Christmas Time

Wow! This holiday season has been busy to say the least! We have visited Lights Under Louisville, attended Evan's Christmas play at preschool, attend a cookie party at The Williams' home, AND celebrated Christmas with the Nickel family, the Keeling family, the Koontz family, and the Swann family. Plus, we celebrated Christmas on Christmas day at our house! It has been a lot of fun and our sweet boys have had a great time being with wonderful friends and family. We are so grateful!

Both boys liked the Christmas tree this year. Here are some pictures of the boys right after we set up the tree and decorated the house.

Evan LOVED Lights Under Louisville this year, as did Carl and I. Preston had fun too, but he just chewed his fingers and occasionally looked out the window.

Evan had a great time celebrating Christmas at preschool. One day he came home dressed as 'Evan the Red Nosed Reindeer!"

Evan was a wonderful shepherd in the Christmas play. (I could not go, because it was my day to work. Thankfully, just about everyone else could attend the play. Bonnie Mom took some good pictures for me!)

Evan and Caleb ate almost ALL of the donut holes!! (Not really, but they both had a lot!)

Aunt Heather brought the kids over for lunch and a present exchange, which was lots of fun. All of the kids had fun playing together, including Preston. It was a realy nice morning/afternoon. Here is a picture of Preston playing with his very first Christmas gift. Obviously, he loved it! I did try to take a picture of all five kids together, but after several attempts and no pictures where everyone was looking the same way, happy, etc. I gave up! We did have lots of fun though!

We had a great time celebrating with the Keeling family and the Koontz family, but sadly, I forgot my camera at each event. I have no pictures of the Keeling family gathering, but it was full of good food and fun with great people. Most everyone at the party was seeing Preston for the first time, so everyone wanted to talk to him or hold him. He is so easy-going and went to anyone that wanted to hold him and was in such a good mood! Evan had fun playing with all of the kids and opening presents. Carl and I thought the best part was getting to see Aunt Bettie lead the kids' band in Christmas carols! No one would have ever thought that kazoos and other Dollar store instruments could be so cute, but the kids pulled it off! What a hoot!

Here is a picture of Caroline and Preston from the Koontz family Christmas celebration. (I hope to get more once Bill posts them!) Preston and Caroline had fun playing together. It was the first time they could really interact and it was so cute to watch the two of them together. I bet they will be great friends someday and I also bet that Evan will lead them on some great adventures!

On Christmas Eve, Carl, Evan, Preston, and I went to church. There was a great children's service this year, which was short and PERFECT for small kids. Afterwards, we went to the cemetery to place flowers for my grandmother and grandfather, as well as in honor of all of Carl's grandparents and my mom's parents. Later, we met up with my parents and exchanged gifts and ate Chinese food. It was a laid-back and fun evening. Once the festivities were over, we went back home to wait for Santa!

Preston had a lot of fun celebrating his very first Christmas!

"PRESENTS!"

Evan liked all of his gifts, but he was especially excited about the Star Wars toys!

'Hello Granddaddy!"

Preston LOVED playing with the tissue paper!

The boys had a blast with Grammy and Granddaddy!

Santa came! It looks like the boys were VERY good this year!

Evan received MANY nice gifts this year. In addition to Star Wars toys, he also really liked his castle, his ball that he can climb in and roll around, his moon bounce ball, and his laser tag game. He was very appreciate of all of his gifts and he thanked everyone many times!

Evan opened all of his gifts first, because Preston was just interested in eating when he woke up. Here is what the room looked like after Evan finished opening his gifts! What a mess!

Preston enjoyed opening his presents and he was thankful to have Evan help him. Of course, like most babies, he really liked playing with the wrapping paper and ribbon as much as his new toys!

"Merry Christmas Parker!"

My Sweet Boys

Evan and Parker

Charlie passed away a little over a week ago and poor Parker is even sadder than we are. Thankfully, Evan has taken WONDERFUL care of Parker. He lets Parker sleep in the bed with him, always tries to get Parker to join us where we are in the house, pets him a lot and always gives him extra treats and cuddles. I think that it helps eases Parker's sadness a bit and I also think it helps Evan grieve as well. I am so happy to have such a sweet and compassionate little boy!

Evan's Big Fall

Last Friday we went to a cookie party at Susan's house. The party was a lot of fun, until Evan got hurt. Carl was wrestling with a bunch of kids in the basement and he knocked Evan with a ball. Poor Evan stumbled and fell into the fireplace and got a large cut above his eye and a small cut on his nose. Evan was in a lot of pain and was crying and screaming. The cut above his eye seemed pretty deep and it was bleeding a lot, so we took Evan to the emergency room at the new Kosair Children's hospital.

We did not have a wait at the hospital, which was great. Evan had to get the cut cleaned, which really hurt, but he was SO brave! Once the nurse practitioner saw that the cut was pretty straight, she decided that she could glue it together, instead of stitch it. What good news! They numbed the cut for about a half and hour, while Evan watched a movie and enjoyed a slushy. Once the area was numbed, they glued it together and we were discharged. Since Evan was SO brave, we took him to Meijer before heading home, so that he could pick out a toy. Of course, he picked out a package of planes!

Evan's cut is healing really well. He keeps a bandage on it to keep it clean and dry, but he won't have to do that much longer. Let's hope this next year is filled with fewer trips to the emergency room!

(The nurse practitioner that took care of Evan, used to work in the N.I.C.U at Norton and took care of Evan when he was born! She remembered Evan and she took wonderful care of him again! What a small world!)

