Farewell My Friends

We're off to see the wizard to Oregon for two weeks. Unfortunately I will not be able to post during this time so when I return, be prepared, there's going to be much to see! Keep us in your prayers that we'll get there safely and return safely. Also pray that the kids don't drive us crazy on the way :)

Family Baseball Night

Tonight we had family baseball night - three families, two teams (girls vs. boys) and a lot of fun. As usual I came with camera in tow (actually last time we played I forgot it) and got some get pictures. Too bad I thought I wasn't getting good pictures because the sun was in the lense. Apparently though I was mistaken as these pictures turned out great.

The boys talk strategy before the game begins.

...and this is how the girls talk strategy.

"Let's just throw dirt in their eyes!"

Yes, I'm sure it went something like that.

A little bit of warm up...

...and the game is underway!

I found a new special effect in my new camera's photo editing software. Like it?

As you can see Yohn was player of the game! Umm.. Yohn was fully engaged in the game the whole time! I got this great picture of Yohn answering the phone right in the middle of the game!

Happy Father's Day!

The kids suddenly remembered it was Father's Day and Bethany had this brilliant idea to get a picture of her and Elisha with Daddy. Hmm... Why didn't I think of that? Oh wait! I did, but they were too busy skating to notice.

Yes, they traded their skateboards for roller blades this week. I say, whatever keeps them active. Although it's been almost a year since we took them skating at a roller rink so they both started out complaining that they were going to fall.

After a while they did get the hang of it again and started having a blast. Of course, I joined them in my old skates that hurt my feet if I skate in them too long. I figured they needed to vizualize how to do it and it's easier to explain when you are actually on wheels too.

Yeah Baby! This is how I roll.

Bethany is so funny. Once she quit complaining that she was going to fall and actually tried, she was my usual fearless little girl. This is her getting back up again.

Afterwards we took Yohn to Hometown Buffett for his Father's Day dinner.

Of course pictures are always a must on special days, but if you know me that well you know I really don't need an excuse to take pictures.

And the rest of my family does not need an excuse to have their pictures taken either!

Watching the All Star Game

Free family entertainment is always the best kind. Today we walked to JOBL to watch the kids' friend Jamie play on the Pee Wee All Stars. We visited with his parents and then after the game went over to watch a smigen of another game and visit with other friends. We ate lunch there watched another kid we knew get a double and then walked home again. The kids had a great time, except now Elisha is aching to play again. He said he loved watching the games but didn't like that he couldn't play too. Poor boy! Good thing we have a family game scheduled with Jamie's family on Thursday!

I got this great picture of Jamie stopping the ball in right field. He made an awesome play, getting the runner out at first base!

Here's the kids after the game. Jamie's team won and they're playing again tomorrow. Great job Jamie!

Skateboarding Part 2

We've now switched from going to the park on Sunday evenings to skateboarding. We'll see if they keep it up, but I did get a few more cute pictures of the kids.

Notice Bethany is wearing a skirt to skateboard again. She's the most girly little tomboy I know.

These pictures really make it look like Elisha knows what he is doing, but in reality he's just jumping off the skateboard, not really riding it.


It took a little while to convince me to let Bethany push me on the skateboard. Afterall a five year old will crash you into anything, especially my five year old. But she didn't and there we are.

Bad Mamma!

I feel like a heel. Yesterday my darling daughter apparently caught her hand in the fence at daycare. When the daycare teacher told me about it I was more concerned about the fact that she wasn't listening when she climbed the fence than I was about her thumb which appeared to only have a minor scratch on it. When I took her home, I really did not have a lot of patience for her whining about it, as she does have a tendancy to "milk" the situation, especially if she is required to do something, like, oh I don't know, pick up her toys. So when I instructed her to do said chore and she kept crying, I got a little frustrated. Okay a lot frustrated, and told her to quit whining. You'd think I would have gotten the clue that it really did hurt when she hid in the bathroom to cry, but no, not me. I told her to come out and take care of business. I did, however, allow her to ice it, as I let them ice any little owie they feel needs it. But when she woke up this morning showing me this:

I realized that I screwed up big time as a mama and had to apologize to my little girl about not believing that her thumb hurt that bad. I don't know how well you can see it but her thumb is very swollen and purple and so is some of the palm of her hand. Poor Baby! Next time I'll get the whole story and maybe then I'll have more sympathy...or maybe not, but hopefully I will! That being said, of course she got off the hook with some things today, and has been allowed to baby it some. Especially after I saw her try to put on her socks this morning. She is right handed and it is, of course, her right hand so many things she has tried to do today have been difficult.

Ho Hum. Some days do you ever feel like a bad mama? (I mean this in a way like you would scold a child or a dog not that I think that I am all that bad, so NO feeling sorry for me!)

