Take me out to the ballgame...

OK so it was just practice, but Camden was so excited. I finally signed Camden up for baseball and he had his first practice last night. I'm not quite sure why I've been avoiding sports because Barron and I were both heavily involved in sports growing up. We've always wanted our kids to play sports or to be involved in some type of extracurricular activities. Camden is only 6, but it seems that boys in particular, begin sports at a very young age and some of the parents get so intense about it. That's it! That's the part I've been avoiding, the intensity of it all. The pressure on the kids to play one sport year round and to do nothing else. I played so many sports and had so much fun doing so that I'd like the same for my kids. It doesn't seem like that's an option nowadays as the coaches and parents push the kids so hard to excel at a particular sport. Who knows, maybe I'll become that parent, I do hate to lose! :-) Let's all keep our fingers crossed that Camden enjoys this season because he has really been looking forward to it.

You might be wondering what the team name is. Well a woman calls me at work the other day to tell me when practice is and what team Camden will be playing on, The Lugnuts. I immediately bust out laughing and I quickly realize she's not joking. Oops! When I got home later that night I tell Camden is first practice is in a couple nights and that his team name is The Lugnuts to which he belts out "nooooo! I want a different name." The next day I get all his gear out and ready the following conversation takes place:

Me - Do you remember your team name?

Camden - The Peanuts?

Me - (laughing) No. The Lugnuts. (still laughing)

Camden - Ohhhh. The Lovenuts.

Me - (bent over laughing at this point) No honey. It's The Lug-g-g-nuts.

Camden - Oh. The Lugnuts. I still don't like the name.

Ready for his very first baseball practice.

Maya took her pink glove and Braeden wore the batting helmet (even in the car ride to practice!)

The coach trying to get all of the kids to yell out the team name....

Coach - Our team name is The Lugnuts!! On the count of three I want everyone to yell it. Ready? 1 - 2 - 3

Coach's son - THE CHESTNUTS!

Braeden wants to play so badly. Don't think we'll get to hold him off until he's 6!

Monster Truck Jam

I took Camden out for some one on one time this past weekend to the Monster Truck Jam at Reliant Stadium. We had a blast!! It was SO loud (thank goodness for ear plugs) and a little scary for Cam at times, but he loved it. I had forgotten how different things can be with just one child. I wasn't constantly saying no or trying to hold 3 hands the entire time. The car ride there was a nice, peaceful conversation with no hair pulling or no whispering from one of the kids "I'm not touching you." I adore all of my children, but the one on one time can be so nice with them and this was a great time with Camden.

Little did I know when I bought the tickets that they were actually really good seats. We were in row K which I thought was about halfway up on the ground level, but we were really the second row because they block off rows A - I (my guess would be for potential flying parts??).

This was the scary part. They created this robot/Transformer thing that blew fire from the mouth and picked up a car and burned it in half...

Hard to tell, but he's got his hand on his chin trying to be "cool" in this pic...

The Holidays.... Part 3

I promise, this is the final holiday post! Maya and Braeden had their holiday program at Mother's Day Out and it was quite entertaining! The teachers took the kids on stage in groups, starting with the oldest 4 year olds. Each group of kids (attempted) to sing a song and while it was very sweet, it was more humorous than anything. By the time the teachers got the 2 year olds on stage, there were more kids crying and yelling for their mommy that most parents were laughing instead of listening to the singing! Maya's class dressed as donkeys and Braeden's class dressed as camels. The little boy next to Maya kept messing with her and she was really good about it until the very end when she gave him a stern look and said something to him that made him finally stop! Braeden kept yelling from the stage "Hi Camden! Hi Mommy!" and he looked at the little boy next to him like he was crazy when he started crying for his mommy. It was a great show and the kids seemed to have fun (well most of them).

Maya in her outfit. I missed Braeden up close...

We had a wonderful Christmas. Lots of toys and lots of playing....

They really do love their sister...

Am I the only one that sees Punky Breswster in this pic?

Braeden had a little too much fun with Maya's new doll house... which he is still playing with these days!! ;-)

The Holidays... Part 2

Here we come North Pole!! I am not quite sure where I heard about this train ride, but I think it may have been my mom. Regardless, there is an old train station in east Texas that runs special events year round and one of the events is "The Polar Express" train ride. The ride was about an hour long and ran between the Palestine and Rusk train stations. After boarding the train, they passed out hot chocolate and rice krispy treats for everyone to enjoy. We listened and read read along to the book, The Polar Express, and sang and danced to Christmas carols. The kids wore their pajamas and took blankets to snuggle up in. The joy of watching my kid's faces when the train arrived at the “North Pole” was just priceless. Santa then boarded the train and greeted each and every child and gave them their own bell. This might be one of my favorite ventures I've been on with the kids and they enjoyed every minute of the experience. There are too many pics to put here so check out the slide show for more.

Ready to go.....

Waiting for the train....

Enjoying the rice krispy treats and hot chocolate....

Dancing and singing along with the Christmas Carols....

Santa handing out the bells...
So much fun...

The Holidays.... Part 1

I can't believe it's been almost two months since my last post! The sad part is that the two months have been jammed packed with fun and my posts would have been pretty easy. OK well I'll try to catch everyone up quickly so I can get back on track with more regular posts.

Camden had his school Thanksgiving Feast...

His picture of what he's thankful for.... his family!!

We had a great Thanksgiving!! Lots of family in town and we had a great few days playing games and eating a ton of food.

Playing with cousins enjoying the nice weather....
Everyone played the Wii.... even my Grandpa!!

Story time for all the kiddos...