24th of July!

We had a very fun and exciting 24th of July. We decided to have the local members of the family down for dinner at our house (Nana, Papa, Awa, and Jedd). We had bbq'd pork steak, watermelon, and rolls. It was yummy! My Dad gets us the best meat ever and we were all licking our lips (and almost our plates) by the time dinner was done.

Doesn't this look delicious?


As you can see, we are all chowing down happily and even having seconds!


After dinner, we did some fireworks that we had bought for the kids. It was nothing like the BIG SHOW Uncle Bubby did on the 4th, but the kids were happy. Hailey was a little bit afraid of the sparklers at first, so Jedd was nice enough to help her out.


It wasn't long until she got brave enough to try on her own and after that, didn't want any help from anyone!


Zach had so much fun running around, spinning his sparkler to make a circle, and writing his name. He's grown so much, seems like not that long ago he was the one afraid of the fireworks!


Yes, they loved that they could do the sparklers all by themselves.


After that we lit off a few of the other fireworks we had, Tate and I even made it outside to enjoy the sight. Unfortunately, my camera is simple and doesn't take great pictures in the dark, so although Awa and Jedd took some great ones, they were all too dark to post. But my thanks to them for taking the pictures of the fireworks, I really appreciate it!

We had a wonderful day and so much fun with all of you here! Thanks for coming down and spending the afternoon and evening with us!

He Looks Just Like Baby Jesus

Bath time for Tate at our house is a big event. Not only do I have to try and control a squirmy, wiggly 7 week old who's slippery when wet, I have a 7 and 4 year old just bent on "helping" in any way they think they can. I've resorting to bathing him in the sink lately since everyone can see and I have better control of Tate as well as the other two - it's a lot harder bending over the bathtub.

The other day as I was drying Tate off with his baby towel on the counter, Zach looked at me and said "Mom, Tate look just like baby Jesus!" I didn't understand exactly what he was saying until I realized that all swaddled up in his hooded towel, he looked like baby Jesus lying in the manger all swaddled up. He's seen Tate swaddled in blankets, but I think the hood made all the difference. I thought it was such a cute comment, so I wanted to get it recorded on the blog so I didn't forget. Here are some pictures of our bathed and towel swaddled little boy.






Too cute!

Take Me Out to the Ballgame!

That's right. Summer wouldn't be summer without Zach playing baseball. Since Tate has been so little and it's been so hot, I wasn't able to make it to many of his games (in fact, I only went to the last one). That wasn't from lack of effort though, he kept choosing his Dad to go with him instead of me (one of us always had to stay home with the baby), but that was ok. He's turning into such a Daddy's boy and always wants Dad to go to stuff like that. I figure it was bound to happen, he's been a Mommy's boy since he was born, so I had my turn.

Anyway, he's loved playing baseball this year. He was in the coach pitch league and had so much fun with it! His team was the Red Lightning and his two coaches were great!

Here are some pictures of him playing this year - these are thanks to my Dad who, with my Mom, came to quite a few games and actually had his camera to take pictures - thanks Dad!

Here are some crappy pics I took of the team pictures they took - pictures of pictures never turn out great - I'm obviously not a great photographer, but they were cute and thought I'd post them too!


Sorry about the glare - these were the best I could do!


Here's Zach getting ready for the game.


On deck, next up to hit!


Hitting the ball - it always went really far!


Running to first.


On 1st base.


Here he is out in the field - this is the pitchers position, even though the kids don't pitch, they have a position right near the pitchers mound.


And playing first base.


Some great action shots - way to go Dad on the pictures - thanks for taking them!

Yes, it was a fun summer of baseball. Next up Zach decided he wants to play flag football instead of soccer this fall. That should be really fun, I can't wait!