Another Tooth - GONE!

What an exciting day! We finally lost this front tooth!! It had been loose for quite a while and REALLY loose for a couple of days. Erick tried to pull it on Monday night, but it wouldn't quite come out - and then Tuesday afternoon it just fell out by itself on the way home from school. Preston was SO happy! He couldn't wait to tell Dad and to leave it under his pillow for The Tooth Fairy! This is our third baby tooth gone - he lost his two bottom teeth late last year. But this was a big one - and the most expensive too at $5.00 from The Tooth Fairy! Oh, yes, we are excited to spend our tooth money. What a cute snaggletooth!

Preston at 6 Years Old

Here is Preston's "birthday" photo shoot. When they're babies you take them to get pictures all the time - but nowadays we just make sure to get a few professional photos to commemerate turning another year older! But we do have a couple of fun traditions with our birthday photo shoot. The first is we always get our picture taken in the same Texas A&M football jersey. When he was a baby of course it swallowed him - and now it's starting to fit him! (sniffle...) We also get his picture made in his Halloween costume. Well, this year he wants to be Darth Vader... and Darth just doesn't work for pictures (he wears a helmet). So.... mom decided to dress him up in HER costume of choice this year for pictures... Captain Jack Sparrow. Preston looked pretty cute and loved being dressed up so much that he wanted to walk around the mall in the full costume all evening. He got so many looks and smiles... he would just smile and say "those are my fans". Ha! So you'd think - all this attention - he's going to want to be Jack Sparrow now and I won't have to buy the Darth costume.... uh no, when I asked he said he undoubtedly still wanted to be Lord Vader. I'd like to think this Star Wars phase is going to end soon... but then I know how much Erick still enjoys it at 33!

I am so very proud of Preston and the big boy that he is becoming every day. He is such a compassionate and caring person. He is very nurturing and always wants to take care of people when they are sick or hurt. He loves animals and wants to learn everything about them. He is always so sweet to compliment everyone and make them feel good; he is definitely a people pleaser. He is also a total goofball and clown. He will do absolutely anything for a laugh and loves to laugh with others. He and his Dad will get themselves laughing for just about anything, or rather, just about nothing. Preston is a great friend and will make a new friend anywhere we go... granted, he won't have any idea of their name, but they are his friend. Ha! He loves experiencing new things and is always up for anything. He is full of questions and loves to learn. And I have to say, he is definitely a very talented artist and will sit and draw for hours. Who knows what he'll choose to be when he grows up, but we're sure it will be great. We love you very much, Preston. Happy 6th birthday, big boy!

Our Little Pumpkin On The Way!

Well, I bet none of you expected (or wanted) to see my big buddha belly when you opened up this post! I should have put a disclaimer at the beginning - sorry! Hey - it's the price you pay for associating with us!

What can I say - we were sitting around today after church and had talked about doing this and just got the wild hair and did it! Erick was very proud of his handywork (he is the pumpkin painter). He was quite the skilled stomach artist - even with Evan kicking his pencil a couple of times! And Preston thought it was pretty funny and that my belly did indeed look like a big pumpkin.

All of us, but especially mom and dad love Halloween; it is our favorite holiday... all in good fun, of course - but we do really get into it every year. We are pretty excited about having an October baby - it's such a great month.

I know it's not quite even October yet... but I didn't want to put you all through the horror of an even bigger buddha belly in the few weeks to come! This was obscene enough. Just imagine me walking through our apartment complex with a big pumpkin painted on my belly... I'll leave you with that.

We're so excited about meeting "our little pumpkin" next month... we're already prepared to celebrate his first Halloween with a mere 4 costumes... how is a mother expected to decide these such important things!

Love to all!

Game On!

Well, Preston's 4th soccer season has officially begun! All Summer he asked, "when is soccer starting again?"... and it's finally here!

Preston loves anything that involves running and being active and being OUTSIDE! We hope that he'll always enjoy sports; he seems to be quite athleticly-inclined.

For the past three seasons he has played with the Frisco Bulls and absolutely loved it. But unfortunately, his coaches decided to retire in the Spring, and so Preston was put in the "draft" and got assigned to another great team for this Fall - The Vipers! We've only had a couple of practices, but his coach seems really great and the kids all enjoy playing. And as you can see from the pictures - they enjoy playing soccer as well as goofing off! They were playing a scrimmage game and picking each other up after each goal like the pros do... then ended up in a dog pile as the coach just shook his head.

