T-Ball Player in the House

Another season of Little League is upon us once again.  Connor has decided to play another season of T-ball.  Like most 4 year olds he loves to play. Sometimes.  When it fits his schedule. If there aren't any bugs to catch, zombies to slay, or any other imaginative situation you can think of, in the way.  He is one busy, crazy, fun little guy.  Here he is at his first game of the season.

He has quite the arm.  Now if we could get him to look in the direction where the ball is going.. sigh...

His coach is wonderful with these little guys. Since Daryle is coaching Travis' team he is just helping out on Connor's team.  Here he is getting ready for his first time at bat. This is his favorite part of the game. Of course!

Yay! He made it to Third base to give dad a high five.

This is the look I got at the end of the game. He is so silly! He lives mostly for the snack at the end of the game.  Then he gets to go play on the playground. Ah, the life of Connor.  Wouldn't be great if we could go back in time and be 4 again.. if only for a day??!

Double Digits!

Well, it's official. Travis is now 10 years old. Two whole hands. Double Digits.  Really?? Where does the time go? When I look back over the last 10 years it is amazing to think of the changes that not only Daryle and I have gone through but of everything that Travis himself has endured.  It really is a milestone.  Ten years ago right now Daryle and I thought we were adopting a child from Guatemala.  Nine years ago we knew of Travis and had hoped to have him with us on his first birthday. I remember being a basket case that day.  We were waiting on pins and needles for "the call" that we could finally go and pick him up.  Russian adoptions were different in 2004, we only had to make one trip.  Little did we know we would have to wait for August to finally meet him and start our lives together.  Regardless, thinking of him having his first birthday in an orphanage was heart wrenching.  All I wondered was if anybody cared about him that day, did he at least get a little hug?  I will never know. What I do know is that we have surely made up for it in the years since then. Just about every year since he turned 2 we have had some type of party for him.  (I think just 1 year it didn't work out).  I know. We have spoiled him.  We are ok with that. (I have repeatedly told him I never had so many parties when I was growing up!  lol)  This year he wanted to go to this new indoor skate park that is super close to our house.  He invited 8 kids, so we had 10 all together. All boys, 1 girl. All of them had a super time.  Several parents have spoken with me this week telling me how much fun their kids had.  Mission accomplished.

 Connor "hung up" his scooter.  Too funny.

 Connor with Jack and Maddie down in the pool.  To get out you throw your scooter up to the edge and climb out.

 Connor ran up the side and pulled himself right up. 

Grandpa was watching from above.

Time out for cake!

...and presents  too of course.

We had his party last weekend since Easter was this weekend.  His actual birthday was yesterday, it fell on Good Friday this year. Connor was SOOO excited that his brother was now 10!  I have a feeling he thinks that he is 10 now too judging by his excitement! 

Connor: Mom, is Trav ten now?

Me: Yes he is.

Connor does a fist pump and says, "YESSSS!"

Uh yes, I guess I have an official ten year old and a 4 year old who is a ten year old wannabe. Connor did make this card for his brother.

 As you can see, he was so proud of the gift he picked out for him.

Grammy and Grandpa brought over a gift. Look who joined in on the picture!  lol

 Mom and Dad gave him a  few gifts too.  He was super excited about a gift certificate for the skate park.  We also got him a new helmet, hopefully he will put that to good use as well.

 Ten candles create a LOT of heat. And smoke.

I told Travis to make wish and blow out his candles.  I told him if he blew out all of the candles his wish would come true.  He actually blew out every candle. Later he said, "Mom, I don't think that is true because I don't think a scooter will actually fall out of the sky and into the street for me."  Daryle and I just looked at each other.  Well Travis, we are not talking about wishes like that. lol 

Ah, to be ten. 

My wishes for him are to be happy, healthy, grounded, loving, caring, and to overall to be a good person.

So far I think my wishes for him are coming true.

I can hardly imagine what life will be like in ten more years.

For now I think I will try to make the most out of every day we have together. Life is too short and flies by way too fast.

Happy  10th Birthday Travis!  We love you very, very, very much!  You really are turning into quite a wonderful young man!

Skate Park

One day last week we all headed out for the local skate park. They used to only allow skateboards but recently changed the rules to allow scooters. Travis was so excited!  He LOVES riding scooters, doing jumps, and learning new tricks.  It was extra fun because daddy was home to join in some outdoor fun with us.  The weather was perfect too.

 Can you believe this boy is about to turn 10 next week????

 Is Connor an arm rest for dad?

 Connor tried to play basketball with a softball he found on the ground.

That is my car... I was a little worried yet relieved that the ball landed by the fence and not in my windshield!

 My boys enjoying some fresh air.

So far this has been a very relaxing and productive break for us.  It has been nice having Daryle here to join us.  However, I do think he is ready to head back to work next week.  This recovery took a lot longer than we thought it would take.  We are so thankful he has recovered and are hopeful that in the long run all of this was worth it for him.  This weekend we will be at Opening Day for Little League on Saturday and then on Sunday we are having a birthday party for Travis. I just can hardly believe he will be 10 years old!!  Two whole hands! How did this happen?? Kids grow up way too fast if you ask me!



St. Paddy's Day

As usual the leprechauns stopped by our house again this year and left a few goodies for the boys.

The yearly picture for the calendar.

 Uh, where did they go???

 Connor wanted to check it all out.

