Little of This, A Little of That

Yes, please don't pass out, but here is a post. Been one crazy busy spring and summer. Getting ready to gear up for school, I can't believe it! Here a few pics for your enjoyment of the past few months.... A few weeks ago my moms older 2 sisters came to visit. The eldest, Pat, (on the left) came to visit my mom. We don't get to see her very often but she makes me laugh. The next oldest, Jackie(on the right) we see just about every month. She and my Uncle Homer live back in the town my mom and her sisters grew up in, Munday, Tx. I am so glad they got to get together. Only thing missing was their baby sister, Deb. She lives up in Washington State and I couldn't tell ya the last time we saw her.

My boys actually took a picture together that day. They are as opposite as day and night. They are getting so big and time is passing fast with them. They r one foot apart now in size. Hayden at 5ft and Zach at 6. Amazing how much they have grown this year. Physically but they have both grown emontionally and spiritually. Zach has made some really good decisions and is stepping up as a leader while Hayden is getting baptized in a few weeks!

Had to just add this picture because it just captures the fun of the day~

The Clowdis Girls again. Just love these women!
Shawn and Zach fishing on our quick trip we had to Ruidoso back in June. It was a great 4 days!

My sweet Hayden in Ruidoso. Just love this kid. He is busy doing Taekwondo now and loving it! I guess he and I will start getting geared up for homeschool. We are pretty excited about doing a computerized program this year.

Hayden playing some football while he was at childrens church camp. Our church went to Austin College in Sherman, Tx. He had an awesome time!

This has been our usual venue this summer. A baseball field somewhere. Zach had a great Hub City league season that carried over into the West Texas High School league. Our 14u coach managed to get us in the league as the only non high school team. We played alot of freshman and JV teams and actully did really well. Zach went to a few camps at Texas Tech and learned alot about catching thanks to Coach Jimmy Webster. Today starts Fall Ball season for Zach. 12 games fast and furious between now and Aug 26th. Zach is ready for football but not school. Whats new.....

Staying Busy

Haven't spent much time blogging obviously lately. Life just continue with work, church, school and sports. We have had a good time. I enjoy my family so much. Here are just a few pics. Zach competed in the district track meet at Canyon Randall a few weeks ago. He finished 2nd in shot put throwing 40'1" and setting a new school record. In discus he the won the district title throwing 123ft. We are enjoying his baseball games and learning to live with the teenage attitude. Hard to believe he will be 14 on Sunday.

Hayden is doing very well. Homeschooling is going very well. I should have started a long time ago with him. He is continuing to bowl and will bowling in the state bowling tourney in Pasadena, TX in June. He has learned to ride a bike which doesn't seem like much to most but for him and his problems with NF, this is a really big deal. The joy I see in his face warms my heart more than I can explain. Take care all. I will check in again sometime!

Home School 101

Here we are, day 3 of home school. Hayden is loving it. It is actually going much better than I thought it would be. I knew God had been pushing us in this direction for awhile. Zach was a little jealous at first but his sports are way too important to give up to be home schooled to him.

Hayden has been rocking the math. It has been some pre-algebra and I was afraid it was too advanced for him but he has been doing well with it!

Out With The Old And In With The New

Yes, I am a loser yet again by not getting this done sooner but I enjoyed the holidays but I am glad they are over. Time to move on with life and see what God has in store us. Here is a picture of our lovely tree. Shawn and I had started the red, white and blue theme the first Christmas after 9/11. It is really cool. We have firemen, police officers and American flag decorations. We have added a lot of the kids ornaments over the years. It shows what our family is about and I really like it.

Why is it when boys hit 13 they don't want their pictures taken anymore? Zach is way too cool for all of this (by the way, he is now officially taller than me and reminds me of this everyday). Hayden is still just the sweetest kid that always has a nice smile for me.

Our boys enjoyed the snow very much. This was Hayden's creation that he did all by himself. I think he did a great job!

Shawn and his pup, McCoy. They love each other and Shawn has this pup working like a well oiled machine except for McCoys interest in cords (phone chargers, DSi chargers, etc....)

McCoy has been such a great addition to our family. We are so blessed with this fabulous animal.

