June

June is for alllll the sports. Swim, baseball, and basketball overlap, but we somehow make it work. Swim is in the morning during the week, basketball is in the evening during the week, and baseball is on the weekends.

I honestly think I like watching Brooks help the little kids swim more than watching him race! He’s so good with them!

He makes me so proud!

Adam had a big work dinner on his 46th birthday, but thankfully his work buddy made sure he was celebrated and thought to send me this pic! I can tell by his face that he hated every second of this, lol.

Ellis and I made a trip to Whole Foods to get some good quality gluten free foods and checked out with these awesome carts. Whole Foods is Adam’s biggest client and these carts are part of the service his company provides!

Beating the heat with friends at the water park!

Such tough dudes!

Shep insisted on taking a pic on the surfboard every time we passed it, lol

I’m in my “go have fun and I’ll be parked here reading my kindle if you need me” era!

We got to celebrate Adam the day after his birthday. Shep made him this sweet birthday card that says, “thank you for teaching me baseball and thank you for teaching me new stuff and always helping me”! He’s so good with his words, lol

Instagram got me with this bottle cap opener gun!

Astros bar stool seat covers for the lake to finally cover the Texas Tech ones the former owners left with us!

Awesome new restaurant just opened up by the house, so we had to check it out for Adam’s birthday!

Best part of youth sports right here!

The catcher has my heart!

Brooks with the sac fly RBI!

Shep got to play at this cool field with the Dallas skyline in the background!

The pitcher has another piece my heart!

From baseball to swim!

Butterfly relay…

…to Coach Brooks!

Is he swimming or drowning??

Summer night pool parties with friends is what it’s all about!

Nothing better than night swimming,

while the moms,

and dads get to hang out!

Triple decker

Beautiful sunrise through the clouds! Brooks and I got to see lots of those all summer!

It’s Middle School Match Up time!

Atta boy!

No championship this year, but Brooks still had fun playing with his school friends!

Trying to earn that money

Of course we had to support

Adam and Shep are off to Omaha for the 10u Slumpbuster World Series tournament!

Ellis started a new thing. Supposedly chiropractic adjustments can help with inflammation. We shall see. She’s such a trooper with all of these different treatments, and we will do everything and anything we can to improve her quality of life.

While Shep and Daddy are away, Brooks, Ellis and I will play!

Not gonna lie, it was almost impossible to come up with something fun to do that they could both agree on, but we FINALLY agreed on an arcade!

What an arm!

These two have such a love/hate relationship that I pray so hard gets better as they get older.

Meanwhile, Shep was having a blast in Omaha!

That’s one heck of an opening ceremony!

Yep, we’re still driving all over Dallas for squishy’s.

Love that I can still watch Shep live hundreds of miles away from the comfort of my home!

I can’t believe I haven’t mentioned this in the blog yet, but Shep’s best baseball buddy that he’s played on several teams with and that actually got him the spot on their current team, was recently diagnosed with Leukemia. He had flu like symptoms for a few weeks and just couldn’t shake it. Thank goodness his aunt is a nurse at children’s hospital in Plano and insisted they get him checked out. They unfortunately got the news no parent ever wants to hear, but they caught it early and it’s very treatable. He still has to go through chemo and take a year off baseball and school, but he’s got this! The team wore his number on their helmets and made him lots of videos while they were in Omaha. His name is Cooper, and in this video they are shouting, “we love you Cooper”!

The College World Series was also going on in Omaha while Adam and Shep were there, so of course Adam spared no expense on some awesome tickets for them!

They got to watch North Carolina beat Auburn!

So glad they got to do this bucket list experience!

Brooks and Ellis couldn’t agree on another activity, so I took her squishy hunting and I took him to the batting cages.

Brooks is always putting in the work and it’s paying off!

I also introduced Brooks to some classic comedy’s. He’s not quite ready for Step Brother’s, lol, but he got a kick out of Talladega Nights, Dumb and Dumber, and Anchorman.

