Common themes

I have noticed two things lately on Facebook:

1. many people suffer from insomnia

2. Mondays are often hard days



My recommendation is that people should have 4 babies within a five year period. Their insomnia would be cured and everyday would seem like Monday making Monday no longer a big deal.


Anybody agree with me?

Updated family picture

Let the record show...

that the Express is back in the win column. We won today 9-3! I think Tim was the MVP of today's game. He got hit by a ball (that was hit by our best batter), managed to leap out of the way of another ball (he straddled the ball from his knees), caught at least one foul ball (it did not count, of course), and was congratulated by a parent for being "so patient with the players."

Let the record also show...
that I completed my first 5K since having Grant. The whole family traveled to the community of Meadow to run in the 2nd Annual Meadow Mile. My time (35:02) was atrocious, but I ran the whole way and have lots of room to improve. Tim ran the 5K while pushing Grant and Abby in the double stroller. He finished around the 38 minute mark. Zach and Calyn ran a .5K race. Calyn did not place in the top three but ran well and was the first female finisher. Zach, as he put it, "got passed by a lot of other runners."

Special treatment

I think I have mentioned previously that trains are highly revered in this household.

Here is another example of the special treatment they receive. Each train gets a special "shed" built for him/her and gets to choose which best friend train gets to share his/her shed.
If the train is extra-special, then the alphabet book used to build the shed corresponds with the first letter of the train's name.


What will they think of next?

ODDS and ENDS

Here we go.

Let's just get the sad news out of the way first. The Express lost their first game. The final score was 10-5. The umpire was terrible. The actual score should have been about 15-5. He was terrible but in our favor. The kids did not bat or field well. I knew we had to lose sooner or later and sincerely hope that we play better on Saturday.

Last Saturday, we visited with some out of town friends that we do not get to see very often. We then attended the Lubbock Arts Festival. They had a lot of neat kid activities. Home Depot sponsored a booth where the kids built banks.


The Lubbock model train club was in attendance. We met up with some of our baseball friends and enjoyed the trains with them.

The Dallas children love trains. I had to drag Zach to the next exhibit. I think he could have stayed in the train room the entire day.

The theme of the festival revolved around Legos. Check out these amazing lego sculptures:

The kid's favorite: a bike that was half real and half lego

Tim's favorite:

My favorite:

A whole lego village:

On Sunday, Zach, Calyn, Grant, and I travelled to Amarillo to see Mali get baptized. We are so proud of her and her decision to let Jesus live in her heart.

Today is Tim and I's ninth anniversary. Wow! Happy Anniversary Tim. You are a great husband and father. I love you. A couple of girls from our college ministry are going to come watch our kiddos so that Tim and I can go out. I don't think either of us got gifts but I did make him a blueberry pie. I think I am going to make a list of things I have been meaning to discuss with him but haven't because we are always distracted.

Spectacular Seven

Grant turned seven months old on the 14th of April. He continues to grow amazingly fast and is still a happy, happy boy.

He now wears a size 3 diaper but not for much longer as size 3 diapers often fail to contain what they were made to contain. He wears 6-12 month clothing. The clothing that is 6-9 months is getting a little snug.
Grant has both of his bottom teeth and loves to let you "feel" them.
He can also shake his head back and forth as if saying "no."
He loves food and eats just about everything offered. Peas make him toot just like they did his big sister, Abby.
Sadly, I have begun to pack up some of his baby things including his bouncy seats and play gym. I am sad that this stage is over but look forward to future stages. Most of our baby gear has been used for all of our children. Who imagined as they picked out shower gifts for us five years ago that these gifts would be used by four babies? I am thankful that all of our gear will be going to a new home and will be used by babies that I will know and love.

Lastly, I leave you with a glimpse of what it is like to have the "help" of a two-year old with feeding her baby brother.

Lincoln and Lauren

Recently I have had the privilege of participating in two baby showers for two good friends. For Lauren's shower, I made a diaper cake topped with strawberry cake balls.

For Lincoln's shower, I helped Melissa make this jungle-themed diaper cake.

Lauren arrived last Friday and I am looking forward to meeting her soon.
Lincoln arrived today and here he is:

Such a cute little gift from God.

More pictures of Lincoln can be found here.

Heartstopping

I have to begin this post by saying that I think watching the twins play baseball is going to cause me to have a heart attack.

The last two games have been too close for my comfort. Last Tuesday, we played a team that was better than any of the others we had played. We were down by several runs early but came back in the middle of the game to take the lead. We led the rest of the game but it was a tough win.

Today we played the Volcanoes. These volcanoe kids could play. They could actually stop the ball AND throw to first base AND get our runners out. We trailed the entire game. The first several innings we did not even score. I kept telling myself that our winning streak had to end sometime and was preparing for today to be that day.

Midway through the last inning, the score was 7-3. We were the home team so we had the last bat. It was at this point that the Express decided to take it to the Volcanoes. Each batter (except one) hit and scored until we won the game (with only one out and runners still on bases).

IT WAS AMAZING!

I never imagined that I would get so emotionally invested in these games. To me I don't think it is about the actual win but about our team playing well and my children hitting the ball. I like to see how exited Calyn and Zach get and that they want to tell everyone about their games.

But oh my! I think I am going to have to calm down a little or I am never going to make it as a sport's parent. I mean they are only 5!

Grant goes swimming

Continuing with the previous post's theme of irresponsible parenting, Grant recently went swimming. He generally likes his bath so we figured he would enjoy swimming.

I would love to blame the irresponsible portion of these photos solely on my husband, but I might have asked him to continue throwing Grant up into the air until I got several good shots with good lighting.

*MIGHT HAVE*

In case you are wondering if Grant enjoyed being thrown up into the air, just check out his face in the following picture.

PUUUUFFFFF

Recently Grant tried Puffs. Now you are probably thinking about the Puffs made for babies that provide moms endless hours of peace and quiet while eating out. No, he tried Cheetos Puffs.

I think he was a big fan.

Note to responsible parents: Do not attempt this at home. Cheesy goodness causes a rash when comes in contact with infant skin.

Can you guess

which of my children I think should have been a model?

Whew!

We have had a full day. We started out this morning with a Easter celebration at the church where Abby goes to PDO. The kids did crafts

and ate a snack.

Grant was so excited that he fell asleep

while tightly holding onto his daddy.

Abby took off once the little kids were let loose.

She did not let any obstacle get in the way

of her egg hunt.

Soon big brother and sister were able to join the hunt.

MANY eggs were found by these three.

We then grabbed a quick lunch and headed to see Texas Tech play baseball.

The weather was beautiful but the final score was not.

After the game we embarked on the annual quest of trying to get a good decent picture of the kids with the Texas Tech tulips.

Although we did not get any really good pictures (sorry about Abby's hair-it had already been a long day), I would love to say the kids enjoyed the photo shoot. However, in just about every shot someone is either crying, pouting because they did not get to hold Grant, digging in the dirt, or completely massacring the guns-up sign.

I will say though that overall the day WAS really fun. And everyone went to sleep quickly tonight.

Thank you Jesus for these four blessings and for dying to save me from my sins. What a glorious day that we get to celebrate your victory over sin.