It's Definitely Baseball Season

Ron was quite busy this weekend with the kids while I was away.  He is such a wonderful daddy and kept up with the crew quite well from what I heard tonight, I think the kids are better behaved without me around!  Baseball was the consuming activity Saturday and Sunday...besides church.  Saturday was the start of a tournament weekend-double header.  The Stingrays won both sending them into another game Sunday.  Winning that game put them in the championship game-fourth game in two days.  Sounded like the game was close but in the end they came up a little short-second place, but still a place everyone was very proud to hold.  Brayden managed some big catches and his first "to the fence" home run.  Today it was back to  regular season games and would you know we played the team we lost the championship game to, and tonight the Stingrays won!!  What a string of games-he is getting lots of practice, thankfully the schedule is giving us a much needed break along with his coach for the rest of this week.

 This little guy, never quits...running the field at the end of the game is his favorite thing to do.

 YEAH!!!  A win again the championship team-they were feeling pretty good tonight!

 Brayden has been making some fast runs lately...ending up with lots of sliding, fun to watch.

Go Stingrays...Trophy presentation after the last game this weekend.

My Tumbling Queen!

This weekend was Becca's big tumbling showcase.  Special for her to be able to show off her tumbling skills she has been working at this year.  I think her favorite is her cartwheels which she practices whenever she gets the space.  It was all on Ron this weekend as I was away..... and he did a great job, even remembering to bring some flowers for Becca.

A visit from Grandparents

This past weekend we had a lot of fun having Ron's parents in town.  I say we had fun because they came down with the flu during their visit and were stuck in bed for long day.  Thankfully they had a couple days before to enjoy with the kids.  The kids were so excited to have them in town.  We were waiting in the front yard Thursday evening and when they arrived Brayden was all over Grandpa for a game of kick-ball.  After a long car ride of some 12 plus hours Brayden convinced Grandpa to play...and then baseball the next day.  It's like they go in high gear and want to play everything they can crammed into any daylight hours.  Becca and Andrea were all about playing dolls and reading and James was not so sure of everything...a little too clingy for me!  Anyway, Friday the kids headed out Grandma and Grandpa to the zoo-our house has never seemed so quiet, what an afternoon!  The kids had a blast and I had a quiet relaxing afternoon with one sleeping baby-the best! Friday evening we got to watch three generation boys practice baseball-so fun.  Saturday the kids got to hangout at the baseball park for Brayden's game while Ron and I took off for our Tri race.  We arrived home to yelling and screaming...hose one and a bunch of wet and extremely happy kids bouncing on the tramp, just having a ball with G and G.  Lunch was a large affair at sonic...Large meaning the biggest bill I have every seen eating at Sonic!  We had a total of six hot dogs, multiple kids meals and drinks for all...what a meal.  After a trip to Southwoods to look at flowers and a stop in at the ORU baseball game everyone was pretty much winding down.  After dinner we ended the day with home-made ice-scream Sundays.  It was about at this point I think the stomach bug started to make at appearance.  Not a nice time to be sick away from your own house but Grandma and Grandpa weathered it out and were able to still spend time Monday with the kids.  Such a nice time with family, made even better being able to stay home and not endure the drive!

When I picked Becca up from School on Tuesday she told me that now that Grandpa and Grandma were gone things were going to be "regular"  I asked her what she meant and she said that she couldn't pick a special spot for rest time and have grandma read the entire time.... she said "that was soooo nice of  grandma! "

 Brayden discovered the secret of a wide barrel bat while they visited...hit to the fence!

 Fun times at the zoo with Grandma and Grandpa...the kids have been asking to ride this camel I think for about two years.

Baby goats at the petting zoo-obviously a big hit!

Some Catching Up.

I am not doing so well at keeping up with the day to day activities-which to me are the moments I so want to remember. We had parent teacher conferences last week and we were both so happy to hear both kids are on track and doing well-socially and academically. Becca is blossoming, after struggling with making friends and shyness she had become just one giggling friend to all. She was telling Grandma about what they do at lunch-it was such a cute conversation. "We don't get a lot of time to eat, everyone opens up their lunch and then we get down to the sillyness" when we asked what that meant she said "oh, anything...just lots of silliness, I crack up all the time" Anyway, Brayden continues to improve with reading and amazes his teacher at how much improvement he has made this year. We are all ready for summer but I realize it is going to take some summer work to get everyone ready for next year, between math, money and time along with reading learning is never ending!...but it is so nice knowing what to expect for Becca.

 Cub Scouts is winding down but we did enjoy a visit to a bank this month.  The change counter and the vault were the high points...did you know you can get a lock box that is big enough to fit something weighing100lbs?

