First T-Ball Practice

I have been in awe lately. In awe over how big my boys are getting. It seems each week they need me less and less. Each week they hit a different kinds of milestone than the rapid baby development that we were so used to watching. They hit kid milestones now.

And in this milestone, Carter is on his very first t-ball team. And he is having a blast. It helps that his good friends from school Jackson, Bruce, and Lucas are all on the team with him and oh my gosh, it is so fun to watch them.

Here is Bruce during the warm up and first run around the bases. Bruce is the happiest kid I have ever met – he was smiling the whole time he was out there and it was completely infectious for the rest of us. You can’t help but love this kid.

Coach Jeremy had to lead by example … I guess I know where my kids get the “I can’t believe you are taking a photo of me right now” look.

Running the bases … and running out their energy. Lucas is in the green sweatshirt and Jackson is in the Spiderman sweatshirt.

These two … we are soooo in for trouble with them.

Learning how to hold your mitt and the ball was up next.

Uh yeah, this would be my kid.

This is little Miss Addie. She is the lone girl in the sea of four boys and their three younger brothers.

And this is my absolute favorite photo from the day. Those faces kill me.

365 Project | A Year Of Moments | Week 10 of 52

Another week gone and now we are in double digits. How time flies!

• We had some serious rock-n-rollin’ happening one day. The boys found a toy guitar and the rest will be shared when Carter tries out for American Idol.
• Gavin found a shoe brush that I picked up from some hotel or another when I was traveling for business. This made into a fine gun that was then used to shoot everyone and everything in sight.
• T-Ball time! We signed Carter up for t-ball this year so we had to get him a glove that fits, a few practice t-balls, a tee to hit from and a few other things. I have a feeling he is totally going to be a daisy picker in the outfield.
• St. Patrick’s Day is upon us soon and I haven’t made cookies in FOREVER. I busted out the royal icing recipe and pulled together some yummy cookies for my boys!
• The weather is so up and down these day, as is typical for a Seattle spring. We are trying to get outside every possible chance we can and the teeter totter is an awesome place for two little boys to burn off energy.
• I have Spring fever. Bad. I bought a bowl of hyacinths at Costco this week because I don’t have any in the yard. And now my kitchen smells yummy.
• Today we got close to sixty degrees outside! Which meant we were playing out there from after lunch until dinner time. I love this photo because it shows how close they are in height, but behind a bench it still seems like they are still so far apart in size!

365 Project | A Year Of Moments | Week 9 of 52

This week was definitely one where I had to work hard to remember to take a photo.

Bedtime has been tough lately with still adjusting to the time zone change. Some days Gavin falls asleep in the afternoon & then is a nightmare at bedtime. Other days he nods off quickly.

We had some gorgeous spring weather this last week and spent a ton of time out in the yard. Carter is my wildlife hunter, looking for worms or ants or anything that moves in the dirt.

The boys were playing star wars and I was able to catch Carter next to the back glass doors with his gun under him. I love the soft light that the south side of the house throws in the winter.

Heading to my soccer game on the 520 Bridge across Lake Washington at sunset – it is always fun to see which side of the bridge has rough water. Then the Olympics off in the distance are wonderful (not a bad photo for holding my phone up and crossing my fingers it turned out).

Date night! Jeremy and I went to see our nephew Ryan in a school play and had dinner at a little Italian restaurant prior. I had pancetta wrapped filet mignon with melted gorgonzola on top. Best. Dinner. Ever.

Nice days mean gardening and spring! I re-potted all my geraniums in the green house and cleaned up our raised beds. This is a shot through one of our pergolas, showing the stone path to the greenhouse. I love my yard.

Gavin was watching the birds today and capturing a reflection shot was too hard to pass up. He was so cute talking to them through the window.

A Glimpse Of A Dreamy Spring

This last week the weather in the Northwest was gorgeous. For three afternoons in a row I worked outside in the yard, cleaning up the raised garden beds and our raspberry patch. The boys came out with me and searched for “wildlife” throughout the garden.

