Play ball!!!

We are just getting out of ball season around here. I definitely got "ball fever" this year. Braxton moved up to t-ball and you would have thought it was the majors. ;) Around here we have tee-wee for 3 and 4 year olds and then t-ball. In t-ball they actually have positions and can get out. Our team did great and took first at our ball park! Braxton improved SO much and really learned a lot! We ended up taking a 5 year old team to All Stars! 

Sweet girls

We call Addilyn and Annabelle the girls. They are so sweet and Addilyn plays with Annabelle pretty good. She gets a little rough sometimes. :) Addi is starting to talk up a storm. She cracks us up with the way she talks. She tells me she wants to hold Momma, meaning she wants me to hold her. She will tell me she wants to rock, rock when she wants me to rock her. She is pretty laid back and quiet around other people. She gets very nervous and shy in new places or situations. We just love her and Junior says he wants to squeeze her all the time.
Annabelle is crawling all over and of course doesn't want to stay in the living room where her toys are. Ha! She loves to eat and gets very upset if she thinks you are feeding her too low. I am still nursing her because she has an intolerance to a dairy protein. So I have to limit my dairy intake. She is much better then when she was a little baby. This is the longest I have breastfed any of my babies. Annabelle is the most vocal baby. Being baby number three, she is definitely not going to be forgotten! Lol!

Life lately

Busy! Busy! Busy! That describes our life. 19 more days of school, then it is summer time! This house is excited! Sleeping in is not much of an option with Addilyn and Annabelle, but not having to rush around and get ready to go is going to be so nice. I feel like all I do is yell at kids to get ready.
It is ball season around here and Braxton is playing t-ball. Junior is helping coach and we are having a great time with it. Braxton has really improved too! Braxton is five and very into all things superheroes. He has a best friend named Peyton and Peyton is in my class at school. Here is my silly boy.

Braxton and Addilyn update

Time is flying and my family is growing. By numbers and growing older. Ha! Braxton started kindergarten! Wow! I am back teaching and get to be there with him everyday, but I sure do miss my girls! Addilyn is two and so much fun! She has a contagious smile and is really starting to talk. She loves being outside, but still loves her bows!

I am back!

HELLO!  I am here! It has been awhile and life has been happening. Ha! Another Salard baby has been born and she is now 7 months old. Wow!
Here is Annabelle Callie

Friends

We have been having play dates all summer long with friends. We try to get together about once a week and whoever can come, comes and if  not you come the next time. Our kids love it and it is fun finding something for them to do. Here are some picture from an inside jumper place called Slinkees.

Sweet Maddi and Addilyn

 Maddi, Madison and Addilyn - they are so good with her!

 Best friends in the making - Addilyn & Lilly

Braxton, Grant, Sophie & Peyton 

I am so thankful for my sweet Christian friends. I couldn't ask for better friends for me or for my kids to grow up with. I can just see these 4 in 10 years when they are 13 or 14 and still so close. That makes me so thankful. Well, Sophie might start thinking they are a little gross, but that's okay. :)

~danielle

Just Like Daddy

He wants to be just like Daddy.

So sweet!


~danielle

Wee Tee

So I know this is July and WeeTee ended in May, but this is MY blog! :)  I want to have these memories for forever so I wanted to make sure to put these pictures in. WeeTee for Braxton was . . . interesting. He loved it. He loved getting ready to go, his uniform, his friends, going to the ball field. I think it made him feel big. He LOVED batting! He was always first batter. (What does that mean? I always wondered)
He loved running bases. He would run by us with his little chest stuck out, usually staring at us, sometimes growling. HA! Now being on the field was a different story; throwing the glove, hat, dirt, flowers, whatever. Hopefully, he will 'get it' next year. If not, oh well, there are lots of other things for him to do! Here are some great pics:

trying on his uniform and so excited

Paw-paw trying to get him to paying attention

here he is throwing his mitt

looking for flowers

closing ceremonies

Braxton's #1 fan

My 1st trophy!

