The Big Boys in My Life

I cannot decide if I should worry or not that my Husband and Dad dress alike.

Because either my Dad is one hip dresser, or my Husband dresses like an old man.

Hum......

Well, regardless, I love them both and am truly blessed to have them both in my life.

Thankful for my Dad who helped to make me who I am today.  Thankful to my Husband for choosing me!

Thankful they both have blue eyes and look good in blue plaid with snaps and flaps!

A Different Side....

My Luke is shall we say.... not real aggressive most of the time in life.  He is shy around people he does not know real well, but way out going when he does know those he is around.  It just takes him a long time to get used to people.    

However, when he is on the baseball field, things change.  He is aggressive more times than not.

I will set this up for you.

Luke gets a single his first at bat.  There is now a runner on second and first.  The next batter gets a hit, but because of some over thrown balls by the other team, the boys are all sent running. 

The runner in front of Luke gets home, but missed touching the plate.  He is sent back to touch the plate, but Luke had already been sent home from third.  Josh had REALLY been working with Luke this week on running HARD at all times.  He was running as hard as he could.  Determination was in his face and I could see it all clearly through my zoom lens.

The ball was thrown home to the catcher.  The catcher had the ball in his glove.

*Snap*

My Luke did not let that catcher stop him.  He ran over his arm, leg, glove, and knocked him back. 

The catcher dropped the ball.

Luke was safe!

Luke’s Mom was behind the plate screaming and yelling like a fool.

Luke’s Dad was over in the stands yelling like the proud Daddy he is.  Luke’s Grandpa and Grandma Lee were in the stands yelling and clapping.  Luke’s Daddy’s best friend was there yelling and clapping too.  His fans were all proud.

My not-so-aggressive boy is an entirely different boy on that baseball diamond.

Love it.

Random Ramblings on a Saturday

1.    Joshua somehow or another got us hooked, and I mean HOOKED on this show Storage Wars – Texas.   You MUST see this show.  http://www.aetv.com/storage-wars-texas/about/  It has caused us to stay up until midnight glued to the tv.  ON A WORK NIGHT!  I will get up to go to bed and Josh says, "Let's just watch one more!"  And we do.  Over and over again.  It's good.  It's hilarious!  And now Josh wants to plan a trip to go out to meet two of the guys.  Watch it!

2.     My Luke brought this picture home from school.   

It made me smile big.  Yes, those are huge army tanks.  Yes, that army man is holding a gun.  Yes, he is proud to be an American!

3.     Once a week we have pizza at the house.  We have stopped ordering out and make our own.  Sometimes I make the crust from scratch and sometimes I use store bought.  I have found this great wheat one at Target.  Love it!

It’s a big night.  First of all, it’s pizza.  And secondly, we usually eat on the couch, which is HUGE for Luke since we do not do it often.  On this night, we watched The Sandlot while eating.  All baseball, all the time.  I put chunks of mozzarella cheese on tops and Luke declared it the best pizza ever.  So, it must be true.

4.     One day last week Luke and I went to visit my aunt and cousin at their work.  

We had some stuff to give them, but more importantly, we were able to visit.  Luke received the cool green hard hat he is wearing and my aunt was all fun and games as she made copies of Luke’s hands.  My cousin told him he can now give out high fives whenever he wants!  Very cool.

5.     Washing Luke’s baseball jersey makes me think of my Mom.  Weird, I know, but hear me out.  When I was in high school and played club volleyball we were out of town at a tournament and both my jerseys needed to be washed for playing the following day.  As I slept in a nice hotel bed, my Mother and Dad went to a washateria at like 2 in the morning to wash it.  That is love right there.  I have never forgot it.  So, each time I wash his jersey, I think of her.  I am reminded that you will never know what it is that you do that will mean the world to your kids.  I’m thankful for my little boy that provides me mounds of laundry, and especially a dirt jersey!

   

6.       And speaking of my Mother, I saw this picture lying out on our dresser.   

I think Josh came across it while cleaning out a drawer.  I’m not sure, but I just assume my mom took it.  I still have that lamb, it is just not so clean anymore.

7.     Luke decided to make us all golf hats!  I love them!! 

I just don’t love golf, but don’t tell him that.   The one and only time I have EVER hit a golf ball on a golf course I did not hit it so well and my husband, Mother-in-law, and Father-in-law all about busted a gut laughing at me.  For real.  I don't lie.  I of course got mad and road in the golf cart the rest of the day.  That happened about 10 years ago and it seems I’ve not let it go! :)

8.     My Luke had strep a couple of weeks ago.   

I stayed home with him and we watched movies and played games.  As you can see in the background I had a mound of laundry to fold, but I decided that playing a game with my boy was much better.  I was right.

Happy Saturday and I hope your weekend is going great!

 

It’s Baseball Time!

Spring is here and you know what that means. Baseball at the Stewarts! 

All. The. Time.

If we are not at Luke's baseball games or practices, we will be watching our Rangers on TV or will be at their games!

Luke started baseball practice several weeks back and he had his first pre-season game last night. He was super excited to be playing again, and I was super excited to be watching and taking pictures!

GO CUBS!!

He is playing coach pitch for the first time this year and boy that makes this Momma a nervous wreck when watching!!

Our Luke did GREAT!!

He started off the game with a lead off single! And this Momma was yelling and cheering at the TOP of her lungs. However, it might have been difficult to hear me because Joshua was yelling, cheering, and clapping too!

Yes, we are proud!

