Last Week and Halloween!

Last week, Madeline had her first Honor Roll Awards ceremony. Her school waits to start this until 1st grade. Here she is on the stage after getting her Principal's List ribbon for making all A's in the first quarter. Of course she is talking with a friend:)
Oh, and the kids at our school are not always so color-coordinated, it was Red Ribbon Week and they were supposed to wear red on this day.
Then, they announced all of the 1st graders who had earned 5 or more Accelerated Reader points. Once again, Madeline is visiting with a friend:)
They then announced that Madeline had the most in the whole grade!!! She had 12 more points than the next child. We are so proud of her hard work and glad that she is already such an avid reader.

We also had our church's Trunk or Treat last Wednesday. Nathan and I had to work a booth, so we did not get any pictures on my camera. If I can ever figure out how to download my i-phone pictures to my computer, I could post a few:)
Last night, I did some cookie decorating for Will's preschool Halloween party. I decided to go with spider webs and candy corn. I thought they looked really cute!

Here are the snacks the moms set up. Everything was a big hit and I was especially grateful to Larry's Pizza who had an employee come in early to make sure our pizza was ready to pick up by 10:15! They were so nice about it!

Tonight, I tried a new picture taking technique. . . I let them do funny poses first in the hopes that they would be willing to take a nice picture afterward.

Will has been making this face all day! He says it's his "monster face." This was the first year we let him pick out his own costume. It was hard for this planning mommy, and it is not the costume I wanted, but it was worth it. He was so proud to wear this "Mater" costume:)
This is Madeline's standard funny face:) We used mostly items she already had to make a cute witch costume. She enjoyed it! It is a lot harder to find an appropriate girl's costume now that she is getting older:(
Guess what? The funny face pictures worked!!! The final picture turned out to be so cute! They have grown up so much in the last year:)

2010

2011

I hope everyone had a great Halloween! We had a good time trick-or-treating with some friends and the kids are already planning their costumes for next year:)

The Pumpkin Patch

This past week, I was able to go with Will's preschool class to a Pumpkin Patch at a local church. They were supposed to go on Tuesday, but all of the rain that moved through caused it to be canceled and rescheduled for the next day. So, on Wednesday, we headed out into the cold weather! First, they went and had their faces painted. Will choose a ghost. He did pretty well even though he is very ticklish on his face:)

Then, they went on a hayride through the forest behind the church. Will really enjoyed riding with his friends!

Next, it was time to pick out his pumpkin! He and his good friend, Ashlyn, looked around for awhile to find the perfect one.
Here he is making his choice!

They had a little station set up with stickers to decorate the pumpkins. Here is Will with his friends Macy and Cooper. He did such a good job following directions and really enjoyed decorating his pumpkin.
Here is the finished product! You can see that he is still not really into having his picture taken:) What a cute boy and a cute pumpkin!
They also had a jumping castle and a really fun inflatable maze. That was Will's favorite part, but I couldn't catch a good picture because he was moving way too fast! I can't wait to go back again next year!

Homecoming Parade (and some other random stuff)

This past week was Homecoming week in our town. It is fun to live in a smaller town with only one high school because things like Homecoming get so much attention.

Before I get into Homecoming, I wanted to show my latest project. Now that I am a SAHM, I have gotten mildly addicted to Pinterest! I wanted to make an inexpensive wreath for our door and saw some cute ideas. So, here is the finished product. I reused an old wreath and repainted the H from another wreath as well. I only bought the leaves and flowers at Walmart and together, the whole project cost me about $8! I like how it looks on our door, but took a picture of it on our dark couch because the details showed up much better.

This week, Madeline went to a local pumpkin patch with her class. Due to some scheduling issues, I was not able to go:( So there are no pictures. Will's class goes on Tuesday morning and I will be able to go with them!

On Friday, Will and I met up with Nathan at his office to watch the Homecoming Parade! Madeline was able to be on her school's float this year, thanks to Nathan volunteering to help build it:)
Here are the ROTC kids starting off the parade. Nathan works at our District's central office, so we were watching with our superintendent and got lots of waves and shout-outs because of him:)

Here is Madeline's school float. The theme had something to do with Hollywood. I was told yesterday that our float tied with another for first place! We were at the end of the parade route, so the kids had been on the float for a long time and it was really hot! It is hard to get in the football spirit when it is 94 degrees! I had to laugh at how tired Madeline looks here.
All of the high school classes had their own floats. The junior float was my favorite. They had a lot of spirit and I like their t-shirts the best too:) It is so fun to hear all of Nathan's former students yell out to him.

