All Stars

Here are the Coach Pitch All-Stars...Trace is on the front row, third from the left. Lost the first game, won the second, and lost the third. They had a lot of fun.

Where we spend our evenings in the spring...at the ball field.

What a game face!

Leaving Home

Kinsey and Trace were playing this morning when I heard something about 'leaving home'. Trace came in to tell me that Kinsey was leaving home, 'but she can't reach the garage door.' I asked him where she was going, and of course, Ella's. Being the good brother he is, he opened the garage door for her, and off she went. Barefooted. In her bathing suit. Carrying her special blanket.

At the end of the driveway he stopped her and they talked. He gave her his scooter to remember him by. As he was walking, head hanging, back to me, he started to cry and said, "I never thought I would see her actually leave home." So sweet.

That's her near the driveway across the street. She kept going to the next driveway down, which is about the distance of a small city block, then turned around and came home.

I asked her what this was all about and she said that she just wanted to spend a little time away from her family. "I was only wanting to stay at Ella's for a couple of days. Can you pack me a little suitcase?" That prompted Trace to hop on the scooter and head down the driveway. I thought he was just riding his scooter, but found out after he turned around and came back that he was running away, too.

This has started much earlier than I thought it would!

When I wasn't running a kid to practice or lessons of some sort, I've been spending some quality time with these guys:

But yesterday I spent the afternoon with these guys...well, and the dishwasher repairman. Thank goodness for THOSE guys!
We are unpacked enough to decorate! I hung pictures in the playroom, living room, hallway, and the dining room. Now the rest is up to Chad. I'm fine using finishing nails and a hammer, but drywall anchors, no thanks.

Early this morning I couldn't sleep so I decided it was the playroom's turn for some quality time. We are thrilled to have a playroom that is upstairs and hidden away. The kids just like the stairs, but Chad and I love the fact that all those toys are out of sight.

Today is the last day of swimming lessons. I am amazed at the progress they have both made in just a week. Kinsey started the week putting her face in the water. But now she is able to swim the width of the pool! The goal was to have her doing a kneeling dive by today, but as of yesterday it wasn't gonna happen. We'll see how today goes.

Trace was a swimmer when he started, but this week has learned freestyle, butterfly (his favorite), backstroke, and breaststroke. He's been doing 'the mermaid', as he calls it, for a long time, so when it came time for the butterfly, all he had to do was add his arms and off he went. The breaststroke (the one where you kick your legs like a frog) is another story. That is a tough one.

I don't have any recent pictures that I haven't already posted, so I'll leave you with this one from December, 2008. The kids were 6 and 3. And playing together. Happily. With a toy that doesn't plug in.

Trace & Tattoos

So, throughout the school year, Trace has complained about not being able to see. I asked the nurse at school to check his vision, and he passed the screening. So I chalked it up to wanting some attention. Well...a few weeks ago, we noticed him squinting to read the menu on the television. Crap.

Before you unanimously award me the bad mom medal...the eye doctor said it is very common for kids to pass their school eye exams because they are squinting to read the letters correctly, but the nurse doesn't watch for the squinting. He's nearsighted so that means he wears the glasses all the time. What I want to know is, who's starting the pool on how soon they get lost?

Who doesn't love a little ink? Kinsey wanted a wolf, but opted for a tribal band after much convincing. She holds her arm up and says, "Watch the wave." HYSTERICAL!!!

It's Been a Whirlwind

Whew! It's been a busy couple of weeks for us. We closed on our new house June 4th and moved in on the 6th. It is so nice to have more space, inside the house and out! It was a long, hot 5 hours of mowing yesterday. Chad came inside at one point and said, "I'm ready to go put a zero-turn mower on a credit card." So the tractor is coming to stay very soon.


Last week was full of baseball, gymnastics, dance, and basketball on top of trying to find the box where you-name-it had been packed. I am very proud to say that as of last night, there were no more boxes in anyone's bedroom AND my car was in the garage!


Trace's All-Star baseball team has their District Tournament coming up this weekend. This last weekend his team played in a prep tourney and yesterday Trace played second, caught two fly balls and knocked down a line drive that we all thought was headed to the fence! There was lots of fist pumping!!!



