On to kid #2...

 Jake has also been keeping us busy going to ball games.  He usually pitches or plays short stop and occasionally catches.  They had a better year than we thought and placed 2nd.  The tournament, however, didn't go so well.  That was how we spent today.  We got beat in our first game...badly.

We knew that things were going to be tough today as a very involved, well-liked, decent, kind, caring man, coach and father to one of the kids on the other teams died of a brain aneurysm yesterday.  Alot of very lucky people will go on to live very full lives thanks to his family who decided to donate his organs to people who needed them.  He and his wife are the parents to 4 children ranging in ages from 3 to a junior in high school.   His son was at the tournament today but had decided not to play.  His team won their first game and it put them in the championship game.  During that game he sat in the dugout to support his team.  When his team got into trouble with their pitchers he went and put his uniform on and he walked out onto the pitcher's mound to help his team out.  There wasn't a dry eye there not to mention the people that cheered for him as he walked out to the mound.  It was a struggle to hold back the tears as you watched every pitch he threw and as he got up there to bat.  He helped them win their last game without his dad there to congratulate him when he walked back into the dugout.  It was a tough thing to watch.  So if you think about it, you might want to send a prayer their way, this family is going to need them.

The other night as we watched Jake play ball, I noticed that God was giving us a beautiful sky!  I drive the kids nuts with my nature pictures but here are a couple I thought were pretty awesome!

It's almost like God is reminding us of a choice we've been given.  Would you like to spend an eternity

here                                                                    or                                                     here?

We spent some time at the Blank Park Zoo.  Jaden's pre-school/daycare went on a field trip there and Jake tagged along with us.  Unfortunately, my batteries in my camera were flashing red at me from the moment we got there so I don't have a whole lot of pictures to share.  The man pictured above with us and the tortoises is a zoo-keeper and one of the kids at the daycare's dads.  So we got special treatment and got to touch a few animals that normally you wouldn't get to do.

I better share these pictures as they are already old news.  Above we went to make sure that Maddy was ok after having her tonsils and what was left of her adnoids removed.  She was a trooper!

And I didn't get a picture of dad on our Father's Day outing due to him needing to get home because he had already been on his feet too long but these are 5 out of his 6 grandchildren that helped him celebrate.

Here is the 6th grandchild, Shea, pictured with his mom Ginger.  And here he is showing me his newest trick of sticking his toungue out!!

And I have to give you an update on Sydney's sprained ankle.  Here her ankle is a week after:

It kind of looks like she is wearing a light purple and green sock.  Even her toes swelled up and turned pretty shades of red, blue and purple!

Well, that's probably been a long enough post for now.  All of you heading to Eminence, have a safe trip and I got to say that I am kind of sorry we aren't going to be there!

What's keeping us busy so far this summer...

 I have a lot of posting to make up for so I am just going to start off with the oldest kid in our family and hopefully in a couple of days I'll manage to post something about Jake and so on!

Sydney has been keeping us busy with softball.  She will be a freshman this year and she had the chance to try out for the J.V. softball team.  If she hadn't made it she would have played on the 8th grade team with the rest of her classmates.  She and five other girls made the team and have had 3-4 ball games a week and tournaments on the weekends ever since.  This week she kept us busy with a game every night and a tournament today.

Last night Sydney was trying to get caught in a pickle between first and second base to score the person on third.  It worked but in the process she messed up her ankle trying to get back on first base.  We won 3-2 and she was responsible for 2 out of the three runs but unfortunately will not be playing next week because she has a really bad sprain.

Thank goodness we have an athletic trainer in the family who knows his stuff, too bad Sydney didn't like the treatments!  If you have ever done the ice bath for 20 minutes you know what I am talking about!  It's horrible!  The crutches were trickier than they looked too!

Here she is below getting an x-ray to make sure it isn't broken.  Her ankle is starting to turn some pretty colors.  Hopefully she will be able to play again in a week or so.  She found today that it is much more fun to play than to watch her team play without her. 

Below is Sydney helping me babysit one of the neighbors kids.  We kept Elise and Caitlyn who is off playing with Jaden somewhere, while their mom and dad went to Parkersburg where they were from to see if their parents and grandparents were ok after an F-5 tornado hit.  One of their parents homes was shifted off the foundation, a cousin's house and their grandparents house were gone.  Thankfully everyone in their family survived.  We had the pleasure of keeping the girls overnight and even when we had to drag them out of their beds to go to the basement because of a tornado coming our way, they still thought it was a treat because we put in a movie for them and made beds on the floor.  Kids are so oblivious to certain things, it must be great!  