And, you can't end a parade without the usual horses! Will liked this part best because there were also police cars behind them. Considering how sound sensitive he is, he did well. Some of the larger floats were pulled by semi-trucks and their honks were really loud. He just covered his ears but did not get upset or ask to leave:) I was proud of him!
It is a little sad that we have lived here for 5 years and had not gone to the parade before. I think we will always go from now on!
The rest of our weekend has been nice and relaxing. Madeline went to a big sleepover on Friday night. She had a blast but has been tired and grouchy since:) Hopefully she will recover before school on Monday!

Happy Birthday Nathan!

Yesterday, Nathan celebrated his 34th birthday. I thank God for bringing this man into my world everyday.
We were supposed to spend the weekend in Conway with Nathan's family, but Friday morning, Madeline woke up with a fever. It has continued all weekend and we are pretty sure it is strep again! I am fearful that she will have to have her tonsils out after having it so many times in just a few months.
We had a relaxing day at home, just letting Nathan relax. That night, we got ready to watch the Razorback game with a little 4 Layer Delight (Nathan's request instead of a cake). I have not made it in years and it was so delicious!

In honor of Nathan's birthday, my mom put aside her strong Texas Longhorn loyalty and sent Nathan a few gifts. . .
. . . a platter for dips and some Razorback Tervis Tumblers! We are excited to use them:)


Due to Madeline's illness, we were not able to do what we had originally planned, but Nathan said it was still a wonderful day. Happy Birthday Nathan!!!

The weekend in review

We had a really nice weekend! Our high school cheerleaders do a fundraiser clinic every year for K -6th graders. The girls practiced 3 times during the week and were then able to perform at the game on Friday night. This was Madeline's 2nd time to perform and she was so excited! Here she is with her friend, Carson, before the performance. They are just too cute!

They stretched out before performing. . . .

. . .and then did a chant, cheer, and dance. It was hard to get good pictures because they were down on the track, but she did such a good job! I am so glad that she enjoys doing these kinds of activities because I love watching her:)
The rest of our weekend was very relaxed. We are enjoying the break in the heat and have spent a lot more time outside. The kids have really loved riding their bikes. Madeline needs all the practice she can get before Nathan decides the training wheels need to go:)
We also decided Will is ready for a "real" bike and are trying to decide whether to wait for Christmas or not. It is such nice weather for riding right now and will probably be too cold in December.

What I forgot to blog about in Sept.

I was looking through a bunch of pictures and realized I missed a couple of things that the kids did in September.
A few weeks into 4 year old preschool, Will was assigned his first project. He had to turn a white paper doll into a person that looked like him. Here is Will with the finished product. Nathan and I did a lot of the work but we did find several things that Will was able to do as well:) He was very proud!
When I took Will's picture, Madeline wanted me to take one of her in the new outfit her Nana had sent in the mail. We sure love Nana's care packages! She may be far away, but she is so good about spoiling her grand kids anyway:)

On the same day as Madeline's birthday, Will had his first school field trip. The Union County Fair was going on and his class went to check out the animals. It was so nice to be able to sign up to help drive the kids. We had Will's friend Zoe ride with us.
First, we checked out the chickens and rabbits. Will thought this was pretty neat!

Then, we went into the main building where the larger animals like cows, goats, sheep, and pigs were. Unfortunately, they had very large fans running for circulation and cooling. Those fans put Will's sensitive ears on overload. He liked seeing those animals but this is what he did with his hands for the entire time we were in there, poor guy!
We ended the trip with a stop at the snow cone booth. Here is everyone enjoying a strawberry snow cone. It cracks me up that Will somehow ended up sitting by all of the girls!
I am truly loving getting to be more available for all of these smaller events in my kids' lives! I am also loving having more time to blog about it:)

Celebrating Madeline!

On September 22, my baby girl turned 7 years old! I can hardly believe it. It just sounds way too old:(

She talked about her birthday for weeks and the build up was really cute. Her birthday fell on a Thursday and she asked me to make peace sign and tie-dye cookies. I think they turned out pretty well and the class said they were delicious!








