Happy Birthday Ben!

Six years ago our 3rd son was brought into this world! Jason as you all know wanted lots of kids, I aggreed on 3. Will and Drew were so close together and I guess I knew deep down we would have 3 boys so I wanted to go ahead and try for #3 so he would be able to play with his brothers and do what they were doing instead of having to sit back and watch. We had gone through many issues getting pregnant with Will and the Drew came without even trying so I thought it would be that easy with Ben. Not so. It took longer than I had planned but that was okay, I believe everthing is in God's time and not mine! I had to learn that the hard way!! Ben keeps us laughing all the time! You never know what he is thinking or what we will say! He is so smart and loves to play video games and the computer. He really is a very good little boy! I am so blessed that God sent him to me. He is different than his brothers in looks and in what interests him! He is a home body! Getting in the car and going places is not his ideal thing to do unless we are taking him to Disney World!! He love that place!! We all do really!! I do not know what I would do without him! He has brightened my day everyday for the last 6 years and I am sure he will continue to do so!! I love you Ben!! Happy 6th Birthday!!

Troy Pre-Minors place 2nd in State

So we didn't win the State Championship but we are the only team that beat the State Champions, South Bibb! Our team just couldn't get it together for our last game. Will and DQ were both sick and the rest of our players were getting that way too. We have all come home with some type of virus. But over all we had the BEST time! The team lost their first game and fought their way back to the end. South Bibb beat us 12-1 in our last game. So out of the Pre-Minor teams in the State, we tied for 2nd! I think that is an awesome accomplishment for 8 year olds! The hardest part now is trying to get our life back as we knew it before baseball! Every week night since June 9th Will has practiced baseball. We were at the ballpark every night. We have gone and gone and gone and without warning it has stopped. I feel lost. I never in a million years believed that I would have enjoyed tournament ball as much as I did! I made many new friends and spent more time with old friends and made many great memories that will last a lifetime! I can not thank our coaches enough for being such positive role models for our kids. They have learned so much more than the game of baseball from these men. Not only were we playing for a State Title, but we were also raising money for the Miracle League here in Troy. Throughout tournament play, we had 258 hits and 23 of those were Will's!! Thanks to all of you for your support!

Pre-Minor State Tournament

So, this is the first time I have been able to blog about the tournament. All I can say is WOW! These teams are really good! We got to Athens on Thursday and the team participated in the Homerun Derby. One of our players, Colby had the lead for a long time. His hit the fence and then in fell back to the outfield. Finally after about 15 batters someone hit 2 over! Oh well, that is not what we came here for so we were okay. We came to take home state so we turned our minds to the game Friday. We started off the tournament against Thomasville. It was a close game. We had ALOT of errors and cost ourselves that one. We lost 16-13. With one loss, we have to win to stay alive. We moved down to the losers bracket and met with Smith Station. We won that one in a close one 8-7!! By staying alive we played Alexandria later that day. Our bats were cracking and we took an early 7-0 lead. They scored 4 on us but we were able to pull out a 12-4 win! That win kept us going only to meet the home team. Athens, today at 2. Our boys not only beat Athens National but they also beat the umpires. They made the worst calls, even Jason said so and he never agrees with me on bad calls. I don't think we ever took the lead. We were the visitor so they had the last bat. We tied the game in the last inning and held them. Up to bat again and our boys were on fire!! With 2 outs we scored 6 runs to make the score 13-7. They got the last bat and they scored only 3 runs which made the final score 13-10!!! We have made our way back to the winners bracket to meet So. Bibb tomorrow. They are staying at our hotel and they are undefeated! We have made it to the Final 4 but We want to keep going. We still have not played our best game and hopefully tomorrow we will! Cheer us on and hopefully we will bring home state!!

June Re-cap

Wow! June has come and gone and we are still playing baseball!! Will and Drew both were chosen for the tournament team in both of their leagues so June was made up of many days spent at the ball park! The tournaments were June 26-July 1. Will’s team, the Pre-Minor Americans, played here in Troy which was rather convenient however, Drew’s team, the Coach Pitch Nationals, played in Luverne. I missed Will’s 1st game and his last but was at every one of Drew’s games. Will’s team went undefeated in the tournament and is the District 9 champs. They advanced to the Dixie Youth State tournament that will be in Athens, Alabama July 17-21. Drew’s team came out of the loser’s bracket to play in the championship game! The Enterprise Americans beat the Troy Nationals in the 2nd game. We played the Enterprise Nationals and Troy Americans and beat them only to end up having to play the Enterprise Americans again. They came into the championship game undefeated. We gave them a run for their money and beat them in game one to force game 2 for the Sub-District title. Our boys fought hard but lost in the 6th inning 11-10. We came in 2nd place and we were proud of it!!

Since the tournaments were over and Will got a little break from baseball practice we headed to the beach for the 4th. We really didn’t do anything special but swim all day long every day we were there. On the 4th, Deeda did take us on the boat up to the Ono bridge were the water is real shallow and boats anchor and spend the day. The kids had fun! Deeda and the boys watched the fireworks from the deck but Kate and I were in the bed at 9:00. I was tired and so what that baby girl! I hope you all had a great 4th and I hope you all have a great summer!

Kate has added a little hip action to her "Single Ladies" dance!!