Now the weather absolutely sucks and we have heavy rain in our forecast for the next week. Back to reality I guess…

Carter digging for worms:

Raspberry Patch before and after – it was a wild mess because I didn’t weed it out last year and I will be curious if we get better raspberries this year because the plants aren’t being crowded out by weeds:

Little Mister Man loved throwing dirt in the air (check out the photo on the right where the dirt is mid-air as he stares me down):

365 Project | A Year Of Moments | Week 8 of 52

This week we made it back home! Back to the rain, the cold, our own beds, and the wrong time zone… And I missed my first day in this project.

We traveled on the 19th. After getting up at 4:30am on the east coast, taking two flights with our kids to get to the west coast, waiting an hour to get onto a shuttle home, then having to drop off three people before us, well … a photo today just wasn’t in the cards. I took GoPro video for Jeremy out of the airplane window, but I didn’t take any photos.

Now we are home and the boys were so very excited to have access to the xBox again. Not for games, but for Amazon Video, Netflix, and movie trailers from xBox Video. Because Everything Is Awesome!

Someone also found their Clone Wars Captain Rex Halloween costume when we got home. He forgot how much he loved it. So he made sure to pose with the Mr. Potato Head hat for me while we were trying to clean up the bonus room.

Carter’s reading exploded during our trip – I snuck up and took a picture of him reading the Magic School Bus book one afternoon. Again, another day, another time he had to put on his Clone Wars Captain Rex costume. And yes, every time he talks about Captain Rex it is “Clone Wars Captain Rex.”

We have had a couple of nice days this week and we have tried to make it outside to play. This is a classic Gavin look as he tried to explain something and then starts laughing and say, “… because I was just kidding.” And he says this no matter what.

Another nice day and we took a quick walk on the trail. And again, that is Carter in his Clone Wars Captain Rex costume again. Rest assured he has clean clothes on underneath it each day. But the costume is starting to rip in several places now…

I had a lovely girls night out to celebrate my friend Jeana’s birthday. She got all of us roses “Bachelor Style” as a sweet gesture for making it out on a school night. Sending her wonderful birthday wishes and hoping she has a fabulous trip to Hawaii this next week!

Photos | Flying Kites and Chasing Seagulls

Trying to slowly get through all the photos that I took on our vacation, so apologies in advance for the lengthy posts over the next week or so. Today I made it through the day we flew kites and then chased the seagulls on the beach. These were all taken with the Sony point and shoot, except the three sunset photos at the end (had my big camera for that). And oh the sunsets … these three photos were taken over probably a twenty minute span – first one is about ten minutes before sunset, then we have sunset, then about ten minutes after sunset.

365 Project | A Year Of Moments | Week 7 of 52

Beach, sunshine, storms, alligators and more!

I am going to name this gator Fred. I was probably about six feet away from him when I took this photo. Oh and there will be more of these coming soon!

We went to Delnor-Wiggins State Park for an afternoon of sun and beach – the boys had a blast playing with their sand toys.

Breakfast at a café! Gavin was trying to wait patiently for his M&M pancakes.

While we saw some gorgeous sunsets from the condo, I only saw one moon set. And it was unexpected and stunning.

Carter and Jeremy saw the Lego Movie so Gavin and I had a date day complete with cake pops and Build-A-Bear where Yoda Bear was born.

We got to experience an east coast thunder storm one night and the next day was incredibly windy on the beach. We had to go check out the surf!

Jeremy found the Tuckaway café that served amazing lattes and bagel sandwiches. They also had some cute signs hanging all around the little outdoor patio.

365 Project | A Year Of Moments | Week 6 of 52

A full week in Florida and we are loving the warm weather, the sunsets, and all our adventures!

Date Night! Grandma and Grandpa took the kids over night so we could get a break. Had a wonderful day at the beach and an excellent dinner by the sea.

Photos and Videos – so many photos and video! Lots of processing at night around here.

Someone was not wanting to fall asleep. And thought if he hid his face we wouldn’t notice.

The clouds had spectacular placement for this sunset – gorgeous as ever.

The boys out playing on a huge sand pile at sunset here. I am loving silhouette photos with the light we are getting!

We spend a few hours at Sanibel Island to see if we could find some sea shells. The four hour drive round trip (to go 20 miles) was not worth the two hours at a beach that was not as nice as the one in front of our condo.

Ferris Wheels! After going on the Mangrove Tour we enjoyed the Seafood Festival and the kids had a blast on the rides.