"a portrait of one, two, or all three of my children - once each week - in 2019"
Brandon: We FINALLY celebrated your birthday with family this past weekend after having to reschedule the party twice due to Influenza A invading our home. And instead of a fancy decorated birthday cake from HyVee, you specifically requested a homemade cake from Mom. "Yours taste better than HyVee's." You're the best, bud!
Kaitlyn: I have so many memories of your brother Brandon in his baby swing hanging from the tree at our old house that I was dreaming of making the same memories with you. However, the trees at this house are far too big to hang a swing from so we hung it from the front porch instead. And you love it! I love that we can sit on the porch and watch your brothers shoot hoops and ride bikes and watch the neighbors walk by all evening long. We've been loving our stroller walks and our swing time every evening before supper this past week, and I can't wait to help you become acquainted with our big backyard. It's all your playground, baby girl. When we bought this house, I dreamed of our next little one having all this free space to roam... and now here we are!
We kept it sweet and simple, although I do love finding the perfect "small" gifts for holidays like Valentine's and Easter. The best part about Kaitlyn's first Valentine's Day was just how cute she looked in her outfit. Oh - and the chocolate fondue. I made homemade chocolate fondue for the first time, and it was amazing. So now I'm determined to become a fondue connoisseur for dinners and desserts. I'm researching all the fondue pots on Amazon that I can find. ;)
She's my gorgeous real-life babydoll. She's the baby girl I dreamed of when I used to play with actual dolls and dress them in real-life baby clothes from Walmart. ;)
Maybe my favorite memory was the night before Valentine's Day. Cody had taken the boys to the UNI game, and I got a text from him at about 9:30 as I was climbing into bed, wondering why they weren't home yet. "The boys and I are going to the store to pick out Valentine's for Kaitlyn."
I loved picking out all the cute girly things for her.
And had a fun time picking out the perfect little gifts for the boys, too. It's about time they each have their own wallet!
They took so much pride in showing her the card they hand picked for her. :)
Next up - Easter! And just wait til you see her dress. ;)
"a portrait of one, two, or all three of my children - once each week - in 2019"
Jaden: You were so excited to get your electric scooter out for the first time this past week - a Christmas gift you'd been waiting since December to open. Dad also put your basketball hoop back up on the driveway, and the fresh air has done you good!
Brandon: You love your electric scooter, too, but now we need to get you a new bike that fits your size! We're FINALLY going to celebrate your birthday with family tomorrow. Better late than never!
Kaitlyn: You and I had the house to ourselves for two days when the boys went hunting with Daddy for their spring break vacation this week. You were a little out of sorts and seemed to miss your boys! Whenever you sat in your high chair at the table, you kept looking over at our family pictures on the wall, but you were back to your usual spirited self as soon as they pulled in the driveway!
Our Outlaw boys headed to the State Tournament for the third year in a row, this time as the defending state champs. But - this year would be tough. The number of teams in our bracket exploded, and every single game played would prove to be a nail biter.
State is a big deal for this crew. They use it as a measuring stick every single year, knowing they will be competing against the best. Bragging rights are on the line, but it's also just a whole lot of fun for the team and the families to get to be together for the entire weekend, staying in a hotel, swimming in the pool, eating meals together, and bonding at the end of a long but fun season.
The week leading up to State is always full of preparations and planning. New shooter shirts were ordered for the boys, and player moms put together a big dinner for the crew at Doughy Joey's the Wednesday night beforehand. Each player and coach was acknowledged, celebrated, and gifted with signs for their hotel doors and goody bags for the weekend. And if there's one thing moms are good at... it's taking care of their kiddos and other people's kiddos. There was no shortage of group text messages the entire week beforehand between all of us moms, planning out food, snacks, drinks, meal times, etc. We brought a Yeti cooler full of Gatorades, oranges, bananas, granola bars and a few other snacks. Other moms pitched in with van loads of all the fixings for deli sandwiches, snack bags, desserts, Kathy's famous Monster Bars, etc. There's beer for the hotel lobby on Saturday night, suitcases full of swimming suits for younger siblings (players aren't allowed to swim!), and when the blizzard delayed our trip home and made the eventual return a bit treacherous? We caravaned together the whole way home to ensure that everyone was taken care of.
Oh and one more thing. The hair cuts. Those are important, too.
I remembered to have Kaitlyn's outfit made the week beforehand, and she looked very spirited and adorable all weekend long in her special lil sis onesie, proudly sporting her big brother's number on her back and a glittery basketball on her front.
Yes, I made motivational bananas. Because - Sports Mom. ;)
Surprisingly I actually didn't take that many pictures while at State itself. Something about juggling a baby, a middle child, watching very intense basketball games for two days straight... and a husband busy with coaching duties... meant the camera stayed in the bag quite often. ;) I'm terrible about taking pictures in the middle of games because I'm too into the game itself! But it was a good weekend, a tiring weekend, a memory-filled weekend.
Kaitlyn did SO well for her first two nights in a hotel room, sleeping in the pack and play and having fun giggling on the hotel beds. Brandon enjoyed a lot of time with the other kids in the hotel pool, especially when the blizzard forced us to stay an extra night. I didn't witness it myself, but there were TWO snow fights IN the pool. ;)
And as far as how the team did? So well. Their third trip to state, their third consecutive trip to the Title game. They came up five points short of winning the whole thing, but that is quite the accomplishment to be proud of. Every single year our Outlaws are "the team to beat." One of my proudest moments of the season was watching them battle back from being down 22-4 to win that game by 20! The coaching from the bench and the determination from our players and the will of the moms on the sidelines... it was pretty incredible. I actually got goosebumps at one point just watching it all unfold.
And I will never forget at the end of day one, returning to the hotel lobby on Saturday night after winning our first two games, and being greeted by other Outlaw teams with boxes and boxes of pizza and huge rounds of applause every time one of our players would walk through the lobby doors. To be greeted like that - our boys felt like college players. It was special. :) And after that? The Missouri wrestling team shared their Olive Garden catered meal with us. ;)
Getting a big congrats from Coach and Daddy. He worked his butt off in that come-from-behind win to propel the team to the semi-final.
State runners-up and one more big tournament still ahead...
