Summer is still busy

Summer is supposed to be full of rest...not for us!


Gracie has been training a Peanut the Pony for a couple of weeks now.  She is loving it even though Peanut bit her on the shoulder.   She has such an amazing love for all animals but especially for horses and ponies.  She got to jump poles on Peanut the other day and she absolutely loved it.  He is just her size.  Although, she loves Peanut she really loves riding the big horses...Sunny, Touscan, and Pie. 

Hayden has been practicing like crazy with travel ball and Middle School ball.  Plus hitting and pitching lessons.  Oh and don't forget speed and agility....and people wonder where we are all the time!  My days are so busy filled with all the things my kids enjoy.  Hayden's pitching is looking good but it is a lot of work.  This mommy has to suit up in shin guards and a face mask to help her practice.  That says a lot about how much I love her because I never even played ball as a kid.  I have taken many hits to my thighs and legs....and it HURTS like crazy....but I hide my tears and push through so she doesn't lose confidence or see me cry like a baby!  She has a fantastic batting stance that we are perfecting.  When she puts it all together she is going to kill the ball!  Right now she is playing 2nd base, 3rd base and pitching.  She plays the outfield on some occasions but not lately.  She looks good no matter where she is.  She has a huge love for sports!

Colton is practicing his hitting this Summer.  He decided this all on his on.  He gets his bucket of baseballs and bat and finds Daddy or me to pitch to him.  He prefers his Daddy...I can't imagine why...being that I am such a great ball player!  He said he has to practice hard because he is going to be a home run hitter all season in the fall.  I sure hope he is.  I love watching him do his thing.  However, I think he may need to work on his fielding.  He likes to play in the dirt rather than field the ball.  Hopefully this season that will change.  I think he is going to be a baller like Hayden. 

As for Mark and I all of our enjoyment comes from making our kids happy.  The camper is our thing!  The kids love it too and always want to know where we are going for the weekend.  It is like a vacation every week to somewhere different....but these vacations are the kind that we can afford.  Our budget doesn't allow spontaneous beach trips or any of that.  The camper is like our home on wheels...we can go anywhere that is cheap!

New Title to fit our Life

Hayden wanted to know why I quit doing the blog.  It started first with I was just too busy.  Then it became something else that HAD to be done everyday.  It became a chore instead of something that I truly enjoyed.  I loved it when I first started doing it.  I loved it even more because I had lots of people that checked it first thing in the mornings to see what I wrote.  Then it was like pressure of updating the post and then waiting for 5 hours for the videos and pictures to upload.  Because lets face it that is what everyone wants to see. They don't really care what I write...they just want to see the good stuff.  Then it was me getting angry and the dang thing when it wouldn't update what I wanted it too....then it just ruined the dang night.  

So I have decided that this is more of a way to talk to my kids when they decide they want to read this one day.  A place for me to put down my thoughts for them to read.  A place for them to see how much I really do for them(haha).  A place for them to see how much I love them.  

So everyone was taking pictures on the last day of school, before school to show social media the first day of school picture compared to the last day of school picture.  Guess what not us.  We didn't have time to snap a dang picture before school on the last day of school. Because...I lost my last contact Friday morning and couldn't find it anywhere.  I was crazy, crying trying to find it. Finally, found it around 7:20 and we needed to leave around 7:45.  There was no time for that at all.  I felt bad but I mean that is just another thing that social media has made all moms feel like we have to do!  I consider myself to be very organzed and well planned but stuff like that is just crazy!  

Thursday night was Colton's Kindergarten graduation.  He was so stinking cute and I am so very proud of him. Even though he absolutely hates getting up early to go to school....he made it all year.  Only missed one day! I still can't believe that my last baby is 6 years old now.  We are officially done with Kindergarten at our house.  I find myself sad that my babies are getting so big but then it is quite nice not to have to pack up the whole house to go somewhere for the day!  He was so confident Thursday night, nothing shy about baby boy for sure.  I am pretty sure he is going to be a great leader! His teacher even said the same thing.  On the other hand, he may end up being the dang class clown too!  I love him and all of his silly traits.  He always makes me laugh even when I really don't want to.  I love that he still sits in my lap and tells me how much he loves me over and over again.  He loves me all the way to the moon and back, the north pole and back, and to the dinosaurs and back.  I mean that is a whole lot of LOVE there folks!  

Friday, Hayden graduated 5th grade! Wait!  What? Yeah, that is right 5th grade!!!  I can't believe that my first baby is going into Middle School next year.  Where, oh where does the time go! It really needs to slow down.  I'm not sure I am ready for Middle School, but it is here.  Her graduation cap that she had to make was perfect.  It was all softball related and I worked really hard on that hat.  That's right I worked really hard.   She did help but with our busy schedule I had to get it started for her.  She was super proud of how hard her Mama worked on that hat and she wore it proudly.  She got several awards at graduation.  She received A-B Honor Roll and the PE award.  She always gets the PE award.  I mean you have to absolutely love and admire her love for athletics and fitness.  I wish I had it, but I don't!  She also made the GWA Middle School Softball Team, which will add even more to our crazy busy schedule.  I don't care though because I love watching her do what she loves.  I am so excited for her to go down this journey with the school.  She will make so many memories this next year with her team.  

