Chaz's 3rd Birthday

Dear Chaz,

   You, my baby, are now three years old. This last year has flown by. I have stowed away alot of memories with you in the past year. This time last year, you were barely talking. And now, you never quit. Except around strangers. You are my first shy child. But I love that about you; that you are always by my side. Right now, you want mommy to do everything. Daddy can't even get you dressed in the mornings. And the way you talk, I will never forget. You have the words I, my, she, he and me all mixed up. "Can my do it?" or "What did her say?" And we're always hearing "Can my go outside and play?" We are always laughing at how cute this is.

   I think for the past year, most every evening has been spent at the ballpark. You are such a trooper watching Easton and Allie play ball. Not long ago as we were walking out of daycare one afternoon, you asked "what you got to eat in the truck today?" I knew then we were having too many suppers in the truck.

And Chaz, you sure do know how to give mommy more gray hairs. You must have inherited that Risner stubborness. After getting into trouble, I'll ask you if you are going to be a good boy now and every time you tell me NO. There's been many times you have sat in timeout for over 30 minutes all because you won't say yes. About 6 months ago, you went thru a period where every time you got mad at me, you would strip down and take all your clothes off no matter where we were. You knew this would make me so mad. Still to this day, you have the worst temper than Easton or Allie. Oh, and I can't forget about the hole you drilled thru the sub floor in the living room a few months ago. Daddy left the drill in the floor when working on the satellite. He went outside and I heard it from the bedroom. Yep, thru the carpet and the sub floor into the basement. Good thing it wasn't the hardwood floor; would have been more noticeable. And I can't forget about when you was at mammaw's house and didn't tell her you turned the hot water on in the bathtub and let it run. When she found it a few hours later, you had run out all the hot water. But the gray hairs mostly come from how picky you are about your clothes. Only certain shoes you like to wear too. We constantly hear "it's too tight".

   But even a few gray hairs from time to time, it's still all worth it. You are such pleasure to be around and you are constantly making your daddy and me laugh. And you have changed so much this past year. And since you've been potty trained these past couple weeks, you look even more like a big boy to me. I would be happy for you to stay my little boy just like you are right now forever. I thank God every night for you and for you being part of my life.

                                                                                                                      I love you, Mommy

These are pictures from your 3rd birthday party. You are so in love with Thomas the Train right now.

The invitation

Chaz wanted to drive with mammaw the whole time.

They went thru a couple hundred water balloons.

Allie and Avery dressing up.

All Stars

Here's some pictures of Easton's 7 year old all star team from this summer. He had a lot of fun. Was very, very hot some days but we made it through it. I'm proud of all the boys for playing in the extreme heat and trying so hard. Way to go South Hardin All Stars!

Easton is the one fielding to the very left.

Waiting in between games.

And of course, the girls found something to do too. Chain massages. And I even got to get in on this too!!!

Holiday World Trip

We took our camper up to Lake Rudolph beside Holiday World again this year. There is so much to do at this campground. Would definitely recommend it. We camped 3 nights and went to Holiday World one day. There's tons of do at the campground for the kids all day. We all had a really good time.

The kids are listening to the instructions for the water balloon toss. They each partnered up with someone and tossed. Last balloon left were the winners.

Allie and her partner was doing really good. They were one of the last few left.

Until Allie dropped hers!!!

Timmy and Easton throwing.

Easton and Allie played Bingo one evening. Winner got candy so they were totally into this.

I believe Chaz's favorite thing to do was play putt putt golf. He was finally getting the hang of it right before we left. But if he couldn't get it in the hole after a couple tries, he just picked the ball up and put it in the hole.

Going with Timmy guarantees some good steaks!

Allie picked up little sticks every day for us to have a fire at night. She was always helping around the campground.

And here's Easton watching her pick up sticks.

The kids loved the playground too. Here's Allie climbed up the pole.

Poor Chaz and this pink tricycle. Ok, I have to admit, we've never bought Chaz his own tricycle because he has Allie's old one. Why buy another one when this one works fine, right? And Chaz don't care. But it was a repeated conversation piece at the campground. Timmy and I walked behind the kids on the road while they rode their bikes. Half the people would call Chaz a she and the other half just laughed about how he needed another tricycle. Even the security guard said he was looking for something besides that pink basket in the campground garage. Oh well, Chaz didn't care and Christmas will be here soon enough!

Here's the view Timmy and I had most of the time being there.

Just up from our campsite, there is a little ice cream and pizza parlor. The kids would ride their bike up there every night to get ice cream. When I walked by at one point, I noticed their bikes parked out front and had to get a picture.

Chaz went so hard every day and it was almost impossible to get him to take a nap. He was so tired at one point here, he just about fell asleep underneath the camper.

This is inside Holiday World with a water camera.

Allie finishing riding the Wilderbeast for the first time.

The back two is Easton and Allie

Chaz and Easton in the pool.

Allie and Easton with Santa at Holiday World. Nothing like sitting on Santa's lap while pouring sweat! Allie said she wants a beanbag and Easton said he wants a Nintendo 3DS. Chaz was still too scared to meet Santa. Maybe next year!

The first day of school

The first day of school this year went good. Allie started Kindergarten and Easton is in 2nd grade. Lakewood does a mock Kindergarten half day to help the kids get ready the first full day. These are the pictures of that morning. She had so much fun and looked forward to the start of a first year of school.

And of course, I also took one the morning of the first real day. Allie tells me so many more details about her day than Easton does. I guess that's just the way it is with girls. She came home the first day telling me what happened from the very beginning of the day until the very end.

Here's Easton on the first day of his 2nd grade. He was excited to go and enjoys this year so far. He's bringing home 3 books to read every night and I'm amazed how much bigger his spelling words are getting too. We got a busy schedule ahead of us this year!

And of course, Chaz wanted his picture taken. He's still in his pajamas. He's showing off his new haircut here. This is the first time it's been cut really short.