IPhone Pics

Here are some random pictures from my IPhone that I've taken over the past months:

Charlotte and I enjoying donuts while we wait for an oil change

Nathan made a display of all of his Transformers. He wanted to take a picture of them so that he could show his friends at school. 

Charlotte in one of her new dresses, getting ready to go to school. 

Charlotte and Nathan waiting for Jake to walk over and play for the afternoon

Wearing their new pumpkin shirts to school

When the Toys R Us catalog comes in the mail (or any toy catalog), Nathan and Charlotte love looking at it! Charlotte goes straight to the baby section!

Nathan has gotten so creative with his Legos. He used to have the "kits" separated but, over time, they have gotten all mixed up. Nathan doesn't care though because he has turned into a Lego architect! Here is a jet with passengers!

At Mama and Papa's house...Charlotte and Cookie were both being lazy!

We almost always get to school 10 or 15 minutes early so that Nathan and Charlotte can play on the playground before school starts. Nathan loves to push Charlotte on the baby swings, and then we go to the big swings for Nathan to have a turn. 

Here we are at the park with my playgroup, celebrating Molly's birthday. The kids used marshmallows and toothpicks to make towers as one of our birthday activities.

And here we are getting another oil change! I think this was for Wayne's car, and the previous one was for my car. Neither one of us minds going to Firestone now!

We picked up Trevor from school one day and went to CooCoos, which is an inflatable play center. 

Charlotte and Trevor

Andrew came over to play one day after school, and we had dinner outside.

Not the best picture, but it shows Charlotte's cute dress that Mama made her.

Charlotte was sick with a bad cold and cough. Here we are at the doctor's office. She is normally a little scared about going to the doctor, but on this day, she was such a good girl and didn't cry at all!

My kids are just like me! They can sleep anywhere, anytime!

Jake and Skylar came over to spend an afternoon with us. Skylar LOVES Nathan so he has to play big brother to both Charlotte and Skylar. 

Skylar and Nathan...I told Jennifer (Jake's mom) that we need to save all of these pictures to show at the rehearsal dinner!

They fell asleep in the car on the way home from playgroup. It was 6:30! Needless to say, they had a great power nap and were up until 11:30 that night!

When Andrew came over, I spread out this big roll of white paper on the coffee table and let them draw.

Another one of Nathan's creations. This is Daddy's office building with him working at his desk.

Charlotte looking so cute in her sweater dress. It's the end of November, so you would think perfect weather for a sweater. Well, on this day, the temperature got up to 80 degrees! Oh well, Charlotte didn't care. She knew she looked cute. 

Thanksgiving Feast

Nathan had a Thanksgiving feast at school. Everyone brought different food, and the kids all dressed up like pilgrims or Indians and had a huge carpet picnic. It is always so much fun to be in Nathan's classroom to see his friends and how he interacts with all of them. He is one popular little boy! At the end, the class lined up and sang a Thanksgiving song that they learned. I took a video and will try to post it. They were so cute!!!

Homework!

Nathan has homework every week in school. He gets it on Monday and turns it in on Friday. It is so amazing to me how much his writing has improved this year! And he is more confident so he actually likes doing his homework and showing off for me :) This is a picture of this week's homework. The only thing I did was help him spell the words, but he did all of the writing.

Fall Soccer 2012

Nathan's Fall soccer season has come to an end. He has really loved playing with this team.The boys are all so sweet and so are their parents.This was the group that Nathan and Wayne went with on their camping trip so he has really bonded with them. Last week's game was really exciting! First of all, let me begin by explaining that this group of boys are all pretty much beginners.We haven't won a game all season. In fact, we've only scored about 3 points total! But they don't care. They are all just having fun. Where a lot of the other kids are really going after the ball, our group isn't all that aggressive. It's almost like they are too nice to try to steal the ball from the other kids. So funny to watch! Anyway, Nathan usually does the same thing. But during our last game, he was trying so hard to be "aggressive." The beginning of the game started out rough. Both teams were huddled on the field with the referee, and all of a sudden, Nathan left the group and came to us crying. I had forgotten to put Nathan's shin guards on so the ref told him he couldn't play. He was so upset, and I felt horrible! Nathan was crying so hard, he could hardly catch his breath. His coach told us (and Nathan) not to worry, that he would switch out one of the other player's shin guards with Nathan. But Nathan was so upset that he wasn't understanding that he was still going to get to play. Wayne ended up having to take him to the car for a while to calm him down.When they finally came back, Nathan was happy again. Thank goodness!

 When it was time for Nathan to play, he was following the ball wherever it went, and was not scared to try to get the ball. Wayne and I were both surprised at how well he was playing. At one point, Nathan got the ball, and started kicking it down the field. One of the other players tried to get it from him, but Nathan actually kicked it around him and kept going! I never thought he would actually score a goal, I was just proud of the way he was kicking the ball so far down the field.Well, he got close to the goal and got into position to try to score. In a few previous games, he has tried to score but either the goalie has blocked it or he's kicked it out of bounds. So this time, he was right in front of the goal, he gave it a big kick. Wayne and I were squeezing each other's arms nervously watching the ball. The goalie tried to block it, but the ball went in! Nathan scored his first goal (and the team's 3rd point)! It was such a wonderful moment.Wayne and I both jumped up clapping (I might have knocked Charlotte down in the process). Everyone was cheering for him, and Nathan had the biggest smile on his face. All of the dad's came over to Wayne to give him high fives. I was so happy for Nathan that I felt like crying. After the game, Nathan's coach told him how proud he was of Nathan and all of the parents congratulated him. So as a reward, we went to Nathan's favorite place, Berry Luscious where Nathan got to get any kind of yogurt and toppings he wanted. 

