July 4th, 2012

We had a couple of our close friends over to ring in the 4th!  I realized I had better get a picture of the kids in their 4th of July shirts before everyone came because it might be my only opportunity.

 

I was right... as soon as the other kids came, they were into swimsuits and out in the pool.

 

The adorable Elisabeth and Cameron! (I'm just impressed that I got a picture of the two of them and neither of them has a baby in their lap!)

 

Here are the babies: Peter, then Lily

 

 

Somehow this food plate got turned upside down, but you get he idea.  Some of our super yummy desserts.  Braeden, while standing by the dessert counter said, "This is the BEST kid day EVER!"

 

I love this picture, for a couple reasons... this is usually how we see Cameron... with at least one baby in his arms... and I just love his face and he watches Peter go to town on his fruit!

 

While all that was going on, Kamryn made her way outside and cleaned up after the big kids.

 

She almost looks like she thinks she's in trouble!

 

We have a burn ban here, so the best we could do for fireworks were pop-its, sparklers, snakes and ground flowers.  The kids didn't seem to mind, and had a blast anyway.

 

Gotta love the belly!  The food MUST have been good!

 

Someone was getting VERY sleepy!

 

We hope you all have a great 4th of July.  We sure did!

A Little More Baseball

This is the phrase we have had above our mantel for the past few weeks.  With the boys getting ready for the Belton Invitational Tournament this last weekend, we decided to leave it for a few more days.

 

Braeden's team finally received their season trophies for finishing 2nd in their division.

From left to right: Michael, JJ, Jacob, Braeden, Ty, Tanner, Luke, Chase, Conner, Chandler, Jace, Myles and Konner.

 

Braeden's team made it to the semi's of the invitational tournament and lost to the team that went on to win the championship... the same team that beat us out for regular season 1st place.  These boys REALLY want to beat them come Districts!

Braeden was pretty excited after their quarterfinal game because he hit his first "true" homerun.  When I say it that way it's because he's had a double and a triple before, with errors that have allowed him to come all the way around to home, but THIS time, there weren't any errors.  He smashed the ball into right, center field and came all the way around to score, just as they were getting the ball back to the infield!  Way to go, Braeden!

Districts starts this coming Monday.  It's a straight double-elimination tournament.  We win, we continue to play... we lose 2, the season is over.  The winner of Districts goes to state... GO INDIANS!!!

Carsen's team really had to battle this weekend.  On the elimination day of the tournament, they played the 3 other toughest teams.  They won all three games, all three being nail biters!  The Lookouts are still undefeated!!

 

Carsen's coach, Mark, giving him his 1st place medal.

 

 

Tournament Champs!

 

Carsen's team starts their District Tournament the same day that Braeden's team does.  Same rules apply, straight double-elimination and the winner goes to State. GO LOOKOUTS!!!

 

Cub Scout Day Camp 2012

Two weeks ago, Braeden got the opportunity to go to his first Scout Day Camp.  Jason is Braeden's Wolf Den Leader, so we were fortunate that he was able to get the whole week off to go with him.  I sent the camera with him and I think he did a REALLY good job getting some good pictures.

 

Arts and Crafts

Soccer (Braeden was conserving his energy as goalie because he had a baseball game that night)

Tempe Police S.W.A.T Team

The Wolf Den

Wrist Rockets

BB Guns

I thought it was cute that after the first day or two, Braeden figured out that he is not only left-handed, but left-eye dominant.  He told me that once he figured that out, he started hitting his targets "WAY BETTER!"

Archery

Alex, Braeden, some little kid that ruined the picture, Bryson and Brayden

On Friday, the three littlest kiddos and I met up with Braeden and Jason at camp for lunch and the afternoon shooting range.  Of course, I brought the camera again and got more pictures!

The camp theme was dinosaurs, so as a special treat on Friday, they got to shoot at dinosaurs!

The little brothers were fascinated!

They were shooting the BB guns at small little marble sized gumballs.  If they knocked one down, they got to keep it.  Most kids had a hard time hitting them, but it was Braeden's lucky day... he knocked down 3 of them!  Maybe we've found his hidden talent!

The weather was topping 100 degrees, so we only stayed for a couple hours and then headed home.

Braeden says, "Scout camp was AMAZING!"

I think he liked it!

A Few Random Things

The other day, we hosted a get-together with some friends and new families that have moved into our area.  I'm always so thankful for our modest little pool that brings so many hours of fun to the kiddos!

 

Sweet, sweet little Corby... I just love this little guy!

 

On a side note, the other night (we still aren't quite sure how it happened), while I was standing right next to her, Kamryn took a face dive into the outside of our bathtub.  I immediately knew she had hit pretty hard, and my first concern was stopping the blood that was gushing from her lip.  After further investigation, I realized that it cut the inside of her lip, which, to me, was better than the outside.  She stopped crying and I was checking out her mouth when I realized that she had chipped her top left, front tooth.  I happened to have a pretty good before picture, so a couple days later, I happened to get a good shot of her smiling so you can see the chip.

I know it could be worse, but I still think I will have to take her in and have it filed.  I don't want her to fall again and have it go through her lip because it's pretty sharp... or heaven forbid she would decide to become a biter!