Coach Pitch 2016

Eli's first year of playing Coach Pitch was great! Before the season began, Josh was able to talk to a lot of the other dads/coaches and they all agreed to get rid of the pitching machine this season and let the coaches pitch to the boys. That was a fabulous decision on their part and all the kids ended up having a great season! In years past, it would usually take the entire season for the boys to learn how to hit off the pitching machine since it was such a huge departure from hitting off of a tee. This year though the boys learned to hit off a ball being thrown to them and they all did so well! Hopefully doing it this way will help them transition to kid pitch a little easier in a few years to come. Here are some of the highlights from the 2016 season. We won some, we lost some, but we all managed to have lots of fun and Eli grew tremendously in his baseball skills!

My favorite boys in the entire world!

Coach Josh

Reve and I resumed our positions as "Dug-Out Moms".

Scott played catcher for our team this year and did a great job!

Eli and Logan

Brian and Reve

Matthew and Logan

Brian and Scott

Zue-Zue and Eli

Eli played third base this year and did a wonderful job!

Eli had an exceptional game this night and hit two homers!

Scott with the game ball he earned after a great game. 

Eli with a great base hit!

 He was always as cool as a cucumber when it came time for him to hit.

I love the camaraderie our coaches instilled in the boys this season. 

Scott doing his thing as catcher!

Our fabulous dads/coaches for our team this year. 

Coach Pitch Team 2016

February iPhone Pictures

Here are some snippets from our life in February...it was full of running, gardening, injuries, baking and several fun celebrations! 

Eli took a box from one of our latest Amazon Prime deliveries and made a costume for himself. 

Now I had my very own Box Troll!

I grew Brussels sprouts this year and these were from my first harvest. 

I probably won't grow them again simply because no one in the family is crazy about them. 

They were fun to try though!

While training for the New Orleans Rock and Roll Half Marathon, I accidentally injured myself. 

I wasn't paying attention and tripped on an uneven part of the sidewalk. The part that really stunk was that I was about a mile from my house so I still had to run back AND it ripped my new workout pants my mom gave me for Christmas! Oh well, now I have a battle scar to talk about. 

Eli and I visited our favorite yogurt place after school one afternoon. What a great Friday treat!

When we were in town after Eli's arm injury (the first visit) he and Tinsley found some cool shades at Target. 

We spent a nice quiet afternoon at the library and Eli even got his own library card!

He was so excited to put it in his wallet!

Bread day always makes me happy :)

I spent a rainy Saturday afternoon making Valentine treat suckers for Eli's first grade class. 

I found these treats at The Idea Room several years ago and finally made them!

Lego look-a-like erasers from Target added the perfect touch to Eli's Valentine cards this year. 

Running down by the river is one of my favorite things. 

Sunsets from our backyard are also one of my favorite things. 

On February 20th, we celebrated Reve and Brian's wedding. 

Josh set them up a few years ago and the rest is history. We had so much fun at their wedding! 

I am so happy that this sweet girl found love again :)

The end of February brought bad news for me. The Monday before my half-marathon I started feeling badly at work one morning. I barely made it through the rest of the day and when I got home from school I had already started running fever. I immediately quarantined myself in our bedroom and wouldn't let Eli or Josh in to check on me. I ran fever all through the night and the next day as well so I had to call in a substitute teacher for my classes. After two visits to the doctor I found out I had the FLU! The doctor told me no school for the rest of the week and definitely no race on Sunday. All that training and no reward! Talk about MAJOR BUMMER! I spent the rest of the week in bed sleeping, taking Tamiflu, and binge watching the final season of Parenthood. It took a full week for me to feel normal again and I hope that's the last time I get the flu. I'm so thankful that Eli and Josh didn't get it. That would have been even worse! It wasn't the way I wanted the end of February to go, but I'm thankful it didn't last long! 

A Jammy Christmas with Josh's Family

We left my parents' house late Saturday night and drove back to our house. We had to be home the next day because we were having Jammy Christmas with Josh's family. Jordan, Jessie, and I came up with the idea for Jammy Christmas because we wanted something different and fun to do. We were tired of the normal routine of get together, eat a big meal that no one needs, and then open lots of presents. I suggested having breakfast for supper and then one thing led to another and we came up with Jammy Christmas! We were all going to dress in our pajamas, eat breakfast for supper, play games, and open gifts. It was going to be lots of fun!

The kids had a great time playing together and the adults had fun visiting. Some of the adults (Jessie, Will, Sue, Reve, Brian) didn't follow Jammy Christmas rules and came in normal clothes, but the rest of us followed the rules and rocked our jammies. Poor Eli started running fever out of the blue before everyone got there so I gave him Tylenol and quarantined him to our bedroom for most of the night. I hated that he had to miss out on the fun, but I didn't want to get anyone else sick. He came out later that night for a couple of pictures and ended up being fine the next day.

We ate our yummy breakfast foods and then Jessie and Will taught us how to play a fun game called Five Words or something like that. It was quite fun and seeing how some of our people described certain places was hilarious. For example, to describe the Grand Canyon, Josh's mom said "Hoooolllee!" and made a big, sweeping motion with her hand. LOL! I don't know if Josh ended up getting the clue but Sue's description was the joke of the night. 

Scott

Finley

Addi and Finley

The girls who wore their jammies :)

Look at us having fun in our jammies!

Us doing an impersonation of Sue when she described the Grand Canyon :)

Our entire crew...what a fun night together!