Lads to Leaders/Leaderettes 2012

 

 

Lads to Leaders/Leaderettes was fun and exciting again this year. We spent Easter weekend at Opryland Hotel and the boys participated in song leading as well as oral bible reading. It was great to spend quality time with so many people from our church as well as so many people from other congregations across multiple states. They said this year the attendance was nearly 10 thousand people just for this conference! It was packed and crowded and filled with people! We got there on Friday morning and left early, early Sunday morning to get home to see what the easter bunny had left for the boys before heading off to church.

The boys loved looking at all the pretty things in the hotel.



However, the boys did NOT like all the pictures we were taking, most of which turned out like this....

Well, since our room was not ready until normal hotel check-in time (3:00pm) and the boys had an event at 2:00pm....we went to the car to change clothes :)

Because everyone knows you don't put fancy clothes on young boys for longer than absolutely necessary! Wyatt was nervously contemplating his bible verse on the walk back in. Isn't that the sweetest?!

This was our group of PreK-2nd grade boys that "competed" in bible reading. They don't actually get judged and ranked in any of the competitions until 3rd grade, so everyone in prek -2nd gets a certificate. Our boys did Great!

Wyatt read Matthew 7:12

And Will read Matthew 7:13-14 

For Song Leading, here are some of our prek - 2nd grade boys. Again they did great! All these boys have been practicing in front of our congregation on Wednesday nights for several months. It takes alot of courage to stand up in front of the entire congregation and lead a song at this age!

Wyatt lead "When We All Get to Heaven". I didn't get a picture of Will, just video, but he lead "This World is Not My Home".

And...... this is Wyatt sleeping while the other 16 boys lead songs :)

Between competitions we got to explore the hotel. We did the boat ride and watched the water show and took more pictures!

Of course the water show needed proper conducting! Will and Weston were very into it!

 Wyatt tried, but with cheeto fingers, it just wouldn't work!

The awards ceremonies at night were really fun....long, but exciting. Our youth won so many awards! It was neat to see the kids go up on stage and get the trophies. The boys especially liked it when a friend of theirs in 3rd grade won a 3rd place trophy for his speech. They thought that was so cool! In a couple of years, Will is going to be at that level.....scary!

The glass elevators were fun too of course.

They were so tired by the time they finally fell into bed!

It's a fun and exhausting weekend!

Springtime fun

Hello it's springtime! And this spring has been beautiful weather for outside play!!

Since this weather has been so nice, we have been outside ALOT. We've even gotten the water house out to run through! In March and April!! Weston loves to play outside and has the boo boo’s to prove it. He has lots of cuts on both knees and a big goose egg on his forehead that he has re-injured 3 times!  Aggregate is hard on toddlers! Wyatt still has a scar on his knees from doing his “toddler  time”.  On a side note, I noticed recently that I carry 3 packages of baindaids and a spray tube of Neosporin in my purse. Along with diapers and wipes of course…now that’s a mom purse

This is why I need so many baindaids! Mr. Tough Guy can do anything his brothers can do!

The boys favorite thing right now is riding to the top of the hill on our road (about 3 houses away which is the farthest they have EVER been allowed to go!) and flying down the hill as fast as possible to jump the curb into our yard! They do this with their bikes, the little red wagon and even pushing Weston on the tricycle. I’m just waiting for the moment I hear “hey lets make a ramp”. Not looking forward to that.

Speaking of bike riding...Wyatt has learned to ride sans Training Wheels!!! Yep. He's a 2-wheeler now :)

 

Just look at him go!!

He has been begging us non-stop for the past couple of weeks to take his training wheels off, but the timing just hasn't been right.  So this weekend at Memur and Pepaw's house, he got to ride one of Will's old bikes without the trainers and he learned so quick! Uncle Drew pushed him all around their grassy hill until Wyatt was riding on his own! Today he begged me to take them off his bike...so I did...and off he went! No problems, no worries, just free ridin'! At 4 years old no less!

