Didn't we already do this?

Yes!  Going to the Diamondback's game as a family went so well the first time we decided to do it again!  We had a super good time. I tried getting a family picture... this one would have been perfect if Connor had looked at the camera.

 After this one I gave up...

 Daddy and his boys. Crazy to think that it was back in 1998 when Daryle and I sat in these same exact seats for the first time.  At the time Travis Lee was the big star of the team. I remember Daryle and I sitting here talking about names of our "future children". He said, what do you think of the name Travis if we ever had a boy? I said, you know, I like that name.  It wasn't until 2004 until we got to officially use the name. Now here we are, all sitting in the same seats as a family of 4.   That's nuts.

 Mommy and Travis.

 Mommy and Connor.  (Yes, even Connor was named after a dback player too.... Conor Jackson... I know. We are kinda sick about these things. Actually, it was the only way I could get my husband to agree with me on names!  LOL)

 At one point I glanced over and saw this.  Travis is holding Connor's leg on top of his.  They actually were comfy and getting along quite well.  Very nice.

 How many three year olds do you know who cheer for the game and actually look and act as if they are actually understanding what is going on?

 We left our seats and roamed around the stadium doing "kid stuff".  Connor had to see Baxter. Travis had to do the batting cages. Then, around the seventh inning we headed back to our seats. It didn't take long until I looked over and saw Connor completely passed out on Daryle's shoulder. He was worn out.  This hardly ever happens. Daryle was on cloud 9.  Watching his team, winning, in his seats, with Connor sleeping on him. 

Connor looks like his hands are folded.... "Please let the  Diamondback's win!"

 I think this is one of my new favorites of the boys.  I love to watch Travis be such a good big brother to Connor. When we are at home I wonder.  I must say that when we are out in public it is so nice to see him be the protector and teacher.  It is nice to watch Travis take him under his wing.

Tonight Daryle and Travis are at his first basketball practice. Yes, Daryle is coaching. I think he is addicted.

Connor still loves his preschool. Tonight he had his first "homework".  We all had to trace our feet and cut them out. 

As for me, I am tired. I think I will go to bed early.  Good night!

7 Years

It's been 7 years. In some ways it seems like not that long ago. In other ways it seems like a lifetime ago. Regardless of how you look at it 7 years ago Daryle and I flew to the other side of the world... literally... to find our son, Travis.  Many details I remember clearly. Other memories are already fading for me.  It's a good thing we took lots of pictures and videos! Plus those were the years before blogging, so most of my thoughts are written in my journal.  The process we went through to get Travis was daunting. To say my faith was put to the test is an understatement.  Yet day by day, week by week, month by month, we held out faith and hope... and said lots and lots and lots of prayers.... that it would work out. There were days that I wondered if this child we were waiting for actually existed at all!  How crazy was it to be head over heals in love with a small picture of this baby who was on the other side of the world?  We waited 10 1/2 L O N G months until we finally got to meet him. The good part was in those days we only had to make one trip. Thank goodness. Otherwise I know I would have gone off the deep end.  Here is our first family picture after Travis was home for about a month. I had waited years to have a family picture. (Perhaps this is why we get them often.... I like to see the kids grow and change!) 

He was such a peanut. At 16 months old he weighed 15 pounds. This outfit he is wearing was 6-9 months.  He has spent a lot of time catching up.  7 years ago he wasn't even close to being on the growth charts. Now he is thriving and is in the 50th percentile for height and 75th percentile for weight.  For those of  you just now bringing home your kiddos who are tiny, don't worry, give them lots of love and nurturing and your kids will thrive too!

I love this one. It was the first picture we took of him.  When we visited him that morning we took video. When we came for our afternoon visit we brought the camera.  Travis doesn't like looking at these pictures much. He has been known to say, "Mom, why does that baby look so sad?"  It breaks my heart. I don't know if it is good or bad that he doesn't recognize himself.

Here is our first picture together.

I just love how they are looking at each other here.

Fast forward 7 years and here we are today.  Look at him puffing out his chest, such a goofball!

It wouldn't be a Gotcha Day photo if we didn't get a family picture with Connor too! (Picture taking wasn't going so well that night....)

Last weekend all four of us went to the Diamondback's game. We had an awesome time!  Here are the boys just before the game started.  We snuck down into our regular season ticket holder seats.  Our tickets for that night were in the nose bleed section.  We spent one inning there and then we roamed the kids area for the rest of the game. There is so much for the kids to do, it really is a lot of fun! 