All in all, Luke was two for three at his very first coach pitch game. The two hits were singles and he grounded out the last time.

He was the only kid on his team to hit the ball every time at bat.

He had so much fun! 

And a big THANK YOU to Sean and Kayla who surprised Luke by coming to cheer him on. He was so excited that you both came.

 (sorry yall are blurry!)

After the game we all went to Chik fil A to celebrate!

I just love watching him play and we are looking forward to a fun season of ball.

Family Fun Day

Joshua and I both took off of work last Friday to spend the day with Luke.  We pretty much left it up to him as to what we would do.

So, we started off with lunch at CiCi's.  Josh and I are not really fans of CiCi's, but it was Luke's day.  And Luke loves CiCi's because of this.

Macaroni and Cheese Pizza.  It excites him.

Other than eating pizza, all Luke really wanted to do was go bowling.  We decided we would go where we could not only bowl, but do some other fun things.

When we got there, we were put on the list for a bowling lane and were told it would be about an hour wait.

So, first up....go carts!

Luke was a little sad at first that he was not tall enough to ride alone, but once we were going all was fine!

Next up was black light putt-putt.

It is hard to tell, but Josh is on the left, and Luke is on the right.  That is a Yeti in the middle.  It was so much fun to putt-putt in the dark.

Once we were done putt-putting, our bowling lane was ready and so off we went!

Watching Luke bowl is one of the funniest things ever.

He is...shall we say....animated.

Not sure where he gets that.

We bowled for an hour and had a blast.

Next up, was the arcade!

Luke is all about the tickets.  He will only choose one or two games to play that do not give tickets.  He is ALL about skee-ball.  And he is pretty good at it.

We watched this one kid win 1,000 tickets on one game, and Luke's jaw hit the floor.

He won big on a couple of games!

And in the end, he had a LOT of tickets!



His grand total was......



The only game he decided to play that did not give tickets was air hockey.

And what do you know, he beat his Daddy!

With his tickets, Luke was able to get a Magic Eight Ball, an army man, and a parachute man.  Once we were in the truck, he opened up the eight ball and began to shake it.  His first question, "Will I get my new brother or sister soon?"  I just looked over at Josh who was smiling.  The response from the Magic Eight Ball, "Positively."

I know that eight ball does not know a thing, but that was the sweetest question he could have asked it!

After we left we stopped for some shaved ice.

It was a great day!

College and Career Week – What will you be when you grow up?

Last Tuesday the kids at Luke's school were to dress up as what they wanted to be when they grew up. 

Luke wants to be a paleontologists.

“Um, what do they wear?” I asked.

“Brown shorts and a gray shirt, duh!”  Luke responded.

Riiiiiight......because this paralegal Mom should have just known that!!  He forgets we are not all geniuses about dinosaurs.

So, he wore his brown shorts, gray shirt, and took along some digging tools, a dinosaur book, AND some dinosaur bones!

He rocked.

His Daddy rocked for putting it all together.

I rock because they are my boys.  I love them.

Oh, and I told Luke he was the cutest paleontologist in all of the world and he said I did not know because I've never seen another one.  I told him I did not need to.

He smiled.

Dinner!

Make this, your family will love it!

Barbeque Chicken Tacos

1 pound chicken

barbeque sauce (I used Sweet Baby Rays)

corn tortillas (or if you are like my boys, you will have flour)

mozzarella cheese 

cilantro

Slather your chicken, top and bottom, with the sauce.  Cover and bake at 425 for 40 minutes.  Once done, shred your chicken with a fork and then add some more sauce until it is as saucy as you like.  Put on your warm tortillas, top with cheese and cilantro.

Black Bean/Corn Concoction

1 can black beans, drained and washed

1 cup corn
small can of chopped chilies

1 avocado, sliced

1 cup grape tomatoes, cut in quarters

Lime vinaigrette to your taste

Mix it all up!

Lime Vinaigrette

1 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup fresh lime juice

2 teaspoons salt

a few dashes of garlic powder

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

1/2 teaspoon pepper

Enjoy!  You will be Queen (or King) of your house!

Congrats Brownies!!

Our friends Sean and Kayla recently bought their first house – hooray!!  

And to celebrate I decided to make these fabulous brownies for them…..and dinner.

There are oreos inside of them....oh, yum!

The only problem was that somewhere along the way there was a breakdown in communication.  Kayla was under the impression that I had invited them over for lunch.  So, one Saturday they showed up at our house ready for some lunch…..and brownies.  Probably more for the brownies.

Only problem……we were not home.  And not only were we not home, but I had left my phone at home and Joshua had run into some people we used to go to church with at Target and so he was talking to them and not answering his phone. 

They waited in front of our house for 30 minutes.  They were hungry.  They knew these brownies were going to be there.  Ooops.

And by the time Josh called them back; they had of course left and went out for lunch.  And I of course explained how I had invited them; at least I thought I had, for DINNER!

So, Kayla came back for dinner.  Sean had to miss because he was DJing a daddy/daughter dance.  I sort of felt bad that Sean missed out on a celebratory night that was for him too.

But, him not being there did not hold us back from these brownies!!

You must make them.  They are beyond good.  So good in fact that Kayla refused to take them home for fear she would eat them all.

I did not want them in my house either for fear I would plop on the couch and inhale them while watching TV.  So, I made Josh take them to work.  His co-workers finished them off and hailed me wonderful.

Congrats to Sean and Kayla on their new house!!