Helms Family Blog

Saturday, July 13, 2013

Shawn Jr. Pitches a 3 Hit Shutout Win at Texas State

Shawn Jr. plays for a select baseball team called the Texas Clay. This week they had a baseball tournament in San Marcos (between Austin and San Antonio). They had a bad start, losing their first 2 games. However, Shawn pitched in game 3 and had a terrific game on the mound. He pitched a complete game shutout for the win. He gave up only 3 hits, no walks and had 3 strikeouts. He has recently added a knuckleball to his repertoire. He had it working yesterday in their 9 to 0 win. Below are a few pictures from the game.

This is Shawn Jr. on the mound.

Here is Shawn warming up.

This is Shawn at the start of the game. As you can see they played at the Texas State baseball stadium.

Shawn in his windup.

Throwing a knuckleball.

Shawn getting ready to bat.

Loading up.

Swinging.

A sharp ground ball hit.

Running to first.

Shawn in the dugout.

Shawn Jr. in the batting circle.

Throwing a pitch late in the game.

After the game.

Josh in the dugout after the game. He was very excited to get to be in the dugout with the big boys.

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Brittany, Noelle and Skylin in Auto Accident

Coming home from NorthPark Center, in July, 2013, Brittany got into an auto accident with (at least) 2 other cars. Brittany and two other cars stopped. Others were involved, but did not stick around.

Noelle, her friend Katie and Skylin were all in Brittany's Jeep Liberty when it happened. No one was seriously injured. Brittany has some scrapes and bruises on her legs but is fine. Noelle's neck is a little sore too. Skylin is fine. No issues.

However, Brittany's car got fairly banged up. Below are a few pictures from the accident scene.

Brittany's Jeep being loaded up.

Her car shortly after the accident.

Her car being loaded onto the wrecker.

Dallas Police on the scene. They were nice and helpful.

Looking back at where the accident occurred.

Here was the Jeep at the tow yard.

Another picture at the tow yard.

A view from the inside.

A view from the front.

It was scary for all involved. That is a call that a father hates to get. Hearing your little girl say "Daddy, I was in a car accident" and start crying. I am just thankful everyone was alright. God continues to bless and protect our family.

Location:Dallas, Texas

Sunday, July 07, 2013

4th of July in Windsor

Misty and I grew up in a small town called Windsor, Missouri. It has 3000 people and the population has been basically unchanged over the last 30 years. It is a great little town.

Every year Windsor hosts a great July 4th event at Farrington Park. This is a fun all-day event filled with games, food, music and fireworks. The events include:

Frog Race
Turtle Race
Egg Race
Egg Toss
Water Balloon Toss
Softball Throw
Cardboard Boat Race
Local Music
Fireworks Extravaganza (so to speak)

For many years, our family has come back to Windsor for this July 4th event. Our family always has a great time. For us, it actually is a vacation destination.

This year we brought Brittany's boyfriend, Reese Wilson and introduced him to the big town of Windsor. He is a great guy. I think he had fun competing and exploring small town America.

Our family did well at the events. Below are the events we placed in:

Egg Race - Shawn Jr. - First Place
Egg Race - Skylin - First Place
Egg Race - Reese - Second Place
Egg Toss - Shawn and Misty - First Place
Egg Toss - Shawn and Clifton - Second Place
Egg Toss - Skylin - Second Place
Water Balloon Toss - Brittany and Reese - Second Place
Water Balloon Toss - Shawn and Misty - Third Place
Softball Throw - Shawn Jr - First Place (238 Feet)
Softball Throw - Reese - First Place (242 Feet)

Below are some of the best pictures from the day.

This is Noelle, Reese and Brittany. They quickly spelled out USA with sparklers. We took this picture using a Nikon D90 with slow exposure.

Reese, Noelle and Brittany.

Triniti at dusk spinning a glow ball.

Shawn Jr. winning the egg race.

Sky and Josh getting ready for the water balloon toss.

Josh throwing the water balloon to Skylin.

Shawn Jr. winning the softball throw.

Reese winning the softball throw.

Reese with his blue ribbon.

Brittany with sparklers.

Drew with sparklers too.

Kids playing as everyone gets ready for the fireworks to start.

Noelle with a sparkler.

Triniti with a long sparkler.

Fireworks.

Saturday, May 04, 2013

Just Another Helms Family Saturday

Misty keeps our family calendar on Google Calendar. All of our iPhones are synced to that calendar so everyone can see what is going on in our crazy family. With all the kids' activities, it is difficult to track and can be down right exhausting to live. Let me tell you what we did this Saturday.

First, Brittany took the most important test of her life - the SAT. She had to be at the school at 7:45 this morning. She was not done until a little after 1:00.

Triniti had 2 basketball games at 8:50 and 10:30. Her team won the first game 11 to 6. Triniti had 9 of the teams 11 points. They lost the next game 11 to 29. Triniti again had 9 points.

Later in the day, at 11:30, Triniti went to a party at Lake Pointe Church for all T&T students that finished their Silver and Gold sections of their Awanas book. It was a very exclusive club. More on that later.

Skylin had her big dance recital today for her ballet class. It was held at Rockwall Heath High School. It started at 1:30 and ended at almost 6:00. Skylin had a great time! After she performed I bought her a big sunflower. I thought it was way better than a silly bouquet of real flowers. She did too.

Below is a picture of Skylin and Ms. Melissa - her dance teacher.

This was also a big day for Noelle. Today was the first day of the North Texas Regional volleyball tournament. Noelle's team - MadFrog Bram 13s came in ranked 6th out of over 60 teams. Today they won their first 3 matches in pool play. They need to win at least 2 matches tomorrow to get a bid to Nationals.

So what did Shawn Jr. and Josh do all day? Slept in and played Xbox. Hmmmm. It seems that my girls are going to do something with their lives . . .

Shawn Jr. was actually scheduled to be at a basketball tournament in Oklahoma City this weekend. However, he did not go because he just finished with baseball and has not yet had a chance to practice with this team. Therefore, we passed on this out of town tournament. See, it is possible for us to say no once in a while. Just not that often.