Nolan's Birthday (and 1st Day of School)

What could be worse than having your birthday on the first day at a new school (a middle school, for that matter)?! Good thing Nolan is such a good sport. He didn't complain that we were too busy to make a very big deal on his actual day, and we tried to do our best to honor him a little at a time in advance. For starters, we fulfilled one of his life-long dreams to eat at Red Lobster and order whatever he wants (he's a huge seafood fan). We also took him shopping at Dick's Sporting Goods and let him pick out whatever his sporty heart desired (ended up not being able to decide between a football and a basketball so we got both). I asked ahead of time what he would want to eat on his special (and hectic) day...so I ended up making cinnamon rolls the night before. And I couldn't resist getting him a couple more presents to open (a few fancy art supplies, which I know he will put to good use). Then, steaks with mushroom sauce for dinner, and razzleberry pie a la mode for dessert. But we didn't sing or blow out candles until we could get Uncle Paul on Skype around bed time. We have to keep our birthday-buddy tradition going strong! Combined with all that excitement, the kids all had a successful first day of school. Hanna wanted an up-do and we were both tickled with her whole ensemble (it's so fun to dress that little girl)! My boys were incredibly handsome too, of course! Can't miss the chance to tell my tall, dark, handsome eleven year old boy that I love him SO deeply, and I'm so proud of the awesome little man he's becoming. Happy birthday Nolan...lucky number eleven (this is going to be our best year yet)!

Visitors...Yay!

Well, I thought no one would ever come see us now that we live in Kansas...but Chrysta and Jonny came through like champs! Lucky Jonny works for an airline, but especially lucky that it gave me a chance to meet my brand new baby neice. Oh, I love her! Cutest, chubbiest little brown-haired baby doll you ever saw. We only had two short days to spend together and we don't know much about what's fun to do here yet, so we decided to go down to the lake and go fishing. Our efforts were pretty fruitless until finally at the end of the day, Nolan caught one tiny little bluegill. Too bad we didn't catch as many fish as we caught mosquito bites! Oh well. Maybe we'll be better equipped to entertain the next time around. I'm just so happy we got to have some dear ones with us for a little while.

Reedy's Mishap

Even though I can barely stand to look at this picture...I had to document the world's largest goose egg. Reed acquired it while driving a big wheel bike off the porch steps and planting his forehead on the concrete sidewalk. It was a very horrible 45 minutes for me until we got some pain killers in him and were able to calm him down. This picture was taken a couple hours after the incident and he's already smiling :)

County Fair

Good times at the Pratt County Fair...always expensive for the parents, but a blast for the kids! I thought Hanna was pretty brave with her ride selection this year - she wanted to go on everything Colby went on. And Liam kept Reed company on all the cute kiddie rides. Snow cones and funnel cakes were a must. Sadly we were only able to win one prize (a giant inflatable dolphin), so everyone fought over it for days.

Happy 4th Birthday Liam!

Poor little guy...for the second year in a row we've been in a brand new place (don't know very many people or very much about our surroundings) and trying to throw together some excitement for Liam's birthday. Luckily Liam's not very demanding, and Pratt has this awesome park with a wading pool, and we met some new friends (The Mullins) just in time to have a little party. And once daddy got home from work, we took him out for a pizza dinner and some birthday shopping. He picked out some pirate toys. Liam is such a great kid. He's always been very quiet and content, never needy. He's got a smile a mile wide and those dark eyes and long lashes melt my heart to mush. I love how he plays and pretends with Hanna (conjuring up every character that she commands him to be). He's been my best little buddy at home for a while now and I'll be sad to lose him to kindergarten next year. I feel bad for always getting on his case about sucking his thumb (though I do worry about the direction his teeth are going in!). I just hope he never thinks that he's anything less than absolutely perfect.