Nick's News Page

All the news I see fit to print.

(At least on the day I choose to print it!)

4/26/08

I was going to be more productive this year.

I haven't been.

We went to Colorado to visit my cousins and check out their new digs in January. It was a blast! I really, really like snow, and they have it in Colorado. Not the compacted hail we get here in Texas. They get the good stuff. The kind you can make into a snow person. Or the perfect snowball. And it's deep enough to bury yourself in. Which is great fun until it gets into your pants and down the back of your neck. And melts.

But I digress. My cousins have learned to ski and we went and watched them ski down the mountain. I'm ready to give it a try. It looks like fun and you go really fast. What's not to like? I think Mom and Dad have different ideas though. Maybe next time.

We all had a wonderful visit over a long weekend. Their new house is great and I had a blast running amok through it playing with my cousins. They all seem to be adapting to their new environs well and I look forward to being able to come up during a summer to see what Colorado looks like green instead of white.

What else?

As I'm sure most of you know by now I will become a big brother this summer. Sometime early in July more than likely. I'm so excited I can hardly wait! Mom and Dad want to be surprised when the baby is born so they won't let me find out what it is going to be, but I'll be happy either way.

Because of my forthcoming sibling we will also be moving soon to a bigger house. I will still have my own room and the baby will have it's own room too. Mom and Dad said I get to paint and decorate my new digs any way I want. I have so many ideas on what I want that it is going to be hard to settle on something. I would probably end up with a different theme on each wall if I could get away with it. Hey, variety is the spice of life, right?

Of course moving means packing and getting everything cleaned up. That's not the fun part, but it will be worth it in the end.

Hmm... what next?

Our friend Staffan and Josh went with us to Scarborough Fair. It is our areas Renaissance festival. They have a dedicated medieval village set up with all kinds of period stuff. I rode on most of the rides they had. My favorite was a barrel hanging from ropes that you climb in and then a man swings it around in all sorts of crazy directions. As good, or better, than anything at the state fair, but solely human powered. The guys that run the rides get a heck of a work out that's for sure.

Henry VIII was there and Josh and I were knighted along with a bunch of other kids during a ceremony he performed the afternoon we were there. Each kid received a medallion declaring their new status in the realm.

I've skipped a lot of stuff to keep this from becoming ridiculously long. Forgive me if I missed something important.

Love,

Nick

11/22/07

It's Turkey Day!

I hope everybody has an opportunity to eat themselves into a food induced coma and spend some time with their loved ones. I know I will.

Halloween was a blast as usual. I decided to combine my love of cooking with my love of sharing and came up with the idea of Santa Chef. Who better to give out treats than Santa? And what kind of treats would Santa carry? Reindeer chow of course. He has to keep their energy up to make all those deliveries around the world in just one night. So I put on my chef's hat and cooked up some reindeer chow (Hershey's miniatures and kisses), put it in some snack bags that I had previously labeled, put on my Santa suit and hit the streets. To trick or treat in reverse. I would put my reindeer chow in my skillet, ring the bell and when they answered the door say "Ho, ho ho, Happy Halloween. I'm the Santa Chef and here's a treat for you." Most people really didn't know what to do. "You're giving me candy?" "Are you sure?" "How sweet, here's some candy for you." And then they would fill my whole skillet. I kept having to dump the candy on Mom because it was interfering with my delivery. I did come home with at least two (if not four) times as much candy as I left with. All in all, a good deal. Plus it was fun throwing people for a loop.

Mom and Dad bought me a guitar. Red of course. My favorite color. And it's not a toy. I have been playing it occasionally and writing my own songs. Nothing ready for the top 40 yet, but I'm working on it. Dad has a guitar as well and I'm hoping he will finish fixing it up so we can all play together. I also have a drum set and I would like Mom to play it so we can have a family band. Maybe I can have Dad set up the video camera to record us and make our own video.

Dad took me to work with him a few weeks ago and I had a blast helping him fix cars. He had me help him out with a Mercedes he was having trouble with. It had a broken linkage for the heater and we had to take the entire dash out of the car to fix it. I thought we'd never manage to get all the pieces re-assembled, but it all came together at the end. Good thing Dad had me around to help him out.

Once again I wish you a happy Thanksgiving and hope you have a great holiday season.

Love, Nick

09/02/07

Wow! Has it really been six months since I updated my web site?

Have I been slackin' or what?

I guess I had better put keyboard to monitor and write something to get everybody back in the loop.

We have had a fun late spring and summer. I have done so much and had so much fun I hardly know where to start.

