Lads 2 Leaders/Leaderettes

We spent Easter weekend at the national Lads 2 Leaders/Leaderrettes convention at the Opryland Hotel. This  program helps prepare kids for service in the church through year long training and practice in many different areas. At convention, they compete in things like song leading, speech, scrapbook, art, Bible reading, bulletin boards, Bible Bowl and MANY others (37 events in all)! For Will and Wyatt's age, they "practice competing" but don't actually get judged and everyone gets an award for participating. Starting in the 3rd grade, they can compete for trophies. There were about 10,000 people for the Nashville meeting this weekend and they had 5 other conventions going on at the same time in other locations. All total, there were almost 19,000 people! Our church has been participating in this for several years, but this was the first year Trent and I went. We were amazed at the size of this convention! It was so much more than what we were expecting!! 

   

We stayed 2 nights at the hotel and the boys thought it was SOOO cool! When we first walked into the cascade area, both boys were oohhing and awwing and Wyatt said, "Mom, I hope we don't see a giant monkey. Cause monkey's live in the jungle you know!" They were amazed at the glass ceilings, fountains, waterfalls and all the gardens. They were also amazed at the "sky" ceilings in some of the ballrooms. It was beautiful!!

Both boys were registered for 3 events: Know the Books (singing the books of the Bible both old and new testament); Oral Bible Reading (Will "read" Romans 8:28, Wyatt "read" Genesis 1:1); and Song Leading (Will sang "Up from the Grave He Arose", Wyatt sang "Blue Skys and Rainbows") I didn't do too well with the video camera so no video to post.....

But they dressed up in their "suits" and did very well in each event! Here they are getting ready for Bible Reading with some friends from our church.

At the awards ceremony on Saturday night, they invited ALL the preK - 2nd graders that participated to come up on stage for recognition. It was several hundred kids up on the stage and my boys got right in the front row!! I was so proud!

 This was one of the favorites for Will  - and Wyatt was haming it up pretty good!

They had so much fun!! Will wants to add a few events like Good Samaritan and Speech for next year. It makes us so proud that they are developing these skills at such a young age!

It was great to spend quality time with friends from church  and what a fun place to do so!!

From the minute the boys spotted the "boat ride", they were begging to do it. We finally gave in and they were all smiles!

In the above picture, I said, "hug guys". So they did. Then they said, "oh no....too tight!!"

It was beautiful and the boys were in awe again....

taking it all in....

So much to see!

The boys even had fun on the fancy elevators!

And Weston was with us too! He didn't get as much camera time, but he tagged along like a trooper! Doesn't this look like trouble waiting to happen!

We woke up Easter morning and headed back home. It was such a fun weekend and we're excited already for next year!

Choc full of sports

While sitting at Mom and Dad's house waiting out the many tornadoes that are on the way today, I found that I have a few minutes to update. The boys are playing with their cousins and Weston has Papa and Aunt Rachel and Nana to keep him busy. First update: Sports, sports, sports. The boys love to play sports and we have been busy with practices and ballgames on most days lately. Wyatt is playing his first soccer season ever. He LOVES it!

He is on the Green Dragons and loves to say "Go Green Dragons!!" He runs hard and has scored a few goals. The first game was extremely cold and that was the only time I brought by camera. I'll have to take pictures of him during the nice sunny games!

He was so excited for his first game!!

Wyatt's the one with his tongue hanging out! He always sticks his tongue out when he's concentrating really hard :) 

Trent is the assistant coach which means he's the one on the sidelines keeping the dragons contained when they're not playing.

Weston enjoyed snuggling with Nannie during the freezing game!

Will is playing baseball this season too. He's on the White Sox and they are currently undefeated. He has lots of fun and is learning so much about the game.

Will is really good at hitting, getting on base almost every time at bat! He has scored several runs and a couple of RBIs.

This is him at 3rd base waiting to run home.

And this would be him doing a little dance across home plate!

He's still a little "distracted" in the outfield, but is getting better at throwing.

Wyatt loves to go talk to Will and his teammates in the dugout! He says he wants to play baseball when he gets big enough.

This is Wyatt pretending to ride a motorcycle up the big hill between the bleachers and the field. He's good at entertaining himself!