Usually Preston will play soccer and tee ball during the Fall and Spring, but with the baby on the way and the new adventures of Kindergarten - we told him that he needed to choose between soccer and tee ball. He overwhelmingly chose soccer.... he likes the constant action!

We're excited to go to all the games starting soon - Go Vipers!

Preston's 6th Birthday!

WOW! Our little man is 6 years old! This was probably the most excited he's ever been about a birthday... he knew it was coming and he was so proud of turning another year older.

We had his birthday party a couple of weeks early so it wouldn't be so close to the start of school. We celebrated at Pump It Up where the kids ran wild for the afternoon. As you can see from the pictures, they thoroughly enjoyed tackling the Daddies. Preston decided he wanted a dinosaur party this year, so we had a dinosaur cake, dinosaur goodies and Preston picked out a dinosaur shirt for the occasion. Of course, he wouldn't be a 6 year old if he didn't admit that his favorite part of the day was "opening presents"! He got tons of great stuff; Preston is so blessed with so many friends who love him. This year he's especially into Star Wars, dinosaurs and pirates. He also loves playing his Game Cube; and he got a couple of new games to play.

On his actual birthday Mommy went up and had lunch at his school. It was so weird seeing him walk around in that seemingly huge school. He was in the cafeteria eating like a big kid with all of his friends. The Kindergarten classes eat lunch at 10:30am... so we actually had breakfast rather than lunch; Mommy picked up sausage biscuits and apple pies from McDonald's. They don't serve Happy Meals that early!

After school we spent the evening doing more of his favorite things... including soccer practice, dinner out, and presents from Mommy and Daddy. And then we even got to hang out with one of his best friends, Avery, that wasn't able to make his party... he was so excited; we thought they were going to choke each other hanging all over one another.

Needless to say, he's already planning his 7th birthday! Thank you again to all of our wonderful friends who helped us celebrate this milestone.



This last pic is our weekend birthday celebration at Rainforest Cafe - one of Preston's absolute favorites!

Preston Starts Kindergarten

Preston started Kindergarten today! He was so excited to be a big Kindergartner.

He has to be at school at 7:50am, which means we have to leave our house by 7:25am to make it up to Prosper. That is quite a change for us late sleepers! It was actually still dark when I woke him up Monday morning. But he was eager to get up and have his first day.

When I picked him up from school he said his day was "awesome" and his teacher was "perfectly awesome". His favorite part of the day was "eating in the cafeteria". He said they did crafts, had P.E., ate lunch, played outside for recess and then he was very excited that they went to the computer lab! He said they are learning all about the computers this week before they get to work on them. They are actually teaching them about the hard drive, etc... boy, has Kindergarten changed!

After school we went and got a snow cone from the famous Snow Cone Lady and then we went and had dinner at Preston's favorite restaurant, "the pancake restaurant", (IHOP).

Preston was absolutely exhausted after the long day, but said "Kindergarten rocks" and he absolutely loves it.

Our Summer - AUGUST

Well, since I am finally jumping on the bandwagon and doing a family blog... I thought I would just re-cap our Summer, beginning with the last month - August.

As August was approaching, it was really kind of sad because I knew it would be the last few weeks I would have Preston all to myself every day. I know next Summer will be here before we know it, but it was so weird knowing that he would be gone every day during the week at Kindergarten starting soon. Honestly, if Evan weren't on the way, I don't know what I would do with myself! Your life changes so completely with kids; you just can't remember what you ever did with your time before...

So here are a few moments from our last month of Summer!



Preston's favorite place to go is the Dallas World Aquarium. We picked up his cousin, Skylar (she's really my best friend's daughter, but they are our family). They enjoyed seeing all the animals and then eating at the Spaghetti Warehouse (in the train of course) afterwards.

Another great place for the Summer is Jack Carter Pool. If you've never been, it's the best $2 you'll ever spend! I think we went 4-5 times over the Summer. This picture is with some of our good friends from church - David, Gavin and Keaton.



