My Nephew is a Middle School Baller!

My oldest nephew is old enough to play on our middle school's 7th grade team. Seriously?! When did he become old enough to do that?! In between teaching my high school classes and a quick photo shoot after school, I was able to watch part of his very first middle school basketball game. Yay!!!

Nearly out of breath, I quickly found a seat only to find his game was set back a bit.  Great! I hadn't missed it. Here he is, on his very first game in middle school. He is #5...the ginger who was so pumped about his first game that he was actually jumping with his team mate.  Priceless capture!

With the game delay, and only minutes before Hannah's varsity game, I didn't get to watch much of his very first 7th Grade game.  But, I was thankful to watch the part that I did see.

Free throws are much more interesting when you are the one shooting....that's what I think my nephew was pondering in the image below:

And then my nephew dribbled down court and nearly scored!  Woo hoo!

And then I headed to the high school to watch my baby girl play ball!!! It was a full but busy night and I loved every second!

We're Playing Bas-ket-ball!

If you have read my blog for a while, you know how much I look forward to basketball season! And this season is no exception! My baby girl is playing varsity and we are so proud! Is the season easy? No way, but she is working hard and we see improvements each game. Delight! And I have to admit, it's moments like this, pictured below, that make my heart sing:

She jumped, squared up, shot over that girl-who has her hand nearly in my baby's face, and she swished it! Yes!

I like seeing her put her hand up to call for the ball and post up like this:

And when she draws a foul and makes her free-throws.  She made one and missed one here:

See my Hannah?  She is #50!

Most games, I feel exhausted when it's over just watching.  I didn't realize it until this weekend's tournament that I move around in my chair as if I am helping Hannah. Ha! She certainly doesn't need my help. I may have played 5A basketball when I was in high school, but she would beat me any day!

See the thingy on her arm? She is wearing it for a little added support.  A few games ago, she was fighting for the ball and an opponent jerked her arm backwards and hyper-extended it a bit.  The sleeve gives her a little support. 

And much to my husband's delight, I now read the sports page in the newspaper! I use to only read it if the comics were in that section. Ha! Now, it's the first section of the paper that I read! 





And I'm saving every one that mentions my baby girl.  This Sunday, I squealed when I read it!  She had 10 points and a mention in the big city paper.  Oh, God is so good! I thank Him for giving her the ability and I pray His protection over her and her teammates when they play and practice. 

Go Hannah! #50! We are so proud of you!!!!

My Favorite Basketball Player!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!!! Yes, I've been singing this song for days! It's basketball time. Delight!!! My baby girl is on Varsity this year and we are so pumped and proud and I could go on and on.

She has looked forward to being on the High School Varsity basketball team since she was little. And now here we are. God is so good!!! I could be a puddle on the floor right now. Our sophomore is on varsity. Wow! I thought that deserved a special photo shoot!

Hannah found about 5 minutes in her busy schedule for me to shoot that image. I think it is one of my absolute favorites of all time! It might just be because I am biased and that's my baby...but I love it!

And I love her...and her courage...and her determination...and her hard work and dedication...and I could go on and on. So, I'll stop by saying, we thank God for the blessing of getting to watch our baby girl on the court and we pray that He protects Hannah and her teammates and helps them play to  the best of their ability in each and every game and that they bring honor to Him in the process!!!

Baylor Basketball

Wow! Spring Break came and went, Easter mini Sessions took place, their galleries were loaded, and I finished two more senior photo sessions and galleries, and wrapped up a corporate website design.  Whew!  I need a vacation. Ha!  I realized early this morning that I never posted pictures from the Lady Bears game we were blessed to attend in Waco. Sic 'em bears!

We were so excited when the lights were dimmed and the smoke began!  Time to play ball!  Hannah wore her BG jersey and BG even looked at us right before swishing 2 free throws. Really, she did!  Check out that picture!  The Lady Bears beat the Lady Raiders and the celebration of being the Big 12 Champions began! 

Coach Mulkey invited all the fans down to the court to celebrate with the team!  My man and I looked at each other to make sure we both really heard what we thought we had just heard, grabbed our girls and made our way down to the court.  There were people everywhere but we still managed to take pictures with nearly every lady bear player.  Hannah was so excited!  Destiny Williams asked Hannah how tall she was.  She couldn't believe Hannah was just a freshman in high school...which made Hannah's entire day!  The second picture is with Hannah and Makenzie, Coach Mulkey's daughter. 

The girls had fun scooping up confetti and I had fun trying to capture it. 

See how close we were? I had my prime lens on my camera, not my super duper zoom lens.  This is really how close we were....so cool!

Fun memories! We are cheering our lady bears on to victory from our family room this time as we watch them in the big tournament. Sic 'em Lady Bears!!!

Hannah Playing Hoops!

