Funny!

I absolutely could not resist posting these videos of Jayla and JJ. They have made me burst out laughing over and over again!!!!

This first one is of Jayla 'reading'. Notice (and listen closely) why she pauses about halfway through the book. :)



And this video of JJ showcasing his fancy footwork on the court is hilarious. Since I have seen some of Jake's practices, I know that he is imitating a few of the drills that Jake runs the teams through. One of the drills is to dribble hard to each line on the court (free throw, halfcourt, free throw) and at each line you stop abruptly but keep the dribble and then move forward again. JJ's awkwardness just makes me giggle out loud! But soon I bet he will get the hang of it!

First Tournament Trip

This past weekend we headed out for our first tournament trip of the year to Milwaukee, Wisconsin!!!! This will be the first of many trips we will take around the U.S. this spring and summer as Jake’s teams play against the best competition in the nation. The goal for Jake’s high school teams in these next few months are to prepare and sharpen up for the ‘live period’ in July when all the college coaches attend the tournaments to scout out players and offer scholarships. It’s a pretty exciting time to look forward to, but all the hard work must be put in now so that the high school players will be ready for the exposure. For Jake’s younger teams, the goal for these traveling tournaments is basic skill development and learning to understand the game of basketball (not only on a physical level, but intellectually as well). One of my favorite things about having the younger teams along at the tournaments is to see how the younger players watch the high school players in absolute awe! They really are looking up to the older guys…..you can just see it in their eyes. It’s like they are watching them and dreaming of the day when they will be able to play that way too. Jake is always telling the young players that when they watch the high school kids play, they are not supposed to just be a spectator. They are to study the players. They are to notice how they come off screens, cut to the ball, execute the press, get open down low, and how they display leadership, etc, etc. Little did Jake know that JJ must have taken his words to heart this weekend too….. because, all weekend long I noticed JJ wiping off his shoes with his hands just the way the players do right before they go into the game. It was hilarious! He thought he was SO COOL! Here are some pictures!

Getting packed

Getting the vans loaded up at the gym. Sam was SO EXCITED for this trip. Can you tell?

Someone else has been waiting for this moment too!

We had to take 3 – 16 passenger vans on this trip! Any player who’s parent can’t come to the tournament can send their player to ride in the vans and be in the care of the coaches for the weekend.

Pitstop at Wendy's

Finally, it’s game time! Daddy has been waiting all year for this!
Coaching the 16 & under boys (this team ended up winning the championship).

Coaching the 17U boys

The younger players like to sit at the end of the bench and watch the older teams’ games. That is Sam there wearing the headband (the one that he caught at the Iowa Energy game!).


I love this picture! This is Sam watching Mac Irvin Fire playing (orange jerseys). They are a team out of Chicago and they are usually the top team in the tournament that everyone wants to beat. They have monster dunks that really get the crowds fired up!

This was Sam’s first traveling tournament. He told us that he had never stayed in a hotel before!!!! For the life of me I could not get a good, clear picture of him playing (I’ll blame it on my camera), but I did manage a really quick (10 second) video of him driving to the basket during one of his games. Of course I missed his awesome drive a few minutes before this video in which he scored a perfect floater after his drive, but thought you might enjoy this short excerpt anyways.




JJ did his fair share of dribbling too of course!

And Jayla got to skip her nap Saturday afternoon which called for a popsicle in order to halt a very loud tantrum. :)

She also enjoyed running up to Daddy after his games (just like JJ used to).

A kiss for the coach even!!!!

We also got to enjoy some Easter Sunday bubble chasing that another family let us in on (and these were the giant bubbles)!

I really wish this picture would have turned out! It so captures the joy on their faces!

And this picture pretty much sums up our first trip....

Exhausting, but oh-so-fun! Up next is Arkansas in two weeks!

I Am Free

In light of Easter this week I’ve been thinking on how to even put into words the ways that becoming a believer in Jesus has completely transformed my life. I keep coming back to this idea of being set free. Here are some ways that Jesus Christ has set me free:

First, and foremost, believing in Jesus has set me free from my fear of the unknown about death and dying. Between my junior year of high school and sophomore year of college 5 of my classmates and friends died. Two of them passed away in accidents, two of them took their own lives, and one of my best friends from high school passed away in a diabetes attack during my second year of college. For the most part each of these classmates/friends hung out with the same people I did. We were all linked with the same group of friends. There was a time where I constantly wondered, who is next out of our group? Is it me? At this point in my life I was not a believer, and these tragic deaths of my friends were a constant reminder to me that I wasn’t sure of what exactly happened in death. Eventually I tucked away my fears of the unknown and tried to ignore them, not worry about them, and not think about them. I went along with the idea of our American culture that if you are a good person you go to heaven when you die, and that idea was what I believed year after year. Of course that all changed when I heard the gospel preached one Sunday at church. (You can read about that life-changing sermon here). When I heard our pastor preaching about entrance into heaven being only through a relationship with Jesus it finally clicked. Eternal life was a gift from God’s son, Jesus. And all I had to do was put my faith in Him. Entrance into heaven was nothing that I could earn. Once I accepted Jesus as my Savior and began reading my Bible I realized that it talks about Jesus being the gateway for eternal life all throughout the Bible. Understanding this became freedom inside of me. I was no longer ignorant about death. I had the answer. My burdened heart was finally able to release my fears and uncertainties about death and instead cling to the message of the wondrous cross. And I finally had peace because I knew where I was going when I died because of what Christ had done for me. In Christ I have found freedom from the fear of dying, and surety of an eternity in heaven. Hebrews 2:14-15 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

