T-Ball

This was the first year that Amelia was old enough to play t-ball, I was so excited when I heard about sign ups.  I went home and asked her if she wanted to play t-ball, and she said, "no, I want to do dance."  WHAT??  So I asked again, explaining it more this time, her response was the same, "no."  I looked at Nathan in disbelief and asked him what I was going to do and he said, what any other parent would do, make her.  Of course he was only joking, but Amelia had little to no desire to play t-ball and I wasn't going to force her so that conversation was over.  Fast forward maybe 3 weeks later where I see my sister Brittney talking about trying to get her son, Eli on a t-ball team.  I complained to her that I couldn't get Amelia to play, she wisely suggested I tell her that Eli was playing and ask her again.  So that evening I went home and asked her again, "hey Amelia, Eli is playing t-ball in Republic, do you want to play on his team?" Her response, "Eli's playing? I want to play on his team."  Well ok, that was easy enough.  So here we are playing t-ball.  These of pictures from our first and third practice.  Games start Monday, I'll keep you posted on whether it's successful or not.  :)  I'm sort of counting on her being the one kicking up the dirt and dust while watching the ball roll past. 

Playing catch!

She sort of throws like a girl. :(

Throwing was not her favorite part.



Notice the ball is still on the tee.  :)

Good job A!

A hit!

She's got the swing mostly figured out.



Swing.



Third practice and she's hitting the ball better!

A New Beginning

We been in the market for a new home for awhile now, are intentions where to build on 40 acres of land we own in Marionville.  We had a builder, we meet with an architect, we had blue prints, we had a bid on our 'forever' home.  But something didn't feel right, there wasn't a peace about the whole situation.  We looked at the multi-list daily, praying something would come on the market that we loved, something we could raise our family in, anything.  But nothing came, but we still didn't feel at ease with building.  We then expanded our search to Republic, which was a HUGE decision for us.  It's only 20ish minutes down the road, but we were both raised in Marionville and moving to Republic would be a HUGE HUGE deal.  On March 2nd Nathan called our realtor, who is also a family friend and asked about going to look at a house.  She suggested we go that night.  So we did, we all loaded up and went and looked at the house.  Fast forward one week to March 10th, when we made an offer on that house. After a counter, another offer, another counter and yet another offer they accepted our offer on March 11th.  Talk about stressful!!  We officially closed on the house on April 7th and moved in April 12th.  I was most worried about making it a smooth transition for the kids, but they seem to be doing great.  We painted both of their rooms prior to moving and are still in the process of decorating.  But so far so good!  We are looking forward to making lots of new memories in our 'Republic' house.    

Our home.



She wanted to get right to work.

Lots of pink!

Amelia's striped wall.

Their 'playground'  I'm loving having a fenced in back yard too!

Asher's 'baseball' wall.

Riding scooters on our new driveway.

My favorite part, I now have TULIPS!!! 

Valentine's Day Fun (I know it's May 1st, oops)

When Amelia's note about making a valentine's box came home in her bag she immediately told me she wanted to make a cat.  Ok.  So I went to pinterest, found some cute ideas and hit up the dollar store for a few supplies.  One evening her and I were home alone, Asher and Nathan had ran a quick errand, so we went to work.  You can see that she was working hard and get really did pretty good, I think our cat was wonderful and more importantly Amelia LOVED it.

Working hard.

Finished product.

The kids had lots of Valentine's Day fun this year.  At the beginning on the month we did a fun heart shaped craft and pink strawberry brownie (which were amazing). 

On Tuesday Nathan was in St Louis, so it was just the kids and I, so we hit up Build-A-Bear for a new Valentine's Day stuffed animal.  Got to love coupons, I paid a total of $20 out of pocket for two stuffed animals! 

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Thursday morning Amelia, dressed in PJ's, took her cat Valentine's Day box to school and had a lot of fun exchanging valentine's with all her little friends.  Thursday afternoon Mema threw a Valentine's Day party for Amelia, Asher and Kylie.  She went all out!  The kids LOVED it.  Friday they went to Sara's and got more goodies.  Friday nights are gymnastics night, and we had planned to eat at Ruby Tuesday's afterwards, but the place was PACKED, so we hit up McAlister's and then headed home to give the kids their gifts from Nathan and I.  They both received a new pair of Tom's, some PJ's, a book and for course some candy.  LOTS of Valentine's Day fun!

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Motherhood

Being a mother is hard work!  Some days I just want to throw my hands up in the air and give up, but I know that's not even an option.  It's days like these I feel as if I'm praying that God would help me ALL DAY LONG.  I love this Facebook post from an Author and Women of Faith Speaker that I follow.

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Some days this is SO me.  Other days I just stop and take it all in, I'm amazing at how quickly they have grown and the things they can my accomplish on their own.  I especially love when I find them like this.

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At times they fight like crazy, but they also love each other like crazy.  I love our crazy, silly, sweet, and imperfect little family that God has truly blessed us with.