Outtakes

In an attempt to make my life easier, I decided I was not going to hire a photographer this year. The idea of picking out 6 cute, coordinating outfits, scheduling around baseball, and actually having to fix my hair was just not in the cards. Every year I say this, and I always break down and we do it anyway. But I stuck to my word this time! One beautiful afternoon, I decided we would just head down to the Circle C park and take a few pics so I had some of all 4 boys together this year. They wore whatever they wanted, Owen and Cash rode their bikes down there, we ran around looking for fun, different spots and we got a few cute pictures along the way. 

 

Tier 1 Green 10u

 Here are some pictures from Owen season. I had plans to write some big post about all the wins they had...but in reality, it was a tough season for Owen. So I am going to leave these pictures right here and remember the good moments of the season, the fun times he had with his friends and hopefully some big life lessons he learned along the way to make him a better, stronger, more resilient human.

2 1/2

 Clydie, Trippy, TC.....it is official, you are in full on toddler mode. 

At 2.5, you are amazingly happy, even-keeled, so social and well tempered. You are easy to please and you get over disapointment or frustration very quickly. 

You love "helping" us do things and want to do things yourself. You love helping me make things and just need to be right up in the action.

Speaking of doing things yourself....if you want something, and no one will get it for you, you just get it yourself. For instance, you asked me for ice cream and I said no. So you snuck into the kitchen, got the ice cream, a spoon, a cup, hopped on to the counter and got it yourself. You were so proud of yourself, I let you have a few bites before taking it away.

Trucks, trucks, trucks. You love them all. All day long you play with trucks. You sleep with trucks and think you are getting a new one every time Dad leaves the house. We run outside Monday mornings when the garbage truck comes and every afternoon when the school bus drops off kids!

You are a talking machine! Full on sentences, new words every day. You are so smart!!!

My favorite thing you say right now though, is when you ask us something and we say "no" or "I don't know" and you answer back, in the cutest little voice, while shrugging your shoulders up "maybe?!?!"

You love your tie-dye blanket, which is what you call it "my tie dye" and still love your papi, but we are working on getting rid of, or at least limiting its use. You like to do what we call "the papi swap" where you will just swap out papi's for no reason when you have two in your hands. You like having a little milk before bed but even more than that, you love calling Eli's name as loud as you can when you need more and ask him to get you some...he always does. 

You run, jump, or skip everywhere. You are a rough and tumble kind of kid. Super tough and strong.  If you fall or hurt yourself you ask us to rub it for you and you do your best not to cry and always get right back up. 

You are not the best sleeper, but have always been a good napper and let me know when you are ready. You have become more picky when it comes to food, but still pretty healthy and easy-ish to feed! You love ice water and milk in the evenings. You LOVE your brothers--constantly need hugs before bed or before they leave for school...you ask them for help or to sneak you chocolate. Cash is the best at playing with you--hide and seek is always a hit! Eli can not handle seeing you upset and will do anything to make you stop, usually that involves giving you chocolate chips. Owen is always willing to help you, but he is busy with his first little girl crush these days:) 

You are a social little dude. All of the boys friends love you, ask for fist bumps and hugs and say hi to you whenever they see you. You say hi to strangers and neighbors walking by. If someone talks to you or asks you a question you always talk to them...which is a huge difference from how shy your brothers were. You play with anyone, anytime. You love going to baseball because you have a little fan club of other siblings and so many people to play with. 

You are GOOFY. And crazy. 

There was that one time when Cash insisted on putting fake nails on himself and decided it was a good idea to glue one on your nail! Well, it would not come off for the entire day and you just went about your business with a looooong, blue nail on your hand. I could not help myself not to laugh every time I saw it. Still makes me laugh!

We are truly in awe of you. We are so glad that you are here and at the same time, still can not believe it! You are so, so loved. 

Tier 1 Silver 9U

 We had a really great spring/summer/whatever season it was with the Raptors, but after a lot of thought and chats with the guys at Tier 1, we decided to make the move over there for the Fall. Cash had been counting down the days until he could play for a Tier 1 team, and we thought he might be ready to make the jump even though it meant he was playing up in a 9U kid pitch division when he had one more year in 8U. I was a little nervous if we made the right choice or not, but he ended up having a great season and grew tremendously. It was certainly a learning curve but he really did amazing. He has consistently been described as a leader on all his teams and in school, and this team was no different. I am very proud of this kid of mine!!!

They were not the best team and did not win all their games, but the team really improved throughout the season, and Cash had a lot of opportunity to grow this season. 

Here he is before his first Tier 1 game!

This season, Cash played catcher and short stop. He also had the opportunity to pitch. I am in awe of how he just steps on that mound with such confidence and poise. He exudes confidence and never shows that anything bothers him. He did an amazing job in his first season of kid pitch!

The funniest part of the weekend is always watching Cash become buds with the umpires. Without a doubt, I would catch him chatting it up with the guy behind the plate in between plays and innings. No idea what they would talk about! One game he even made a deal with the ump and he bought him a bag of skittles because Cash won the bet!

Cash learned all the signs like a champ. Mertz always told him that he would use his left arm for a certain play, so in the beginning, Cash always needed him to show him his left arm--the one with this watch on it! I love that I caught him showing Cash his left arm. We learned right before this that Cash had dyslexia so it made sense that he was having a little trouble differentiating left from right! 

His last weekend, he had a really amazing game pitching, making some great plays and hitting really well. This is the face of a kid who just struck out a bunch of players!

We are ready for a break now that the season is over but it was a good one, with a lot of growing! Thankful for Coach Mertz for taking Cash on as an 8 year old and having confidence in him that he could do it!