Putting my faith in Jesus has also set me free from the exhausting cycle of trying to find fulfillment with the things, people, and relationships of this world. Seeking happiness used to determine my every action because I thought happiness was the key to life. The eventual problem I found was that seeking happiness with temporal, external, ever-changing, and self-gratifying ways was only momentarily filling. Shallow would be another word for it. Deep fulfillment wasn’t even on the radar. In fact, I oftentimes would find myself regretting my actions, feeling let down by others, and always looking to the next thing and the next thing that could possibly make me happy. I was in an endless cycle of searching but never finding what I was looking for. But in Christ I found something different. In John 7:38 Jesus says “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." And this is what Christ has brought to my life. At the age of 27 I can confidently say that my life is complete because of Christ. Yes, I still have struggles and trials and pain and ways that I am being matured and grown in my walk with Him. But, I have an anchor in my soul. An anchor of peace. The depth of this feeling is what I find so hard to put into words. If you’ve experienced it, then you already know. If you haven’t, I hope you will put your faith in Jesus. Psalm 34:8-10 Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. Fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him lack nothing. The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.

There is also freedom in knowing who I am living for. I am free from seeking after the approval of others. Galatians 1:10 says Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ. This has fully changed my perspective in life. My barometer is the standards of God. Not the standards of man. I certainly want to live peaceably with others, but I don’t have to obsess about how they view me. For over half of my life I strived to be approved by others. At school I wanted everyone to like me, and I was devastated when some didn’t. This approval seeking entered into other areas of my life as well, and it was exhausting to try and make myself look good on the outside to anyone and everyone. Proverbs 30:31 says Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. This was the first verse that I ever memorized because I struggled with this so much. And, this is now where my standards rest. In Christ I find the freedom to orient my focus on who God has created me to be!

John 8:32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

Jayla Update

Jayla is just cracking me up these days because I can literally have a conversation with her! This is so totally foreign to me because JJ didn’t really start talking until after 2 ½ (he said words, but no phrases). However, Jayla can put lots of words together into pretty good sized phrases, she asks me questions, and she responds back to EVERYTHING that I say with yes, no, or her latest is to say ‘K’ for okay. For instance she’ll say something like, “mommy, play bubbles?” (she is obsessed with bubbles right now) and then I might say, “First we need to eat dinner and then we will play with bubbles” and then she will look at me and say “K” with a big smile. It just sounds so sweet coming from her! Whenever I am getting ready in the morning she usually knows that we are going to be going somewhere and so she will run through her list of possible places that we might be going. She says “go music class?” and “go church? Max!!!” (she has a best friend at church named Max) or sometimes she will say “go for run?” because she LOVES it when I take her for a run in the exer-jogger! The other day we had just gone through the DQ drive thru and Daddy was reaching back and giving her bites of his blizzard. At first she was yelling “Daddy!” whenever she was ready for her next bite, but then he got kind of slow at getting her bites so she started yelling “Jake!”!!!! It was clear as day!!!!! I have no idea how she even knew that was his name, but she must be listening to me when I am trying to get his attention or something! Also, one last story about her talking. The other night we were sitting on the couch after dinner and Jayla was next to me flipping through some books. I started running my fingers through her hair and I heard her say “No mommy” as she tried to dodge her head away. A minute or so went by and I started combing my fingers through her hair again and this time she looked right at me and said “NO MOMMY, NO HAIR, I READ THIS!” Okay I got the point that time!!! :)

Jayla also is constantly demanding Jake or I to watch her if she is doing something! We have this c.d. that we listen to a lot in the car, and whenever we turn it on she ‘dances’ in her carseat and she will yell out “Daddy!” or “Mommy!” until we turn around and watch! She also does this if she is trying to show us something like the moon outside, or an animal that she sees on tv, or a puppy that we see when we are on a walk. If we don’t look when she is trying to get our attention she will yell our names over and over again until we look. She does this in the car A LOT and finally I’ve had to start telling her that mommy has to drive and that I can’t look back and make eye contact with her every 30 seconds when she wants to tell me something! :)

Jayla also does a very good job of entertaining herself with her toys! Sometimes I think she even prefers to just sit by herself and flip through books, or play with her babies. Jake and I just love watching her mother her little dolls! She puts them ‘ni-night’, feeds them (including eating sound effects) and pretends to change their diaper! All of this she has just learned from how I care for her. It is so crazy to watch how she has caught on and repeats everything with her dollies!
We’ve also had no issues with the switch to the big girl bed. I think it is much more comfortable for her and that she likes it a lot better. Both she and JJ LOVE to sleep, so the bed transition was easy with both of them. Next up will be potty training! She is starting to show signs that she is ready, now I just need to get with it!

