Gavin's Baseball Tournament

Waiting to take the field

Hitting a double!!!

Coming in for the run

Safe, make sure you touch the plate.

Since Gavin's baseball team finished the season 7-1-1, they did not have to play in the tournament until noon on Saturday. Saturday at noon, are you crazy?!?!? It is going to be hot. Good thing we played on field 2 which has some nice big shade trees. That was a semi-easy game. They won 13-4, which gave us a game at 6:45. A much better time to be playing baseball. This break proved to be a bad thing. We had beat this team in the regular season and they beat us. This put us in the loser bracket for the double elimination tournament. To win the championship, we would have to play 5 games on Sunday. Our first game was at 10:45 which we won 11-9, then we played at 12:50 and won 15-4 (Gavin hit a triple) and then played at 3:00 and lost 6-1. By the 3rd game, everyone was hot and tired. Our boys had been playing in the sun and wind for 4 hours. They had a good run, but with playing back to back games, our time was over. Gavin pitched 4 innings today and only allowed 2 runs. And only hit 1 kid. (2 innings were shut-outs). Of course, I did not bring my camera today. The pic above were from last night. I'm sad to see the season end, but I was not looking forward to sitting outside any longer tonight. Everyone's going to hit the showers when we get home, especially Liam. It looks like he had side burns there is so much dirt on his face.

The Dress & Hair

We look everywhere for a dress for graduation. Everytime I talked to April, I was on the hunt for a dress. Finally, we found it. We started with red, then pink, and finally settled on purple. I think this is a beautiful dress. After the dress we had nails and toes and lets not forget hair. Luckily, Steffani was able to create a hairstyle that was so classy and pretty without a picture. We only had one major incident with the hair while taking these pictures. Madison walked under a tree with a branch hanging down and pulled a curl loose. We both had a panic attack, but with a few more bobby pins we were able to fix her hair.

The back of her head

Graduation After Party

After the graduation ceremony, the parents of the 8th graders transformed the auditorium into an "American Idol" themed dance/karoke party. All of the kids has a great time even with the 20 minute delay while the karoke/dj set-up. They were held outside where they posed for numerous pictures, beat on the glass, and begged to be let in.

Please let us in.

Sydney & Madison

The boys

Once in the auditorium, the students were really surprised and ready to have a good time.

Eating the 6 ft sandwich

Once in the auditorium, the students were really surprised and ready to have a good time.

Girls dancing together

Boys dancing together

Nice place for a cell phone

The Chicken Dance

High School Already?!?!?!

Madison & Carly

Madison & Madalyne

Haley & Madison

High School Class of 2013

How can it be?!?! Madison had graduated jr. high and is now considered a "FRESHMAN". Time really has flown by. It seems like just a few months ago, she was a baby or at least in 1st grade. I know the next 4 years will go by just as fast, but I am hoping they drag on. The good thing about her class is they are pretty close. I'm sure she will still be friends with most of the kids once she is in college. When I was in school, there were about 10 kids all went to 4 yr old kindergarden through high school together. I am still good friends with one, Wendy. I will say smaller school does has its advantages.

