Reading is Out of This World

 Super Reader Hayden!!

Hayden had his end of the year program for 1st grade on May 21, 2013!  His teacher is Mrs. Vasica who we loved!!  The 1st grade students were challenged to read 5 books or 5 chapters if they are into chapter books, each week.  This challenge lasted over 7 weeks.  Hayden never missed a single time and he was one of six top readers of the entire 1st grade class that were awarded as "Super Readers" at the performance.  The songs they sang were super fun with the "Out of this World" theme and you could tell the students were excited to perform for their family and friends.  Mrs. Vasica also gave Hayden a big book called, "All about our Solar System" since he was her top reader for her personal class.  Loved that she made him feel extra special and was proud of all his hard work.  I was sure proud, one proud mama!!

Also, guess who was able to be here to see Hayden perform...his Grandma Cottrell!!  Diana came just  to help hold down the fort since I would be gone being a good citizen because I was called to jury duty. I had called her to have a casual phone call, talk about how things have been and what's going on and I'm sure I mentioned, or probably complained about being assigned jury duty and what a hassle it was going to be, and next thing I knew she was packing her suitcase and getting in her car to drive 15hrs to my house to be my rescuer!!  I love my mother-in-law or mommy #2 she is the best!!  I ended up only having to go to the courthouse one day and after that my juror number was never called so I got to have fun with Diana all week!  Such a treat for all of us!

Love

 I love my Mother-in-law!!  Do you see this beautiful blanket we are all cuddled up in?  She made it!  Just for us and just because!  We received a box in the mail stuffed with this blanket and a stack of matching wash cloths and hot pads with a note that said "Just because I Love you"!  She even made the wash cloths and hot pads out of my wedding colors, the light green and purple like you would find in my favorite flower hydrangea, which was also present at my wedding!

The boys love this blanket and on our family movie night they take turns on who gets to be all wrapped up it it!! My mother-in-law is the greatest and I am so thankful for her!

September 2012

September 2012

 This is what can happen if you have three older brothers!! Is was so funny to watch Roman use all the muscles in his face to figure out just what was on him.  The other three were rolling over hysterically laughing!

Roman is 1 month old!  He is a great baby, who is happy and easy to care for.  Such a character with all his smiles he easily gives! He is very content on his own but also loves to cuddle up and be a part of the family with our Friday movie nights.

Justin is my firecracker!  This kid is smart!  He will turn four in January and is practicing sight words and spelling with me at home!

 Fun Fun Fun at Kristy and Scott's House.  Diana was in town still so we had a barbeque with the family.  Always fun to get the Humphrey's, Collymore's, and Cottrell's together.  We enjoyed swimming, bouncing on the tramp and soaking up some sun!




Kristy is the master at the double stack!!  Clayton and Hayden thought this was hilarious!!

I love watching all the kids having so much fun together!  Playing with cousin is always a blast, especially when all the Uncles and Aunts and Grandma Cottrell get in on the fun!

Grandma's Love

 Grandma's love! 

August 2012

 Roman was showered with love from Grandma Thompson and Grandma Cottrell.  Complete with hugs, kisses, and homemade baby blankets for Roman to wrap up in!  We love having them here, spending time with our family!  My Mom came to stay with us for ten days.  She was able to spend time with us before Roman arrived and it was so helpful having her here to be with our boys while Nathan and I were at the hospital.  It was fun to come home to her and our boys with the new addition to our family...Roman Paul Cottrell

 

Diana, Nathan's Mom came to stay with us as well, to see baby Roman and help out. I am so grateful to have these women in my life.   Having family to visit is always a special treat for us and we were able to see both Grandma's in the same month!!  Lucky us!

Roman on top of a blanket quilted by Grandma Cottrell

 

 

Look at the beautiful flowers Nate's finance department sent to me!!  All my favorites hydrangeas, lilies, roses, daises and all the extra little fillers in deep purples and blues!  Made my day!

 

Louisiana

I know, I know, we have been back from Louisiana for a bit now and you all are on the edge of your seats trying to figure out just what we did down there. SO my apologies for taking so long!! ;) Louisiana's weather was just perfect for our visit. 90's with only a couple of days with high humidity, which is just fine when you have a pool you can dive into at anytime. And dive is just what the kids did, all day long. Seriously, my boys turn into water bugs whenever they touch H2O. Justin was loving getting in the hot tub, then jumping into Nate's arms in the pool and then getting out, running to the hot tub again to me and do the process all over again.

We taught the boys to dive head first and we were all impressed how quickly they picked up on it. The pro of the family would be Diana. She has a flawless dive in which I was able to capture in the picture above.

Justin was all about playing games. In the pool. Out of the pool. Throwing a ball to others in the pool. And teasing us by touching the water.... look at us.... get a reaction.... then giggle.

Clay is really good at diving down deep into the pool. There was no spot in the entire pool that he couldn't dive for Gold dollar coins that Steve was throwing.

Hayden is just too much fun to watch. His crazy dives and flips had us all dying of laughter. At one point we had the boys jump off the diving board trying to make the letters of the alphabet. Hilarious!! Clayton's side kinked neck for "P" was to die for and Hayden was quite proud that he needed no improvements on his letter "X"!!