Goodbye Barkley!

It is always sad when we have to tell Barkley goodbye! This year, Barkley left Braden and Nolan a little note since they would not be here on Christmas Eve. Nolan left a little note in return. :) 

Breakfast with the Grinch

In our Tuesday folders we got a flyer about a "Breakfast with the Grinch" at a local private school. Since Braden and Logan both had fun Christmas parties that day, Nolan and I decided to check it out. :) It was pretty fun....lots of games and green eggs and ham for breakfast. However, the Grinch was nowhere to be seen....we did get to get our picture taken with Santa again. The request remained the same.....a surprise...I sure hope this boy gets what he wants! 

 With Horton the Elephant

 One gigantic pancake....they had a contest: Horton the Elephant vs. the kids....who could finish the pancake first? 

End of the Season

At the end of the season, the football players had a banquet to celebrate their season! Nolan was super excited to get his trophy! He had a blast playing football and can't wait until next year! 

Cocoa with the Clauses

During the Junior League Holiday Market, Nolan and I went to have Cocoa with the Clauses. It was a fun day full of visiting Santa, making crafts, and eating cookies and drinking hot chocolate. Nolan visited Santa a couple of times this year, and each time when Santa asked what he wanted, he always said "a surprise." This Santa was a really good one. Our friend, Cale, along with Izzy and Jessica came along too. It was fun to have a friend. Afterwards, we all went to eat pizza at Grimaldi's. It was a super fun afternoon for all! 

 I love this picture of Nolan with Santa 

 Nolan and Cale decorating gingerbread men cookies. As you can see, Nolan's first cookie broke. :( 

Halloween 2012

Halloween this year snuck up on us! We didn't get a chance to carve pumpkins until the day of Halloween! We raced home from school to carve our two pumpkins and then quickly got ready for trick or treating. Logan had a party with his Curious group at church and the rest of us headed over to the Smith's house to trick or treat. Unfortunately, I didn't really get any trick or treating pictures because Daddy took the boys trick or treating while I stayed in and visited with Joel and friends. They got tons of candy as usual and had a great time. Nolan went as Captain America for the second year in a row and Braden dressed up as an old Mexican lady (he couldn't decide if he wanted to dress up or not...we told him no trick or treating if you don't dress up so this is what he came up with at the last minute!)

 Stirling being cute....

 Nolan couldn't wait to get his hands inside the pumpkin...his favorite part of carving! 

Flashback

Just a cute picture of Nolan's first day of school. Not sure what happened to Logan and Braden's first day pictures, but if I find them, I will post them. :) These are Nolan's great teachers, Mrs. Fitzpatrick and Mrs. Tiller. He is having a great year so far...continuing to make all A's on his report card and reading like a champ! 

Football

For the last 2 years that Nolan has been going with us to the KHS football games, he has said that he wants to play football for the Bearkats when he grows up too! Since he has never really played football before, we decided to let him play this fall. I think secretly Steve and I were hoping that he wouldn't like it since it is kind of a dangerous sport. However, the complete opposite thing happened. He absolutely LOVED it! He played for the Klein Eagles on their freshman team and loved everything about the sport. He amazed us with how much he learned about the game of football. When he first started, he really didn't have a clue what he was doing. He knew that you were supposed to go after the person with the ball....however, he did this when on offense as well meaning he went after his own teammates. When we asked him what he was doing, he said, "I don't know." He figured it out pretty quickly and now is quite knowledgeable about the game of football. In fact, at one of the Klein games this fall, a flag was thrown and Nolan piped up with, "Whoa...did you guys see that illegal block in the back?" Our friends in front of us were amazed. Mitch turned to us and said, "He's totally right." We have often caught him sleeping with his football, and the first thing he does everyday when he gets home from school is to go outside and throw or kick the football around. He was pretty speedy and the coaches often praised him because he never stopped. He would get tackled, fall down, and get right back up again....his name was called for a good play at many of the games. He played both offense and defense and was also on special teams. Needless to say, he got some good playing time in. He didn't care that he had practice 3 times a week in the blazing hot Texas sun. He loved it when it rained because then he got to practice in the mud. He will play again next fall. Since he started so young, he gets to be a freshman again which means that he will definitely get to be the star next year. His wish is to be able to be the quarterback. :) I am happy to have a boy who likes watching football with me. :) 

Here are some pictures from this season....

After his first practice in the rain....he would probably tell you that this was his favorite practice! 

 Ready for his first "real" game

We all enjoyed watching Nolan play, and I love that he loves football so much! :) His team wasn't great, but they did make the playoffs. They lost in the first round, but they sure did have a good time! We can't wait to watch you play again next year! 

Days 4 and 5

After our very long day 3, we got up on day 4 and went to another Civil War Battleground....Chickamauga in Georgia. While battlefields are not the most interesting thing to me, my boys LOVE them! This one was HUGE....reminded me a little bit of Calloden in Scotland, but even bigger! There was a great cell phone audio tour so we spend most of the time driving around to the different sites and listening to the information. Every once in awhile we got out and looked around. We didn't take too many pictures since it all pretty much just looked like a big green field! :) 

After spending the morning at Chickamauga, we headed up to Knoxville where we would stay for the last two days of vacation. On the way there, we stopped at the Mayfield Dairy. Mayfield is Tennessee's equivalent to Bluebell. Their milk comes in a bright yellow jug! In college, my roommate always said that Mayfield made the best milk. At the time, Nashville did not carry Mayfield's milk so every time her parents came to visit from Maryville (outside of Knoxville), they brought 2 big jugs for us in a cooler! We were too late to take a tour, but we did enjoy some ice cream and the boys "milked" a cow! 

The next day, we got up and met the McKennas at Ober Gatlinburg. They have family in Knoxville, so they came at the same time we were there. :) Ober Gatlinburg is a ski resort in the winter and a mini amusement park in the summer. You take a sky gondola thing up to it. It is about a 15 minute trip with such a beautiful view up into the valley. When you get there, there is so much to do. The favorite is an alpine slide. You ride the ski lift up to the ride and then slide down racing each other. There were also some fun water rides and swings. We took the ski lift to the very top of the mountain peak which was beautiful. It was great because the kids could pretty much do the rides over and over and when the adults got tired, they could just sit and watch. 

Finally on the last day before we left to drive home, we all went horseback riding. When Steve and I were in Knoxville for the DI competition in May, we were told of the Walden Creek Stables and absolutely loved them! We knew that when we brought the boys, we would take them horseback riding there. This time around we went on the hour and a half tour which took us even further up into the mountains. It was a fun way to end our trip. Ana was in heaven!

 Steve's  horse, Atta Boy, was really onery. He kept spitting out his bit and then would try and nip Steve in the leg every time he went to put it back in! 

We can't wait to go back to Tennessee!