Payton and the hopefully not so terrible twos.

This past Tuesday we celebrated Payton's birthday with some friends and family. It is hard to believe that she is already two. The time has gone by very quickly. She has developed quite the personality and has a little fiestyness in her. She is not afraid to slap people around and roughhouse with her siblings. She says lots of words and is into everything. She can easily lock and unlock doors which has made things very interesting. We always have to keep an eye out on the front door as she quietly lets herself out into the front yard. She really is a very good girl and we all just lover her to death.


Taking a big ole bite of her birthday cake.


She has some of the best facial expressions that you will ever see.


Here she is tearing open her presents......


.... and here is Brooklyn playing with them.

I decided to post a couple of pictures of her life so far so you can all see how big she has gotten.


Minutes after birth already reaching to give daddy a hug.


Here she is dancing all over the bed.


This might be her favorite thing to do. She absolutely loves the swing and anyone who will put her in and push.


On a nature walk at the "Backyard Preserve".


Playing some baseball with her brothers at Brooklyn's soccer game. Again, you have to love the facial expressions.


Sucking down some candy from Grandma Wendy.


She also loves "lippies" and thinks she is big enough to do them herself. If I am ever missing my chapstick I know right where to go.

We are so grateful to have Payton in our lives and thank Heavenly Father for her every day. We love having her in our family and look forward to watching her develop into a pretty young lady.

Sports Update.

Last weekend Jennie had the opportunity to play for PNC Bank in the kickball event of the Cleveland Corporate Challenge. Every year all the companies in the Cleveland area compete in about 14 events that make up the Corporate Challenge. Not to brag or anything but the bank has won the whole thing the last two years. Well they are always in need of athletic girls to participate and they discovered Jennie last year for basketball. This year she has played in softball (3rd place), kickball (1st place) and will play again in basketball this week. It was an all day event but the kids and I had a lot of fun watching the games, playing around and taking nature hikes. Hopefully they can do just as well in basketball. Here are a couple of pictures of Jennie in action.


This is the whole team along with their biggest fans (the rest of us).


Jennie rounding third and heading home.


Applying the tag to make sure she gets the out. They had Jennie playing first as she was the only girl who really could both field and catch. It makes a huge difference when you have a good girl in the infield.


Jennie placing her kick right down the third base line. That is the easiest place to kick and get on base as long as their is no one else on.

Maddux' baseball season has also ended. Now I must debate if I want to move him up to players pitch or let him play in coaches pitch for another year. We need to work on his fielding if he is going to move up and play in the 10 and under league. He also needs to get comfortable playing with a hardball and not the soft one. I think his hitting is good enough to play and we just need to polish his fielding skills and he will be okay. He had a very good year this year and I had a blast coaching once again. He hit the ball very well and made some very nice plays in the field. His concentration was a lot better this year and he really matured from the past season. I can't wait to watch him progress over the upcoming years. Here are some clips of him hitting this year. I also put one of hit getting out so you don't think all he does is hit "bombs".



Payton is too young to participate in sports yet but she loves to jump on the trampoline. Pay particular attention to her hair as she jumps. The static really makes it stand up.



Here are a couple of pictures of Maddux in action this baseball season. Thanks to Bill and Tacie I was able to get some good pictures of him in action this year.


Maddux in his ready position in the outfield. Not much action in the outfield but Maddux was always ready if the ball came out there.


Trotting home on one of his homeruns this year.


Just after contact on one of his shots.


Look at that follow thru. He always seems to hit the ball very hard whether it is on the ground, in the air or on a line. He has great hand and eye coordination and doesn't swing and miss very often. He is our little slugger.

4th of July Weekend.

We had a very entertaining and fun filled weekend spending time with family and doing lots of fun stuff. We kicked the weekend off by going to one of the kids friends birthday party. They hired Jungle Terry to perform a live show with some different animals. It took Nolan about half the show to get warmed up to the animals but by the end he was having a blast. It was kind of funny because he didn't want to pet the turtles, the bird or the hedgehog but when the snakes and tarantulas came out he had no problem touching them. Anyways it was a lot of fun and the kids really had a good time.


Brooklyn holding Mr. Box. If it looks like she is getting ready to eat a hamburger that is because Jungle Terry told the kids that is how you hold the turtles.


Here are Nolan and Brooklyn touching the corn snakes.


Maddux petting the tarantula. I was really surprised that all three kids had no problem touching him.


This was a 14' python that the kids loved. All the kids pet the snake and even got the chance to lift it up. All three got right in there with the rest of the kids and they all lifted the snake up and set it on top of their heads. It was kind of fun to see them interact with all the different animals. I just hope they don't try to pet one in the wild if they ever have the chance.

As part of the party Atticus' dad set up a zip line in the backyard. This may have been the biggest hit even though it took Brooklyn and Maddux some time to warm up to the idea. Nolan had no problem and absolutely loved it. Brooklyn was next and as you will see in the video mastered the grass-skiing technique. Maddux was the last to give it a try but after his first run could not get enough. Here are some short videos of the kids and their zip line rides.


Nolan on one of his many many rides.


Maddux on his second run. The only way we could get him to go down the first time was to hold him as he went. As soon as he figured out that is wasn't all that bad he didn't want to get off the thing.


Brooklyn might have been a little too tall because she ended up dragging her feet on the ground every time. Jed said he would raise it up next time for her.

Sunday night we had everyone over to our house for a BBQ and then watched the fireworks from our backyard. It is nice not having to go anywhere and deal with traffic. The kids ran outside all night with their sparklers and we set off a few fireworks of our own.

Then Monday we went over the Greg and Tacie's and BBQ again while the kids spent most of the day in the pool. It was very hot so they had a blast doing their thing in the pool.


Nolan just hanging out having some fun.


Maddux and Nolan having a little water fight.


Brooklyn catching a ride on the seal.


Nolan came out on the wrong end of the water fight and had to be comforted by his big sister.

All in all it was a very busy weekend but was also nice to spend time with our family and just kind of hang out. We had perfect weather and spent the whole weekend wearing out the kids. I know they slept very good that Monday night. We are grateful to all of those who fight and have fought to protect our country and enable us to do the things that we love.