And one of our August traditions is going to the last Friday home game for the Frisco Roughriders. It always falls right around Preston's birthday; this was our fourth year to go. We normally go with our good friends, The Bradleys, but unfortunately they were sick and couldn't make it. Preston was disappointed, but still had a great time... there's nothing better than a ballpark hot dog! And Preston even got to shake Deuce's hand (the team mascot). What a beautiful ballpark - if you haven't been, please make it a date!



Preston loves helping in the kitchen, so we did a couple of "kitchen" activities this Summer. First, we went to a cupcake decorating class at JoAnn's. They got to decorate a cupcake "inch worm". Preston just loved it. Mommy actually took a cake decorating class earlier this Summer and he kept saying he wanted to decorate cakes, so when I found out they had kid's classes he was so excited! Then, we also went to this new place called Young Chefs Academy, where they have a group of kids actually make a dish in the kitchen... Preston got to make Mississippi Mud Pie and a punch called "Pirate's Potion". It was really a fun place and their dishes turned out yummy!



You are so much fun to hang out with Preston... I couldn't ask for a better kid!

P.S. And even though I was 8 months pregnant... when I found out that my favorite band in the whole world was coming in concert - Third Eye Blind... I just had to go! I think I've seen them four times in concert, I just love them! Erick and I had a great time. I wanted so badly to go backstage and meet them - I mean I had to be the only 8-month pregnant lady there, right?!?

Our Summer - JULY

Well, heading back through our Summer.... here's a recap of July.



For the past two Summers we have bought season tickets to Cool Concert Thursdays at the Dallas Arboretum. It is such a wonderful time... we pack a picnic dinner and enjoy some of the best cover bands around. And we are always sure to make it on the Thursday performance of my personal favorite cover band - Le Freak! Play that funky music white boys! hee hee! We do love going to the Arboretum; it's a great, relaxing day... and of course, the best photo spot!



One of Preston's highlights of the Summer was going out to the Ft. Worth Museum of Science and History where they had a Star Wars exhibit this Summer! He was beyond mesmerized to see all the Star Wars movie props and displas. He loves everything about Star Wars these days... he's already told us that he wants to be Darth Vader for Halloween!



And so we wouldn't go the whole Summer without playing soccer, we were sure to make it to soccer camp! We went last Summer too... it's this great camp called British Challengers Soccer Camp and they have a blast with the kids. They are all Brits, young guys, and they play these awesome games with them! The kids are learning great skills, even though they think they're just goofing around. And every day they have a funny theme - like crazy hair day!



We also had lots of birthday parties this Summer... just about all of Preston's friends have Summer birthdays, so it keeps our weekends busy. We went to parties at water parks, bounce houses and one of the neatest was at the Frontier of Flight Museum. I think Daddy enjoyed this one even more than Preston! They have all these old war planes, jets, helicopters, and even one of the Apollo space capsules. It really is amazing. Erick and Preston love watching all those documentary shows on the History Channel and the Discovery Channel - I see many years of bonding to come! Too bad Mom would rather watch a reality or game show!



Oh, and of course we had to celebrate the 4th of July with a fireworks show! We watched the Kaboomtown fireworks with a bunch of friends from church. The kids enjoyed playing beforehand, glowsticks, lots of snacks and watching an airplane show overhead. What a great time with friends and mosquitos! hee hee!

Our Summer - JUNE

Well, with all the rain we had in Texas, our Summer outside started off a little slow. Not that we complained, because it also delayed the Texas heat! And being pregnant this Summer, I'll take a little heat delay! But here's a recap of our June and a few more notes about our Summer Vacation!

We were able to make it to Six Flags at the beginning of the Summer. We decided to buy Season Passes this Summer because Preston is really into all the rides and tall enough to ride them! We went with some buddies - The Bradleys. All the boys had a great time; they have really added so many new kids' rides this year and they even have the Warner Brothers characters out. Preston's favorite ride was the "Mine Train"... it wasn't very crowded when we were there, so the boys rode it several times in a row. My girlfriend, Tasha, was a good sport to ride with all three boys.... I was bummed to have to sit on the sidelines for the rides this Summer; because I am a coaster-lover!