We were watching movies in Texas while Shep was doing indoor pool trick shots with his teammates in Nebraska.

Ellis isn’t into movies, so she was crocheting this fun little purse! She’s so talented!

They didn’t travel all the way to Omaha to get rained out.

Thankfully the skies cleared and they finally got to play some ball after a 6 hour delay! Otter is Shep’s biggest fan!

Way to wear it Sheppy!

Brooks got invited to a sleepover at a buddy’s house, so Ellis and I had a girls night!

We started the night baking the viral dot cakes…

Don’t worry these pretty little things are gluten free and dye free!

Went to Texas Road House for some dinner while we waited on the dot cakes to cool!

I’m proud to report that we somehow went to Texas Roadhouse and did not eat a single roll!!!! We are on a gluten free mission!

We had more fun making than dot cakes than we did eating them. We were still way too stuffed from dinner, and they were just okay. Not sure what all the hype is about?!

After dinner and dessert it was time for some mud masks!

Game time while we waited for our masks to dry!

So fresh and so clean! Loved every second of our girls night!

Meanwhile, Shep and his teammates were enjoying indoor (man made) wave pool after a long day of baseball!

We attempted church on Sunday, but Ellis’ anxiety (although getting better) was still too high.

We went to brunch instead,

and then cozied up on the couch to watch some baseball!

Are you a wolf or a sheep?! 123 Diablos!

Consolation bracket champions!!!

Bringing home that trophy from Omaha!

Heading home straight from the ballfields!! Gosh I love him!

Ellis has decided to give therapy a try again. She’s been going off and on for 4 years. Her therapist son is her age and has PANS as well and is a wealth of knowledge. She’s been doing EDMR therapy with Ellis to help with her anxiety, and although she doesn’t think it’s helping, I really think it is! Just so grateful for the acceptance and understanding. After therapy we have an icecream date tradition that we both look forward to!

Brooks with his adorable little ducky’s!

I think the lines are getting longer. Who in the world would’ve thought this trend would still be going strong?!?

Adam got a new toy for Father’s Day!

Both boys miraculously had no baseball for the weekend, so the Cisneros’ and Plums joined us up at the lake! Ellis crocheted these adorable scrunchies for her BFF!

Girls play with hair and makeup inside while the boys play wiffle ball outside!

Heading to the lake! Not sure how I got stuck driving the golf cart for all these crazy boys!?!

That’s a lot of kids! Thankfully our new toy is bigger and can fit everyone now!!

Plum boys weren’t ready for our kind of crazy, lol, they’re more of a chill on the water kind of crew. We had to test out the speed of the new boat though!!

Living their best lives!

9 kids, 6 adults, 5 dogs, and partridge in a pear tree!

The more the merrier!

I can’t tell you how much this warms my heart. Beyond thankful that Ellis loves to hug and cuddle again. It hurt my soul when she cringed at our touch, so watching her heal and do this with her Daddy is so soul nourishing.

Seeing them playing cards instead of playing on devices is also soul nourishing!

Summer daytime naps on the couch with the pups— is there anything better?

These besties….

….brought these besties together!! And I’m so so grateful!

Gavin and Dex are two of Brooks’ besties too!

Heading to Hell’s Gate for Day 2…

Will never get over this view!

How we “chill” with 9 kids….

Icecream treat at the marina store!

Hemmingway’s for dinner!

Cheers!

I can’t with this gangster cowboy, lol

Good food, live music, and a lake view!

Love that everyone always agrees to my sunset group pics!!

Sunset cruises are my fave!

Surprise fireworks were the perfect end to our fun weekend with friends!

Still got Daddy some gifts for Father’s Day even though he bought himself a boat!

Finally some records for his record player I bought him more than a year ago!

Cheers to 19 years! Celebrated with steaks and a nice bottle of wine! Don’t be fooled, the kids were also at the table eating this romantic dinner with us, and we wouldn’t have it any other way!

