I’ve been pretty quiet over here most of spring and early summer, but finally getting more energy back and ready to get back to writing on here.

The main reason I’ve been extra quiet is that early on in spring we found out I was pregnant! It was a rough first trimester and I had zero energy and margin most of spring. That combined with the busyness of baseball, all-star tournaments, birthday celebrations, and the end of a school year/ the start of summer, I’ve been a bit on survival mode. However, now I am in the 2nd trimester and in a good summer groove and feeling more like myself.

Baby Girl Coming this Fall

I would love to give a quick life update. First and most exciting, we are expecting a baby girl this November. After 3 beautiful boys, I truly thought I was made to be a boy mom, but beyond grateful and excited to welcome a little girl into our family. She will be so loved and protected and the boys are beyond excited for a little sister. We did the same baseball throwing gender reveal we have done for all three other pregnancies. This time all three boys lined up to hit the baseball. This was the first time that Lance and I knew the gender before the reveal with family. I just couldn’t wait, so peaked at the blood test results and shared with Lance. I was beyond shocked and excited it was a girl and it was fun to reveal that to family and a few close friends. After so many boys in our family, a girl feels like an extra special delight!

Baseball Season

Along with this exciting news, we had a busy spring full of lots of baseball. Thatcher had a super fun first tee-ball season as a Yankee and having daddy as coach. He had a couple friends from preschool on his team too. Hudson was also a Yankee and had a great season. It was his first season with coaches other than dad. He also made one of the all-star teams and got to play a few additional tournaments after the regular season ended. I could do a whole separate rant on this all-star season, but the quick story: for us, it felt like a bit too much, too young. He is 7! Glad he got to experience it, but we also were relieved when we got our weekends back. One of our biggest goals for our kids is for them to be life-long athletes and pursue sports with passion for a long time. We definitely have no interest in having an elite 8 year-old that burns out before 12. It’s such a balancing act and we are taking it one year at a time, but this small season of all-stars was a good reminder of his age and also our priorities as a family. We never want sports getting in the way of quality family time and attending church.

Birthday Celebrations

Last year, I threw a lot of birthday parties to celebrate our boys. This year, I committed to no parties, and more simple celebrations as a family. We are 2 out of 3 celebrations down for our boys and it’s been a nice, low-stress way to celebrate and still give the boys special birthday memories.

Thatcher is obsessed with Star Wars right now, so he had a special birthday full of all things Star Wars. It was right at the end of baseball season, so on his actual birthday, we had two baseball games, but in the middle of the day, we celebrated with family coming over. We had pizza and a cake with little Star Wars figurines on it. We went to Disneyland a few days after his birthday and hit all the Star Wars rides! Age 4 is such a sweet age and it was fun to celebrate our mellow, happy guy.

If you have a Star Wars fan too, the favorite gift was this Mandalorian Figurine, Storm Trooper stuffy, and Star Wars lego sets. This Darth Vader helmet was also a hit.

Hudson turned 7 this year and his actual birthday fell on the weekend of an all-star tournament in La Jolla. It was perfect timing because before we even knew about all-stars he told us he wanted to go to Legoland. They ended up being out of the tournament Saturday, so on his actual birthday (Sunday) we were able to celebrate him at Legoland! We surprised him that morning in the hotel and he was very excited. He even had a couple teammates that also decided to do Legoland, so he got to hang out most of the day with these friends. Since Legoland doesn’t open until 10am, we stopped in Encinitas for coffee for us at Better Buzz and the yummiest donuts at Broad Street Dough Co.

Now we are already in the final days of summer and I can barely believe it! We will soon have a second grader and be back into the full swing of things with school and sports. Until then, I am soaking in these slower days. We just got back from celebrating our 10 year wedding anniversary in Ojai, CA. It was a lovely time just the two of us. I will share more details in the next post! These are the major updates. As always, thankful for this life and all the Lord continues to do for us!