Straight A's!!!!!!!

We were resigned to the fact that Michael was going to get a "B" in handwriting. He's our kid - no doubt. Well, we were wrong. This six weeks Michael finally got Straight A's!!!!! We're very proud of him and his hard work. A big shout out to Mrs. Page too - she made it possible, he really loves Mrs. Page!

Update - January/February/March

Ok, I'll readily admit it, I'm not so good with keeping up with this stuff sometimes. But, with everything that has been going on there just hasn't been the time. So, tonight I'm rededicating an effort to do a better job starting with a January, February and early March update.

At the end of January we attended the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo with Pawpaw, Uncle Mike, Aunt Judy, Kathy and Chris. This is somewhat significant as it was Chris' first rodeo experience. Lucky for him he sat next to Uncle Mike who gave him a blow-by-blow run down of each event and the points system. I'm not sure, but I think we've got a convert. Here's a couple of pictures of Michael and Chris at the rodeo.




Also, as many of you know Michael played Upward Basketball this winter. It's a good program with a lot of good people involved. Michael did well and learned some about the game. He's already talking about next year (ugghhh).



At every practice the Coach would give the boys a bible lesson. If they learned the lesson after the game they got a green star. There were also other stars for offense, defense, best all-around, and Christ-like. Michael collected a lot of stars which was then, of course, my job to put them on the shirt before practice on Mondays. At the end of the season they had an awards ceremony and big party which Michael just loved. He was really thrilled when he was given the White Star award for the team for the season which meant he was the most Christ-like of the team for the entire season. Very impressive. Here's a picture of him with his award, covering up the subject of a later paragraph.


Okay, I'm so far behind, here is a picture from Michael's Valentine Party at school...




Okay, so last but not least, baseball practice has begun. The team has changed names, but remains the same, we are now The Storm (are you trembling?, you should be). This is our 7th season with this team and we are very happy with our baseball family. Unfortunately the boys are getting more aggressive and with that comes injury... Michael got his first busted lip at practice Monday night. His lips swelled up like a balloon. These pictures do not do them justice, it was almost comical. But, he took it in stride and after the bleeding stopped got right back in there for the rest of practice. Go Storm!!!

Continuing the Tooth Story...

So last night Michael asked me an interesting question. "Mom, how do you know that the tooth fairy is real?" "Well", I said, "because she takes your old teeth and leaves you money in their place." So, he responded "but you could do that" - hmmmm, a trap - my response "yes, but why would I want your nasty old teeth, what would I do with them?" This seemed to satisfy him for now.

Also, we were not allowed to put the teeth in the tooth fairy pillow last night because Edd is out of town. He wanted to make sure Daddy saw the teeth before the tooth fairy takes them away. So, we hid them in his night stand where she wouldn't find them. First thing he did this morning was check the hiding place and make sure his teeth were still there... isn't it precious? My so-big, little guy...

F I N A L L Y !!!!!!

Anyone who's been around Michael in the last couple of months knows he's had a snaggle tooth. One of those two front top teeth that has been pushed out by the new tooth to lengths most teeth do not reach. It has been, at times, nearly poking straight out in front of his mouth. We've tried everything to get that darn thing out of there but it was stubbornly staying put. We had finally given up and told him at his next dentist appointment we were having the dentist take it out. Well, today at school Ms. Ashley (who is FAMOUS at the Sloan School for pulling teeth) was in a teeth pulling mode. So, I asked her to take a look at Mr. Snaggle.

Well, a little pulling and a few tears later she not only had that tooth out but the one next to it which we had just recently noticed was starting to loosen up. Apparently, the new "big" tooth had been holding in the first tooth which was holding in the second tooth. Once she got the first one out the other just popped out, literally, on the floor. So... two for the price of one. As required, the appropriate pictures of the new holes in Michael's mouth are here - mostly for blackmail purposes later. We are so grateful and give a big SHOUT out to Ms. Ashley - you go girl!! I just knew the dentist procedure would not make Michael a happy boy and now he can go to the dentist as scheduled and show off his new holes.

A Tender Tennessee Christmas

This year we took another Christmas vacation to Tennessee. I tried and tried to find another location to avoid getting stuck in that place where you keep going back to the same locations but we had such a good time last year... well, there you have it.

So, we took off on December 20 for a week in the mountains. We didn't do much and enjoyed every minute of it. We did manage to go over the mountains (Michael at the pass into North Carolina)

We were surprised to find an old mill

We rode the Polar Express on the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad. We had taken this ride once before when Michael was about 2 on our trip to Asheville this time with much better results.



Michael and Edd rode go karts and we played a few rounds of miniature golf. Michael was finally tall enough to drive most of them by himself which made him very happy. The most fun in the world is racing daddy on the go kart...


Santa found us on our mountain and left a few things with a promise of more when we got back to Flower Mound.



We also added to the luggage by buying Michael his first pocket knife and another bb gun.

It was a great trip and we were sad to leave the beautiful scenery. Luckily the house we rented this year is for sale so we could make it a permanent addition to the family - but, a bit out of the price range... oh well, we'll have to keep looking.

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas full of surprises and blessings.



And... if you're just dying to see more pictures from the trip please let me know and I'll e-mail you a link to the whole lot!!

About apples and trees...

As they say, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Well, a prime example was had this Christmas. Michael has always been addicted to music of all kinds and memorizes songs to sing to us at random times and places. This year for Christmas he got his very own Ipod from Grandma and Grandpa. As you might imagine, he was more excited than anything and has practically worn it out in the last few days. Here are a couple of pics of him opening the present (which we made him wait until last to open) and already enjoying his music.



Oh, and it also has several Star Wars - Clone Wars episodes on it... we didn't even have to get out the DVD player for our trip this year.

1st Christmas

This past weekend we celebrated the first of our family Christmases. This one was held at my Aunt and Uncle's farm in DEEEEEEPPPP East Texas. Michael loved playing with the cows, donkeys, puppies and other creatures big and small. He and Ryan had a great game of tag on top of the hay bales along with the assistance of Aunt Kathy, Uncle Chris and the dog Lucky. Here are a few pictures from the day...

Opening Gifts


Go Kathy!


Lucky the Dog


Ryan strategizing


Leap of Faith