Nathan's Playing Ball!!

Time has finally come for Nathan to start ball. He has been talking about playing for quite some time now. He had his 1st practice this week. He seemed pretty excited that it until it was time to start. He ran off the field crying. No biggie. He sat with me & we waited until his friend Riley got there. He has been playing with Riley ever since Jackson started playing ball. Riley's older brother plays with Jackson so they know each other pretty good. Riley gets there & takes off to the field. Nathan wasn't far behind. Once out there he had a ball. Loved every minute & did everything Coach told him to do. Jason & I think Nathan is gonna be the kid that attacks every ball hit. Which at this age it's ok.


Getting cleats on for practice


Baseball ready....trying to tell him hands on the knees. He'll get it.


Up at bat. 1st hit went almost to 2nd base!!


Nathan & his buddy Riley

New Year...New Start

After a wonderful Thanksgiving & Christmas I am vowing to update a little better. So for 2012 that is my vow.

To summarize the past few months we had a very thankful Thanksgiving & a very blessed & wonderful Christmas. It didn't snow this year so family was able to stay & visit a little longer on Christmas Day. Which was really nice. We traveled to Nanny & Dot's & Pa even traveled here on Christmas Eve. The boys were so excited. They opened their presents from them & the just visited. Once they left it was very low key. Finished our baking (the boys helped alot this year) & got ready to watch A Christmas Story. Sorry but I am not a fan. The kids liked it & of course Daddy loved it. He always has. Next morning Jackson wakes up at 6 & Jason tells him to go back to bed. Really? It's Christmas morning Dad. Get up!! Well at 6:30 he got up. Between all the family & Santa the boys got everything they wanted. Nathan really understood how it works & wasn't afraid of Santa.

I know I'm kinda telling all this in a backwards order but I think my most proud moment of Christmas was with Jackson. We went to see Santa and the boys wrote what they wanted. Only 3 things each. Can't be greedy. They climbed up in Santa's lap & had a nice chat & at the end Santa asked Jackson "Why are you boys only asking for 3 things?" Jackson: "Because Jesus only got 3 things." We didn't know he said this until the dvd came & we could hear the conversation between the boys & Santa. My heart swelled with pride & my eyes flooded with tears. It's proof he listens because we talked about the 3 gifts about 2 weeks before we went to see him & he remembered. Love that kid.

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday & may the new year be as wonderful as mine is gonna be.

Time to catch up....

WOW!! Didn't know it's been this long since I updated the kids blog. Alot has happened since school ended. We played in a baseball tournament & took the championship!! The boys played the best ball they have ever played. It was awesome. Then summer started & boy was it busy. Zoo, Six Flags, Tellus, parks, & the pool. We spent most of the summer at the pool. I finally got rid of my flip flop tan!! YAY!!! I'll upload a slide with all the summer fun.

To get everyone caught up:

Jackson started 1st grade. It's been rough. He has a very strict teacher this year. It's kinda a good thing but at the same time Jackson seems to get into trouble alot. He likes to talk~not sure where he gets that from~.
He is playing in farm league baseball this season. Which means no more t-ball. Coach pitch only. He is doing really good & we are so proud of him. He is playing catcher most of the games & starting to understand the position & play it very well. Just this past game he had his 1st out at home plate. The kid had a pretty good hit & was running home for his home run when the ball was thrown to Jackson. He caught it & tagged the runner...TWICE!! The grin on his face was priceless. He was so proud of himself. I was proud of him.

For Nathan everything is pretty much the same. He has no interest in the potty. I have tried everything to get him to pee in the potty but nothing has worked. I am giving him a little space with it & maybe he will be interested in it soon. He has gotten taller & has almost caught up with Jackson. Weight wise he has thinned out alot. He is talking so much now & unlike Jackson he catches on to what Jason & I say. Last week he told me to "watch my mouth" when I told him it was nap time. He isn't being ugly, he just heard it on the radio & didn't want a nap. I told him that next year he gets to go to school & he has flat out said no. He wants to stay home with Mommmy. Love that kid. He gets to start baseball in the Spring so our life will now be all at the ball field.

I will get the summer slide up soon. And I will try not to wait so long before the next update....

Kindergarten wrapping up.

Kindergarten is finishing up & boy did they have some fun stuff planned. The entire last week of school was nothing but movies & parties. They all earned it. It was a great year.

Field Trip: Jackson went on his 1st school field trip. They went to Carlton Farms. I was lucky enough to go with him. We saw several farm animals, Ms. Foskey got to milk a cow & then the kids got to play on a "farm" slide. Pictures will show the slide. It's pretty cool. I think the kids liked this the best.

PTA Performance: On the last PTA meeting of the year the kindergarten class performs. Jackson was very excited about this. They sang about 3 or 4 songs. Jackson was on the end of the row so we could really see him. He's such a performer.