Connor is in love with the "Big Heads". He now runs around the house pretending to be them. He runs all over giving high fives and "knuckles". Tonight I asked for a hug and was told, "Big Heads don't give hugs!"  But then he came and gave me one anyway. He is such a sweetie! I took their pictures with each one. (There are four in all.... bear with me!  lol)

I just wanted a little proof that I was there too.... this was in our nose bleed section. We were up so high that Connor was terrified. He just kept asking to leave. Poor little guy!

Of course we had to see Baxter, the team mascot.  We were at the end of the line so we didn't get a good picture with him.  However, we did get autographed pictures of him! Next time we will get in line earlier.

This is often what we find Connor doing in the bathroom.  He likes to comb his hair and check himself out. Isn't he a bit young for this??!!?

This past week has been rough on Travis.  We were at the doctor on Monday with the usual sinus infection.  We know the drill by now. However, on Thursday he gave us a scare.  At the end of the day we realized he had been having a severe asthma attack. Great.  Thank goodness we acted early and did not end up in the emergency room.  Now he is just on an obnoxious amount of medicine.  6 to be exact. I hate having him on those steroids. But what can you do. A guy has gotta breathe, right?  Anyway, today he laid low and decided to create another store in his room. (Budding entrepreneur? )  He got his cash register and set it up on his bed. He also got some plastic bags for his shoppers to put their loot in.  He thinks of everything!  (Pardon his messy room... this was before we went on our cleaning spree!)

He even attached price tags. He went in the garage and brought in some drinks to sell in his store because he "wanted to use real things" in his store.

Take note of this belt at the bottom of the picture. Travis brought this home from California this summer. Apparently it was Daryle's when he was a boy. They found it at grandpa's house.  I didn't realize it was there until I uploaded this picture. Boy the stories that belt could tell!  I wonder what kinds of things my grandchildren will take home that belonged to my boys??  The possibilities are endless. For now I think I will enjoy them while they are little. We are so thankful for our boys.

Happy 7th Gotcha Day Travis! We love you to the moon and back a million times over! 

Mommy and  Daddy

XOXOXOXO

Family Fun

I just picked up my camera to look at the pictures Daryle took last night and realized I forgot about our fun last Saturday.  For the last year or so Daryle has been taking Travis to Home Depot on the first Saturday of the month to make a craft project.  In June I took Connor and Travis to make our Father's Day presents.  Last Saturday all four of us went together. It definitely takes two adults for this chaos!  lol  Here are the boys with their cute aprons before we left the house.

 Travis is very carefully hammering nails in his pencil box.

 Connor doesn't like loud noise.  (Unless of course the noise is coming from him!)  I wanted to cover my ears too. Picture about 40 kids hammering away all at the same time....  At least he still had a smile on his face!

 Yes, Travis knows how to work the camera.

 Decorating their boxes with stickers.

 Who's that??!!  Oh, Big Daddy doing some painting and having a blast.

 Connor's completed pencil box.  I guess I didn't get a picture of Travis'. His turned out cute too!

 Very proud Connor.

 Cool Kid. I think he is trying to flash an ASU sign or something...

I am so glad Travis is now in second grade. I really want him to develop a love of reading and learning. He likes to learn, but hasn't found his niche yet as far as reading goes. Needless to say it is like pulling teeth to get him to pick up a book and read. This year part of his homework is to read every night, write it down in the reading log, and turn it in on Friday. If this is not completed, no afternoon recess on Friday. You will be in the classroom reading. This has inspired him to do his reading. There is still a small battle, but not as bad as it used to be.  One day this week I told him to read something to Connor. So, he took Connor's favorite books out side and started reading to him. I tried to get some shots, but it is kind of hard through the glass!  (Also, don't mind our falling apart swing set.... the summer heat around here really takes a toll on things! Even the cute green awning has torn and blown away... If it got cold around here I would say we would use it for firewood soon... but we don't even have a fireplace!)  Needless to say, I hope Travis continues reading to Connor, it is so sweet to watch!

Connor is going to his own preschool/day care now. He must be working on the color yellow.  I was just impressed that he did a good job coloring in the lines!! (It's the little things that make me proud!)

 

 Last night Daryle took Travis to the  Rattlers game.  They are the local arena football team.  They played in the arena bowl "Superbowl" last night. As Travis informed me when he got home... "they lost by a hair mom!"

Today all four of us will be attending a Diamondback's game.  I am pretty excited because Connor is doing so much better with these things.  I have low expectations which hopefully will lead to a wonderful evening!  (Keeping my fingers crossed!  lol)

Sleeping Angel

Most of our days are filled with two rambunctious boys running around our home. Playing, fighting, arguing, cuddling, running, jumping, climbing, reading, hopping, skipping, screaming, more arguing, more cuddling, etc. etc. etc.!  It all seems to be erased in a moment when they fall asleep. Especially when they look like this....

