Baseball

At the end of January, Gavin started playing baseball through his school in their Friday league.  Thankfully, we picked him up a glove, bat, and cleats last summer before heading back over here so he's been prepared and ready for baseball for some time now.  He is LOVING playing and is pretty good, too.  

They practice on Fridays for about 20 minutes and then "play a game" against the only other 4-5 year old team.  There are no outs, each child gets to bat 2 times, and they are always allowed to run the bases.  If they hit the ball in the infield, they run to first and wait until the next batter hits, then they can run.  Parents stand around the bases to help direct the kids on when and where to run.  Might not be real baseball, but they are learning and having fun.  

The kids are cute. It took a few Fridays for the kids to learn the fundamentals, but after just 3 practices, they've got things down (for the most part).  Gavin has exceeded our expectations and has amazed us with his ability to play ball, be aware of what's going on, he rarely misses the ball when he bats (off a tee), and runs pretty fast to get the balls in the field.  Brooks has been helping out with Gavin's team and is out on the field with the kids.  He's taught the kids about batting, running the bases, and fielding ground balls.  We're grateful Brooks has had the opportunity to get Fridays off so he can be apart of this with Gavin.  It's also made our Fridays fun family days!  We all go out and cheer Gavin on.  Miles tries to play with the big kids and anxiously awaits for when the game is over and he gets to hit the ball and run the bases.  

We're loving that Gavin has finally gotten to be involved with a sport and are impressed with how much he loves it and how good he is.  Everyday he asks if it's Friday so he can play ball.  Brooks has been working with Gavin during the week in the backyard or taking him to the racket ball court to practice.  Each week it seems Gavin gets more comfortable with the sport and more into the game!  We're so proud of him!  

 

 

 

Photo Shoot

Months ago I came across the cutest picture I've ever seen of a little girl wearing a tutu and immediately decided I wanted Brooklyn to have one year photos taken of her so that I could get that same shot of her!!  I also really wanted pictures of Brooklyn smashing into a birthday cake.  So, I called my friend, Che, who took Brooklyn's newborn photos and she instantly agreed to do the shoot.  Between the two of us, we brainstormed ideas of various photos to take, background options, and different scenes and went with it.  

Brooks, me, and the kids all went to the Acord's house one morning and spent the day together.  Our husbands played with the kids, while Che and I were with Brooklyn.  Che did an amazing job getting the shots that I really, really wanted and was wonderful at making my vision come out!  Brooklyn did an awesome job and was happy and content throughout the photo shoot.  We gave her Cheerios to keep her staying in one spot, we used music instruments to get her to look certain directions, and got her to laugh and smile as much as we could.  I ordered a few outfits off of Etsy for the photos and made a smash cake for her.  Che picked up the fabric, made the backdrop, and created a little studio in one of their bedrooms with the flooring.  Everything came together wonderfully!  I couldn't be happier with the shots that we got and LOVE, LOVE, LOVE them all!    My favorite part is how much of Brooklyn's personality you can see in all the photos!  I'm so grateful that I had one year photos taken of her and will cherish these forever!  

 

 

 

Brookyln LOVED eating cake for the first time.

 

* I ordered Brooklyn's tutu from this Etsy store and her diaper ruffles from this Etsy store.  I found ideas for the photo shoot on Pinterest by searching one year photo shoots.  There are tons of ideas!  

Our little girl

Time flies.  I say it all the time and with every child. 

I'm trying to keep up with documenting moments in our kids lives so that years down the road when they read our blog books, they will know what they were interested in at this time in their lives and what they were like!  So here's the last few months of Brooklyn's life!  

At 10 months she was taking 4 bottles a day, taking 2 naps a day, eating any and all baby food we gave her (except for Mangoes, nectarines, and peaches-- she has reactions to all these foods).  We've even started feeding her some table foods and she's enjoying tasting new foods.  She's crawling everywhere and has even mastered crawling up and down stairs.  She unwillingly will walk around in a walker, but only lasts a few minutes at a time. She is standing up in her crib and pulling up on things.  She walks around from one place to the next holding onto furniture.   She's battled several ear infections and colds this month, which is probably due to the back and forth traveling we've done.  She learned to wave bye bye, stand up by herself without holding onto things, and learned to stand up from sitting down.   She even started drinking water from a sippy cup. 

 

Days after we flew back to Saudi, B turned 11 months and grew up on us.  On Christmas day, she began taking steps to walk by herself, but only makes it 2 or 3 steps before falling!  She's trying though!  She started taking less bottles and eating more table foods. She'd prefer picking up food to feed herself, rather then be fed with a spoon.  That's been fun!  Brooklyn has become extremely playful!!!  She laughs and goofs off and loves when we chase her around.  A huge milestone this month is that B got her first tooth.  It seems like it's taken forever to happen and it took about 4 days for it to fully break through, and she struggled through it with every possible side affect to teething.  She toughed through it though. B also learned how to clap!  Now, she claps every time we stand her up to get her to practice walking.  I guess she's use to us clapping for her when she walks, she just does it right away.  

99% of the time, if Brooklyn isn't sitting on her knees, she is sitting in a hurkey type position.  It's really funny to watch and think that's comfortable to her, but she doesn't mind.  