Baseball Awards

Saturday was Elisha's team party and they barbecued at the park. It was nothing like Bethany's teary-eyed team party. What a difference between boys and girls, huh?

The season may be over but these boys decided to head down to the baseball field and play some baseball anyway (Elisha is the one in the blue). You'd think after four solid months of baseball they'd be a little bit tired of it, but not them. I think they kind of knew it was the last time they'd all get to play together. This was a good bunch of kids and they got along well with each other for the most part.

I know this post is supposed to be about Elisha, but who could resist this cute face?

Bethany's thirst for adventure never ceases to amaze me. This park has a big hill (it's not in the picture) and we had to keep a good eye on her that she didn't decide to go up it and disappear down the other side. She made friends with this little boy during the season and the two of them were often bug hunting together. On this day they told me they were looking for snakes and lizards. Isn't that nice? I guess we need to have the "Don't touch unknown creatures" talk again.

"Look Mama! I'm a deer!" Too bad I didn't realize she wasn't looking at the camera when I took this picture or I would have taken another one.

Okay, enough about Bethany, this post was supposed to be about Elisha (sorry son!). He's giving Coach Adam a high five in this picture. His coach really bragged about him being the toughest kid on the team. He was of course, talking about the time he tried to catch the ball and got hit in the face instead (his face has since healed up nicely, by the way, and you can hardly see where he got hit). We received many compliments this day on what a well behaved, likeable kid Elisha is (you already knew that though, didn't you). It was so nice to hear all the good things people had to say about him. The only thing is, most of them wish he would talk more. Well you take what you get, right. We also got a great compliment from his coach and his wife. They said they'll be looking for Elisha's name on the list next year, which means Elisha may have Adam for his coach again, yes!

And here he is, a boy and his trophy. That's all he looks forward to all season long. Well, that and the snack shack, HA!

School Awards

The kids' last day of school was on Wednesday and after the graduation they had a picnic and then handed out awards. Both my kids scored, errr... I mean did well this year. And of course, I have photos to help tell the story.

Okay so I only included this picture of Elisha and his friend Jayla watching the awards ceremony because I liked it. I figured I could do that if I really wanted to, so there it is.

Elisha and friends check out their honor roll certificates.

Only first grade and up can get on honor roll, so maybe next year Bethany will get it too since this year she was only in kindergarten. This year Elisha got on the Principal's Honor Roll.

Bethany was growing anxious watching everyone else get awards. She really tried to be patient, but if you know Bethany you know she is anything but patient.

Elisha also earned the Citizenship Award, because he's relatively calm and obedient and willing to lend a hand whenever it's needed.

Bethany earned a Math award.

A few minutes later I looked over and she was hugging her medal. She told me later when she saw this picture it was because, " I loved my little medal so much!"

She finally came over to show me her medal, although in the picture she almost looks sad, she was indeed very, very excited.

She also got a ribbon for Truthfulness. As busy and stubborn as my little girl can be I'm glad to know she's honest (Ms. Brenda said she always told her the truth, even when she was doing something wrong). Yay! Because let me just tell you, we've really had to do some work in this area in this past year. Her stories were getting her into a lot of trouble. Whew! I pray this virtue will definately continue.

Kindergarten Graduation

Warning! This post contains many, many pictures, most of them adorable. Proceed only if you want a smile, a laugh or an occassional awwww....

Today was Bethany's Kindergarten graduation. She is now officially a first grader, oh no! Yohn was the cameraman most of the time as I was running the video, so unfortunately most of the photos during the performance did not turn out as well as planned, but I still took a lot of pictures before and after and those are mostly the ones I am now posting.

This is after the class came in and they were seated, while waiting for their turn to perform. She looks so confident, so self assured. She was definately ready for this day.

This is one of the pictures of her on stage that turned out although it is a little dark. Her class performed the Farmer in the Dell.


This is an after the performance picture of her and Jamie. Doesn't he have beautiful blue eyes. Okay I know Bethany's eyes are beautiful too, but I love the way his eyes stand out in this picture.

Grandpa Gene and Grandma Susan bought Bethany and Jewell graduation balloons and a teddy bear with a matching cap and gown. It was so cute.

Bethany has her daddy's eyes.


Why we didn't just ask someone to take a picture of us all together, I have no idea, but oh well.

This is Ms. Brenda, Bethany's kindergarten teacher. Bethany just had to have a picture with her because she said, "I just love her so much I need a picture with her."

These are forced smiles, but I still think they're cute!

This is the kids and their Grandma Yvonne, Yohn's mom.

Only twelve more years and she'll be wearing this gown again. Okay not this particular one, but a similar one. I don't even want to think about how fast that time is going to fly by. So for now I'll enjoy the fact that my little one is still little. I know "It Won't Be Like This For Long" (This is the song I used by Darius Rucker for the kindergarten slide show).