That night, we had brownies instead of a traditional cake because we were having cake at her birthday party in a few days.








Then, with the help of all her friends, she and her birthday buddy, Haley, had a fun-filled gymnastics party! Even Uncle Robbie, Uncle John, Aunt Lindsey and Emma came into town for the party. The turnout was huge and they all enjoyed playing in the gym, eating cake, and opening some fun and thoughtful gifts.
I feel so blessed that she has so many good friends here and that they were all willing to take time away from watching the Razorback game to come have fun together!

























































Dear Madeline,

Seven years sounds like such a short time, but it has gone by so quickly. Time sure flies when you are having fun with such an amazing little girl.

You are now in 1st grade and are an amazing student. Your teacher says you are really responsible, friendly, and an amazing reader! You are very sweet to your friends and have such a good heart. You don't like to see others left out and view everyone as a friend. You have a strong sense of right and wrong and are such an honest girl. When you do something wrong, you can't stand waiting to come clean about it. You come to me immediately to confess, a personality trait I hope will stay with you in your teenage years:) You love to play pretend: dress up, babies, Barbies, and school. You love to turn on Disney Channel songs to learn the words and make up dances. You are very goal-oriented and like to get things done rather than putting it off. You are getting much better about cleaning up after yourself and doing things to help around the house. You love to help take care of Will and anyone, really. You say you can't wait to be a Mommy and I take that as a compliment because I must make it look like so much fun:) Right now, you want to be either a doctor, nurse, or veterinarian when you grow up. You love dance and gymnastics even more than ever and show quite a bit of talent in those areas. You are working hard to master your standing back hand spring, and I am impressed by how brave you are! This year has been so fun for us! I love my big girl and how my job as a parent changes as you grow. I can't wait to see what this next year holds for us. I love you so, so, so much!!!

My Mema

I mentioned in my Labor Day post that my Mema had a medical emergency which caused my parents to rush to Texarkana. Without giving too many personal details, she has been sick off and on for the last 5 years. It has been a hard fight for her and on Thursday, September15, God granted her peace from her suffering and she passed away. It was not an unexpected outcome for our family, but difficult just the same. I just wanted to write a post about my Mema, who has always been such an important person in my life.

I was my Mema's first granddaughter. After having 3 boys and only 1 girl, I am told she was very excited about my arrival:) She and I always had a special relationship. She always knew how to make me feel special. I used to love to go visit her and my Pepa for a week, all by myself and they made me feel like a queen.
My Mema was the epitome of a gracious southern woman. I remember her giving me Emily Post's guide to Etiquette as a High School graduation gift:) She was a very involved grandmother and great grandmother to us all. She was always described as the rudder of our family's ship and I know it will be hard for us all to adjust to her absence. She and my Pepa had a wonderful marriage of 57 years and are definitely one of Nathan and I's greatest role models in our own marriage.
Here are a few pictures of her that I wanted to share. I sure loved that wonderful woman and will miss her greatly!

Labor Day Fun!

We were so excited about Labor Day this year because we knew it would be a great chance to see family. Nana and Pawpaw decided to make a trip from Spokane to see everyone and we couldn't wait! After making a quick stop in Texarkana to check on the Pesek family, they came on Sunday to spend a few days with us. We met up at church and then just hung out afterward. Both kids taught their grandparents a thing or two on the i-pad and they were impressed!


Pawpaw even took a new family picture for us. We are so bad about remembering to take them and are enjoying the new picture.
Later we grilled out and discussed our plans to get together with some friends and my brothers the next day.

Unfortunately, my Mema had a major medical emergency that night and my parents had to rush back to be with the family.
We decided to cancel most of our Labor Day plans with my Mema in such critical condition but Robbie and Emma still came for the day so that the cousins could enjoy playing together. Madeline and Emma especially had a great time together! They sure love each other lots:)

On a side note, I decided to make fun summer cookies because I always look at Labor Day as a final celebration of summer. I thought the lemons and limes were a cute summer theme and my first big attempt at wet on wet decorating with Royal Icing. Even though the BBQ didn't happen for our family, we still enjoyed sharing them with family and friends and they were delicious!