Birthday Visit

We recently headed to Houston to see Melissa and family for her birthday.  Steve was also enlisted to help with some home improvement projects, mainly putting up shelves, curtain rods and art on the walls.  We hadn’t seen the little boys for a while so it was so great to spend time with them.  Melissa and David were able to go out to dinner and a movie one evening while Steve and I took care of the boys.  We were glad they were able to celebrate Valentine’s Day and Melissa’s birthday alone together!

James got a Superman slumber bag for Valentine’s Day and Will got a book from Nanie and Papa.

James is excellent at putting puzzles together.

A little “bed-head” in the morning.

This Nancy Tillman book is really sweet and her illustrations are beautiful.

Will turned 9 months while we were there so we took some photos as Melissa does every month.  Melissa actually got the best photos on her iphone.  Following are a few of my favorites.

He has just one tooth and is teething so it is hard to catch him without his hands in his mouth.  Precious little boy!

Cheetahs Upward Basketball

Nathan is playing Upward basketball for the first time this year and Kevin is coaching.  Nathan absolutely loves playing.  He is a natural encourager and plays “all-out-all-the-time”.  Love it!

This is Nathan getting his “star” for the game.  Upward coaches hand out awards after each game to each player for their contribution to the game.

Praying before the game.

The grandkids sports activities have been keeping up busy but we love that they are active and learning life lessons through sports.

Soccer Time

Kylie is playing club soccer and she tried out and made her junior high soccer team.  This was quite an accomplishment as she was competing for a spot with both seventh and eighth graders.  She is certainly getting lots of soccer playing time this spring!  Steve and I watched a school soccer game in Austin and the following week Kylie was in College Station for a club soccer tournament.  The competition is getting much tougher and the girls are getting bigger.  Kylie really holds her own against any competition.

This game was decided by penalty kicks (best of 5) and this last pic is of Kylie’s kick - which she made.  Unfortunately, her team lost on penalty kicks.

Kylie’s team won the first game and Kylie scored.

Kylie was matched against a much bigger girl in this game.

The Rangers lost the second game against a really good, much larger and rough-playing team.  Kylie’s games are fun to watch as she is at a very competitive level.  Steve and I are still learning about soccer but are getting better at yelling encouragement at appropriate times.

Andrew Basketball

We recently went to Austin to watch, among other things, Andrew play basketball.  Drew plays really hard and really knows his position and where all the players should be.  It is so fun to watch his intensity on the floor.  Unfortunately, the gym was really poorly lit and photography was difficult in the low light even with the fastest lens.  Nevertheless, here are some photos of his game.

It has been fun to watch his game progress these past couple of years.  He is now really enjoying the spectator aspect of basketball.  I think his dad has a surprise for him on his birthday that he will really enjoy!