State Champs!!!

Makenna's softball team, The Abilene Angels, played in the 8 and under State Softball Tournament this weekend. They went undefeated for the weekend, and are the State Champs!! Needless to say, it was a pretty exciting weekend!!! Way to go girls--what an awesome way to end a great season!

The Trophy Plaque:

Running round the bases.

We just won!!!!! Do you think we were excited??

Getting her medal from Coach Brian

Holding the very heavy plaque.

Doing the team cheer: We're Dynamite!

Proud sisters.

Championship photo. Official score 13-9

Our car decorations.

Sisters and Sharing

Hey, can I have a bite of that?

Mmmmm.....this is good!

OK! That's enough now!
Still friends!

Meet My New Friends

I have two new friends that I met today:


They are very good buddies with this:

Sigh.........

It was a case of house renovation gone awry. Stub and I were moving furniture from the TV room and entry way so we could start on the floors. In the midst of moving the entertainment center, I had bent down to close a door. Stub didn't realize I had stopped and kept pushing.....right on over my foot. OUCH!!

So, we had a fun trip to the ER (after we went and rented the sander--the store closed at 5:00!!). It appears that I have bruised the bone, but no break--yippee!!! I have to stay off of it, and let it heal, so we will see how that goes. I kind of do the hobble/shuffle step. Maybe it will be the newest dance move for 2009!

Happy Birthday Mylee!!

Has it really been two years?? It sure has gone quickly for us! It seems like it was just yesterday that you were our little 5 pound 9 ounce tiny package nestled snugly in our arms. Although, as I look at these pictures, it also is so hard to remember you being so small!

You are growing up so big, and have such a personality. You want to be just like your big sisters, and jump right on in to whatever they are doing.


Your laugh is contagious--it just makes everyone start laughing with you when you get to giggling! You are very loving, and are very happy to pucker up and give BIG smooches to us all--they are the BEST!

So glad you joined our family two years ago today! We love you lots!!!!

The Great Frog Hunt 2009

The kids SO wanted to catch some frogs and turtles for the 4th of July Frog & Turtle Race in the park. We loaded up the evening before, and headed out to my parent's pasture. They have two ponds, so we were hopeful that we would be able to catch something.

Stub and the kids headed out on the other side of the small pond to try their luck. I stayed on the near side with Mylee and Jentree.


It was a bit muddy from the rain the night before, and Mylee ended up meeting the mud. (Note the dirty backside). She had mud all over her sandals and feet, but nothing a little pond water couldn't clean off!
There were frogs in the small pond, but none that were wanting to be caught (imagine that!), so we hiked up to the car to move on to the bigger pond.

Shhhh........the great frog hunters are at work. Don't scare off the frogs!Gotcha!!! The hunters caught a frog! Excitement was overwhelming amongst the hunters. Of course, all the rest of the potential candidates for the jumping contest immediately swam to the middle of the pond.

During the quest, Jentree and Mylee did a little exploring of their own. Too cute! Think they will be this loving when they are teenagers? Jentree enjoyed looking at Grandpa's cows and calves up on the hill. She especially liked an old Charolais cow (they are big and white). She kept calling her, "My Pretty Cow."

Sadly, our catch got away. There was an unsealed hole in the box they had placed the frog into, and he fled for safety into the pond. The hunters were pretty bummed. They kept hunting until a storm moved in, and momma said it was time to go when this arrived:
I know.....I am such a party pooper!! We made it home in time to end up going to the basement while the tornado sirens went off. Fun times!

We will try again next year. Hopefully we will have more cooperative subjects that won't mind getting caught. I mean, if you saw 6 children running at you, wouldn't you want to be caught too??

Half Way There

So a few posts back, I said we were working on our floors. I thought it would be fun to show some "Before and After" shots.

This is the back hallway before we started sanding them all down. This area was in pretty bad shape, so we didn't think we could screw up too badly with our novice floor refinishing skills.

