Happy 5th 4th of July!!

Ok, so I'll admit -- I was too tired last night to update my blog...but at least it's only the next day and not next week! :)

As always, we went to my mom's house last night for a cookout and then we shot off fireworks over her lake. The boys were so excited about it finally being the 4th, that I truly wasn't sure if they would make it until dark. They were wound up and hyper all day --making for some long moments during the day. But - I remember being just as excited as a kid!!

About 8:30pm, we finally began to get the fireworks all carried down to the lake. We thought by the time the boys did all their smaller stuff, it would be dark enough to shoot off enjoy all of our the neighbors "illegal" fireworks! :) My mom lives on a lake, so it does get very pretty with many neighbors around the lake shooting off fireworks! Most years, there are even people that go out in their boats and sit in the middle of the lake to watch all of the fireworks!

Here are some pictures from our evening last night:

The boys ready for some fireworks!

Caleb lighting his tank

Logan lighting his rocket -- we were thankful we only got one of these -- man were they LOUD!

One of the "barrel" fountains Caleb picked out.

Caleb with his sparklers

Caleb being goofy

Logan with his sparklers

More sparkler fun. Boys will be boys -- they wanted to see how big of a flame they could make by putting their sparklers together lol! :)

Me holding Tucker -- he did not care for the fireworks this year. He did ok with most of them, but not the loud ones and not the ones that had the high-pitched whistling

Caleb lighting another fountain

Ever wonder how you choke a chigger? Here's Logan lighting our "Chigger Choker". Yes -- that's what it was called -- and it ended up being everyone's favorite!

The Chigger Choker just getting started

The boys in front of the Chigger Choker

One of our the many "illegal" fireworks of the night around the lake :)

Chris & the boys watching the fireworks!

Logan holding Tucker back in the house at the end of the night. We ended up having to put him in his box inside the house because he didn't like the loud bangs! I'm not sure who was more tired on the drive home -- the boys or the dog. I will say, the dog slept until 8:30am the next day and he NEVER does that hahaha!!

Hope all of you had a great 4th of July!!

Final Day of Baseball Season!

Caleb had his final two baseball games this past week. The one on Monday night was total misery in that we lost by 102-1 by an older team. Ok, it was really only like 13-1, but with the heat and the boys not hitting as well as they normally do, the game felt much more brutal than just 13-1 LOL. Sometimes, it's nice to play the older boys, however, because it gives our boys something to look forward to for next year. They want to field like that and make the fast plays like that, etc!

The next night, Tuesday, we played our final game of the season. This was a complete opposite game from the night before, because we won 14-2 I believe. Our boys were hitting great, and fielding awesome too. They have all really improved and really all seemed to enjoy the season!

On the final game -- Caleb did get to round the bases one last time....

Intently watching from 3rd base -- leading off the base as much as this league will allow LOL

Crossing home plate -- pure heaven! The look on his face doesn't get much better than that! :)

Following our last game, the team was invited over to one of the player's houses for a swim party and a thank-you for our coaches! The kids all had a great time eating pizza, popsicles, and swimming!

Logan's first time to go off a diving board -- waiting his turn to run and jump.


He LOVED it!!


I never could get Caleb to go off the diving board...but he does love to do cannonballs into the shallow end! (sorry for the dark picture -- it was dark outside and apparently the flash didn't go off)


Caleb receiving his team medal

Team picture with their medals

One last group huddle

Go Shockers!

Close-up of Caleb with his medal

Funny Story about this medal. The next day I was in the kitchen and Caleb comes in holding his medal just looking at it in awe. I said "Do you like your medal?" He said "Oh yeah -- it's the best". I said "What makes it the best -- better than any of your other medals?" He came walking over to me and as he showed me the back of his medal he said "Because Coach Mike got our medals from China!" ROFL!!! Yes -- the back of the medals say "China" on them. That was soooo funny!!! :)

So -- thanks Coach Mike for taking time out of your busy work and daily schedule to travel to China for these great baseball medals LOL! Thanks also for another GREAT baseball season!! We appreciate all you do for each of these kids!!

Thanks also to Coach Drew and Coach Matt -- who were the assistant coaches for the Shockers this year. We appreciate you as well - and look forward to another great season next year!!

Old Navy, Doc Green's, and New Friends

Today I met my friend, Liz, for an afternoon of shopping & lunch. Liz & I have known each for years. At least 16 years. She was a on staff at a church at the same time I was....wayyy back when! :) Anyway -- Liz lives in Towanda and because that's sooooo far away, we haven't seen each other in a very long time! Ok, it's not THAT far away, but that's our story and we're sticking to it!

Today -- Liz made the journey to the West side of town and we met at Old Navy to do some shopping. Since it has been so long since Liz & I had seen each other -- that means the kids had no chance in remembering each other. I think Caleb may have been a baby the last time we were together -- we really couldn't remember for sure. We thought they would enjoy meeting each other and enjoy each other's company -- but apparently that wasn't enough. They had to meet many other friends while there:

Yes -- they are all truly posing with the mannequin's inside Old Navy LOL!! I think the heat has gotten to their heads. But, you know the really sad part? While Liz & I were laughing about it, a lady who works there says most people who come in there with kids, stop and pose them with this display LOL!!! Ok -- so that made us feel a little more normal... :)

No huge shock that Caleb clung to a football. I mean, he doesn't have a red, white, & blue one!! Come on! The shocker was -- he truly was trying to play ball this dog. Again - a MANNEQUIN hahaha!!

