Parker's 1st soccer practice

Parker had his first soccer practice, EVER! This is the first time that Parker has been part of a team. He had practice at 5pm at the Lake Dallas City park. There they have a huge area to practice soccer. This is also the area where he will have most of his games. Parker was so excited to go to practice that he wanted to leave early. Needless to say we were there at 4:40pm and he was just kicking the ball around. I told him to slow down so he would have plenty of energy to play when he practice did start. He met his coach, Coach Tony. He wasn't shy at all, he went up to his coach and introduced himself. They practiced kicking the ball into the goal, learning to control the ball and kicked the ball and went around a cone and back to their spot. It was a little hard for Parker to control the ball because he has so much strength, but it will come with time. He has about 6-7 boys on his team. His first official game will be February 28th, so we will be busy practicing each day!!!!!

My Sweet Boy

I went into Nathan's room yesterday to wake him from his nap ( yes I know I'm waking him up!) because he had been sleeping for nearly 3 hours, so I thought I would go check on him. I walked in and found him still in a deep sleep.........zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. It was the cutest thing that he little finger was on his face like he was having a dream or thinking about something:) So I hurried up and grabbed the camera and snapped this picture. I have to capture moments like this because my little boy is growing up WAY TO FAST!!!! I can describe this picture in one word: priceless................

Christmas in Urbandale IA-'08

We celebrated Christmas on Leland's side of the family at his sisters house in Urbandale Iowa. It certainly was a full and crazy household, but we all had fun! The only downside of the entire trip was that we had to take Nathan to the doctor the day after Christmas and he ended up with a double ear infection. Poor little guy:( So after we got the medicine, things started to get a little better, but Nathan wanted no one but his mommy. I guess it is true what they say, when you are sick you want your mommy! It was a little draining on mommy because all he wanted was me and no one could hold him at all, not even Leland at times!

Parker certainly had a blast with his cousins playing outside in the snow. They have a hill in the backyard which was perfect for sledding! It was a bit of a challenge getting all the winter gear on ( snow pants, winter coat, boots, hat and gloves) but it was all worth it to see the big huge smile on Parker's face while going down on the sled and then walking back up the hill just to do it all over again. Last, but not least, the last picture is of Nathan frosting a Christmas cookie. It's like he knew what he was doing and took his time in frosting his cookie.

All in all we had a good time in IA, but it was good to get home too. WE arrived at our home early Monday morning about about 2:30am and we all crashed!

The top picture is of Parker and Nathan with his cousins Tyler, Kayla and Zachary. They had 2 cousins that were not able to make it, otherwise all the cousins would have been together. It was hard to get Nathan to sit still since he wanted nothing but mom to hold him all the time, but we managed to get one good picture.

The next picture is of Leland along with his sister Eileen, his brothers, Frank, Glen, and Matt and his parents Paul and Janet. The next picture was just darn cute not to post. We told Nathan to put the bow on top of his head and he listened and I just happened to have the camera ready and captured the perfect moment:)

The next picture is of our family. We had just gotten back from going to church and still had our good clothes on, so we took advantage of getting a picture of all of us, since we don't do that very often.

Christmas '08 in Protivin

Well, now that the holidays are over for another year, can I just say, phhewww. I'm glad actually that the holidays are over. We started out our Christmas trip with a LONG trip to IA. We left the night of Dec. 23rd and it took us about 14 hours total to get to Leland's sister's house in Urbandale. We knew that we may run into some typical Iowa weather, but we didn't brace ourselves for not only some freezing rain, but sleet and snow too! Needless to say the boys were getting restless from being in the car for so long, and finally at around 10:30am we got to Urbandale( that is after leaving our home in Corinth at 8pm). After staying there for a couple hours we were off to Protivin to my parents house. We got to my parents house at about 5pm on Christmas Eve and we went over to my aunt and uncles house to celebrate not only Christmas, but my grandmother's 88th birthday. We had 3 different kinds of soup, kolaches, rolls, all kinds of snack foods, and desserts! Man I was sure stuffed! Then came the fun part................opening presents! The first picture is of Parker opening up his big truck he got from great uncle Tom and great Aunt Becky and his cousins Eric and Patrick. From the look on his face you can tell he loved it!

The next picture is of the boys with their great grandma Evelyn. She enjoys seeing her great grandsons, and Parker and Nathan will be the only great grandsons she will see in her lifetime probably. My aunt and uncle have a piano in their basement and Nathan loved pressing the keys. Grandpa and grandma Lentz joined in with him to play a tune.

