Sunday Snapshot~ another teenager in the house

 

13.....

 yet another teenager has snuck into the family and i'm in denial.

 this kid was countin' down the days. not sure if it was because he couldn't wait for his new status or if it was the gifts.

he hardly ever asks for anything or has a wish list. even at Christmastime it's hard to get him to say what he wants.

 somehow though we always seem to figure it out:)

 add these and a day of paint ball with his dad and big brother and he was all smiles.

then add to that a mint oreo ice cream birthday cake and he was just ecstatic.

 

Happy 13th birthday honey badger, hope it was a good one

love you!

Favorite Photo Friday ~ end of another season

Season 9  2013

 position, first baseman and occasionally third.

 our oldest was in a league with guys up to 2 years older than he was and he played just as well and just as hard.

 

 they even took the championship...

 and gave their coach a little ribbing!

 he was also chosen to play on the all-stars team and they took first for that one too! in all he had a terrific season playing with the high schoolers. next season he'll be one of them!

 our second played in the sixth & seventh grade league this summer.

 this boy can run I tell ya, and he can steal. the other teams seem to catch on pretty quick once he's up to bat and they're always lookin' to catch him but once he gets on first there's no stopping him. he can get all the way around and home while the ump is calling balls on the batter after him.

 he was also chosen to participate in a separate tournament playing against teams from a couple other cities.

 by end of season they took third. next summer he'll be playing with the high schoolers and his big brother! can't wait for that!

this season, we had the honor of watching our First Lady play 8U softball, her first team sport!

 she. was.  ready.

 a bit nervous at her first game, but I think watching her brothers play for the past 9 years gave her the ability to know what to do once she got that ball. she had lightening quick throws to first and got quite a few girls out!

 windy & dusty practice

 she was crazy about cheering on her team mates, but not so crazy about playing catcher:)

 by end of the season they found themselves in third place in the tournament

 not bad for her first time! she sure was excited about that trophy and medal. took a few weeks off and then signed up for fall ball playing on the 10U team. her coach recommended she move up a league for this short fall season to help her prep for next summer.

i miss it all terribly. we had a game to get to every night this summer and weekends too! sometimes double headers and sometimes two different players at the same time which made for a lot of planning of who was going where, but when it all came to a grinding halt it was like going through withdraw:(

i lost count at 62 games.  

can't wait for it all to crank back up next summer, but for now we'll enjoy these next few fall softball games with the First Lady.  

Sunday Snapshot~ a special delivery

for a second year, the First Lady decided to forgo the traditional birthday gifts and ask her party guests to bring donations for pets in need.

this morning we made the drop off at our vets office....she couldn't wait!

our vet, Dr. Phillips, collects donations that he delivers to two different food shelves in our town. people coming for food for their families are then able to take items for their pets too.

after all, aren't pets family members too?

 he was so excited to get such a big donation but that was not all of it. she was also given many PetCo gift cards from her friends to donate so she gets to be his personal shopper and purchase exactly what the shelf is low on. this girl loves to shop so that was a good deal.

helping animals has always been her passion since she was very small. she says she wants to be a veterinarian but she definitely has this fight in her that makes me think perhaps someday she'll be raiding puppy mills, designing prosthetics for animals with missing limbs, or running her own shelter.

  whatever it is she'll be good at it:)

Sunday Snapshot~ 3 years today

really??

can it really, truly be that long? three years ago today we were on a 16 hour flight home with a screaming, wailing, unhappy Lil' Lady who didn't know us from a hill of beans and let everyone on that plane know it. it's taken me these three years to even speak of that plane ride again, but I can tell you now that just like childbirth, it was completely worth it. just look at that smile...  

as always i couldn't get her to even look at the camera let alone smile. she just wasn't interested in having her picture taken this afternoon.

step in- the First Lady. if it wasn't for her we couldn't have gotten the job done. she put on such an act that the smile and laughs kept comin'

i look way back and i just can't believe there was ever a time without her. she has made our family complete.

just a side note...the dress she wore today is the matching dress her big sister wore to meet us at the airport that day. she can already wear it!

 

 Happy Homecoming Lil' Lady

 we love you so very much

God is Good:)