Kinsey's first dance recital was also this weekend. She had two dances: jazz was a prissy little Cruella de Vil number with the most precious costume on the planet! You can't tell in the pictures, but they're wearing black fishnets. Recital was Saturday night and she wore that costume around the house on Sunday.Ballet was a sweet Tinkerbell number with a big fluffy tu-tu. Adorable! She got flowers from her dad and said, "This is the best day of my life because I got flowers from my dad." awwwwww
Both kids started swimming lessons today. Last year Kinsey bawled and bawled resulting in me calling it quits after two days. I know I should have stuck with it, but sitting in the HEAT at 5pm listening to my daughter wail...no thanks. I told her this was the year. She was going to learn to swim. She did much better today. She did have a moment of panic when her teacher told her she'd be diving in the deep end by the end of the week. But she recovered. Trace's class is working on strokes. He swims, but it's not pretty. Diving is another story. I was very impressed. He stood up there on the edge of the pool and just dove right in, cutting that water like a knife! We all miss having a neighborhood pool.
I am so ready for a breather!!!

Trace is 8

As I look back through eight years of pictures, it seems like forever ago that we were sitting on the back porch at our first house in Sugar Land exposing Trace to the sun because the poor thing was so yellow. But it also seems like it was just yesterday. This was the day after we came home from the hospital. He did manage to fatten up a little, but he's back to long and skinny!

Trace's first Rockport trip! He was one month old in this picture. Hunee and Pop rented a condo on the water.

I love, love, love to watch Trace sleep. He looks so peaceful. And it's one of the only times he is still. If you know him, you know what I mean! He still sleeps with his hands together like this.

6 months: Being baptized really wears a kid out! I loved the feeling of a sleeping kid on my shoulder. Sigh...

Eleven months

One Year!!! He walked at 9 months and was ready for a playhouse for his first birthday.

17 months: Mama B (Auntie Missy's mama) bought Trace this shirt. He was a biter and the shirt reminded her of him...check out the teeth!

Easter 2004, 2 yrs old...I absolutely loved his outfit! Tiny little boy boots, an ATM cap and a hoodie. And the grin just makes it perfect!

His first of many pony rides.

His first ride on Bug. He is so at home on a horse. It's the only time he's not asking for a television or video games.

So serious! Black belt at three and a half.

Three years old...his first baseball bat. He's come a long way since then! He ended the season this year with a .750 batting average, and a spot on the All-Star Team.

Deer, the camphouse, and the cow pasture. All that's missing in this picture is a horse!

Chad says of this picture, "Can you hear the ground?" I love it. There's that grin, again.

Easter morning 2007...I cannot be held responsible for this outfit. He dressed himself. You can't see, but he is also wearing boots.

Here he is at one of his favorite places...The Camphouse. The perfect place for a boy to be a boy.

I tied my own shoes!!! First grade, 6 years old.

Here is what happens when you leave a 7 year old alone in the back of the car with a camera. I have a feeling that's me he is mocking......

2nd place 7-8 yr old Rangers. He is in the front row, second from the left. He played 2nd base this year and batted .750.

May 27, 2010 - with his newest prized posession...a PSP. He had a great day. Chad's computer crashed last night so he couldn't do much work and took the day off. Trace and I went to IHOP for breakfast this morning, then he played his PSP for HOURS. He got to choose the restaurant for supper. His choice: Whataburger. What a great kid we have! That smug little grin says it all!!!

I think if I have ever earned a glass of wine, it was Wednesday night. Chad was working out of town, Ella was spending the night and the kids were having a fabulous time. I put the kids in their beds and set the alarm at 10:00pm after a movie and a bowl of cereal. I was sitting in my kitchen doing a little online shopping for Trace's birthday next week, when at about 11:30, my house alarm goes off. To assume I was petrified would be a safe assumption. I grabbed the phone, put all three kids in one bed, then ran to the safe for my pistol, all while calling 911. There was no way in the world I was waiting for the alarm company to call me!

I was talking to the 911 dispatcher, my heart pounding and breathing as if I'd just completed the Boston Marathon, when we were disconnected. I used my cell phone to call my neighbor to ask her to send her husband, Ella's dad, over to check things out. When she answered the phone, all I could do was cry! I managed to get 'alarm' and 'Scott' out where she could understand me and he was on his way. During my call with Brook, I managed to get the 911 dispatcher back on the phone. The dispatcher did tell me that she would not, if she were me, answer the door with a pistol when the deputy came knocking. Sound advice, which I followed.

The deputy came barrelling down the street and joined Scott int he backyard to check things out. When they were satisfied things were a-ok, they came in to talk to me. The deputy asked me for my name, and when I opened my mouth to tell him, I started to cry...again! Those of you who know me, know that I do NOT cry in front of people! So Scott (who probably had to wake up in 4 hours to go to work) was giving my name to the deputy while I cried. I knew I couldn't panic until there was another responsible adult there. Once that deputy gave me the all clear, and I felt satisfied that we were all safe, I quit being the responsible adult everyone says they want to be with in a crisis situation.

