The end of baseball season & Lily makes a new friend

Well, sadly enough baseball is over. We had a much better season this spring. And Jake really improved at both fielding and batting. He has really taken off in this sport, and is already talking about fall ball. Jeff helped coach again, and even though it's so time consuming, he's enjoying it. I'm not really sure what we're going to do with ourselves in the evening now, but I'm sure the kids will think of something to keep us busy.

Above, Jake's ready to field the ball, and to the left, he has connected with another base hit. He just keeps improving! And he's almost as competitive as his Mom (uh-oh, that may not be a good thing).

On the "Lily front", she and Tiger are becoming good friends. He has got to be the MOST patient cat I've ever seen. She can kick and swing her arms around, and he just sits next to her and never even flinches. I guess all the "love" he's gotten from the other kids has made him immune to her swats and kicks. He seems to really like snuggling up to her.

On another note, we're still sleeping through the night (I'm probably jinxing myself by mentioning this though). She has even been sleeping as late at 6 am. It is just so amazing to me, especially since it seemed like it took months and months for my other 2 to sleep through the nigh. Although, according to Jeff, Cyrena slept through the night when she was little, then all of a sudden started waking up again. We're going to hope that Lily doesn't follow this pattern. So far, we've been so blessed by how sweet and happy-go-lucky she is. Even the ladies at her daycare tell us that it's so easy to get smiles out of her.

BIG MILESTONE!!!

I know I just posted something last night, but this was big enough (well at least to me, ha ha) to mention today. Lily fell asleep around 10:00 pm last night and she didn't wake up until 5:00 am this morning!!! But of course, Mommy woke up twice to check on her little sleeping angel. To me, 7 straight hours is sleeping through the night. We'll see if this trend continues, or if last night was just a fluke. Just another sign that our baby is growing up!

Rub a dub dub

Today I thought I'd write about Lily, since she is the newest member of the family (and we currently have the most pictures of her). She LOVES bath time. I've had to start laying towels all around her because of all the fun splashing!!!

This picture (to the right) was taken probably about 3 or 4 weeks ago, and the one below was taken maybe a week ago. Look at the difference in her, she just keeps growing and growing!!! I keep telling her to stop, but like all my kids, she's not listening!!!

She never wants to get out of the tub either, if she's fussy, we know what to do with her! Throw her in the tub and prepare to get wet along with her!

Nana and Papa were here with us this past weekend, and we got to show them just how much fun a bath can be. There's nothing cuter than a baby in the tub!!!! I'll post more pictures from their visit later (when I manage to find my camera and download them).

Another new favorite is the outdoors!!! She loves to be outside. Last weekend we took all of the kids to Beaver Fork. Lily didn't seem too jazzed about the water, but loved sitting on the shore with me. She even crashed out and took a nap.

These pictures are of her adorable swimming "attire". I'm looking forward to her reaction to the 4th of July, I hope she likes the fireworks!

I guess there's no other big news in Lily's life!! But that can change daily. So I'll end this post with this picture, which is Lily at her absolute sweetest!! I told Jeff tonight, while I was holding her as she slept, that there's nothing more precious than snuggling with my sweet sleeping princess!!

New at this

Hello there everyone. I thought this might be an easy and fun way to help keep everyone up to date with what all is going on in our family (especially since so much seems to be going on constantly). I'll start with Jeff and I and then go from oldest to youngest with the kids.

Jeff and I are have been keeping busy with all the various schedules of the kids. Not to mention having a new baby. I recently started a job as an Office Administrator with Exit 1st Choice Realty in Conway. I am LOVING it. It has so much flexibility and the best part is that I am right here in Conway. Which is wonderful, especially with the gas prices being so out of control.

Kaylee just finished up the 7th grade. She played Volleyball for the school team (I believe they were called the "Wampus Kittens"), and was also on the student council. Her grades were great (as usual) and now she is spending the summer babysitting our two middle kids, Jake and Cyrena. She made the volleyball team for next school year, and will start later this summer getting ready for their season. We were really proud of how hard she has worked. She and Jeff are headed to Cincinnati this summer with our church youth group for a mission trip. They are both really looking forward to it. She's been a HUGE help to me with Lily. It's great to have an older sibling to help out, she's always happy to take Lily and keep her occupied so I can actually accomplish a few things when I get home. She is also having fun dressing Lily, I have a feeling this will be one of the most stylish babies around.

Jake is about to wrap up baseball, I think we've got just about 1 more week. This has been a pretty good season, we've won a few games (which is better than last year). He just got done with the 1st grade, and boy did he learn a lot. He is reading like crazy, and we go to the library about once a week to get new books. He's been a GREAT big brother to Lily. He had hoped for a baby brother originally, but I think he is seeing how much fun a little sister can be. He loves her to death!!! (and vice-versa).

Cyrena is spending the first 5 weeks of the summer with us and having a blast. I bought the kids a little swimming pool to splash around in this summer, and so far we've had to refill it about 3 times. I think they're spending the better part of everyday in it. She just finished up Kidnergarten, and just like Jake, she learned a BUNCH of stuff. She's even reading, which is amazing because what I remember of kidnergarten, I basically learned my A,B,C's and 1,2,3's (and a whole lot of recess). It's amazing how quickly they move these kids along. She also spent last year in the Daisy Girl Scouts, and just "bridged" up to being a Brownie. Which means, we'll be selling cookies next year. She's had a big year, and has been a great big sister to Lily.

Last, but definately not least, Lily is our brand new little doll. And boy what a doll she is. She has kept us laughing with all that she is learning to do, and she's not even 3 months old yet. She joined our family (quite surprisingly) on March 29, 2008, rather than on her scheduled date of April 8. Which was fine with Mommy, I sure was getting stretched to my limit I think. I was able to spend 8 full weeks home with her and would've given about anything to have gotten about 8 more years!!! I sure did enjoy the time I had though. We have all had so much fun with her. She just started daycare, which was VERY difficult for Mommy at first, and seems to be doing great with it. We took her to the lake for the first time last week, and I don't think she really knew what to think of it. She and I ended up only spending a few minutes in the water, then we watched from the shade on the shore. She's been smiling at us for quite a while now and is just on the verge of laughing. We get some pretty cute noises from time to time, but not a true "laugh". She's working on it though. She's also trying REALLY hard to reach out and grab things. You can tell she really wants to, but just can't quite figure out how to get her hand to go where she wants it to. It won't be long, she's changing by the day. I sure miss her during the day, but it's so sweet when I get home and she smiles her big toothless grin at me.

Needless to say, things are hopping around our house, but neither one of us would have it any other way!! We love having all the kids and all the activity.