Farewell January

It was warm enough to wear this sweet outfit to church on Sunday.
It has penguins smocked on it.

It was one of my very favorite outfits that Lee wore.

I was thrilled that it fit Wade at the appropriate time too.

I absolutely love knee socks on a little boy.

Lee calls them "thigh high socks," thanks to his daddy. Matt does not think bubbles, peter pan collars, smocking or knee socks are adorable.

What does he know! One day, Wade will have a say in what he wears, and he will want to only wear overalls, character tees, and crocs. So I'm soaking up every second of these precious outfits.

Lee made this cup at pottery tonight. It was his biggest project yet. He even made the "H" out of clay and assembled it too.

Next, he made a plate.

He got to decorate the plate with stamps, but he wouldn't let me see it.

It is going to be a surprise. I can't wait!

He loves Mrs. Janice. She is SO patient with these kids.

Last week, he made a mug, a coaster, a necklace and a pot out of coils. When they're done, they get to make what they want to out of their scraps. Lee made a gun last week and a dinosaur tonight.

Here he is with some of his goods!

Sunshiny Saturday

One of my favorite things about living in Tennessee is celebrating the four distinct seasons. I love something about each of them. I am one of very few people I know that isn't sick of the snow. It's January. It's supposed to be cold, and in my opinion, if it's going to be cold, bring on the snow. Plus it helps that Lee and I have a blast playing in it. Is it a chore to get all of us bundled up to go out? Yes. Is it exhausting to lug Wade around while playing with Lee? Yes. Are my floors a wet, muddy mess when we come in? Yes. Would I trade it for a million bucks? Not a chance! I know these precious days will fly by so quickly, and one day all too soon, playing in the snow with me will not be on Lee's favorite things to do list. As much as I have enjoyed our cold and snowy week, today's warm, sunshiny day came at the perfect time. My little guys each woke up very early, grumpy and not feeling so great. Lee actually had a low grade temp and was feeling achy. I was afraid he was getting the flu, but after some meds and playing outside all day, he is much better. I think Wade's gums were hurting, and combined with not getting enough sleep, he was intolerable. He was a crying, clingy mess. He would not take a nap or let me put him down. It was a l-o-n-g morning. By the time Matt got home from work, it was much warmer outside. He was planning to clean up our vehicles, so we joined him outside. I don't think any kind of medicine could have cured my boys the way their large dose of sun did today.

After a 6 mile stroll and a 2 hour nap, this guy was in much better spirits.
His nap came late in the afternoon, but he was so exhausted from the night and early morning that he still went to bed at his usual time tonight and was asleep within a couple of minutes.

What a difference 3 days make!

A snowsuit on Wednesday and a onesie on Saturday!

Five on Friday

1. This is Buzz's best friend, Cutter, who lives next door. Actually, he only sleeps there at night and spends the rest of his time at our house. He's a very good dog and is good company to Buzz, so we don't mind him living here. However, lately he has become a thief! Some of the items he has taken from our yard in the past are a soccer ball, shovel, car washing sponges, and the umbrella to Lee's picnic table. All items were returned by his embarrassed parents. A couple weeks ago, when it was brutally cold, I noticed Buzz's dog bed was missing from our garage. After walking all over the yard and not finding it, we wondered if Cutter took it to his house. The next day, Matt went over and not only had he taken it, but he had put it on top of his dog bed on their porch and was laying on it. It was hilarious. The funniest part is that he is not a huge dog, but the dog bed is enormous. We don't know how in the world he carried it all that way. On our way home one night this week, I noticed Lee's sled on their front porch. So after coming home to confirm that our sled was indeed missing, we went back and retrieved it from Cutter, who looked a little embarrassed at getting caught. This little dog is tough! He has a long way to run and a giant hill to climb to get to his house, but he manages to do it while carrying our things! We have now learned we can't leave ANYTHING outside where Cutter will be tempted to take them. I took this picture of him when he came over to play with us in the snow.

