Happy Birthday Charlie!

I can hardly believe it but my baby boy is now 9!!! Charlie is such an awesome kid, he is so friendly and kind, he is funny and thoughtful. He makes us so proud because he is such a sweet person - he has never met a stranger and is such a great big brother. This year for his birthday he got tons of fishing stuff (his FAVORITE thing to do in the world) and he got a tent and sleeping bag for the summer! He can hardly wait to have all his friends over to sleep in it. We got up super early to open his presents, he had STAR testing at school and couldn't be late. Then later that night he had a game and he was the starting pitcher! He did great!! We came home and had waffles and then cake and ice cream before bed!

Play Ball - opening day!

Audrey on the Braves.



Charlie is on the Astros.

Annie is a Blue Jay!



This year Charlie, Annie & Audrey are all playing baseball! Needless to say our lives are a little crazy right now. A normal week has been consisting of 3 practices and 4 games (Charlie plays 2-3 games a week). Everyone is having fun and keeping busy. I have learned the trick to hire a 12 year old to come babysit Emily during the games - it makes everyone happier.

Our league has a fun tradition that on opening day there is a parade. Each team decorates a truck or trailer and then proceeds down the parkway to the baseball field. The kids throw candy off the trucks and cheer. This is the first year that I actually sat on the side and watched all the trucks. Usually we let Audrey drive in the back of what ever truck John is driving then I have to take her during the opening ceremony. This year since she was on her on team she was in it herself!

Later that day all the kids had games! Annie started us off and she is quite the little player this year. Surprise surprise she has a great little arm and can throw the ball farther than most kids on her team. She is so tall and lanky that she just looks like a ball player to me!

(Note Emily is squirmy! She eats during most games to keep her contained in her stroller or on someone's lap - hence the sitter that way we can watch the games and she doesn't have to be confined!)


Audrey just makes me laugh. Her coach has learned she can't be on the dirt because she just likes to play in it! She is so cute - her friend ran to a base she was on and they hugged.


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Charlie's team travels to play teams in Folsom this year. We only have a few but today was one of them. This year is super fun because the boys on his team get it now! There are great plays, hits, and they are getting competitive. They WANT to WIN!!!




This is Charlie fielding a hit, throwing it to first for the out and then walking off the field because it was the third out that inning! He is becoming quite the player! (Wait till I post pictures of him pitching!!!)





(These are just pictures of the girls while we were watching Charlie's game - they are 2 hours long and we have to be there 30 minutes early for warm ups so they have lots of time to kill!)

(Oh how I love those freckles!)

What we've been up to!

I am a bad blogger, there I said and you all know now! We are so busy and have so much going on that while it would be great to share it all I am just so busy most day's that it never happens so with that said here is a look back on the last 3 months. I had to look through all our pictures to see what has been going on and there was even more than I remembered. We really are a busy family - so this is a long post!!!!

Annie has been taking horse lesson all winter. Although with the tons of rain we have had the arena has been to muddy too ride in quite often (we don't want Annie or the horse to get hurt!) Annie loves her riding - she just doesn't understand why she can't have her own "real live horse"!



Annie catching chickens after a lesson!


Charlie finished up his basketball season! Our team only had one win this year but it was against the best team in the League! (some of us had more fun watching the games than others!)







Little Miss Em has hair long enough for pig tails! She is just the cutest thing!!!




WHile she is just the cutest thing she is also the messiest thing! She is like a little pig pen so when I am not running my kids to and from everything I am cleaning up after her!


Audrey Lee got her ears pierced! She got to pick the color of the earrings and she picked blue because they are daddy's favorite color.

Pop came for a visit and while he was here our life was crazy like always! Charlie had a basketball game and his pinewood derby race.



This is Charlie and his best friend Andrew. Charlie came in 3rd in his pack. But we are most proud of Charlie because he cheered so much for his friends and was so excited his friend Mitch won the whole race. I think he was just as happy for Mitch as if he would have won it himself.




One of the major reasons I have been so crazy the last few months is because I co-chaired the Elementary School Fundraiser this year (again - much to John's chagrin). The event turned out very well - we Grossed $28,000 and from that netted $18,000! We held the event at the Rancho Murieta Country Club (hence the cost to put on the event) we had projects from each class and then various other items up for both silent and live auction. I was happy we were able to do so much for the school - it goes along way with all the cuts from the state!


This is Annie's class project - her square is 4 rows down and 4 rows over - the purple square with a large black circle and yellow dot in middle. Her class project sold for $450.


Charlie's class project was a wine barrel donated from Sobon Wineries with a fruit tree in it. The kids painted picture of grapes on vines with their finger prints. The best part of this is he has two teachers - Mrs. Fruit & Mrs. Vines! His project sold for $650.


Uncle Brett arrived the day before my event and the kids LOVED having him here. They really adore him and he seems to like them too!


We had a green st. patricks day at our house! Here are the girls in their green helping Emily eat rainbow jello.


The kids awoke to find gold in our house! Annie had set a leprechaun trap and so of course there was gold in the morning. Here is a picture of our feast - we had Corn beef and cabbage of course, rainbow jello, rolls, green ranch dressing dip, green 7-up and for dessert we had rainbow cupcakes.





I am not sure I have ever mentioned Audrey's ability to do scary eyes -she can look straight at you with one eye and make the other cross as she likes to say "that really freaks me out".

I know I have mentioned this before but Emily has her dad wrapped around her little fingers but she now seemed to be working on uncle Brett!



Audrey & Em giving us an impromptu concert.



Have I mentioned Emily is a climber! Notice the chairs on the table? That is to keep her from climbing on it. She can pull them around the kitchen and get on whatever she wants.




While we have been busy it has been rainy here. We have had one of the wettest winters I can remember in a long time. But just when you think you can't handle another day of rain the sun comes out and you can go out side! On Monday when I had piles of laundry to do and a house that was a disaster I just could not handle the thought of being inside all day so I looked at Audrey & Emily and said let's go to fairy tale town, I am not sure who was more excited to be outside - them or me. For those of you who went as a child it hasn't changed all that much. I am sure my parents have pictures of me and my siblings poking through the Swiss cheese!















Well I am going to stop here because this brings us up to this week and boy has it been a busy one! So I will save that for another post - maybe sooner than later.