Field Day: This was our favorite. I remember field day from when I was little and I think Jackson loved it as well. Nathan & I spent the day with the class. It was a little hard for Nathan because he couldn't do any of the games but he was the official team supporter. Ms. Foskey's class won for Kindergarten & they were so excited!!

Awards Day: This was a tuff one. Knowing that his 1st year of school was coming to an end, it just hit me hard. This was also his teacher's last year for at least a year. She is going to El Salvador to be a missionary so she was teary eyed all day too. Jackson got his awards for learning all his sight words & reading all his readers for the year. Then she had her candy bar awards. Jackson got the Babe Ruth award because he is all about baseball. Very fitting. I gave her the gift I made for her from the parents & she seemed to really like it. After the awards we had a picnic lunch with the class. Grammie & Nanny got to take the day off & spend it with us which made the day even more special.

Last Day of School: This wasn't as bad as I thought. The kids watched movies all day and after lunch we had ice cream & any or all the toppings you could think of. Ms. Foskey thanked all the parents for all their work thru out the year & then had a gift for me. She didn't need to do that. I helped because I wanted to but it was very nice of her. It was a great year & I hope next year is better than this one.

Happy Birthday Daddy!!

Jason's birthday fell on a work day this year & this bummed Jackson out. He thought it was just wrong that Daddy had to work on his birthday. So I told Jackson that we would make it very special for him. We cooked his favorite dinner and to find out what it was a few days before Daddy's birthday on the way home from a baseball game Jackson asked Daddy what is your favorite dinner? Jason knew what was up & said ziti. I whispered no, it has to be spaghetti. I didn't have the stuff to make ziti. So Jason said spaghetti. Jackson responds with "Oh, ok. I just wanted to know for no real reason. I was just talking to ya." Love that kid.

So dinner is made, cake for dessert & then we had to decorate. This got the boys very excited. I didn't have much decorations but we made good with what we had. Daddy came home & was very surprised & happy. It was the best part of his day.

Easter 2011

First. I can't add any pictures yet. Our computer died & most of the pics are on that computer & I have not had time to take it to the computer fixer guy. So once I do that I will come back & upload pics. Until then.....

It has been really cure hearing Jackson tell Nathan about the Easter bunny. He tells him about having their wagons empty so the bunny can fill them with so much really cool stuff he says. So of course this makes Nathan really excited. So we decided to the boys to see the Easter bunny. We met Erica & Codie there so maybe Nathan wouldn't be scared if Codie came. Wrong. He wanted nothing to do with the bunny. So that was a bust or I thought. The boys wanted to ride the train beside the bunny so after lunch we headed back to the bunny area & I told Nathan. You have to sit on the bunny's lap or you can't ride the train. OK. He ran & jumped on the bunny's lap like they were best friends. Crazy child.

At school on the Friday before Easter Jackson's class had an Easter egg hunt. Me & a couple parents had to hide about 120 eggs is a very small area. So it really wasn't hiding as much as laying them on the ground. It's ok. The kids had a great time.

Easter morning was fun. Jason was at work but I took a ton of pictures. The boys were so excited about their wagons and surprisingly didn't care about the candy as much as the airplanes they got. I was shocked!! I think they ate maybe 2 pieces each & then they were off playing & watching the new movie the Easter Bunny brought them. What a great morning!!

On Easter Sunday we headed over to Mom's for an Easter lunch with the family & then an egg hunt for the little kids. It was nice except Jason had to work. He stopped by when he got off work so he was able to spend some of Easter Sunday with us.

We thought the day was over til we got home & our neighbors had family over who come & play with Jackson everytime they are over. So of course they wanted to play and Jackson had been good so off he went. It ended up being a long day but a blessed day. It was spent with family & friends & no drama!!

109 Cans

Everyone who knows me knows how I love a good deal & love to use coupons. Well I have Jackson on board too. I am not as crazy as some coupon lovers but I do buy in bulk but I don't stockpile to the point it's pushing me out of my house. I give all the excess to the food bank. Well Jackson asked me all about the food bank & on his own he decided he wanted to collect for the food bank. I told him what a great idea and he needed to set a goal. He came up with 109 cans of food. Don't ask where that number came from because I have no idea but that is his goal.

On Friday we took his first load to the food bank. I wanted him to be able to go so he can see where the food goes & who he is helping. He had 27 cans (or anything that was donated) which totaled 41 pounds of food. (we weighed Jackson & he weighed 42 pounds) They gave him a receipt for his donation & told him thanks. So he still has a way to go to get to that 109 goal.

I am so proud of you Jackson!! You have such a huge heart!!!


Jackson with his 1st donation.