Saying Goodbye is never easy

It’s official the crackdown has begun. Her beloved thumb will be leaving the comfort zone! Since it has been such an important part of the last 2 years 3 months 1 week I thought it only fit I write a little something.

Dear thumb:
You came into our lives so tiny and small
To help our little girl get thru it all.
You’ve comforted, soothed, and been a best friend
But now my dear thumb it is time for the END!

When I let you into our lives I never knew you would be so hard to get rid of, but I am ready for the battle. So no more thumb in the car, no more thumb while sitting in daddy’s lap watching tv, no more thumb while sleeping (well we may have to make an exception for this one), NO MORE! It is time to be a big girl and get that stinky, dirty thing out of your mouth.

So for those of you who plan of visiting our house any time in the close future, you have been warned. Be ready for the whining, screaming, and possible tantrum throwing. This little princess may not be so princess worthy.

RIP
Left Thumb
January 2006-April 2008

The Nationals pull out another win!

Today the Nationals won their 3rd game! Coach Shane must be doing a good job teaching them a little something. I know I know they are just 5yr olds and it is all about them having fun but it does feel good when your team wins!

The Nationals family

Shane with his team


Be sure to scroll down for the other post I made today.

Twinkle, Twinkle Star and her ABC's

Here is a great video I took the other night of Abby singing her version of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and also singing her ABC's-well sorta. Also you will have to forgive her voice it is kinda horse and nasally due to yet Another cold we all have had.

Zeus and backyard baseball

Well we recently learned that Yes French bulldogs can fetch! Well sorta-it has to be a squishy ball not a hard baseball, since his face is all smashed in he has no mouth to put the ball in. The other day Wyatt was practicing his hitting in the back yard and Zeus was loving it, he got tons of exercise chasing those balls around. More exercise than he has had in the past 6 mths combined.

The garden has begun

Well most of you know that every year for a really long time we have had a garden. It has seemed to grown a little every year, well this year Shane decided to move it and make it even bigger. I am sure we will have enough veggies to feed a small country or at least enough to set up a vegetable stand in the front yard and make Wyatt sit out there and look oh so cute and sell them all!

Dad came today brought his tractor and played like he was a real farmer and tilled it up for us. Well Shane couldn't resit and had to get out in it tonight planting. He seriously loves it, I say it is his love affair he has in the summer. He spends so much time out there, but we all to really enjoy it even the kids. I am just happy they are getting big enough to pull their weight and start pulling some weeds or helping to shuck the 1000's of ears of corn I predict Shane will have grown.

Of course I had the camera out there tonight as they played in the dirt and helped daddy plant some onions. Peas are going in tomorrow-Can't you here the excitement in my voice?

Abby digging with her shovel


I found this huge alien like beetle in the garden and Shane was so happy when his little girl wasn't afraid to hold it-of course it was dead though.


Helping daddy get the onions in the ground

The Nationals WIN!!!

We finally got to play ball today. We were worried that with all the rain we had yesterday we would get canceled again. I'm sure Shane was pretty nervous about the first game but Wyatt didn't seem to be nervous at all. He looked SOOO cute and grown up in his uniform today. Not sure how I will keep those pants and shirt white but I can only guess there will be lots of bleach involved. The game got off to a gotta bad start but they got in it after that and we came back from a 0-7 start to win 17-16! Wyatt made some awesome plays making 2 outs. He caught a line drive ball out of the air after it was hit but couldn't hold on to it. We had a joke with him if he caught one last season he would get $20 so he asked his daddy for his money but daddy wouldn't pay up since he dropped it. He also did great hitting scored 2 times and hit one all the way to the outfield. All the kids had a great time many of them on the team had never played before but loved every minute of it. So hopefully this is a sign of good things and the team will do well and Shane won't have a nervous break down while trying to coach 13 5 yr olds.


My little Pitcher


Running home


Looking oh so cool after scoring

Spring time in the Stokes house

Finally spring has sprung!! We are so happy about this here because it means we no longer will be stuck in the house all day everyday and also because this means baseball season! Wyatt will be once again playing tball this spring, Shane will be coaching his team. We hope to get the season started this weekend as long as the weather will cooperate. Last Saturday was to be opening day at the park but unfortunatly we got way too much rain and it was to sloppy and muddy to play. This weekend the Nationals will be facing the Dodgers which some of you will remember was our team last spring and also in the fall. Zach (who was Wyatt's first coach) is once again coaching this team. There are 5 of the players that we played with in the spring and 3 of them played with us during the fall when Shane coached the team. We are excited to see all of them but also nervous at the same time. We have 3 from the team that decided to play with Shane this season so just about the entire original team will be out there.

Also with spring comes spring break, well now that Wyatt is in school anyways. His spring break was a couple of weeks ago and we decided to take a little trip to the mountains. We left for Gatlinburg on Wed. stayed there til Fri. and then stopped at my dad's on the way home and stayed the night there. We had a great time the weather was gorgeous and we decided it should be an annual trip. Shane and Wyatt had a blast riding go carts (3 different ones) and Wyatt even got to drive some small ones. He and Kendall raced each other and had a fun time. The adult boys (Shane and Paul) took the go cart racing seriously and at one point Paul and Kendall spun Shane and Wyatt out it was very funny and he couldn't stopped talking about how Kendall's daddy crashed them.

We also played puttputt, went up to Ober Gatlinburg rode the sky lift up and the Alpine slides down. We drove up to Cades Cove and saw lots of deer and turkey which the whole family enjoyed and on Friday we went to the aquarium. Abby wasn't a huge fan of the sharks and kept saying "I don't like them" this is her newest phrase and it gets used alot. When we got to my dad's the weather had changed from sunny and warm to cloudy and cold so we didn't do alot there other than turkey hunting.

The start of something new

So this is something I have been thinking about doing for a little while. Alot of my friends have a family blog to keep everyone up to date with all the going ons of their family so I thought why not do one also. I also read blogs of those whom I have never met but still I feel as though I know them.

Not sure how it will go but we will see. I will try to post to it as often as possible. Hope everyone will enjoy seeing the pics of the kids as they continue to grow bigger everyday, and if you are lucky there may even be a pic or two of Shane and I.