1994 State Champions!

I remember it like it was yesterday.  My Dad's basketball team, and the team for which my brother played starting point guard, made it to State!  It was really no surprise, as they had been blowing out their opponents all season long, but still so exciting!  Going to "Hutch" for the state basketball tournament was the best family vacation ever.  Thankfully my dad's teams were very successful in the 80s and 90s, so we got to take this vacation nearly every March, it seemed like.  What we didn't expect, though, was how easily this 1994 team handled their 3 games at state to become State Champions!  It was such a fun time for the players and our entire community, as basically the entire town of Wellsville made the trip to support their team.  Talk about a party in the Holidome the night they won the championship!  It was so much fun, and LOTS of great memories were made.

Well, it's hard to believe, but 20 years have passed since that talented team won State.  Last Friday evening at the varsity boys basketball game, the championship team was honored and everyone remembered back to the fun we had 20 years ago.  Pictures were displayed, and how fun they were to look at!

There's my Dad, Coach "D", with the senior players on that team.  Uncle Scottie was a huge part of the reason they won state that year with his great athletic ability and basketball skills.  He's on the far right in this picture, the one with the awesome mullet.  And look how young Dad looks!

The Seniors with their dads: Look how young Denny looks also!

The Seniors with their Moms, so proud of their babies!

Oh, and did I mention that Russ was on the team, too??  The arrow is pointing him out.  He played in every game at the state tournament; we just won't say how much. (As only a sophomore, it was pretty awesome that he got playing time in such big games!)  Uncle Kyle is in the black hat on the back row.  And in case you were wondering, Yes, Uncle Scottie is wearing boxers (with hearts, I believe), in these pictures.  Gotta love the early 90s.

So the whole team, except Uncle Kyle who was coaching his own team and Jake Bauer who was ironically coaching Oliver's basketball team, made it back for the celebration.  (The two of them will be photoshopped into the front row.)  It was great to see all of these guys together again!

These guys hadn't changed a whole lot, although the mullets have mostly been replaced by, well, nothing.  Bald is the new mullet apparently.

After pictures, Violet and her friends played with the Eagle for a while.  It took Violet a bit to warm up to the idea of the big furry thing, but eventually she liked him.

Uncle Scottie gave the talk at the recognition and he told everyone just how fun high school basketball was for this team.  Every home game was a sold-out crowd and the community support was second-to-none.  He encouraged all of the fans to once again fill the stands for these games, because the memories for the players last forever.

My four favorite members of that 1994 State Championship team! (I know, I know, this is a terrible attempt at getting Uncle Kyle in the picture.  But it gets the point across anyway.)

Here's a much better picture after Kyle and Jake had been added -- This is a really great group of guys!

For Hire: Snow Removal Services

I put the boys to work shoveling our front walkway last weekend.

  (For much of the time, Calvin was more interested in 'posing' for the camera than scooping snow, as you can see.)

 

Amazingly, when they were finished, there seemed to be more snow in the walkway than when they started.  They may not be ready to be hired out just yet.

Sweet 16 Months

I haven't dedicated a post to my Sweet Evelyn in awhile, and she is at such a fun age right now!  A little over 16 months, she has quite the spunk and is learning new things every single day.  It amazes me some days just how easily her progress comes.  With really no effort on anyone's part, she follows directions, can imitate nearly any sound, is beginning to eat with utensils, waves bye-bye and says bye-bye, gives kisses, and the list goes on and on!  I know I've said this before, but having Miss Violet has truly given me an appreciation for the typical.  When Violet meets her milestones, it is an occasion for celebrating because we've worked to hard to get there, but I'm trying to take a step back and appreciate Evelyn's accomplishments as well because she is such a miracle, too!

Love her cheesy smile!

 She still sucks her thumb, but usually only when she's tired.  So sweet when she's sleeping.

And I love how sweet my girls look when they fall asleep together.

I actually kind of like the thumb sucking at this point, because when the thumb comes out, that means I'm going to get some cuddle time! I know you can't see her other hand in this picture, but I'm quite certain it is under my shirt, playing with my belly button. This is definitely her preferred cuddle position: one hand with thumb in the mouth, other hand under my shirt.  If those two criteria are met, she is off to sleep quickly and peacefully.

We played with cousin KJ last week.  These kiddos are so much fun right now!

 Just like her big sis, the girl loves to eat.  I really haven't found anything she doesn't like.  She is also doing amazingly well drinking out of a regular cup. I didn't have to worry about breaking this girl of the bottle, because she really never took one.  She recently stopped nursing, too, and I think that process was more difficult for me than her.  We had a good run, and she was the BEST nursing baby I could have ever hoped for. After having to exclusively pump with Violet, Evelyn was a dream-come-true for a nursing momma, and I'm so thankful for that.

