Upward Soccer

  Early this year, we signed Holden up to play soccer on the Upward Soccer team affiliated with our church and he loved it!  I never imagined how cute it would be to watch your child run up and down the field in a group of kids fighting over the ball!  Holden tired of that soon since the kids were a bit older than he was (he had just turned 4 and some of the kids were at least 5 1/2), so he became the star goalie of his team!  He really kicked the ball out with such force, it was such a treat to watch his determination to make sure the other team didn't get a goal!

Holden's ready for his first game!  He insisted on tucking in his shirt.

I love this picture of the three of them sitting on the bench.  Rhys just HAD to have a jersey like Holden's and loved to play with him on the sidelines when Holden wasn't playing, or after the game.

Skipping back to the goal! 

He took his goalie position seriously.

The game was probably going on during this discussion!  Ha!

Rhys wants to be just like his brother!  The Bob the Builder boots are what makes this outfit.  Who knew they could double as soccer cleats!

After the game, Rhys always wanted to get on the field to play!

I think we'll have to see if we can sign Rhys up one year early for the team!  He loved watching Holden play this year!  We'll see!!!

  I can't wait for the Upward soccer season again!  It was so much fun to watch.  Holden asks all the time when will it start next year, so I'm glad to know that he really enjoyed it.  

  Next up...the End of the Year Celebration at the preschool!

I'm back!!

   I cannot believe how long it's been since I last posted.  I really have thought about it every day and then somehow have had to do something else.  The pictures are piling up, which means a longer time at the computer, so I'm going to put things in smaller posts so as not to be too overwhelming!

  Can you believe the boys have all grown an INCH since I last posted in April?  Now it's the middle of October!!  Time is slipping through my fingers!  We had such a busy summer, then school started, now Halloween coming up, and from there it all snowballs to the end of the year with Thanksgiving and Christmas preparation.  I don't sound stressed do I?  Ha!

  I will fill you in slowly...Here goes.

  Holden's 4th birthday party in March!  It was a baseball party complete with a borrowed bounce house from a good friend, a cookout with hot dogs, hamburgers, popcorn, snacks, a beautiful baseball birthday cake, and lots of friends to celebrate with!  Holden had such a good time and the weather was perfect!

I love these shirts!  We got them a day after the party, but even though Rhys doesn't look so happy, they both loved them!  Ha!

My friend, Shandra, did Holden's cake and it turned out wonderfully and SO good, too!

    I can't believe looking back at Holden's birthday pictures, how much he is growing.  He is 4 1/2 now!  Wow.  He is such an amazing little boy.   Thinking of Holden and what stands out the most now in his life is his inquisitive mind.  He is precious.  He asks the deepest questions about life, our bodies and how they work, nature...everything.  He is so creative with his imagination whether it be drawn on paper or acted out as a character.  He loves learning how to read and picks up words and numbers so easily.  He challenges himself and will stop at nothing until he achieves his goal, which is such a good quality.  He has a deep love of sharks and ocean life!  He has already asked for a shark for Christmas!  Holden loves his friends and family so much.  At such a young age, he understands the support we all give each other that is so important!  He is a crazy little boy on top of all of that and LOVES to play outside, is stubborn to no end, and loves to bug his brothers, (but at the same time loves them dearly)!  We love you so much, Holden.  

  I will post again soon!  I hope everyone is having a very happy fall season!  

Happy Easter! (One week later)

  It's amazing how fast time flies.  I can't believe it's half way through April already!  We all had a wonderful, relaxing Easter here.  The boys enjoyed egg hunts and couldn't wait for the Easter Bunny to come!  It was a lot like their anticipation for Santa!  Holden is at such a fun age, starting to understand more and more about the holiday.  Chase could hardly sleep the night before the Easter Bunny came after we set out carrots and peppers to munch on!  Rhys was cute with no clue as to what was going on, following his brothers around taking hints to pick up hidden eggs here and there!
  Here are some pictures that we captured from one of the egg hunts the week before Easter:

  Before they got started collecting eggs, I leaned down and told Holden to search for the golden egg.  After the hunt was over, I saw his basket was only filled with yellow Easter eggs!  He is just so precious!

