The Bragg Family Blog

The Bragg Family Blog

Friday, December 28, 2012

Shootin' Hoops {Lawson}

Lawson has been practicing basketball at every opportunity.  Here are a few recent memories from one night last week...














Daddy was cracking pecans, and E was riding his bike while I was snapping pictures of L's practice. :)


Fun times!

As of today... {Lawson}

So, time is passing a little more quickly than I prefer, and most days Russ and I feel like we are hanging on by the seat of our pants.  We know we're not alone in this fast-paced world, but good golly, where does the time go?!

As this year comes to an end, my feelings mirror the feelings of another blogger I follow who said something like... "our blog is like a time capsule getting ready to close for the year of 2012, and I need to fit in as many memories as possible".  Same here.  Therefore I am going to try to catch up on a few things over the coming days.

Back to the time passing so quickly - our boys are growing and changing significantly each and every day.  This post is to simply record a few things about them... as of today.

I will start with big brother...

Lawson...

-has a strong will, and is confident in what he thinks/believes.

-has learned to tie his shoes.  It is SLOW, and messy, but he's got the concept.  We will keep working on it, and "we" didn't teach him this, by the way.  We owe it all to Mrs. Glenda at school!  She is rockin' it in the realm of Kindergarten prep.

-can very nicely write his full name, and it is 100% correct.

-just last month he participated in his first US Presidential Election.  He was very interested in the presidential election, so I picked him up early that day and took him alongside to vote; he was so happy to be there.  We {including him} prayed and prayed for Romney, but have now had the "God knows BEST" talk, and we are trusting Him with all of our heart. God Bless the USA!

-knows his entire alphabet in sign language, and can therefore spell his name in sign language.  Thank you, Mrs. Glenda!

-is very into Bible stories, and can retell them better than we can most of the time.

-loves to count to 100, and then insists on going to 200.  This becomes annoying rather quickly although we're very proud of him.  :)

-scored a total of 5 goals in the last two soccer games of the season.

-sings two Justin Beaver Beiber songs from start to finish, thanks to two of his little girl friends.  I wish you could've seen our faces the day he began to sing this in the back seat.  I am so thankful that Russ and I were together to witness this.  We've never heard his music, have never even mentioned his name, and certainly didn't know our 4 year old knew anything about him.  However, after talking to a few others, we confirmed that he sadly knows the songs.

-is quite the storyteller... We are hopeful this will slack off as he continues to grow and mature.  He can tell you whopper stories and his level of confidence will certainly cause you to believe him.
   :: he's told people we're moving to North Dakota, and a few days later it was Trenton...
   :: he's told people he went hunting and killed a big elk with a bow and arrow...

-is a good eater and sleeper.

-continues to be very interested in all sports, and knows a great deal about most of them.

-is eager to cheer the WHS Basketball team on again this season; we're having a great time following them.  He is specifically interested in Teddy Vincent and Antonio Hogard.

-has begun adding numbers in his head, specifically 2+2, 3+3, 4+4, and 5+5.

-is very good at comparing numbers, thanks to scoreboards and his competitive nature.

-is very particular about he wears... from undergarments to clothes, to shoes, to coats, etc.  This  particular-ness can be very exhausting.  That strong will I mentioned earlier... this area catches it, too!  A new fave is his bow-tie... we used it in a few of our Christmas pics, and I love them!  Our other current battle is pants.  He cries to wear sports shorts every.single.day.  On the warmer winter days, we will allow him to wear shorts, a t-shirt, and a sweatshirt, which makes him very happy, but the cold winter mornings are rough, thanks to those long pants... he believes they slow him down when he runs.  In his 4-year-old mind, it's all about running fast, not staying warm.

We love you, Lawson, and are excited to see what 2013 holds for you and our family!

I believe that's all for now... Emmitt's update will follow!

ICE! Shrek the Halls

On Saturday, December 15, we traveled over to Nashville to visit Opryland's ICE! display, "Shrek the Halls!".

We met my sister and Luke, and had a great time!  I'm going to let the pictures speak for themselves,  however here is the link to Opryland's ICE! information, if you're interested.

The entire display that you will see in the following pictures is built/carved/designed out of ice.  It was really "cool", I mean COLD!!  :)




It was a frigid 9 degrees in the ICE! area, and these lovely blue parkas were supplied to keep you warm.  Emmitt DID NOT like them.  At all.  Not one little bit.









"Look, Mom, it's Puss 'N Boots!"


The Three Little Pigs. 
Lawson is acting like them, and Emmitt is finally happy because we agreed to let him take off the blue parka.




=The ICE! slide area=





Sisters!

 
Lawson sliding!


Aunt Julie and Uncle Luke sliding!


Emmitt didn't get to go down the slide as he wasn't tall enough.  He keeps saying, "me get bigger, and me go down swide nex year in Naffville, mom?" :)  
I assure him over and over again that "next year" he can go down the slide.  
Next year probably = 5 years
***

=Our family with Shrek=



=Luke and Julie with Shrek=



The fire was even ice... and do you see the wreath?  So neat.









The final part of the ICE! tour included a life-size nativity scene.  It was beautiful, and the story of Jesus' birth was being told over the speakers.  This made it worth the money, for sure.








We left the ICE! display, and walked ten miles over to Opry Mills Mall to do a little shopping.  It was a little busy, to say the least, but the boys did well, all things considered, and I landed some great deals!


The night was complete with dinner at Outback, and then to bed at a hotel in Columbia, TN, where we visited our previous church family the next morning!



Thanks to Julie and Luke for helping with our boys, and for the great memories... we had a blast!