My weekend favorites

Ashley Kate had a wonderful time "walking" around the soccer fields. She looks so big when she's standing up like this. Some days its hard to remember she's almost 5 years old. I guess its because I carry her most of the time, change diapers, and spoon feed her still. In so many ways it seems as though she's still our baby, but then when I glance over and see her looking like this I'm reminded she's a little girl.







I love this next shot. Allie's SAT scores go down point by point each weekend as she directs the ball with her "headers". Most of us would cringe and try to move out of the way of a flying ball coming toward our heads, but this happens to be one my girls favorite moves. In the first game Saturday she had 6 of them. Its really awesome, even if that SAT score keeps going down. I captured the ball coming off her head in this first one.




Her newest move as of late is to use her chest to knock the ball down out of the air. It looks so cool when she does this. She admits that it hurts pretty bad, but she likes the control it gives her. Again, one of my very favorite shots taken this weekend.






I'm really proud of her ball control. She's worked hard at it. Allie is one of the most aggressive players you'll come across. She can take a hit and keep on running. Unfortunately the girls on the other end of that hit usually can't. Not sure how many players had run ins with Allie this weekend but I'm pretty sure they won't soon forget. She's really amazing. I love watching her play. She is determined not to stop when going for the ball and if that means needing to go through a wall of opponents then so be it. ;)




So this is probably my millionth photograph of my son catching. Its basically all he does. He's a great out fielder, a pretty good second base man, but a seasoned catcher. I love watching him play this game. Really love it. It was probably one of the hardest weekends he has had in a while. We've worked our way through lots of ice packs the last two nights. He's actually still icing his left knee at this moment. His arms are insane. His right arm was numb for most of the second game. I guess you can only block so many balls till you start to lose the feeling in it.

I knew he was in bad shape after last night, but to see him play today you would have never known it. He did a great job for the two games we played this afternoon. Some games are harder than others. Some pitchers are better than others. You just never know whats going to be thrown at you, but he handled it well. I'm really, really proud of him. He called all his own pitches today and that's super exciting for me to watch.




Some times you lose, some times you win. Its not the wins or loses that really matter to us. Its more about the time we spend with our kids each weekend. Its about the life lessons they are learning through hard work, dedication, long practice weeks, commitment, team work and coaching. It doesn't always go their way, but they are growing as young people each and every time they step on those fields. I'm so grateful for their talents. So grateful for the strong healthy bodies God blessed Blake and Allie with. So grateful for the friendships and the memories being made. Both the older kids learned tough lessons this weekend. Things they will take with them into adulthood and I can honestly say I'm very, very proud of how well they held it together. In the game of life we sometimes hurt and what better way to learn about that than on the field. God is using these experiences in the lives of my children and I'm excited to see what He's going to do with them in the coming years. Ashley Kate's new found stability and freedom? Its just icing on the cake! Wow, our God is good! and I am blessed!