Spring Fling

We had the annual Spring Fling at church a couple of weeks ago and the boys had such a good time hunting eggs, playing games and racing the  bunny hop obstacle course. They had the ages split up so while Wyatt's age group was playing games, Will's age group was hunting eggs and visa versa. This created some good exercise time for mommy running across the parking lot taking pictures of both boys doing their thing! Not to mention it was a sunny 99 degrees that day - gorgeous for a Spring Fling, not so gorgeous when I forgot to pack a change of clothes for us and the kids. Oh...and I forgot the easter baskets too. We made do with the happy meal boxes from lunch!

There was an egg toss...

And of course, egg hunting!

Will was racing the girls to the unhunted section!

Wyatt pretty much stayed in a group and found the more obvious eggs.

Will was happy with his stash! - notice the happy meal box :)

Wyatt, too, was proud of his hunting skills.

The obstacle course was so fun! It had several obstacles to tackle all while bunny hopping with bunny ears!

Catching butterflies was one....

And of course, hurdling to the finish line!

Weston hung out and enjoyed the soft grass at a safe distance from the "racers"!

The egg hunt in our neighborhood last weekend was way too cold and wet to attend - so we didn't. There will be more egg hunting Easter afternoon at Aunt Jane's house!

11 Months Already?

Yes He Is.        11 months old.         Weston has accomplished oh so much in the past month !! He now weighs 20lbs (well ... according to my scales at home and my math skills :) - and he is so mobile. He went from just learning to crawl to speed crawling in about a week. He is pulling up on everything and will now let go with both hands and stand for several seconds before slowly sitting down! He loves to stand up with one hand on something and wave his other hand around. He is a busy little guy playing with toys and exploring everywhere. He's very good at walking while holding on to our hands or maneuvering around tables, couches, chairs, etc. The other day, he grabbed a bag I was holding and walked around with me while only holding the bag. All this mobility has resulted in a few scary moments, but none scarier than last Friday. I had a mommy brained moment and didn't realize he could actually climb up stairs. While he was playing in the playroom and I was busy in the dining room (where I could keep an eye on him but obviously not watching him too closely) I heard a loud crash. I looked up to see Weston upside down and backwards falling down the stairs. He was about halfway up the front staircase and falling headfirst down to the bottom. I ran to him but not before he bounced off 3 stairs and landed flat on his face on the hardwood floor. One bounce I was sure he broke his back, another bounce it was his neck that was broken and by the time he was at the bottom, I was wondering how he possibly could have survived. I grabbed him up, held him tightly and completely lost my sanity. He was crying so I knew he was alive, but I couldn't take the chance on finding out if anything was actually wrong. I finally calmed him down and called my Dad. I was crying so much he couldn't understand what I was saying, but he came over and checked Weston out really good for me. Luckily God was keeping an eye on Weston when I wasn't and absolutely NOTHING was wrong with him. He was laughing and crawling and playing again in no time. I made sure he stayed awake for a good 3 hours and then he took a good nap. I was still shaking well into the night! Oh, and we now have gates up at both the top and bottom of the stairs!
Aside from the momma drama, everything has been pretty good around here. Weston now has 4 teeth - which all came in at once - and he is drinking very well from sippy cups. He has almost given up on baby food. He prefers table food and will eat just about anything....soft tacos, cheese pizza, you know all the healthy stuff. He is nursing 2 times per day (when he wakes up in the morning and right before bed at night). Sometimes he will want to nurse in the middle of the day, but not often.

He ADORES his brothers. When he wakes up from a nap, Wyatt will run in and talk to him making him smile and laugh. It's so cute!

It's especially cute (although not very safe) when Wyatt climbs up to give him "sugars". Hopefully the used and abused baby bed will hold up to Wyatt's climbing!

Weston is such a trooper tagging along with this "on the go" crew! People always comment about how happy and content he is. This is what he looks like most of the time!

2 more of his favorite things right now are Daddy and playing ball. When Trent gets home, Weston is SOOOO happy. He squeals and practically jumps out of my arms to get to his daddy! If on the floor, he speed crawls over to him calling "dada dada".

If there is a ball around, you can find Weston playing catch. He loves to throw the ball back and forth. If no one is available to play with him, then he will throw it, go get it and throw it again by himself.

He has changed so much this past month, I am excited to see what changes the next month has in store for him!

showing off his 4 new teeth!