Iron Birds Softball

Hannah had another great softball season!  It was her last year in Rookie League.  Josh was an assistant coach for her team.  The girls finished 3rd for the season in the league (and had the toughest schedule!).  They finished 2nd in the end of the year tournament to another one of the Catlin teams (there were 3 Catlin teams this year). 

Papa Steve came to almost every game and helped me.  Thank goodness!  With 25 games between the 2 kids, we were at the ball diamonds a lot, and that is only slightly exhausting with a 1 and 3 year old, especially considering a few games went until almost 10:30!  

The pack 'n play helped a FEW times:

Aleah told Papa she wanted chips in a box... she meant Nachos!

Hannah played 3rd base this year and did alright.  She did a GREAT job hitting again this year.  She got a little stronger than last year and hit several to the outfield.  She even managed to get a few in-the-park homeruns.  This girl is FAST!  Track may actually be her sport someday!

Aunt Sherry came to games whenever she could!

Oh, you know, just a one year old stealing his Papa's pop!

Coach Russell giving Hannah a high five!

Hannah was VERY disappointed in the championship game.  We played our absolute worst game of the season and got totally blown out in record time.  Hannah personally did well though.  She hit the ball every time; I was proud of her.  It was a lot of pressure for the girls!

With the other Catlin team after the championship game:

Lots of Sudlows came to watch:

Another fun season in the books.  Already looking forward to next year and hoping that Lucas is just a little bit easier on me.... and that Papa Steve will come help me again!

VBS

VBS is always a great and crazy week!  I will say, I love being Sandy's assistant, rather than being totally in charge with Josh.  VBS is a HUGE project, and Sandy does it so well!!!

Aleah with her buddy Max Shepherd:

Hannah with her friends on Snow Cone Day:

Aleah, Piper, Max:

Group picture!  We had nearly 300 people, all kids and volunteers included:

Sports Team Day:

Dress like a stoplight day:

I set up the bounce house for the 2 and 3 year olds:

I taught missions again this year, and we got to send our support to the Humiston family just as they were relocating to Dallas.  The kids loved to learn about them and chant "Help the Humistons!"  Jeremy even got to come spend the night with us and help at VBS one day!  Love that I have found my niche at VBS and love that we got to help them with their moving expenses!

It is always a great week!

4th of July

My sister Betsy had a party for the 4th of July.  We had fun the whole day.  Josh took the 3 younger kids to the movies, while Hannah and I went to get a pedicure!  Then we went to the Aldermans and to fireworks!

My Grandpa and Grandma Reeves were in town from Florida.  It's always fun to have them here!

Fireworks!

Nationals T-Ball

Jacob had a great last year of T-Ball!  Josh coached, and his brother Jordan helped.  It's fun to have cousins on our team!  

We love spending our nights at the ball diamonds!

Jacob is a good hitter!  He has a really nice swing, and he hit the ball pretty hard this year, oftentimes directly at his dad.  Almost knocked his hat off once!

Everybody wins in T-Ball!

Grandpa and Grandma Reeves were in town for a game which was a special treat!

I hope the kids always remember how much time their dad spent with them on the ball field.  He loves doing it with them.  It's a big commitment and a lot of work to coach them, but he loves it.  He is a great dad!  

Kickapoo Park

We had a fun family night at Kickpoo one night this summer.  We had a picnic of pizza and played catch and played on the playground.  Of course I had to snap a few pictures of my favorite kiddos:

Father's Day

My kids are so blessed to have such a great dad!  We are all so thankful for him.

For Father's Day this year, we got Josh some beach gear for Michigan (chairs and an umbrella)... AND his big gift was Cubs Tickets for Josh, Steve, Jordan, Landon, and Jacob!  Courtney and I had fun surprising the guys with this gift!  We joked that the rule was that your middle name had to be "Michael" to go on this trip, which was 5 of the Downing boys!

We had dinner at Jordan and Courtney's to surprise Steve with his Father's Day gift!

Unstaged cuddle time on Father's Day.  They love their daddy!

Jacob had a BLAST on his first trip to Wrigley!  He was giddy about it for days afterwards!  Love how much he is loving sports!

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Methodist VBS

The kids had a fun week attending the Methodist church VBS.  Emma Lawler joined us as her mom was out of town on a mission trip that week.  If you couldn't tell, there was a color theme each day: