September already?!

Ty painting in class.  He is loving school again this year!  He is learning so much and doing lots of fun things there!

We got some new appliances around here and the kids are LOVING playing in the boxes they came in!  I got tickled when Ty brought me a note the next morning that said, "This house belongs to Brock, don't touch it while I am in school!"  Ty wanted me to read it to him so of course I did, "Ty have a great day!  I can't wait to play in this house with you when I get home from school!"  Ty just grinned and Brock didn't know why in the world Ty was so nice to him all afternoon!  Sometimes moms have to alter things a little! ;-)

Miss Haley doing school.  We have an awesome new spelling program this year and we are both having lots of fun with it!

This is Brock before his first football game.  I love action shots of the kids because it involves no fake smiles or poses and they love to see themselves doing something they enjoy.  

More pregame warm ups...

He has the most wonderful coach!  He is very nice and patient with them and extremely fair on playing time!  This is our first experience with PARA sports and I was overwhelmed at how nice the fields and facilities were!  Very organized!  Our league is 7 and 8 year olds so our coach would put in the 8 year olds for one set and then the 7's for the next.  Considering most of the team had never played they did great!  Brock got to run the ball a lot and he loved that!  We are looking forward to next weeks game!

Ty had his first baseball game this week too!  He will have games two nights a week and he is really excited about it!

He is a lot more interested in baseball then we thought he would be.  Up until he went to his first practice he wouldn't hardly throw or hit or have any part of any of it at home.  Now he loves it!  

Ty and one of his best buddies Judd.  He loves having Judd and Britt, from his class at church, on the same team as him.

His first time up to bat...

and he hit it!!  

Daddy was waiting to give him a five at second base.

And making sure he knew where third base was.  :-)

He is getting the hang of it more and more.  This was from the second game.

Mr Tommy was showing him where to put his foot to lead off of first base.

Getting ready in case the ball comes his way.

Up to bat again...

And it begins...

This view means many things...school starts tomorrow, so does homework and sports and a very packed schedule and a million other things.  But on a more positive note we have survived the first two weeks and it is going really well!  

These were their sweet smiles as they headed out the door for 2nd grade 4th grade and 4k 

We are redoing Haley's classroom.  The other kids get a new room and teacher each year so she should at least get a makeover of her classroom.  Fourth grade was a real challenge last week, for me not her.  She is doing really, really well and says she is enjoying it.  There is a BIG jump in the workload with fourth grade and I am adjusting to it much better this week.  

We have had several teachers through the years ask the kids to do an about me poster and I love working on it with them.  This was Ty's for 4 year old kindergarten.  

This is Ty and Wipeout..he is so proud of this bike and since it says wipeout on the crossbar he says that is its name and refers to it almost like a member of the family.  

Brock is playing flag football and seems to be loving it so far.  Our first game is in a few weeks but he has had several practices and he is really catching on.  

There is a little girl on his team and she can take on any of these boys.  

Haley and I have started walking every morning.  We take Jake with us and head up the street to the church and circle it a few times then head back home.  So if you were with us this would be the view in front of us... Jake pulling me... which isn't too bad until he picks up the scent of a deer and tries to head out into the woods...

This is usually the view a step or two behind me...Haley laughing her head off!  I love to hear my kids laugh and I bet it does look pretty funny to see him rip my arm off heading whichever direction he decides to go.  Her other favorite thing is when he catches a glimpse of himself in the glass door at the gym and thinks its another dog and starts barking and growling.  She dies laughing then so calmly starts explaining to him that it is him, not another dog.  It's really sweet!

We are soo proud of Matthew he played ball at UNA his freshman year but his dream was to play for the University of Alabama well two years, LOTS of workouts and unforseen issues later he was able to walk on this spring.  He has worked his butt off all summer with the team and 

when he sent me this picture I just cried.   He is an outside linebacker and he was issued #43. Bless his heart I am soo happy for him and proud of all of his hard work!  I hope it is all that he has hoped for and I pray for it to be a positive experience for him.

Haley, Ty and I baked footballs and elephants for him.

Here are the kids in the alley beside The Trunk yesterday after we got everyone's jersey's and shirts for this year.  Brock grinned from ear to ear last night every time anyone asked him why he had on the #43 he couldn't wait to say it was Uncle Matthew's number.  

Family Beach Trip!!!

We are so blessed with the most wonderful neighbors that let us go to their beautiful beach home every summer.  We get to spend 7 days without worrying about schedules or well anything we get up when we get up, eat when we are hungry and make tons of memories!! I cannot tell you how much I look forward to this trip every year it is priceless to me.

I tried to get a picture of all three kids jumping at once...then I thought well I could photoshop it together...but that's cheating.  We had lots of laughs trying!

Out of the series this one was my favorite I love the looks on their faces.

I love that my kids love to clown around...this is Ty digging in the sand...

Brock being cool

Haley being beautiful

Pictures with Dad

Pictures with Mom, Haley may be as tall as
me next year?!

Haley's silly side!  

What a cutie!  He is getting so big!

One of the most wonderful things about having a whole week is that if it rains or its too cloudy then we can go do something else and not feel guilty for not being on the beach.  Lance had the great idea to take the kids on the ferry over to Dauphin Island.  They thought it was neat to take our car on the boat over. The only down side was there was a REALLY loud horn as we were leaving and it caught them all off guard...lots of tears at first!

Our children have no fear of the ocean...moments after this Ty ate a wave and he was so shocked...I love the way you can see the sunset in the background!

Another thing the boys love doing is catching sand crabs at night.  They go out there armed with their nets and flashlights...this one looked a little bigger until Lance opened his hand.

Annual on the porch shot.

The kids fishing with Lance one night.  Lance took a casting net to catch their bait fish and that was as entertaining to all of us as the actual fishing.  He was really good at it and caught quite a few!

Every year we get one picture that just happens that the spacing is right and everyone is looking...this year this was it!  I really like it!

More silly faces

Ty finally got still long enough for me to get an individual picture of him.  He is such a sweetheart.  We spent one day at Waterville and he was so excited that he was able to ride every slide.  He and Brock amaze me the bigger and scarier looking the slide is the more they love it!  Haley and I joined them for all of the tube slides but we let them do the body slides while we went around the lazy river.  The boys got to surf on the thing that shoots the water at you and both of them loved it and did really good!  Haley loved the go carts for the first time.  She loved them so much we rode them again! We played mini golf twice that week and got to eat lots of seafood.  I can't wait until next summer!!

Fun at Ya-Ya's and Spider Monkeys

Uncle Brad is quite the photographer! I love this group shot!

It is very rare for all four of us to be at Mom's at the same time so we try to get some pictures when it does happen.

The uncles introduced my boys to the classic game of chicken in the pool...they are all so competitive and it was hilarious!  This is the picture of the one time Team Brad and Brock got Ty to fall off of Matthew...

As you can see no one is admitting defeat they are all holding up the number 1!

Show me your muscles

Now time for rest and popsicles

The boys have always loved all things rough and competitive and so the new competition at our house is to climb things..Brock can get to the top of the door...

And the top of the hallway...

So he taught Ty how to do it and Ty is soo proud to be able to do it too!

Ty finally made it to the ceiling this week and he was soo excited...the down side is that he hasn't mastered coming down yet so you have to go help him down...and he is even with like...my head!  Boys!?!?