He Cooperated!!!

Not only did William let me take his picture, he let me pick out his outfit and BRUSH HIS HAIR! The only two concessions I had to make were T and Snuffles had to be in some pictures and we had to do some silly pictures. Not bad.

Our First Hunting Trip

I had no idea that squirrel hunting was something people actually did. The Persons' invited us, as well as two other families, to tromp around in the woods and scare up some squirrels. The men were equipped with shot guns, the kids with sticks, and the moms? armed with cameras, of course. 

We (and by we, I mean John) brought down nine of them. Surprisingly most of them were not too mangled, so the kids got to hold them with minimal eew-factor. 

William's two buddies, Mailon and Griffin, came along with us. A picture of all 6 kids holding their own squirrels will be coming later. My camera died so Nonet needs to send me her picture. 
Disclaimer for grandmas: All shooting was done high up in trees and it wasn't very loud (although we did have ear plugs on hand). Hands were washed with soap twice and then rinsed with hand sanitizer. The squirrels were given to some people that John knows who like to eat squirrel. I think that about covers it. 

Christmas Day

Jud and I got up, showered and dressed around 6:00 in anticipation of William waking up to see what Santa brought. At 7:00 I had to go into his room to wake him up. He hasn't slept until 7:00 in months. Santa brought a game table that has foosball, air hockey, ping pong and some other games (convertible table tops). Grandma and Grandaddy spent the night with us so they could be there as well. Around 8:15 a.m. - after Santa and a few family presents - Grandma and Grandaddy went back home and Jud, William and I went to Montgomery where we spent the day with my parents (Nana and Pappy), grandmother (Moms), brother (Brian) and his girlfriend (Sandy), and my Uncle Steve (my mom's brother) and Aunt Janice

Jud and William were exhausted - Jud from late-night-game-table-assembly and William because, well, I guess he was just really tired. They slept all morning and had to be woken up at 2:00 for Christmas lunch. 
After naps and lunch, Brian let all of us beat him in various Wii games. William won bowling, Jud won horseshoes, and I won lawn darts. Mom and dad both played on the WiiFit.

Family Picture: Sandy (with 4 month old schnauzer, Charlie), Brian, Dad, Mom, Jud, me, and William

We get to do it all again next week at the lake when Jay, Tonya, Jackson and Hayden will be at Grandma and Grandaddy's house! 

Father/Son Field Trip

Jud took William on a "boys only" fishing trip yesterday. William caught the biggest fish. They even got to see a deer swim across the pond. 

Class Christmas Party

William's 4 Year Old Preschool class had their class party today. After the party William got to "read" a book to the class. He has had a great year so far and is looking forward to an exciting 2009. 

Topping the Tree

For the past three years William has gotten the honor of putting the tree topper on the tree. This year he even helped put the lights on and most of the ornaments. Here is a flashback of the past three Christmases. 

2006: Age 2 1/2

2007: Age 3 1/2
2008: Age 4 1/2

(Why, yes, that is the same house all three years. And, yes, that is a record.)

Two Wheeler

2008 Family Photo Shoot

Here are our pictures from our photo shoot with Kelly. Kelly is a friend of mine who is getting into professional photography. These pictures were all taken in her yard. She is awesome if anyone wants her contact information, let me know. We had to do a mix of serious poses and silly ones to keep William from quitting. I actually like some of the silly ones. 

I hope everyone had a great 2008. I look forward to an exciting and action-packed 2009!

Graig and Rachel's Wedding

Jud and I spent the weekend in New York/New Jersey for one of Jud's high school friend's wedding. Graig and his (now) wife came to our wedding 7 years ago. The weekend was amazing. I was not prepared for the lavishness of an "Italian New Jersey" wedding. I was incredibly underdressed (2:00 wedding on a Sunday - I was thinking church dress. No - everyone else was in formal dresses and black tie - fortunately I was dressier than Sunday dress, so it wasn't too obvious, but I LOVE formals, I would have had a lot more fun shopping if I had known). Anyway...The bride is Jewish and the groom is Italian Catholic. The ceremony was very nice. The Cantor (that is what he was called - I don't know how that is different from a Rabbi) would say (sing) a part in Hebrew and then the Priest would translate. Or at least that is what I assume they were doing. At the end Graig broke the glass. 

