weekend round up

maybe the title is a little misleading, because i want to recap the past few weeks and weekends that we've had since the beginning of january.  we've been a pretty busy family with work and everything else, it's hard to make it to the computer all the time.  

the past few weekends we have enjoyed watching garrett and ned hurd coach a group of boys (13-14 years old) in basketball.  i didn't know how much jay really enjoyed it until this past thursday when garrett was going to practice, jay had a total meltdown and thought he was going to a game.  so far the team has won three and lost two.  not too bad!!!  they've got a good little team and hopefully they can win the rest of their games.  can't wait  until this thursday night when they have another game.  i think it is exciting for both me and nicole (ned's wife) to just go out and cheer for these guys.

on occasion, i've picked up a bundle of three at daycare when olivia's and owen's parents have to work late.  this past time i found out livvie really on likes her parents to pick up, but by the time we reached the house everyone was okay and ready to play.  i managed to take care of three little ones and cook homemade potato soup at the same time.  

last weekend peyton king celebrated her 2nd birthday at her house.  who knew that it would be such a wonderful weekend and we could even enjoy a little time outside.  

 jay's king of this castle.

 peyton digging into her cake.

 everyone helping peyton open her presents.  noah's waiting on the woody doll.

 she got her jessie!! and bullseye.  don't touch jessie or she'll have a meltdown.

 look what jay got!!  i think anything in a bag is exciting at this age.

recently this week, we've pulled out the playdoh to play with it.  jay loves to cut it with his scissors.  playdoh only comes out on rare occasions and only at the kitchen table.  

and lastly, we celebrated olivia's 2nd birthday yesterday at mcdonalds.  one of the mcdonalds in matthews has a play place for kids 3 and under.  it is such a perfect place to have a party and you don't have to worry about cleaning up your own house.

 noah belote

 jay, noah, lyla and sage walters

 chandler jenkins

 olivia eating her yummy cupcake.

 courtney and pressley tucker

 well the birthday girl didn't want to join the fun.

 olivia opening some of her gifts.

jay and daddy

icy dayz

yesterday was a snow day, today is an icy day; and i mean ice!!!  yesterday the snow was powdery and easy to walk in, but today was a disaster because freezing rain came down last night.  there is an inch of ice on top of all of the snow on the ground.  jay and i ventured out in it today anyway.  he enjoyed it and maybe more than yesterday when it was the fluffy white stuff.  we would slip and slide and both fell down in the middle of the road and as i was getting up heard him say "let's do it again".  that's my boy.  never gets hurt and always wants to do it again.  jay would walk around the porch in the back picking up big ice sheets and throwing them to the ground and watch them hit and shatter.  he would say "that's a big one".  nothing outside can get jay down and he wants to go out again this afternoon.  sorry no pictures because the camera is dead.  you can enjoy the ones from yesterday.  they look the same except jay had red pants on today.

oh and how to dress a two year old in the snow.  i keep hearing we don't have anything to go out in the snow.  jay is probably the most well dressed kid on the planet in the snow.  After the snow after Christmas, we had gone out shopping to return a couple of things.  we stopped into children's place and garrett and jay found a pair of boats.  we bought them way too big so he can wear them next year.  the rest of the clothes we had.  we layered jay in a pair of sweatpants that we stuffed in his boats with a pair of windpants over top.  on the top half of his body he has a long sleeve thermal, shortsleeve t-shirt of some sort, a hoodie and a puffy jacket.  on his head we put his most favorite carolina hat with both hoods.  and of course we can't forget the gloves or "mittens" as he calls them.  he's all decked out and ready to play in the snow or ice.  he could play for hours like this.

i think i'm over these snow days.  we are suppose to be starting exams and my first one is to be an eoc for my algebra II honors folks.  yikes!!  they will probably do well, but i need one more review day to make sure they are ready.  i'm afraid we will be out tomorrow again, i hope not because we already have two make up days to do already.  that's a bummer, but i'm had some great days with jay and yesterday with garrett as well.

snow dayz

today was a monday, turn snow day.  garrett worked from home for a little while so i got the chance to take jay outside for an hour and a half.  if he had his choice, it would have been much longer.  we did make it back outside for another hour in the afternoon, but it was much colder.

 jay and mommy

 sand shovels and buckets turned into snow buckets and shovels.  jay would take a few steps and take and scoop and put it in his bucket and then would do it again.  he had no interest in using the neighbors sled. 

 noah came out for a little while to join the fun, but he hated to fall in the snow.

 peyton and sara king also made their way out for a little fun.

 garrett preparing to throw snowballs at the king's house.

jay and peyton making snow castles!!

it's a wrap!!