In other randomness, Will and Wyatt have both started baseball (t-ball for Wyatt) and they are loving it! Over spring break, Will wrote a story entitled "The Will Book". I will type it out here for your reading pleasure (with his creative spelling and all):

Once there was a superhero named smlyman (smelly man). He had the pawer of scunks (skunks).  His sidekick was chicknman. He had the pawer to poop out big boldeers (boulders) of eggs. The iname (enemy) was cald (called) erthman (earthman). His pawer was to dustry (destroy) the erth. He wod do inething to tri to duschray (destroy) the erth. Smelyman use's his pawer on him and chikenman poop's a egg on him but it is no yoos (use). Erthman has a shild he uses on smlyman and he penchis (punches) chikinman to. It is pabach (payback) time sed (said) chikinman sed (said) with a grin. He shot his nives out.

Well, that's all he wrote. Kinda cracked me up a bit. 

Here are some other things that have made us smile lately:

Quotes from Will: "Dad, I know you know how to do it your way. But what I’m trying to do is find a way to do it better and faster." Also, he  now  wants to be an agricultural engineer. Yep, thats right. And what will he do as an Agricultural Engineer?  figure out how to grow apples and use pesticides that won’t make people sick - of course.

Quotes from Wyatt:  "hmmm, ….perhaps yes".  Riding his bike  today, “I just keep getting all squirlly”. ;  last night at bedtime, “dad, in case you forgot, puppy dog is downstairs in my bag…just in case you want to go get him.”

Quotes from Weston: "mom,mom" that's what he calls me. When I ask, do you have a dirty diaper? "Not meeeee, not mom mom, not dad dad" Or He'll say, "not meee" I'll ask, well then who has a stinky diaper? "daddy"  ; woo woo = his foo foo ; bkey = his blanket; ask him why not?  “cause”; "predy pease" with a sweet smile and a side head tilt;  anytime we go anywhere - upstairs, outside, to the bathroom, he says, "me too, me too"

And Ava Belle: She is getting bigger and sweeter! She loves to wear bows (even though she looks mad in these pictures, she really does love them!) She is 3 months old and weighs 6.6 lbs. She just went for her last set of puppy shots!

Isn't she sweet!

Gatlinburg

Ahhh.

The views are beautiful. The air is fresh. And that was just from our first floor balcony!

The views were great from the top floor balcony too!

When you venture into those mountains for some family hiking, you see the beauty up close and personal.

We hiked to Henwallow Falls 4.4 miles roundtrip and 900ft in elevation change. The boys did great! They are getting used to our hiking trips and getting stronger each time. Will did it all himself and Wyatt made it up the mountain and then rode a little down the hill!

Weston loves the backpack carrier and peeks out to see the world!

We did this hike on Nannie's birthday! She loves to hike and this one was beautiful!!

Papa and the boys are checking to see what might live in this cave/overhang. And the boys were on a mission to see who could spot the biggest tree!

When we got to the falls, they were gorgeous! We had a quiet picnic lunch and enjoyed the beauty.

And took some pictures :)

And came back and jumped in the hot tub!

The boys didn't mind grilling with a view like this!

The next day we visited Wonder Works (aka the upside down house) and The Dixie Stampede!! Both were LOTS of fun :) I only got pictures from wonderworks though. This is Wyatt pulling himself up with a pulley system, Will climbing to the TOP of the rock wall and the guys finding their houses on googlemaps!

All the boys loved the space section and Will and Wyatt both walked on the "ropes course" high above everyone's heads!

Weston really liked the music he made on this dance sized piano :)

I love Gatlinburg!!! We had so much fun :)

Ava Belle

Meet Ava Belle Sarge Napier, the newest addition to our family. Our sweet little girl :)

She is a 7 week old Shih Tzu puppy.

Just look at that cute face!

She came to live with us on Saturday and she has been happy and playful and cuddly the whole time.

She has a pink collar and pink toys (and some cute bows for when her hair grows a little longer)!

She loves to curl up in her new bed and nap.

Or pounce on it and fall off the other side!

The boys are having so much fun with her! Even Weston loves to hold her and chase her and let her chase him! He walks to her puppy pad, points to it and says "poddy", and he'll also walk to food bowl and ask her "bite? bite?"

She will never lack attention in this house!!

Wyatt has been holding her as much as possible. She went to sleep in his arms like this today watching cartoons :)

She's so sweet!