It was a regular 3-ring circus here for a little while. I forgot to mention that during the pandemonium, I decided to let Katie out of her kennel because if the guy from the last episode of Criminal Minds was going to come busting in, she damn well better sacrifice her saved-from-the-Wal-Mart-parking-lot-butt and protect me! So when the deputy came in through the patio door, she went to telling him what she thought about a strange man walking in our house...and it wasn't nice. So there I was trying not to cry, him talking to me, and Katie barking like nobody's business.

It was determined that it was just a freak thing. "Sometimes they just go off," the deputy tells me. There were no screens pulled off the windows, tire marks on the street, footprints around the house...so I was really, surprisingly, ok. If there would have been a tiny bit of anything suspicious, we'd have been breaking in that new Marriott in town tonight. But all the windows were still locked and the screens were intact. I think the kids believed that it was just a test that the police sometimes do to make sure everything works right. That's what I told them and that's what the story will forever be. Well, until they read this when they're older.

Summer & Kinsey's a Graduate

It's officially summer at our house. Trace is all done with 2nd grade and Kinsey has graduated from preschool. Trace is thoroughly enjoying lounging around in his underwear until the last possible moment before we have to leave the house to run errands. There has been a ton of Wii and Nintendo playing and an almost equal amount of cartoon watching scheduled to fill his days of leisure. I did manage to get him to help me clean out his closet on Friday. Although you would have thought I'd asked him to paint the Sistine Chapel!
Trace enjoyed having a friend spend the night on Tuesday. It was a make-up from the one we had to cancel during Spring Break because Trace got strep. It included baseball, pizza, a movie, and lots of throwing tennis balls on the roof and "accidentally" getting them stuck in the gutter. As I told the boys, I don't think eleven balls in the gutter is an accident...maybe one or two.

Kinsey almost enjoyed having Ella spend the night. I say almost, because at 11:30 that night, our alarm went off. More about that later. Needless to say, after all the commotion, everyone wanted to sleep in their own beds!

Here is Kinsey receiving her diploma. She has been looking forward to graduation for months! Now that she is the first one in our family to graduate (as she says) she gets to have fun days at school. Sno-cone day, watermelon day, ice cream sundaes, water day, and an end of the year party.
Our proud little graduate!
It is taking forever to upload videos, so if you go to Brook's blog http://sbeedurhamfamily.blogspot.com/2010/05/ellas-pre-school-graduation.html you can see short videos. It's worth it...the songs are PRECIOUS! Hip-Hip-Hip-Hippopotamus is my favorite!

Playing in the Sprinklers

It was H O T last week and the yard needed water, so playing in the sprinkler seemed the obvious choice. The kids were super excited, but when they saw that the sprinkler they were playing in was the sprinkler system in the yard...well, the excitement level dropped a little. I had to laugh out loud when Trace said, "WHAT?!?! I'm not playing in that! That's from the septic system!" I should clarify...WE DO NOT HAVE A SEPTIC SYSTEM. They warmed up to the 'sprinkler' and had a great time.

3 More Days & Baby Charlie

Trace's last day of school is Tuesday. He is thrilled, to say the least. All year, he has been asking to go to school 3 days a week, like Kins. Her pre-school goes until the end of the month, so Trace is relishing the idea of staying home with me when she has to go to school.
The 2nd grade class is going to the elementary school for a tour this morning. There are no words to adequately convey his excitement! He got dressed up in jeans, a t-shirt, and a button-down shirt on top of that. Then asked if he still had the tie he wore in Uncle Tug & Auntie Missy's wedding. Lordy. He also asked if we could go get some bigger jeans for him after school today. Something is definitely up. Trace, asking to go shopping??? I'm sure it has to do with a cute little blonde girl in his class. I'm not ready for this.

Kinsey is practicing for graduation at school this week and next. Yes. Graduation. Do we really need to graduate from pre-school? I told her teacher that this is just another opportunity to make me cry. They even wear little caps and gowns. Precious. She will be in for a rude awakening next year when she is not allowed to hang out in the office or the teacher workroom all day. That's what she thinks you do at the primary school.
This is baby Charlie. Thanks, Disney Channel, for giving us another sitcom on which to base our pretend life. Kinsey has been telling people that Chad and I have three kids. Yep...baby Charlie would be our third child. She even went with us when we were at the school serving teachers for Teacher Appreciation Week.

We're on the Move!

As if we haven't moved enough over the last 2 years (5 addresses)...we are moving AGAIN! We are staying in town this time, just moving a mile and a half down the road to a house with more room...inside and out! We are very excited. Although it is going to be tough leaving our neighborhood. I'm just thinking of all the cleaning out as spring cleaning!
This picture is taken from the property line. The house sits on 2 acres. Plenty of room for a shop and a batting cage!