Jodie and Rickey took Carolina to a softball tournament in Vegas, and we got to watch Jackson and Bowen for 5 days while they were gone! And by “we” I mean mostly “me” while Adam was playing in his 4 day member guest golf tournament. Me and 5 kids rolling solo— I ain’t skured! I had LOTS of fun things planned! First up was Shep’s basketball game on Wednesday!

Thursday we went to Pin Stack for some bowling…

and the arcade!

Ellis was such a good sport hanging with the boys! Can’t convince her to do much, but she will NEVER say no to an arcade!

Caught a late afternoon movie to see “The Breadwinner”. That’s one way to watch a movie, lol

Or I guess you can try this way too?!

Front yard street wiffle ball always!

Friday, we introduced Bowen to the craziness….

I promise you, the boys were just as excited as Ellis!

Then it was on to the batting cage, where they all balled out!

Shep…

Brooks…

Bowen…

Jackson…

Time to cool off at the pool!

Shep tried so hard to get a double front flip, but I’m still so impressed with his 1.5!!

Icecream treat to help them cool off even more!

And then we ended the night watching Brooks ball on the basketball court!

Saturday was a low key day during the day, and that evening the boys and Adam (who was finally done with is golf tournament) went to the Homerun Derby benefit for Shep’s teammate with leukemia. I stayed back with Ellis, because we’ve decided not to tell her about Cooper. She knows he was sick, but doesn’t know with what. Her anxiety is so bad right now, we’re just not sure she’d be able to handle the news. I’m glad all the boys were able to go and support Coop though!

Praising God sweet Cooper was feeling well enough to make an appearance!

He even threw out the first pitch!

This stud hit 6 homers over the fence in the homerun derby and raised over $1,000 for his buddy!

Sunday was the finale and main event! I took the boys to Six Flags. It was Jackson and Bowen’s first time and Bowen’s first time at an amusement park ever!

Bowen’s not so sure about this roller coaster.

There’s no backing out now!

Must’ve not been so bad, because he went on a second roller coaster!

I got to join them for the third one!

And the fourth one, because Bowen decided to sit that one out.

Lunch break!

Eased Bowen back into the rides with a mini coaster!

And then tricked him with the indoor coaster, because you can’t see it.

I felt so bad going along with their trick, but I think he enjoyed it!?!

So proud of Bowen for facing his fears and riding the roller coaster he opted out of before lunch!!!

These two were all smiles!

He did it, and even rode it again a few more times!!!

Brooks and Jackson were such good sports letting their little brothers drive!

I got to join for Pirates of Speelunker Cave, and can officially say I’ve ridden every single ride at Six Flags!

I can’t believe I’ve never ridden this ride before. I seriously had no idea how cool it was! Reminds me of the rides at Disney for sure!

Last ride of the day was the “Log Ride” (can’t remember what it’s called)!

No super thrill rides were ridden, but it was definitely a success and good start to Bowen’s first amusement park!

I had the absolute BEST time hanging with my nephews and hope we can do this again next summer!!!

Last swim meet of the summer— Mom’s addition! The real superhero’s (let’s be honest), who get up at the crack of dawn to shuffle these kids around all over the place so they can do all the things! Not complaining just giving myself some recognition, lol!

This super talented kid spent hours and hours crocheting for her first ever “Pop up Shop”!

She made almost $200 and just amazes me!

She sold these hand made purses for $15 Each!

Even though she hardly ever wears her wigs anymore, she was due for a new one and decided to go blonder this time! She wanted a new look for the new school year. Praying we’re able to get her set up for a half day like we discussed and 7th grade is a fresh start for her!

Ellis and I went completely gluten free for the whole month of June and most of May, and I can tell the inflammation in her body has gone down tons! She even did her monthly IVIG infusion with no reaction for the first time in forever! So proud of this girl for doing hard things. God has such a BIG purpose for her life and it’s been an honor getting to witness it!!