Bode Miller in training

first snowfall meant it was time to try skiing! dad bought me a cool pair of skis, boots and a sweet helmet - all of which I had been wearing in the house practicing in anticipation of this day. I was mastering the pizza and french fry moves as well as some big air jumps.

I have to say, I'm already an amazing skiier...don't believe me? check out my skills at Mt. Weiland

shenanigans

what happens when Mom lets you wear your buzz lightyear costume in December and she turns her back for five minutes? trouble...

what happens when you put five cousins in one house for two days, give their parents beer and let Uncle Will supervise playtime? (see exhibits at right and don't tell Grandmom what we were doing)

oh, and that last picture...that's just there so you all remember how sweet and cute we can be when we aren't getting into trouble

I am the smartest man alive

It appears as if I've been slacking on updating the blog lately, but I've been real busy with so many fun things in October - we visited a farm, the cider mill, carved pumpkins, went trick or treating twice and I had a Halloween party at school. I'm sure it goes without saying, but I was Buzz Lightyear (and I even had the real wings)! I loved my costume so much that I wouldn't take it off after our party at school so I was only one still dressed up when Mom came to pick me up - I was also the only one with orange paint all over my costume four days before Halloween...luckily it came out in the wash. I got so much candy that my bucket was too heavy to carry. My favorite candy is the Kit Kat and I will fight anyone who tries to eat them at my house.

My obsession with World World is paying off big time! I love letters, sounds and building words. I can spell several words (like Jackson, Mom, Dad, Ball, Duck, Rocket) and I am starting to be able to sound out words to read them - today I figured out HOT and BAG just by looking at the letters and sounding it out!!

Officially a Pre-Schooler

Last week marked my first official day of pre-school. I got moved up to Ms. Holly's class at school and I have a lot of new things to learn! We do group time every day, we have show & share on Fridays and I was one of the first kids to be able to take home the share a book backpack! Each kid gets a turn to take home the backpack and read a story from school, write about it or draw a picture and take it back to school and tell our friends about it. I was really excited to have the backpack and I wore it around the house all night. The book we had was "The Little Red Hen" - I thought it was mean that the Hen didn't share the cake with the cat, dog & mouse. I guess I missed the sub-plot about treating other people the way you want to be treated...

We are on week three of soccer practice and I'm now paying attention about 40-50% of the time, which is a big improvement over the 5% in week one. This week we had a man coach and he yelled really loud which I liked, plus we got to kick the ball and then jump on top of it so nobody else would take it. Maybe by week six I will actually learn something about soccer (if I can manage to listen better).

Soccer

I had my first soccer practice today with my friends Jacob & Brody. To say it was chaos is an understatement...there were probably 30 kids, with 30 balls running around the field surrounded by hoards of parents and cameras.

I was not real interested in paying attention to the coach and basically did my own thing most of the time which involved running, kicking the ball, laying down and asking for snacks...maybe next week I'll actually listen and follow instructions.

Mom got a new camera and apparently I'm real photogenic!

Uncle Ronnie's Wedding (& misc. other pics)

We went to the beach for Uncle Ronnie's wedding this weekend. I think Uncle Ronnie did it right...we sat down for a short time (the actual wedding) then we got to play in the sand and water (in our dress clothes) and then he had a party where we got to play outside with a giant beach ball all night! It was awesome and now I can officially call Teresa my Aunt. Check out the cool pictures from the beach (and some others from our trip to the zoo, my first gymnastics lesson, me playing with Dad's new iphone and random other shots)

Cousins Weekend 2010

The third annual cousins weekend was awesome! We played from dawn until dark and I learned to swim all by myself in the pool (see video all the way at the bottom of the post for proof). It was so much fun to play with all the kids - I was so tired that I even fell asleep watching Toy Story on the couch before dinner one night. We trashed Grandmom & Granddad's house, but they loved every minute of the chaos. Can't wait for next year!

After cousins weekend I had my 3-year doctor visit which was supposed to be shot free...which turned out to be a big fat lie, but at least it was only 1 shot I guess. I'm still in the 50th percentile for weight at 31.4 pounds, but I'm apparently shrinking as I've fallen to the 25th percentile for height at 36.75" tall - I blame you, Mom, so things better pick back up for my 4-year appointment.