Adventures in Babysitting

I'm sure that title will make Jill laugh!

One thing that my sister and I never did as teenagers was babysit! We were always roller skating and were lucky enough to never have to hold jobs as teenagers. Something that I think I always took for granted! However, now that I am much much older and have been graced with the greatest god daughter ever I have been given the opportunity to spend time with her and learn so many things I never knew about children. I have gained confidence in my ability to care for another human being which is a huge task if you’ve never been responsible for something like that before. She has taught me how to laugh at the silly things and she has shown me so much love, more love than you could ever imagine a 2 ½ year old showing! She is growing up so fast and learning so many exciting things! She deserves a well rounded applause for her great efforts in using the potty!! I love how proud she is of herself! I hope she always knows how proud we are of her now and will be in the years to come!

On Saturday I was given the opportunity to babysit for the Lieser's while Mom and Dad went to see the Broadway Show "Jersey Boys"! (which I heard was great by numerous people) So with this opportunity I decided to see if my sister wanted to assist in the babysitting duties. This would give her the opportunity to spend time with both an infant and a toddler! Seeing that she is going to be graced with a child in December I'm sure she could use all the practice she could get! hehe! She openly accepted the invitation! I was excited because like I said, we never babysat when we were teenagers and I thought it would be fun spending time together as well as playing with the kids!

Catelyn & Connor were so great to spend the day with! We had so much fun and I thought I would share a few photos from the afternoon!

Catelyn eating her dinner (as you can see she wanted cereal)

Watching Peter Pan!

so focused....

cheese!!!

Connor making faces at Lisa

whoa....close up!

chewing on my hands

sitting calming in my swing

I love this picture!!!

Lisa & Connor

I think Lisa needs a burp cloth :)

We hope the kids had as much fun as we did! Can't wait until the next time! (but don't get any crazy ideas Mom & Dad...hehe...jk)

Softball & Golf (can it get much better than that?!?!)

This weekend was full of sports related events and I'm glad I was able to capture a few of these moments! On Friday evening our softball team had a game and my parents came up to watch so I was able to get them to take a few pictures of our team in action. We played really well through almost 6 innings but ended up losing by 1 in the 7th inning. It was tough to lose but a few weeks early we played this team and they beat us in 4 innings by 12 runs I think, so we made some great improvements! Next week we start a new session and we moved into a different division that is more accommodating to our playing abilities! :) Here are some pictures from the game:

Warming up

Heading out on defense.....

Our fearless leader & pitcher...BEN!!!

Me & Dad chatting (i'm probably complaining about something)

Lil Mama getting ready to take her at-bat :)

Big Ben heading out for his at-bat

Jim looks like he is trapped in a cage

I think my parents like Ben!!

geez! :)

Here we go again....

Then on Saturday our church had one of it's annual fundraisers; the Tony Alexander Memorial Golf Outing at Hawks Nest Golf Course in Creston, Ohio. We have been golfing in this outing since the beginning which was about 7 years ago. (i think) The golf outing/ fundraiser is named after a great family friend who was also a member of our parish for many years with his wife and family. Tony was an avid golfer and he came up with a great idea to have this outing as a parish fundraiser. Tony passed away in 2002 at a very young age and his death was one of the toughest moments of my life. I know many other people can say the same thing. He was such a joy to be around and there are many days where I think of him often and miss his great stories and laughter. Our community lost a great person that day and we will never forget him! His passion for our church and for golf helped us to continue the outing that he started and it has been a great success for a number of years now! It is hard to imagine that it's been six years since his death which also means it has been six years since my grandfather passed as well. My grandfather passed away exactly one week after Tony passed away which made for an extremely rough week for my family and many of our/their friends. We thank God for the gift of their presence in our lives and remember them in our hearts always! We take for granted the many blessings we have and must always take into consideration that there is a life much greater than this awaiting us when God is ready to call!

