More Razorback Baseball

I don't think we'll ever tire of going to see the Razorbacks play! I know, for a fact, that Brian won't! He's definitely a regular out in the Hog Pen now.

When we planned on going to the game on Saturday, we didn't realize just how windy it would be in Fayetteville. Nevertheless, we went as planned. We even grilled our lunch and had a great time playing with the kids until the game started. It wasn't so cold when the sun was out, but after a while, the clouds rolled in.

Austin decided he wanted to be covered up, but since we didn't have any blankets, he used Daddy's jacket instead and crawled into his lap to watch a bit of the game.

Meanwhile, Colten kept running around our area, being silly and cute. Just like he's supposed to act!

Son, I don't think anyone you're going to get an answer.

Colten then seemed a little more interested in the game and ran up to the fence. Daddy went and made sure he was going to behave himself. Made for a cute picture!

It sprinkled on us a bit, then the sun came back out. Then, Colten decided to dump half of a Coke onto his lap and I went to the car to see if I had any extra pants for him. I found a pair of shorts in the Goodwill box that continues to sit in the van, put him in the Ergo with a blanket around his legs and hiked back to the game. Sat down and 30 seconds later it started raining. It let up a bit, but then started pouring. That was all I needed. I got the kids together, grabbed a few things and headed home. Brian and Uncle John stayed to watch the rest of the game.

The kicker? It let up again, sprinkled for about 10 minutes, then the sun came back out. Not a problem though...I had time to give the kids dinner, a bath and got them ready for bed and didn't feel rushed at all. In my book, leaving early was probably a good decision for my own piece of mind!

Do You Know What Today Was???

Austin woke up this morning very excited. He came into the living room, told me good morning and then asked, "Mom, when do I get to go to baseball practice???"

Yep, it's t-ball season again and our boy is SO excited! It's kind of bittersweet though. We'll be moving in the middle of the season and he won't be able to play all of the games. We gave him the option of playing what he can or not playing and he said he'd rather play. He's kind of bummed that he doesn't get to finish the season, though. Completely understandable!

Last year, we put him in the Bentonville League. They are the only league in the area that allows 4 year olds to play. This year, we chose to put him in the Fayetteville League. Springdale starts too late and Fayetteville was cheaper than Bentonville. Not to mention, we'll be able to go from his games or practices to the Razorback games since they play right down the street. This makes Brian very happy because there were more than couple of times when we drove from Bentonville to Fayetteville for Hog games...that's an hour drive!

So, here's Austin waiting for his turn to bat. Nope, he's not the tallest player anymore! Can't believe it, but Brian said that the boy next to him couldn't even get the helmet on!

After they batted a couple of times, they played catch with an adult.

I just happened to get this shot of him catching a ball. Kind of funny with his arm out that way, but he's definitely getting better at catching. He still needs a little work though. His throwing is pretty awesome though. In fact, when Brian took him to the Razorback game on Friday night, he was playing catch with a few 7 or 8 year olds. One of the boys ran over to Brian and said, "your son is AWESOME!" I guess he was throwing pretty hard and accurate. Pretty hard to impress another boy that's a couple of years older than you!

We realized that this league isn't as, let's say, structured as the Bentonville League. The practice was only about 30 minutes vs an hour. The coach said they wouldn't be doing any drills and it just seemed a little disorganized. I think it's more like a Daddy and Me baseball thing. However, I would take this type of team/coach over the type that's yelling at the kids the whole time and expects them to play perfect ANYDAY! At this level, the point is to get the kids to love playing and to teach them the very basics. You don't get the same affect by yelling at them. (Yes, there was a coach that was infamous last year and I was very glad that we never played that particular team).

So, what was Colten doing while Austin was practicing?

Oh, let's see...he was walking ON the bleachers.

UNDER the bleachers.

and BEHIND the dugout.

This kid was EVERYWHERE! I told Brian that this season will definitely be slightly different than last season! I'm not going to be able to take as many pictures or even watch as much! I'll be too busy keeping an eye on our little daredevil as he explores and is sure to have too many close calls.

So, for our first practice, I think we did pretty well. Other than the fact that they decided to have WHITE pants instead of grey! Why in the world do they even have white baseball pants? In a sport where they are sliding into bases and diving after balls so much, don't you think they'd know that it's really, really, really hard to get that dirt and those grass stains out of white pants? Oh well...I'll just have to treat those stains as soon as we get home and they will only be pants used for games. His gray ones will be practice pants.

So, t-ball has started and our family is excited!

Warm Up This Week

More warm weather is forcasted for this week! I have a feeling that we won't need the jackets that we wore on this day at the park with Aunt Amanda!