The cold weather and snow is something we are sure not used to while living in Texas, so Parker took advantage of it! This picture is at Leland's sisters house ( who has a hill in her backyard) gliding down the hill! The last picture is of the boys with Santa. We took the boys to Golden Triangle Mall in Denton to see him before we left for IA. Parker went right up to him and told him what he wanted for Christmas ( which was a dump truck, firetruck and ambulance). Nathan was a little uncertain about sitting on his lap, but he did. I was standing by the camera trying to get him to smile, but I just couldn't make it happen. After a couple minutes he kept looking back at Santa wondering who this person was holding him and then he kept looking at me thinking, " Mom when can I get off this guys lap?" It didn't long after that until Nathan began crying and wanted his mommy.

Parker's Christmas Party

Parker had his Christmas party at Footprint Preschool today. Parker sure had a lot of fun! All the kids made reindeer food, decorated cookies and had a book gift exchange. It was sure interesting to watch all the boys and girls decorate their cookie. It was a little hard for me to get prepared for all the activities( since I am Parker's room mom) with Nathan there with me, but it worked out. The top picture is in Parker's classroom after all the children opened their gifts and Ms. Tammy opened her gift as well. All the parents chipped in money towards a nice gift set from Bath and Body Works-go figure huh, since I work there!!! I got a great deal on it and she loved it!!!! The classroom was so chaotic, but the kids had a lot of fun!

The second picture is of Parker decorating his Christmas cookie. Man, that boy sure knows how to pile on the frosting, but I guess that is the best part of the cookie right? Then came the sprinkles, and oh boy did he go to town on those.............

The third picture of of Parker sitting in a circle with his class as they were doing their book exchange. Ms. Tammy had them sit in a circle and she would play music and start by giving one kid a book and they had to pass it around until the music stopped. Who ever was holding the book when the music stopped kept the book as their gift. Parker loved opening, or should I say ripping open the gift he got and he got a Curious George book, which he loves!

The next picture is of Parker and his friend Preston. Parker talks about Preston all the time and how good friends they are. I told Parke to smile normal, and that is the pose I got, silly boy!

Last but not least, the last picture is of Parker and his teacher Ms. Tammy. Ms. Tammy is such a great teacher and Parker has had a great year so far with her. She updated me on Parker's progress and is so impressed that Parker can write his first and last name all on his own. She feels that Parker is ready for Kindergarten next year.....................and just the thought of that blows me away!

Random pictures

Wow, its been a little while since I have posted anything to my website here, sorry about that! Things have been really busy lately, between working at Bath and Body Works, being part of MOMS Club, and being Parker's room mom at school, time just gets away from me..............

However, this past weekend my friend Marsha had a Christmas party at her house and Leland and I went, yes we actually got a babysitter this time!!!!!! Leland's brother very graciously offered to watch the boys so we could go out and enjoy ourselves. We had a great time, and Parker had a blast playing Hi Ho Cherry O with his uncle and other games, so it was a win win situation! This party was a dress up party, so it gave me a good excuse to get all decked out in a fancy black dress, put some makeup on and fix my hair. Because being a stay at home mom, that doesn't happen very often, most of the time I'm just in sweat pants and a t-shirt and my hair is pulled back in a ponytail.

The second picture is of Nathan and I at the MOMS Club Christmas party that I hosted at my house today. We had a good turnout, given that the weather was really cold today, (temps didn't get out of the lower 30's) and its so close to Christmas time.

The last picture I took of the boys before I took Parker to school this morning. Parker saw that I had the camera and he wanted his picture taken with his little brother. Aren't they so darn cute!!!! There is no doubt that those 2 silly boys are brothers!

Putting up the Christmas Tree

We carried through with our tradition of putting up the Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving, well actually it was on Saturday, but close enough. I had to work the day after thanksgiving, so I was a little tired to put the tree up, plus the boys didn't have much of naps that day after thanksgiving, so they crashed early, so it was better that we put the tree up on Saturday instead. This is Nathan's 2nd Christmas, so he was all into the tree! Last year he was too small to help put up the tree, and this year was totally different. As you can see he didn't have a problem helping. All I had to say was, "Nathan can you give this piece to daddy to put up?" and he would just grab it and take it to Leland. It was so cute! Nathan also enjoyed handing off the pieces of the tree to his big brother. I think he felt very important, which he should, because he is mommy's BIG helper! I have to admit there are days when Nathan listens more to me and follows directions more than Parker does:)

When it came time to put the final top piece of the tree together Parker wanted daddy to hold him up to place it on top. It was a pretty far reach for Parker, but he did it! Then really came the fun part..........putting on the Christmas decorations! Our tree looks a little of balance per say because we have to place all the fragile ornaments towards the middle to top of the tree so little grabby hands ( yes I mean Nathan's fast hands!) won't take them off the tree.

Well...................that didn't last long. Nathan managed to reach a bulb that I thought was out of his reach, guess not, mommy was wrong. By the time I could see what he was doing it was too late, all of a sudden a heard the bulb shatter all over the floor. Luckily for me it wasn't a special ornament, so it was ok. What I have been telling Nathan is that the tree is hot so he doesn't grab at it. We'll see how good that works..............