1st Day of School 2008

I feel as if I just blogged about this but I guess it's been a year! The more life goes on, the more I realize the "circle of life"!! No wonder I always feel confused and crazy...I just keep going in circles!! But, they are fun circles! We just finished our first week of school. I feel blessed to say, it was another good one (despite the attitude they are showing in the picture above) and we pray it continues. The boys seem to be happy in their classes and enjoying their teachers. Rylan jumps up out of bed quickly and ready to go each morning. After, the 15th, 'it's time to get up', Caden rolls out bed to the couch! Where again, I remind him to eat and put his shoes on! I know it is like this in most families, but how are kids with the same parents so different! I guess God wants us to experience it all! Despite their different approaches to the morning, they both go to school without any complaining which I am most thankful for and come home happy each day! Rylan has Mrs. Mayo for his 3rd grade teacher. Caden has Mrs. Lowry for first grade. Caden is excited to have the opportunity to attend music and PE class this year. He has looked forward to that for a while.
Rylan hopes to be able to join the Radical Ropers this year through his PE class. The Radical Ropers is a 3rd grade jump rope program where kids participate in performances around town. The school is being remodeled, which has made drop-off and pick-up a bit difficult. This week we chose to walk home each day instead of fighting the traffic. The video clip below I took as we walked home with our friends, Kerri, Wyatt and Kamille.
Rylan and his teacher


Caden liked the thought of laying in this bathtub in his classroom to read AR books!

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Cardinals Win STATE!

It all started when Rylan was 6. I blame Dustin! He got into Ryan's head that baseball was one of the greatest sports to be played. Dustin drafted Rylan onto the Cardinals and Ryan began helping with coaching the team 3 years ago. Our family has never been the same!! Baseball, baseball, baseball...is our life from February to August. We have made it to the state tournament 3 years. Some years we have lost quickly. Once we made a few games into the tournament before losing and this year, we finally went the whole way! After going to a few of these tournaments, we began wondering if we could host one and get the 'home field advantage'! Last summer, Ryan began asking JD if we could make a bid to host the tournament here. He was reluctant to do this but, in the end he made the bid and we got it! We have looked forward to this event for a year. However, I must admit I never thought we would actually win it! (don't tell Ryan :)

This year's tournament consisted of 10 teams. We played Bousqueville in our first game. We didn't play so well but it was enough to give us our first victory. The score was 4-2. We then played another team from Brownwood, the Astros. It is never enjoyable to go to these tournaments and have to play a team from your hometown. But it seems to always happen that way. This game gave us our 2nd victory. We were so thrilled to stay on the winner's side of the bracket...we had not done that before!! It is a much easier tournament when you are able to do this! Wednesday night we played the Troup Rattlers, the other undefeated team in the tournament. Rylan pitched this game and did a good job. The Cardinals had lots of great hits and that was what kept us on top. This win put us in the championship game Thursday night. In the end, we played the Clifton White Sox in the finals. They had played their way out of the losers bracket and were low on pitching. We feel extremely blessed to have had so many things go our way during this season. We know God had way more important things to look over but we know he did bless us this week! We are thankful! Winning the state championship has been a dream of this team for several years and they finally did it! Way to go Cardinals!!!

Rylan throws to 1st (Hayden) to get a runner out

Ryan's pregame 'talk'

Ryan talks things over during a time-out with pitcher Blaine

and Rylan as catcher

Caden steals 3rd...

to give Coach Dad a fist bump on 3rd base!

Caden steals HOME!!

And he slides...SAFE!

OK OK....

For anyone who has spent anytime with us over the past several months, you know how consuming baseball season is for our family. Ryan and Rylan dream it, talk it, watch it, play it and practice it daily! Caden joined them this season, which has been fun for all of us. I have been 'reprimanded' by several lately for not posting about the most exciting thing that happened to our family this summer. So, first my apologies...moments to blog are few and far between around here! Next, the posting of our state championship is coming!! I am working on it! Rylan and Caden went to spend a few days with Ryan's parents. Hopefully, Hudson and I can find a moment to document our summer baseball! Thanks for reading and showing interest in our baseball obsession!