Today was Warren East Pride Day to support our high school for their home game this weekend.  I actually forgot to put the kids in Raider colors, but a few weeks ago we accidentally matched so this snapped a picture.  Go Raiders! Anyway, back to today...our jerseys finally came in for the Mammoths!  They were supposed to be done last week, but that didn't happen.  It was a sigh of relief picking them up since the first tournament is this weekend.  I'm still blow away at Eric's design and can't believe his dream of coaching a travel team has finally come true!  Win or lose, this weekend is going to be a special one. We had a lot of odds and ends to finish up tonight in preparation for the weekend, so the kids were kinda self entertaining.  I looked up and saw them getting along...while sharing an electronic, so I had to commemorate the moment with a photo.  Ha1 This was the sunset tonight, completely unfiltered.  There is something so majesti

We had a pretty low key weekend for a few reasons.  First of all, it was a complete washout!  I'm talking a sloppy slushy mess.  Secondly, our baseball tournament didn't pan out, and finally, we will be crazy busy for the next few weeks and just wanted to rest up before the chaos. Aside from a quick trip to donate leftover food from the Fall Festival, we stayed around the house, napped, cleaned, and got caught upon some things.  Eric played with the kids and they had the best time beating the dog at hide'n seek.   Sunday was church followed by a quick trip to Camping World cause they had a free $20 gift card that you know we used on shells for quail hunting, which comes into season soon.  While Eric was doing that, the kids and I checked out the travel travelers they had on display.  They didn't want to leave! We rounded out at the fun with a much overdue Family Movie Night.  My Christmas-lovin' kiddos picked Elf of the Shelf.  I think the c

Friday was our annual Fall Festival at the kids' school and yet another reminder of how much my kids are growing.  I seems like two weeks ago we were sweating it up at Eli's kindergarten festival while hovering over him like a helicopter and packing Ellie around on our hips. It seems so funny that now Ellie is in school, and Eli is old enough to run around with his buddies all by himself.  Of course some things never change and he still loves the Big Red Toss and Toilet Trouble games.  Even Ellie made a "basket" on her turns at each.  More her style was the hair coloring booth, which of course, had the longest lines.  Not only that, but she had to wait in line to have HER teacher do the honors.  She chose pink, purple and blue, and she was in flower-child heaven.  Bless her heart! Eli on the other hand was much more concerned about winning the big prizes and we took home, not one but TWO, goldfish along with a cake from the cake walk

I am trying really hard to get back into the swing of blogging, but it's not for the faint of heart...or undisciplined.  I know a lot of these posts are boring, but it's so important to me to preserve our memories. So here is, yet another, attempt at reestablishing this habit. I haven't really talked about this, but lately I have been getting in the habit of walking in the mornings with a couple of moms from baseball and school.  While the alarm blaring before 5:00 am is a little too reminiscent of my days in television, the pre-dawn conversations are wonderful and the physical activity is great!  Here's a picture of our backyard that I captured one morning.  I sure will miss this view when we move.  It's hard to believe that this time next year I will be on top of those hills looking down instead of on the bottom looking up.  I can't wait! In other news this week, baseball is still in full swing. We were supposed to play our first tournament this

When the kids were younger, I took them to the park at least one afternoon a week.  I have the very best memories of running bases with Eli and following Ellie as she toddled around the big swing set chasing her brother.  It was part of our afterwork routine that included cleaning on Monday, park on Tuesday, church on Wednesday, library on Thursday and family movie night on Friday.  In the winter we swapped the park for McDonald's.  As I started working full-time and our time became more sparse but still fairly routine.  Eli's sport schedule further complicated things, and now our afternoons at the park are rare, yet precious, occasions while our McDonalds visits are a little too frequent.  Anyway, we had some time to kill before church yesterday and I hadn't made it to the gym on my lunch break, so I concocted a plan to kill two birds with one stone after I picked them up from school.  We headed straight to the park where we took turns designing obstacle cou

Last week I filled you in our little secret about buying land. I can't wait to write about all of the amazing details leading up to the purchase, but first I haven another little announcement...we started a travel baseball team!  Are we crazy or what!?!?! Since Eli was very small, Eric has always wanted to start a travel baseball team. He helped coach his nephew before we ever had kids and has coached Eli's league teams for baseball and basketball.  When the time came for Eli to begin the journey of playing travel ball, we weren't in a place where we could start our own team, so we were fortunate for the opportunity to join the Beasts.  I've blogged about many of our adventures with the team, and I actually have more posts to make because I am so far behind. Anyway, it was a wonderful experience for Eli, and I became close to several of the moms.  We enjoyed the family time on the weekends and watching Eli learn and grow personally and athletically. When the spring

While we have seen Eric's family several times this summer, we had actually not been in for a visit since Easter, so we were grateful for the opportunity to recharge our batteries at Nan and Grandad's house for the holiday weekend.  We drove in Friday after work, ate BBQ for dinner, and were grateful for an early bedtime.  Saturday was unseasonably warm with some of the hottest temperatures we've had all summer.  Worry not, we made the most of it with wading pools, water balloons, the water hose, and plenty of time with our cousins. Nan also made a special cake for Eli since we didn't have a traditional party for him this year.  She is an AMAZING baker and her decorating skills are on par too.  Eli loved the attention and felt quite special having so many people help him celebrate his birthday! Sunday morning we enjoyed a yummy breakfast before heading back to the farmhouse where we spent the day riding four-wheelers, splashing around in