Emily at the Bat

Emily has had a fantastic baseball season! She is playing Kindergarten coach pitch (and it is OVER hand pitching!). The kids get three pitches before the Tee is brought out.

One of the assistant coaches brought up the point that when Emily gets up to bat, you underestimate her b/c she looks like this little girl who nonchalantly steps up to the plate--right before she powers one over the in-field's head. One time the ball even made the "ping!" noise right after she hit it. That was Emily's favorite hit of the season. Of the three innings they play, she usually hits it off of the pitch at least once, most of the times twice.

Here she is on first base. As you may have noticed, her jersey is a bit big. We tried to exchange it for one smaller, but they said no since she'd already worn and washed it. She IS, however, wearing shorts underneath!

It's a hit!

Emily has had a wonderful coach, "Coach Larry." He really knows what he's doing and has really helped the kids learn and improve their skills.

The other girl on the team is named Ellie. She and Emily became fast friends and always cheer each other on. They also field together so they can talk about the latest and greatest. Ellie is also quite the slugger. Her dad plays basketball with Cubby on Tuesday nights at the church and so our families have gotten to know each other a bit more as well.

Here they are giving each other a "good job" low-

five as they trade places in the field.

Emily is always excited to play and to have fun. Great job, Slugger!

Christian

Christian has been doing many note-worthy things as of late. The biggest, of course, is that he is POTTY-TRAINED!!!! Yes, it finally "clicked" and most days, we're accident-free. He's even gone so far as to tell me during swimming lessons that he has to go to the bathroom--(Pool Rule #1: No peeing in the pool!). He's so excited because now he not only gets to go to preschool this fall, but once his hair grows out a bit more, he'll get his mohawk! "So proud of me, Mommy?" Yes, Christian, we are sooooo proud of you!!!

Secondly, Christian has just been plain funny these days. As you can see from the picture, he's anti-shirt. As soon as we get home, the shirt comes off. Not sure where he came up with that--Cubby and I both keep our shirts on.

His other quirk is being held in his hand--yup, a tied-up Barbie doll. Apparently, she's "trapped" and he saves her... She also is his latest lovie and goes to bed and everything. Again, he's a funny little guy.

Finally, Christian has one volume: LOUD. I'm constantly asking him not to shout out every little thing he wants to say. Maybe he just wants to be heard above a certain talkative older sister...

I'll depart from my post for a minute: Somedays, okay, most days, I feel like I'm raising two first-born children. Emily, a total type-A who commands attention and is used to people seeing things her "way" and Christian, my boy, who is so stubborn and opinionated, also insisting upon doing things his "way". It'll totally come in handy later in life--their strong wills and all. But, for now, I'm doing my best to keep a soft voice when really, inside, I'm screaming for them to listen, obey, and just. get. along! Yeah, can you tell what we're working on at our home???

Back to Christian though. I really love my little guy. He seems to have grown so much over the summer--from a toddler to a little boy. He is always up for a hug, although if you're Emily or Daddy, chances are he'd rather wrestle you down. I am excited for this up and coming year and all it has to offer him.

She Sits!

As if on cue, the day after she turned 6 mos, Kari decided to wow us w/her new trick--sitting! She knows she's hot stuff too!

Fun on the Fourth

Okay, the Fourth of July was a couple of weeks ago, but I'm just now getting caught up and posting it. We drove out to my Grandma's home in Ashland and had a nice dinner and set off a few minor fireworks. So, while we didn't get as CRAZY as most people around here, it was plenty for my children who, up until this year, hated the loud noises so much that we've purposely been out of town around the Fourth for at least 3 of the last 4 years. (Which is fine by me; I'm now a mommy and say that fireworks are dangerous anyway. I love to watch the big shows that the professionals put on--they're really beautiful, from a safe distance!) But, Emily and Christian did enjoy the small ones that the big boys set off.

Emily also made a new best friend in Stan's grand-daughter, Anna, who was in town for the holiday weekend. The girls were so cute and Emily really wants Anna to come back for another visit soon! The kids also had fun catching butterflies too--such a summer pasttime!

