Dentist Woes

Drew LOVES going to the dentist...that may change next month when he has to go back to get his fillings.  :/  He has to have 4...all on baby teeth and in the back.  After being spoiled by the older girls good luck with their teeth...it seems Drew may have gotten the bad end of the teeth genetics.  

That 4th child...

This kid...I guess I've been lucky to have had 3 older kids who didn't climb. No worries...Maggie makes up for all those carefree years. I also never had to worry with baby proofing anything...then there came Maggie. If I'm gray or bald next time you see me...its her fault.

Illusions in Bullard

This weekend Carli had her second tournament with Illusions.  She is meshing really well with this group of girls and for that we are so thankful.  The past two weeks Carli has worked hard at home on her pitching, working out and hitting.  Her confidence was awesome.  And it showed the inning she got to pitch in a pool game, throwing 9 pitches, 7 for strikes.  She had two ground outs and a strike out.  Her confidence in hitting is still low in games.  But this weekend she did show them her amazing ability to bunt, laying down two sac bunts.  She grounded out once and struck out swinging once.  She also had a bomb throw to 3rd for a sure fire out on from left field, but the ball  was kicked out of the shortstops hand.  She also caught a fly ball in right field.  Overall, it was a good weekend.  The team took 3rd and most importantly they had a lot of fun!

Raising a Leader

Sunday was Drew's first day to get the nod to pick up attendance cards!  He also has really taken to pretending to leading songs and prayers while he teaches us all at home.  I simply love it.

Softball and Sprinklers

What a productive Monday!  The girls were determined today to get it all done...APEC, Homework and now pitching.  Meanwhile, the littles productively ran through the sprinklers!

Surprises for Mom!

I'm loving that Drew is all about surprising his Momma! Sometimes it's weeds he picks from our bear hunts and sometimes its pictures and notes he dictates for his daddy to write me. But his presentation is what makes it even more sweet. He gets this big grin on his face and hides his surprise behind his back and walks up to me so proudly! Ah, this boy makes my heart melt!

I AM NATURAL

Sisters

She looks like one...acts like the other. Sunshine mixed with a little hurricane.

Early to Bed, Early to Rise

Well, Maggie thought she was a newborn again last night...maybe she missed cuddling with Keith's back since he was out of town.  Whatever it was...she woke up at 11 pm, 12:30 am, 2 am, 3 am and decided she was awake for the day at 4 am.  I ignored her til she was adamant she needed her pjs off at 5 am...at least she's cute!

Her late night shenanigans and early morning meant she fell asleep taking sisters to school!

Drew and Maggie's First Day of OTA

The day Drew has anxiously waited for all summer finally arrived.  He was so giddy and excited!  He even cooperated with pictures for me...helps that he has seen his sisters have to endure my first day of school pictures for a few years!

Maggie was pretty excited too, but only because she fed off of Drew's excitement!  I'll take what I can get!  Ha!

And there they go...and the tradition continues...

Drew did amazing!  He was so excited...he pretty much shewed me out of the door.  :)  Maggie was the only girl in her class and all the boys were upset so she went into little Momma mode giving out hugs and "It's okay baby."  :)  I did stay longer until the teacher got a little help.  Maggie's class was the youngest so she had her hands full. Maggie was upset when I left but she was fine within a couple minutes.

Pick up was great.  Maggie even hugged her teacher!  Drew had a great day and was so happy to have met all his new friends.  He couldn't tell me a thing he learned about and his favorite time of the day was the playground, of coarse!

Now to perfect my ability to get a sleeping Maggie from the car to her bed...today I failed!

Planks and Squats

Ava has wholeheartedly embraced becoming a catcher.  The Monday before school started Pa took her over to Centerville and she had a private lesson with Logan's Catching coach.  She loved it!  And this week she spent a whole hour at her teammate, Ava P.'s, pitching lesson catching her.  I was impressed.  Then she promptly came home and demanded a family squat challenge!  Last night, she went to Carli's pitching lesson and she may have been a bit sore b/c she didn't make it the entire hour but she did demand a family plank challenge before bed!  I'm loving this!! :)

Mud Kitchen Fun

I am pretty sure this mud kitchen gets the most play time of all the toys we have!  They'd spend all day out here if I didn't make them come in because it was so hot!

Good Bye to my Shea-Shea

And just like that, my sweet Shea is gone. Within 10 days she went from perfectly fine to gone. My sweet singing little girl. She was the third in our trio of Shih Tzus. My first babies. She had the cutest over bite and the most annoying yip! It always took us a minute before we realized that wasn't a dead battery in a smoke detector barking at us! She was a bit of a diva, and the reason why I made all that homemade dog food bc of her food allergies. I'm gonna miss her little snores at night and her nuzzles in the morning. Thirteen years wasn't long enough. Good bye my Shafer-mafer, my sweet Shea Shea. Another piece of my heart is gone.

