April 2025

 We are in baseball full swing! Everyone has something almost every day. It's a lot, but it's so great! We love watching them play, have fun and become better ball players! 

 

Lyla is playing pitcher most games. She's not afraid of the ball and usually knows where to send it! She's a consistent hitter and working to find her power and SEND it! We had a lot of fun with eye black, face tattoos and ball game hair this season. 

Nolan is good at everything he tries. He plays just anywhere he's needed. He prefers 1st and 2nd base. He likes pitching when we don't try to give him tips to get better. He's big enough to throw from 3rd and he absolutely HATES catcher. He will help his team when needed in that position, especially when we bribe him with a slushie. He'll keep the ball in front and chuck it down to second, but there's not get up and go. He begins to question all his life decisions at that point. In the 8u and 10u leagues we almost NEVER see a foul ball caught. We told any kid who got one they get a large slushie. Nolan caught on the very first game! He's not gonna do something in spite of you, but he will do anything if the reward is big enough. He's a consistent hitter as well. Every at bat, he's gonna hit. We are still working to help him be brave enough(risk strikes) to use that power at bat. 

We realized that this may be Grayson's last season of baseball. They don't offer it in middle school here and he didn't love last season. This season has been great for him! He finally broke through his at bat nervousness. Watching him hit and get on base consistently has been so awesome! He got a lot of development at 1st base and even got to pitch a few times. He MIGHT play again next season! He's starting tennis this year so we will have to see how that works out! His team was almost always shy a player. Nolan was volun"told" to be their 9th and they both played on the same team for a game! We loved it, they did not.  

We are at the fields a lot. I love all the fun pictures of just enjoying baseball! 

Nolan had the most amount of things going on in April. He had his final Honor Choir concert of the year. I really hope I can convince him to join next year to end out elementary school. 

He got Maverick of the week and took his STAAR tests. Spoiler alert, he missed 1 problem on his mathe STAAR scoring in the 99th percentile! What a stud! 

He completed and presented his PACE project on the history of baseball. 

He went on the 4th grade field trip to Austin and Inner Space Cavern. We didn't win the chaperone lottery, but he still had a great day! 

Easter was quite the affair this year. I strong armed the children into participating in musical numbers for our Stake Easter celebration. One for youth and one for Primary. Both numbers were absolutely wonderful. We enjoyed listening to them in the car to practice and enjoyed the Spirit they shared. Would force them to do it again 10/10. 

Decorating eggs is still an honored tradition. We had so many colors to choose from this year. Everyone picked their favorite or two for a photo. 

A family Easter photo is always a MUST! We really liked the colors that ended up happening! 

 

Can't forget the blooper reel! It still takes much longer than I'd like to admit to get just ONE photo of everyone looking and smiling like a normal human. 

Easter dinner in Grand Prairie was fun for all! Everyone got a little bit of Auggie time. 

Easter egg hunts are always better with cousins. Teresa made sure there was lots of treats for everyone. 

Nana came in clutch with another holiday goodie bag. 

Grayson's band ALSO learned two songs and performed them for a judge/clinician. They did great and got top marks for their age group! 

Tyler's grand father, Poppi passed away in March. In April they organized a celebration of live. We all met in Tyler and spent time support Kenney and Texas Grandma. Almost everyone was able to come. 

Grayson recently learned that he is 5'6. He requested a picture by every adult to see who he was finally taller than. Kendra kept him in check, no worries. 

Emily and I were very tired after the drive! Even more tired when we had to travel back 3 hours because there was baseball the next morning. 

 

We made sure to stop at the nearest Buc-ee's. Lyla loves taking a picture on the Buc-ee's bench. 

And now, the moment I'm SURE you've all been waiting for....... TADPOLE UPDATE! They are still alive! When the pool gets green we give it a good clean and we are down to about 8 froglets! A couple of minnows have been added to the mix. The kids love to catch them so we can change out the water. By the end of April we had a whole mix of tadpoles, froglets and frogs. I noticed that in 2nd grade science, Lyla was studying life cycles. I told her teacher that we had some froglets that needed a field trip! She said yes and invited us to their classroom! Tyler and I loaded up 8 froglets and we did a whole thing with 2 of the second grade classes. We had so many different stages that all the kids got to see in action what they were learning at school! It was a really cool and rewarding experience. Soon, we only had frogs. Since they are all native, we were able to release them close to home. 

Up next.... MAYCEMBER.... Will we survive? 

Until next time....