After we were done torturing Andrew all of the kids with our shopping, we decided it was time for lunch. The kids wanted either McDonald's or Wendy's while Liz & I wanted to try Doc Green's. Any guesses who won? Well, since we're horrible parents and we were the ones paying, we went to Doc Green's LOL!! I told the kids they had grilled cheese. However, once we got in there, we found they also had chicken fingers and mac & cheese. SCORE!! Life is always good when there is mac & cheese :). The kids ate every bite of their food and loved it (well, except for Andrew, who went to snorting pepper through a straw and tried to convince us that tasted better than the food haha). Liz & I both loved the food as well -- and enjoyed having a conversation while the kids entertained themselves. I should have taken more pictures, because it truly was a funny site. You see -- first we had typical girls who were both sharing ear buds to listen to music on an MP3 player. Then we had Andrew eating pepper through a straw. Then, we had my lovely two boys:

Caleb created horns out of toothpicks (see them under his bangs?) and then Logan was making goofy faces behind him! Oh-Well, at least they were in their seats (for the most part), quiet & behaving themselves. Who knows -- they may have been someones lunchtime entertainment. Liz & I wouldn't know -- we were enjoying our conversation too much to notice lol. I was also letting her play with my iPhone because she is thinking of getting one!!

After a long time in Doc Green's, the kids were tired of sitting still, but weren't ready to part....so we came back to our house. The kids played Wii downstairs while Liz and I.....you guessed.....continued our conversation upstairs! :)

Thanks, Liz (& kiddos) for spending your day with us!!

Caleb FINALLY comes home!!!

Tonight was a great baseball game for Caleb!! Not only did he have 2 great hits at bat...but he FINALLY got to come home!! After he began to hit the ball and get on base, he would get left on base due to getting 3 outs before he got around the bases. Tonight, however, he rounded the bases not once, but twice! The look on his face as he crossed home plate was priceless!! I wish we had a picture of him looking out to us as he ran back to the dugout as well! So Proud!!

While Caleb played outfield, he played 2nd base and was able to make a great stop, throw the ball to 1st base and get a player out. Then, a few plays later, he nearly caught a pop fly ball. Had he had his hand turned the opposite way I think he would have sealed the deal -- but as it stood, he caught the ball, but it rolled out of his glove and hit the ground.

ALL of the boys played really well tonight -- and there were several pop flies that were nearly caught by the boys. That's when baseball starts to be exciting when the boys begin to make harder plays!! They deserved their 10-2 win tonight!! I wish I had a video of tonight's game -- they truly did play GREAT!!

At 3rd base -- waiting to run home!

He's HOME!! Congrats Caleb!!

GREAT game tonight, Shockers!!!

Another Fort

The boys have done it again. They have built yet another fort in my basement. This time, with the help of their dad. This time it was on Father's Day. Now, I don't know if Chris was feeling left out because I was given the title of "Master of Building Forts" and he had to try and one-up me...or if he was trying to apply what we learned during our sermon at church just a few hours earlier. The sermon was titled "The Father That Every Child Needs". (GREAT sermon, by the way, and should any of you care to listen to it -- soon you can access it by going to http://www.liveoaks.org/ and clicking on sermons). Anyway -- regardless Chris went downstairs and helped the boys make a new fort. As you'll see in the pictures, he moved the furniture all around in order to make it bigger & better. Which leads me to believe he was trying to steal my title LOL! :)

Now -- from my last post regarding the forts, you will know that actually sleeping in the fort lasted 30 min. max for both boys. This time, however, they both made it all night. Well, that was until Logan came running up the stairs at 3am to wake me up saying Caleb had thrown up and was crying LOL!! Thankfully the mess was confined to his sleeping bag...and was a fluke, however, because he was perfectly fine today!! I'm secretly hoping we're done with forts for a little while! :)

The fort

The sleeping boys inside the fort (yes I DID move that cord hanging down on top of Logan's head after covering him up for the night LOL)

Special Gift

While we were at church, Sunday, Caleb received a pretty special & surprise gift from a his friend, Savanna. She knew that he loves & plays baseball, so she made him a baseball player out of model clay, painted it, and baked it. How sweet!! Caleb has named his new friend, Jacob. Caleb loves Jacob and carried him around with him the entire day. He did, however, agree to let me hold him while he went to Children's Church. I mean after all, even a baseball player needs a nap, right? :) Now, Jacob has been placed on Caleb's bookshelf in his "sports" themed room -- next to his autographed baseball. Perfect home for him!!

Caleb with Jacob, the baseball player

Close-up


Thank you, Savanna!! That was very sweet & thoughtful of you!!

Slavery or simply helping??

Chris has been s.l.o.w.l.y. making progress in cleaning up our two catch-all spare bedrooms downstairs. One room is full of bookshelves, which are all full of...you guessed it...BOOKS!! Books that we've already read and won't read again. At least I won't. Chris doesn't have a problem re-reading a book a 2nd time, but hardly ever does. So -- these books serve as great dust collectors. Chris has been taking them off the shelves, cataloging them on a program on his computer, and then placing them into a plastic tub. Should he ever wish to retrieve one of these books in the future, he will just need to type the title into his program, and then that program will tell him which numbered tub it's in. Handy huh? Well -- the boys have gotten into helping. Chris was having them pull all the books off the shelf for him! They were having a good time helping, but I think Chris was enjoying it the most! :)

Caleb in between the swimming pool ladder. What? Don't you all have one of these in your basement...just in case? :)

Logan hard at work

Good work, boys!!