Gracie, my middle child didn't graduate from anything this year. She did receive one of best awards though.  She got the Citizenship award and the Math Award.  I am so proud of her!  She has really had to work her tail off at Math this year, but it paid off at the end of the year.  She is still riding horses for the Diamond D Cowgirls and loving it.  Right now she is helping train Peanut the Pony because she is the only person small enough to ride him.  She loves it...she has been twice to train and tomorrow she will get to do a trail ride on Peanut and Obstacle course.  She has trotted him and loped him.  It is so funny to watch because Peanut it so tiny he makes her look big.  

So here it is folks!  I am going to give it another try.  Don't expect too much because I really dislike the way you have to add photos on the blog.  Why can't they make it as easy as facebook?  

Fresh Start

For those few people that may still check this blog....I'm going to try and do a lot better.   With that being said I am not going to try to recap the last three months on one blog.  I am just going to start fresh.  I stay so busy that even this blog that I enjoy so much has been pushed to the side.  However, I want Gracie and Colton to have blogs to read about too, since they have just started getting involved with school and activities. 

Colton is playing baseball.  Yep!  That's right it is finally his turn to do something.  He is so funny and silly but he is trying.  He has only hit the ball a couple of times but when he does he so very proud.  I love that he waves to his spectators the whole time, even while running the bases.  He is a good little center fielder.  He gets the ball and makes a decent throw.  I mean he only four and he is the youngest on his little team.  He is number 22 because that was his daddy's number and pop's number too. 

Gracie is now on the drill team for riding horses.  She is absolutely loving it and doing a great job.  She rides one of the more stubborn horses because she can handle her.  She is my little cowgirl.  She loves her boots and hats.  Her dream right now is to have her own horse and to barrel race one day.  We will just have to wait and see. As for the horse...it is going to be a while!

Hayden is on a travel ball team Vortex now.  She is amazing as always.  The girl is just a natural at softball.  She is a pitcher too now, which I will not lie really stresses me out sometimes.  She practices so very hard and is getting better everyday.  She is going to prove that she can be the best pitcher on her team in the next few months.  She is still a big hitter and loves to go to her lessons every week to improve her stance. 

Christmas Programs and Piano Recital

Thanksgiving was great as always.  Lots of yummy food and got to see all of  our family.  After a great meal we carried on the tradition of getting our Christmas Tree.  Of course, my kids are not lazy and are extremely excited...so our tree was up and decorated Thanksgiving night.  Our elves are back...Chipper and Snowflake and they have been very mischevious.  They cut Daddy's hair on their arrival.  No slackers in our elves.  The kids love it.  It is like Christmas morning every day around here.  They have gone deer hunting, built train tracks, taped each other up, had a piano recital and much more. 

Last week was a busy one.  Friday, Gracie had her Christmas Tree Presentation from her Seniors at school.  Her tree is absolutely amazing.  I have never seen anything like it...ever.  It is so pretty that there were people wanted to buy it or just take it home with them.  It is so pretty that I kept it in the living room instead of her room.  Good thing she likes to share!  She has two amazing seniors.  They gave her a stocking with tons of great girl stuff in it and took her to the Japanese restaurant to eat after the program.  She is one lucky girl. 

Saturday...Hayden had an all day Softball tournament.  She played great in all games.  She pitched the third game.  I love watching her play.  She did a fantastic job.  At first she held them to 4 runs until the 3rd inning and then she got upset and walked several....however she came back and struck out the last one.  She struck one girl out all three times she came up to hit!  She was nervous but as always held her own and showed everyone how Hayden can play ball.  Watching her pitch stresses me out but she always proves to me that she can do it.  She is one strong little girl!

Sunday, Gracie had her first piano recital.  I was so sure that she would not perform but she did amazing.  She wore her beautiful dress and played like a star.  I was so very proud of her, she also amazes me at how she can perform in front of a room full of people and do it very well!

Disney World 2015

Disney World was so much fun this year.  All three babies were big enough to ride all the rides.  Gracie is are adventurous girl; she rode everything even Space Mountain.  I am here to tell you that I will probably not ride Space Mountain again.  It was in the complete dark and I had no idea what was coming next!  Gracie was a big girl and didn't get scared!   Heck, I think I was having a panic attack by the time I got off of it!  Hayden did not do Space Mountain because even though she tries to say she loves roller coasters....she DOESN'T!  As you will see in the pictures later...she looks completely sick and terrified in most of them.  Colton was about an inch too short for the Space Mountain but I don't think he is ready for that quite yet. 

