Competitive Nature? Me? NO!!!

Ella played t-ball this year for the first time. I have to say that she has not been that thrilled with the game. She has fun once she's playing, but it has been a struggle at times to get her to want to play.

We have had wonderful coaches. They are just the right balance between pushing them to do their best and still remembering that these are 5 and 6 year olds. It's now the end of the season and I am OVER IT! We finished our last game, and had play-offs left. I will (shamefully) admit that I was thrilled yesterday when our game was canceled due to rain. No argument from the Griffin camp. WOO HOO! A night of freedom. The game was rescheduled for tonight.

Grumble, grumble, complain under my breath. I told Ella she had to play her very best because this was the play-offs. So I put on my best cheerful face, but admitted to more than one person that I really hoped we would lose so the season would be over.

Cue the crack of the bat. Cue the competitive nature lying in wait inside of me. Next thing I know, I am the crazy mom cheering and whooping and hollering at every good play our team made. The beast inside me is screaming RIP EM! TEAR EM! BEAT EM BAD! :)

We had an amazing game tonight. You never would have guessed those were the small fries out there playing! Our third baseman, Annabelle, completely figured out her job tonight. She tagged out FIVE runners during the game. One inning she had all 3 outs to her individual credit.

As the final runner came up to bat the foe's coach said, "OK. Here is the situation. We already have two outs against us, and we HAVE to get a run to stay in this." The batter lined up the bat. He took a practice swing and then hit the ball for all he was worth. Our team caught the ball at third, threw it all the way across the field to first, where our first baseman caught the ball in a catch worthy of the pros, tagged the base and got the runner out! THREE OUTS! WE WIN!!!!!! The entire bleachers rose as one screaming with joy. The coach jumped at least three feet into the air, ran onto the field and picked up the kid who made the throw in celebration. The third baseman was awarded the game ball, and Ella was ecstatic...until she realized it meant the season wasn't over.

I am very proud of Ella. She has played every single game this season. She kept her committment to her team. She played with a good attitude almost all the time, and she improved tremendously this season. She's even a bit excited about the next game.

At the end of the week when I am once again completely over t-ball, please remind me that the competitive beast simply lies dormant for the time being but will break free as soon as she hears the crack of the bat.

Feeding the Ducks

We went to feed the ducks this weekend. The girls loved it! Brenna kept screaming "HI DUCK!" and Ella kept trying to feed the mama ducks. Ella didn't like it that the drakes would steal all the bread from the hens.

Brenna's New Pasttime

So much for doing a better job of posting on my blog. Well, here we go again...yet another commitment. Seriously, I will try.

Brenna has a favorite new activity.



She's very proud of herself. :)


I find myself wondering what on earth could be so fascinating about tearing the paper from a crayon? I have a friend who's toddler can remove the paper all in one piece. Now that is a fascinating habit. Brenna, on the other hand, simply rips the paper off in minute pieces that I have to rely on the incredible power of the Dyson to extract from the carpet. However, it keeps her quiet and busy for long stretches of time so I'm not complaining...much.

Older and Wiser?

Not so much...

At the age of five, I thought there was no way she would do it. I thought for sure we had escaped this particular "rite of passage" at least with Ella. I thought she wanted long hair enough to NOT cut it herself. Oh how wrong a parent can be about things.

It doesn't look too bad from the front:


It is much more obvious from the sides:




Ella was down the street playing with our neighbors, and they all got into the scissors. I've been sick all week, and I was laying down for a nap while Ella was down there. She came home to wake me up and ask, "Does my hair look different?" I was quite irritated that she woke me up to ask about her hair that looked exactly the same. I was quite a bit more irritated when I realized that it did indeed look quite different! Scott has taken her to the hair salon to get it fixed. I'll post her new haircut as soon as I have the pictures.

The silver lining is that I've been wanting to get her hair cut for months. She wanted it long. I wanted it short. I was letting her grow it out since it is her hair. Natural consequences being what they are, I'm getting my way now.

Here's the new do:


And a side view of the side that was the worst:

Holy Snowflakes, Batman!

Who would have thought that on March 6, we would have a blizzard in Texas, especially when yesterday we were outside playing in beautiful sunshine without jackets? We certainly were surprised to see the amount of snow we got today. We got around 6 inches of snow! Driving was rather treacherous even though we got home before it was too bad.

