1st Baseball Tourney

Alex is playing coach pitch baseball this year for the Bixby Royals.  He is on a great team with a really nice, fair coach.  All the parents are so nice and the siblings are perfect for keeping each other entertained while the big brothers are playing ball.

This weekend they played in a tournament.  It was so fun to see Alex all dressed up in his uniform.

He got to play 1st base, pitcher, catcher, 3rd base and outfield this weekend.  His coach rotates the positions so each boy gets a chance to try each position.  I love that, especially at this age.

The Royals won games on Saturday but lost on Sunday.  Alex earned his first trophy and he is so proud of it!

I really hope he continues to love baseball because there is just something about being out at the baseball fields watching him play that I LOVE!

Grammy's Picture

My mom's birthday falls between Alex and Anna's birthdays.  When they were one, Kim and I had their picture taken together as a birthday gift for her.  It's become tradition that each year we take a picture of the kids for her.  Each year we've added a kid and this year there were 6 little ones to try to take a picture of all together.  We tried the stairs, which turned out cute. 

We tried the floor in a circle, which also turned out cute.

But the one that we decided to frame for her is this one.  The letters came from Michael's and it worked out perfectly for each kiddo to hold one.  I love how even Sam and Aubrey have their letter!

Happy Birthday, Grammy!  

Butterflies

Alex got a butterfly habitat and caterpillars for a birthday gift.  It was the coolest present!  The caterpillars came in a little covered cup with food in the bottom.  They ate the food and grew quickly.
Here's what they looked like when we got them.

Here's the progression of how they grew in the cup.

You can see in this next photo that one of the caterpillars has formed a J shape.  That means that it's ready to form a chrysalis.

Here they have formed their chrysalises. 

After hanging there for a couple days we moved the paper they were attached to to the butterfly habitat. They stayed inside for about 8-9 days before they started emerging.  

Once they were all emerged, we fed them slices of oranges and some homemade nectar dripped on flowers.  

Finally it was time to let them go.  We took them to the backyard and let them fly.  It was such a neat thing to watch.  

If you want to watch caterpillars grow into butterflies, you can order a kit at Insect Lore.  You can also buy it on Amazon. 

Abby's First Hair Cut

I had high hopes of letting Abby's hair grow until she told me she was ready to have it cut.  Nope.  Her hair just wasn't growing well.  In fact, my brother called her the Crypt Keeper (Tales from the Crypt) because of her stringy hair!  It was time to get it shaped up!  I called my hair dresser and asked her to just make it look better.  Do what ever needed to be done to make my pretty girl look less like the Keeper!  ha!  Abby was the best at getting a hair cut!  She sat still and smiled and loved it!  

Doesn't it look so much better?!

Thanks Jolene!!

And one of Aubrey because she's so stinkin' adorable!

Alex's birthday

My first born turned 6.  Wow.  It has always been such a cliche to me, and really kind of annoying to me, when people say, "Where did the time go?"  But it's so true.  What happened?  It really seems like he was just 3 and now he's 6?  Anyway, he had about a week long celebration.  It started off at Build a Bear with Grammy.  He picked out a camo bear and dressed him as Batman.  He named him Conner.  It is the softest bear!

The next day was Alex's party day.  He chose to have a bowling party this year.  We went to Andy B's.  It was fun, but WILD!  I may have said a few prayers for Alex's teacher having all those boys in his class together.  :)  

After the bowling party, we had the family back to the house for dinner.  Alex wanted brats, corn on the cob, and broccoli.  We also grilled some burgers.  

On Alex's birthday it snowed!  (Fun fact: it snowed on the day Alex was born too, which was also a Monday.) It snowed so much the kids had another snow day.  It was kind of a disappointment not being able to go to school, but we had fun at home and played board games all day.  He built Legos and we played in the snow.  He even got a baby birthday snowman!  We still went out to dinner.  He wanted the Chinese buffet so we brought some candles and sang there.  

When he finally got to go back to school (3 days later!), he brought Batman donuts to school.  They turned out cute!  Aubrey and I also went to eat lunch with him.  It was fun! 

Papa and Grandma came over and brought Alex a checker board.  It was heart warming to see Papa teach and play checkers with Alex.  What a wonderful birthday!