Bitter Sweet November

Since I last posted, a lot has been going on. Busy with school, work and family activities. Here are a few pics to show how our last month or so has been. Hayden just keeps on bowling well. Here is his new bowling shirt along with some of the new awards he has won. He gets better every week. Started out with a 56 avg and as of last week he had an 80 average. He loves doing it!

Football season finally ended. Not exactly how Zach had imagined. Ended with a record of 3-4-1. Hopefully it will be better next year. He decided not to play basketball and now is doing off season. High school coaches do their off-season program and they are kicking Z's booty!

Our sweet Yogi. We had to put him down yesterday. Since my last post he had a knot show up on his leg. It turned out to be bone cancer and it just grew like crazy the past month. He was in a lot of pain and even though it was hard, it was the best thing for him. We are recovering.

Meet this new guy. His name is McCoy. He is our new baby. He seems to help the pain of losing Yogi but he definitely has his own personality. We are so blessed to have him. Thanks Julie and Bubba!

He is 8 wks-old today. We are starting to train him from a book called "Game Dog" by Richard Wolters on the advice of our pastor. He has 3 labs he trains this way. I will let u know how it goes! Hope not to take so long next time to post! LOL!

Rollin' On Into October

Things continue to busy around here. Bowling and football. Thats our lives lately! Hayden got an award for bowling a 200pt 3 game series. He got to put it on his brand new bowling shoes.

Hayden and Shawn doing there usual fall planting. This is there favorite thing to do together.

Zach's team keeps rolling on. They beat Plainview 12-8 last Tuesday. Would have been more but our offense had some miscues. Defense was stellar except giving up the 2 pt conversion after Plainviews pick 6. Big game this week coming up against Canyon. Good luck Tigers!

September Ups and Downs

Being September, it has been all about bowling and football in my house. Hayden's bowling league is off and running. He got new bowling shoes and a bag yesterday. He is ready to bowl both sessions and then go bowl in the State tourney in June.

Zach has been busy on the football field. His team is 2-1-1. Not too bad. He is enjoying it and hopes all his teammates grades keep them on the field.

The downs this month have been the motorcycle accident involving our friend, Toby Wimberley almost 2 weeks ago. I think we are past the life and death thing for now but he has a long, long road to recovery.
Shawn suffered a loss of a co-worker yesterday. "Big Steve" West died from head injuries that he suffered at work last week. He was just a 20 yr-old kid that loved to talk football. My thoughts are with his mom today. Hayden's styling bag!

He is so glad he doesn't have to use the bowling alleys shoes now

Zach took care of #24 in red on both offense and defense.

Zach on back-to-back plays!

August Is A Wrap

Ok, I guess I will get August caught up for you guys. I have been very lazy lately in getting this done. Now maybe my ears will quit burning! This post will make more sense if you start from the bottom and come up. This is a picture of Zach from last football season. His 7th grade season starts a week from tomorrow. We can't wait. I got an exciting call from him after school this afternoon that went something like this: "Mom, did u see any of my practice this morning?". " No, Zach, I was tired after work and went to bed.". " We had first day of pads and I was lighting kids UP!". "Did the coaches say anything to you?". "No, they all just had a look of shock on their faces!". I love, love to watch this kid play football. It is just amazes me. So ready to see the first game. For all you non-facebook folks, I will post a schedule on here soon. Those that are not on FB, get on FB. It is an awesome tool to keep up with folks. It is the grown up Myspace. Check it out!

Aug 24th: Kids first day of school. Don't they look excited? Zach with a cheesy smile and Hayden with his eyes closed. 1st week went off without a hitch. Hope the rest of the year is that way!

Aug 22nd: Zach's last summer workout with Shawn. He hated it at the time but now that football has started, he is really glad he did it!

Aug 21st: Zach's last baseball game. It didn't end like we wanted it to but at least Nanny Sue got to come watch him play!

Aug 15th: Our sweet Hayden celebrated his 9th birthday. He is one of the most sincere, genuine kiddos I know. Can't believe how fast he is growing up!

Hand Therapist Rock!

