Domino Fun!

Luke had his friend Sam over after school on Friday afternoon and one of the things they did, after playing football, scooters, Wii and snacks, was dig out the dominoes. It was little iffy for awhile because, as you know, Luke has two younger siblings that like to bug him when he has friends over. They finally got a long line made so I thought I would take a few pictures. I'm not sure why I didn't take a video (just now thought of that) and the pictures are a bit blurry but it was sure fun!!

I've got another post that I will save for tomorrow or Monday.....Zac's ants came!!! They are so cool but I need to take some more pictures to show all the work that they've done.

Have a wonderful Sunday friends!!

Lukey turns 7!!

I know that I say this every year but seriously?!?! He's really 7 this year?! I don't know why I can't understand that my life is screaming by way too fast and there's nothing I can do about it so I might as well just get used to it.
The day after Christmas (Luke's big day) started off with Uncle Chad and Aunt Crystal coming over to the house around 7:30 and giving Luke birthday card telling him that Uncle Chad was going to take him to the ski hill and teach him how to snowboard. Luke was so excited - not only did he get to spend the whole day with his Uncle but he was also going to learn how to ride a board.

When they got home he had just enough time to take a shower and get cleaned up and head to the bowling ally, because that's the tradition. Luke ALWAYS goes bowling with his cousins, aunts and uncles, brothers, sister and grandparents. He looks forward to it every year and even though he was tired from the day at the hill he still bowled better then me!!

Don't know if this was after his strike or one of his spares but it must have been great!!

After bowling we went to pizza then up to Mamaw and Papa's for presents......

....and ice cream cake!!!

It was a wonderful day filled with all kinds of fun and family!!!

He also got to have a friend party this year a couple of weeks after his real birthday. I will have to do another blog post about that a different day.

Three in school!!

Today I have thought a lot about how I am going to be jumping back into the blog world and I'm afraid that I have had no bright ideas. One of my good friends said that I shouldn't try to "get caught up" but just start from here. That's what I will probably be doing and I'm sure there will be a lot of jumping around. For tonight though I am going back several months to a day that my life got way quieter for a good part of the day. This was taken on the boys' first day of school. Jacob is in 3rd grade this year, Luke in 1st and Zachary in Kindergarten. Jacob is having a very good year so far. He loves his teacher and I am so happy about that. Luke LOVES being in school all day. He adjusted to full time so well and loves all the recess. Zac is going 1/2 days, in the afternoons and is always so happy to get on the bus and see all of his friends.

I also figured that I should add a picture of Sarah to this post as well. This was taken over the 4th of July so it's a few months old. She's changed a lot since then and grown up quite a bit. I think that she is enjoying her time alone in the afternoon. Sometimes we go shopping, sometimes we go to lunch with Daddy, sometimes we go work in the boys' classrooms but most of the time we just come home and she has the whole house and ALL of the toys to herself, not to mention she can watch Princesses or Tinkerbell instead of Starwars or Transformers.

Some of my up and coming blogs will be Christmas, Luke's 7th birthday, our new found (or returning) love of skiing/snowboarding and many more.....stick with me friends.

Last wrestling weekend….

Well I know that I promised some pictures and videos for our last weekend of wrestling and I am finally getting around to it. They aren’t really very great pictures but I did get some more videos. Luke’s little buddy Aiden from school came to watch. Luke was so excited and a bit distracted. It was pretty awesome to have him there though.

I wanted to show you this picture because this boy was really a tough one for Jacob to wrestle. He faced him the very first weekend and the kid just totally shocked Jacob (and us) with how fast and aggressive he was. The first weekend Jacob ended up doing alright against him but when he saw that he was facing the same “really tough” kid the last weekend, he got a little intimidated. The other boy ended up scoring a bunch of points on Jacob but he sure gave it a good fight and never ended up getting pinned. We were so proud of him for standing up to him and facing him. One of the other boys in the group of 4 didn’t really even try because he was so scared.

Wrestling was a very busy sport for us to be involved in but it was so much fun. The kids loved it and learned a ton. We are very glad that it’s over and that we have our Saturdays back but we will be doing it again next season with at least 2 kids and maybe even 3!! Jacob is on the fence on whether he will do it again but Luke for sure is going again and we are pretty sure that Zac will be out there next year. I will end this post with a couple of videos. You will have to excuse the yelling that comes from me and Ben....we are not the quiet spectators! Keep your eyes open for some more posts soon…I am way behind and have lots to share!