~danielle

Strong-willed Child

Have you ever met a strong willed child? Well, let me introduce you to one.

He's cute, right. Well it's a good thing for digital cameras because I am realizing I don't have any pictures of his melt downs. I'm going to get them on camera, though. I will have to add them in later. Maybe even a video so he can see himself and see how silly he acted. The definition of being strong-willed is unwillingness to yield; stubborn; obstinate. Oh yeah, I've got one of those. Probably the biggest battle we have is his eating. If he doesn't like what we are having for dinner, he just won't eat. If we try and make him eat, he holds that piece of food in his mouth. I'm not just talking about for a little while. I'm talking about for HOURS at a time. He will hold that piece of food in there until the saliva builds up and he starts drooling. We have tried ignoring, spanking, time out, putting his food up and bringing it out for his next meal everything. I've pretty much given up on it. If he eats, he eats. If he doesn't oh well. I give him vitamins and he drinks lots of milk. <--That's what the doctor said to make sure he is getting anyway. The other major battle is behavior. We demand that he is respectful. I mean HELLO we do live in the South. We expect for him to say please, thank you, yes mam, no sir and just to be nice. He usually is but he can have a major attitude. That really doesn't bother me that much, but what bothers me A LOT is when he doesn't get his way on something and it can be a very small thing he will throw a major melt down. He throws a fit for the smallest things and it gets him in more trouble then if he hadn't of thrown a fit. I just don't understand it.
So, once again I am turning to James Dobson's second book The New Strong Willed Child. Love it so far and love all his great Godly advice. Here are some quotes and is exactly how I feel.
"First, it is very common for these moms and dads to feel great guilt and self-condemnation. They are trying so hard to be good parents, but the struggle for control that goes on at home day after day leaves them frustrated and fatigued. No one told them that parenthood would be this difficult, and they blame themselves for the tension that arises. They had planned to be such loving and effective parents, reading fairy tales by
the fireplace to their pajama-clad angels, who would then toddle happily off to bed. The difference between life as it is and life as it ought to be is distressing." 
Oh wow, this was so me. I have wanted to be a mom since,well, since forever. Never in my life did I think it would be this hard. I get so frustrated and then just say the wrong thing, do the wrong thing(or just don't do anything) and then feel so guilty. When my Father asks me what I did for the children He gave me I want to be able to answer Him.


"Second, I have found that the parents of compliant children don’t understand their friends with defiant youngsters. They intensify guilt and embarrassment by implying, “If you would raise your kids the way I do mine, you wouldn't be having those awful problems.”
I am thankful to have Christian friends, but I do still feel like I have to explain my child to them. I'm sorry . . .  he is strong-willed.

So I'm going to keep reading, keep re-searching and keep praying for my sweet strong-willed child!

~danielle

God Bless America

We had a good 4th of July. Yesterday we went to church and for evening services, they had a special singing. Of course Addilyn was dressed in her red, white and blue best. Pictures to come. After the singing we went to eat at some friends house and met a new friend's fiance. He met her through a Christian internet site and she seems perfect for him. I am so happy that they have found each other. The Lord is awesome and amazing! 

Today we ate, of course, and then let Braxton and Addilyn swim in their tiny pool. Braxton loves to swim in the tiny pool, but won't in the big in-ground pool. Stinker! 

Here's the pics! Addilyn was sooo tired!

Braxton calls this hair his woodpecker hair. He wants it like this every Sunday. He is so funny!

I told Braxton that today was America's birthday. He got very excited and started talking about having a party and needing presents. :)

danielle

Fine motor WATER!

Today I'm linking up to 1+1+1+1. I love them and especially love the meaning behind their name. They are doing a Tot School. It has some really great ideas. So, we are adding ours. 

Braxton loves doing his fine motor activities. We did water transfer today. He used a medicine dropper to transfer the water from one bowl to another. Braxton had gotten some really neat little drops that turn your bath water a color from his sweet friend Sophie. He loved it and was really concentrating on filling up the whole dropper. 

And a Whoops!

danielle