Opening Day 2016

Today was opening day of our second softball season at Troup.  Despite the crazy all night rain storm, opening ceremony and games were still a go just a little delayed.  It turned out to be a very nice day!

Drew was not too impressed with all the hoopla of opening ceremonies.  All the ppl kept him pretty entertained but he finally gave up to a nap about half way through!

This year the girls are on different teams.  We played Ava up last year and did not think it would be fair to do so to her again since Carli moved up to a Coach Pitch 8U team.  Actually most of the girls from last year moved up, so Carli's team is still the Diamond Divas.

Ava is still playing Tball.  They are a great group of little girls.  Ava and Kiyah are the only two who played in this age division last year.  Their team is called the Little Thunder.  There is an older group of girls called the Troup Thunder.  The older group of girls help the little ones out with practices.  It's a pretty nice deal!  :)

Last year Carli was number 11 and Ava was number 4.  This year they are both number 25.  I'm not sure what the significance of that number is but I'm glad neither pitched a fit about having to "share" the same number!

In between opening ceremonies and our first game, we tried to go into Tyler to grab some sun screen and get Carli some different pants or at least a belt.  The legs on her pants are crazy tight but the waist is way to big.  She was not very comfortable.  But it turns out 110 between Whitehouse and Troup was flooded!  We ended up in Jacksonville and were able to get some new, more comfy pants and grab lunch before Carli's game started at 1:30.

Carli's team played the other Troup team in their age division.  This was the first game ever for our entire team in this age bracket.  The fact that the other team had at least 4 or 5 girls who had played this division last year kind of gave them a bit of an edge.  That was okay.  Carli did a very good job at short stop.  She stopped everything that came to her and paid attention the entire game.  She only got one at bat, but she put the bat on the ball!  They threw her out at first.  But I was pleased that she did not strike out and her nerves did not get the best of her!  Just like with last year, with time comes confidence!

Ava's little team is the only girls 6U team in Troup.  They ended up playing a 6U boys team.  They did really well.  Ava was a bit upset to not have gotten to play 1st, 3rd or Shortstop.  Unfortunately at this age, having the ability to field and throw the ball isn't as "popular" as being able to chase down a runner.  :(  She played 2nd and not one ball came her way.  She had never practiced 2nd so I think we will work a bit on that at home and she'll be fine.  She did a great job hitting!  Her team beat the boys 15 to 8.

This is Ava and her friend Bella and Ava at 2nd base.

 

It was a really long day.  Drew was so done with the ball field halfway through Carli's game.  It made Ava's game really long to have a fussy baby!  He finally gave into a nap.  Thankfully we won't have any back to back games like that any time soon.  Here's to another fun season of softball!  :)

 

New Wheels

Cousin Dionna and Weston brought Drew some new toys!  He is pretty excited about it!

Happy Birthday Keith!

Today was Keith's birthday.  For his birthday he asked that I find someone to watch the kids and help him paint his shop.  Ms. Patty and Kayla came last weekend and we did just that.  The shop too 5 gallons of paint but it sure looks a lot better!

Before Keith asked me to help him paint, the girls and I had already decided we wanted to buy him a new pillow.  I went ahead and got him the pillow and let the girls give it to him Thursday night.  Carli spent a good 30 minutes wrapping it in Princess Birthday paper for him.  :)

Poor Drew was so over the day!  But the girls insisted he needed to be in the "gift" picture!

It turns out Carli unwraps a gift a lot faster than she wraps one!  :)

Thankfully the morning of Keith's birthday, Drew was in a much better mood!  :)  We always go eat at Legends on Friday's and Keith loves to get their grilled chicken and sweet potato fries.  We kept our weekly plan but threw in some Blue Bell Ice Cream to go along with the fresh Cherry Pie Grammy had made especially for Keith!  :) 

 

Happy Birthday Keith!

Books, books, books!!

Carli has really gotten into reading this year.  She started this semester off with no AR points.  I'm not sure they didn't start taking test til this semester.  She went from Independent Reader (10 pts) to Super Reader (20 pts) to reaching her goal of 50 points by April.  She then decided she could get to 100 points before the end of the school year and I have no doubt she will.  As of this week she's at 85.2 points!  So when Grammy brought over a stash of books, Carli was thrilled to add them to her bookcase and arrange them just so!  :)  Now if she could convince her Daddy to let her read "just 5 more minutes" before bed every night!

Strollers Aren't Just for Babies

There also for red faced, sweaty 5 year olds resting at the ball field.  :)

2015-2016 School Pictures

Another school year is already almost over!  It always amazes me how much the girls change over a year.  Here are their school pictures:

Carli is a natural at school pictures.  :)

To see just how much Carli has changed over the past two years, here are her kindergarten pictures.

