Happy Birthday babies!

One year old! We had a blast celebrating the twins' birthday. We went to the Woodland Park Zoo and had 35 people there to join in on the fun. The girls were great and Spencer was amazing considering how exhausting it was.

At the girls' one year check up, Elsie was 17 lbs 8 oz and Georgia was 16 lbs 10 oz. Their size was pretty similar. Georgia is really close to walking. She is super funny with four teeth; her center bottom teeth and her two upper eye teeth. She looks like a vampire! Super cute. Elsie is quickly catching up with her crawling and is now normally crawling and no longer a wounded soldier. She is trying hard to stand up and catch up to her sister. Both girls are super cute.

Wow! Time Flies!

Here we are a couple days before Alex's 10th birthday. It's the end of September, the weather is starting to change, and I have more gray hair just thinking of how fast the past year has flown by. Whew! The twins are now one year old. Talk about a whirlwind. Katia is in 8th grade! Alex is in his last year of elementary school.

So here we are. Last blog entry was July as we sat cramped in a hotel room waiting around for Katia and the Allstar team to play another game. Katia's team ended up taking third in State. Way to go! It was a challenge but overall a super fun experience. I am so glad Katia was able to play allstars. I look forward to watching Alex doing the same. I also got a job in June and started in July. I finally got a job here on the island. It is something I have been praying for and have been patiently and not so patiently waiting for.... God always knows his timing and teaches me yet another way of how he listens to prayer and does what is best for me, even when I don't think so or agree.

August went by in a flash. We had our vacation nanny Laura move in with us, I went back to work full-time, the kids were all over the place, and we did some visiting with family. Fun summer. It feels so great being back in the school system and working with kids. This group of kids is a great group, even more since Katia is at my school! It is fun to see her and to meet all the boys she talks about. I already knew many of the girls, but now I can put faces to the boys.

Now that school has been in session for a month, it is starting to get into a routine. I wouldn't say a total routine, that is for sure. I still don't have my weekly meal schedule down pat and with working late some nights and Dave doing soccer practices other nights, it just isn't feeling terribly organized. We will get there. :-)

More on the kids next post.

...another update on Katia's All-Star team run

Bainbridge Majors All-Stars win 2nd game in State Tournament

The Bainbridge Island Majors All-Stars won their 2nd round game of the Washington State tournament vs. Battle Ground on Sunday in La Center, WA. Bainbridge scored early and often, running away with a 25-3 victory.

Bainbridge's offense exploded with 3 runs in the 1st, 10 runs in the 2nd and 12 runs in the 3rd inning. The game was called after 4 innings due to the 10 run "mercy" rule.

Leading the way for Bainbridge were: Carolyn Williams, with 2 hits, 4 rbi and 3 runs scored; Catie Muir, with 2 hits and 2 rbi; Hannah Lipka with a double, triple, 4 rbi and 3 runs scored; Madeline Corbin singled, had 2 rbi and scored 3 runs; Kate Kinney doubled and scored 4 runs.

Bainbridge used 3 pitchers in the shortened game, combining to yield only 2 hits while striking out 5 in 4 innings.

With the win, Bainbridge moves on to a Semi-final winners bracket game vs. the All-Stars from Bellevue Thunderbird on Tuesday @ 6:00pm. The winner secures a spot in the State Championship game on Thursday.

Bainbridge Majors All-Stars softball wins opening round game in State tournament

The Bainbridge Majors All-Stars Softball team pulled out yet another dramatic win in a 1st round game of the State tournament on Saturday in La Center, WA.
Trailing 2-0 and down to their last strike in the 6th inning, Bainbridge rallied to tie the team from Chinook, with Catie Muir igniting the 2 out rally with a single. After a walk and a pass ball moved the runners to 2nd and 3rd, Julie Feikes delivered a clutch single which tied the game, scoring Allison Snare who ran for Muir, and Kate Kinney, who scored 2 runs in the game. Feikes, who went 3 for 3, then shut the Chinook offense down in the bottom of the 6th, forcing extra innings.
Then the Bainbridge offense came alive, scoring 7 runs in the 7th inning. Hannah Lipka singled in 2 runs with her 2nd hit to get things going and Bainbridge sent 12 hitters to the plate in the inning. Staked to a 9-2 lead, Feikes held on for the win as Chinook rallied for 2 more runs in their half of the 7th. Feikes pitched 5 innings, striking out 5 in the win.
Bainbridge will take on the team from Battle Ground in a second round game on Sunday at 11:00 am.

