Ethan Seale, 2nd grade Good Citizen

Ethan was nominated and chosen to be the 2nd Grade Good Citizen at Garden Ridge Elementary this week. He was so excited, as was the whole family. He has really been working so hard, and has been so good (at school at least)! The school mailed home his nomination form.

Here is what his teacher (who we think is awesome) said: Ethan comes in every morning with a positive attitude. He takes pride in his work and gets his assignments turned in on time. Ethan respects his peers and gets along with everyone. He offers to help when he sees that there is a need. It is a pleasure to have Ethan in my room this year. I am proud to nominate him as a Garden Ridge Good Citizen.

We are so proud of our son. He is so smart, creative, and funny. I love his tell it like it is personality. I know that this is just the first of many great recognitions for him!

Stock show field trip

Last Thursday, I was able to find a sub so that I could go on Ethan's field trip with him to the Ft. Worth Stock Show. I wasn't Mrs. Seale this trip. I was just Ethan's mom, and that made the day even more special! We enjoyed seeing all of the livestock, and I even learned a thing or two. "Thank a farmer" was the catch phrase of the day! I don't know how farmers deal with all that poop!

They did not want to pet the llamas.

Ethan loved getting to pet Elsie's baby.

Ethan and I with Elsie, the official Borden cow!

We all ate sack lunches together in a giant cafeteria with lots of students from all over DFW.
We even got to see a baby chick hatch out of it's egg. Ethan said that was his favorite part of the whole day!

I don't know how this giant pig managed to sleep through everything that was going on, but she did. A part of me got sad realizing that a lot of the animals we were visiting were more than likely going to end up on people's dinner plates in the near future, but not sad enough to become a vegetarian. I guess I do better if I don't meet my dinner!

I feel very blessed that I was able to spend the day with my awesome little boy. I am so glad that he felt special having a day with his Mama sans his little siblings (even though we know he loves them very much).

Keaton's Birthday Party

Last Sunday, we spent the evening at some long time family friends of ours home to celebrate their son Keaton's 8th birthday. Ethan and Keaton are only 4 months a part, and have been friends since they were born. We don't get to see the Hawkins very often even though they are only a few miles south down I35, but we always seem to manage to pick up right were we left off.

Misty always makes the coolest cakes ever, and they taste even better than they look.

Ethan had to keep Claire out of the presents.

All of the failed present attempts wore her out, and she decide to relax in Keaton's bean bag chair for a while.

Claire loves party food. She is for sure a Daddy's girl!

Keaton blew out his candles in the living room so that his Grandpa who had a heart attack that resulted in triple by pass surgery the week prior could be a part of the party festivities. We are all very thankful that he seems to be recovering well.

Kelsie did an awesome job as the party face painter. She is a gifted artist!

Thank you for letting us be a part of your special day! Hope you have the best year yet!

The Eve of 2011

We spent the the eve of 2011 with some of our nearest and dearest friends on our former street, and had a true "red neck" style NYE. I mean you have to be a little bit red neck if your hanging out in your garage and in your driveway with a fire pit when it's 40 degrees outside when you could all go hang out inside just as easily, but where would the fun in that be?

We had a very nice spread as always, and Mike made lots of Italian food like meatballs, and sausage, etc. Cindy still has not forgiven the captain for what he did to her a couple years ago.

Claire enjoyed hanging out in front of the fire. She is very much a Daddy's girl, and Doug just eats it up!

The kids all hung out directly across the street inside Greg's house watching movies and eating pizza. They would pop out every now and again to see some of the fireworks that were going on around us, but that was about it. The adults all reminisced about the good old days when we were all still neighbors, and would hang out in the drive way together every weekend after we had all put our children to bed until the wee a.m. hours. It was almost like old times except that we now struggle to make it to midnight, and we no longer have our row of baby monitors sitting up on Doug's truck bed.

The Men. Doesn't this photo look like it could be on America's Most Wanted?

Our silly kiddos.

The Happy Couple.
This is a terribly unflattering photo of me. Oh, well!
The amazing news this time is we all made it to midnight our time. Last year we celebrated with the east coast and called it a night. I am so glad that we have kept up the red neck tradition. I love these friends dearly, and there is no where else I would have rather been. Here's hoping for a safe and blessed journey through 2011!

winter's first snow

Well, I'm behind once again, and I don't have any real excuse this time other than this cold, cloudy. dreary weather has just flat out made me feel lazy. Ashlea and Micah still came for a brief play session one day after school this week, and Ashlea brought this adorable little tutu that she made for Claire Boo. This little girl has had a big week this week. She has both pooped and peed in the potty multiple times all on her own will and volition. Will it last? Only time will tell!
Last Sunday brought our first snowfall of the winter, and the boys were so excited. I couldn't wait to get them out to play, and to see what Claire would think about the snow.
She was so funny when she would try to catch the snowflakes in her mouth and they would hit her in face and eyes. She would get so frustrated.

Davin rolled up this giant snowball all by himself. I thought it was pretty impressive.

Davin, Matthew, and Ethan built a snow couch!

You will notice that Claire is not smiling in many of the snow pictures. As a matter of fact she would cry and say, "uck, uck" whenever it was on her or if she fell in it.

Claire preferred be an observer of the snow play over being a participant. She did like eating it though.

Her boots were actually stuck in the snow in this picture.

She thought it was hilarious when her brothers would throw snowballs at the door.

Here is the finished snow man. He lasted for almost an entire week! He was a 2 sided snowman because he was sad that we where in the house.

The beginning of the snow couch.

Ethan's snow angel

Ready for a snowball fight.

The boys thought they needed to shovel the drive way so that we would be able to get my car out of the garage the next morning. It made them happy, and believe it or not I think it actually was helpful the next morning. I hope that we will get at least one more nice wet snow this winter!