In case you're wondering, Kari also enjoyed her holiday, but was fairly oblivious to all of the goings-on :-). But, she did have fun rolling around on the floor with Emily.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

This year we are trying raised-bed, square foot gardening. Well, it has been very successful in that our plants are growing CRAZY! We're getting a huge crop of green beans already and we just can't seem to contain the tomatoes either. A big windy thunderstorm almost knocked our 8 ft corn over, but we seem to have salvaged it okay. We're also growing carrots, peas, peppers, watermelon, cantaloupe, pumpkin, cucumbers, zucchini, sweet potatoes, and raspberries. We had lettuce, but it got "harvested" a bit to vigorously (Emily pulled it up by the roots rather than just the leaves---oops.) It's very exciting to see everything growing and to eat what we've grown!


These are from a couple of weeks ago when our first crop of green beans were ready. It was big-time fun.

There they are! Green Beans!

Yum! Right, Emily?? (They are delicious...if only the kiddos would enjoy eating them as much as picking! Maybe one day, right?)

Has It Already Been Six Months?

Today, my sweet little Kari is six months old! She is just a joy to have in our family and we all just love her so much. I just love watching her face light up whenever one of us talks or sings to her. Or, even when Cubby or I come home. She just gets all giddy--she knows and loves her family!

Kari is also THIS close to sitting up without any "back up" behind her. She's started to learn to eat some rice cereal as well and we've also tried pears, sweet potatoes, and some watermelon. She liked the watermelon best--baby food is still a weird sensation for her. Kari loves her exersaucer and playing on the floor with Emily and Christian. She has found her toes this past month and is an accomplished "roller-overer". She had her first bad cold this last month and also her first major teething episode. (Thank goodness she's reached the 6 month mark and we can give her Ibprofen!!) Recently, her sleeping habbits have improved...although I know better by now than to get too comfortable with it b/c it's probably just a phase :-).

Her "stats" are as follows:

Weight: 16 lbs 12 oz (70%)

Height: 26 1/4 inches (60%)

Head: 44 1/2 cm (90%)--keeping up w/the Lindseth tradition of big heads!

Happy 6 mos, Kari-belle! We love you!!

Farewell to Good Friends

Last Friday, we had to say good-bye to our wonderful friends, the Crops. As is the case with many families around here, they are military and were in Nebraska for three years before having to move on. Emily and Caden were good buds and Julia was Christian's favorite friend. Such sweethearts, we'll definitely miss them! (And, when the kids lose their friends, I end up losing mine as well--I miss you already, Rachel!)

Here are the crazy kids, doing what they do best--goofing off and eating (this time, it's popsicles--if you know the Crops, you know they can eat!)

Good luck in Vegas guys! Keep in touch!

Last Day of Swimming

I'm finally able to start catching up on the past few weeks of events for the blog!


First up, the last day of swim lessons, or "fun day." The kids got to swim all over the pool and go down the water slides. It was so fun to watch them--Emily got to go down by herself and Christian's instructors took him down. Both kids passed their levels too! Emily will be able to move on to Level 3 and Christian can go up to "Guppy" next summer.

Here are a couple of shots of them on their last day of swim lessons (they were so sad to have them end! Next summer, I'll definitely be signing them up for more than one sesson!)

Emily and her favorite instructor, "Teacher Amanda" (Emily was quite popular with the instructors and they all still say "Hello, Student Emily!" when they see her at the pool.)Christian, going down the water slides!

Christian, and his favorite teacher, Caitlyn. She was also his instructor last summer when we did our "Mommy and me" class...and she remembered him! We really love Miss Caitlyn.

Emily, going down the slides, solo!

R.I.P

Two weeks ago our computer decided that it was finally time to retire itself. It was 8 yrs old and so, in computer years, that makes it ANCIENT. It was falling apart and just so.darn.slow. Sooooo....as luck would have it, the day it died, Cubby ordered us a new one--and it arrived today! Yippeee!!!

As soon as Cubby can upload the various softwares and transfer our files over, I will be up and running again with updated posts on all of the various happenings in Lindseth Land. Until then, I hope you all are enjoying your summer!