Parker's 11th Birthday!

 Parker is 11!  We celebrated at home, at baseball, at dinner, and at his party.  Here are some pics!

Sydney is 15!!

Somehow, Sydney is 15!  She got her learner's permit (!!) and celebrated with a group of friends.  She's growing up way too quickly!

Taylor- Volleyball

Taylor is trying a new sport this fall- volleyball!  It's a sport I've been wanting her to try for awhile, but with basketball being year-round, it was hard to find the time.  Her basketball team was taking the fall off, so this seemed like the best time to try it.

There were 75 girls from Taylor's middle school that tried out for 6 different teams... the top three teams (A, B, & C) were considered their middle school teams- though, only the A & B teams would play other local middle school teams.  The bottom 3 teams were based out of the local volleyball club's building and they (along with the middle school C team) played other random teams on the weekends.

The only time Taylor has ever played volleyball was in PE with her friends, so I didn't have high hopes of her making a high team... I was hoping she could make the middle school C team.  Tryouts were closed to parents, so I literally had no clue how she did compared to others.

Well... she made the A TEAM!  It was so exciting and completely unexpected!  She beat out girls that have been playing and training for 3-4 years.  So, we were super surprised, but had to get with the program really quickly- had to buy volleyball shoes, some of those tiny shorts (!), knee pads, etc.

The season started quickly, and would only last about 8 weeks.  It has been super fun.  Taylor is learning a LOT and is playing with and against some really strong girls, so she is improving every game!  Her coach pulled me aside last game and said that Taylor is very hard-working and can play any position, and said she'd love for her to play on a club team, but knows basketball would interfere.  We'll have to think on that some.

Anyways, here are some pics and videos of her season so far!  She has a couple more weeks until the season is over.  Oh, and I should probably mention that Taylor has a boyfriend.  He is the cutest kid.  He has come to almost all of her games, especially since he broke his arm and can't do his cross country and baseball practices for now. :(  You'll see him in some of the pics!

Game 1:

First game he came to- this was the night I met him for the first time! (Now that I know who he is, it turns out that I pass him 4 times in the hallway every day at school ;))

Tournament in Jasper:

They got 3rd place in the gold bracket!

Another game- Grandmom and Aunt Kendall came to cheer her on!

First home game- Hensley came!

Other away games, and lots of friend support:

We went to watch the C team play on a Saturday AM, and Taylor and Alex got to line judge!

Videos:

Labor Day Weekend

Sydney and I took a little girls' trip up to the mountain house for Labor Day weekend!  We went up Saturday morning and came back Sunday afternoon, but mountain time is like 3 times normal time, so it felt like we were there for days.

Here's some of our fun!