First Kata Competition!

 This morning, Nathaniel participated in his very first competition of any sort.  He has been wanting a trophy for about a year now and we repeatedly have told him that he has to work hard and earn one.  It has been a pretty big deal.  We have not signed him up for sports where everyone receives a trophy because we want him to feel a sense of pride in his accomplishment and not develop a sense of entitlement.  Well, our karate school held a competition this morning just for the kiddos in the school and they competed only against their own age and belt level.  Nathaniel practiced hard this last week and the work paid off.  We talked and talked and talked about how to manage his emotions if he did not get a trophy (he lost a raffle a few years ago and had one of the biggest melt downs of his life) and how to be a good sport.  We felt pretty prepared.  He performed his routine and ended up in a tie so they had to repeat their routines for a tie breaker....here are the results for the tie breaker:

 He pulled out first place!  

We were pretty excited that he would finally get a much desired trophy...but we never expected THIS.

The thing is as big as he is.

Pretty pumped.  Marissa is equally as excited!   

(Yes, he was a good sport and told his competitor good job - she also got a trophy!)

Pretty proud of our little dude.

1/2 White, 1/2 Yellow Belt Ceremony

He completed training and was able to receive his 3rd belt - half white, half yellow!

The new belt!

Celebrating #8

To celebrate our 8th Anniversary, Ted got to drive this #8 Ferrari.

He loved it (and has been trying to convince me that we should at least buy a used one)!

Even after all these years, he does still make my heart race!

Family Pics - Spring 2014

They just keep growing up, despite my begging to stop!  

Here are our family pics from this year. 

Bluebonnets with my blue eyed babies

Shakes!

Our finale to Spring Break included a trip to Moody Garden's for the pirate exhibit followed by a stop at Mommy's favorite confectionary.  The kids wanted nothing to do with the amazing candy choices and were set on a strawberry and chocolate shake (I am pretty sure that is a genetic trait they inherited from my side of the family).

Kids, Kittens, and Puppies...OH MY!

Well, we drove away from the woods and ended up where dirt, oil, cotton, and wind are a-plenty....the vast plains of West Texas.   My nephew just had surgery so we went up to help watch the kids....little did I know what we were getting into!

They had a new baby kitten that my sister (a vet tech) had been bottle feeding and a new puppy (that my nephew does not yet realize is soon to be his birthday present).  My kids fell in LOVE with their little dog, Spot. 

Before you knew it...we ended up with Spot's sister.  Meet our newest (and possibly favorite) family member, Leia.  Named by Marissa - for Princess Leia from Star Wars. 

I was not even sure the dog could walk for the first few days.  Nate did not leave her side!

 

She did not really enjoy walking on a leash at first but picked up some mad skills before her walk was over!

Now we did do some other really fun things.....

Orange Leaf (my kid's first time),

 

playing at parks, climbing rock walls,

 going on nature hikes,

 but mostly we just loved on Leia!

 Both puppies gained much insightful knowledge as Nate read multiple Curious George books to them.

I am not really sure how my phone ended up taking this motion picture...but this a pretty accurate reflection of our animal adventures.  Oh, I did not mention my sister also ended up "babysitting" 3 of the other bottle fed kittens for a few days while we were there.  Putting 4 kittens with 2 new puppies and 4 kids under the age of 5 is probably some form of animal cruelty!

More Leia love (it was rare that Nate put her down).

 We headed back home, stopping at Grandma and Grandpa's house along the way.  Our cousins were there so they also got to love on Leia!

The big test was how the other dogs would respond. 

Sorry for the poor quailty of pictures but Ziggy and Leia have become fast friends. 

 Chico, in usual Chico fashion wants nothing to do with her. For those of you who do not know, Chico is our chiahuahua that is at least 19 years old - hobbles around on 3 legs, has very few teeth left and can only see out of one eye....she is way too much for him.

So our Spring Break leaves us with a lot of great memories and our new puppy!