Our wrestling boys

I guess this is about 3 weeks late but I am finally blogging about the Jacob and Luke and their wrestling experience. This has been a crazy month and we have one more weekend but it has been so worth it. To be honest, Ben and I didn’t really know how fun this sport would be for us. We have been so surprised and are LOVING it. It has been so fun to watch both of the boys find their competitive side. We took so many pictures and these are just a few. It’s a bit hard to take pictures and video at the same time that you are losing your voice for yelling so much!

Here's a couple of videos. This was the very first weekend and it was just a take-down tournament. They would take their opponent down, get up and then do it again. My hope is to take some video this up coming weekend so we can see the improvement. They really have learned a ton in just a few short weeks.

Luke’s very first wrestling practice.

Do you remember awhile back I posted this? I can’t even begin to tell you how many times Luke has asked me when his practices were going to start. Well, the day finally came and he had his very first wrestling practice tonight. He was so excited. Actually Ben said that he had a smile on his face the whole time. He had such a great time and it’s going to be really fun to see how much he learns this season and if this will be something he wants to continue with after the season is over. Just look at the pictures….can’t you see you the joy? One more thing that I need to add – we gave Jacob the chance to sign up for wrestling too. He chose not to but when they went to sign Luke up he started to wonder if he might want to. The coach told him that he could come and watch the first couple of practices and then he could decide. After tonight he is saying that he wants to try it out. So I may be posting more pictures next week of Jacob the wrestler too. Keep your eyes open for more pics to come of Lukie too.

Now I’m off to watch some more Olympics. I'm loving them this time around!

My wrestling machine.....

I missed my blog entry yesterday so I will do one first thing this morning to try and make up for it.....

Last night Luke got to register for wrestling and he is so excited! We have been talking about it for a long time and the day finally came. Ben and I (and many other family members) think that he is going to be a natural with this sport. He starts practice mid February and the tournaments start in March. I will post pictures when it actually starts but Luke was so excited to try on the "singlet" and I had just to take some pictures.

Thanks for all the comments on the new look. I'm still not 100% sure that I will stick with this one so keep an eye out for some more changes.

Have a wonderful Wednesday!!

A bit of Christmas excitment...

For today I am just going to show you a video that we took of the older two boys opening up their Christmas gifts from us. They had both been asking for a Nintendo DS for a long time and we finally decided to get them each one. You will be able to see for yourselves that they were totally shocked and super excited.

I have lots more pictures to share from Christmas but for now I thought you would enjoy a quick video.

My big 6 year old!

This kid turned 6 on the 26th of December! It's so hard to believe that Luke is 6 now but he is really starting to grow up. He is loving kindergarten, making new friends and he is starting to read now! Here he is blowing out the candles on his ice cream cake that Mamaw always get him. I asked him this year if he would like something different and he said "no, I like the ice cream cake mom". I have to say that I'm really glad because I like the ice cream cake too.I mentioned yesterday that I have been digital scrapbooking...here you will get a chance to see some of what I've done. I did a couple of pages of Luke's yearly bowling party. He had a blast, like always and I had a blast scrapbooking it.

Well 2 days in a row.....I bet you didn't believe me did you? Now I must get to work on my very messy house....maybe Becky needs to do another W.O.W. so I can get some things accomplished! Have a great day my wonderful friends and I will see you all tomorrow!

First day of school....

Well this is a week late but here they are...the boys starting school!! Jacob in 2nd grade and Luke in KINDERGARTEN!!! I can't believe that I have 2 kids in school. So far it's going great. Jacob was so excited to get back at it. He is one of those kids that loves school and was totally ready to go back after summer. Luke was a little nervous but also very excited. Here they are all ready to head out the door.

Getting ready is always fun and a little crazy around our house. Oh sure, it looks all calm here but that's because you can't see me in the background rushing around like crazy :)

Here is Jacob walking down the familiar hall. Last year his room was one of the first ones down the hall, this year it's the very last room before you go out the door to.....RECESS. It's the perfect place really. And here he is, showing off his desk. See Grandma and Grandpa? They came for the big day and it was so awesome having them here. Now to Luke....showing of his desk! He thought it was pretty cool to be there. I know I've already said this but REALLY?!?! Luke in kindergarten?

The day is over and here he is getting off the bus.

Look at that smile, no tears for this kindergartner. If you are wondering how he is after his first week, he still loves it. The words out of his mouth on Friday were "Mom, school is AWESOME!! I love it!!" I'm so glad he's having fun. I have to say that I'm enjoying it a little too. It's amazing what taking 2 kids away can do for a noisy house.

Well, there they are. Sorry Mamaw and Grandma that it took so long to post these pics.