Never a boring time

Saturday was going to be good. We did not have to be abywhere, so I did not have to get up early . After our usual Saturday waffles, we got dressed and headed to get feed. Brett & I had talked about going to Nate's for crawfish earlier this week, but waited until Madison & Gavin could go. I am pretty particular about my crawfish. I do not like to peel them and see the "Thanksgiving Dinner" it just ate. I am guessing most restaurants do not purge them before boiling. Ok, so we get our crawfish at Nate's. But, there is not any corn or potatoes. When we asked, our waitress told us we had to order them seperate. WHAT!?!? Shouldn't that be part of the order? We order more crawfish and some potatoes and corn. With Gavin getting a pitching machine, he needed more balls, so off to the sporting store. Now mind you we have Liam with us, he does not really like the sporting goods store, so Brett drops Liam, Madison, & myself at Toys 'r Us. This should keep Liam entertained. I ask Madison to watch him so I can get a new sheet for his bed. I go around the corner and come back and they are gone. No big deal...they are on the next isle. Not there...next isle....not there, go up and down the isles calling their names and looking for them. No where to be found. I am not panicing, but I wish I had given Madison her phone back. I think if I go to the front of the store, I can see if they come out of any of the isles. I wait about 5 minutes and the nice customer service lady asks if I need any thing. I tell her I cannot find my kids and could she page them for me. They call for them twice, ask what they are wearing and their ages, call again and them call to lock the doors and search the store. I am trying not to panic, but I have met myself and I and PANICING. I really want to cry, but I am trying to stay composed. All of the sudden I hear, "Found them". Hooray!!!! Liam was at the Thomas the Train set and Madison could not get him to leave. She said she didn't hear me calling her name. Holy Cow!!! I have never been more scared. I didn't think she would have left without telling me, but now days you never know what will happen. I am just glad that Toys 'r Us was willing to lock down the store to help locate someone's kids. What a relief.

Now, I have swine flu to worry about.

Graduation Already ?!?!?!

I knew the day Madison was born, she would grow up and it would be fast (especially looking back). Well...grow up is right. She will be in high school in the fall. How can that be? I can't be old enough to have a high schooler. Where have the past 14 years gone? When we got her graduation pictures and it really hit home, she is growing up. She is no longer the little baby girl. I know I better cherish the next 4 years because it will be on to college. But, for today, I will be glad she is still growing up and that we had to ground her for being mouthy. Hmmm....I wonder where she gets that, probably from her dad's side, never her mom's side.

I wanna go to BIG Church

Most Sundays, Liam goes from his Sunday School class to the nursery thanks to his teacher. I usually check on him through the back door. Today, I went to his class to see him and take him to Ms Connie's class. He told me he did not want to go to Ms. Connie's, he wanted to go to "Big Church" ( regular church service). I could not tell him no, so off we went. Brett was giving blood in the fellowship hall and Gavin was getting dressed in his acolyte clothes. Liam and I got a seat and waited. Madison sits with the youth so I am all by myself with Liam. We go over the rules of not talking and we sit down unless we all stand up. Liam agrees to this thanks to a little soda bribe. When Gavin was an acolyte (person that carries the light (candle lighter), takes the offering to the altar and brings the light out) I am usually nervous. There have been times when his light goes out and has to get the other person lighting to re-light his candle, or he forgets to get the light before church is over and he is rushing to get the candle out. Today there we no major problems with Gavin other than his light went out again. (We have decided there is a vent that blows at the wrong angle.) Liam did pretty good until the offering, which was a good time to take him to the nursery. Maybe next week, he will last longer. He might even get to go down for the children's sermon.

Sorry Mary, I did not get any pics of Gavin as an acolyte. He is very modest when it comes to serving and get embarassed when I try to take pictures. I will get some I promise.

A late hatching

Ok...if you know anything about our family, you know we have a lot of different animals. Well to add to the list of semi-zoo animals. We now have 10 baby quail. Yes, quail. They hatched last night or sometime yesteraday. When we got home from Gavin's game, Brett checked the incubator and there were 9 little birds hopping around. The one egg that was still intact, was to be left in and we were going to wait a day or so before we threw it away. But, we noticed it was still moving around after we put it back. Maybe 5 mintues later we have a newly hatched bird. It was pretty exciting to watch the bird break out of the shell. The quail we hatched are off-spring from the 4 original quail from last year. Fear not...we will not be serving quail for dinner anytime soon. They are too little and too much work to try and eat.

Our Easter Bunnies

On our way back from looking at the cows, we saw a rabbit. (This is not an unusual event as they are all over.) Once we were back at the house, Madison & Gavin were yelling for us to come quick. Most of the time this is not a good thing and since they are both in the back yard, yelling, we ran to see what was going on. In a small hole in the back yard was this cute little bunny.