 My star student for the day, Monday after his birthday.  We came at the end of class with pumpkin muffins-Braydens choice.  I still can't get over the change from K5 to 1st...they seem all grown up.  We were told that for the rest of the Semester not to walk the kids into the classroom and to say our goodbyes outside....promote independence-sad!

We hit up Craigs Cruisers for Brayden's birthday-turned out Becca was the big ticket winner. 

 Just another reason why I am so impressed with this school.  They have an amazing Art teacher and a couple weeks ago the school put on a big Art Show.  I was so impressed with some of the talent that was displayed.  These are just the elementary projects...some of the high school displays were amazing!

 New Lego's complete!  Brayden was so excited to recieve some new sets for his birthday.  He can get pretty creative on Sunday afternoons with all the legos he has but there is always something about a new set. He loves setting them all up with the guys.

Thanks to Uncle David and Aunt Nea who did all the work for Brayden's Flat Stanely project.  From hiking, extreme skiing, to Chemistry and teaching our flat stanley had quite the vacation.

Spring Fever Sprint Triathalon

I realize that I have fallen behind this past week in updating. It was one of those weeks when life took over and all I could do was barely hold on, it didn't help that mid-week we/myself was hit with the stomach bug making for some rough days. I am so thankful for our health and thankful for energy to keep up with house, kids, school and the ability to enjoy God's beautiful creation. I will have to do a brief update of our week next because feeling sick didn't keep the kids from having fun. Anyway, yesterday was the long awaited Spring Triathlon for myself and Ron. Not such a big deal for Ron but with swimming memories still vividly heart racing in my mind from over three years ago I was having to do a lot more prep! After all the apprehension, it turned out to be a great race, and what do you know....swimming wasn't my week point! I didn't feel like drowning, or someone was drowning me, no treading water and thankfully I didn't enter the bike portion with a belly full of pool water. I felt comfortable and with Ron cheering me on at every turn I can say I conquered not just the pool but my fears. Turned out that I was super slow in my transition to the bike, I think I could have moved up four standings if I would have not had to deal with putting on my biking top-too bad it was a cold morning. Yes, my legs did feel like lead after the bike but I did managed to run actually faster than I thought. The best was finishing the race and then being able to cheer Ron on. There were two heats and he was in the second....lot faster! I was able to see his entire race and he did awesome. Super fast biking-his strong suit. Overall it was a lot of fun, we missed the kids cheering us on as Brayden had a baseball game-but they had lots of fun with Grandma and Grandpa Haveman, in for the weekend.

Before the race getting ready to line up-Ron's friend Shane joined us as well.

Just outside the pool along the mats where you ran headed in to get your bike and bike gear.

Transition area, you have all your stuff layed out next to your bike-crazy some of the bikes we saw!

 Ron said he was going to push my head down if I hung onto the side too long-thankfully he didn't!

 I think we both need to invest in some Tri-gear....this is Ron leaving the transition trying to get his shirt in place.

Amazing how hard a two mile run seems after pushing hard on the bike for 12miles-I think it took a mile for my legs to adjust.

 Finished!  Ron did awesome-fifth in his age (which including the top two racers for the day).  Beth 23rd overall (85women),  Ron 25th overall (185men)      Goal for next year...work on our transitions!

                                         rank time       rank time      rank time      rank time          rank   time  Pace       Total

5/29   79 Ron Haveman        7  7:28        16  2:07       3 33:05       17 1:47             10 13:55  6:58        58:20

                                         
                                              Swim              T1              Bike            T2                       Run   

10/19   177 Beth Haveman     8  9:11       13 2:54         11 42:36      4 1:20             11  6:04  8:02        1:12:03

   

EIGHT YEARS OLD!!