 For the first time ever (probably due to St. Patrick's Day being on Sunday) I cooked corned beef for dinner.  We invited the grandparents over to join us.  It was delicious.  I did get grief because I didn't want to make cabbage. First of all I don't like to eat it. Second of all it stinks up the house.  I found a recipe in the newspaper for Coddle. It was delicious and they ALL asked for seconds along with requests that this become a new tradition!  I was glad to see my parents join in on the fun!  They are good sports too!

 These two didn't want to be left out either!  My kids are lucky to have such awesome grandparents!

 Yesterday my mom bought Connor some cowboy boots. He rolled out of bed this morning and put this on. All by himself. He was so proud as his boots clip clopped down the hall and into our room... at 7:10 this morning. Somebody forgot to give him the memo that it is still spring break!

 Connor also wanted to pretend he was a dog. He put on the collar and crawled into Petey's crate. Silly kid.

I hope you had a wonderful St. Patrick's Day and that you remembered to wear some green!

And they call it puppy love...



To say my boys love their dog Petey is an understatement.  Lucky for them it goes both ways!  Petey loves to listen to a good book, cuddled up on Travis'  bed.  (Even though mom says no dogs on the bed, Petey has other ideas...)

 While Daryle has been home recovering this is how Petey spends most of his days.  Now Rock NEVER was allowed on the couch. I guess there is some advantage to being the second dog.  I said no to the couch too... do you see a pattern??

 I thought if I got Petey his own pillow that he might go there more than the couch.  It works. Sometimes.

 Oh.My.Gosh. Isn't that cute? They are hugging each other!!

 Whose pillow is this anyway??

If the boys aren't hugging and loving on the dog I can always find them doing this.

 Grandpa's new iPad spends more time at our house than it does at his house...

how did that happen??!!

Week 1 of Spring Break was great.  More on that later. We still have 1 more week to go.

Yay for us!



Almost there....

I just noticed it has been awhile since I have blogged. It's been a little hectic to say the least.  It's been one month since Daryle's surgery.  Having a recovering hubby at home all day has been tough.  Thankfully he has made steady progress and is almost back to normal.  He is still not back at work though. He will be home for two more weeks.  Ugh.  I guess the good part is that we will ALL be home to enjoy spring break together!  That's going to be a lot of togetherness..lol. 

The weather should be nice. 

The camera should be ready.

I am sure there will be stories to tell and memories will be made.

 

For now you can find me at school having parent conferences, writing lesson plans, and grading papers all while excitedly waiting for Spring Break to officially begin.

Until next time.... 

Where Do I Begin?!

I sure hope that this is the last month this year that I will be posting hospital pictures on my blog!  On Feb. 7th Daryle had his surgery on his colon.  They took out about 8 inches and left him with 20 staples in his stomach. Ugh.  The doctor said he would be in the hospital for 4-5 days.  Daryle was in there 8 days.  Yes. 8. Long. Days.  Thank goodness once again for the grandparents helping us out with shuffling the boys around, getting them to and from school, feeding them, and getting them to soccer games.  Phew.  It has been hard not having help from Daryle. But, I must say, my boys have really surprised me on this one.  They have really come through and have been so well behaved through this whole thing. I am SO proud of them.

 

One cool thing the hospital has is a program where you can have a dog (with its owner of course) come visit you to lift your spirits. Daryle requested a dog and this sweetheart named Bo came to visit while they boys were there too.  I think it was love at first sight for my boys!

 It was the first time Daryle had smiled in several days at this point!

 Originally we thought Daryle might come home on my birthday. No such luck. Instead I got to celebrate it in the hospital. My mom baked me a cake and my dad brought it up for us to celebrate.  My mom was having back problems and ended up having surgery on the following Wednesday so she wasn't able to come to the hospital.  She was there in spirit and we thought of her as we ate this delicious chocolate cake!

Before going into the hospital Daryle and Travis did some birthday shopping for me but nothing was wrapped. The day before my birthday I asked Travis if he wanted to wrap my presents. He was so excited to do some wrapping all by himself. I had to close my eyes while he got everything into his room.  At one point he came out and asked, "Mom, where are those sticky things that say to and from that you use at Christmas? I really need some of those."  As I got him some Christmas gift tags I asked if he needed more wrapping paper. He said yes and grabbed a roll of Christmas paper... I had to laugh. I couldn't wait to see how this was going to turn out!

 

 As you can see he put those gift tags to good use. Oh, and he used up an entire roll of scotch tape.  Each card was taped shut.  It took me awhile to open them up. He was so proud.  It was a birthday I will never forget.  I don't have any pictures, but my class took care of me as well.  They loaded me up with TONS of peanut M&M's, flowers, Target gift cards, Olive Garden Gift cards and tons of cute homemade cards. It made my day.  Oh... and how can I forget the delicious Sheri's Berries that Daryle sent me at work??  He earned major brownie points on that one!

 

Next on the agenda was Valentine's day.  Grandma Hawes ordered and sent the boys these darling pillows. They have slept with them every night since.

 Even though Daryle was still in the hospital, the boys and I somehow managed to get all of the school valentines done and I was able to get their gifts together after they went to bed.

 Connor LOVED his special little gifts.

 So did Travis. It was early in the morning and hard for him to keep those eyes open!  lol

Yes, even Petey got a peanut butter bone for Valentine's Day. Once again my class loaded me down with tons of candy and valentine's love.  It was a good day.

 

Daryle came home that evening and has been home recovering every since. I have to say each day does get a little bit easier. Today he figured out a way to get out of bed on his own. That makes me feel better because on Tuesday I have to go to work and he will be on his own.  He is able to get around the house but he mostly stays in bed.  So far so good. 

 

Having him come home on Valentine's Day made that day a little brighter!