Nathan LOVES his Karate!

One of Nathan's favorite sports is Karate! He especially loves anything Ninja so what a surprise he got when he learned his karate class was hosting a pirate Ninja camp!! He was completely in his element with breaking boards, swords and nunchucks! Nathan also won 1st place in his karate tournament AND earned his next belt - Green!! He has loved every minute of his practices and can't wait to be on his way to earning a blue belt!...stay tuned! Way to go, Nathan! We are so proud of you!

Happy 6th Birthday Nathan!! aka Bubba!

For our children's 6th birthday, they get to choose anywhere they want to go for their birthday - Nathan chose Medieval Times!! He was definitely in his element and even got knighted by the King while he was there. The smile on his face said it all!! Both sets of Grandparents and my (Christi's) brother were there to join in the fun! And FUN it was!!! Play the slideshow at the end to see more fun pics of the action!The kids also get to take the day off from school on their birthday so guess who was SOOO excited to wake up today to NO SCHOOL!! Not that Nathan doesn't enjoy school but, yeah, what kid doesn't enjoy a free day! So, we went to Chuck E Cheese and played during the day, Nathan relaxed to a movie and then we went to Double Daves for dinner - his choice! Nathan chose to have a brownie cake for his birthday with chocolate icing and chocolate sprinkles. Can you guess what his favorite flavor is??? HA! (pitiful brownie, I know!! But #6 is my year off from
all the elaborate cakes I normally make!)

I know I sound like a broken record every year but time really does seem to escape me until I realize another year has passed by! Nathan turning 6 - WOW!! Nathan is still one of the most imaginative children I’ve ever seen.

He loves to battle ANYTHING!! Give him a sword, a golf stick, or a rope and his mind will fly into defending our country or protecting his castle. Now that he realizes that superhero’s in the shows really aren’t something he can be when he grows up, he has settled on joining the army so he can be in wars. Yes, we are still working on his understanding of that! His newest action character love is BibleMan! Can I just say how much I love that man teaching my child how to use scripture in every day life!!! There is something about a parent trying to teach it and then BibleMan doing it that makes all the difference– ha!

Nathan truly brings so much life and adventure into our home. His little blue eyes and smile wrapping their arms around you can turn any dreary moment into a rainbow. Nathan also started Awana’s this past September and is already just 1 jewel away from finishing his book which shouldn’t be finished until May. We are SOO proud of him and all he’s learned! He is doing wonderful in Kindergarten too at homeschool and his enrichment program. Although we have decided to keep all our children in their age appropriate grade per say, he did actually start K last year and all his texts are 1^st grade this year. As you can probably guess, he is really good at creative writing! And he LOVES to read. His newest favorite is Geronimo Stilton books. Nathan is now also an Orange belt in Karate. This year he is actually doing it without his brother and thankfully is still doing really well! Nathan & Brady are inseparable and best friends. It’s a very common occurrence that if one of them loses a privilege the other one will choose to lose it too because they don’t want to play without each other. Such brotherly love!! Nathan and Corban too – WOW, what a pair. Nathan loves to antagonize him, cuddle with him and wrestle with him and well, often gets beat up by Corban too! They are so cute together!Nathan brings life and joy to everyone around him and his favorite thing still remains to be his blankets. He has confiscated every crocheted blanket in our home and has them named - 2 girls, 2 boys, a mommy, a daddy and even a grandma! and he LOVES them!! He is still our little cuddle bug too and I love it when I don't wake up before him so that he can come snuggle with me in the mornings...he's usually the first up! There is so much more I could write, so much more I could say, but the sweetest thing about Nathan is just his love for everyone around him and for the Lord. He has such a compassionate heart and kindness towards his family and friends. A heart that is growing closer to God every day! Nathan Thomas - you bring so much joy to our hearts and we LOVE you more than we could ever express!! Happy Birthday Bubba!!

Merry Christmas 2009!!

A collage of our Christmas!!! We had a wonderful season celebrating our Lords birth!!

Santa Adventure #4 - Six Flags Winter in the Park

Our boys were SOOOO excited to go to Six Flags. They have gone once before 1.5yrs ago and have talked about it ever since. So they were so pumped to get it as a Christmas present from Santa! We had a wonderful time together!

Pumpkin Patch 2009

We all had a wonderful evening at the Pumpkin Patch this year! All the boys LOVED running through the pumpkins, playing on the bounce houses and fun toys and especially the hay maze...the big kid one and the little kid one! Our little pumpkins are getting SO big!!

