MVP, Oh Yeah!

Last night was TPA's spring sports ceremony, and can you guess who got high school MVP for softball?

We were so surprised, and Alexa was honored to be chosen for this recognition. Her team had a great season, turning their record around from 5-12 last year {their first year moving up to 2A} to 12-6 this season, ranking them 2nd in our region and 11th heading into state. They even made it two games into the state tournament, losing their last game 11-10.

They have all worked so hard, their school's motto "work works" is so true for them. When you attend a school focused on academics, housed in an old church, with no fields, no gym, no facilities at all, you really have to work hard as a team. They practice at a public park and have no "home field" for home games. These girls are amazing, as are their coaches. 5 of our girls {including Alexa} were voted into first team all region, and our head coach got coach of the year. The Arizona Republic wrote a fabulous article about them for these reasons. Work works!

Coach Byant had some really nice things to say about why they chose Alexa for MVP, citing her dedication, hard work and improvement, leadership, positive attitude, and not least her great stats. She was in the top 3 players for her stats (batting averages, RBIs, etc.).

{Alexa with her MVP award and all region award}

I am so {irrationally brimming with tears}proud of this girl!

More Projects

Due to the boredom of having my boys in KS, I have been filling my time with some home projects. I really liked how my reading nook turned out, and wanted to do more. I found a TV stand on sale at Ikea for $10, and thought it would be good for a bench by the front door. I have wanted, for some time, a place to sit and take off/store shoes. We will see how long it holds up for this purpose.

I covered three 20" pillows to serve as cushions with some more patterns of the same line of fabrics as my lamp/pillows. I may try to find a shallow basket or two to fit in the ledge to hide the shoes, but for now, I am liking it.

I also recovered the throw pillows on my couches, rearranged the furniture, and cleaned out/organized both large bookcases. Whew!

Now I am on the hunt for a cedar chest of some sort to store {out of sight} the girl's softball gear that tends to end up all over the living room. The more progress I make, the more I want to do!

Mother's Day

So, my Mother's day was pretty low-key. The boys are in KS for work. The girls and I hung out, did errands, and visited my niece and her new baby. The girls swept and mopped the house while I took a nap. Then we went to Sweet Tomatoes for dinner. All in all, a nice day...

Well, it was my niece, Desiree's first Mother's Day. I took some pictures of her little cutie, Izaiah, when he was 12 days old. I made a super easy announcement for her (seriously took like 10 minutes, love Photoshop!):

And here are a few {of the 100 pictures I took} that did not make it onto the announcement:

    

We printed them all for Desi, got a cute collage frame and filled it with our favorite 6, and took it to her along with 20 announcements and a Happy Mother's Day balloon {from Sophie}. It was nice to share her first mother's day with her.