Tuesday night basketball...one of my favorite nights of the week! We only have tonight, Friday, and the next Tuesday.  {Sigh!}  It's been so fun to cheer for our baby girl and to watch her use her God-given talents and abilities on the court.  To say that I am a proud momma would be an understatement! Go #50!  We are so proud of you!!!!

Last Tuesday the girls were winning by quite a lot, so Hannah and her buddies got to take a little break and had fun cheering for their teammates and watching from the sidelines.  I shot this image on the very last play of the game. Love those smiles!

And then we played another game Friday evening.  The girls won that game too!  Delight!

Way to go team! Way to go Hannah! I'm looking forward to tonight!!!!

My Favorite Tuesday Night Activity!

My Rachel went back to college yesterday {sigh!} and I already miss her like crazy!  So much for my resolution to try to attempt to eat a little better.  With Hannah still at basketball practice and One Act Play practice, and Mr. Incredible at work, I came home to a very quiet house...so I drowned my sorrows in a bit of left over mac and cheese and a few bites of chocolate. 

I checked on my Rachel via text and she was doing great and enjoying being reunited with her friends and that makes this heart of mine so happy!  And then I watched the movie Valentine's Day, watched KU beat Baylor, picked up Hannah from One Act Play, Mr. Incredible surprised me with a Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks (he speaks my love language), and went to bed.  I've been up since 4 this morning.  We have a full week ahead, it's good to be busy this week.

Tonight is one of my favorite nights of the week;  I get to watch my baby girl on the basketball court.  Go #50!!!!

Hoop~There it is!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!  Yes, it is Christmas time, but it's also Hoop time! Woo-hoo.  Hoop, there it is, hoop there it is....anyone else singing that song now too?! 

Our baby girl and her JV team got to play in our town's infamous Hoop tournament.  Meaning, they got to play some really great varsity teams.  Varsity games are faster and full of excitement and it was fun to watch our baby girl rise to the occassion. 

True, she got hit in the jaw and broke a tooth, but a trip to our local dentist and she is as good as new.  No, it wasn't one of her front teeth, praise the Lord. Three games in three days~delight.  No, they didn't win the tournament but they gained some valuable experience in the process and that was fun to watch. 

I've been super swamped with photography sessions, edits, custom designed cards, ordering, and packaging that I am way behind on posting pictures of Hannah playing basketball.  So, in hopes of getting somewhat caught up, here are some images of our baby girl hoop-ing it up!
This team was fierce and the girl Hannah was jumping against was tall and tough.  Hannah jumped higher than I've seen her jump. 

This was a different game-I believe our girls won 45-15!  Hannah had 8 points in this game and 4 steals!  4 Steals!  Woo hoo! I lost track of the rebounds. 

Back to the tournament and playing varsity teams.  I like Hannah's fierce look on her face as she tried to block a shot.  She was focused!

Hannah and her team have a game tonight and another game Friday afternoon. I love having two games a week. Basketball season is here to stay. Yippee!

Hoop Time is Finally Here!

Watching my baby girl play basketball...makes even some of the most difficult of weeks seem so much better! Hannah (#50) played in her very first high school basketball game.  It was quite a thrill to watch her put on her first high school jersey. 

Being the proud momma that I am, I made special gift bags for Hannah and the entire JV and Varsity teams.  Our girls won 65-6! 

 It was fun to watch her on the court again.  I loved every second that she was on the court...and loved it even more getting to sit next to her sister (Rachel suprised her by coming in to see her first high school game), her daddy, my parents, Mr. Incredible's parents, and my sister-in-law, my nephews, and Mr. Incredible's Aunt Sug.  Delight!

Summer League Basketball

Summer is here...and so is Summer Basketball!  Yesterday, my baby girl and her teammates played 5 games.  Five games!  Wow!  Our thirteen and fourteen year old girls played a lot of varsity teams (17 and 18 year olds).  And our normally undefeated team won one, almost two there was a last second 3 pointer at the buzzer, game out of five but they fought hard.  

It was fun to watch Hannah on the court again.  She adores basketball and I adore watching her play; naturally, I was there all day long...and I'm going back again today.  She will play 4 games today.  I crawled into bed last night exhausted, as if I had played 5 games that day too.  Ha!  Ya'll have a blessed day! 

Go Hannah!!!

Last Junior High Basketball Game!

Monday night was Hannah's last junior high basketball game...ever!  My baby will go on to high school next year.  Did you hear that?  My baby girl will be in high school next year!  While I am in shock at how quickly the time flies, I will be so thankful to have her in high school...because her sister will have graduated.  {sob!} And since I teach at the high school, I'll get to see my Hannah more often during the day.  Enough of that talk~moving on to Monday night's game!

Our girls won the district!  Yes, they were undefeated in district games again this year.  Two years in a row-awesome!