In June we also attended two Vacation Bible School sessions. Of course, we went to the one at our home church where Preston was able to play with all of his friends and learn about the Word of God. He loves going to church and is thirsty to learn. The theme was Avalanche Ranch and the whole church was decorated like a cowboy's ranch. I think Preston's favorite part though was when they brought the horses into the Lobby of the church. Well, I guess the horse got excited and had a little "accident"... and being a boy, this was apparently pretty hilarious to Preston and all the boys! I think that might be the last time that they allow horses in the church!

And like his Mommy and Daddy, Preston is a movie-lover... so he was always anxious to see the new movies coming out. I think his favorite was Ratatouille! We ALL loved it!

During June Preston also took a session of swim lessons. Last Summer he really started swimming well, so we just wanted a refresher course - plus they're fun! And boy, what a fish he has become this Summer. He loves to dive down and pick up diving sticks and has even taught himself to do somersaults underwater. Being in the apartment, we have a pool right outside our door and we spent A LOT of time there this Summer perfecting our "skillz"!

Of course we also spent lots of time at Mommy's OBGYN this Summer. Preston went on every appointment with me. He loved seeing Evan on the sonograms and finding out with us that he was having a little BROTHER! It's really neat that he is old enough to understand what is going on inside Mommy. He prays every night that God will make Evan healthy and help him grow. He's extremely excited about meeting his brother... hopefully he'll feel the same way when Evan is screaming and getting all of Mommy's attention soon!

As for Mommy this Summer, in addition to playing with Preston and our friends... I tried to spend some time with one of my favorite hobbies - SCRAPBOOKING! I went on two retreats this Summer with friends. They are a great, relaxing and rejuvenating time. I didn't think I'd ever have the patience to sit down and work on a photo book for hours at a time, but I absolutely love it and I am hooked! And it's a great time to bond with girlfriends and just hang out in your PJs! Plus, when Mommy is gone the boys will play! They build Star Wars Legos, go to Six Flags... you name it! And I know Six Flags is much more fun with Dad... who lets him stand on the bridge of Aqua Man and get absolutely DRENCHED before going home! And sometimes Erick will just take Preston to the office, which is really one of Preston's favorite things and he actually asks to go to work with Daddy! Thank you Daddy for letting Mommy get away for some "girl" time.

Oh, and Mommy and Daddy also got to take a "grown up" trip away.... to one of our favorite destinations... VEGAS BABY! It was such a great trip and we got to be there for Erick's 33rd birthday! We saw a couple of shows, ate some awesome food and of course lost some money! But it was all fantastic! Erick and I had our 10 year wedding anniversary in May, so we were also able to celebrate that and spend some much needed time together before the upcoming arrival! And we didn't have to worry about Preston... he was having a ball at his Mamaw and Papaw's house - who are an absolute blessing to our family and to Preston. They took him on the train to the zoo, to the playground and he even helped Papaw pull weeds in the yard and prune the trees (which is great fun for a 5-year old). Mamaw also took him to the store and bought him lots of jigsaw puzzles and she and Preston had fun putting those together and watching lots of Animal Planet (Preston's favorite TV channel)! Thank you, Mamaw and Papaw for the much-needed break. You are awesome examples for Preston and show us unconditional love and support.

Here we are at the "Stomp Out Loud" show in Vegas!

Another thing we got to do with Mamaw and Papaw this Summer was go feed the homeless at Austin Street Shelter. I had been wanting to take Preston there for some time, but wanted him to be old enough to really understand. And I think he did. Before heading to the actual shelter, we made all the food and Preston helped put sandwiches together for them. Then once we got there, he was really proud to hand them the food we had made and he got lots of attention from everyone. We hope to do this at least a couple of times a year and it will hopefully be a memory Preston will have forever. We told him to be thankful for everything we have... not just the toys - but the fact that we have food, a warm bed, warm shower, a doctor... so many things that other people unfortunately do without sometimes. He actually got pretty emotional when he thought about it... he'll be our little humanitarian. Thank you Mamaw and Papaw for being such wonderful role models.

What a great Summer so far... and just think, this time next year we'll have adventures with two boys!

Pre-K Graduation

Yes, they had a graduation cap, diploma and all! The first of hopefully a few graduations in our future... Preston graduated from preschool this month. He is officially a Kindergartener! As you can see, he is very excited and proud - as he should be!

I hope that he is lucky enough to have the same type of wonderful teachers throughout school as he did in preschool. Both years he had the most patient, kind and experienced teachers around. We will truly miss them! Thank you Mrs. Missy and Mrs. Carol - we love you very much.

