New and Improved Family Pictures.

Yep, brand new family pictures, totally improved by Rachel.  She did such a great job, and we are thrilled to be printing these off for our home.  And showing them off on our blog, and on facebook.  Thank you again Rachel!

Surf 'n Sun, Family Fun.

So it's the first day of the family reunion at the beach, and Braden is already playing host.  He sat there for quite a while, waiting for these new "strangers" called family to walk by and offer them a snack.

 Nelson was just enjoying time on the warm sand.  Several times he buried his face in it and appeared to have fallen asleep.  It could have been a temper tantrum, I don't know.

 Michael.  How did he snag this awesome shovel?  The sand, the sun, the surf... this boy loved it all!

 Adelyn has really grown up this year.  I love how she just dove right in, and never whimpered about anything being too hard or too scary or too cold for her.  She's awesome!

 Joey.  Not into taking pictures.  At all.  At all.  However, if you have a video camera, watch out!  He loves to show off his jumping skills!

 We are so thankful to Aunt Rachel for taking the time to get a billion awesome pictures.  Adelyn loved the photo shoot!

This expression of Braden's is from Mike.  Both the boys have such fun and individual expressions.  The next two are some of my favorite Braden expressions.  Nelson has this super-alluring sideways glance that he gives to people in public places, and its hilarious!

 Nelson.  He must be crawling for his pink sippy cup in the background.  Are those hand-me-downs from Adelyn?  No.  I just bought a pink sippy cup.  I don't know what I was thinking, and I had it all the way out of the package before I said, duh, I have two boy babies.

Thanks to the family for such an awesome reunion!  We loved it!

Meet the Crockett's

The hats just MAKE these pictures.  It also means I can't tell my twins apart.  I'd guess that they were both the same baby (Braden), but they're not wearing the same pants, and it's the same day.  Did we change him when we got home?  Was the baby who threw a major tantrum by burying his face in the dirt wearing camo that day?  Because if so, that would be Nelson.  Hats... grrr!  For that reason alone, they should not be worn by Crockett's!

Some Kid.

Joey and Michael and a dead fish they found on shore.

Some kid with Gatorade.

The winner, winner fishy dinner: Adelyn!

Summer Tradition?

I want to have watermelon carvings all summer long!!

The kids got to help on this one.  It was kind of like a trap for anyone who reached in to get watermelon!

What does it take to graduate from Kindergarten?

Physical and Mental Toughness!!

A big smile, a great singing voice, and the ability to withstand a class full of GIRLS!  Michael ended up with four boys by the end of the year, and a bunch of girlfriends.

You need to have an awesome and devoted teacher who thinks you are the greatest!!  Michael's teacher raves and raves about her students.  Michael got to give a speech in front of the whole school in the microphone to thank his teacher during teacher appreciation week.  We pulled together a few things he said about his teacher and he captivated the audience.  We have audio of his talk, but you can barely hear a word he's saying because the laughing and crying drowned it all out :)

Definitely you need to be cool and confident, like our Michael!!  We are totally blessed to be his parents.  He is good at everything!  He is amazing, and has so much in store for him!  Does it scare me a little that I have been sent such amazing kids to parent?  Yes, yes it does.  I'm the lucky one for sure!!

Goooooooooooo RED HOTS!

After skipping a year of machine pitch, Adelyn decided to jump back into the game this year.  And all Michael's friends were moving up to machine pitch, so we followed.  We requested that they be on the same team, and the league requested that Mike be their coach.  He did a great job.

He had everybody hitting during practices.  Here is Michael about to nail it!  Both the kids got some good hits and good runs!

He had them moving all over the field to get good practice everywhere.    Michael like being right in the middle (Mike called it Pitcher Right), and Adelyn liked Pitcher Right or Pitcher Left.

Her least favorite was catcher, but she was willing and excited to give it a try.

This here is the official assistant coach.  He would always ask the parents who were bringing treats, "Did you bring treats for the assistant coach?"  And seriously, who could have turned him down?  Just look at him and all his handsome-ness!

These are the official fans and also the half-time entertainment.  I'd keep them in a stroller for as long as possible, then let them run around causing chaos with their shoe-squeaking, food-stealing, big smiling, major tantrum antics.

It was a very fun season for the Red Hots (aka Red Hawks, Red Garbage Cans, Red Sox, Sour Patch Kids, and a couple other randomly, kid-selected names).

For the last game, each of the kids got a signed baseball from the rest of their team and a 2-liter of pop, because they had an awesome coach!