DISNEY WORLD Vacation 2009

Disney World Vacation 2009
Sept 11th-20th

You can't help but want to take your kids to Disney when you have lived in Orlando for 3 years!! So, we decided while we were expecting Corban that when he turned 2 all the boys would be the perfect ages to go! Over 2yrs of planning and anticipation!! On Sept 11th we began our road trip to Walt Disney World in Orlando Florida. The road trip included us, my mom (Grammy) and my brother (Uncle Mike) and then we met Brandon's mom (Grandma), brother (BT) and our nephew (Cole) in Orlando (they flew). The great thing about homeschooling is being able to take trips like this while all the other kids are still in school - fabulous!!!! Rarely did we wait in any line and we rode many rides that are normally hr long waits several times in a row!! We had an amazing vacation and had SOOOO much fun spending time together at Disney. Every moment was full of adventure, excitement and memorable moments. We even had a beach day and the boys got to visit LegoLand! It was great! We also celebrated my brothers birthday and Nathan's adoption day while we were there. Our trip couldn't have been more wonderful and blessed! Brady's favorite was definitely LegoLand and the TestTrac ride at Epcot. Nathan's was Pirates of the Carribean at Magic Kingdom and TestTrac and Corbans was seeing all the characters! Mine? Mine was experiencing every new and 1st special moment with my children! It was magical in every way (as Disney would put it)!!

Here are a few fun pictures and then you can click on the links below to see all the pics. Enjoy! This is just a sneak peak. I couldn't begin to upload ALL the pictures! :)AL

Disney Days 1 and 6 - Magic Kingdom
Disney Days 2 and 5 - Epcot
Disney Day 3 - Beach
Disney Day 3 - Lego-Land
Disney Day 4 - Hollywood Studios

1st day of Kinder and 1st Grade

WOW, we now officially have a kindergartner (Nathan) and 1st grader (Brady). We started back homeschool yesterday and had a really fun day. It all began with yummy pancakes and then they received their Schultuete's (a german tradition - 1st day of school cone filled with goodies). The boys loved that! Then we spent the next couple of hrs going over the school schedule, how things would work and all their curriculum for this year. After that, we headed to celebrate our 1st day with lunch and play at Chuck E Cheese! They both commented that I was the best teacher ever! whoohoo! (although I think they silently retracted that today as we started REAL lessons!) It's gonna be a tough adjustment back to waking up early and hard work compared to sleeping in until 8:30 and playing all day! (Mommy's loving having routine back - the boys not so much! haha)

Look - No Training Wheels!

Every summer we give the boys 3-4 summer goals to work on. One of Brady's summer goals this year was to learn to ride his bike without training wheels. Nathan's goal was just to ride his bike so many hrs this summer. Our hopes were for them to both get more comfortable so we could all ride more "on the road" together. Well, this past week Brady officially acheived his goal AND now has a new love for riding. Before that moment it was all we could to get him out the door to practice! AND the next day - Nathan officially rode on the little bike with no training wheels! YEAH!!! We are so proud of both them for practicing so hard this summer!

Nathans End of Preschool Performance

WOW, can't believe Nathan will be in Kindergarten next year! He LOVED his preschool program this year and even homeschooling on a K-1st grade level. His teacher called him "cuddle bug" and constantly talked about how sweet he was. He made lots of friends this year and is already looking forward to next year! Nathan had a GREAT school year! Below is the end of year preschool performance. On the stage are both the 4yr old classes. Nathan is on your top right 3rd from the end (on the 1st video). Enjoy!

Nathans Video 1

a few more videos to come.....check back

Boys 1st Karate Tournament

The boys had their first Karate Tournament yesterday and had a blast!!! Poor Nathan though was in the middle of a stomach bug and was kinda wiped out...but he did great!!! Brady took home 1st place for his match and Nathan 2nd place for his. (it was a winners match so everyone either got 1st or 2nd and a trophy!!) They were SOOOOO proud and we were SOO proud of their hard work through the weeks. They will be testing for their yellow belts this coming Friday and are working hard every day getting ready. Enjoy the pics!! (

If you are reading this through an RSS feed, there is a slide show here - go to blog to see)

Happy 5th Birthday, Nathan!!

Today is our little (or not so little) Nathan's 5th Birthday! WOW, he's actually 5!! He had a SuperHero party on Friday night which was TONS of fun for he and his little hero friends. Our plan tonight was to take him to the Natatorium swimming, but since we were anticipating an ice storm today, we took him to Cracker Barrel last night for his favorite meal instead- Pancakes!! So, today we will be celebrating his birthday at home and hopefully get to play with some icecicles a little later! On the menu tonight, his next favorite meal - Pizza Pou Pou!! (only in a house of boys!). :) Click on the links below to read Nathan's 5yr write up and to see his birthday party pics.

Nathan's 5yr Write-Up

Nathan's Birthday PARTY Pictures