1/24/06 - 8/19/19

Illusions Softball

Carli's Synergy Team didn't make the transition to 12u this fall.  Half the girls were young enough to still play 10u ball and our head coach was stepping down to take care of family matters.  So we were on the hunt for a new softball team and after talking to Carli decided we'd reach out to the Illusions team that was based in Alto.  

This team has evolved from Threat and before that they were Attitude which is where Carli almost started her Select Ball career in 8u.  There are 4 girls on this team that also played with the Sassy Sluggers so Carli knew them.  That helped a lot when it came to playing in their first 12u tournament with a new team.  Carli did awesome in her one inning on the mound.  Was rusty at the plate but we will keep working on that and played a lot of outfield.  The walked away with 2nd play losing to a team that actually was half full of girls who will be moving up to 14u!  Not too shabby!

First Day of School 2019

Today, my big girls headed off to start another year in school.  This year Carli is in 5th Grade and Ava is in 4th.  I'm not really sure how that happened so quickly!  I completely failed in getting pictures on Monday at meet the teacher but the girls were cooperative enough to let me follow them to school this morning to snap one.  Not sure how often that'll keep being allowed!

Carli grew at least 2 inches this summer!  She was excited to start school and switch classes for every subject!

Ava was one lucky little girl.  Not only did she get the same teachers that Carli had last year, she also got every single on of her best friends in her class...what are the odds with five 4th grade class rooms?!  Her buddy Will Cody from up the street is in her class too.  

When Ava started Oak Tree Academy in 2012, I randomly was able to snap a picture of the girls holding hands as they walked toward the school.  Every year, I've managed to convince them to recreate this picture.  Something I hope they will let me do each year!

And a new school year wouldn't be complete with out a good luck hug from one of our most favorite teachers, Mrs. Hultberg.  She was vital in helping us with Ava's anxiety last year and has always been a huge supporter of both my girls!

Amarillo Day 3

Woke up early this morning to go meet Grandpa Herb for breakfast.  Went to a new restaurant that basically served all different kinds of biscuits.  It was pretty good!  Was really good to see Grandpa Herb.  He looked great!

After breakfast we headed to the playground for a bit before it got too hot to be out.  The littles wore themselves out pretty good.  The bigs even got their softballs out and threw the ball around a bit.

All the kids even got to enjoy a quick ride in the "new" and improved jeep!  Uncle Kevin bought Pappy's jeep and has been fixin' it up!

After a super full morning, it was nap time for all!  Some napped longer than others, so a little extra one on one play time was in order.

And we couldn't not go swimming today with Cousin Jackson!  Maggie and Drew picked right back up where they left off!  

Then Maggie discovered a chair just her size...and suddenly the pool was not as much fun as this chair!

It was a full, fun day!

Amarillo Day 2

We started off our day with some pancakes made by Pappy!  And then we played around the house until it was time to head to the theatre for lunch and a movie!  We went and saw the new Lion King.  It was really good and the food and heated, reclined seats were awesome!  We did have a first when we got nearly to our theatre only to realize Drew was not with us!  Talk about an adrenaline rush!  He was just chilling at a table waiting for the food he ordered and wasn't concerned at all about where we were.  Aiy!

We spent the rest of the day at home relaxing until Uncle Kevin, Aunt Megan and Jackson drove in.  We had a great evening playing in the backyard and visiting.  Pappy's yummy burgers were a treat too!

Amarillo Day 1

It's Amarillo Week!  Today we had a lot of fun being spoiled by Naggy and Pappy!  Started our morning off with cinnamon rolls and cleaning Naggy's porch of spiders!

And then it was time to go swimming at Mrs. Jerry's.  The bigs jumped right in.  The littles were a little more reserved by after an hour, Drew finally trusted his floaties and was easing around in the pool and Maggie didn't like her floaties but was content to have someone help her motor boat around the pool.  She even made the motor boat sound!

Drew brought his favorite game to play with Naggy and Pappy...Maggie thouroughly enjoys just demolishing it!

After swimming the littles were flat worn out and while they were napping, Carli and I went out for a cupcake and lemon bar before we met up for a short visit with Mrs. Stephanie and her kids.  When we got back, we were going to go to Wonderland but Ava wasn't 100% and we decided not to go.  So Ava and I went and had our toenails done.  Ava is forcing me out of my comfort zone finding designs on Pinterest and asking for matching toes.  She at least didn't make me get pink on mine!

We followed up our pedicure with dinner at Buns and a trip to the mall for some school shoes!

Now it's off to bed to get ready for Day 2...Jackson, Uncle Kevin and Aunt Megan are coming!