Christmas - I think the looks say it all!!!

Spelling Bee

Hayden was one of two participants from his class for the school spelling bee earlier in the month. We were so proud of how hard he worked and studied. He learned some really hard words. He was focused and really put in lots of time studying. He knew it would be hard and that beating 5th graders would not be easy but he had high expectations for himself. (He even won one of the practice bees that they had at school getting ready for the bee itself).

He was so nervous the morning of the bee. His teacher and I thought he might just throw up on the stage. Bless his heart he was so pale. (Of course, he told Mrs. Pack after the bee was over that his Momma was more nervous than he was --- now where does he get that?) I talked to him about it being no different than playing baseball but informed me quickly than when he is on the ball field he has either his bat or his glove with him. Okay...then.

He did really well. I am not a good enough Momma that I kept a list of the words he had but thankfully Dawn is!

There were 24 kids that qualified to be in the Bee. (8 3rd graders, 8 4th graders and 8 5th graders). Hay's words were:

1. Receive (and you could see him thinking as he got ready to spell..."i before e, except after c") There were 3 kids out after this round.

2. Sculpture (you cannot imagine how many times the kiddo left the "p" out when we studied at home. And when he nailed that word and said the "p", he gave a glance over to me and Harold as if to say "see I was paying attention while we studied) There were 10 kids out after this round.

3. Casserole (there were 12 kids out after this round)

4. Affiliation (this is another word we struggled with at home because he would leave the "a" out but he was so confident spelling it to the Judges) There were 14 kids out after this round.

5. Shuttle (This was not even on the list of words we had to study even though the Counselor told us that the words would be from the list...oh well. In fact all the words from here on out were not on the list) There were only 5 kids left after this round.

6. Dimension (He missed this word but everyone else but his friend Kate missed in this round. She missed her championship word so the remaining 5 spelled again)

7. Humility (Hayden missed this word and his Daddy and I laughed because he really has none of this so why in the world would he know how to spell it) A 4th grader was the only one to get a word right in this round and then got his Championship word correct to win the Bee.

8. Interim (Hayden spelled this just like it was pronounced and put a "um" at the end. Kate was the only one to get a word right in this round so she won the 2nd place trophy)

9. It was now down to Hayden, a 5th grade girl and his friend Rebecca who was in his 2nd grade class with him. His word was parable. And as his teacher said, he asked for the word to be said a second time, thought about it and then nailed it!!! The 3rd place trophy was his and he was thrilled. (until he learned that only the top two got to go to the county bee).
So in true and total Hayden fashion, he announced right after the Bee pictures were taken that he is going to learn to spell 50,000 words between now and next year and he IS going to win the Bee next year. What a kid.

Fun Time At Dickey Stephens

Hayden attended the Miracle League Baseball Camp yesterday at Dickey Stephens. He had so much fun. He, of course, was missing "his" ballplayers. It just was not right to not have them there as far as he was concerned. He did have a good time and tried hard on all the drills. My wrist is hurting today because I took about 600 pictures. Good grief, who does that?
Hopefully you will enjoy my sweetie's photos! If you don't just pretend!This is the sink hole in centerfield. Hayden was very worried that they need to get this fixed before the "guys" get here!Running the bases. Oh my, he loved this part of the camp.After diving back into 3rd to avoid being tagged out. :-)
A pitcher? Hmmmm, I think NOT.These I love because Hay was so proud that he caught the ball. "Mom, it was just like I robbed a homerun!" And YES, he held the ball there a while. I am not sure it was for the photo op as much as it was for him to make sure more than a couple of folks saw he caught the ball. :-)
And of course banging into the wall was a big hit with all the boys.
The best part for Hayden was that he got to spend time with Ethan too!!

Such a Mess!!

Hayden kept us incredibly busy the past two days. He wanted to get the house decorated for Christmas. I think we worked four or five hours straight yesterday getting all the "stuff" out. The best part for me was watching him meticulously put up all the Nativity scenes we have. He wanted to do them himself and he did SO good. I am so proud. Then today after church he wanted to have all the outside lights put out. He is very opinionated about where he wants those lawn ornaments. (I just cannot figure out where he gets that personality trait.......). Before we put up the outside stuff, I thought today would be a good day to get those Christmas card pictures taken of him. What was I thinking? This child is such a mess. (I would not have him any other way but...) Seriously....this is what I got.....

You know it would just serve him right if I put these on a Christmas card and mailed them to all the little girls in his class.........hmmmm...................

Thankful

On Thanksgiving, I am so thankful for so much. I am thankful that I am a child of God. That God loves us and takes care of us in all we do.
I am thankful for a silly little boy who laughs and smiles and melts my heart every day.
I am thankful for his health and his joy in being outside in God's world.
I am thankful that he has heroes who love God and express it so he knows how important that is.
I am thankful that we have a family who loves us through the good and the bad.
I am oh so thankful that this precious child sees the wonder in life always.

I am thankful for his silliness!!
I am thankful that he knows and loves God like he does.


Most of all I am ever SO THANKFUL that God trusted me enough to be this fella's Momma!
Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Be glad and rejoice in the day!!!

