McKinley is ONE!

This weekend we had lots of fun celebrating McKinley turning ONE! It's hard to believe a year has already passed! There were lots of wonderful sweets to eat in honor of their little "sweetie". Happy First Birthday, McKinley!

The guests helped decorate a set of wooden blocks. When McKinley plays with them she'll see special decorations from the guests.

Daddy making a watermelon block.

Papa making an apple block.

Thomas making an octopus block.

Nana and Nathan reading while McKinley opened presents.

I think she liked the bouncy turtle we got her so much that she just had to sit on the box!

Birthday Girl and her wonderful Mommy

Trick or Treat Sneak Peek

The other day we got Nathan's Halloween costume in the mail. He's such a cute "Mario". Can't wait to see him with the mustache. The boys are going to be so cute as "Super Mario Brothers".

Potty Training Progress

Last week Nathan came home from school showing us a new trick. He can go pee-pee in the potty! He must have learned it at school since several classmates are potty trained. On Saturday we bought some pull-ups to make the process easier and he loves them. He doesn't want to get them wet. He had 3 "accidents" the entire weekend! His teacher said that she'll use pull-ups this week and next week he can wear big boy underwear (and bring changes of clothes!) We are so excited that Nathan is becoming such a big boy.

Go Patriots!

On Friday we went to the Oviedo vs. Lake Brantley football game. My nephew Christian plays trombone for Lake Brantley's marching band. They have almost 400 members of their band! It was enormous! I took Thomas and Nathan since Ken was working. Nana, Papa, Uncle Mike and Aunt April were there, too. Having extra hands with Nathan was very helpful, since I was still feeling blah from a sinus infection. The boys had more fun watching the cheerleaders than the football game! Ken was proud. The band did great and we hope to see them perform again before football season is over.

Homework Time

Each week Thomas brings home homework. Every Thursday we practice his spelling words in fun ways. The first time we used washable crayons on the shower wall. This past week we used sidewalk chalk to write them. Nathan wanted in on the fun! Thomas got his words written quickly so they could have fun drawing on the sidewalk!

First Lost Tooth

Thomas has had two permanent lower teeth growing behind his baby teeth and we have been patiently waiting for the baby teeth to get wiggly so we didn't have to have the dentist pull them. One afternoon he said he had a wiggly tooth and within one week he had lost his first tooth!!! Ken tried to pull it, but it didn't work. Thomas asked him to "google" the right way to pull it. The next night, Ken did google it and tried a slip knot using dental floss to get it out. It took only one try and out it flew! Thomas was so excited that the tooth fairy would be visiting our house. He woke up the next morning to find $2 under his pillow. As his mom, I couldn't help but feel a little sad that he lost his tooth. No more little boy smile. I remember he had a 102 fever the day that tooth finally broke through the gum. That was his first tooth and sure enough, it was the first one he lost!

Choosing My Battles

Nathan insisted on wearing his backpack to bed. After trying to get him to stay in his bed for almost an hour, I gave in and just let him wear it. Within minutes he was sound asleep.