the festivities

here are a few fun pics of our one year old!!

the end of a season

We played our last tournament this past weekend for Ben's baseball team. It was an exciting weekend!! We lost our first game Saturday by just one run. It was a nailbiter til the end and I was glad afterwards that we had a break before our next game so I could recover a bit!! The next game we played was against the Little Hawks. A team we have gone round and round with throughout the season; a rival I suppose. Another close game, but we won in an extra inning!! Woot woot to our boys. We played 2 games on Sunday. Won the first, lost the second, to the team that ended up winning the championship. We did excellent for our first year playing together.
We are so proud of Ben for his determination and drive this season. We were nervous about making such a huge commitment to this competetive team at the beginning when we started practicing in January, but now we are all sad that the season is over. Ben has grown so much as a player and as a young man and we couldn't be more proud of his growth in both areas. Our family loves baseball, so it was such a joy seeing him really in the thick of it. I look forward to seeing him play more ball in the years to come. Way to go, Ben!

one big year

One year ago today our little miracle baby, Emily Grace, entered the world.
She captured our hearts quickly and has continued to add spice to our lives in a way we'd never experienced. I'm always amazed at the capacity of my heart to grow and love in a way I didn't know it could. God is so good!
Emily is a ton of fun. Our first 'strong-willed' child, and the busiest one of the bunch. She's got sparkling blue, breathtaking eyes, a sweet sweet smile and no fear in the water. Though a ton of it when it comes to strangers! She is walking, almost running. Babbling lots, and she adores her siblings. She follows them around. She dances on command, and pretends to 'talk' on the phone (by holding it up to her ear if you say 'hello'). She's at a very fun age.
Happy Birthday baby girl! We love you.

what we've been up to

well, summer is off to a running start! we've been busy as ever. Apparently life's not going to slow down anytime soon!
Baseball, baseball and more baseball. We did have an off week over Memorial Day and so we took the kids to Des Moines for an Iowa Cubs game. (we'd never been before) and then just a couple weeks later we went to Chicago for a weekend of guess what, more baseball (good thing our family loves it!). We went to a Cubs game and then did stuff in the 'burbs... Legoland, Rainforest Cafe, shopping, swimming, the whole bit. Had a great time.
Then we had some great friends come visit us for an extended weekend over Father's Day so we just got some down time hanging out; cooking out; super hot days though so we swam and played in the fountain downtown. More good times.
Now we're back in the baseball groove wrapping up the season with one more tournament. More on that later!

a great date

we got an afternoon date for our anniversary
so here's what we did.....

it was a blast! can't wait to go again!