Leap Into The Future!

Happy Leap Year Day!

Today was a great start to my Wednesday. Sometimes the stuff kids say just warm your heart and make you carry a smile throughout your day.

At Hillsborough Elementary today, in honor of Leap Year, they are celebrating by talking about college and hopes and dreams for their future. As a family, we were supposed to discuss this topic last night.  I did with them before Charlie got home at dinner and  then he talked with them as he was putting them to bed.

One of the questions was, "Where would you like to attend college after graduation from high school".

The responses from Cooper and Braedyn surprised us both! Braedyn said he wanted to go to NC State and Cooper said he wanted to go to Carolina. Of course, Charlie was stunned no one said Florida!

Then today they were supposed to wear a shirt or colors of their choice of college or the college that a parent went to. I know Charlie was hoping someone would come down the stairs with Orange and Blue!

They didn't change their minds. Braedyn was wearing his NC State shirt decked out and in red and black and Cooper his Carolina Shirt. So Charlie asked them again this morning, "Why don't you want to go to Florida?" Braedyn's response melted my heart!

"Because I want to stay close to you guys!"  Simple and Sweet!

I told him that is just fine with me!

Braedyn's 8th Birthday~January 18th

We celebrated Braedyn's 8th Birthday at Cely's House in Chapel Hill. It was so neat! It was Braedyn's choice. That is what he picked. She is a local artist who does art, pottery, after school camps and birthday parties. It turned out to be a great day too. She had a nice outdoor area to play then they went inside. His theme was Pokemon. This stuff is new to me but he is very into Pokemon right now. The kids got to make Pokemon figures out of clay with the templates she had, they added different colors and decorated them and she then burned in the kiln. The kids did a great job and were so well behaved because they were so into the project. 10 boys and they had a blast. Here are some pictures from the birthday party. I can't believe he is 8 years old already!

Happy Birthday Big Boy!

What a group!



Be careful:)




Getting Instructions



Awesome Zip Line!

Finished before burning them...



All set for baseball now:)

And another year passes by! Oh how time flies!


Christmas 2011

Okay, I have to admit I still do not know how to run my camera, so I have to wait for Charlie to download my pictures and I am finally catching up!
Christmas 2011 was quiet for us. We did not travel this year and had no family in town. It gets a little lonely during the holidays! We miss you all  up north! We had some nice quality time together with Charlie taking some days off from work and the boys had three weeks off. The weather was unbelievably warm. We had planned on going to the beach for New Years like we did the previous year with some great friends but we had a new puppy so unfortunately we didn't get to do that again. I finally got to attend a later Christmas Eve service which I haven't done since Braedyn was born. Braedyn sang in the choir and I remembered how beautiful those services are with the candles. I had a great friend move away in June back to Pennsylvania and she came to stay with us a couple days after Christmas and so it was great to catch up with Ms. Elaine! We miss her a lot!
She also helped me out one day during Christmas break as I had to have a little procedure done. Not many of you know, I had went in to the dermatologist at the end of November and they found some basal cell carcinoma on my back. It was scary to hear that word but after researching it, found it is more common these days than not. It was not the spreading or deadly skin cancer. Where it is located is the only place it is and they just cut it out. I thought I was too young and it was something that only old people got. I truly believe it was from those darn tanning beds in my later teen to 20s. To think, I didn't even go that often! I know many of you up there in MN go a lot more than I do, so be aware it can happen and it does! She said because of those tanning beds they are seeing more people  in their 30s. They got it all out and it was a quick and easy procedure. The reason I had went in was because I had a mole on my back since Jordan was born and it was changing and I thought I should maybe go in and get it checked out just to be sure it was nothing but it was. Thank goodness it was on my back. It just left a little bit of a scar. It was only bothersome for a couple weeks or so. I was always slathering up the kids with sunscreen and there I sat with a little bit on my shoulders. I never thought about it. Life lesson learned. Now I am fine and I just have to be more careful and go in for skin checkups every six months.
Here are some pictures from our Christmas. Hopefully one of these years we will be able to be with family at Christmas again.



Just what I asked for!



Both Boy love these Ninjago Legos!

Braedyn is into the Diary of Wimpy Kid series



Cooper's favorite, big smiles!



Daddy's Lil Gators!



Had to start the book




Tough Guys!




tradition of new jammies every year!



That started a four hour Lego session! My eyes hurt after that!

\

The Third Child!

They really do defy everything! Also, by the time you get to the third it's like oh well do it your way then...oh and fruit snacks for breakfast I guess so. I get almost as much time with him as I did with Braedyn when it was just he and but less anxiety on my part! Everything from no naps, candy and letting him stand up to pee (which is not allowed inside the house while potty training)...potty training him isn't going as smoothly. Since he doesn't want to sit on the potty chair he runs outside pantless and pees in the yard. Sure glad we live in the country!
He does things I would have never let the other two do and he watches things on TV that they never did until recently. Jordan even knows how to play a Nintendo DS... Yesterday I forgot my cell phone on my nightstand at nap time. I came in to check on him and he was talking to daddy. He had called him on my cell phone and having a conversation.  Then today he turned on TV to his show while I was getting dressed. He is so independent.
Time seems to fly by. I just signed him up for preschool next year and he will be in preschool three days a week from 9-1. He cracks me up everyday. Funny little guy!

One day of Winter in NC

Sunday night when Charlie and Braedyn got home from basketball practice it was snowing! Jake didn't know what to think when he was let out to go potty. He stepped out of the garage and stepped right back in. Then in the morning he loved playing in it. It was our first snowfall and I believe it will be the last snowfall too! It snowed overnight into Monday morning, so of course school was cancelled. In North Carolina even if there is a threat of snow, school is called off! In MN, if you couldn't see your hand in front of your face then school was called off! Cooper woke up and crawled into bed with us asking if we had school today, which he does every morning hoping the response will be no. When I told him no because it snowed, I told him to go back to sleep. He told me he needed to get something out of his room so I said fine. That little fibber. I heard him go into Braedyn's room, crawl into bed and wake him up and he told him to look outside. So they were pretty excited to have some snow. The boys built three short little snowmen of what little snow was left. Jake didn't like the snowmen. I had put him in his kennel so the boys could do it without him pestering them and when he came out of the garage he was growling and barking at them. It was quite funny! They didn't last long as it got up to 50 degrees in the afternoon. I had to laugh because we had snowpants, winter coats, gloves, mittens on at 9 am and shorts and t shirts at 3 pm. It was a little on the chilly side this morning but now I think we are on our way to spring lets hope. The temps are supposed to be in the 70s by Thursday and Friday. I do have to say it was nice to see a little bit of snow this year. The best part it melted in a day!  I have more pictures to post but haven't got them dowloaded quite yet. Go figure... but this is our 2012 snowman even sporting the Baudoin Oil baseball cap!
Here are some more pictures...


Don't eat the yellow snow!





That snowsuit has a lot of wear!





Jake freaking out at the snowman!




by afternoon we were in shorts





What was left of snowmen by 3:00 pm same day!