Dance With Me

On our trip to Louisiana for the Thanksgiving holiday we spent lots of time with family! One afternoon Ethan asked Mamaw (my grandmother), "Dance with me Mamaw!" This is the picture I took with them dancing together! I just love this picture. Don't they look like they are having fun? I am so thankful that he gets to make memories like these with his great grandparents. I know that she treasures every moment she gets to spend time with all her great grandchildren.

On a side note--- Ethan loves to dance. He will ask David and I to dance with him all the time. But don't worry--he gets his rhythm from his Daddy--not Mommy! And for that we are very thankful!!!!

You Are My Sunshine

Mems (my mother) came last week for Ethan's Grandparents' Day at school. He was so excited to show her around his classroom. His grade level sung, "You Are My Sunshine" at the program. Ethan is the sunshine on the front row sitting on his knees. He has been practicing for awhile. We had to reschedule Grandparents' Day because of Hurricane Ike-- so you can imagine how many times David and I have heard this song!!!! Which is quite ironic because when he was a baby, we would sing this song to Ethan to help him fall asleep! Brings back sweet memories! Every once in awhile Ethan will ask to be rocked. He will say, "Sing to me!" He is still our baby deep down!!!!

Grandparents' Day was a hit for both Ethan and Mom. She checked him out of school and they spent the day together. Mems is defiantly a special sunshine in Ethan's life and as you can imagine Ethan is a BIG sunshine in Mems' life! Ethan's other grandparents could not make the trip because of work, but we can't wait for next year's Grandparents' Day!

Thank you God for wonderful Grandparents!

Just wanted to share Ethan's first school picture with you all!

Isn't he so handsome? Must take after his Daddy!

Our Very Hungry Caterpillar Turns ONE!

Will turned ONE on October 30, 2008. We had a Very Hungry Caterpillar birthday party this past Saturday to celebrate. Check out our huge caterpillar cake! It was adorable, but way bigger than I expected or ordered! Needless to say our party guest received one very big slice!

The party was a big hit! We made butterflies, played with bugs in the sand table, crawled in tunnels like caterpillars, and even had story time! Party guest received their own cocoon with a special surprise inside when they left. We also sampled some Very Hungry Caterpillar food! If you are at all familiar with the book, then you know that the Very Hungry Caterpillar eats many things, but is Still Hungry. Well, our very hungry caterpillar Will is always Still Hungry. So this theme was just right for him!

I had a blast planning the party! I know David was probably thinking this is just a bunch of nonsense for a baby who does not know what in the world is going on and will not remember this party ten years from now. But his mommy will and for that we planned BIG! I am not sure if Will's favorite part of the party was the Very Hungry Caterpillar giant balloon that his Daddy made him or the yummy birthday cake...... which ever he enjoyed his day and so did Mommy!

I was very emotional about Will turning one. This took me by surprise because I did not have these emotions when Ethan turned one. I can't believe that one year has already past, and Will is no longer my infant. I have enjoyed every midnight feeding, every smile, every coo, every diaper change, every footed outfit, every spit up cleaning, every diaper bag packing, every bottle cleaning, every moment the baby monitor has spoken to me in the middle of the night, every pumping session, every milestone reached, every bath time, every bump on the forehead, every cry, every highchair cleaning, every tiny sock lost in the dryer, and every lullaby sung at nightime in the rocking chair. Thank you God for giving me these memories. They will all be treasured because a year really does fly by way to fast!

Happy Birthday Baby Will! We love you!!!!

Ahoy! Mates

Happy Late Halloween from the Bozeman Pirate Family!

We were pirates for Halloween and we even had our very own parrot! Will was precious in his homemade parrot outfit. David made the costume! He is quite the Susie Homemaker sometimes! Ethan was very excited about Halloween this year. Probably because he now understands you get candy, but he was also very excited to dress up like Daddy. We had a blast trick or treating at our church's annual Treat -N -Trunk.

Now the big question everyday from Ethan is..... Mommy, can I have just one piece of my candy?My answer is...Yes, but I get to choose!

Yesterday he asked me.....Mommy, can I have one piece of candy when we get home and I get to choose? So for yesterday only...he got to choose!

Until next Halloween............we are already thinking of our family costumes for next year!

