Basketball season

Well, I’m super late on this seeing that basketball season has been done for about a month now. I could make a hundred excuses why I’m so late. I work two jobs, have three kids, blah blah blah but then you hear it from me nearly every month because that’s about how often I write posts anymore. I’ll save my my-life-is- so-hectic soliloquy for another day.

My husband, Justin, has a slight obsession with basketball, but when you grow up in a state that lives and breathes it, it’s just in your blood. Plus, the fact that he’s 6’4” had coaches hunting him down to play.

This is the second year that Nolan’s played. While he may not be the most coordinated on the team, I gotta say that he shown a lot of growth. He was one of the youngest on the team, which made him look short….something I not used to. He’s usually one of the tallest. 

I’m not proud to admit that my most competitive side comes out at my kids’ games. I mean I’m not one of those yelling-at-the-refs type of parent but I do tell my kids to hustle. Nolan was a great hustler. In fact, I think that sometimes he was more concerned with racing the other kids to the other end of the court than he was in making a basket or anything else. But hey, at least my kid was running, right?

Basketball is a hard sport especially for young ones. I didn’t start playing until I was in middle school and even then it was difficult for me. Ok, I tried out for the team and didn't even know what a lay up was. Yikes.

But do you see my boy having fun with that big ol' grin? Makes those weekly practices worth it after a long day.

Probably the cutest part of the whole season was Campbell wanting to go to every single practice to watch his bubba and wearing Nolan’s jersey from last to every game. He said that he was tricking everyone that he was on the team. He wants to play so badly but we’re going to wait a little longer since it takes so much coordination for him. Landry was the sweetest little cheerleader at every game and it actually really kept her interest, amazingly enough!

We’re so proud of Nolan for this season and how hard he worked.  

Easter egg-citement

I have so many fond memories of Easter growing up. No matter how poor my mom was being a single mom, I sported some frilly dress she sewed for me. I was so excited to have a new Easter dress.

Landry is the boss of the family. Last year, I found her dress on clearance so I decided to have us all coordinate around her. She’s already a bossy girl. Where would she learn such behavior?!

 It was pretty simple considering that I just used the same outfits for the bows and sewed them bowties to match her outfit. Don’t be impressed. They took 20 minutes to sew them both and involved straight lines which is the only type of line I can sew. 

Sidenote: In case you were wondering, no we didn't hunt bananas on our Easter egg hunt. Landry saw it in the diaper bag and if there's one thing you don't mess with with this girl, it's her food. Again, where does she get this stuff?

We were woken up at 3 a.m. by Nolan who threw up in his bed. Nothing says "Happy Easter" like a little 3 a.m. bath and load of laundry. That was a fun way to start the holiday. I was worried that Easter plans would be cancelled but he never ran a fever and was running around when he woke up for the day like it never happened so we went ahead with our plans. Glad it was short lived.

Campbell completely missed the Easter egg hunt so he was moping until sweet Jack snuck up and secretly emptied his basket into Campbell's. How sweet is that? It made Campbell's day.

 Justin’s sister, Rainey, was in town to visit for a short break. She was a good sport as we dragged her along to Easter egg hunts and everywhere else. And Madison, my niece, joined us for church with her brunette side.

I know that people say to savor every moment because time just flies but Easter is always pretty hectic. Trying to get three kids dressed for church, trying to tend to three kids during an Easter egg hunt, preparing lunch, dealing with meltdowns from naps being skipped all make it pretty exhausting. I love Easter and I know that I’ll look back on these years wondering where they went, but I do know that since we’ve had kids I sleep REALLY well after Easter. 

I want to remember the importance of Easter and what it means and I want to relay this to my children. I was trying to have this magical parental moment of explaining that Easter isn’t about bunnies and candy, it’s about Jesus dying on the cross for our sins because he loves us that much. After I’m finished explaining it I asked the boys, “Isn’t that amazing that God and Jesus love us THAT much?”

Campbell replies, “Well except for that dying on the cross part.” He said it like I was insane for talking about someone loving us and dying in the same sentence. I just love these moments.

I hope that I can do a better job explaining that whole "dying on the cross part." There's always next year, right?

Thanks mom and dad for working so hard on Easter for the kids and for lunch. Exhausting means we  jam packed in the memories.