 

On a side note, I think she may be a catcher someday.  She can hold this stance forever.

 She still definitely favors Calvin the most.  She reminds me of him in so many ways.

 She is always ahead of the game, even practicing for the terrible twos a few months early.  This is her pathetic whiny face.

And this is her "I want my mommy and I want her NOW so she better pick me up" face.  The other kids have always preferred their Daddy, but I think I may finally have gotten a baby who wants me.  Most of the time, this makes me quite happy.  It's amazing how spoiled she is, being the 4th baby and all.

 No, she's not sleeping.  This is her drama-queen pose after she throws herself on the ground.

I'm thinking it's only a matter of time before she requests Daddy just like the others.  I'll never forget when Violet was this age and I mentioned to the boys that I was glad I could be Violet's favorite since they ALWAYS wanted their daddy.  Calvin quickly responded, "Mom she's just a baby; she doesn't know any different!" Sure enough, Violet is definitely a Daddy's girl today.  And Evelyn probably will be soon as well, but I'm enjoying my time while it lasts!

Still sportin' the baby mullet.  Still hopeful it will grow in on top someday.

She also LOVES her baby dolls.  Which can cause some serious conflict with Big Sis who also loves her baby dolls.  Especially when they are all the SAME baby dolls. This looks says, "Vi, don't even think about taking this doll from me."

So there you have it, an update on all-things Evelyn. Such a blessing she is in our lives!

Happy Sweet 16 Months to my EvieJune!

Let It Snow!

This week, the kids' dreams came true with not one, but TWO snow days!  They were forecasting 6-10" and I'm not sure if we reached the 10" mark in actual snowfall, but some of the drifts are certainly several feet high.  Russ couldn't even make it out of our driveway this morning (in his 4-wheel drive truck), so had to walk through the snow to the main road where his dad picked him up to take him to work.  Needless to say, the kids and I didn't leave the confines of our warm home today since the wind chills never made it into the positive digits.  I told the boys they could each pick 3 activities to do on our bonus day together, and I would pick 3 as well.  Before we get to our fun, though, here are some pictures of the beautiful blanket of snow around our house. . . Our backyard:

And the view out the front window.  Yes, that is a bench that is barely peeking out above the snow drift.

I attempted to get a picture of the kids with the snow in the background, but it just looks like a white-out behind them unfortunately. (And poor Evelyn is constantly being tormented by her ever-loving brothers.)

We started the snowy day off with some homemade cinnamon rolls, which were so yummy!

Then we got started with our plans for the day.  So my 3 things for today were 1) haircuts for all 3 of my boys, who were in desperate need; 2) Reading to them out of "Little House in the Big Woods", a book that seems to be taking longer than it should; and 3) blogging, which I am doing now :)

Calvin's requests were 1) basketball, which we played LOTS of.  And for the record, I beat the boys in a game of 2-on-1.  And Evelyn got in on the action, too!

2) Making brownies, which coincidentally was one of Oliver's requests as well.  Oliver wanted to make them from scratch, so for the first time we did just that.  They turned out delicious!  We will definitely be doing that again.  

These boys are so goofy when they see my camera come out!

Calvin's 3rd thing was watching a movie.  He and Oliver took a very systematic approach to determining which movie they would watch.  First, they laid out all of the options Calvin chose, then they took turns removing a movie at a time until only one remained. . .

Planet Earth it is!  We watched all about caves, and it was so interesting!

In addition to the brownie-making, Oliver chose playing the Wii.  We did some Wii Sports Resort and Just Dance.  I love watching my boys dance along; it is so adorable!

Oliver's 3rd thing was playing Monopoly, which is always a bit tricky with the girls around.  So we were going to wait until Daddy got home, and then ran out of time.  Looks like we'll save that for tomorrow.

Violet didn't tell us 3 things she wanted, but she loves playing in the linen closet, so the boys joined her in there for some bunk bed-like fun.

By the time I'm finishing this post, we've gotten word that tomorrow will be yet another snow day.  Turning more into a "snow week" it looks like! The temperatures are supposed to stay below zero, but the kids don't mind.  Maybe we'll brave the weather and play in the fluffy white stuff a little on our 3rd snow day??

Basketball Movie

The kids have so much fun making movies on their iPad.  Today's feature film was "Basketball Family" and the boys especially liked Miss Evelyn as Mighty Mouse.  

Enjoy!