Liam saw that it was Peter Coddontail and tried to pick it up. I have no idea if these animals have any diseases, but I'm not taking any chances. So he got mad and scared one of this rabbits siblings onto our porch behind the trash can.


While I was looking at this rabbit, Madison & Brett both found a rabbit. I guess the rabbit we saw at the barn was the mother of these 4 rabbits. I guess it is fitting that this is Easter weekend and we see bunnies at our house. I am just hoping they will still be around tomorrow morning. Madison has lost her mind since she wanted to bring one of them in the house. When I told her no, she wanted to know if she could buy a rabbit. Absolutely NOT!!! We are not getting a rabbit. We have enough animals. I think this blog should have been named, "Life at the Funny Farm" or "3 Kids and a lot of animals". Some days it is a real zoo around here.

Madison's rabbit

Brett's rabbit

My Basket is too heavy

All lined up ready to hunt

I see another egg!!!

The monkey baskey is full, and too heavy.

Playing in the older classes playhouse

Today was Liam's egg hunt at school. I barely made it before they started, but I got there just in time to see his class sitting quietly by the door with their baskets. The playground was full of colorful eggs. It is quiet funny to watch how they can pick up one egg and miss the egg right next to the first one. Some of the eggs were open and Liam wanted to spend time putting it back together before he put it in his basket. When his basket was full, I was handed the basket because "it is too heavy" and he was off to play. His other friends were looking at their loot, not Liam he is running and sliding. I guess he is over the egg hunting.

It's Somebody's Birthday Today

Happy Birthday April!!!

I am fortunate that my circle of friends includes April. For over 5 years, she sat by me at work, listened to my crazy ideas (as crazy as they were, she never once told me I was out of my mind), shared joys, births, frustrations, and layoffs. I can even accidentially call her at 2 am and hang up on her and she doesn't get mad, and she can return the favor and we just laugh about it. That is a true friend. If I cannot find something, I will call April, as she will give me an idea of where to look and if she needs directions, I usually can get her there (with my restaurant directions). I got her to try goat cheese, ok that was a trick, but she tried it. She got me to eat chips and mustard. Unfortunately now, that we do not work together, it is hard to find time to get together, but when we do there is always a good laugh coming with either a story about her kids or mine. It is too bad that I do not have a pic to post, but, I think I lost them all.

I hope you have a great 21st birthday April !!!

19-1

That was the score of Gavin's game tonight. His team was the winning team. I am glad the boys were mature enough not to gloat about the score. I think they have all been on the losing end and it is not fun. Gavin did not pitch tonight which was good since Madison forgot my camera, after I called to remind her to bring it. He did get up to bat 3 times and struck each time. I think some time at the batting cages will help. That and getting the 1st game out of the way, usually gets his head straight. I was thankful that the game was called due to a run rule. Especially since Thursday, we have a double header. Liam is so excited about baseball...only one more season and we're playing T-ball.

Eggs, Eggs, and more Eggs

After church today, was the children's egg hunt. We have talked about getting Easter Eggs for almost a week. Liam has been really excited about his school's egg hunt, so what better way to prepare, but go to the church egg hunt. Liam helped me fill eggs yestarday, only he wanted to out 1 piece of candy in an egg and no more. I guess he thought he would get to eat the rest. The youth has sectioned off age groups for the kids, so the little ones would not get trampled by the older ones. Of course, my child was the one picking eggs before they started. Good thing he olny had 2 in his basket before I stopped him. Gavin hunted eggs, but only because some of his friends were, but no pictures. He's way too cool to have proof he hunted eggs.

lots of eggs
What a sweet face!!!