Since, this was her last junior high game, I'm sharing more pictures than normal.  Are you surprised?  I didn't think so. Ha!  Hannah got to do the jump ball again. I like the smile on her face as she shook her opponents hand.

And her sheer look of determination as she got ready to jump:

And jump she did!  Way to go Hannah! White girl can jump...when she wants to.  Ha!

She tipped the ball to her buddy and then she threw it right back to Hannah who quickly scored two points.  And then the other team's coach called a time out.  I think we had only played 5 seconds when he called a time out.  We fans made up what we thought that coach might be saying.  My dad thought the coach was saying, "I told you before the game to get on number 50.  What happened?"  And we smiled. 

Hannah rebounded the ball and looked for her team mates:

And then she ran down court and her teammates passed her the ball.  She shoots and she scores!

I love this next picture. She was focused and ready to play.  All of the girls on our team were and it was sooooo much fun to watch!

She was a beast on defense.  I think she scared the girl that she was guarding...which made us a bit tickled.  I don't mean to sound prideful...I'm just proud of how she played.  Her whole team played so well!

Here she is waiting to rebound the ball after a free throw:

And a few minutes later, she was fouled while sinking two more points.  She got to shoot a free throw for another point.

She posted up and even stuck her hand out, as her father often hollers from the stands, to, "Give them a target!" 

She did and ended up scoring 10 of her team's 30 points.

Half time pep talk:

A little more defense:

Guarding the other team:

And blocking shots.  We think she had at least three blocks.  Hannah's first instinct is to try to hack at the ball to keep them from scoring...and she did that a few times.  I think she had two fouls, and that's okay.  But, Hannah is rather intimidating when she stands straight up to guard the other team.  So, keep standing up tall, baby girl! 

Our girls won 30-17!!!  What a fun season!  While I can't believe it's over, I'm thankful that she ended the season healthy.  At one point in the game we though the other team had caused her to roll her ankle.  Thankfully, she didn't.  If my stats are correct, and I use the word stats very loosely because my stats only consisted of having Rachel or I enter a check mark in our phones every time she scored during the games while taking pictures and talking, Hannah averaged 10.64 points per game. I played basketball and volleyball for a 5-A high school (a huge school) and I never had an average like Hannah's.   

What a blessing to be able to play the sport she adores with her favorite teammates in the whole world.  I wish I could give you her friend's stats too because they are just as impressive. This is quite a group of young ladies both on and off the court.  We are all dreaming of watching them playing in a state championship game one day.  Wouldn't that be amazing?!

Somedays You Win Some...

...and some days you lose some! This past weekend Hannah's team played in another tournament.  The girls won Thursday night.  By Friday, three of the girls were sick and we were hopeful that they would make a quick recovery for Saturday's games.

Saturday morning arrived and all of the girls were ready to play.  Three were still not feeling quite up to par but they still courageously played ball anyway. And, don't get me started on the refs.  When  this momma hollers at the top of her lungs, "Are you going to call a foul?" and her husband looks at her like she has lost her mind then the refs must be some kind of HORRIBLE!

Despite the refs, and having 3 sick players, our girls won 38-28.  Hannah played the entire game, didn't sit out for even a minute, and ended the game with 21 points. 

And then we had 6 hours to wait until the championship game.  SIX hours!  Oiy!  We had fun hanging out at a nearby Dairy Queen and I even took a little nap in my rattlesnake-killing-suburban.  Finally, it was time for the championship game.  We matched up with the team that we beat 53-3 last year. 

As we watched the girls from the other team warm up, we only recognized one of them.  Were we playing their high school JV team?  We started the game with only 6 of our 7 players and still had three that were not feeling their best.  The whistle blew and it was game time.  From the beginning, the other team's coach had Hannah's number.  I don't remember how many times he hollered at his team to get #50! 

Most of the game looked like this:

They double teamed and triple-teamed our Hannah.  And it wasn't long before she had 4 fouls.  They tried to shut our baby girl down but she still managed to score 5 of our team's 15 points.    This next photo is not my finest, you can tell the game was starting to rattle me a bit.  It's really hard to watch your daughter being maliciously fouled on the court and the refs not calling much.  I really didn't want Hannah to get hurt!  But, look at her courage in the photo below.  Hannah in a sea of black jerseys:

Our team tried their best.

And Hannah kept trying to score some points for her team:

But, in the end, our girls lost 24-15.  To top it off, as our girls waited with broken hearts over losing to shake the other team's hands, the other coach continued celebrating with his team and kept our girls waiting.  It felt like three minutes that our girls waited to shake their hands and it was difficult to watch.  They beat our girls, the ones who have earned quite a reputation for winning, and it was hard to watch but as our coach says, "Tomorrow is another day." 

Still, I'd like a chance to meet up with this team again, without hometown refs, with all of our team, and without sickness.   Our girls play a different team tonight and I feel sorry for tonight's opponents because our girls are ready to play!

