Sectional Meet

Taylor placed 3rd All Around and qualified for the State Meet yesterday with a combined score of 37. In doing so, she placed 2nd on the vault with a 9.5, 2nd on the uneven bars with a 9.4 and 3rd on the beam with a 9.35. WTG Taylor!!!

She's not a baby any more...

I can't believe that my baby is 2 1/2 today. She's getting so big (36" and at least 32 lbs) and she gets into everything like a typical 2 year old. This dress was my find of the week. I got it at Target for 75% off, so it was less than $2.

Fridge Phonics

This is Natalie's new favorite toy. It plays the alphabet song when she presses the note button and she tries to sing along. It says the name of each letter and the sound it makes when you put them into the green part and press down on them. It also came with numbers and counts up to the number selected when you press it. As you can see, the rest of us have been having fun making words with the letters.

Cookie Jar Caper

I came into the kitchen and found Natalie sitting on the stove with the cookie jar in front of her. She had pushed a chair in front of the stove so she could get to the jar. I took a few pictures as she tried to get into the jar.

Phase 1 - Lid Removal

Natalie got the lid off the cookie jar.

Phase 2 - Cookie Removal

Natalie reaches deep down into the cookie jar.

Phase 3 - Lid Replacement

Carefully she puts the lid back on the cookie jar.

Successful Caper

Looks like she finally got what she wanted.

Small Hole

What started as a small hole in the bathroom ceiling...

Big Hole

Ended up looking like this after Joe started looking for the source of the leak. Actually, Joe is in the process of tearing out the wet ceiling and installing a new one. He thinks there may be a leak in the roof, which we are in the process of replacing, so we'll get that fixed before fixing the bathroom ceiling.

Spring Volleyball

Mallory had her first volleyball tournament of the spring season this Saturday. Natalie and I went to watch the first match of the day. This picture was taking during warmups. Good form on this pass.

Reaching...

This pass doesn't look as good as the first one. Here she reached for the ball instead of moving her feet.

Great Setting

Mallory doesn't set too often, but she still looks great.

Work in Progress...

Mallory still needs some work on her hitting. She needs to start to snap her wrist to keep the ball from going too deep. She also needs to work on jumping higher.

Great Serves

Mallory's server is getting very good. She gets at least one or two aces a game. That's when the other team doesn't make a play for her serve at all.

New File Cabinet

I bought a new file cabinet which had to be put together. Natalie was checking out the size from the inside.

Ready to be filed?

As you can see, Natalie was a lot of help while I was putting together my new file cabinet. She was a perfect fit in the drawers.

What a great looking bunch of kids!!!

Joseph, Bailey, Mallory and Natalie in the back
and Taylor, Rachel and Freckles in the front.

Everyone on the Sofa

Nice picture with everyone stretched out on the new sofa.
Freckles, Rachel, Taylor, Joseph, Bailey, Mallory and Natalie.

Now the goofy picture

After the serious pictures, the kids wanted me take some with them being goofy. Of course, these types of pictures are easy to get of my kids, they are always being goofy around the camera. It's the serious one that are hard to get.

Talking with her hands

Natalie definitely has lots of Italian influence with all of the talking with her hands that she does these days. I took about 10 pictures in this sesson and got ten different hand gestures.

What sign is this?

This is one of Natalie's most frequent signs, but were not sure what it is for. I thought it was for drink, but she doesn't always want something to drink when she does it. So, we're still guessing.

Like my headband?

Natalie has been putting the girls headbands on herself lately. Usually she gets them in her hair, but this one kept slipping down over her nose.

Cool New Glasses

Rachel got her new glasses today. Doesn't she look sharp? Rachel is the first Stratton kid to need glasses. Her eyes are 20/50, so not too bad. Mallory tested recently at 20/20 and Taylor tested last year at 20/25. Natalie's eye doctor said that she has perfect vision and the other two have not had a reason to be tested..

Joseph & Natalie

Great brother/sister moment. Joseph loves his little sister Natalie.