Jason's Baseball Style

Jason's first season of baseball has come to an end. And while I'm not sure baseball is his gift, I believe he learned a lot from the experience. His basic skills improved little by little. He experienced life on a team. He learned patience, endurance and to just keep trying...watch this video to see what I mean:

He really did learn the basics of the game, now he just needs to fine tune the skills. Check him out at first base (he's got it down if he could only catch and throw!

So will we play again? Time will tell, and time will allow him to grow into the sport :)

We're moving

As most everyone knows by now, the Skellys are leaving the OC and heading on an adventure to Georgia! I know it's not reality, yet, but I'm up for the adventure (ask me in a few months to see if I really was!) I'll still be here blogging and sharing the life of our family (although I may change the name???) For now I'm spending my days trying to organize our stuff. Andrew's company is moving us so I don't have to pack but I need to sort through a lot of junk. If I don't do it here, I'll have to do it there so I might as well get it over with!
Besides preparing myself to leave family and friends, the hardest part is that Andrew is already gone, already working in Georgia. So yesterday, unlike most of the country, we didn't celebrate Father's Day. We played at home and had pb & j sandwiches rather than going out to brunch. It was actually a nice relaxing day but Andrew did such an amazing job honoring me on Mother's Day that I'm disappointed I couldn't do the same for him. I'll make it up to you another time, honey, I promise! And on top of being away from Andrew, I did nothing for the fathers in my life, oops! I guess I blocked out that it was even happening since I was sad Andrew was gone so Happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there (especially mine). Know you're appreciated always and not just on one Sunday a year. I love you!

Grandma Mae's Birthday

My Grandma turned 90 years young a few weeks ago and we had a party to celebrate. I can't begin to express what my Grandma means to me and our family so I'm not sure I should try. She lost her husband before I was born, and even though I have many other grandparents, I grew up with Grandma Mae as the matriarch figure in my life. She has always been there, this strong loving force who always focused on family. She always has a story to tell, a hug to give, and cookies to share. She loves Jesus, prays for us all, and shares her love with all around her (especially children!) I've always been proud to call her my Grandma and am so thankful God gave me her. I could go on and on about how wonderful she is but I'll never do her justice so I'll just stop and say Happy Birthday, Grandma! I love you.

Here's my Grandma conducting us all in singing Happy Birthday to her. She had a great party with friends and family from all over. It was so fun to watch her being showered with attention all day (and to see her eating it up!)

Here's my mom expressing her love in song. Another beautiful moment in a beautiful day.

A moment...

Sometimes when my kids are just being kids in the middle of all the craziness, I get these moments of peace when I just see them and realize how much I love them and how incredibly happy I am to have them in my life. It's like God gives me these glimpses and waves of joy to remind me how blessed I am. They hit me at what really seems like random moments and I usually smile, send up a prayer of thanks, and move on, but the other day we were at the Discovery Science Center and I had a moment. It was crowded and I was tired so we escaped to the toddler play area (no school group kids allowed :) I had a chance to just sit and watch my kids play. As I sat there watching them play, realizing how happy they were and how free and innocent and young they were, I was overcome with love for them. And because I had my camera I took this picture so I could remember how much I love my kids, what a gift they are to me, and how much joy I can feel in just a moment of watching them together. So while this picture on it's own is nothing spectacular, not even very good quality, it's beautiful to me because it's me in a moment overwhelmed with love for them.

My two friends Mickey and Goofy

All of our kids have been fans of some character or other around 2 years old. For Jason it was the Wiggles and for Beth it was Elmo. For Adam it is Mickey Mouse. He loves watching Mickey cartoons and Disney sing-along videos (yes, videos, we still have 2 working VCRs and it's a good thing since over half our children's movies are hand-me-down videos.) He carries his stuffed Mickey around (Goofy, too) and sleeps with them both. Now, I've wondered about this love and had theories about where it came from, how it developed. I figured it had to do something with Disneyland and our many visits over the last year during such a formative time in his life. But then I took this picture of him and I remembered...it started in the beginning and it was our doing...because here he is, not yet 2 months old, where it all started...And now he'll tell you his two friends are Mickey and Goofy.

And her name shall be...

Jillian Esther

This name follows our initial's pattern (boys are all AJS/JAS and girls are all JES). We did consider some A names for her but nothing stuck out. All of our children also have names with family meaning. For Jill it's her middle name. Esther was Andrew's maternal grandmother and Jocelyn's great aunt, both very special women in our lives.

For those that are now wondering about the other's names:
Jason is named after his parents. Our two middle names make up his name: Jason Aaron
Beth is actually June Elisabeth named after her Grandma June, Andrew's mom (the idea for calling her Beth comes from Little House on the Prairie).
Adam's name came because Andrew really wanted an AJ, and, after much deliberation over many boy A names (some of you may even recall being asked to suggest A names for us!) we chose Adam. Fortunately, it fits him perfectly. His middle name Johannes is after Jocelyn's great uncle, and it is a name that runs back to great-great grandfathers and uncles back in Norway. My Grandma and her siblings have called him Big John after their brother, quite ironic considering Adam is by far our smallest child!

So there's a little family history for you.