Here's some pictures of it all...

Here's the backyard about halfway through the snow.


Ella and Bailey after it had stopped snowing.


Brenna was thoroughly unimpressed with the snow...


...unless she was being held.


Ella making snow angels.

Baseball Ready

Ella had her first t-ball practice this evening. She is the only girl on a team with 11 boys. That threw her for a loop in the beginning. She was pretty timid starting off. She has never played ball AT ALL before, but luckily several of the boys have never played either. The coaches asked if everyone knew where first base was, and all the boys scream YES! She just sat there like a deer in the headlights. I finally spoke up and said, "She isn't going to say it, but no she doesn't know." It turns out that about half the boys didn't know either they just screamed yes because the other boys screamed yes. They had a really good first practice. The dads tossed balls for them to try to catch and throw back. Only one little boy can do it--it's his third year. He is really good. Then they practiced stopping grounders. This was when Ella started showing a lot of insecurity. At one point she looked over at me and Scott and looked really upset. I started going out to her to see what was wrong, but the coach saw too. He also started out to her, so I stopped. I figure it's better to let the coach have a chance to work with her than for Mommy to come to her rescue. I have no idea what he said to her, but it worked. She perked right up and started really hustling. Then they all ran the bases. Ella volunteered to try first. By the end of practice, she had learned that she had to touch the bases with her foot before going to the next one. Several of the boys didn't catch on, so I was quite proud of her. I will admit that I am a bit worried how it is going to be for her to be the only girl on the team. Tonight I felt like the coaches did a really good job of treating her the same, so things are off to a good start. She also learned how to stand "baseball ready."

Tonight when we got home she gets into position. The conversation went like this:
Ella: What is this called?
Mom: Baseball ready.
Ella: Yeah, baseball ready, but sometimes it's just called bending over.

ohmygosh! I laughed so hard I cried...literally had to wipe the tears off my cheeks...cried. I love that kid!

Brenna Cute-isms

Brenna has incorporated a few things into her vocabulary that are adorable! She has figured out that "beep" means you are in the way. If something is in her way, she immediately says, "Beep. Beep. Beep." If the thing that is in her way happens to be me she starts screaming fairly quickly. "BEEP! BEEP!" She particularly loves to play this game when I'm cooking, and she will pry herself between my legs and the cabinet and push against me with all her might screaming "beep" at the top of her lungs. This particular thing is either cute as can be or highly annoying depending on the circumstances--she mostly does it in a cute way, thank goodness.

The second thing she does is honk. Scott has a John Wayne figurine that Brenna can reach. She walks up to John, squeezes his nose and says, "honk." It is soooo funny because she thinks it is hilarious! I wish I could catch a picture of it.

Flower Girl Dress

Ella is going to be the flower girl in Lane and Casey's wedding (my brother and his fiancee) in three weeks. We got her flower girl dress altered. She looks so cute. I'll have more pictures to post after the wedding of course, but here's what the dress looks like.

The Japanese Gardens

We went to the Japanese Gardens with my good friend AnnaLisa and her daughter Megan. AnnaLisa and I have been friends since the first day of high school. Our daughters are now fast friends. Megan is 4 months older than Brenna, but all three girls get along incredibly well together. Just the other day Brenna was running around our house screaming, "Megan? Wha are ou Megan? MEGAN!" And Megan has been known to repeat "Ella-Brenna, Ella-Brenna" for minutes at a time. It is great fun watching our girls play together, but I digress. We took the girls to the Japanese Gardens, and I got some nice pictures of the girls.

Brenna watching a squirrel.


Ella trying to avoid having her picture taken by not looking at me. Funny that it turned out so well.


Megan had been playing with the bushes.



Not the most attractive picture of Brenna, but check out the size of those coi! They were very fun to feed. The kids loved it!

Our Little Consumer

Wheezer gave the girls gift cards to Toys R Us for Valentines day this year. We went tonight so the girls could each pick out their gift. Brenna has the role of consumer down pat. She would run around the store, point and yell, "I wan dat!!! I wan dat! OHHHHHH! Wook at dat! Mommy, wook at dat." She carried a "purse" around for quite a while. It was actually a carrying case with bath tub blocks in it, but to her it was a purse, and she wore a pair of rabbit ears on her head almost the entire time. She would cry when we took them off her head. Eventually, Brenna decided on a doll that has a zip, snap, button, buckle and tie. She is really learning these skills lately, so it was the perfect find.