Today Dad had knee replacement surgery and will be in Methodist Hospital Powell Rm# 566 for the next few days.  The doctor said that by the time he got done, Dad's new knee was looking good.  When Troy and I left the hospital around 5:30 today Dad seemed to be feeling pretty good.  IT"S THE DRUGS, I TELL YA!!!!   They are going to get him up and make him put some weight on it tomorrow.  We'll see how good he feels after that...in the long run I know it will be worth it for him not to feel pain with every step he takes. 

As promised:  A better picture of Jaden's new do!

Our nephew Jordan (on Troy's side) graduates from Central College and will soon be heading to Indiana State!  We'll miss having him around!

Sydney's 8th grade graduation banquet

Our 8th grade graduate!!

Troy and Sydney at the bowling alley after the banquet.

Syd and some of her friends in their new lime green class of 2012 t-shirts.

Sydney at her last junior high track meet.

Kindergarten through 6th grade has a track and field day and this year Sydney got to be a helper.

Jake got to participate.  He is running in a relay race: boys against girls.  Boys won!

Here Jake is jumping the hurdles...

and the high jump...

and the high jump again.

And here we have an unusual tender moment between Jake and Jaden.  He really does love her, he just doesn't want too many people to know it!

Long time no see!

 It's been a while since I have posted so we have some catching up to do!

We started off the week with track meets.  Here Sydney is below getting ready to throw the shotput.  This was only her second time and she threw it 25 feet, placing 4th.  The next day we had a track meet at Bondurant which is the only sporting event that we share with Carlisle.  So we got to spend time with the Hermons!!!!  That day Sydney threw 25 feet and 10 inches placing 3rd.  She also was in three running events.  I hope to show more of that at another time.

Below is Sydney with one of her friends just trying to keep warm at the meet.  Monday was terribly cold!

Then we have Niki doing the high jump for the first time.  He is fun to watch and I am sure that with Marc going over the videos that he took while we were there he will manage to figure out the mechanics so Niki can perfect his jump!  He did alot better than the other two kids who had been doing the high jump all along.  Niki at least came close!

Below is Ginger and Shea enjoying the track meet on Tuesday, it was a much nicer day!

Here is Niki in one of his running events!  He is a distance runner and this is the mile.

Wednesday, I had the pleasure of chaperoning Jake's field trip to Ashton Park near Baxter.  The park ranger had some fun activities for them to do.  They had to smell some artificial scents and try to figure out what they were.  They also took pictures of leaves using blueprint paper, squares of glass, the sun and ammonia to develop their pictures.  Hopefully I will edit this post later with a picture of Jake and his leaf picture if he brings it home.

Here Jake is with some of his friends that were in our hiking group.  On the right he is teaching us about one of the wildflowers that grow in the park.

The chaperones had to lead the kids to a tree and they had to get up close and personal with it and then they were led back to the rest of the group and were unblindfolded and they had to find their tree.  Jake pretty much walked right back to it.

Jaden has had a lot of changes this week.  Below, on the left, is what she looked like before this week started.  This picture was taken when I took her to Kindergarten round-up a couple weeks before.  Here she is on the right with Shea after getting her hair cut pretty short that day.  I'll try to post a better picture of her hair later.

She had an accident Wednesday after I picked her up from daycare.  She was doing as she was told and taking some toys to her room when she tripped and went face first into her door frame.  At least I think that is what she hit.  I heard a thud and then a terrible scream and crying.  By the time I rounded the corner her face was covered in blood.  It was coming from her mouth and her nose.  I found a chip in the woodwork where I imagine her tooth hit but there was also blood on the wall, so I'm not postitive.  You are probably thinking, poor girl, she's miserable and her mom is taking pictures of her.  But I have to put these in her scrapbook! 

We made an emergency run to the dentist office where the dentist had to get out of a meeting to meet us but Jaden's tooth was wedged back behind the other two teeth and I just didn't think that we could let that go.  Here she is below getting a little laughing gas.  Didn't work, she didn't laugh once!  Dr. Chris ended up pulling her front two teeth.  She was rewarded at Wal-mart where grandma bought her a movie and I got her a Ken Barbie to replace her other one because his head fell off.  We also got popsicles for her to suck on.  That night the tooth fairy left $4 under her pillow.  The tougher it is to lose the teeth, the kinder the tooth fairy is!

Here she is with two very fat lips.  She also has a bruise on her chin which is pretty much a line from her lip to her chin.  We keep getting on her about speaking clearly, with her puffy lips and lack of front teeth she has been a little hard to understand.  She was very excited to go to pre-school today to show off her new look and tell everyone what happened to her!