Brooklyn has been a busy girl lately as we prepare for her turning 1.  She's moving around more and more around the house and is into everything.  We now have to keep the bathroom doors closed because she enjoys pulling down toilet paper and playing with the toilet water.  She loves climbing into the dishwasher and fridge, and sneaks up the stairs anytime she finds the gate opened!  A few days ago, I found her outside in the front yard where Miles left the door opened and she snuck out.  She went to her first all girls party and had a blast.  She even came home with a painting of her handprints turned into lollipops.



Brooklyn is right there with her brothers and is into EVERYTHING.  She's not affected one bit by getting dirty and playing with the boys!  She has fun splashing around and making messes in one minute and the next she's nurturing and mothering all her baby dolls with kisses.  

Bouncing Balls Party

We celebrated Miles 2nd Birthday with a Bouncing Balls party.  Miles is obsessed with balls.  All balls.  Any kind of balls!  He loves them and usually is always carrying a ball around.  I threw around ideas for his party for months before finally going this route since I really wanted the theme to be something he was into.  I could have done Elmo or Airplanes, but he never showed THAT much of an interest in either one of those things when I was ordering party supplies back in October in order to take back with me from the USA.  It all ended up working out and I was able to decorate for the party going with the theme.  

I designed the idea of his cake hoping it would be whimsical and fun looking.  My friend Rhonda made some cake balls for me to use around the cake since she was making some for another child's party the same day.  The top 'ball' is actually a styrofoam ball that I covered in fondant.  I'm not real big on making cake just to make cake and since the bottom 2 layers were going to be plenty of cake for everyone at the party, I played it safe.  Miles loved the cake and his favorite part besides the 'bouncing' balls was all the sprinkles.  To cover the cake in sprinkles, I used the technique I found here.  

I found ideas on Pinterest for decorating our place with balloons and Miles was mesmerized with all the balloons we had everywhere.  We lined our sidewalk with balloons by tying the strings to the plants and when Miles woke up from his nap he ran and ran and ran between them.  It was precious to watch!  He also stood outside waiting for his friends to come and he did such a good job being patient.
 
 

To say Miles was excited about his party would be an understatement.  He knows now that cake usually means party and he was bouncing around in anticipation.  Once Miles friends arrived they all went out and jumped in the bounce house set up in the backyard.  The kids played and jumped and played some more.  

 

 

 

After playtime, we let Miles open presents and he was pumped to get new toys, water guns, balls, books, and more!  It was fun watching his reaction to his gifts 

 

 

Our little boy had a fun birthday and was beyond excited to celebrate with all his friends.

Miles Lee we love you so much and we love how much you love life!  Happy Birthday sweet boy! 

Working Hard for Your Money

Since Gavin turned 4, we've been slowly giving him responsibilities around the house and trying to teach him to work hard at everything he does.  We've also been practicing doing things with a cheerful and willing heart.  For the most part, Gavin generally has a great attitude about things and likes the feeling of doing good and accomplishing something so when we sat down with him a month ago to establish a weekly chore list he was more then thrilled.  The best part about it for him, was when he found out he was going to get paid for doing his jobs.  Brooks and I have gone back and forth about whether or not we wanted to pay Gavin for jobs that essentially should be things he does just because he lives in our house, but we decided money could/would be an incentive to use while teaching him about responsibilities, chores, jobs, and expectations.  Then, as time goes on, we will slowly weed out the jobs that are just expectations and allow him to work for money in other ways.

My friend, Che, sent me a chart she found where you fill in the list of jobs and there is a spot for every day of the week next to that job.  We print a new one up every Sunday night and sit down with Gavin to discuss what jobs he wants to do that week.  We've been doing this for a month now and he's pretty good at making his own choices.  We tend to persuade him in certain directions if there is a chore we want him to start practicing doing and he usually goes for it.  Each week, he chooses different chores and we've noticed from one week to the next, even if that job isn't on his chore list, he sometimes still does it!  For instance, one week, he picked to load the dishwasher, but the next he didn't.  However, when it came time to clean up the kitchen, he stayed with me and loaded the dishwasher.  It was all his doing, his own choosing, and I didn't have to "fight" him.   He has even started noticing when a trash can is full and will dump the trash into our outside trash can all by himself!  It's awesome!  

This really, really has been a great experience for him and us.  We don't force him to do any of these jobs.  We simply remind him that he can let us know when he's finished a job and we'll mark it off.  He has already learned that if he doesn't do them, he doesn't get paid for it.   We are loving watching him bask in his new responsibilities and how excited he gets to be helping us and taking care of stuff.  I'm glad we decided to do this and really can see the benefits from it.  A huge perk is that now Miles wants to be doing jobs so we have double the help when it comes to taking out the trash, clearing off the kitchen table, or picking up the bath toys.  

Payday comes once a week and for each completed job Gavin gets .25 SAR= $.07 (I totally just did the conversion and geez, that seems pathetic) BUT if Gavin did every job on his list at 1 SAR a piece, he could make up to 35 SAR a week which = $10 (that's $40 a week for a 4 year old- no thanks!).  He already has 16 SAR = $5 and he's pumped about it.  We're going to give him a few more weeks to load up on some more money, then we're going to teach him the importance of saving some money, sharing some money, and spending some money.  We're hoping over time he understands the magnitude of working to earn money, how having money can be beneficial, and being a good steward of your money is important.