Tuesday Night Lights

Middle school football games are on Tuesday nights, and they have the cutest dancers in Baton Rouge...

I cannot say enough about this sweet young lady...she is the real deal!  Best coach and mentor who loves all her babies and helps them be the best that they can be, all while juggling her own Golden Girl schedule and being a full-time college student! The bond she and Stella share is one of my favorite things about middle school...

Our other sister...

Coming off the field after a performance...

Again with sweet Caroline...

All that's missing is Ava! 

But we found Ava and how adorable is she in her cheer uniform?  You keep resisting peer pressure, Ava!  

The sky really puts on a show over the football field, providing the perfect photo backdrop...

 

Everybody's All American

Watts loves football.  Mom does not.  I hoped for years that he would not want to play, but, alas, he does.  We always skated by with flag football before, but this year he begged to sign up for Allstar tackle football and Dad said to let him do it.  I was a nervous wreck for most of the games, but I cannot deny that he is just about the cutest thing I have ever seen in the uniform...

With the helmet...

And another one without because he is just so handsome...

Watts and his fan club...

 

Stepper Photos

Football season is here, and it's time to take Jr. Stepper photos!  It was Cille's first year to be a Jr. Stepper.  She has been dreaming of being a Stepper since kindergarten, when I bought her the cheer outfit instead of the Stepper outfit because it was half the price...

Cousin Claire was hanging in the courtyard and got to be a part of the photo op...

I liked the background of last year's photo more, but Stella is still beautiful, whatever the background...

Best friends and Steppers...

Times two...

The girls humored me and took a sibling photo.  I mean, how often do siblings get to be on the same team together? 

Pretty girls everywhere...

 

Planting Trees and Roofing Stands

Ahhhh, hunting season.  My least favorite of the seasons.  I have always viewed his lack of a desire to hunt or fish as one of Damon's finest qualities.  Unfortunately, neither my father in law nor my son share this admirable trait, which means that each fall, several weekends are spent "getting the stands ready."  In the past I have been lucky enough to avoid being involved in this project, but this year there were hundreds of trees to plant, so the entire family and our side-by-side got drafted into the woods...

Child labor at its finest...

At least all this sweating and struggling brought them together...

Deep Woods Off was a necessity...

Even kindergarteners did not escape the job...

Teamwork makes the dream work! 

Double unfortunately for me, it was time for two of the stands to be re-roofed.  This involved hijinks in the bucket of the tractor that would make an OSHA inspector shudder and SO. MANY. ROACHES.  You may not know this about me, but roaches are my kryptonite.  Imagine me stuck in the bucket of a tractor under the roof of a deer stand with multiple roaches crawling all over it and no escape route.  The horror was extreme.  The next time a stand needs to be re-roofed, I may fake Covid...

Did I mention we also saw a bear?!?!?!

These faces pretty much sum up the joy of the entire project...

Don't let the smiles fool you, we all hope those new roofs last forever!