This is what you do after you come home from trick or treating..... You are to full of candy and to wired to go to bed... so you play in your costume (or half of it) till you drop in your bedroom! Will was so cute crawling around playing with his parrot tail still attached. I tried my best to get a picture of his tail. This is the best one I got. He is just to fast and will NOT be still for just a second!

Fun memories!

My Preschooler

I wanted to share with you all just how big my Ethan is getting! He is such the little preschooler now days. Last week at school the three year old classrooms were in charge of chapel. On Monday, Ethan stood on stage for the pledge and the I am Proud to be an American song. Then he lead the school in a prayer! His prayer went a little like this...

Will you please pray with me?

Dear God,

Thank you for Mommy, Daddy, and our teachers.

Thank you for this day.

Thank you for Jesus.

Thank you for Mommy, Daddy, and Will.

In Jesus name Amen. (the last line was said really really fast!)

He was so proud of himself and so was I! During the week his class preformed songs and skits for the school. Ethan had no problem going on stage and preforming! I was so happy that I was able to see him each time his class did something special in chapel. It reminds me why I wanted so badly to be working at the school he was going to attend! I am so thankful for my job and the opportunity to be with him during the day. Daddy even came too!

OK.....so now I have to brag a little more on my little preschooler! Check out his name above and how well he is writing it! He loves to write his name. Every paper he gets his hands on he puts his name on it! If you ask him how to spell it, he will say.... E T hump A N. We are working on saying H! I know this is probably just the preschool teacher in me, but it has been so much fun lately! He is finding E's everywhere... at home, in the parking lot on cars, in books, etc.... He thinks every S is Sharon's name (a girl in his class) and every T is Tyler's name ( a boy in is class). He has started to ask what my name starts with and Daddy's. I am having a blast with him, and he thinks it is pretty cool too! Thanks for letting me brag a little bit!

Girls Weekend

These are "My Girls"! We all meet in college at Louisiana Tech! We try to have a girls weekend at least twice a year. Last weekend we spent the weekend together in Dallas hanging out talking, shopping, eating, and lounging in our pj's. Most of the time when we get together we usually have something to celebrate---wedding shower or baby shower! But this time we just had a girls weekend of talking and lounging around.... so we thought. When we arrived, we found out that Holly W is expecting her first baby in May! So we did a lot of talking about baby stuff and celebrating over her exciting news! We even had one of our newest girls, Baby Bailey, to tag along for the weekend --isn't she the cutest!

I look forward to our girls weekends every year. I probably count down the days until I leave town on Friday afternoon. Yes, it is a treat to be away from home, the husband, the babies, and the responsibilities for the weekend. But most of all it is just so much fun to be with my girls! It is like we pick up were we left off 7 years ago when we graduated college. Even though we are all approaching 30, we are still very close to one another! Aren't they the best looking 30 year olds you have ever seen? There is something special about being with people you can just be yourself and enjoy the time to relax and talk! I am so thankful to have each of them in my life! I love you girls!

Until the next girls weekend....... I am counting down!

This blog was dedicated to Holly W! Because she LOVES it when bloggers blog about other people on their personal blog! Love ya'

Ethan turns 3!

Ethan Bradley turned 3 on October 2! We got to spend the morning of his birthday with our family in Pineville. He had his favorite thing for his birthday breakfast.....donuts! On Saturday, we took Ethan and 2 of his best buddies to Dewberry Farm. They had a blast. The farm was such a neat place for kids as well as Mommies and Daddies! We rode on a hay ride to a REAL pumpkin patch. I think I was the one most excited about the real pumpkin patch! We saw pumpkins in all stages of development...vine, flower, small green, medium yellow, and ripe orange! I love the fall and pumpkins! I felt like I was living out one of the many children's books I read to my students each year during this season! We rode a train, feed goats, ate BBQ, saw farm animals, and had rubber ducky races. I think Ethan enjoyed the rubber ducky races the best! It was a great day, and everyone was ready for a good nap afterwards!

David and I can't believe that Ethan is growing up and is now 3! We are really enjoying this stage of development. Ethan is starting to have the neatest conversations with us and it is so much fun to watch him explore and interpret the world around him.

Happy 3rd Birthday Ethan Bradley! I love you!!!!