A Recap from Last Night's Game

Thank you all for your prayers for Coach...his dad went on to glory yesterday morning.  While our hearts are saddened for the family we are rejoicing with Coach that his dad is no longer suffering.

Naturally, the loss had a big impact on the girls.  My Hannah nearly cried before the game telling me about seeing her coach crying in the teacher's lounge.  Her precious, tender heart was broken over the news for her coach.  Somehow, the girls managed to pull it together and play a little basketball, even though their hearts were with their coach who was making his way back to Austin.

We played the same girls that we creamed this past Saturday.  And the other team came ready to play....or should I say "assault."  It was ugly....check that...they were ugly.  We were glad for the halftime buzzer so our girls could rest a bit. The score at half was 14-11.  We were winning but just by a little bit.

They double teamed Hannah and tried to keep her from scoring, but she still managed to make 9 points, block 4 shots, and she even stole the ball and dribbled it down court and passed it to one of her friends.  That was fun to see!


Our girls managed to win 32-22.

After the game she sobbed in the car. She was frustrated with how she played and she missed her coach.  Her sister and I tried our best to encourage her but she wasn't having any of it.  I stopped by Sonic to buy her a "Fancy Dr. Pepper," which is Hannah's favorite in hopes that she would cheer up a bit.  It wasn't two seconds before our suburban was filled with Hannah's team mates and it wasn't long before Hannah's beautiful smile returned... and this momma's heart breathed a sigh of relief.  I'm so thankful for Hannah's friends.

Basketball Season, Baby!

I love to watch my baby girl play basketball.  I really do!  I love sitting next to my parents, Rachel, Mr. Incredible, Nonnie, Poppie, Aunt Sissie, Uncle G, and my nephews.  I love hearing my dad say "Ooooh!" in his booming voice every time Hannah scores. I love seeing Hannah flash me a giant smile when she scores or has a slam.  And my favorite part is giving Hannah a giant hug after the game!  Monday night basketball is awesome!

Last night the girls won 48-5.  Forty-eight to five!  Woo-hoo!  Do you want to see some pictures?  Pretty, please?  Oh, good thank you!

It was fun to see Hannah line up for the jump ball.  The referee in this picture is a minister and he is a lot of fun.  One of the moms in the stands asked him if he could hear us hollering at him.  He laughed and said that he has been married for a long time and he doesn't listen to his wife so why would he listen to us. Ha! 

Hannah got the ball for her team, we missed our first shot and then it was time for defense.  Check out the picture on the right.  Can you say, "attack?"

I'm sure the girl in the picture below felt a little overwhelmed by our defensive trio.  My dad gives Hannah a "Tip of the Week," before each basketball game and Hannah looks forward to each one.  This week, he told her to get big and tall in the lane.  With her 5'11" height she has a pretty good wingspan and can take up a lot of space in the lane.  She took his advice..see images #1 & #2.

Picture #3 shows how hungry our girls were for the ball.  The other team didn't stand a chance.

I'll never get tired of watching Hannah shoot the ball.

This next group of pictures needs a little explaining Lucy (remember when Ricky would say that to Lucy on I Love Lucy~love that show).  Anyway, do you remember when we almost missed our vacation to St. John because Hannah was injured on the court during summer ball? 

Well, this was the team that we were playing this summer and #44 was the girl who maliciously swiped Hannah's legs out from under her. I'm not being dramatic, this girl had it our for Hannah the entire game.  The referees didn't put a stop to it and Hannah ended up landing on her hip.  It was awful! 

Anyway, after church Sunday morning while we were having lunch, Hannah mentioned to me that she was looking forward to playing the girl who swept her legs out from under her...and then she smiled a very mischievous smile.  She hadn't forgotten.  Oiy!

Fast forward to last night's game.  While the girls got ready to play, Hannah motioned to me that the girl was #44 and then the game began.  #44 tried to dish it out all night, but Hannah dished it right back to her.  Just look at how she hollered in Hannah's face every time Hannah shot a basket:

Hannah didn't let the other girl push her around.  During the game, #44 grabbed Hannah's jersey and my mom turned to me and said, "Look at that!  Did you see her grab Hannah's jersey?"  Yes, I had, but then I showed mom a few pictures I had just taken of Hannah plowing her elbow into #44's back.  And then we both felt better. Ha!

#44 couldn't keep Hannah from scoring so they put #33 on Hannah.  I like these next three pictures.  #33 made Hannah work for it, but still she was able to score.  I think she ended the game with 12 points.  Her buddy Skyler (#45 on our team) made 18 points.  Wow!

It was another great night of basketball.  Delight!

After the game, I asked Hannah how it felt to play against #44 again. 

She smiled and said, "She'll feel me in the morning!"

  (And just between you and I, I smiled big time on the inside! )