor, eat lunch, and pick Evan and Noah up. Fortunately, it all went fairly smoothly and she was able to get out of her around 2pm. She safely arrived in Dallas where Lizzy was waiting between 5:30 and 6.

I got home at 5:15 and Blanca was watching the kids. They were playing Wii. At the time they were playing bowling. They moved onto Wii boxing and Wii golf. While they boxed against each other, Evan yelled "Noah we're fighting. We're not best friends anymore! I'm going to defeat you!" It was very funny.

For dinner, I made them peanut butter and jelly. Evan ate both his and Noah.

We had a serious shortage of food so I took the boys to HEB after dinner. They were very well behaved and earned themselves some Skittles.

They are in bed and seemingly asleep now.

Until next time...

Back From The Shore

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

We just returned from a week-long trip to Margate, NJ. The boys and I flew up on July 31, and Rachel flew up the next day. The boys had so much fun on the trip. They just love being in the water and as parents it was great watching them have so much fun.

My mom, Grandmom, rented a house along with my cousin, Louis and his family. Louis has three kids, Peyton (age 10), Simon (7), and Benny (2). Peyton was very good with Noah and Benny and Noah got along. Evan really enjoyed playing with Simon. He liked being with the older kids. Also, my cousin Craig, his wife Lauren, their kids Zoe and Sam were there as well as my cousin Traci and her son Drew. They were staying with Aunt Edie and their mom, Edie's daughter, Sheryl. All the kids really played well together. My cousin Allison, her husband Richard, and her daughter Avery were there the first day we were there and the second weekend.

The first day, we all went on the beach. Evan literally just started running for the water. I had to stop him as I was carrying some chairs and Noah. Evan showed no fear of the water and stayed out in the water even when no one else was out there playing with him. Noah was a bit scared at first and at first didn't like sand getting on him.

The second day, we got to show Rachel how much the boys liked the beach. Noah did much better playing in the water and getting used to the sand. That night we went over to Aunt Edie's for dinner with everyone. Craig made burgers and hot dogs and the kids played and played together.

The third day, we again went on the beach and Noah got even more comfortable playing. Evan never let up playing in the water and he started playing with this kind of water gun. You can see from the pictures later on how much he enjoyed it. That night we went to the Ocean City Boardwalk and ate at Mack and Manco's which is my favorite pizza place. Everyone went which was fun. The kids went on rides and we all had ice cream.

The fourth day, Wednesday, we drove up to see Zayde in Philadelphia. We immediately walked to lunch and had a really nice lunch outside. Zayde is a member of the Please Touch Museum so we drove over to that. There the kids played with all this car stuff, some space stuff. Noah played with water exhibits. They went on the carousel, they made us food at a pretend McDonald's. All the adults were wiped out by the time we were done. We went back to Zayde's so I could set up his new wireless router and picture frame. Evan and Noah proceeded to eat all of Zayde's fruit.

The fifth day, we just went right to the boardwalk to play miniature golf. Evan had been begging the whole time to go golfing. It was a neat golf course and the boys seemed to like it. We got water ice after that.

The sixth day was another beach day. We spent a long time on the beach continuing to play. When we got back Aunt Fran and Uncle Scott came to visit. For dinner we went to the The Crab Trap. We had to get there at about 4:30 and we still ended up waiting 45 minutes to an hour for a table.

The seventh day was the longest beach day yet. Aunt Fran and Uncle Scott came on the beach with us. Evan played with his cousins while Noah played with Aunt Fran and Uncle Scott. Evan played a bit with Uncle Scott as well. Both kids passed out at the house when we got back. When they woke up we went to Ocean City to see my friends Linda and Jeff and their kids. Aunt Fran and Uncle Scott came with us. The boys went on more rides and we had dinner on the boardwalk.

Finally the eighth day was a very short beach day and Rachel's friend Brett and his wife Meryl and baby Lauren came to see us. Then we left for the airport and flew home, completely exhausted. I think Rachel and I need a vacation.

It was a very nice time and it was very nice seeing the boys get to interact with their family and especially nice to see them play with Grandmom.

I was going to put a few pictures up, but I couldn't decide which of the 353 picture to put up. So, if you have the patience, here's a link to all of them:

http://picasaweb.google.com/rachelkbelkin/JerseyShore2010#

Until next time...

Lauren’s Shower

Today we had Lauren’s bridal shower. This morning Sherah and Aunt Susan came early to help out.

The shower started at 11:30am. Everything went smoothly and the food was really good.

Papa took Morry, Evan, and Noah to the airport.

We hung out at the house during the afternoon. Leah, David, Sam/Jay, and Hollis came over for a little bit. They happened to be in town so they stopped by the house.

For dinner, we had Rudy’s at the house and had leftover salad and desserts.

It has been a really long day. It was a nice day, but we are all really exhausted.

Here are the pictures from today.

http://picasaweb.google.com/rachelkbelkin/LaurensShower#

Busy Keeps On Coming

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Today was another busy day. I went to work around 7am. Evan got up around 7:30 and Noah got up around 9. Rachel continued to try to get the house ready for her cousin, Lauren's bridal shower at our house.

At 11:30, Gabby came over as Rachel needed to run out to get her hair fixed up a bit. She also had to drop something off at Evan and Noah's school for admission. Yes, in just 3 weeks, Noah will be going to school too and we had to drop his paperwork off.

Before Rachel left, she set up a slip-n-slide for the boys. Rachel got it at Target yesterday for two dollars. Here are some pictures:





Around mid-afternoon, Papa, Grandma and Bubbe came to the house. They are in for the shower.

When I got home, the boys were having a good time playing Superman with Grandma and having a pillow fight with Papa.

Rachel and her mom started planning out appetizers for the party tomorrow. Rachel had to talk on the phone with Sherah to do more planning.

For dinner, we went out to BJ's. The boys did well there. Evan ate his entire pizza and had two cups of strawberry lemonade. Noah ate some spaghetti and some of Bubbe's chicken. Bubbe entertained Noah by just giving him attention. Noah is such an attention hog.

When we got home, Grandma and Papa gave the boys baths while Rachel and I packed the boys. Then we put them to bed.

Since then Rachel and her family have been getting things set up. I continued to pack all of us.

Oh and here is a picture of Evan from Wednesday as we were driving to Matt and Rachael's. He had borrowed a Batman mask from Nolan, but decided to wear sunglasses over it:



Until next time..

Walk with Lauren

This morning I planned on walking with Lauren and the kids she nannies. I thought I’d take one kid with me and leave the other with Grandmom/Marilyn. I asked Evan if he wanted to go and he said no. I planned on taking Noah, but at the last minute he said he wanted to stay home too. I had a nice walk with Lauren. We stopped at Zilker park so that Presley could play for a little bit.

I came home and picked up Evan, Noah, and Grandmom. We met Morry for lunch at McDonalds. Evan ate really well there. Noah had some nuggets, apples, and a lot of fries. The boys played on the playground for a little bit before we left.

At home I put Noah down for a nap, set Evan up in the game room, and tried to take a nap. Noah wasn’t sleeping and then started crying, I went in there and he had had a blowout. There was poop everywhere. I had to give him a shower and change his sheets. He never went back to bed.

For dinner, we met Matt, Rachel, and her kids at Texas Land and Cattle. Evan was very good there and ate a lot. Noah was ok.

We just put Noah to bed. Evan is taking a shower right now and then he’ll go to bed too.