Birthdays, Baby, Basketball, and Babysitting

Sunday, January 10th, we celebrated Papa, Blake, and Justin's birthdays.  They all share a January 12th birthday.

GayeAnn and Mom fixed chili and then each birthday boy had their favorite dessert.  

Papa - raisin pie

Blake - pecan pie

Justin - banana cream pie 

GayeAnn had a mirror in her bedroom that literally took 20 pounds off of you!  Here we all are checking it out.  I need to get one of those!

We watched them open presents...

while Hannah went through some of Abby's baby clothes.

Saturday, January 23rd, baby Kinley was born!

She looks just like her daddy!  When we got there she had the hiccups and made the sweetest little sounds.  She's so tiny and beautiful!

Welcome to the world, sweet baby girl!  You are already so loved!

The past couple of weeks, I've been watching lots and lots of basketball.  I've loved it, as this is my favorite sport and I'm watching my favorite players!

This was Chase's first year to play for school.  His seventh grade team won 2nd place in the COC!  Chase had a great coach.  He seemed to know just when to be gentle and encouraging and when to be a little more upfront and gruff.  Chase grew so much as a player and became more confident in his abilities.  I can't wait to see what next year holds!

Garrett is playing basketball with a group of his baseball buddies at the Courts in Springfield.  He's quite the basketball player, too.  He's not afraid to get "down and dirty".  I'm sad that I don't any video of him yet, but I will because his season is just starting!

Here is some of Garrett's cheering section.  Ok, maybe they weren't quite focused on the game, but they were there for moral support!

Ethan's sneaking in some lovin'.

Here's one tired boy:

Ethan is playing basketball, too.  This is his first year and is he fired up!  The first thing he told me about it was that he was going to dwain (drain) all his shots!  He is playing Upward at James River Assembly.  While this is a time for learning, Ethan already knows quite a bit just from watching his older brothers.  He was ready for the action.

Anytime he saw me with the camera, he would stop and pose.  On the video, you'll hear me laughing at one such occasion.

He's pretty tired, but mainly mad at Mommy because she wouldn't bring his drink over.

Jacob's first game is Friday night.  I'm anxious to see him play, too!  Who knows, maybe even Abs will play next year.

Finally, one night this week I helped watch Ethan while Tina was at Chase's game.  Pop took him to practice and then I took over from there.  Ethan had everything planned, I guess I was just there in case of an emergency.  :)  He immediately showed me the star he got at practice, but was more excited to tell me that someone got a star for "sweating the most."  While this was certainly not the reason, he's always thought the more you sweat, the harder you worked.  What a cutie!

Here he is showing me exactly what cup he wanted his apple juice in.  (When Mommy got home I found out he's not supposed to use sippy cups any more.  Guess he snuck one in on Meme!)

He wanted to play Mario Brothers.  Before we could even start, he had to make sure the lighting and sound were just perfect.  Seriously, we turned on/off about four different lights.  He amazed me at how he could set everything up, using three different remotes!

We had such a great time.  I wasn't very good at the game, but he encouraged me by saying, "Wow, Meme!  You're pretty good!"  He was so sweet to say, "My mom and me make the best team!"  When it was time for bed there was no crying or arguing and he went right to sleep.  What a good boy!

I'm so thankful for my nephews and niece.  They certainly more than fill a void in my life right now!