He has learned so much and grown up so much in the last two years at preschool. We just couldn't have asked for a better school or a better experience. I hope that Preston will have some memory of these times for years to come. But if not, Mom does have it scrapbooked! Ha!

Preston is such a great, true friend and he admits that he will miss his preschool friends very much. But no doubt, he will soon make great new friends and have new exciting experiences! Oh, to be young again without a care in the world... you are such a joy, Preston - so truly happy and fun-loving. Enjoy every moment of your childhood... we will do our best to support you and guide you as you grow into a young man. We are so very proud of you!

Disneyworld 2007

Well, it's certainly not the most visited tourist spot for nothing! Disneyworld is quite the experience. We made our second trip to Disney this month... there is so much to do; you could go every year and have a new experience every time. I wish we could go every year.... Dad?

We were there for about a week and stayed at Wilderness Lodge, which is a great rustic setting with lots of cool amenities. The hotel is always one of Preston's favorite parts of any vacation. He loves watching TV in bed, taking a shower and using the room key! Oh, the simple pleasures.

During most of our stay we were actually joined by some of our good friends, the Bradleys. They brought their two older boys, so needless to say we hit all the "boy stuff" that Disney had to offer! It was really great having good friends with us and I know all the boys will have memories to last a lifetime... and the moms and dads too.

Our favorite park of the Disney parks is definitely Magic Kingdom. It's just such a classic and there's so much for the kids to do. Although, MGM does run a close second for me!

So we'll start at Magic Kingdom... talk about characters and rides! This park definitely offers the most rides for the young kids. Preston's favorite ride was probably Thunder Mountain Railroad, followed closely by Splash Mountain. When we went two years ago his favorite ride was the Buzz Lightyear ride, which he still loved, but the adventurous side of him won this time! But not too adventurous.... he braved Space Mountain, but just once. It was pretty funny... he was totally fine getting on, but when he got off I asked him if he liked it and he said "yes", but then I asked if he wanted to go again and he said "no, thanks". Ha! Maybe next time! The characters are also so much fun at Magic Kingdom... we saw all the regulars - Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, Pluto, Daisy... but some of our other favorites are Chip and Dale, Cinderella, Aladdin and Captain Hook!

Probably one of Preston's favorite memories was his sword fight with Captain Hook! That's one of those things that may never happen again. Plus, as we were waiting in line, Captain Jack Sparrow of Pirates of the Caribbean walked by... it was pure awe! Preston also loved the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, again with the Jack Sparrow. Too bad for mom it wasn't really Johnny Depp! Ha!

We also had lots of great character meals throughout the trip... they are a great time to really get to see the characters and interact with them. In fact, we were the last seating at a restaurant at Magic Kingdom one night and the boys got to have the characters pretty much all to themselves for a while - they were great... goofing off and making the boys laugh. Another great character meal at Magic Kingdom was dinner in Cinderella's Castle. I know, yes, there were more girls than boys there... but they had a great time and got swords for being princes! Plus, I think the boys were all sweet on Cinderella! You're at Disneyworld, you have to eat in the castle at least once.

Moving on to MGM... this park is so great because it has all the movie characters that the boys REALLY love! To name a few favorites... The Incredibles, Meet the Robinsons, Chicken Little, Lilo and Stitch, the Playhouse Disney gang, Buzz and Woody, and oh yes... the Star Wars stormtroopers! More about Star Wars to come. I think we also met all of the Disney princesses this time. If there was a character, Preston wanted to meet them. And he was so into them signing his autograph book! And I didn't mind... hey, more pictures for me! It sometimes seemed like we were on a scavenger hunt for characters, but it was honestly one of our favorite parts! Preston and I would both get so excited when we saw a new character! We were also guilty of "illegal" line jumping at Disney World - oh no!! We'd have the Dads wait in one line while we waited in another and then just shuffle the kids back and forth... hey, you do what ya gotta do! Hee hee! Don't the Dads look really happy to be waiting in line to see ANOTHER Mickey!