I was lucky enough to golf with 3 of the greatest gals in the world this past Saturday! I enjoy having a girls foursome so we can enjoy the presence of women and have fun! We can laugh at ourselves and one another and never feel the pressure of being something spectacular; but more importantly just being ourselves. We giggled at our swing and misses and the fact that a game where you hit a tiny ball is so hard. We were able to catch up on things happening in our lives and just relax for a few hours! We had a blast and I personally want to thank, Lisa, Jessie and Colleen for allowing me the privilege to golf with each one of you this past weekend. It was a blast and I hope we can do it again next year! Here are some great pictures of the day:

Lisa

Jess and her hubby, William :)

Jess & Lisa in their golf cart

Colleen teeing off way out there :)

Lisa eying up her shot....

Look out all you pro golfers...

She doesn't look too happy with that shot?!?!

Talking about their golf strategy...haha...NOT...teacher talk is what they are really doing (see what's important to them)

check out that swing (or how about those short?!?!) I love Golf!!

Beautiful Golf Course

Hey we found the 'rents!! Go Mom Go!!!

Have fun you kids!! :)

Happy Father's Day & The World's Largest Yardsales

It was a busy weekend full of fun stuff! :) I took a vacation day on Friday and headed to Seville for the World's Largest Yard Sales! Woo Hoo! haha! Me and Dad got there early and rode our bikes around town checking out all the good deals. (mostly junk but an occasional deal was found) I found a small bar type table with two bar stools to put outside on my deck for $20 and a wood entertainment center since right now my TV sits on basically a black stand. lol. The entertainment center was $50. Can't beat those deals. They will sit in my parents garage until I hopefully move in a month or so. :) (I will keep everyone posted on that) As we rode around we couldn't believe the amount of baby stuff (ie. clothes, toys, etc) We found a stroller travel system that was in great condition and my dad got a great bargain of $40 for the entire thing. The stroller, car seat and base! It's a Graco and we looked it up online and it originally sold for $200! Here are some pictures:

oh and this cool little seat thing......

So needless to say my mom was excited to have a stroller and car seat at the house for them to use when they babysit or whatever. :) Only 6 more months...hehe! Lisa was quite impressed with the stroller as well.

On Saturday we had a softball fundraiser for our team. We had a pretty good turn out! I didn't take any pictures so that's a bummer!

On Sunday we celebrated Father's Day! We went to Mass with the family and then spent the majority of the rest of the day hanging out around the house. Happy Father's Day to all Fathers!!! Even Father's whose children haven't entered the world just quite yet! :)

This is how our awesome "fathers" spent a few moments during the beautiful afternoon:

And Lisa and Mom sitting outside enjoying the weather too:


So Lisa is 12 weeks pregnant now (time is flying...hehe) and since she was over I took another side shot of her so we can all see her progress. At her last appointment on June 5th she hadn't gained any weight but that isn't uncommon. Her belly has expanded a little bit as you can see from the last picture to this picture. She is feeling good and excited to enter her second trimester!! She has been quite lucky in the fact that she hasn't had any morning sickness and has maintained a far amount of energy. However, Lisa has always had a lot of energy that has amazed me over the years. She will have plenty to keep up with her child as they grow!

I know she will be mad at me for putting up this picture of her bare belly but you get a better idea of how her belly is expanding when their is no shirt covering it! :) I can't wait to watch her grow!

Sprinkler Heaven

What is more enjoyable than seeing a child smile? My goddaughter, Catelyn Clare, brings so much joy to all those who meet her just by smiling! I am blessed to have her in my life and of course her amazing parents and new little brother, Connor. I am so lucky to live near them and to be able to visit often. Just last week, she received a "sweet" new sprinkler to play in this summer! For all those my age, don't you remember our sprinklers when we were kids?!?! They were the yard sprinkler that our parents had to water the lawn...hehe! They were pretty basic, just going over and back or spritzing from left to right, although we loved them just the same! However, now they make these wild and crazy sprinklers that are just as cute as can be! Here are some pictures of Catelyn's first adventure with her new sprinkler! I can't believe how big she is getting!

And sweet baby Connor sleeping away.......