4th place in Rookies !

In one way, baseball season seemed very long....and in another way, it absolutely flew by!

The boys had a wonderful season.

They finished FOURTH in the whole league--a fantastic accomplishment!

The boys after their last season game, receiving their trophies.

Colin, Mr. Calm and Collected :)

Some excited and happy boys!

As great as our "fans" were, and as nice as the trophies were, I truly think that the REAL award

should have gone to the siblings! Those sweet babies were there every single game, 

cheering their brothers on. They deserved an award too, in my book!

Grandma Jane and our crew

And, of course....can't forget the best friend.

Love these two sillies!

Thanks for a wonderful season Mud Hens--it was so much fun and we are proud of your accomplishments!

Mud Hens watching Mud Hens

I mentioned before that our boys took Minor League baseball team names this year. Catlin was represented by three teams at the rookie level: the Bats, the Grasshoppers, and our team: the Mud Hens.

We were fortunate to take a wonderful little family/team trip over to Indianapolis at the end of June to watch the real Toledo Mud Hens play, and we had an absolute blast!  

We all got dressed up in our Mud Hens gear and headed to the stadium after dinner at TGIFriday's.

Daddy and the boys

The fam! 

{Minus Lolee girl, who stayed home with Grandma Jane :)}

Our friends (and Colin's head coach) Nate and Kara, and Colin's best friend Colden/sister Addie

More friends/another coach! Ryan and Laine, and their son/Colin's friend Bennett

Same story! Our friends (and assistant coach) TJ and Amy, and their son/Col's friend Reef

Cameron checking out the giant field!

The boys were in heaven. They thought this was just the coolest!

Now, we were at the Indianapolis Stadium--so all of us in our Mud Hens' gear really stood out! We were able to get the boys down near the dugout, and the real Mud Hens took notice of all of our little Mud Hens and signed some autographs!

{L to R: Blake, Colden, Bennett, Colin, Cameron}

Getting, as Col put it, "real life autographs"

The boys loved it!

L to R, back row: Cameron, Colden, Reef, Colin, Blake, Bennett

Front: Brayden and Ethan

The boys (and siblings) stood at the front and watched for a long time.

It was an exciting night and even though the Mud Hens lost, the boys had a great time!

L to R: Reef, Isaac, Bennett, Sebastian, Hayden, Ethan, Blake, Jackson, 

Brayden M., Colden, Colin, Cameron, Addie, Brayden N.

Such a wonderful group of kids and parents--so thankful we got to be a part of this special night with all of them! Great, great memories!

The end of T-ball season

T-ball seemed to come and go in a flash.

The little ones do not have as many games as the Rookie boys do, and it seemed as though they were here and done in no time! I was so excited to capture a few really great moments from the Catlin Cardinals' very last game of the 2012 season.

Ethan, watching the other batters before getting ready to bat himself!

Here is a quick video of Ethan's last time at bat. He had a great hitting season, only hitting off of the tee one or two times all year. You have to watch to the end to see the HUGE grin on his face, once he is safe on first base and everyone is yelling that he did a great job!


Ethan scoring for the last time--Coach Bobby knew to move that tee because Ethan would slide at home every single time, whether he "needed to" or not! *giggle*
{Note the Merritt signature 'thumbs up' at the end!}

And then, there is the big slugger. 

Warming up with two bats, no less!

Cameron loved getting to be the last batter, because it meant he was the only player that didn't have to stop at first base when he got his hit. If he hit it hard enough, he would be able to do this:

(I was always so worried he was going to run poor Rylee over!!)

The very last time he was at bat, I caught a still of him sliding into home. This last hit 

was a lot closer than the video above, and he actually had the presence of mind to slide under the tag! 

The kid just amazes his Momma. :)

Lolee girl always offers comic relief on the sidelines!

Since this was the last game, the boys and their teammates were awarded their trophies.

They were awfully proud. :)

Coach Wright handing them their trophies

{Ethan, I do believe, is still sleeping with his. lol}

2012 Catlin Cardinals!

The crew

It was a wonderful season, filled with lots of special memories....

....and, as usual, I couldn't be prouder of the boys and their accomplishments!!

Bismarck Game -- first real game of the season!

My goal at the beginning of baseball season was to capture a little bit of each game and then blog about it.

Yeah....about that....goals don't always come to fruition the way we would like them to, do they? :)

This game was our very first games of the season, once we got past our first pre-season tournament. It was the very first game with live pitching! In our little league (and most around us), the boys play the first four innings of the game with a pitching machine (that delivers 'every' ball right down the middle of the strike zone for ease of hitting). This not only speeds up the game, but it helps the kids to develop an "eye" for strikes.

Then, in the 5th and 6th inning, a live pitcher comes in. We have two--one in the 5th, and one in the 6th. This would be the first game Colin had ever pitched in, so we were excited and a bit nervous for him!

I take so many pictures that this time--Colin's first at bat (he is the first batter in the line-up, so this was actually the very first hit of the game)--I decided to take some video.  He hit a triple!
(Sorry about the quality--it's hard to video through a chain link fence!)

Colin coming in from scoring. Always so serious!

Lola girl....

....being goofy as usual. :)

I snapped quite a few, and by the time I went to take one with her, she was tired of the camera! *grin*

For preservation's sake, I wanted to make sure to record here who was on Colin's Mud Hens team this year:

Reef and Colden

Hayden and Bennett

Blake and Brayden

Isaac and Jackson

Sebastian (not pictured) and Cole

The boys did well, and we had a the lead going into the 5th inning--where Colin's best friend Colden was up first to pitch! He did a great job, and we got out of the inning without any additional runs scored!

Then, it was little Colin's turn. This Mommy was nervous! There is not much in this world 

quite like watching your child (seemingly all alone out there on that mound!) with a lot of the 

pressure of the game riding on his little 8 year old shoulders!!

(Throwing a warm up pitch)

Daddy giving a word of advice before the inning began

Here he goes!

Colin did great--actually, the best he's done all season. He has pitched several games, 

but this one in particular he threw nine pitches total. Three strikes a piece to three different batters. 

It was incredible to watch and I was so excited for him!!

Coaches congratulating the boys!

I think Col's face says it all--he was pretty relieved!

And also....pretty happy. *grin*

Colden and Colin--best buds on the best Mud Hens team around!

More baseball soon! :)