Ella found a stuffed unicorn as soon as we walked into the door. We showed her every other aisle in the joint trying to persuade her that a toy other than a stuffed animal would be a better choice. We have about 1,263,987 stuffed animals. The only other thing she wanted at all was a Hannah Montana wig. A stuffed animal was bad enough, but the wig? No. I do NOT think so. Those things get matted and gross within thirty minutes of coming out of the package.

Note to the grandparents: This is not a good gift idea. The wig will find its way to the trash rather quickly. I promise.

The New Playset

The girls got a BIG birthday present this year. They also got it early. All the grandparent's helped us out a little bit so that we could get exactly what we wanted, so a BIG thank you to Granny, Papa, Wheezer, Poppers, Granddad and Grandma. It already has probably 40 man hours of play and it's only a week old with several cold, windy days where no one played on it. In mom's book it is a success because all the neighborhood kids are outside....ahhhhhh, bliss!

A view of the whole thing:


A view of the back which includes the bottom deck. There is a cool mailbox attached so it makes a great house:


An action shot:


It has been used so much by all the kids that the grass is already starting to wear away at the bottom of the slide and under the swings. Kids came out of the woodwork the day it was installed. We even met the kids that live in the house behind us (who we had never seen before). They were hanging over their wrought iron fence with hang-dog expressions gazing wistfully at all the kids playing. Finally one of them got up enough courage to yell, "Can we come over and play too?" So they've been over every day since then. Luckily, they are well behaved kids. The playset looks a bit like an ant hill when all the kids are going in 9 directions at once.

Really? Nothing since Thanksgiving....

Obviously, I've got to get on the ball. I will seriously try to update more (we've all heard this before, right?) with both pictures and stories.

I guess the biggest story in our life right now is that Ella has now reached the age of lying. DRAT! It's been building for awhile--little stories here, a white lie there. Well, last night she got caught in her first ever boldface lie. I told her to put shoes on before she went outside. A few minutes later she comes running through the front door and proceeds into the living room with no shoes on her feet. I said, "I thought I told you to put shoes on before you went outside." She says "I took them off as soon as I came back inside." Fast-forward to us getting ready to leave for church. Her shoes are no where to be found because they were in the car where she left them after school. UGH! Sad moment for Mommy. I've been hoping to avoid the first actual lie for a bit longer. She was disciplined for disobeying and disiplined further for lying. To her credit she was heartbroken that she would have to earn our trust back. She bawled and said, "You don't believe me anymore!" I'm very proud of her for realizing the truly serious part of telling a lie.

To end on a good note, I will also say that I think five is going to be a good year. We went to the play structure at Chick-Fil-A the other day. I hollered to Ella that it was time to leave. Cue the whining, cue the crying, cue the arguing. Huh? There was NONE! In its place I heard, "I have to go now. It's time for me to go home. Just a second Mommy. I'm not at the slide yet." A few second later she appears at the bottom, grabs her shoes, puts them on her feet and says, "Come on Brenna. It's time to go home now." So that's what gaining maturity looks like. AWESOME!

Pictures from Thanksgiving

We got some great pictures while we were visiting Craig up at the cabin over Thanksgiving. Here are a few of them.

Passing the Buck

We spent Thanksgiving with Wheezer and Poppers this year. Brenna absolutely loves to feed their dog, Payne. It got to the point where poor Payne was going to get sick she was feeding her so much! Every single time she fed the dog she would say, "Here you go." (here a dough) I finally had enough. I looked at Brenna and said, "Brenna, if you feed that dog one more time I am going to give you a spanking." Brenna turned, looked Payne straight in the face, and said in a very stern voice, "Stop it tuppy!" like it was the dog's fault!

Happy Halloween

Here's some pictures of our Halloween. We had a lot of fun!

Pretty Princess:


An unhappy pumpkin:


Ahhhh, now I'm good. Mommy is here!


Ella with our neighbor Bailey:


Ella's grossest piece of candy. A gummy EYEBALL!?!?!?


