Caleb is born!

Grace and her Aunt Marisa. Sorry for the picture you probably didn't want on the internet, Marisa, but I had to show the new mommy and the one that did all the work! Way to go, we are so happy for your new family!

Grace holding her new cousin. Brady wanted to hold him too, but that was out!

New Dad (Uncle Gary) with Caleb while he got all his stats. The poor baby didn't have a name for 2 days. But we like the choice that was made.

My kids finally have a cousin! Josh's sister had her baby, Caleb Preston Coats on Saturday, May 10th. He is precious and so tiny (5 lb. 15 oz.). I wish I had babies that small! They are all doing so well. I have cousins who have kids and Josh has cousins who have kids, but this is our first real cousin (the others are real too, just second cousins, I guess. I don't think my kids know the difference.)

T-ball and Tea

On May 8, Grace's school class had a mother's day tea for all of the mommies. It was precious and so special to me. They sang songs and quoted scripture, then served us all lunch. They made all the mini sandwiches, desserts, and fruit. They even made sweet tea, which was very, very sweetened. They even gave us 2 gifts: a blue apron they made and decorated for us, and a book with pictures of them doing fun things at school all through the year.

These are some of the girls in Grace's class. Their teacher had these aprons monogrammed with their names, and the kids got to pick out the type of lace and sew it on! Their teacher is very hands-on and do it yourself. The other dark headed girl is Grace's best friend, Isabelle. She is moving in June to Florida, "by Disneyworld" Grace says. They have always been in the same school class, and I don't think Grace understands that she won't see Isabelle anymore. The beginning of next year may be tough when she gets to school and realizes there is no Isabelle.

Each child was responsible for passing out one food item that they had made as a class. Grace got to pass out the green cupcakes, and got green icing all over her apron. They thought they were so big carrying around big platters of food to all the mommies.

This is her class quoting sections of Psalms 139 ("You created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb...I am fearfully and wonderfully made..."). They memorized around 10 verses of it, with motions the teacher made up. It was so hard not to bawl out loud hearing those precious, tiny children quote so many verses from God's Word. And we can keep practicing it at home. If you can teach them this young scriptures that speak to their heart, I believe they will remember it when they are going through difficult times. How wonderful for a little girl to know she is designed by God and precious to Him! I am so grateful for her school and her teachers that work so hard to teach them in the way they should go.

Good game!

Poor Brady! He is dying to play t-ball. When we even get near the church grounds, he starts yelling t-ball at the top of his lungs. Even if it's Sunday morning or a school day. He sits with the team on the bench, and sits with them for the post-game talk. He is on 3rd base here, wishing he were really in the game. He helps Grace warm up before the game starts. Thank goodness Grammy and Pops come to the games to help me keep him off the field. That is a huge job!

Grace is so happy! Of course this is before the game, when she's just looking forward to seeing her friend Sam and getting snacks and juice boxes. The actual game playing is something she would pass up.

This and That...

Here is Brady before church in his seersucker suit!!! No hair combed, of course. Josh actually took this picture because he says he is finally wearing something boyish. Josh hates the john-johns/jumpers that I put Brady in most Sundays. Speaking of Josh, please excuse the plethora of You Tube videos. I came home and he had posted Grace's every breath for the past week. We did have to put a small bit of dance recital and t-ball on there for her Papaw to see, but not the whole recital!!

The picture above and below are a typical day at our house. Grace is really into coloring, drawing, making notes for people, writing out her letters and numbers and the few words she can spell, and singing in her spare time. Brady on the other hand is a one man wrecking crew. Here he is playing a recorder, but normally he is throwing balls, hitting things with a bat or golf club, and generally aggrivating Grace. He says the word t-ball seriously about 50 times a day. He's supporting Ole Miss and Uncle Zach with his t-shirt. I haven't bothered to fix up our house very much because everything new I buy, they destroy. There are scratches and dings and crayon markings all over that nice table behind Brady. They sit there and play bookstore or shopping. Grace rings up all the stuff Brady brings her with their Fisher Price cash register. Does anyone else remember playing that stuff with their siblings??

The Tiptons came for a visit at the end of April and we were so glad they did! It was short because they had other friends and family to see, but it was so nice to catch up and let the kids play. My family (parents, brothers, and I) moved to Tennessee in August of 1992 the day before school started. I was NOT happy to leave Texas, and was a 15 yr old at that. The night we got to our new house, our next door neighbors came over to say hello. It was the Cherry family. They invited us to church, and had 3 kids around our same ages. Elaine immediately became one of my greatest friends. We had some classes together in high school, went to church together, did our nails together, and sometimes our homework. We could see each other through our kitchen windows, and it was SO fun living next to them. She was even my maid of honor. We are still great buddies and it was a blessing for them to visit!

The kids drawing with chalk on our fence

Grace had the end of her choir classes recently. I was disappointed because I thought they would have them all stand up and sing for us. But instead, the director had each kid sit with one parent while they showed us how their classes went each week. We sang the songs they sang, did the motions and games the kids worked on. Maybe next year it will be better. Since Grace loves to sing so much, we really want her to learn in choir.

American Idol Season 23 Auditions

So if you haven't noticed, Grace loves to sing. She made this poster book at school and has been singing the song ever since

The Big Recital

Here is the video of Grace's dance recital. We heard about this recital for weeks, and as you can see, it took her a while to get warmed up, but when she did it was really cute.

Not Quite the Major Leagues

This is Grace's 1st year of T-Ball (well... of any organized sport). She really enjoys playing, but keeping attention for the whole game is pretty tough.. not only for her but for the whole team in general



This is our little home run hitter in action. She loves hiting more than fielding (as you can tell from the videos)

Random pictures & Activities

Grace is winding down her year of dance. She really loves it and wants to be so independent. She begs me to let her go into dance herself, while I watch her from the car. She is one of the oldest in her class, which means she is probably bossing the others around. I am sure we will post many pics of her recital!

Grace and friends!

We have the absolute greatest city athletic center! I am really trying to go 3-4 days a week to lost weight for my brother's wedding, and the kids go to the childcare center for a little over an hour. They are building the outdoor pool facilities, but here is our indoor pool area. They have a lap pool, a pool for aerobics and swimming, a shallow pool for swim lessons, a current channel, and this shallow play area. Grace loves the water and has no fear. I have to watch her very carefully. Brady on the other hand was petrified and wouldn't even let me put him down in the water. He was a baby last year, and I guess doesn't remember the 200 times we went swimming and he was floating in a covered turtle floatie! Maybe he'll get used to it!

This is Brady's new pose for pictures. I don't know where he got the idea that you have to squat and "get ready" like Grace does during t-ball. But he's cute, nonetheless.

I always love pics of my kids before church. Maybe I like them dressed up with their hair slicked down. Anyway, this was a Sunday morning, and Grace wasn't feeling very well. We made it through our morning of activities though.

T-ball, Here We Come!

Grace was thrilled to be able to play baseball like her Uncle Zachary, so we signed her up with our church league, and Josh decided he wanted to coach. She loves the outfits, snacks, and water breaks, but doesn't care so much about the game. She actually hits well and knows to run to first base. Being in the field is pretty distracting though. She dazes off, or wants to come sit by me, and doesn't really chase the ball down. Maybe that will come in time, or maybe baseball isn't for her. We'll see...

Grammy, Pops, and Aunt Marisa at her first game! Uncle Gary must've been scouting other players. Grace loves all the attention!

If you can't tell, she's the only girl on the team. The other teams we played have had at least 3 girls, and one team was almost all girls. Oh well, she doesn't seem to notice, although she covets the other girl's pink bats and shoes!