Enjoy some pictures:

All dressed up and nowhere to go.


Chasing bubbles again!

Someone is loving her dress up trunk these days!

Thoroughly enjoying her popsicle!

Another popsicle with JJ.

Going for a run!

Thanks gramma for our new kitchen!

First slide of the year....and many more to come!

JJ Update

Well, this is an exciting week for JJ because Friday marks the return of our tournament trip travels!!! If I might remind you at the end of last summer JJ ‘played hotel’ to reenact our travels from the previous season. He still likes to play pretend but the scenario has now progressed into him being a player! First we go into his room where he gets all changed into his uniform, which is one of his many jerseys....

He then proceeds to have his game which involves making shots on the little hoop that hangs over his closet door.

He sort of goes through a play-by-play announcement the entire time. I am responsible for ‘coaching him’ and drawing up plays. :) Then once the game is over (and you know it’s over because he usually yells out “We did it! We won the championship!!!!”) it is time to pack up his little game bag and get changed. He changes into different clothes and puts his uniform, bball shoes, and a few other items into the bag (just like the big kids do) and he puts his sandals on (over his socks, just like the KH hoops players do).

After that we usually take a ride on the couch to go out to eat (usually he picks the Olive Garden) and then we head to the hotel (Mommy and Daddy’s bedroom). We pretend to go to sleep and then wake up when it’s time to head to practice back in JJ’s room. And so the scenario goes! I think he would play this for hours if the rest of us were up for it. The problem is that this scenario is best if someone else is playing along with it, which means he usually has to recruit me, or Daddy, or Sam to play with him! Sam is usually the one that ends up playing the longest!!! :)

JJ is doing really well with his numbers. He likes to count out loud and see how far he can get. I know for sure that he can count to 50, and I think Jake and him have been working on getting to 100. When Jake and JJ were going to the state tournament games a few weeks ago JJ got a hold of the book-sized program with all the teams and players listed in it. He started going through it and finding the players that he knew and memorizing their uniform numbers!!!! Then, this spurred him to want to start memorizing the uniform numbers of the players in Jake’s program that he really likes! Jake’s been working on team rosters at our dining room table, and JJ would sit next to him and spout off his favorite KH players and then he would make Jake tell him their numbers. After a week or so of that JJ would see a number somewhere (like on the clock or on a house address) and then say “#15 that is so and so’s number” and he was always right! It sounds a little crazy, but I guess he has a thing for numbers. Now, when it comes to letters, not so much!!!! He knows his alphabet perfectly, and we have now started working on the sounds that each letter makes, BUT, he is definitely not as interested in this as he is with numbers. He just doesn’t get quite as excited about it. We have also started practicing writing letters and that has been very hard for him. He does not like holding the pen/pencil/marker the correct way (he would rather hold it in his fist) so that is the biggest thing that we are working on.

He can trace letters pretty well , but cannot write them freehand (except for J’s). I’ve also noticed that when I have him write free-hand he writes some letters backwards (like L’s, B’s, and C’s). I bought a little white erase board book that you can trace letters on with a marker, and then wipe and erase and it has been pretty handy. I also bought a letter tracing coloring book which we will take with us to the tournaments, so hopefully we will get some good time to work on it while we sit in the bleachers.

Let’s see other changes are that when we are out at restaurants now JJ often orders a cheeseburger to eat!!!!! I don’t know why I think this is so funny, but it just seems so grown up to me! I am used to him always ordering mac n’ cheese, so to see him hold a cheeseburger and take a big old bite out of it makes me see him as such a big boy!!!! JJ can also FINALLY hold the wii controller by himself and bowl! Up until the past two weeks or so, Jake has always had to help him so that he could get the release right. Jake would have him try to see if he could do it on his own, but he couldn’t ever time it right. Then all of a sudden last week he tried to do it on his own and was able to release it right time and again. So, now he is a big boy and bowls all by himself! JJ has also become quite dramatic in his conversations now and he will say things like, “Are you kidding me?!?!” and “You know what I am talking about, right?” and “I think we need to leave in 20 minutes so that are not late.” It’s just hilarious hearing these things come from a 3 ½ year old! Enjoy some more pictures!

Playing wii bowling all by himself.

"Hi Mom!"

"Bye Mom!"

Swingin like a big boy!!!!

Mowing away the last of the snow!

Sometimes they like to switch cars. :)

Watching practice.

And yes, he's still sportin his blankey!