Aug. 5th: Meet Mack and Carin. They are hand therapist that have done an awesome job with Hayden's hand therapy. Mack is one of the funniest guys you will meet that knows all about hands. Carin is so sweet and did an awesome job working with Hayden, always keeping him smiling even when he didn't want to. Thanks guys for your hard work. PS- Tell Johnny he missed his photo op! LOL! Carin, Hayden and Mack today on Hayden's last day of therapy as long as he behaves! Two of the most genuine folks you will ever meet!

They got Hayden's hand from this............

............To this. Thanks again guys!

July '09 Storm

July 30: I love rain but I can do without the wind. This is what we woke up to last Thursday morning. What a pain. Shawn had already taken the day off but little did he know what he would be doing all morning. Our fence almost down!

Shawn and our next door neighbor, Zach discussing their plan.

Shawn and Zach working hard.

The finished product!

2009 THF Outfitters Yuck Night

July 29th: The Heights Fellowship youth group, The Outfitters, had their annual Yuck Night. This year our youth pastor, Jason, came up with the bright idea of dividing the youth into two teams and adding a team of adults. One good thing about having mono, I didn't have to compete! Here are a few pics from that night. I think they all had a good time! Cardenas and his crazy self making his nice new hat!

Zach is not so amused by all the action.

Zach and Hayden with the flour panty hose game. This is the only one Hayden will do, but he loves it.

Zach's buddy, also named Zach, got the raw end of the deal during the egg toss!

By far my favorite game to watch. The blowing of CoCo puffs out of the nose onto the whipped creamed head of one of your teammates. It was so funny.

Outlaws 3-0 Start!!!

Shawn's dad, Gary, surprised us by riding up on his motorcycle to come watch Zach's game Sunday afternoon. It was a nice surprise and Zach's team did not disappoint. The Outlaw's have started the summer league season being 3-0 and by run-ruling each team. So glad he got picked up on this team and now we at least know what team he will be on next spring.

We have been trying to enjoy what is left of the summer before school starts and we are running crazy since Zach will be playing 7th grade football this year. He is so ready. Hayden's hand is doing well. We are continuing with some hand therapy which should wrap up in a couple of weeks. I have been fighting a horrible case of strep which then we discovered I also have mono! Crazy I tell ya. Hope to return to work next week. Catch you all later!

Outlaw's Baseball--Let's Get Rollin'

Zach's new team, the Outlaw's. Welcome to a really hot Saturday practice. 1st game this coming Monday. Really, really good team. Zach has discovered he needed to step it up a notch for this team and he is doing well. U can tell its hot, check out how red Zach's cheeks r!

Showing off the fielding skills.

He is hitting the best I have ever seen him hit!

More hitting.

The team was divided into teams of three. Zach's threesome made up of Zach, Ricky and Taylor defeated the other 2 teams. It was alot of fun!

The Month of June

It has just been over a month since I have been on here. I almost forgot my password to get on, oops! There has been lots of things going on since I last posted and I have been a loser for not getting it done. Regular season baseball ended and now Zach is getting ready for Summer League with another team. They will be called the Outlaws. Zach is really excited about this team. They should do really well.

The Heights had VBS the last week of June. It was lots of fun. On that Friday, Hayden had surgery on his hand to have a neuroma removed. It is all part of his NF Type 1. He was determined not to miss the last night of VBS so off he went in an arm sling with ice on his hand. He did well. This coming Tuesday he will have his stitches out finally.

It has been blazing hot here. A cozy 100+ for the past week. I guess I shouldn't have been complaining about the cold weather we had in the middle of May. I guess that is all for now. Here are a few pictures from the past month. I will try to be more disciplined about posting here. I really need to stay off Face Book! LOL! Shawn mowing Friday. It was so stinking hot!

Hayden July 4th. It was hot that night too! He is getting tired of me taking his picture so much!

Hayden's hand 4 days post surgery. He ended up with 8 stitches. Ready for those babies to come out!

Our children's minister, Mika, after getting a pie to the face the last night of VBS. Our pastor, Mike, had gotten one just moments earlier. It was really funny.

Hayden at VBS the evening after surgery. He wasn't missing the pie action! If u noticed not many pics of Zach. He has been the social bug this summer. Time for him to slow down for the rest of the summer so he can get ready for school and football! Can't wait!