Over basket runneth over

Liam & the BIG slide

Liam went to his 1st bounce house party last weekend and had a good time even though his ears were bothering him. Since the bounce place only allowed one party in the bounce room, I felt a little better that he would not be run over by bigger kids. He was not sure of the regular bounce house since it was not as soft as the one in the Wiggly Play Place. Once he fell, that was all for him, on to the next thing. All of his friends from school were sliding down the big slide and that looked fun until it was his turn. Brett & I were at the bottom and Liam was not moving. The nice boy at the top put him on a mat and down he came. You can tell on his face that this is not what he wants to do. The next room has a smaller slide and he did not like it any better. At least he tried.

Liam's word bubble - What have I gotten myself into?
Word bubble - This one is not any better.

I got the movie!!!!!

Ok, I've waited over 3 hours to see Santa and now I have waited 1 1/2 hours to get a movie. The wait was not too bad, there was a lot of Twilight books to pass the time as well as the soundtrack blaring, not to mention all the fans, young and old. If I saw one "Marry me Edward" shirt I saw 10. I got to the store about 11, and hour later than I wanted, but I had to wait for Gavin to get home from practice and then take a shower. I was worried that the line would be long and I might not get a movie. But, at last it was 12:01 and the line was moving. Gavin & I were walking out the store at 12:30 and on our way to watch the movie. Too bad, we both fell alseep about 30 mintues into it. Madison wanted to watch the movie and would not let me start where I stopped, then I got interrupted and we have to stop the movie. Finally, I was going to watch the movie, this would make 3 times to watch the beginning, but that is ok. I knew that the movie would not be like the book. There were a few inconsistencies with timing of the events, but overall, it was AWESOME. I'm so glad I bought it.

Twilight The Movie

Tonight or tomorrow at 12:01 a.m., I will be waiting to get my copy of Twilight The Movie. I am a little too excited as anyone that sits around me at work can attest. I can hardly wait. I know the movie will not be as good as the book, but I went to see Madagascar 2 with Liam while Brett, Madison, & Gavin went to see Twilight. So, I want to see it.I have even looked and the movie will premiere on pay-per-view at 6:30 a.m. I cannot wait that long. I went to the mall this afternoon and stopped by Hot Topic, you could not see the Twilight display for all the tweens crowding around. I am hoping there is not a long line tonight.

Madison's Tonsillectomy

waiting for the doctor
All smiles before surgery

looks pretty good, for having her tonsils removed

(her lips are red thanks to the cherry slush)

Madison is out of surgery and in her room. She is already asking for ice cream and will have macaroni & cheese for dinner. A ton better than I expected. She was a little nervous this morning and then the anesthesiologist came in and gave her some goofy juice and she could have cared less. It made them taking her back easier. I have some pic's I will post later since I left my photo cord at home. I'm sure Madison will be glad they are not here yet. We are waiting for Liam to get here, I'm sure he will be excited to see the room with cookies, jello, and ice cream.

What a cute baby

This is the only picture I have of any of the 5 calves that were born this weekend. With trying to weigh, keep an eye on the momma's and Liam, I had little time to take pictures. When I would try to help Brett get the sling around a calf, Liam would freak out that mom was coming over. How do you explain to a 3 year old, that the momma cow is just trying to make sure we are not hurting her baby, much less explain to the momma cow, that the little creature (Liam) screaming is not going to hurt her baby or that we are just checking to make sure everything is ok? It is stressful with just Brett & I, add Liam and it becomes 10 times more. I do not think any of the cows would try to hurt Liam, but I have to protect him as much as they have to protect their baby.

Check out the Big Brains on Gavin

Friday was the awards ceremony for the UIL events. Gavin received 8 medals. 3 Gold (1st place-individual awards & 5 Silver (2nd place-team awards). The only problem is Gavin failed to tell me there was an awards ceremony. I did not even see the medals until I asked him at lunch on Sunday. It seems a teacher in our Sunday School class asked me what I thought about all of Gavin's medals. How embarrassing...I had no idea. When I asked him, it was no big deal. He said, "oh yeah...I got a few medals". So, to even things out, I made him out all 8 on and took a picture. You can tell by his expression, he was not thrilled.

What big tonsils you have...