  On Easter morning, Chase began the basket hunt by finding a metallic egg in the house that led him to another clue outside!  After leading the boys around the yard by metallic eggs with clues, the Easter baskets were found at the picnic table in the backyard!  They were filled with goodies and the boys were ecstatic!  Later, we found out that the Easter Bunny had also hidden more eggs and had a great Easter egg hunt to follow!

Here is Chase reading the second clue to the hidden baskets!

His beloved bunny!  Holden loves stuffed animals.

And Rhys has a passion for Tootsie Pops!  How did the Easter Bunny know?

Yes!  Chase is checking out the Tech Decks he found in his basket!

Superhero tattoos!

Finding eggs!

  It was a nice, relaxing day that involved lots of playing outside, a wonderful Easter dinner, and a family bike ride to end.  We can only hope every Easter is as nice as this one was.
  Hope your Easter was wonderful!
Next...Holden's Bday party!  I really need to catch up!

Catching Up! 1st...our Chapel Hill Trip

   It has been such a busy couple of months!  I have let so much time go by that I'm going to be recapping on things from February!  I really do need to keep up with posting pictures and what we're doing as we're all getting more into our activities!

  There is so much to write about...our trip to Chapel Hill for our first UNC Basketball game, Holden's Upward Soccer program, Chase's new love of skateboarding, Holden's 4th Baseball Birthday party on March 17th and I can't wait to fill you in on his reading and his obsession with sharks!  Yes, Holden is reading, and he was starting before he was 4!!  Rhys's new thing is that he has to wear a belt to school every day that he calls either his "seatbelt" or his "tool belt!"  He fixes everything, from his ottoman to his glider, to his toys.  He always knows the exact location of his favorite hammer.

  Let's start with our trip to Chapel Hill for the UNC vs. Clemson game on February 18th.  As always, I'm looking for fun things to do as a family and since our alumni colleges are hours away, we decided to become UNC fans!  I was very excited to see the campus as I had heard such great things about it.  We loved it and we can't wait to go back to explore more and to see more games, that is, as the boys get older (more on that in a minute.) To start, we stayed at the Sienna Hotel, which is a beautiful and had the most amazing breakfasts!  The boys really enjoyed staying all in one room, of course, and they were wild the majority of the time we were in there, morning and night.  Thank goodness they didn't have a pool, or at least, I never asked about one!

  Anyway, the game was to be at 4 pm on Saturday, so the boys got in a quick nap and we got them up for what we would find would be the most talked about event of the weekend, the bus ride to the game.   Holden was in my lap, so you can't see his excitement here.

  The college kids and fans in all their blue and white were definitely a sight!  We got off the bus and after we found our way around the coliseum, we sat in our seats, taking it all in.

  The people, the court, the snacks...Trip # 1, Greg got popcorn and water.  15 minutes later (Trip # 2) Holden, Rhys and I got cotton candy and walked for 30 minutes, Trip #3 (after sitting for 10 minutes in our seats), I took the kids AGAIN to get pretzels.  Thankfully, a security guard saw how miserably hot the boys and I were and told us we could sit outside while we ate.  I was losing track of time, but as we went back again to our seats, Holden decided to stay with Greg and Chase.  Rhys and I went back down to the concessions to walk around and to visit all the other miserable parents and grandparents with their blue and white little ones.  As we returned (I am totally spent at this point), there were only 10 minutes left to the game!!

Chase couldn't have had a better day!  He had an awesome time!  It was worth all of the time roaming around the coliseum to see him enjoy the game so much with his dad!

"Whoo hoo it's over!  Let's get out of here!"

Waiting for the bus ride back to our car.

Holden looks so hot, sweaty, and tired!  This is the bus ride back.

  Before anyone reads this and asks why the heck Greg didn't take the boys for one of the long trips, he did want to, but I took them instead because I wanted him to enjoy the game with Chase!  These tickets were for Greg's birthday, and it's the first basketball game Chase has ever been to.  Being able to spend the time with Chase is a rarity and Greg couldn't have been happier either, bonding over sports!  They both thoroughly enjoyed it, which was nice to see.  Now we know Holden and Rhys might have to be a little bigger to have the patience to sit and enjoy!  Ha!  We learned the hard way, that's for sure!  

  On Sunday, we went to the Chapel Hill Children's Museum which was much more their pace.  Thank goodness.  They had a wonderful time!  