Goodbye Charlie

We had a very sad day at our house on Wednesday. Charlie and Parker got out of the yard, which is not too unusual, but about an hour later, we got a call from someone telling us that Charlie had been hit by a car and that it didn't look good. Carl drove out to meet him and found Charlie by the side of the road. The man said that he had seen Parker by the side of the road, but that he had gotten scared and run off.

Somehow, the dogs had made it all the way out to US 42, which is pretty far from our house. We didn't have time to think about Charlie, as we knew Parker was still next to a busy road and we didn't want to lose him too.

After about a half hour, Carl found Parker in a nearby neighborhood. We were so happy and relieved to have found Parker, but after we did, we could finally think about Charlie. Carl brought Charlie home where we were able to grieve our loss. We cried a lot, but were thankful that we were able to find him, pet and kiss him and tell him goodbye.

We were very grateful to the young man who saw Charlie be hit and who called us. Though I imagine it was hard for him to do, his call gave us not only the opportunity to know what happened to Charlie, but also let us find Parker. Without his call, we may have lost both boys that night. He also let us know that it was over instantly for Charlie, so we are thankful that he didn't suffer.

Our time with Charlie was much too short, but we think we were able to provide him with a good and happy home. We loved him very much and we will miss him. He was always sweet and loving with our two (human) boys, but always managed to keep things interesting. Whether it was his constantly announcing the presence of our cat to us, his abnormally loud snoring, his insatiable appetite to eat everything, including anything left on the kitchen table, or his horribly failed attempts to "sneak" into the basement to eat cat food, we always (mostly) loved having him around. We'll miss him always being underfoot and always cuddling with us. He's the sweetest dog we've ever known and he'll always be a part of our family.

We'll always love you Charlie.


These are pictures from Charlie's first day at home with us. Evan was SO excited! Charlie let Evan carry him EVERYWHERE!

Charlie made himself right at home!

Parker and Charlie became best friends in a matter of hours. Parker will really miss Charlie too.

After a few days, Charlie decided that he liked OUR bed!

Charlie loved to be outside. He really liked the warm spring weather and sleeping in the sun.

I love my sweet boy.

I guess Charlie thought that the cat was taking up too much room! Silly boy!

Parker and Charlie did just about everything together. I loved seeing them cuddle.

Charlie was so sweet and gentle. He let Preston play with him all the time. Preston really got excited when he got to pet Charlie.

Charlie liked this spot on the couch. He could see what was going on inside and outside!

Charlie cracked me up when I saw that he gathered his favorite toys to sleep with! I guess he did not want Parker to play with them while he slept!

Carl loved Charlie too. He was such a sweet dog. He loved EVERYBODY!

Charlie enjoyed a book read to him by Evan! (He was SO good with Evan!)

Merry Christmas Charlie!

Breakfast with Santa

The Congletons came to visit last weekend and we took the boys to have breakfast with Santa. Of course, much like our trip to the water park the weekend before, Evan was as excited to see Levi as he was to do or see anything else! After breakfast we saw Santa and then played lots of games. Evan even got to pick a few gifts to give to his family members, which was SO cute! I can't wait to see everyone receive their gifts that he picked for them.

Evan's 1st Play

Last week I got to chaperone Evan's class field trip to Derby Dinner Playhouse to see a play. It was Evan's first play and he LOVED it! The play was called "A Fairy Tale of Christmas." It was really cute and Evan especially liked the princes because they had swords! He even told me he was going to be a prince when he grew up! He is so cute! I really enjoyed my special time with Evan and his friends.

Of course, I couldn't take pictures during the play, but someone offered to take a picture of me and Evan before the play started.

Big Splash Adventure Indoor Water Park

Last weekend we traveled to French Lick, Indiana to meet The Congletons for a fun family getaway at Big Splash Adventure Indoor Water Park. We had not seen them in about two months, so we were VERY glad to spend some time with our good friends.

We started the weekend by going to see Santa. Evan was eager to see Santa, but Preston was tired and getting fussy. When we sat him on Santa's lap, he quieted down and started to play with Santa's beard! It was pretty funny! After pictures with Santa, we also got to decorate a huge gingerbread house, color an ornament, get some candy from the candy bar, drink some hot chocolate and ride the barrel train! It was tons of fun and we even ran into The Woosley Family and The Jones Family!

We went back to the hotel where Preston took a quick nap and then we all headed down to the water park to play. Evan and Levi had a blast! They loved the slides and the "whirlpool." Preston had fun too. He liked the baby pool and the swings!

After playing for a few hours, we went back to the rooms and ate dinner. We also celebrated Levi's birthday, which was lots of fun! After the party, Levi and Evan went back to play with Carl and John, while Terri and I tried to get the little guys ready for bed. (Although tired, Preston did not fall asleep until almost 10:00!)

In the morning, we ate breakfast at the hotel and then played at the water park for a few more hours. Once it was clear that everyone was hungry, we got ready to go and got some lunch. On the way out of town, we all stopped to play some games at Shotz. Levi, John, Carl, and Evan played lazer tag, which was a big hit with all of the boys!

Evan thought Preston was pretty silly when he pulled on Santa's beard! I think poor Santa was thinking, "Ouch!" He was a good sport though!

EVERYONE loved the barrel train! (I think the boys rode at least three times, if not four!)

Levi and Evan were so excited to see each other! They had tons of fun playing in the water park!

Evan and Levi were ALWAYS together! Here they are swimming to the whirlpool!

Levi and Evan both like The Lazy River.

Preston liked The Lazy River too!

Preston enjoyed the swing in the baby pool.

Evan LOVES his Daddy!

Preston had fun playing in the baby pool.