Nathan's Valentine's party

The MOMS Club of Corinth that I belong to had a Valentine's party today. Each child brough Valentine's to hand out to everyone. The kids also had the chance to decorate cookies and a bag to take their Valentines home in. Every mom brought a little something to share with everyone. I made home made salsa with my quick chef ( from Tupperware and the best product EVER!). Nathan enjoyed decorating his cookie and it's like he knew exactly what do to with the knife ( scary thought). After spreading the frosting a couple times he just decided to stick his fingers in it instead, that is the best part right? Then it was on to decorate his bag for his Valentines. The mom that was hosting the party got some foam hearts that you just peel off and stick, which made it great for the kids! Nate loved sticking the hearts on his bag. It was funny watching him trying to put the heart on the bag especially when he had the heart turned around and it was stuck to his finger and couldn't get it off:)

Finally 2 hours later Nathan was getting tired, so it was time to go home. All in all it was a very fun party!

Parker's Valentine's Party at school

Parker had his Valentine's party at Footprints Preschool today. Since I am Parker's room mom its my responsibility to plan the party. I developed a sign in sheet for parents to sign up for things, planned games and activities. It can be a lot of work, but I enjoy doing it:)

The first game I had the children play was "pin the nose on the big red heart". I blind folded each child and they had a white heart with their name on it and then I spun them around 3 times and then they were supposed to put their heart where they thought the nose should go. It was quite funny to see where the hearts ended up. Parker (as you can see in the picture) placed his heart up by the eye. After playing that game a couple times it was time to move on to the craft activity. I had each child make their own bird that was made entirely of yellow and orange hearts. I wrote the saying, " Someone thinks you're "tweet!" As you can see in one of the pictures Parker was gluing on his orange feet and in the other picture I was trying to capture the entire class with their birds( which was a little difficult). The entire class was so crazy with making bird and duck noises that it was a little hard to get them to calm down, but all I had to say was......................its time to decorate cookies!!!!!! Each child got a BIG heart shaped cookie to decorate with frosting and sprinkles. Even the mom who made the cookies gave Nathan was, which he was really excited about! I like the picture of Parker and Nathan together eating their cookies, so cute! Time went by so fast that before you know it the clock read 1:15pm. I decided to let Parker go and play with his friends to burn some sugar off and Nathan too! After playing for a few minutes we left for home. Nathan was so tired he fell asleep on the way home. Parker on the other hand could not wait to open each of his Valentine's. It was a very fun day!

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!