Life with the Ball's
The Adventures of Randy, Mel, and the Boys
Tuesday, February 20, 2024
Parker is Growing Up!
Friday, February 16, 2024
Happy New Year
We hosted the 7th Annual Ball family New Year’s Eve party. It was memorable because Randy was outside trying to mount our computer to a tree with duct tape while I thought he was upstairs getting the Prize Ball ready for the kids. When I discovered he wasn’t upstairs and the ball wasn’t done, I panicked and assumed he’d had a heart attack somewhere. So I enlisted the help of our boating brothers, Andrew and Stephen, to make the prize balls. It was hilarious! They put so much tape around the balls that the kids could hardly rip into them.
We did a small ball for the younger kids |
The teens got a bigger ball with gift cards because….Randy. |
Randy showed up after the guys finished making the kids ball. It was hilarious watching them do this. It’s a workout! |
Randy made killer punch that everyone loved. Ginger ale + cranberry juice |
So much food! |
The floating lanterns are the new favorite part of the night. Everyone had a great time and we were all exhausted. Happy New Year!
Thursday, February 15, 2024
January is the worst. Always.
January is always the longest month ever and this year was no different. I think I took about ten pictures to document our lives which means there wasn’t much to document. Most noteworthy—we finally got the Christmas tree taken down and Randy is now responsible for it. Randy was super bummed I didn’t use the new boxes he bought just for ornament storage (did you know there is such a thing?) and so he unpacked everything I had packed. Then he repacked everything into small containers that he then packed into bigger containers. The big containers are the size of small coffins so in case any of our children die, I’m ready! If there is ever an earthquake in Sammamish and our house is destroyed, at least we know the ornaments will survive.
My laundry room counter was visible for the first time in two months. I even sent this picture to Marcus. He was dumbfounded.
My dad gifted us some money for a family activity for Christmas so we decided to go to Cheesecake Factory for dinner. We waited forever for the food so we played Catch Phrase and it was a lot of fun! I’d say the clues, Randy would repeat the clues, and then Henry guessed the word :) Also, salted caramel cheesecake is amazing. Almost as good as mango cheesecake. I recommend both!
Henry loves the mall. And posing for pictures apparently.
Tuesday, January 23, 2024
Christmas
It's a good thing we've had the most boring month ever so I can still blog about December. I'll be brief. My kids loved Christmas despite all my talk about setting the bar low, no one needs anything, let's save our money, etc. I must have really made it sound like they weren't getting anything because they were all surprised and said it was a great Christmas. Yay for them. Christmas Eve was full of traditions--delicious dinner with English crackers, caroling, talent show, nativity, and talking about the Savior. We had fun and then the kids went to bed while Randy and I wrapped all the presents that weren't from Santa. Normally the wrapping and attention to detail is Pinterest-worthy but I finally got smart and realized my kids don't notice any of that stuff. In fact, next year I might even put all their gifts in trash bags. They'll probably love it.Henry displayed his many Mario coloring pages. He LOVES coloring and we are all just thrilled he doesn't ask us to choose which color to do next because that was a terrible phase.Parker made quite the entrance through the front door as Eminem was blaring through the speakers while he performed all sorts of cool yo-yo tricks.
Landon tried to guess where each French fry came from. He only messed up on two. Only Randy would be willing to drive around to every fast food joint near and far so his son could eat their fries for a family talent show.
I predicted the future by doing a cool math trick that no one cared about but me. Story.of.my.life.
Christmas morning started at 8am. It felt glorious! Marcus called us shortly after we started opening presents so it felt like we were all together. Randy bought me a fancy carry-on suitcase. He loves it. I bought him a bidet. I love it. The boys got more hoodies, Nikes, video games, and some random things they didn't ask for that I thought they'd like and for the most part, they do. By 5pm I was ready to take down the Christmas tree and declutter my house. So instead I took my Grinchy self for a long, solitary walk while I caught up on Marco Polo with my sisters. It felt like the right thing to do, and it was!
Tuesday, January 16, 2024
More December Chaos
And there you have it. Our December was super busy and then super boring. Next up is a post about Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
Sunday, January 7, 2024
Christmas Break When We Had Nothing To Do
We are a week into 2024 and the Christmas tree is still up even though I was ready to take it down on December 26th. Naturally if my tree is still up it probably means I’m behind in every other area of my life, including the blog. The month of December was INSANE for the first two weeks. Worse than usual. Mostly because of dental marketing, visits to women in my ward, and the kids busy schedules. Then the kids got out of school and life came to a grinding halt. No school, no friends, and no plans. I debated driving to Utah but none of the boys wanted to go since their cousins were still in school. The screen use hit a high that I haven’t seen since the pandemic so I dug deep and tried to find a few things for us to do. I even posted it on Instagram so I can remember for next year. Funny how people probably saw those posts and thought we were having an amazing break when really I was just desperate to do something that broke up the boredom. Oh well! Here are a few things that required my kids actually getting dressed and leaving the house….
We raced to the Alderwood Mall—about 35 minutes away—on a Sunday evening ti catch the giving machine before it closed and moved to Portland. Randy’s parents gifted us money and we put it to good use and then some. We purchased chickens, a goat, shoes, sports equipment, and food. Super fun! We left without going to Shake Shack which was a huge sacrifice for Landon but it was the Sabbath after all.
After recovering toys, we went to a fun park nearby and then got lunch at Dicks.