Austin is starting to go down the fireman pole at the playground and is so proud!

He was trying to climb back up, but couldn't quite get it.

After Aunt Amanda went down the slide with Colten, Daddy figured he would as well. He kept saying that he doesn't fit well in this slide, but he did pretty well and Colten thought it was a blast, so I'd say he fit just right!

Then, Austin decided to go down the slide a few times, but got sillier each time. I love this picture with him smiling and Brian and Colten watching him at the bottom. We really do have a blast at the park!

I think we'll probably have a few days where we leave the back door open. I love those days. The boys have a blast all day long going in and out as they please and they go to bed so easily at night! Even the dogs love the door being open and are exhausted by the end of the day! Plus, I can just sit out on the chairs and drink my ice tea and not worry about the house being destroyed as much as normal.

Swinging Fun

While Aunt Amanda was here, we went up to the park while it was nice. It gets pretty windy up at the park, which makes it a bit cooler, but the kids have fun anyway. In fact, Austin didn't want to wear his jacket, but we made him since he was in a short sleeved shirt. Of course, I don't know if you notice that Daddy is in a short sleeved shirt and NO jacket in the background of the first picture! :-)

Austin loves swinging with Daddy. They always see who can get higher.

Austin is holding his own though...he is really good at pumping his legs...he just needs to lean back a bit more to get higher.

Austin and Daddy are not the only ones who like to swing....Colten LOVES it! Austin really likes to push him...we just have to make sure he doesn't get too crazy!

Love this angle.

Daddy swung with Colten on the big swing...he was pretty happy about it. He doesn't sit on our laps for very long, but while Daddy was swinging, he didn't try to get down at all!

We are definitely going to need to get a swing set or something at our new house. Until then, it will be a lot of trips to the parks that DO have swings!

Wild Animals

We saw a lot of animals while at the zoo...not including THESE 4 monkeys! (Yes, Skylee looks pretty grumpy in this picture, but 5 seconds later she was skipping down the path, happy as can be...Lisa and her husband are in big trouble in during those teen years, yeah?)

We stayed and watched the real monkeys for a while. There were two baby monkeys running, rolling and diving all over the place! It was really entertaining and the kids loved it! I caught this tender moment between what I can only guess is the Daddy and his son. I think this was right before the Daddy put his butt in the son's face. Yes, literally!

Colten sat and watched this lizard for some time. He kept pointing at it when it moved.

There were two bald eagles. So sad to see them caged like they are, but I'm guessing they were hurt somehow and that's why they are there.

There were two otters swimming around. It was pretty neat because they could go from one area to another by going underneath a bridge walkway. They would stop playing and just look up at us, just like we were looking down at them. Almost like WE were the ones on display!

There was a kids' petting zoo there as well. It was just some goats and sheep, but it kept the kids happy. They had some bunnies too, but they were caged up and got stressed pretty easily when the worker took them out for the kids to see. Colten wasn't completely impressed by the goats...but he did pet a couple and was curious about them for all of 30 seconds.

Austin loved brushing the goats and was so careful about it. I really liked this particular one because of the ears. Isn't it so cute!?!

I still think these two are the best looking animals there. :-) I was so proud of my boys this day because they were awesome. It was a long day and I know I felt the affects for the rest of the night, so to not have any meltdowns really made it much easier to have fun and enjoy the day! I appreciated this so much, as I'm sure any parent out there can understand!

Adventure with Aunt Amanda

While Aunt Amanda was visiting, we had a gorgeous day and had planned to go to the Tulsa Zoo with our friends. Lisa, Skylee and Jackson met us in the morning and we followed them to Tulsa, a little more than an hour and a half away. Brian had to stay home and do homework that was due, but we want to take the kids to the St. Louis Zoo in May, so he'll be with us for that trip!

The kids were GREAT and the weather was perfect.

Colten enjoyed seeing the different animals and would point to things that caught his interest. He was great in the stroller and didn't fuss about being in it at all!

Austin (yes, he needs a haircut!) loved running around with the other two kids and had a blast! The last time he was at a zoo was probably a couple of years ago, so it was neat to see how he viewed everything now that he's older.

Aunt Amanda was an awesome help...she jumped right in and kept up with Austin when I needed her to, or would stay with Colten when that was needed as well. She really loves her nephews!

There is a playground at the zoo, which is awesome for some downtime for us adults. I don't know why, but the kids didn't seem as tired as we were! Colten loved the little bouncy seats and then walked around a boat structure and finally a train structure before we moved on to something else.