Mimi and Pop rode most rides with us this year, which made for three happy kids.  Aunt Kim took turns with all three at different rides to be fair across the board.  Mark and I just took who we got...haha...they love to ride with Kim.  I think it was planned pretty well...we had some fast passes each day and we spent most of the day riding rides instead of standing in long lines to see characters.  Guess my babies are over that part of it.  We went to many shows in Hollywood Studios.  The Frozen show was amazing and it was a sing along...and who doesn't know all the words to Frozen songs???  We saw an Ariel show and it was neat because all puppets and pretty interesting to Colton.  Then we saw Fantasmic, which is a fire work show for Hollywood Studios and it was awesome.  It is like movie screens in the water.  At the end they had a fire around it while shooting all the fireworks.

The Animal Kingdom was fun too but I think we were all starting to show how tired we were.  We spent about half the day there and rode several rides.  The water ride was lots of fun but very short.  We went back to the hotel and the kids went swimming.  After some swimming we went out for a great dinner.  Then we headed back to the Magic Kingdom to watch the fireworks there.  They were good but not as good as they were for Christmas.  It was such a wonderful and time.  I hope my three babies know how lucky they are!

  

Rain, Rain, Rain

Well, this week has been unusually quiet because it has been raining for a week and there is still more to come.  Hayden's first tournament last weekend was cancelled and all practices since then have been as well.  She is so excited about her new team and has only got to practice twice.  Gracie's riding lessons were still on even in the rain.  They have an arena and she was able to practice in there.  Mark actually got to pick her up this week and said she was riding all by herself and doing a fabulous job.  He tried to video it for me but messed it up.  That's ok though, I get to see lots of firsts and he usually only gets to watch a few.  Gracie was also excited that he got to be apart of it. 

Hayden is supposed to have another tournament this weekend on Saturday, but I am thinking that it is going to get rained out as well.  There is talk of a tournament on Sunday but I am certain that it will get rained out as well.

Hayden is off to a great start in 4th grade.  She has to really work for some of her grades as now it is much harder to receive good grades.  She does have a lot of homework and some nights it is frustrating but we make it through it.  Thank goodness she is not as hard to deal with as some kids.  She loves Science, it is by far her favorite.  She also loves her writing class.  She has a talent with words.  All three of her teachers love her and tell me so anytime they get a chance.  She recently had a spend the night field trip at the Zoo.  She loved it but realized that she doesn't like being away from Mommy and Daddy at night like that.  She made it with no tears and was so very tired the next day when I picked her up.  I am so proud of the hard working little girl she is. 

This is the first year that Gracie has real grades and she is doing so well.  She has all A's and gets so excited about them.  She works hard for her Math grade...She stays after with Mrs. Morris on Mondays for extra practice and boy does it seem to be paying off.  I am so thankful for wonderful teachers.  Her average in Math right now is a 95!!!!  She is really having a great year.  Mrs. Morris assures me that Gracie is going to be a different child by the end of the year as far her shyness goes. 

Colton is doing so well in school.  The computer teacher said that he is the best one in his class.  He is doing well writing his name and learning his phone number.  He really likes it when he has homework, but I know that will all to soon change. 

Today is my Daddy's birthday.  He would have been 58 years old.  I was due on his birthday but I was three days late.  He always joked that he knew I was going to be hard headed from the beginning.  Even after several years I still want to pick up the phone and wish him a happy birthday. I miss him so much and wish that he could see all of his grandkids.  I know he would be so proud.  I know that he would be more proud of the person that I have become though.  I didn't grow up with a wonderful childhood but I always knew he loved me no matter what.   I always promised him that I would make something out of my life and that is exactly what I am doing.  Happy Birthday Daddy!  I love you!

Travel Ball

Well, Gracie had a wonderful riding lesson last Tuesday.  She got to ride outside instead of the arena area.  She was so excited because she also got to ride all by herself.  Elizabeth said that she is really getting in sync with the horses and is doing a wonderful job.  She wanted to know if anyone in our family rode or rides and had any experience.  I told her that her Daddy did and she said she must take after him.  She is really enjoying dressing like a cowgirl and riding. 

Hayden has officially gone travel ball.  She made the Vortex. She is so excited to have her old coach back.  She did a great job at both of the practices this weekend.  I am so excited to see what this has in store for her and us.  Ready to watch these girls have fun at the tournaments.  We have a good bunch of girls. 

Colton just goes with the flow right now but he is excited about starting baseball in the spring.  He says he wants a water bottle with his name on it like Hayden's. 

We stay so very busy but I am loving every minute of it.  This week we have Softball games Monday and Tuesday at 6.  Riding Lessons tomorrow at 3.  Softball Lessons Wednesday at 3. Thursday Hayden has a field trip to the zoo, which she will be spending the night at.  Friday we have Vortex practice.  Saturday we have a softball tournament all day in Covington.  Sunday not sure yet.  It is truly like this every week.