My Heart

This boy of ours....oh my, he is something else. Yesterday (the 28th) was crazy hair day at school for Red Ribbon Week. How is this for crazy? He had me put many different colors in his hair.
No shame for this boy, he wanted CRAZY.
It was also my birthday. Hayden made me a homemade card. He drew it himself and wrote on it. As I read what he wrote on his own, I cried like a baby. At one point, he said "Momma don't be sad, I know I did not draw you good, but I tried." Oh if he only knew. He wrote that he prays for me Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Talk about being covered in prayer. I am so honored to be loved that way and to be given the chance to be his Momma. He also had on his card that he thanked God for letting me be his Momma. (I let him know quite frequently how much I thank God for choosing me to be his Momma too!)

There is no doubt that my heart goes with this child EVERY MINUTE of EVERY DAY of his life.

Field Trip

I love going on field trips with Hayden and his class! We have gotten to go to so many neat places since he started school. This 3rd grade trip ranks right up there with the best of them. Part of that is probably because he chose to ride with me and not the bus so we got to talk and just hang out for the ride. The 3rd graders had been studying rocks and soil in class for science so the teachers arranged for them to go to the Crystal Mines and dig, dig, dig. You knew the little boys were going to love it but let me tell you the girls were in there just digging away too. I even saw Moms and Dads with BIG shovels (you know the kind I told Hayden were not allowed -- oops). He had so much fun. Of course, the fun stopped when he saw the climb back up to the van and the big bucket of "crystals" he had. And yes, he is spoiled so I carried the bucket back up the hill. HA I had too much fun listening to some of the other little boys bring their "crystals" over to Hayden and ask him if they were real. After hearing this a while, I whispered to one of the fellas that Hayden did not know anymore about them than he did. I promptly got back "Yes, he does, he really KNOWS". Not sure how he convinced them of that but I guess his powers of persuasion are hard at work at school. (Maybe we have a lawyer in the making. Oh I hope not!!!!)

Sorry I have been so slack in getting posts up on here. I will try to do better. We are 1/4 of the way through 3rd grade as of yesterday. Not sure how that happened.......

Big Boy

Well the picture is not so great but I did promise the kiddo. Hayden is SO excited to be learning cursive handwriting at school. He feels like such a big boy. Homework is always a "discussion" before I get home from work with Hayden and Daddy. Not today, he wanted to get this writing done and wanted to do it well. We are so proud of him.
Now if we could figure out where it is he could sit in class and not talk, talk, talk, talk, we'd be good to go!!!

Waiting His Whole Life

That is what Hayden told us about getting to be a part of one of the Field of Dreams team to go on the field at Dickey Stephens with the Travs. Oh he was so excited. As we were driving to the ballgame, it began to rain and then a few blocks more it quit. From the back seat of the truck, Hayden piped up and said "God gave me my wish because it stopped raining. He knows how much I always wanted to do this!"
I actually remember a little boy who would cry at Ray Winder Field when the Field of Dreams team would go out on the field and get too close to "his" players. Oh it woud just break his heart because he could not run out there. Then when he got a wee bit older he would feel bad about the players who did not have kids go to their spots. But now it was his turn and happy does not describe it.
So he waited...... Then he waited by the field.....
Then he waited with a favorite ballplayer....
Then he was off.....
He kept going......
And then he was there...his favorite spot...the hot corner....
Then it was time to come off the field.....

It was exactly as he thought it would be. He could not wait to tell us how cool it was, how big he felt, how much he could not wait to get to run out on a field like that for real!!!
I am glad it was worth the wait, son!

So It Continues

Fall Ball practices have started with earnest! Some of Hayden's friends are playing football and soccer but not this kiddo. He definitely has a one track mind. Football was not an option for us or for him. Ha (He actually chooses to not even think about. His very 1st baseball hero told him once not to play football because you would just get hurt and thank the good Lord, Hayden remembers it to this day.
With soccer, I just think maybe he does not get it or maybe it is because it would just interfere too much with baseball.
Coach Wes would be so proud of this photo. He is always telling the All Stars to get their gloves in the dirt when fielding a ball. I believe this happened here because of all the dirt trailing down from the glove. There is a very good possibility Hayden will play first base for his Fall Ball recreationl team.
Don't think Ryan would be too awful proud of the way Hayden turned out of the way of the pitch here. Don't really think this is what they talked about...hmmmmm
We went to the batting cages before practice and a coach from one of the older teams came over and watched Hayden for a while. He gave him a pointer on keeping his chin still, then asked me about Hayden. He wanted to know if he threw left-handed too. I told him no sir he is right handed. He wanted to know how we got Hayden to bat left handed. Told him we had nothing to do with that. The kid just walked up to the tee the first time and went to the left side of the plate. Such a silly little face rounding first base......
I guess he is practing the strong arm move already....ha
And what would a practice be if Hayden did not end up in the dirt at least once?
Too many of my pics are from this side....ha
Getting some pointers from Coach Patrick. He is so good with Hayden.....
Finally practice over.....