fifteen years

Fifteen years ago today I married the love of my life.  At times I simply can't believe that it's been 15 years since we said "I Do" but then there are other times that it seems like it's been longer (we've been together since the summer before 8th grade...that's 22 years...WOW)!  We've had our ups and downs and in between times, but I can honestly say that there is no one else that I can imagine doing this life with!

Darren and I celebrated our anniversary a bit early last month with a vacation.  We spent a week in Rosemary Beach, FL.  It was our first real vacation without the kids and it couldn't have been more PERFECT!!! {I wish I was there right now!}

More on our Florida getaway to come, but for now I'm off to a date night with the hubs a quick dinner with all four of my boys (Swadley's BBQ) and then we're heading to Cale's baseball practice.  Our anniversary date night will have to wait until next week.  AHHH, such is married life with kids!  :)

bike rider

Cale learned to ride his bike without training wheels today.  Over the past year we've asked him a few different times and he just wasn't ready (or in the mood) to learn, but tonight he looked at me out of the blue and said, "I want to learn to ride my bicycle without training wheels."  SO, I immediately looked through Darren's tools until I found what I needed to get the "trainers" off.  From there it took all of five minutes before he was riding with confidence.

We ran inside to tell daddy to come watch (he had NO idea what we'd been up to) but he immediately guessed as he was coming out to watch.  So much for surprising him!  

Don't let his picture fool you.  I am the one who taught Cale how to ride! :)

Cale and I went to get snowcones to celebrate and then I told him we should ride our bikes over to GramPat and Papa's house to show off his new skill (his brothers were already over there...they like to bike over there and have ice cream after dinner and poor Cale has to stay behind because he isn't old enough to go without mommy and daddy).  When we were getting ready to head out,  Cale sincerely said, "Please Jesus, let this go well."  It was precious.  It went okay...he fell down a few times on the way, but that is to be expected.  He reluctantly got back on after each fall and we eventually make it over to GramPat/Papa's house.  Cale had a snack and then GramPat took pity on him and drove him home.  The rest of us had fun racing home to see who could beat each other on our bikes and also GramPat and Cale in the van.  Darren won, Coby lost and obviously Connor and I were somewhere in the middle.  We all beat GramPat and Cale. :)  

Proud little guy.  He was doing his Johnny Bravo moves (Don't ask!!)

I'm so proud of my little Calebug!!!

baseball

Baseball has been a huge part of our lives in the spring/summer for the past six years or so. This year has been no different. We've spent many evenings at the ball field lately (Connor had three games just this week and Cale was supposed to have two, but one was cancelled due to wet fields so he just has one).  Tuesdays game didn't start until 9:30 which meant that we didn't get home until 11:30. That is a late night for the boys, but hey, at least it's summer!

I just have to brag on Connor for a minute....he hit his first HOME RUN last week and then he hit another one at the next game! I was SUPER proud of my boy...in fact, I may have had tears in my eyes as I watched him run those bases! I think the reason it got me so emotional is because just the week before he told us he was ready to quit baseball at the end of the season. It made me sad because I think he has a lot of potential and he really does love the sport. I know he was just down on himself because he wasn't getting many hits for several games in a row and he felt like his fielding wasn't where he wanted it to be. BUT that happens and we explained to him that we didn't raise a quitter and that we didn't want him to quit just because he was having a few "off" games. Everyone has those times, even the best of players. Thankfully Connor is gaining his confidence back and I don't think he'll quit after all. :) HE told me that he finally found his rhythm! I'm so glad, I'd really miss our evenings at the ball field if he quit. I couldn't have honestly said that a few years ago....my how life changes!

Here are a few pics of my guy at the game tonight...

 

And here's Cale at the game (he came late with GramPat who was gracious enough to take him to have his team pictures made tonight).  Thank goodness for GramPat who is always willing to help us out when we have more than one sporting event in a night.  Those days are becoming more and more frequent now that all three boys are involved in sports.  It gets REALLY crazy when all three boys have something to be at at the exact same time.  Somehow we always work it out though and I try to remember to enjoy these moments because they'll be over before I know it.  The boys are growing up WAY to fast. :(