The only hangup was the wait for the train! We got around to the back of the zoo and there is a train that goes around the property from the front train station to the back station. You can buy tickets for one way or round trip. Well, since we were at the back station, there were people who were just riding the train from the front round trip without getting off. So, we had to wait for about an hour before finally getting on the train. Colten was exhausted and I was afraid he was going to lose it, but he did really great!

When we finally got back around to the front of the zoo, we let the kids have rides on the carousel (we had extra tickets for Colten and myself since I had originally bought tickets in case we wanted to go round trip on the train). I wasn't sure what Colten would think of the train but he loved it! You can't really tell by this picture, but he was laughing and smiling most of the time. He even threw a fit when it was over and wouldn't let go of the zebra.

Austin did a great job as well. He originally wanted to ride the alligator, but another kid had already picked it out. It's really nice now that he's older and accepts things like that without missing a beat. He just picked a different animal (a cheetah) and enjoyed the ride!

For more pictures, you can go to Lisa's blog. I'm not going to steal her pictures (right now) to put on here when I can just send you over there to see them!

I have a few more pictures to share...they'll be in a future post, so come back and check them out later!

Early Easter Surprise

Aunt Amanda came to visit and when she got here, she brought a surprise from Nana for the boys! Early Easter gifts are always welcome and the boys were ecstatic about the fun things they saw!

Austin just loves the bunnies and both boys got a basket specially made by Great-Grandma Jean. I know it will be even more special to them when they get older and have something that was handmade by their Grandma.

Colten loved opening his treat. He loves the bunnies and the train. He even got a taste of some of the gummie Lifesavers as well!

This was just a warmup to Easter morning and their baskets that the Easter Bunny will bring. It's fun to see how Colten is reacting now, and I know he'll just love Easter morning with the treats, egg hunting and then church! It's not that far now, and I really need to get their outfits together!

One Last Time...Hopefully

Hopefully, this is the last of the snow pictures! At least for the season.

Brian's really a great dad! Everytime it's snowed, he has taken Austin out to go sledding. They go over to JB Hunt Park where there's this huge hill. They spend forever out there!

This time, Austin wanted me to come see him go down the hill. Colten is not fond of the snow. He doesn't really have the warm clothes to spend time out there in it, so I told Austin I would drive over there and watch him a few times (and take pictures, of course!). He was happy with this plan.

Up the hill they go...it's the hardest part, but is required for all the fun!

Down they come...

Wipeout!

Yes, we are still using our body board as a sled. The only sled we could find during the first snow was the round green one. So, when Brian takes Austin sledding, they still need another sled and the body board works great!

Hope you enjoyed the snow pictures...Spring is here and I'm hoping we move to pictures of bubbles, sidewalk chalk, and lots of other Springtime activities!

Fitting Them All

Tonight, Brian and Austin were watching a movie when Colten decided he wanted to cuddle with the boys as well. I had to snap a picture. After I did, Brian said, "where's the third one going to go?"

I have a feeling with one more to go, we are going to buried under kids when they want to cuddle! No matter what, we will always be able to fit them all. One way or the other, we'll make it happen if that's what they want!

I know one thing is for sure...it will be fun figuring it out!

Thinking of Better Weather...

and hoping it comes back soon!

On Friday, we got to pack a picnic lunch and head to a nearby park to enjoy the weather. It was a tad windy (which made it a little chillier than it was at home), but the kids had a blast and so did we!

Colten and I going down the slide.

Austin brought his scooter and practiced using his brakes while going down a hill.

Daddy was chasing Colten while I took some pictures. He caught up with him and this is how I found them.

More practicing...

We ended up having a new friend over to play (a neighbor boy that we just met) and played right up til dinner. The boys played outside a little longer, then it was time for Colten's bedtime.

When he got to bed, we lit a fire in our firepit and Austin got to have s'mores and stay up late. He was so excited and felt so special! It was a great night! We love having fires because it gets out from in front of the TV and we always have great conversations. Now, if only I could have some wine! :-)

It's Not Stopping!

Well, we have a LOT of snow. I don't even know how much we have, but I'm betting more than 9 inches at this point!

Here's a couple of shots I took last night to show you how much we have been getting over the course of an hour and a half.

This was taken at 10:15pm

This one was at 11:45pm.

This is what I took this morning

Austin was begging to go outside at 7am, but I held him off until 9:45. He will probably go sledding in a bit with Daddy at the park.

He was pretty impressed with the amount of snow on the slides and wanted to slide down them.

He played out there for quite a while before coming in. He even tried to trick Daddy. He called for him and as Brian opened the door, he threw a snowball at him...but Daddy was too quick and it hit the door instead. :-)

It should all be gone by Tuesday though...it's supposed to be back up in the 60s again.