Surprise!!

My dad turned 60 on Jan. 18 and I wanted to do something special for him. After talking to my sister, we thought it would be really fun if I could fly home and surprise him on his birthday. My brother and sister were going to drive home, but there was no big party planned and my dad said he just wanted to spend the weekend with his family. The weekend fell on MLK day, so it was a perfect weekend to plan something. Donnie said he would watch the boys over the weekend and would also take Monday off. So my sister and brother-in-law told my mom and dad the were going to go to Ikea Saturday morning, but instead they picked me up at the airport. When we got home, I went around back, and waited for Chrisi to come down and let me in the basement. I then hid in a lawn and leaf garbage bag and they told my dad to play 'Hot, Cold' to search for his present. When he got to the bag, they said "hot" and he touched my head but had no idea what was going on. Then I pulled the bag off me and I wish I had a picture of his face, because he was completely and totally surprised. He just kept hugging me and asked how I got there!! I believe he even got a little teary eyed!! I am so glad we were able to pull it off and I'm so thankful I was able to make that trip happen!

101st Day of School

For Ethan's 100th day of school, I got to go into his class and help with some really cute activities to help celebrate the day. Then the next day the kids were asked to dress as dalmations to help celebrate the 101st day of school. My sister made him his cute little dalmation outfit to wear to school. He was a little reluctant b/c he didn't want to be embarassed, but as soon as his teacher saw him, she told him how cute she thought he looked and I think he started to feel better. He was the most decked out in his class and had a really fun day (especially watching the movie!)

Carter is FOUR!!

Carter turned four on Jan. 26. He is so proud to be 4 and whenever he does something good, he says it's because he's 4. We celebrated his birthday with a bowling party. He had such a fun time and even got an actual bowling pin as a souvenir with all his friends' signatures on it. Of course he had a Wall-E cake, but the bowling alley provided all the paper products and he went with Spongebob. He practiced for his party weeks in advance by bowling on the Wii! I cannot believe my baby is 4!! Happy birthday, Carter! We are so proud of you and love you very much!!

Future Michael Jordan

Ethan signed up for basketball this season and had his first game a couple of weeks ago. Each period is 6 minutes long and the final score was 7-5 (Ethan's team won!) There are some kids on his team with some natural talent, he just doesn't happen to be one of them! He does anything the coach tells him, but he's not quite sure why he's doing it. For example, when the other team has the ball, the coach tells them to put their hands up. Ethan does this, but just stands in one place with his hands straight up in the air. On the way to the game I was telling him how he really has to go after the ball and steal it away from the other team. But he told me he didn't want to do that because stealing is bad! Despite all this, I was so very proud of him for going out there and giving it his all!!