2. We were pretty disappointed to hear the news that Jeff Fisher is leaving the Titans franchise. Matt, ever the optimist, was reassuring and said that he is more of a Titans fan than a Fisher fan. Good point. We've loved the Titans through Pacman, Haynesworth, VY and now this. Better days are surely ahead for our team!


If you need to find Matt tomorrow, you'd better come on over. He has big plans to be outside all day long since the forecast promises 50 degree temps!



3. Thanks to some suggestions/advice from a friend, I'm learning more about my camera and editing program. I've had a lot of fun playing with my pictures lately and can't wait to learn more.


4. Lee requested a shampoo mohawk last night in the bath tub.

Wade now has enough hair that he gets one too!

5. We finally found a food that Wade doesn't like. I bought a few kinds of "Stage 3" foods for him to try. I'm not sure if it's the taste or the texture that he doesn't like.

Either way, it made him stick out his tongue and try to scrape the food off of it.

And it made his face look like this!

Yellow Belt Certified

Lee had his test today to leave the rookie status of "white belt" behind in karate.

I couldn't get a good feel of how Lee was enjoying karate. He is always very involved and excited when we are there, but then he doesn't have much to say about it when we leave. I quizzed him last week whether he wanted to continue after getting his yellow belt. He looked at me like I was nuts and assured me that he does want to continue taking karate!
Here he is bowing to Sensei Rick before accepting his yellow belt.

Now he's official!

He's reading his certificate.

Everyone in his class promoted to yellow belt today!

Sensei and Lee

Lee's biggest fan played with his toys and waited patiently to clap for him when it was over. Way to go, Lee!

Pottery Class

In Paris we have a place called Lee Academy for the Arts. A talented group of locals offers classes in their chosen fields several times a year, and for a fee, you can participate in their class or take a lesson from them. Usually, there aren't many options for someone as young as Lee, so we have not utilized this program yet. However, the new classes were announced a couple of weeks ago, and we noticed that our sweet friend and neighbor, Mrs. Janice, would be teaching a pottery class. Since Lee participated in a children's pottery class when he was younger and loved it, he thought this sounded like fun. After calling Mrs. Janice to register for the class, she informed me that Lee was a bit too young for the class, but she invited us to give it a try to see if he was interested in being with older kids. The first thing she did was give them a bag of clay and told them to be creative with it. Of course he was interested! He had the time of his life! She thought he could handle the rest of the course, which is only one day a week for six weeks. We signed up that night and are having a blast.

He watches every move Mrs. Janice makes and tries to copy her.
In his first class, he made this pinch pot and fish.

The other parents leave their kids, since the class is an hour and a half long, so Lee instructed me to leave when we got there for the second class. Matt picked him up on the way home from work, so I'm not sure what he made. He wanted it to be a surprise for next week. Stay tuned!

Snowy Fun

Today, we had our FIFTH snow day of the year!
Wade was a good sport while bundling up to watch Lee sled.

Wade L-O-V-E-S to "talk" about dogs and especially Buzz. When we get home and I get him out of the car, he immediately starts looking around frantically saying, "Dog, dog." He is completely fascinated by Buzz. Sometimes during the day, we go to the back door and watch him play. Wade squeals and hits the door trying to get his attention. However, today Buzz entered Wade's personal space, and he freaked out in a big way! While W was sitting on the blanket, Buzz came and sniffed him. W looked horrified, but it wasn't until he threw himself down in the snow and started rolling around that W completely lost it. I grabbed him and calmed him down. I hope he forgives Buzz, so they can be friends again.

Lee had such a good time sledding and has gotten so much better at getting up the hill alone.

My sweet snow angel

He had NO fear going down the steep hill. The more I told him that he was making me nervous, the faster he would go.

Then he abandoned the sled halfway down the hill and rolled the rest of the way.

He wondered why his head was covered in snow.

When he got tired, he wanted to swing for awhile.

God's handiwork

Both kids crashed at bedtime, so I think that's a good sign that today was another successful and fun snow day at the Hayes house!