I am sure when they are grown up and have their own families that these are the memories I will remember and cherish the most.  Daryle took this picture with his phone last night, he thought it was so cute that he fell asleep with his hands folded as if  he were praying.  Precious.

I also love it when he runs to me, hugs me and says, "MY family!!"  My heart melts.

By the way, do you think he has enough pillows??!

Back to School (and some catching up too!)

This week we had to get "back in the saddle" so to speak! I returned to work last Friday and the kids started on Wednesday. I must say that returning to school with a three day week is pretty nice!  Travis is in Second grade (across the hall from me, we get to see each other quite a lot these days!) and Connor started going to a preschool program at the local high school.  He really likes it but it is a big transition for him.  Right now I think he would be acting like this no matter where he was going.  He likes being home with me and he does not like the fact that Travis comes with me. He feels left out. In fact he told me (in between sobs and tears) that he wanted to go to school with me.  I told him he had to wait until he was 5, those were the school rules.  That helped a bit but I can tell his feelings are still hurt about it! Poor guy! I do know that he is having a wonderful time once he is there though.  Here they are on day one.. all smiles of course!

   

 For some reason I started taking Travis' back to school pictures in front of our front door.  This makes it easy for me to see how much they have grown. Here is Connor's first back to school picture.  (Pardon the dirt and dust... we live in the desert plus there was a big storm the night before!)

 And of course here is Mr. Travis. Does he look as cool as he feels?? He picked out this type of bag this year. When I asked him why he told me a little girl in his class had one like this last year. Wow, he has been thinking about that for awhile now I guess!  He never fails to crack me up!

 Here are my two baby boys... all ready for school.  (I hope they let me do this picture thing until high school... well, a mother can hope, right??!)

 When I came home after the first day Connor ran and gave me a big hug. He immediately ran and brought me his picture he made at school.  He told me, "Let's hang this one up mommy!" (I love it, but can see we have some work ahead of us!  lol)

 This week has also been full of change for me as well.  Four of us teach second grade together.  This year my "best buddy" moved away and another teammate moved  back to kindergarten.  That leaves me being the "veteran" helping out two new people.  One person is a good friend of mine who moved up from Kindergarten.  She of course just needs a lot of help with the curriculum and everything else. At least she knows the school and kids! My other new teammate is new to the school but has at least taught second grade before.  She does not know our school so for her it is like being a brand new teacher all over again.  I enjoy them both and I have my other teammate who has worked with me for two years now.  We will be busy this year helping out our new teammates. I will do anything I can for them, I know how it is to be the new kid on the block!  I just miss my friend.  After five years of working together you just get in a routine, you know? Anyway I was excited because I got to see her today! It was her son's 7th birthday so of course we had to go!  The boys had a blast and Connor got to go bowling for the first time. I am so excited because now we can go bowling as a family.  I love that he is three and potty trained, it is a whole new world for us!  Here are Travis and I putting those cute little bowling shoes on Connor.

 Travis so cleverly put their shoes on a bar stool....

 Go Travis, go!  (We need to work on his form a bit...!)

 Connor's very first time bowling.. pretend I am not in the picture. I need to learn how to use photoshop just to get myself out of  some shots like this!  lol

 Connor has never found a piece of cake he didn't like.

 Travis and Colin.  We have been to all of his parties since he turned 2.  We miss seeing him at school.

 As I was uploading these pictures I realized I never posted about the Fan Fest. The All Star game for baseball was held here this year. Since my husband is the ultimate baseball fan of course he signed up to volunteer.  He had so much fun.  So much fun that now he wants us to plan a road trip to Kansas City next summer so he can do it again. I am considering it. But only because I have some friends not too far away that I would love to see too!  Next summer is a long way away, so we will see.  My parents took Travis on the last day so that Daryle could take him around when his shift was over.  Here are my two baseball fans.

 Somehow Travis got up on the jumbo screen!

 Eat those fruits and veggies Travis!

 Now THAT'S a baseball!

 What?!  An official monster truck?! 

I guess that about sums it up.  We are all getting back into a schedule. I miss my old teammate and Connor misses his old baby sitter and friends.  We will adjust, these things take time. However, change is good for the soul and helps us grow.  (Now if I just keep telling myself that enough I just might start to believe it!  LOL)  I can tell this will be a great year, I am anxious to see what it brings our way!