  

  

  So all in all, we had a great time exploring Chapel Hill, staying in a luxury hotel, experiencing the UNC coliseum concessions for me, and the basketball game for Greg and Chase!  Ha!  

  What's really funny is that a few days after getting home, we were at the Village Cafe, our local favorite restaurant, and a UNC game was on TV.  Guess who were the loudest fans, cheering on the players (like they knew what was going on) to make a basket?  Hmmm.

  And, when Holden's teacher asked him what he did over the weekend, he answered, "I rode a bus and stayed at a hotel," he answered.  Unbelievable!

  I'll be back soon to blog more very soon!  I hope everyone has had a great month!

Happy Valentine's Day!

  I realize I am probably one of 10 people in this world who's favorite holiday is Valentine's Day!  It always has been, believe it or not, and it began when I was a little girl making homemade cards for my parents and friends.  I don't decorate a lot for the holiday or go over board, which takes  a lot of pressure off (we're still cleaning up Christmas stuff- AUGH!)  It is perfect, in my opinion, for a little bit of warm celebration of love during the cold month of February, not to mention I have the excuse to add bits of girlish flare for a few days in this house full of testosterone!  
  Today, Holden had a Valentine's Day party and I signed up to make the class cupcakes.  I'm not the best at photographing food, but here is what I came up with...

Strawberry Yogurt Cupcakes

    ...and they were SO yummy!  I usually like to make things from scratch, but when it comes to time saving, these are great and came from my Betty Crocker Ultimate Cake Mix cookbook.  It's the best cookbook ever to make quick, great tasting cakes!

  Here's the recipe!

  Holden had a great time at his Valentine's Day party!  He screamed to me every Valentine he received and who it was from when the teachers were passing them out, he was so excited!  Here's a little peek at the two 3 year classes together... Holden's next to the window with Samantha.

  

  When I arrived at the preschool, Rhys and his classmates, Owen and Kian, were headed out for a winter walk with Nana Bonnie.  Owen and Kian were being strolled by Bonnie and behind her was Rhys, strolling his Hippo and a doll.  He was SO cute wearing his dinosaur hat and he looked surprised and happy to see me, but strolled on by, unshaken, as I told him I was going to Holden's class for a party!  He is so funny!  Good for him!  He wasn't going to allow me to mess up his day at school by getting him out of his routine.  After being in Holden's class for a little while, I did go down to Rhys's classroom to visit and help with their cupcakes!  = )

  I hope everyone's Valentine's Day has been fabulous and have enjoyed spreading a little love on this freezing February day!!  

  

Happy Valentine's Day!

A Beautiful Birthday

  

  My mom (aka Nana) came to visit last week and we celebrated her 60th birthday!  It was a wonderful visit as always!  On the morning of her birthday, Greg was post call at the hospital and the boys were at school, so I took her to Topsail and had a glorious birthday walk.  I captured a great picture on my iPhone.  I'm so glad she was able to spend the day with us before heading back to WV.

  Happy Birthday!

So Proud

  I've already touched on how intelligent Chase is and this year, in the 4th grade, he is continuing  to shine!  He has always been a great student, but this year, his interest in science has really taken off.  This is his first year doing the science fair at school.  Months ago, he came home to his mom's house, with the topic of bridge building.  His project ended up being called, "Bridge Breakers," which focused on the strength and durability of various bridges we encounter in every day life.  He tested each bridge, built with popsicle sticks, with plate weights and his project was one of 4 chosen to participate in the Onslow County Science fair on January 18th.    Already so proud, we toted Holden and Rhys to Jacksonville, NC to participate in the action and to see Chase present his project.
  At the end of the evening, they announced the winners to advance to the Regional competition.  They called Chase's name first to receive the first award!!!!!  The look of pride on Chase's face was priceless.  It was wonderful to have experienced it.  He was one of the 10 to be chosen out of 82 projects.  Just amazing!
  So...on February 11th, he heads to Wilmington to compete at regionals for the state competition!  We have been sure to tell him how proud we are of him regardless if he wins or not, he has worked so hard.  However, I'm sure this award is the first of many to come!

  Oh- and might I continue bragging that he recently tested at the college Freshman level for reading.  Wow!

So proud.

  

  Wish him luck for the Regional competition!