Cub Scouts

 I brought my camera to last night's cub scout pack meeting because Braeden was going to be receiving quite of few of the awards he has been working on for the past year.

His wolf den happened to be in charge of the flag ceremony, and of course, every flag ceremony needs to be started with a huddle!

Braeden was in charge of leading the den with commands

It sounded like all he had done for the past month was work on getting his belt loops and pins, but really, we just hadn't submitted any of them, so it was a bit overwhelming to hear them all!

Our cub master is GREAT with the kids... he always comes up with unique handshakes or "applause" for the boys.  I can't remember what this one was, but Braeden was in full participation mode!

After the awards part, we headed outside for some games.

Gaven was ecstatic to be able to participate and Cody and Corey were great sports to include him!

Braeden and Ammon attempting to get from one side to the other on only 2 feet!!

Not sure how many feet were allowed to be used on this one, but apparently only 6!

"How many more years until I'm 8?"

One thing I absolutely love about boys this age is that they are still so loving towards each other, and they aren't embarrassed to put their arms around each other!  I figured I would snap one last picture while the moment lasted!

Crockin' With Mom

 So what have the littlest munchkin and I been up to while the boys are in school, you might ask? 

Crockin' with the Crockin' Girls...  When I cook, she wants to be front and center.

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Really, she just wants easier access to the magnets on the refrigerator!

...And even though it's September, not July, we are sporting our patriotism!!

We've had fun having the play set all to ourselves!

And then the "big boogers" (as Gaven coined them when he was learning to talk - which has stuck as what we refer to the boys as) come home and things just become a WHOLE LOT MORE FUN!

Going down the slide is MUCH more fun when there is a brother at the bottom to squish and step on!

We FINALLY took our bikes over to a trail that I've been wanting to bike.  It's the same trail that I ran my last 5k on.  It's a gorgeous trail, and I definitely enjoyed it a lot more on my bike... it might have been that I was in a lot less pain, or it might just have been the good company!

Jen, Corbin and Lily

My biking buddy

Fall Baseball Begins

The boys of summer are back in the fall.  Braeden and Carsen are both on new baseball teams this fall season... and they both move up a division.  Carsen goes from t-ball to machine pitch and Braeden goes from machine pitch to his first year of kid pitch or Senior Midget as they call it here.

I snapped a few pictures at Carsen's first scrimmage before the season started.

Back row: Mason, Brent and Jamaar

Front row: Brayson, Carsen and Peanut

Carsen, Brent and Peanut

They had a great scrimmage.  After the first two games of the season, they are 1-1.  They had a big win, 13-3 and then a tough loss.  We were very disappointed when all the games were rained out this past Saturday and we found out they were rescheduling them for the next 2 Sundays which means the boys will each miss 2 of their games.

Braeden's team, on the other hand, had about as rough of a start as they could have had!  They lost their first game 23-0 and their second game 22-0!  It was quite a shock to Braeden, who has never been on a team that has lost like that, but it was a good teaching experience for us with him!  In their second game, Braeden made his pitching debut after having pitched ONE time at practice for about 30 minutes.  He's NEVER pitched to a live batter, and NEVER off of a mound!

 Needless to say, we were a little shocked when his coach told us he was going to be the starting pitcher for the second game. 

He looked so LITTLE out there!

He did GREAT for his first time.  He threw some strikes, he threw some balls and he definitely gave up some big hits, but he was the first one to remind us that the hits were because he was throwing strikes!  In his defense, he really didn't have much help behind him!  Despite the lopsided scores, he is very excited to get back out on the mound.  He will get his fair share of pitching time!

After he pitched his couple innings, he played 1st to finish the game.  It will be a long season, but as I said, it will be good for Braeden!

Taking a knee while a new pitcher warms up.

All three boys have been disappointed that the start of soccer has been postponed the past 2 weeks.  We are hoping that this Saturday they will get to play their first games.  I'm sure there will be plenty of soccer pictures to come.