Photo day!

Baseball, Family and Sunshine - it doesn't get much better than that!

Sunday we had the opportunity to go onto the field at the Great American Ball Park and take photos with the Reds players and coaches.  We were all pretty excited to go and check out this event.  Little did we know we would be down there with 2000 of our closest friends, last year we heard there was maybe 150 people who showed up!  Guess that is what a winning season will do - bring out the fans the during the next season.

This is by no means nearly all of the photos that were taken - we have go get those from Papaw Frank, LT and me - but it is a little bit of our continued wonderful weekend that we shared with our family.   Thank goodness Papaw Chris was on top of it to get these downloaded off his new camera for us!



Caden waiting for Scott Rolen!

Maggie with Gapper



Mallory and Memaw Donna with Mr Redlegs

My buddy!

Mr. Redlegs entertaining the crowd

Mallory has her ticket and is ready to go!

Catching a ride

and my favorite from the day!  A little ball player in the making

 It was a beautiful day to spend it at the ballpark even if the Reds didn't win.  Going to the games is something we love to do and will continue to do as a family no matter how hard it is to get 4 kids to the game, sit down and go to the potty at least 3 times during the game.  I grew up listening to the Reds on the radio with Grandma and Grandpa Horstman and there are just so many good memories of the ball games. 

I can only hope that the memories we are creating with our kids and baseball will give them a lifetime of smiles as they think back to being there with us and their grandparents. 

And for those that think we are crazy to take all 4 kids to the games all I can say is look at these faces and the smiles - that is why we do it!

I LOVE wonderful weekends!

This past weekend was just wonderful and I absolutely love when I can accomplish family time, date night and doing good time!  I definitely didn't get a darn thing done around the house but I don't care because it was a wonderful, wonderful weekend!

Our first outing of the weekend was Saturday morning and we took the kids to meet the Easter bunny.  The pictures will tell the story of how much they liked the Easter bunny.  I have to thank a friend with twins who took the beautiful pictures, I forgot my camera of course the one day when I REALLY wanted it, but we were early to arrive so I guess we balance!



Staging the kids for the photos

 

Matt trying to get Caden a little closer to the Bunny!

No one is quite sure they really want to be there...



Finally capturing a "smile" from at least one of them



Still working on getting the best photo we can....



Finally 2 out of 4 with smiles isn't too bad! 

  Not only did we get to meet the Easter Bunny but we got to hunt Easter Bunny Eggs as Maggie would say...

(pardon the poor photo quality - the Blackberry can only do so much!)

Maggie helping Cale to hunt eggs



Maggie "helping" Mallory hunt eggs.  I think Mallory is more interested in her bottle!

Maggie hunting eggs



Caden on the egg hunt!



So the weather was rainy and I forgot the camera, but the memories are priceless and I enjoyed our family outing. 

We are very blessed and our baskets are full. 

We couldn't ask for anything more!

 

Happy Easter everyone! 

We hope you enjoy this wonderful season and get to hunt lots of Easter Bunny Eggs with many goodies and family memories to be had!

The Cookie Flip Game!

Last Thursday as I sat in the house tired and stressed about all I needed to get completed that night, I heard the laughter of my children roaring.  I look down to see Maggie entertaining Mallory with a game that she invented - the Cookie Flip Game

She took a toy that we love to play with and was flipping the Girl Scout cookie off of it - and they were dying laughing.

So here is our cookie flip game! 

Preparing the cookie to launch

Caden ready to pull the trigger



The cookie lauching through the air!



And the laughter after!

There is nothing better than the laughter of your children. 

You cannot hear it here but it was a beautiful thing.

While I thought I was having a stressful evening, thinking of a friend going through a terrible time, the laughter of my children brought me through and reminded me that everything is okay and that life isn't bad!

Just then I heard the laughter stop, I asked what happened to the cookie flip game and Maggie said, "I ate the cookie!"  So that was it the end of the game. 

Thank you Memaw Connie and Papaw Eddie for this wonderful toy that lead us to our Cookie Flip Game!

There truly is nothing better than the imagination and laughter of my children!

So far behind....but really I am not worried - I have 4 kids you know!

I am so far behind on getting my thoughts into words that I am grateful for my little mommy trip with my mom, sister, aunt and cousin that I am going to get caught up in this quick 4 days.

I try not to pressure myself to post but I am worried about capturing the special and wonderful moments for my kids!  We have had so many great things going on and so many memories that getting them captured is important to me.

March 24th - just a few weeks ago but the babies turned 9 months.  They are doing amazing and learning so many new things.  We are mobile but in our own way.  We can go backwards in the crawling position, the hardwood floors help.  We move foward by moving across our butt for Cale and Miss Mallory goes completely on her belly and back up until she arrives at her desitnation.  We are pulling ourselves up on most things but we haven't gotten all the way up to a full stand yet.
We have been fighting ear infections and breathing problems but they are wonderful babies and have continued to sleep through the night for us and not whine too much.

Mallory and Cale on the 24th - a full 9 months old



 As we were getting ready for bathes one night Cale and Mallory were playing in their bed and "jumping" up and down. There were cracking themselves up and just having a good ole time!  They were little monkeys jumping on the bed.  They were bouncing themself silly.  If you could only hear their laughter in these photos.  We had such a good time playing! 

So my little monkeys are getting big but just such a joy in our lives. 

I cannot believe that they are 9 months old already. 

I wish we could keep them this small forever. 

They truly remind me how precious life is and how we need to continue to laugh everyday. 

So thank you Cale and Mallory for bringing joy to our lives and smiles to our heart.