Bainbridge Majors Softball All-Stars

Katia is playing on the Bainbridge Island 11-12 year-old softball All-Star team. Here is a link to an article in the Bainbridge Review.

http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/kitsap/bir/sports/50678597.html

Nine months here we come!

The girls are nearing nine months old and are SOOO cute! It is really fun to see their personalities coming out more and more. Georgia started to crawl ten days ago and is now all over the place. She has been working on it for some time but finally got past the rocking on her hands and knees stage. Elsie is rolling around and scooting backwards but isn't showing any signs of wanting to get more mobile. She remains the more laid back of the two. I fear that Georgia will be just like her brother Spencer! Oh my! Georgia got this strange pimple thing on her head and it ended up turning into this infected lump. The doctor thinks it might be staff infection so we are treating it with cream and a heavy dose of antibiotics. She doesn't care about the infection, but she certainly hates taking the medicine.

Spencer is all about baseball. Everything is, "Ala, Ala hit da ball" which translates to, "Alex hit the ball." He loves to throw the ball and run the bases. I can't forget to mention that he knows how to slide into the base and has a mean left-handed pitching arm! It is always adorable when Spencer wants to run the bases after Alex or Katia's games. He grabs a batting helmet and runs around the field from base to base. Pretty cute. He is still skinnier than ever and will probably remain that way since he is burning calories by the second! Must be nice.

Katia and Alex are finishing up their softball/baseball season. We begin playoffs this week. Both kids had good seasons. Katia has been one of the best hitters and her pitching has been pretty solid. Alex tried out for the AAA division and made it meaning he would play up a year. He did quite well. It was really fun to watch him pitch. He has a good arm on him and will be a solid pitcher as he grows. School gets out in a couple weeks. Whew! This went by so fast!

Six months old

Georgia

Elsie

5 months old

The girls are now over five months old! They are doing very well and it is so much fun to watch them grow. They are still growing into some 3 month clothes and have officially grown out of a few. Thankfully, they are sleeping through the night (since 3 months old). Georgia is a super smiley girl and has found her voice (much louder than her sweet coos). Elsie remains the squawker. She reminds me of my grandpa's sun conures (birds).

We haven't been giving the girls a ton of rug time but Elsie can now roll over from tummy to back and back to tummy. Georgia rolled over today for the first time from her tummy to her back. It was really cute and made her giggle. Both of the girls are super giggly and sweet. They are a ton of fun, especially when they watch each other and laugh.

Only a few weeks until the girls get to start food! WOW!

Kickin' into survival mode....

Katia is now 13! Oh my, where does the time go? It is hard to believe that Katia is now in middle school (and loving it) and constantly talking about getting a car, cell phone, itouch..... Actually she has been talking about these things for some time. It just seems that much more scary now that she is officially a teenager. Katia had a few friends stay over at her mom's house to celebrate the big day.

The rest of us have been recuperating from a terrible cold. Even the twins were hacking away and sniffling. Spencer had it the worst. I did some serious praying and thankfully we were blessed and the cold disappeared as quickly as it hit us.

The weather is getting nicer and spring is around the corner. Before we know it we will be celebrating Easter. WOW.... Time seems to go by that much fast when you have a teenager in the house. Heehee.

Catching up from the holidays....

Here it is a month since my last post. WOW, time flies. I am not sure where it goes - except to feeding, pooping, crying, sleeping children. Heehee.

We really enjoyed our holiday break with the snow everywhere. The kids had a blast and it kept them busy which was great for everyone. Dave was home a lot over the break to spend time with the kids and to play out in the snow. Christmas eve was spent here at home with an open house of sorts. We had a wonderful showing of friends and family who came by to relax and enjoy the night. Christmas day was spent opening presents, being with family, and sending Alex and Katia to their mom's. Dave and I and the three youngsters went to my sister's house for dinner.