These next pictures are of our last game. We'll take a little break until the spring and then definitely sign up again. At least Nathan will still get to see most of these kids in the meantime because they are part of the Adventure Guides group.

Coach Marc, Coach Darrell, Coach Trek

Travis, Pierce, Roman, Nathan, Blake, Kai, Jack, Dillon, Jordan, Ethan

After the game, we all went to The Purple Cow for milkshakes and trophies. Coach Darrell called each of the boys up one by one and complimented them on what their special qualities were. It was really nice because he was so sincere, and he made each of the boys feel very special. When it was Nathan's turn, Coach Darrell said that Nathan was the speediest and definitely the most improved player of the group. And he said that Nathan was always a pleasure to be around. The whole time his coach was talking, Nathan was beaming. 

Adventure Guides Campout 2012

Last weekend was an exciting weekend for Wayne and Nathan. A bunch of dads on Nathan's soccer team joined a group called Adventure Guides which is sponsored through the YMCA, and it's just for fathers and sons. Their first big outing was a campout at Camp Grady Spruce. Nathan and Wayne left Friday around 1:00 and didn't come back until Sunday! While they were experiencing nature, Charlotte and I relaxed, watched movies, and did a little cleaning. Wayne said that the two of them had so much fun together. Wayne got to know the dads better, and they all meshed really well. Nathan knows the kids pretty well from soccer, but this was their chance to really bond and have fun. Wayne told me that he had never seen Nathan have so much fun! When the two of them got home, Nathan was so excited about his trip. He and Wayne showed me all of their pictures and explained each one in great detail. I could really tell that he loved every minute of it. 

I couldn't believe how much they packed into the weekend! There were tons of kids at the campout, and each group had their own cabin. Wayne said that their group had the perfect cabin location. It was right on the lake and a little bit off from all of the other groups. Their days were packed full with: archery, horseback riding, canoeing, hiking, BB shooting, and even trick or treating! Wayne said the weather was perfect. It was sunny but nice and cool. I worried about Nathan being too cold at night, sleeping in his sleeping bag, but even though they called it "camping" they didn't really rough it too much. They stayed in HEATED cabins! They did have bunk beds though...and I'm pretty sure no one showered the whole time, so I guess that counts as "roughing" it. 

CABINS: Their cabins were right on the lake. Wayne said the boys loved being able to run all over the place exploring and sitting around the campfire talking and making smores.

On Friday night, each cabin went through an induction ceremony. They learned the meaning of Adventure Guides, what was expected of them and what character traits were valued by the Guides. Things like bravery, courage, honesty, and integrity.They each had to tell their Indian names (which was one they chose on their own)...Nathan was Running Wolf and Wayne was Howling Wolf. Each child then had their faces painted by the main Chief and received an arrowhead necklace that they keep and add beads to as they complete certain tasks. 

ARCHERY: When Wayne showed me these pictures, I was half expecting that they arrows were the toy kind with suction cups on the end...WRONG! Nathan made sure I knew that these were REAL arrows with pointed tips and all. They were not toys! Wayne said that Nathan loved shooting the bow and arrows and was actually really good at it!

HORSEBACK RIDING: Each child got to ride a horse on a trail while the dad's led them. 

CANOEING: There's nothing like a nice, relaxing canoe trip to follow horseback riding.  

HIKING: After caonoeing, they went hiking up a huge trail. There's a picture of a rock wall you'll see...they didn't actually climb all the way up it, just a little ways for fun...I think it was also a "potty break" spot. Wayne said that once they made it onto the trail, it was really steep and a pretty hard hike, but Nathan kept up. When they got to the top, the view was beautiful. Nathan and the other kids also "happened" to find real arrowhead rocks in various places. Blake's dad, Darrell, brought arrowhead rocks for each of the kids. He gave them to the dad's and secretly told them to "hide" them along the trail for their sons to find. I thought that was really neat. 

 BB SHOOTING: Once again, these are REAL guns and REAL BB'S! I couldn't believe it when I saw these pictures! Nathan explained it all to me and that the bullets were little metal balls and they really did shoot through the paper. Nathan actually shot the target...he was very proud of his sniper abilities :)

TRICK OR TREATING: To end the night, all of the kids dressed up in their costumes. The original plan was for all of the cabins to go trick or treating at each other's cabins. Wayne said that their group of dads decided that it would be more fun just to hang out at their own cabin with their own group. So Wayne and the other dads just started throwing handfuls of candy out around the cabin and let the kids go crazy trying to gather it all up. 

After this, they went to the closing ceremonies. All of the kids were exhausted from everything they did that day. Nathan ended up falling asleep halfway through the ceremony and stayed asleep on the way home. When they got back to the cabin, Nathan woke up and wanted to eat more of his candy. Wayne told him everyone was going to bed and that he wasn't going to eat anymore candy. This is where the crazy meltdown occurred (which is what the chief warned them all about the previous night...he said that Saturday night is usually when these dreaded meltdowns occur). Wayne told me that Nathan was so upset, that he could not catch his breath and calm down. Finally Nathan got control. Wayne said that he had been really good all weekend, but he was just completely exhausted now. So Nathan was the one that ended up proving the Chief right :)

EATING: They ate all of the meals except for Saturday's dinner (they grilled steaks at their cabin) at the cafeteria.

Wayne told me that he and Nathan had such a great time. It was obvious that not only did all of the kids get along great, but so did the dads. And I thought it was such a great experience for Nathan and Wayne to share together. Talk about bonding! They have several more activities to do throughout the year and then another campout in the spring.