Game 3

As you can see from the blog, there really isn't much going on in our lives.  The holidays are over and the only consistent thing we are doing is basketball, so I will just continue posting about Ava's basketball games until something else exciting happens! 

Game 3 was our favorite so far!  Shawn had seen the other team practice earlier in the week and came home with bad news that if we ever played that team, we were going to get crushed.  When we arrived at the game on Saturday, guess which team we were playing... Somehow, someway, we didn't get crushed..in face we won!!!  The final score was 11-10 and it was a NAIL BITTER if I ever saw one!  I felt like I needed to go lie down and take a nap after it was finally over and Ava's team had won!  But to make it even sweeter, Ava scored the first two baskets!!  These were her first points to make since starting to play and we were ecstatic!  As usual, my picture quality is pretty horrible.  I'm going to keep trying though....and I WISH I had been able to take a picture of her shooting, but that's kind of like winning the lottery.  

She's in the white jersey.

After each game, the coach hands out stars that you can iron on to their shirts.  This week Ava got a gray star for good offense (I think....neither Ava nor I could remember for sure what the gray one stood for.) 

Later that afternoon, we went on a triple date to Austin with our friends.  We took them to Izo's tacos (which isn't the real name of it, but the real name is long and hard to pronounce.)  Afterwards, we ate at Gordough's and as usual it did NOT disappoint.  Shawn and I haven't eaten there in a while and it was still so delicious!  To finish the night, we wandered the "yard" around the capitol.  It was great to get away with some friends and get our laugh quota for the month!

Game 2

Ava had her second basketball game today.  It is AMAZING how much they improved simply by trial and error in the first game.  They did GREAT today and won, 24 to 12!  Ava had quite a few heart-stopping shots, but still no points earned yet.  I am just so thankful that she is loving playing each week.  I think it's a challenge to her and she likes a challenge! They only had 6 players today so every time a quarter was over, they had to rock/paper/scissors to see who got to sit out and catch their breath!  We have loved watching her play!  

Did you know that it's close to impossible to take good pictures with your phone, inside a gym.  Well, it is.

Every week after the game the coach gives out iron on stars in different colors to represent what he saw on the court.  They get to iron them on the sleeve of the uniform shirt.  This is the second week Ava got a yellow start...I seriously can't remember what it means, but I think it stood for sportsmanship.  

Unrelated to that, we have been slowly working on redecorating Levi's room.  We are going out with the old (meaning what the room was decorated as when he came home from the hospital!) and in with the new (meaning we are going for an outdoorsy manly lodgy feel.)  I can not wait for the room to be finished!  I have had so much fun hunting and gathering (pun intended) items to make his room all outdoorsy!  Today, we bought an olive greenish paint and painted over the sweet blue that we painted just about 6 years ago exactly.  We are loving how it looks.  I'll make sure and post pictures when it's done.

Playin' some BBall

Ava begged to sign up for basketball back in the fall and we decided to be a little crazy and do it!  If you know our family, you know we just aren't "sports" people.  The main reason we aren't into sports is the time commitment.  But the league that she joined, called Upward, is very low key.  It's one 1 hour practice a week and one game each Saturday for 9ish weeks.  That still feels like a big commitment, but we wanted to let her try something that was just hers.  Today after only about 4 practices, her team The Bruins got to test out their skills.  I thought I'd be laughing my way through the game watching these young girls, but I wasn't.  I was on the edge of my seat and yelling for most of the game!  This doesn't surprise me about myself.  If my athletic ability was half as amazing as my heart for the game, I'd be a professional.  ha!  Anyway, she played great and we had so much fun watching her.  She was exhausted after the game....she definitely wasn't prepared for as much running as she had to do.  She got to shoot the ball a few times too and those moments almost killed me.  She didn't score any points this time, but she loved the game and can't wait to go and do it again!  We can't wait to watch again!

Here's the team waiting to go onto the court.  There was a LOT of nervous energy!

They even go to run through an inflatable cave type thing while there name was called.  Ava was "Ava the Avenger!" (which is her wrestling name at home. lol)

Here's most of her team (there's only 7) with the coach.

After the first few quarters (which weren't quarters but it's a confusing explanation) Shawn brought her some water and talked to her about offense...and how she no longer needed to guard her person when they were on her side of the court.  This seemed to be confusing to her, but she got better as the game went on.  She definitely great at defense!

 Go #14!!!

This picture cracks me up, because the ball was getting thrown in right in front of us and Ava saw me with the camera and smiled.  Good job Ava!

Action shot...where my heart stopped each time she got the ball!

After game huddle.

Ava's friend McKenna showed up to cheer her own, with a poster and all.  I almost cried, I thought it was so sweet.  I know Ava felt VERY special!

Let's do it again next Saturday!  If you're near here in the next 8 weeks on a Saturday at 1pm, come watch!  Posters are encouraged!

NYEve

We might have finally found our "grove" for New Year's Eve.  I go back and forth between wanting a huge blow-out party on the town with craziness till midnight and a low-key fun night with just our family that ends well before 12.  This year seemed to be the perfect balance for us.

We headed to Auditorium Shores in Austin for a family night with live music and food trucks.

There was an art instillation with huge snowballs, or at least that's what we're calling them.

The girls asked for tamales (which was weird but they loved!) and Levi got french fries from a food truck called Evil Weiner.  Shawn and I got tacos...which actually weren't that good...but I made up for that later.

Here's a view of one of the stages with Austin in the background.

After we left, and since we were in Austin and since the tacos were unsatisfying, I got Amy's icecream!  Still delicious!

After that we headed to a fireworks stand that was REALLY busy and bought a few little things.

It's out of focus and odd, but here's the only picture I got of us with fireworks....and right before Levi burned his finger pretty badly.  :(

We had to all go inside and tend to him and man was he feeling like a king.  Both of the girls were even rubbing his back and talking gently to him...which is pretty uncharacteristic of them.  But I soaked up that moment and I'm pretty sure he did too.

Then the kids and I decided it would be more fun for us to just sit under a blanket and watch Shawn light fireworks in the street.  One of the girls said "I'm so glad I have a daddy that will lite all the fireworks!"

Then we headed back inside to read the Golden Book versions of every single Star Wars movie.  I felt like someone who is reading the Old Testament for the very first time.  So many names, so many stories and so many odd things that don't seem to make sense together.  Shawn got a kick out of watching me read it aloud and the looks on my face and the questions I asked.  But I think I can now say I have a tiny itsy bitsy grasp on the storyline.  Now I need to dedicate myself to actually watching the movies.

For our final activity of the night, we pulled out the Good News Jar that we've been depositing our good new into all year and read them one by one.  I loved doing this.  The whole family loved doing this.  We sipped our grape juice and laughed at all the different things and memories from this year.  This is DEFINITELY a new tradition.

A year of good memories...and with that, we all hugged and headed to bed....well before midnight!

We needed to get our sleep...we left the next afternoon for our winter youth retreat!