Let's see... My timeline is a little fuzzy so not everything will be in chronological order, but I'll start with my ballet. I am currently starting my third year of ballet. I first started at my school in a ballet class taught there. For my first recital I was a bumble bee and had a pas de deux with my friend Abri. I really like being in the limelight!

For my second year I moved over to the studio so I could have more advanced instruction. At the end of the class we had our recital on the big stage at the auditorium on the college campus nearby. The whole ballet school put together a production of Alice In Wonderland with each class doing one scene. Our class did the dance of the Flower Fairies and I was the Flower Prince. Being the only boy under twelve at the school has its advantages. And of course I was so excited to be on the big stage that I was wound up for days. See the video of my performance on another page. After taking the summer off my third year has just started. I am really looking forward to working on the bar this year./P>

What next. I took swimming lessons again over the summer and had a blast. I now have great confidence in the water and like practicing my strokes. My style is a little erratic, but I can make it to the side and float on my back. I'm going to take this fall off and will probably start back up this spring.

I love to swing and this summer I finally learned how to start myself and keep swinging. Now I am one of the biggest swing hogs on the playground. I can't get enough!

We finally decided to grow something other than weeds in the flower beds Dad made at the front of the house. I helped pick out several plants and we spent a weekend putting them in and sprucing things up. Mom and I also started some plants from seed and transplanted them into the beds. We are growing some vegetables and herbs as well as flowering plants. Because we are not gardeners and we know it, our criteria for plants was anything that took no maintenance. So far, two or three months into it, all the plants seem to be surviving us. Mom's research has really paid off!

My cousins came up from Houston to spend a week before the end of summer. I had a blast playing with them. I spent a few nights over at G-Ma and G-Pa's house so I could maximize my time with them. They have just recently moved to Colorado and I can't wait to go there and visit. Dad says we will try to go after Christmas. Maybe my cousins can help me build a snowman. I'm excited already!

My best friend had his first sleep over a few weeks ago at our house. We had so much fun we about peed ourselves. As a special treat we had donuts for breakfast and then we went out and launched my rockets. Dad made us act like we were at mission control and follow all the safety procedures like they do at NASA. My friend and I took turns launching and each of us sent up three rockets I have. One is red (my favorite color!) and about nine inches tall. One is silver and about a foot tall. The last one is decorated like a pencil and is about two feet tall. They are reusable and each one can go about one thousand feet high depending on the engine used. My friend told everyone about it the next week at school and wants to do it again soon.

School starts back up next week. I will be one of the oldest in my class this year and I really look forward to helping out the younger kids. My reading has improved greatly this year and now I occasionally read bedtime stories to Mom and Dad instead of them to me. I have also been practicing my writing and like to think of things to write myself instead of copying something else.

All in all I have had a busy and activity filled summer. So much so that most of it is a blur. If I forgot someone or something important forgive me in advance.

I hope your summer was as great as mine.

Love, Nick.

03/11/07

All our birthdays have come and gone and a great time was had by everyone. Dad's was first and it was pretty quiet for the most part. Just the way he likes it. Mom and I bought him a new license plate frame for the XB that has scrolling LED's that you can program to display messages. It is fun watching peoples reactions in traffic when they see it. I just hope no one runs into us while they are staring at it.

Mom's birthday was fun. Dad bought us a dance pad game for our Playstation that will let you play your own CD's and make up dance moves for them. Mom and I have had a blast playing with it and it is good exercise too.

The church that my school is associated with had a talent show after Shrove Tuesday's pancake dinner. We have been learning the Pledge of Allegiance and My Country Tis Of Thee at school lately and I decided to sign up and perform them that night. I practiced my presentation every evening before bed for about a week leading up to the show to make sure I had it right. Thanks to my preparation I had no trouble performing it on stage and felt so comfortable in front of everybody that I even told some jokes later when the Emcee asked for help filling some time between other acts. Mom said my appearance made it one of her best birthdays ever. Brad Pitt watch out.

My birthday came next and I wanted to do it up right. I love Andes Candies and asked Mom and Dad if I could have an Andes Candies cake. I actually prefer brownies and we took that and made a go of it. Dad and I started by making a large sheet brownie from scratch for the bottom layer and then making mint flavored cream cheese frosting for the center. The next day Mom and I made the top layer brownie, assembled the layers and covered it with green sugar to represent the package. Dad scanned a wrapper on the computer and used it to make a stencil that Mom and I used with powdered sugar to make the logo. We all had fun exercising our creativity and everyone said it tasted just like the candy. Yay team!