This is the back hallway now, all done (well the floors anyway!):
This is the dining room before we began sanding it all down. Notice all the irregular colors on the floor. It had dark blotchy areas of stain in places, and was really worn in other areas.

This is the dining room now:
I am not sure why it looks so yellowish in the pictures other than the lighting reflecting off the walls maybe? It really is much darker than that. This is the real color of the floors:I am loving the results, and cannot wait until I have the rest of the downstairs all done. Anyone bored out there? Anyone? Anyone??? (Crickets chirping)

It's Harvest Time!

June brings no school, warm weather, pool time and wheat harvest. For quite a few years, I have driven the straight truck full of wheat from the field to town. Oh what a lovely machine she is! No power steering, 2-55 AC (2 windows down and drive 55 mph), no radio, a cracked windshield (courtesy of Derek rolling her one year), and depending on the day--questionable brakes. Of course, it was usually 100*+ outside, and long lines when you got to the co-op to weigh and dump your haul.

As much as I can complain about it, I honestly really don't mind harvest at all. The song, "International Harvester" makes me crack up whenever I hear it. Oh so true! There is also something about being a part of a tradition and it being a family affair. Plus, there isn't anything like the good harvest meals that we get to eat. My Mom always makes up some great meals and brings them out to the field for us to eat before getting right back to work. There is just something about being out in the field that makes it all taste even better!

Well, a new ride has taken my place:
My Dad has gone to strictly using the semi to haul the wheat to town, so I am officially in retirement (aren't I a little young to have been retired??). In all fairness, the semi is a much more economical option. It hauls way more wheat for the trip, and it has all the modern amenities--namely AC! However, I do not have a CDL, so no driving for me!

Makes me a little sad....but then when it gets to be 100 out, and I am sitting in my cool house, I get over it rather quickly! :-) However, to keep with the harvest tradition, we went out to the field to visit and take in the sights and take some pictures.

My Dad's combine working away in the field:



The kids all lined up watching Grandpa cut wheat in his combine. They love to go for rides with him! I will admit, I like going along for a ride too! It is a cool viewpoint from in there.



After the bin on the combine gets full, they dump the wheat into the grain cart. The tractor then brings the grain cart up to the road to dump into the semi, and the combines keep cutting wheat. You always want to make sure your windows are rolled up for this! Otherwise, you get an awful lot of wheat dust (called chaff) in your seat. Not so much fun when you are hot and sweaty!!
Before leaving, we decided to get a family shot. Since everyone was busy working, I didn't have anyone to shoot a picture. So, we figured out how to use the self-timer on my camera. Works pretty good after getting all the settings the way I wanted them!

Harvest 2009 has officially come to a close. Maybe I can make a reprise next year, and drive the tractor instead! :-)

She May Be Little, She May Be Small.....

But she can really whack that ball!

That is the chant that Makenna's teammates yell out when she goes up to bat. I chuckle every time I hear it. Although she doesn't really "whack" the ball all that far, she did have a few pretty good hits this weekend.

We started off the weekend on Saturday in Salina. The forecast was for rain all day long, but the girls didn't seem to mind playing in the rain. They just kept on going like usual. If you look closely in this picture, you can see the rain drops falling. We ended up getting two games in before the tournament was postponed. The rest of the games were to resume on Sunday, but we were already scheduled to play that day, so we didn't get to finish off the tournament.

The Regional 8U Softball Tournament was held in Clay Center on Sunday. After all of the rain the day before, the weather was hot and humid!! The girls had to play back to back games, and won both to land themselves in the Championship.

I like this next picture--Makenna and the girl from the other team are both in action, with both of their feet off the ground. Kind of a fun shot!

The girls all lined up for the coin toss.

Concentrating on the pitch coming in.

The girls ended up winning and are the Region 3 8U Softball Champs! Here they are posing for their team shot with their medals.

Their medals were pretty neat looking. They were even engraved on the back. Pretty cool!
They now have officially qualified for the State Tournament in Wichita on July 17-19. I had previously thought they were qualified, but was incorrect, so now we are official! :-) Should be an exciting, fun time!