Happy Birthday Brayden!  Growing up so fast but still my little guy.  This weekend was full of fun.  Storms decided to head our way-as usual this time of year so we missed our Friday night Drillers baseball game, although if we were die hard fans we could have watched starting at 10pm!  We decided dinner with friends and sleep was a better idea.  Saturday we decided to play games at Chucky Cheese...along with a TON of people.  We almost turned around and left after seeing an overflowing  parking lot but decided to stick it out.  Turned out to be just fine-the kids could play lots of games.  Becca was the high ticket winner this time, although Brayden was the marksman with the arrow getting extra bonus tickets.  We decided to forgo eating there seeing as ordering looked to be quite a hassle with so many people and opted for our easy/cheap dinner of Steak and Shake.  Ron has ordering down to a science complete with three milk shakes.....just enough money spent to give us four free kids meals!  What a deal! And Brayden could enjoy his burger-no cheese, mustard and pickles!  Sunday Brayden was up early along with Becca to hit the donut shop in their PJ's.  He opened one present-who knew you could have so much fun with tops..or their new name "BeyBlades"  Then it was off to church where they had to sing in their small children's choir for the traditional service.  I was so proud of everyone but just loved hearing Brayden's voice carry over....he loves to sing, and if finally starting to sing on tune. The fun really started when we got home....a fun lunch of pancakes.  Ron got pretty creative, even cooking eggs in the middle of his pancakes.  Presents were on Brayden's mind most of the morning and he finally got to open the rest of his gifts after lunch.  Becca was such a cutie, making signs for his birthday seat and arranging all his gifts.  Friends joined us in the afternoon for more fun-we had a small scavenger hunt ending with a pinata.  Lots of hitting, chanting, and laughing.  The table was full for cutting the cake and Brayden had a big grin listening to everyone sing Happy Birthday.  It was like feeding baby birds-Ron couldn't cut the cake fast enough and I couldn't serve fast enough...."cake, no ice-cream please, popcicle please, I need a spoon, can I have a drink?" 12 little hungry mouths all asking for something-crazy! After cake we were able to head outside and play a little kickball, something Brayden has been wanting to play everyday with his neighbor friend and having a bunch more kids to play makes for a lot more fun.  WHAT A DAY!  We were all pretty beat but celebrating is just so much fun.

Morning fun.

Scavenger Hunt and Pinata

Cake-my first time using Fondant, fun but quite time consuming!

No Birthday Spanks but a good silly string attack works just as well!!

Small group, a little quiet but still nice to hear.

Opening Night at Driller's Stadium

Since the Drillers have moved to ONEOK field we have been enjoying them more every year.  This year they decided to have a little parade on opening night-lots of little league baseball players.  Brayden's team walked, the little route by the stadium....I think it would have been really cool if they lead them out on the field but it was still fun.  The rest of us stood on the curb waving endlessly to tons of little baseball players.  James was most enthralled with Hornsby-the maskcot, who led the procession.  Although the Ghost Busters car was just as entertaining to him.  Anyway, nothing huge but still fun.

We started really yelling for the stingrays....I think Brayden was a little embarrassed-Nino, his team, mate loved it!

 The best part I am sure for the girls and James was all the candy.

We were about the last team in a long line of little ones-fun to see all the different team names.

A LITTLE BASEBALL

All day today whenever we would head out the door James would head for his baseball hat saying over and over again-baseball, baseball, baseball.  He was so ready to go and watch by the end of the day.  We were all ready to watch a full game as finally our team was playing a non-competitive team...we are supposed to be in the instructional league.  Playing some of the competitive teams really gets my juices going but I quickly realize it is not worth year round dedication at this age to play at the level some of these boys are playing at...for our family at least!  Anyway, tonight the weather was perfect and the boys had a great time, actually getting to do a little base running and scoring!  The game ended in a tie but I think everyone was just happy we were able  to play the entire game and not get mercies!

He Has Risen!

The kids are pretty well versed by now at the response-"he has risen indeed"  not so many weird looks when I have them say indeed-such a hard word to explain to little ones.  Easter is by far my favorite holiday among the church calender and our pastor hit it right on the nose by reminding everyone that today is the foundation of our faith...yes, this is the celebration that lets me breath a little easier-that perfection will never be my goal and thankfully I am so loved that on any given day at any given moment I can rest in the peace that my Lord has taken my place for every little slip-up/sin I commit.  Today was full of celebration with trumpet and choir-how can you not tear up singing those Easter hymns made full with choir and instruments.  The kids made it through the service, always a little distracting to have two squirmy little girls next to you during church, thankfully they managed with out showing their panties or losing a shoe...such crazy things, you ever find yourself looking down the row and just wonder what is going through their little heads when you see them trying to stand on their heads, bum in the air??!  Today 'Joy' was top of the list in our sermon, making Andrea perk up to remind us in a very loud whisper "hey, JOY my middle name!"  We also were able to celebrate with friends in the dedication of their youngest-such a special day to hold additional memories as a family.  Dinner was a fun affair, friends and Mom and Dad made for a full table-minus a couple little ones who bit the dust before eating.  Having a full table is great on these special days.  I think all us adults could have slept the afternoon away..minus the kids.  Brayden finally managed to pull us out doors.  Kick ball, bubbles, biking, basketball were all on the list...I think we all worked off our Sunday afternoon meal.  Such a special day, a little struggle to deal with Brayden and his ever push for winning and personal goal of bettering himself-some days are just a little over the top and sadly today was one of them.  I am praying James settles down before reaching school age.  We ended the evening by hunting  for our Resurrection Eggs-a great way to review the Easter Story and fun to see the kids remember some of the eggs from last  year.

This was about as good as it got for pictures-such a trip trying to get everone to atleast look at the camera and then have dresses pulled down-so much for shirts tucked in!