Madison has had tonsilitis for almost a month, so I have finally made an appointment with the ENT that did Liam's tubes. I told him her tonsils were pretty big and he said, "I've seen some big tonsils, I won't be surprised". Once he looked in her throat, he was surprise. "Ok those are Big". There was no other questions, only "those need to come out". Pretty much, they should have been taken out a long time ago. I have known she would probably need to have them removed, I have just been very relucant. She had an IV when she was 5 and she stills talks about how much that hurt. I can only imagine what this is going to be like. When we left the doctors office, she was pretty ticked at me. I know after this is all over, she will be glad they are gone. I am just going to be a nervous wreck until after it is over. They had an opening this Wednesady. Thay is too quick. So, we settled until next week during Spring Break. What a great way to spend Spring Break, recovering from surgery. I hope I am making the right decision.

Houston Stock Show

Madison giving Daphane a bath (these picture are for Mary)
Daphane getting a drink during her bath

Madison with Bella

Gavin with Lola

Gavin with Daphane

Gavin & Daphane sleeping (he's really faking, the pig is really asleep)

Poor pregnant pig (she was due on the 8th)

I wish I could say we came home with a winning pig, but I can't. This show was a lot different than Ft. Worth. The biggest thing was we were freezing in Ft. Worth & sweating in Houston. It is March and it was 84 degrees. As for showingthe pigs, Madison finally got to show Bella, and they placed 7th. That would have been outstanding if there were 15-20 in the class, but there was only 7. At least we placed, as they do not have to place anything after 5th. Gavin did not place either. His classes has 24-30 in each. That is a lot of pigs in a small show ring. We did have a lot of excitement. There was a tractor display behind us that kids could pretent they were plowing a field ; that is where Liam and I spent a lot of time and I mean A LOT!!!! If I was not standing at the tractors with Liam, I was helping chase one of our pigs and yes I said chase. We were getting Lola ready to show and she freaks out and runs. Pigs can run fast too. The good thing is if you have pigs, you know they can run fast and if you see someone with a runaway pig, you help corral them. Then it was Daphane's turn to be shown. She was easy to get in the holding pen, until some girls that were there to see the Jonas Brothers started messing with her and the gate on their side was open. Daphane started to push on the gate and the girls stepped back and took the gate with them. That is all that she needed, an opening and she was gone. Gone right into the petting zoo and caged animal displays. Ding dong Daphane starts running through the people with their small children, some in strollers and some on foot. Some of the people were laughing which it might seems funny, but it is very dangerous. Daphane weighs atleast 300 lbs. When she steps on your foot, it really hurts. I'm not sure they would be laughing if their kids got hurt. Thanks to a stock show volunteer, we guided he back to the swine area and she went back to the holding pen. The whole time we are chasing Daphane, Liam was yelling, "catch my pig, she's run'd away".

Once the show was over, we were allowed to leave. But, you had to have a release and your trailer release form all of these were obtained from different people in different places. We got all of our paperwork, went to get the trailer and headed back to pick up the pigs. This was 3:20 pm. Brett decided to take a different exit and that is where the mistake began. Remember there were some girls there to see the Jonas Brothers, well, we got stuck in the Jonas Brothers line from Hell. There were cars everywhere all trying to get into the stock show grounds. We are in a truck with a 20' trailer and the Houston police tell us that we need to make a U-turn and go to a different street. Hello, I am not in a little car that can just make a u-turn. When you have a trailer especially a 20' trailer you need a lot of room to make a u-turn. Do you mind if we re-model the street and take out a few light poles and a bunch of cars, as this was the only way we were going to get turned around. Finally, listening to our reasoning, the police let us through. We went to the next street, turned, got back on 610 and took the exit that was right. By the time we went through the JB exercice and got to the swine barn, it was after 5. Which meant we would not even be close to getting home until after 10. I have never wanted to be home as much as I did then. The good thing it we have almost a year before we do this all over.

Liam in the tractor