Mom found a really cool place in our area to have my party. It is called The Clubhouse for Kids and is one of the coolest places I have gone to for a party. The place is divided into open rooms, each with a different theme. There is a theater with costumes, make-up, props a stage, etc. A doctors office with medical equipment, x-rays, crutches, etc. A grocery store with shopping carts, check out stands, cash registers and money, shelves full of "food" and stuff. A craft room, a rock climbing wall, various vehicles scattered about to play in/on and a tree house right in the middle. We had a private party room for forty five minutes to use for cake and goodies and the entire day for playing. My friends and I had a fantastic time and after several hours our parents had to work to drag us out of there. I can't wait to go back!

Overall the last month or so has been good for all of us. I will not bore you with all the details, (besides, I can't remember them all!) but rest assured we are all happy and well. "See" you in another month or so. Love, Nick.

01/28/07

Christmas and New Years are over. The pandemonium has died down. The tree and decorations have finally been put away for another year. Sigh... I miss it already.

Due to my fortune of having many great friends and a wonderful family spread out all over town I had multiple "Christmas's" this year. I was beginning to think every day was a holiday. Then reality set in. Ugh. All told I think I had about seven or eight and then poof, back to school and work for everyone.

As usual I had quite the haul this year. Everybody was more than generous. I really enjoyed seeing, visiting and playing with everyone over the holidays. Even though I see most of them pretty regularly it somehow is more special this time of year. Maybe it is because we take so much for granted and Christmas, etc., cause us to take stock on our situation and realize how lucky we are. Anyway, it puts a big smile on my face and I can't wait for next year.

School has been going well. I have recently started reading full sentences on my own and am discovering the joys of curling up with a good book. I have been reading individual words for a while now, but the whole sentence thing just "clicked" with me and now I regularly freak out Mom and Dad by reading stuff "out of the blue." I like keeping them on their toes. My spelling is also starting to progress to the next level and I like to write signs and put them up in appropriate places. So I guess I can add writer to my ever growing list of things to be when I grow up.

There is plenty more that has been happening but at the moment I can not remember it all and I also want to keep down the word count. Epic tomes are great when you are in the mood, but not the greatest for every day consumption. As a wise man once said "Keep them wanting more."

Until next time, Love, Nick.

12/04/06

Well, Christmas has come a bit early this year and I finally have my own domain and host for my web site. No more arcane urls for me, I'm justady.com now. Yay!

In keeping with moving to a new home on the web, I have decided to re-style me site and give it a new look at the same time. I hope you enjoy it.

Thanksgiving was fantastic as usual. We hosted Mom's family at our house during the day and then spent the afternoon with Dad's family at G-Ma and G-Pa's house. We all probably gained five pounds. Yum. I am so glad I have such a wonderful and caring family. I love them all and look forward to sharing many more Thanksgivings with everyone.

I'm sorry there are no new pictures this time around. I had not realized the amount of links on my site until I had to change all of them at once. Ugh... HTML fatigue! I intend to add more pictures and news after the holidays are over.

Until then, Love and Happy Holidays Nick

11/08/06

Where to begin... A lot has happened in the last few months.

Dad and I decided to freshen up the house by nuking the old flooring in the kitchen, dining room and front entry. We installed wood laminate through the kitchen and dining and Dad came up with a nice tile pattern for the entry. As usual, if some was good, more was better and Dad bit off about as much as he could chew... if not swallow. The end result is great and of course he could not have done it without my help. I'm ready for the next project, but for some reason Dad seems less than enthused.

Mom and I have had a lot of fun this summer hanging out with the Walz's. Alex is one of my friends and is in my class at school. His mom, Jen, and my mom have also become friends. Jen is a photographer (amongst many things) and we often get together after school so Alex and I can run amok while our moms take pictures. Sometimes the pictures are of us, sometimes we go someplace really cool because Jen has an assignment and sometimes both. We often go to parks, museums or just roaming around town looking for cool statues, buildings or other items of interest. Mom has ended up with some cool pictures of me and Alex and I have had great fun.

We went up to Illinois this summer for Mom's family reunion. I really like to travel and see new places. The area where the family lives is beautiful. Lots of rolling hills and scenery with corn and soy beans thrown in for good measure. The three of us stayed at the Starved Rock Lodge and had a lot of fun exploring the place. I have been taking swimming lessons and fell in love with the hotel pool. The majority of our time was spent hanging out with family doing all the important stuff. Playing, talking, eating, laughing, telling tales, swapping stories and all the other requisite activities were exercised with regularity over the weekend. I had a great time and I think everyone else did too. I look forward to next time.

On the way out of town we stopped to see the King Tut exhibition. It was not coming through Texas this time and Mom had fond memories of seeing it when she was a girl, so when we found out it was in Illinois the same time we were going to be there we planned to see it if we could. I was fascinated by the artistry of the Egyptians. Being a fan of cats myself, I was also pleased to see all the feline references in their art and religion. I used some of my money to by some scarabs and a necklace of a cat as souvenirs. After we came home I had fun showing off and explaining them to my class for show and tell.