After the ceremony we went into an adjoining room for the cocktail hour. There was an ice sculpture. Open bar, ridiculous amounts of food - good food too - and expensive - duck, lamb, pasta station, chinese station, fruit and cheese station, to name a few. We all thought that was it for the food and we were going to go into another room to dance after the cocktail hour. Nope. After that (when we were all stuffed) we went into another huge room where we were seated at tables for a three course sit down dinner. I had the prime rib. We were seated at a table with most of Jud's friends, and had an awesome time talking and dancing. And did I mention there was an open bar?

Four and a half hours later we headed back to the hotel. Most of the people who came were local, so very few people stayed at that hotel with us. Graig and Rachel spent the night there and asked us to come up to their room. We figured there would be lots of people there, but when we got there it was just the two of them and Rachel's brother. We had a nice time talking, although we tried not to stay too long. 

Unfortunately, I can't go on a vacation to a cold, dry location without getting horribly sick. We had plans to go to "the city" all day Saturday, but I spent all Friday night and most of Saturday morning sucking down cold medicine and blowing my nose. We decided a day of rest would make more sense than a day of walking around New York. We had gone out Friday night with a friend of Jud's from his Belgium days, Gilles. (Gilles was also in our wedding and now lives in New York, about 15 minutes from New York City). We had to drive through the city to get to his house. I got to meet his parents and two of his 7 siblings. So I saw the skyline and drove over the George Washington Bridge. That counts for a trip to New York, right?

We are the Champions!

The Auburn Dental Associates "Molars" finished their season last night and celebrated with a pizza party and trophy presentation at Brick Oven. William scored a goal in the last game! He had a great time this season and is looking forward to spring season. 

Pumpkin

I have never carved a fancy pumpkin before this year. 

I was pretty impressed with the spider...

Happy Halloween

William went as Optimus Prime (a Transformer) for Halloween this year. We pulled a repeat of last year - the first of October he HAD to have one costume (this year - Iron Man, last year - a Pirate), so I got it for him. The DAY OF Trick or Treating he no longer wanted that one and wanted something different. At least this year it was something cool not the silly shark costume like last year. 

(Flashback to last year: Cool pirate / Ridiculous Shark)

(Returning to this year)

He also wasn't in the mood for pictures, so I had to sneak this one. We went Trick or Treating with Isabel (Dorothy) and Chaney (Pig).

Of course, when we got home he wanted his picture taken - in his Optimus Prime PJs. 

Auburn Trick or Treating was on Thursday night and Montgomery's was Friday, so William headed to Montgomery Friday afternoon for Round 2. I hope he brings home some good stuff... 

The Miller Fishing Trip

William got to reel in the first fish - a Spanish Mackrel.

After the first two hours we threw back all the Spanish Mackrel that we caught, so this is only about half (or maybe a little less) of our total catch. Jay brought in the two King Mackrel (on the ends in the picture) and I caught a nasty little lizzard fish (what Jackson called a snake), that was promptly thrown back. Tonya and I both spent the second half of the trip clinging to the side of the boat, although Tonya was the only one who was able to "return to zero Weight Watchers Points for the day". 

Underpants swimming

We are at the beach! The water is surprisingly warm and William is having a blast. We leave in an hour for a deep sea fishing trip. Wish us luck. 

Sand Angel

The closest thing we can get to snow angels. 

Best Friends

Two weeks ago William came home every day talking about his best friend, Trenton. I was so excited that he was making friends because at the beginning of the year he said he didn't have any friends (his teachers assured me he had plenty of friends). 

Last week every day he talked about his "best friend" Jackson H. Every day he told me all about the toys they played with and things the two of them did. Jackson H's mom even approached me and said all her son talked about was William. 

On Monday, William got into the car after school and said "Oh, Man! I forgot to tell Jackson B. that he is my best friend." 

"Jackson B.?" I asked, "What about Jackson H.?"

"No" he replied, "He was last week. Jackson B. is this week. I want to be fair and make sure everyone gets a turn."

He is now taking applications for next week...

Pumpkin Patch

Something about pumpkin patches makes me want to make all my pictures sepia toned. The second picture is William and Jackson B. - William's Best-Friend-of-the-Week.

Here is William's 4 Year Old Class. Aren't they cute?