Origin of a Word - Water Oak

Yesterday Ed spent quite awhile outside splitting wood. These are the logs from the dead branches he cut out of the trees a couple months ago. Today he was splitting them for firewood with a wedge and a sledgehammer. It was pretty fun to take a big swing at them and get a big split! Last night we brought some logs in for the fire. What a nice evening...football and a fire...or not. Edward has since learned that the Water Oak got its name because early firefighters used Water Oak logs to put out fires! They actually hold water in their wood so its pretty fireproof. The logs did hiss, simmer, smoke and literally drip water in our fireplace...but it never actually caught on fire!

Practice Makes Perfect

Nolen is still playing basketball at church and he's making some improvements. He doesn't cover his ears to block the sound of the buzzer anymore, and he usually knows where to run and when to throw his hands up to block people. Dribbling and shooting are still pretty tough for him though. I guess its a good thing we are starting him early! I can tell that he is getting frustrated sometimes and doesn't try as hard as he could. Last week at practice we were shooting together and I told him that if he made a basket, I would play Super Mario Galaxy with him when we got him...and you know what?? He made exactly ONE basket! Ha!

I realized that night that my baby is turning into a boy. A frog carrying, rock throwing, dirt wearing boy. Edward was on duty all night so I was home alone with the boys. I helped Coach Ryan during basketball practice that night (which is Ed's job when he can make it). Then we went home and played video games together while Max cheered us on. And before bed, we all curled up on the couch and read some Captain Underpants!

The boys love Captain Underpants. Its full of actual toilet humor. There is a Purple Potty Time Machine, a Super Diaper Baby, and some kind of Evil Talking Toilet Villain. They are chapter books and the boys and I read about 30 pages each night and finish a book in about 4 nights. We just got a new one from the library. I don't mind the toilet humor as long as its limited to story time and brother/boy time. Plus, its fun to watch them get so excited about a non-picture book!

Max's First Day of School at the Byrd Nest

Today is Max's first day of school at the Byrd Nest! He was SO excited to go. All school year he has been asking when he could go to school and he kept saying that the CDC at Forst Rucker (Nolen's old preschool) was his school because he is three years old. Well, today was the big day. Of course he isn't going to the CDC but that doesn't matter. He ran in to the Byrd Nest this morning. I told him to say hi to his teacher and he ran into his classroom waving and saying hi. I hope he does well. The only thing I worry about is that Max can be stubborn and tempermental sometimes. He does well if you lay down the law with him.

Yesterday was Nolen's first day at the Byrd Nest. We LOVED the Primary School at Fort Rucker but the drive and afternoon schedule was too hectic. He had a great first day yesterday. They reviewed the letter "N", had cookies for snack (which Nolen was happy about) and Nolen said his teacher called him a "smarty pants" because he knew that "1-0-0" is called one hundred. Sounds like a good first day to me! I think many of the children in his class are going to go to Hillcrest Elementary School with Nolen next year so that is pretty exciting too! My boys are growing up!

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful family Christmas here in Enterprise...we had too many presents, too much food and the boys had TOOO much fun. It was so cool to watch them get so excited about it all. Our tree had so many presents around it from spoiling grandparents that I was worried it was going to take the boys all day to unwrap them. My fears were (opposite of realized) when they had everything opened in a half hour flat! They spent most of yesterday playing their new Nintendo Wii. Well, Edward plays mostly, Nolen plays some, and Max mostly watches. Today they opened their cash register, Tinker Toys (love them, thanks Grammy) and Hi-Ho Cherry-O. Yesterday Nolen and I played Ker-Plunk and Magnetix and Max and I played K'Nex (love those too!). Fran has spent many hours already playing the Scooby-Doo game with the boys!

I'll have pictures in a few days. I was lazy and let Mom take them all but I couldn't get them off her camera so she'll have to send them in a few days. We have been having wonderful visits with everyone. I'm so glad that we are back in the south where our family can easily come to see us. Thanks to everyone for making the trip! We love you all!
Edward and Melissa

Wordless Wednesday

Wild Hair

I got a wild hair yesterday and bought a pub table for the breakfast nook! I love it! I hope Edward does too!

Air Nolen

Well, I've caved in and signed Nolen up for a sports team before he is old enough to actually DO the sport at all! Ha! Our church participates in Upward Basketball and I wasn't going to sign Nolen up, but we are always there for Jazzercise when the kids are practicing. Last week, Nolen was playing with the kids and I felt bad that I hadn't put him on a team. I mentioned to the coordinator that if he has an extra spot I would like to sign Nolen up - and now here we are!

Nolen's team are the Warriors. He hasn't officially been to a practice yet, but he played in his first basketball game on Saturday morning complete with a "team shirt", cheerleaders, game clock and buzzer (this will be important later). The announcer introduced the players as they ran onto the court...they even had a smoke machine and music going. It was so exciting! Nolen seemed pretty cool with it all until the buzzer from the game clock sounded. After that, he spent most of the 30 minute game with his hands on his ears. He managed to take them off of his ears to "dribble" the ball, throw the ball to the opposing team and to put his hands up to play some awesome "D". It was SO fun to watch. I'm sorry I didn't get a picture of him dribbling the ball because it was hilarious!!! He kept copying what the older kid on his team did...which could work out since that kid made a few baskets.

They don't keep score on these teams and they really are fun to watch. We had a blast and hopefully Nolen will get used to the buzzer!



I'm not sure if Nolen is clapping or praying here.

(Right) If you look carefully, you can see that Nolen is gaurding the kid from the other team. Good D Nolen!