And here's an adorable video of Brenna saying Trick or Treat:

Tee-tee on the Potty

Last night before her bath, Brenna started grabbing her diaper and said, "I need potty. I need potty." I undressed her and put her on the potty; she immediately went tee-tee on the potty. I can't believe we are already here. Interestingly, Ella also went on the potty for the first time at 19 months. I'm not sure I'm ready to potty train just yet, so for now I'll let Brenna lead the way. I'd say we can start anytime I feel up to the challenge though.

The Blue Angels

What a walk we had today! I took the girls for a walk on the walking path through our neighborhood to a little park. As we were walking along the Blue Angel fighter jets suddenly let out a smoke trail as they were doing loops in the sky! The entire time we were out walking we watched them practice for the air show this weekend. They flew directly overhead several times. At one point they did a tight 360 with the wings perpendicular to the ground around the playground. Then they flew off and came back around and buzzed the playground. They were so low to the ground we could easily read the words U.S. Navy on the wings and see that there was a person in the cockpit. It was so exciting. We were already planning to go to the air show, but after seeing them practice Ella is really excited now.

Our Last Day at Church

Today was such a hard day for me. It was the last Sunday we attended our church here in Knoxville. We pulled into the parking lot, and I started to cry. The people of Fellowship Bible Church are what made Knoxville our home. The scenery in this part of the country is gorgeous. The people of Knoxville in general are very friendly. But, it was the community of people at Fellowship Bible Church who made our lives here so wonderful.

Almost all of Ella's friends are from our church. These are the people that we shared our lives with on a weekly and sometimes daily basis. Knoxville would not mean to me what it does without having been a member of such an awesome church group.

The women that I became friends with were from all different age groups. From college girls to grandmothers, my life was touched so deeply by these relationships. I met women in this church that I strive to be like as I grow. My faith in God has been tested more and has grown more in the past three years than in any other period of my life. I am so thankful for the life we have led here. My prayer now as we move forward is that we will find another church home that affects us as deeply as this church has done.

Tonight, several of the families from our church attended a going away party for us. I am so touched by the number of people in this photo, and even more touched to know that there were other families that had conflicts but would have been there otherwise. We have been richly blessed. Thank you to each and every person who has touched our lives here. There are far too many to mention by name, but we love you all!

Brenna Loves School

Her first day was on Tuesday. She didn't cry at all. She had a blast. She didn't even come running for me when I came to get her that afternoon. I honestly thought it might have been a fluke since the only time she's really been away from me has been at church or with someone we knew well watching her.

This morning I said, "Brenna, are you ready to go to school again today?" She smiled really big and said, "school!" It was a few minutes before they needed to leave, so I turned on the tv for Ella and sat down. Brenna looked at me, frowned, ran as fast as her little legs could carry her to the garage door, and proceeded to try to get it open herself. She can't even reach the knob, so she turns around and gives me a dirty look and starts yelling at me. Scott said she said, "school" over and over again in the car, and when he dropped her off, she ran into her classroom and didn't even look back.

Our New Home

At this point it's as official as it's going to get until we actually close. We are moving to Haslet, TX, a small town 15 miles north of downtown Ft. Worth. We close on our home in Knoxville on September 14th and leave for Haslet that day. We close on our new home on September 17th or 18th. Here is the floor plan and pictures of the actual house.



The house:



As you walk in the front door you enter the rotunda. How posh! LOL The formal living room is straight ahead and looks out onto the covered back porch. The dining room is to the left, and the study and the hallway to the three front bedrooms is to the right.


The dining room is HUGE. We will probably put a table in the rotunda and move the chandelier from the dining room into the rotunda. The dining room will actually be our piano room.


The kitchen and family room are at the back of the house.
This is a view of the bar from the family room:

The kitchen looking into the dining room:

From the breakfast nook into the kitchen:

From the dining room into the kitchen:

The family room fire place:

There is a second fire place that looks just like this one in the formal living room. Have you ever heard of anything so silly in Ft. Worth, Texas as TWO fireplaces???
The window of the family room:


The master bedroom is also at the back of the house. It is off the formal living room. This is the wall our bed will go on:

The bay window out to the backyard:

And the bathroom:



At the front of the house, is a full guest bath:

A jack and jill bath from the hallway and the playroom:

And the girls room, which also has a bay window: