Saturday June 20th was the boy's first ever T-Ball game. It was awesome.

Here they are getting ready for the big game...
Cooper??

Hey... Cooper...
Coop??
There he is!
Brodey's first big hit of the game...

A friend invited us over last week to swim in their neighborhood pool... I noticed another kid the same age as Brodey swimming all over the place with NO LIFE JACKET and wondered if Brodey could do the same. Later that same day we went over to Gramma's house and thought we would give swimming a try. I took his life jacket off and....... he swam like a fish!! No instruction needed! I was so surprised!! He can hold his breath for a really long time and could even jump off the side. He can't quite tread water yet though so we are keeping him in the shallow end until he figures that out. Which I'm sure will be soon... he's such a fast learner!! We are so proud of him!!

Lyla had spaghetti at Gramma's last week and REALLY needed a bath. (We should have taken a "before bath" picture... lots of spaghetti) So she had her first ever Sink Bath....

T-ball is just getting more and more entertaining. For the first half of practice NEITHER one of them wanted to participate AT ALL. Daddy had to stand out there with them just to keep them from running off the field.

Then they had to potty so they threw their gloves down and marched off.. right in the middle of practice! I took a picture of their gloves deserted out there in the outfield.
They must have had a serious conversation with daddy in the bathroom about their participation because they were gone a long time and when they came back they did MUCH better.

They both did really well hitting the ball off the Tee and running the bases. They even fielded (is that a word??) the ball a couple of times!

My Brock-olli is officially 3 years old. Who knew it would be so emotional! I was up the whole night before his birthday crying (and I'm not talking just teary-eyed) about how fast he is growing up. I truly truly enjoyed him being two years old. He was so cute and soo sooo funny... I hate to see him growing up so fast! Although I'm sure he will continue to be so fun and so cute, I'm sad that he'll never be two years old again.

We had a packed full day! Starting with me waking him up with the camera in his face... you can tell by his expression how excited he was about that.

Then he opened a few gifts and daddy went out for donuts. Donuts and lemonade was what he requested for breakfast. And we let him have it... it's his birthday after all. Miracle of miracles, he did not slip into a sugar coma after all that sugar first thing in the morning.


Then we got dressed (notice the monkey shirt) and headed to DAC kids with Gramma and Gramma Hat. Brock was having a great time, until another little boy (MUCH bigger than Brock) ran him over and he hit his head on the concrete floor. Which makes me wonder.. concrete?? Really?? I don't know if we will be returning to this place... there were SEVERAL kids laying on benches with ice packs on their heads.

Brock has been asking me everyday for awhile if it's his birthday yet. First thing, every morning, he asks. Wednesday we had some VERY fun friends over and they surprised us with cupcakes and a gift for Brock. He was SO EXCITED!! Birthday WEEK is here!!

We sang to him and he was a little shy but loved it anyway.

Thanks so much Ann, L and C!! Brock has been taking about "when L brought him cupcakes" for the past two days!

These boys have been friends their whole (short) lives!

Brodey loves holding Lyla... what a good big brother!

If you have seen Brock in the past two weeks you are familiar with this here monkey shirt. I made it for him... it's a little scary looking... and he LOVES it. He has worn it everyday since. Sometimes he even sleeps in it. And he asks everyone... "do you like my monkey shirt??". I think he asks Jeff everyday when he gets home from work.

Yesterday I overheard him tell Brodey "don't get my monkey shirt wet Bwodey.. mommy will make me take it off and wash it again!!". And later when I did want to wash it he said (with big tears) "But it's not wet anymore mommy!! It's not wet!!" I don't know what we will do when he has to wear his T-Ball shirt for games. Maybe they'll let me sew a monkey on it too...


I've been painting animals on plywood for the playroom... I'm not a very good painter, but the boys normally really like them so we hang them up anyway. Most recently I made this Lion and showed to it Brock. He was really excited... "you made me a green frog!! With a blue crib on his head!!"

I don't know if I should be more concerned about my painting skills or my teaching skills.

She learns something new everyday!

Last night was the boys first ever T-Ball practice! They are so grown up!!

We got to the field a little early so we let the boys run around and play (with their cousin and best bud Cooper). I think they were later disappointed to learn the soccer goal was not used for T-ball.. and poor Cooper didn't get to use his "football bat" and there was no "golf club" for Brock to use. So much to learn!

It was VERY hot and the boys were pretty crabby by the time things got started (especially Brock and Cooper who also missed their nap on this day) but they all did pretty well.

For this practice the coaches were assessing their "skills" to determine what team to put them on. They had little score cards that the coaches rated them on Fielding, Batting, Throwing, and catching. Brock wanted nothing to do with any of it at first, but by the end was getting more into it. In the batting section he hit both balls that were pitched to him and one off the Tee. He got a "4" out of 5 in this area. Not bad for an almost 3 year old! (oh, and he choose to use the only pink bat available.)
Brodey did a great job doing what the coaches told him to do and did really well in fielding and throwing. And looked soo sooo cute. :)

We are not too sure if Brock is right handed or left handed. He bats both ways equally well and normally throws with his right. Last night however he would catch with his left hand, then take is glove off and throw with his left hand also. Very interesting.

It's so hard to believe that Lyla is already 9 months old! She is growing so much and has learned so many new things this past month. She is trying so hard to crawl but has not mastered it yet. She can definitely get herself around a room though... she does a very interesting half roll push with feet lunge thing that is working pretty well for her. She demonstrated it to uncle Travis this morning and I think he enjoyed it!

We are pretty much done with baby food... she LOVES to feed herself and I haven't found a food she won't eat yet. Nothing really stands out as a favorite, she gets equally excited about everything I put in front of her. (and equally upset when she eats it faster than we can get on her tray. She has a very high pitched scream she likes to demonstrate in times like these.) She eats: peas, cooked carrots, green beans, corn and sweet potatoes; peaches, pears, bananas, and applesauce; shredded chicken, ground beef and ground turkey; pasta, bread and of course macaroni and cheese. All of this with only TWO TEETH!

She still really really loves the boys and especially likes to watch them outside. I love hearing her squeal every time Brodey rides by on his bike. She also is a big fan of swinging in her swing under the deck and both the boys love to push her. So nice having so much help around here!

Here she is.. on her 9 month birthday!

(Brodey tried to "trap" her with one of daddy's push-up bars, she thought it was pretty funny...)

Cooper is here today so we have been spending a lot of time outside riding bikes. Brock doesn't like to ride bikes, he just likes to run up and down the road yelling "to infinity and beyond!". He doesn't care that his clothes don't match or about his socks with crocs combination. He's a happy-go-lucky kind of guy. I love him. He's so silly and so so so funny.

Recently I started giving Lyla some of whatever we were eating at dinner... she loves EVERYTHING! It's so funny! And I love her grab and shovel method of feeding herself... very messy. She gets so excited and squeals and laughs.. unless she runs out of food, she doesn't like that at all. Last night we had baked ziti and I couldn't get the noodles cut and on her tray fast enough! So impatient about food.. just like her daddy!

Two boys and I'm starting to think it's going to be this little one that's gonna eat us out of house and home....