2010 has ended and 2011 has begun. we ended the year off on a good note this last month. we convinced jay to give his pacifier to santa in return he would get presents. to our surprise, it worked like a charm. we haven't had any problems with it since. the key is, actually have a present ready at the house when they give it away.

we want to leave you with a couple of photos of this last month. it has been pretty busy visiting family and finishing up work for the month that i haven't had time to post anything since thanksgiving. that's what working full time will do to you.

christmas night and the day after snow started to fall and really accumulated. i think we had about 4 inches around our house or so. jay really liked walking in the snow, but we soon found out tennis shoes is not the way to go. his shoes and socks were all soaking wet. he definitely had a warm bath afterward.

at the beginning of the month, my dad and i took jay to the tree lighting in mint hill. garrett had practice with his basketball team and my mom had to work so dad and i thought it would be cool to go. we wanted cookies and hot chocolate, but there was way to many people there and jay was not going to wait on it.

christmas was great and full of presents. jay has most of the toy story gang and all three movies now. one night he even had to sleep with all the gang.

santa brought jay a tool set. he loves it and loves playing with the drill especially. one of the drills is from my grandmother that he got the night before.

as you can see, jay and noah enjoyed playing and "fixing" things in their new wagons. i think this was the highlight of christmas.

jay has power now!! (the batteries have already gone out once)

christmas eve, jay and noah helped make a mess and clean it up too at my parents house.

uncle chip and aunt kim gave a cool toy story car to jay. steering is a bit of a problem so he just goes around in circles in the yard.

also this month jay has grown fond of his jacket and "mittens". no it isn't cold in our house, this is just how he likes to play.

we hope your month has been great. we look forward to a great 2011 and hopefully will have some great things come our way this new year.

what we've been up to

thanksgiving went off with a bang. noah and jay love to play with one another and the boys know what to do with leaves all piled up.

here are all the grandkids on the wagoner side of the family. jay is holding the newest addition, seth, noah's little brother. noah didn't want anything to do with him, but jay didn't have a problem holding seth on his own.

here's my sister and my families.

jay's really gotten good at throwing balls, including footballs. i think he'll be a good little ballplayer.

here's a picture of gramps with two of his grandkids reading books. i think they all had fun.

sundays have been reserved to cheering on the panthers. maybe they will get another win some time soon. jay loves to wear his panther jersey also known as his "football player".

on november 20th, we went with our sunday school class to the lazy 5 ranch. we had a great time and got to feed and pet all sorts of animals. at one time, jay was chasing a pig with a few of the girls. here's a glimpse of our trip to mooresville.

somehow jay made it in a picture with all girls. he's our ladies man.

our little monkey

i wanted to share a glimpse of our weekend starting from sunday night and going backward. we gathered the kids together to go a little trick-or-treating around the neighborhood before it got dark. i know it is better in the dark, but with little ones, when it's light outside is way better. jay was a little taker of candy. he doesn't know when to stop. one of our neighbors just let him keep taking it. jay finally grew comfortable enough to wear is monkey costume. earlier in the week i thought it was going to be impossible to get it on him.

here's a picture of all the trick-or-treating buddies

peyton king, olivia williams, natalie rhyne (olivia's cousin), jay, noah belote

saturday night we helped to celebrate jake trent's birthday. he turned two a couple of weeks ago. he got all sorts of cool toys and even had a little fire to roast marshmallows. i was surprised they weren't in the fire themselves.

saturday afternoon we went to our church's fall festival. there were so many people and so much fun. jay couldn't get enough of his candy and putting it in his bucket. we kept running into all sorts of people we knew.

here's one of jay's friends we ran into from daycare, alana. jay always talks about her and from the sounds of it, his name is common around their house too.

early saturday morning i took jay to the grocery store where they had pumpkins to paint for free. it was a cool idea and jay enjoyed it, even the cookie and juice he got.

we will just have to wait until next year to get more candy and to paint more pumpkins.