 

Carli's 1st Grade Class

 

Ava lost some of her baby face this year...

Ava's Kindergarten Class

We've come a long ways!

Ava took an interest in playing tball in the summer of 2014 but she was barely 4 and we were in the process of moving.  But she enjoyed going outside to play with her daddy.

 

Fast forward two years and the girl can smack the ball pretty hard when she wants to and she still smiles the whole time.  I may have found my softball player...

Daddy goes on a Field Trip

I had signed up to go on Ava's field trip last month but life happened and Becky has been sick for a couple of weeks.  Since I had to work, Keith rearranged his schedule in order to go on Ava's trip.  They had a great time.  Keith had Ava, Bella, Gracie and Preston in his group.  They ended up hanging around with another group of boys, one of which was Grayson.  The same little Grayson who has a crush on Ava.  Can you guess which boy he is from the picture?

It was a nice "date" for Ava and Keith.  After the official field trip was over and the buses left to go back to school, Keith took Ava to go feed to birds. 

They also ran into Kayla at the zoo!  Ah, we sure miss our Kayla!

After the zoo, a trip to Lowes (where miraculously Ava did not convince Keith to buy anything not on his list!), then Sonic and school to pick up Carli! 

Personalities

Keith takes the girls to school every morning.  He rarely posts on facebook but he took the time to post this:

Two comments, two personalities perfectly represented:

Carli: "Are we on time? I need to get my morning work done so that I can read another chapter book."

Ava: "I need to get mine done so...eh, maybe not."

Ava has been fighting off a weak virus all last week but got to go back to school on Monday.  We asked Ava if everyone was glad to see her back at school and she replied, "Yep, I was especially happy to see me back at school today, I sure missed me being there." Right, that's what we meant...

And finally, This kid...if you knew her you'd know this shirt is being sarcastic. Maybe is the first born gene or just a strong willed child gene...but wow she can push some buttons!! She absolutely refuses to blow her nose and drives me nuts! She sees herself as the 3rd adult in the house, and thus sees nothing wrong with telling her siblings what and how to do things (even blowing their noses!). She has an insane amount of determination to get something done, but only if she wants to do it. If it's someone else's idea, well, don't expect her to be determined to do it well or right the first time...that is until she finds a different, more difficult way to achieve said task then she'll work hard to get it done. She strives for perfection at new things and is sorely disappointed when she's not perfect the first time. However, perfection is not a big deal for such menial task of cleaning, homework or putting away laundry. But making a butterfly from scrap paper with working wings, yep that's got to be perfect! This kid...she gives me gray hairs and the sweetest kisses.

**She told me this is how leaders take good pictures. So, you know, they can see where they are going while they lead!**

Drew Sick?

We took Drew into the doc to make sure he did not have an ear infection and...he did.  But you'd never know from the cute grins and giggles I got the whole time we were there!

Cousin Visit

My cousin was in from Washington this week so Drew and I made the trip to go see them in Fairfield while the girls were at school.  We had a great visit and bonus was that Dionna, Weston and Aunt Betty came too!

Drew and Weston

I love my short cousins!  :)

This little man may have stolen a lot of attention!

We had a good time catching up.  Drew and I had to leave to get back to help with getting the girls to and from ball but were so glad we got to visit.  It was fun to be a part of helping Dionna put together a surprise of telling her parents that she and Ron were expecting a new baby in November!

Drew at 9 Months

Drew turned 9 months old on the 1st. At his check up we discovered he still had fluid in right ear from an ear infection 2 wks ago so more meds. Drew is 29 inches (74%), 21 lb 15 oz (83%) & 18.25 inch head (84%). (Carli at 9 mths, Ava at 9 mths)

We think Drew favors Ava more but he has a bit of Carli to his look too...

Drew is simply a joy. He picks on his sisters & giggles and gives them kisses afterward. He can maneuver his walker wherever he wants to go. He slept through the night twice in a row this wk (knock on wood)! He loves to eat food off your plate but refuses to put anything in his mouth, including purees and puffs! He wont take a bottle or a paci, but is getting better at drinking from his sippy cup. He sleeps on his tummy but refuses to roll over. If he crawls before he walks I'd be surprised! He maybe the stubbornness Hays kid yet! Drew LOVES to be outside and if we let him would gladly stay out all day! He talks non stop. He says dada, hi and screams mama when he's upset. He's a world class pat a cake performer and waves bye bye when the notion strikes him right!

 

 

Oh and he has one baby curl on the back of his head (I'm still holding out hope for one of my kids to have gotten curly hair!)