Running on the last day of 2013

Nathaniel ran a one mile race today, the last day of 2013. It was his first one mile race and he was a little nervous, but overall did really good. I am so proud of him! That was a big accomplishment for him.

Merry Christmas!!!!

Merry Christmas! I hope everyone had a wonderful, blessed, peaceful Christmas. We sure did. Ours was also filled with many Legos. Some of these Legos included Star Wars sets, a Delorean set (that's the "Back to the Future" movie car) and Lego earrings. We had four times of opening gifts - the first with my parents, then Steve's dad, then Steve's mom and finally us.

I had more pictures of Nathaniel with the grandparents, but (grumble!!) for whatever reason, I can't upload them. Just know that he had a blast with all of them.

Steve and Nathaniel putting together their own Lego sets. Glad they didn't get the pieces mixed up!

This video is of Nathaniel singing at our church. So sweet!

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Smiths got together today with the Wilkersons and the Bollings. Yummy food and good times were had by all!

Good looking groups!















Having fun with Wii Just Dance.

The Lego Smith Family

Nathaniel and I created these cool minifigures of us, with Lego.com's help.

 It is the three of us and all the grandparents (complete with pets). He wanted to make my mom and dad look like they just came in from the cold. Grumpy is getting ready to play a hockey game and Lolo is getting ready to cheer him on. He gave his dad a cowboy hat.




These are some of the creations (and him creating) from last night when we played Creationary. It's a Lego game where you pick a card that has images on it and create it. The other person has to guess what it is. He did really good I think. My creations aren't pictured because they weren't that good. :-)

This is a fork.

A plane that lands on water

Building. Wish I could sit like that!

My favorite, a computer complete with tower and keyboard.

"In the old days"

Nathaniel sang me a song tonight that he made up. Thought it was pretty cute:

Where shall I begin?

My dad reminded me today that it has been since my mom's birthday that I last blogged. Actually, he just came out and asked me if I would update it. :-)

So, I will start where I left off. Let's see...

Steve's brother and his family came down from Michigan for a visit this summer. It was shortly after Drea's (their oldest) birthday, so we celebrated.

Drea's cake that Marcia made

Drea with her balloons. Isn't she so pretty?!

After that, things kind of run together. So, I will just tell what happened! We went to Belvedere Plantation (after it was rained out the first time we tried!)

The first picture shows us getting instructions from a man at the beginning of the "medium" hard corn maze. We did the first one so easily we thought, why not try another one. Ha!! An hour later I talked Marcia in to letting me wave the flag they so kindly give you in case you get lost. We had walked in circles for what seemed forever!

Marcia and Nathaniel on the hay ride

Nathaniel on the huge pillow jumpy thing. 

The handsome boy

The handsome boy and his mom

Coming down the huge slide. He actually did it by himself this year!

A different slide

Now just miscellaneous pics

Steve and Nathaniel on a ride at Hartwood days

Nathaniel at bingo for  Stafford Cheer

Getting ready to go to church. Showing off his newly lost tooth.

At the dentist. He did great!

I had asked Nathaniel to write sentences about tunnel boring machines. He drew the "O" to look like one.

Making corn meal at Nature Days

Nature Days at Mott's Run Reservoir

Nature Days again

Bowling at a birthday party

Playing Pac-Man at the bowling alley

Now for part I do remember. Very well. Last week 

Nathaniel had appendicitis. He ended up at UVA because he had a high heart rate and a fever. All through it all, he did fantastic. He was definitely frightened at times, but we got through it. Now if we can just get him over is cold he got from the hospital.

Not too long before he got discharged

A friend, Patti, came over to cheer him up.

She did that by bringing him Legos.

And cookies.

 Today, I had a "photo shoot" with Flash. He just matched so well with the leaves!

I'll try not to make it so long before I blog again!

He loves sticks!

Abingdon

We came back today from a great visit to Abingdon to visit my parents. The timing was really good as my mom turned 78 today, so we got to help her celebrate her birthday.

My mom opening some gifts (early, which she almost never does!)
















We got there Friday and had my favorite and Steve's favorite dish, her Lasagna. Yum!

My dad gave Nathaniel and Steve a John Deere hat (from when they visited the factory). It just so happened that Nathaniel had packed his John Deere shirt, so he wore them both together, which looked very...green. Which is perfect, because green is his favorite color.

Saturday, while Steve and my dad went to the Flea Market, my mom took Nathaniel and I to see "Planes". He had been wanting to see it for a while and my mom really enjoyed taking him to see a movie.

Saturday evening, they took us out to dinner at Milano's (yup, like the cookies). There Nathaniel and my mom had a good time looking at and feeding the goldfish (Nathaniel couldn't understand why they were called "goldfish" when some of them weren't gold).

feeding the fish

see, not all are gold!

Nathaniel and my dad after dinner.

My favorite comment of the weekend was on the way to the restaurant when we went through town. Nathaniel noticed that the traffic lights in Abingdon are held up differently than they are here. He said, "look, they are on a string!".














On Sunday, I took Nathaniel to a great playground not far from our house. He had a blast and was very adventurous. It helped that we have been watching "America Ninja Warrior" and he pretended that he was on the show.

Sunday afternoon, we went to a picnic for my parent's Sunday School class at Sugar Hollow Park. There was another playground there, too. Needless to say, he was well worn out Sunday night.

Nathaniel and Steve by a really big rock

Nathaniel and I by the rock (a better picture of the rock)

On the way home today traffic was stopped, so we took a shortcut. Google failed to tell us that there was a gravel road. Steve said it best, "I guarantee you we were the only people on that road headed to Fredericksburg!"

The dirt road

Pretty scenery, though!