So getting back to Star Wars... it was by far Preston's favorite part of MGM, of the whole trip really. They have this cool Star Wars ride called Star Tours that he rode four times I think? It has all these cool props while you're waiting in line and of course a gift shop and huge "four-legged walker" out front (some of you mothers of boys know what I'm talking about). I have never seen such big eyes on Preston! We are infatuated with Star Wars and everything about it. It was a highlight of the trip for sure.

MGM also has great shows like Beauty and the Beast and Fantasmic and it has an awesome car parade with all of the characters! They've also got cool interactive stuff for the kids to do. In fact, they have this drawing class that teaches you how to draw some of the Disney characters and we took it four times. It was really fascinating and Preston loves drawing. The setting at MGM is incredible... it makes you feel like you are on a movie set with all these different scenes. And it's a little smaller than the other parks, so it's easy to get around. Preston also loves the huge "Honey I Shrunk The Kids" playground at MGM - we played in it for at least an hour. They have all these cool "huge" bugs and yard props - it's really, really cool.

We also made a trip to Animal Kingdom. There aren't too many rides there, but they have a great section called Dino Land USA where the boys could play and dig for dinosaur bones. And they do have a great safari ride where you get to drive through a beautiful setting and see animals right up next to your vehicle. There was a new "really big boy" ride there... so the moms let the dads go indulge in Expedition Everest! And of course we saw a few characters... I think "Flik" from Bug's Life was the biggest find at Animal Kingdom. After our day at Animal Kingdom, we had a great dinner at the restaurant in our hotel - Whispering Canyon Cafe. What a favorite restaurant for families - they have stick horse races for the kids and the waiters are a riot with lots of funny tricks... in fact, if you ask for a bottle of ketchup at dinner - the waiters will announce to the whole restaurant that you need ketchup, so before you know it you have 30 bottles at your table - it's a great time.

And last, but not least (okay, maybe least)... is Epcot. Seriously, it is a beautiful park... just not quite as much to do as the other parks. But both times we've been they have been in the middle of their Flower and Garden Festival and there are some truly amazing Disney sculptures made from flowers and plants. And we did get to meet "The Beast" from Beauty and the Beast. Oh, and Princess Aurora... she gave Preston a huge kiss on the cheek and he had a red lipstick mark on his cheek for the afternoon. There was a great ride at Epcot called "Soarin'".... it's a mesmerizing ride as it floats you above some of the beautiful scenery of America. Epcot also has lots of great science buildings, so all the boys had fun doing experiments and learning about technology. Another great building in Epcot is the Living Seas building - they've got an aquarium and of course the Nemo gang is splashed throughout your tour. We even got a picture inside the mouth of "Bruce" from Finding Nemo.

We also took a side trip to Universal Studios this time. Preston is so into SpongeBob and Jimmy Neutron that we thought he'd enjoy it... and we all did. They also have a lot of fun rides for the kids. His favorite ride (and I actually got to ride it too!) was the E.T. ride. It was this amazing ride that made you feel like you were flying through the air on your bicycle with E.T. in the front basket! They also had a great splash park at Universal and Preston got soaked.... so soaked that we had to buy him some new shorts in the gift shop because his pants were falling down! Hee hee! Universal had some of Preston's favorite characters.... Jimmy Neutron, SpongeBob Squarepants, Shrek and Donkey, Scooby Doo, Curious George, the Madagascar gang and even Jaws!! We got to ride the Jaws ride where he jumps up out of the lake at the boat... it was pretty cool and pretty scary! You'll also see this cute picture of Preston with a squirrel that let him get really close... Preston LOVES animals and just thought this little guy was so cute. Preston has said that he wants to do something with animals when he grows up... take care of them, find them... anything. One of his heroes right now is Steve Irwin.

And funny enough - another one of Preston's favorite parts of Disney is the Disney transportation... you pretty much get to ride every single form of transportation during your stay. Of course, we took an airplane, then a hotel shuttle, Disney buses around the parks, a boat to Magic Kingdom, the Disney monorail, Preston's first taxi ride, moving sidewalks... you name it and it got you there! Every ride was an adventure - again, it's the small things that make a good time.

Well, I could literally go on and on about our days at Disney... but I'm sure I have rambled on enough (plus I've got a whole Disney trip to scrapbook!) It's a great place and we hope to get back there in a few years - this time with two Cutler boys!

And now here are just a whole bunch more pics for any of you still reading! Hee hee!