My cousins came up from Houston for a couple of weeks at the beginning of summer. Because we had had so much fun there before we decided to take them out to Glen Rose and see Dinosaur State Park and Fossil Rim again. In spite of our best efforts (or maybe because of them) all of us kids managed to fall in the river and get wet while we were looking at dinosaur tracks. Fortunately it was a nice day and we all dried out pretty quickly. After lunch we went to the wildlife park to see the animals. It was even better this time since the temperature was much warmer almost all the animals were out and since it was early in the summer there were lots of babies. Every time we stopped on the road we were surrounded by animals that seemed to be as curious about us as we were about them. We had a blast! And no Zebra bites this trip. Yay! Over the course of their visit we hung out and played together as much as we could and while the time seemed to fly by we were all worn out by the end. A good time was had by all.

All my schooling has been going well. I can swim ten feet at swim school and my form is starting to smooth out and get efficient. My ballet is going well and I am really enjoying it. I am steadily mastering all my works in regular school and I frequently scare Mom and Dad with my reading and spelling. I like being able to freak them out by saying the word they just spelled or wrote when they are trying to hide things from me! It is also great to be able to pick up a book and read it myself without having to wait on someone else to read it to me. It is getting a lot harder to fool me or keep secrets. I love it!

Dad and I went down to Houston for a weekend right before the end of summer. We went with the Martins to see NASA. I found it fascinating and wanted a ride on a spacecraft. Maybe someday. There is a lot of cool stuff for a kid to do. Besides all the displays and museum stuff they have a super-hero training area, several spacecraft models to play in/on and lots of computer stations simulating many aspects of space flight and preparation. It all kept us busy for hours. An extremely large multi-story play area with pneumatic ball launchers, ladders, climbing areas, slides, video cameras and everything else but the kitchen sink proved to be us kids favorite. No adults were allowed in except in emergencies and we managed to stay out of their reach for nearly an hour. I'm ready to go again.

Mom, Dad and I went to the State Fair again this year. I managed to get the folks to cut back on the boring stuff this time and focus more on the important stuff. RIDES!!! I rode everything they had that they would let me on and wanted more. Lots more. I giggled like a maniac and came back again and again. I can not wait until I get bigger and can go on everything. I don't really remember what all else we did. Did I mention the RIDES! It was a blast!

I went with Dad to an air/auto/motorcycle show at our local airport. An old DC3 was flown in that you could get in and look around, unfortunately they would not give us rides on it. There were several other neat light aircraft to look at as well, but none I could get in. One of the car show entrants let me sit in their car and pretend to drive. I'm trying to get in as much practice as I can so that when I get tall enough to reach the pedals I'm ready to go. We had a lot of fun together on a beautiful day.

Halloween was fantastic. It started the weekend before with a party thrown by one of my classmates families. They completely decorated their house for the occasion and almost everyone was in costume. There was fun and games for all ages and we stayed until way past my bed time. Then I dressed as SpongeBob for a costume party at school on Halloween itself and had fun seeing and guessing what my classmates chose to be. The candy wasn't bad either. I kept my costume on all day and wore it for trick or treating and passing out candy at home that night. To say I was excited about it all would be an understatement! I can't wait for next year.

My schools silent auction fund raiser was this past weekend. This year they decided to use us kids as bait to get more people to attend. Our drama teacher let us help him put together a play for us to do. It was about Queen I'm In Charge and I played a minor role as one of many Dragons. The ballet teacher was also asked if she would put together a recital for the students in the class she teaches at my school. Because one of my classmates, Abrianna, and I take her class at the ballet school instead of at the school-school she made up a "petit-deux" for us to perform in the middle of it. I really enjoyed my moment in the spotlight. No stage fright here! Mom and Dad were able to get video of both performances. We were trying to raise money to put in a garden for us to use as a hands on learning tool and to memorialize the founder of our school. It will have a fountain and be paved with personalized bricks purchased by friends and families of the students and staff. I look forward to its completion and being able to grow something in it.

I am sure I have left out many fun and important things. If I did a better job of keeping current with my site I would probably remember more stuff. Sorry.

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and the holidays are coming up fast behind it. I'm not even old yet and time is flying. I hope your feast is bountiful and that you have an opportunity to spend time with your loved ones and enjoy life while you are stuffing yourself silly, watching football and napping on the couch with your belt undone and your hand tucked in your waistband. Oh, and watch that drool running down your cheek! Love, Nick.

5/20/06

I may be slow, but I'm inefficient. At least that's what Dad always says and I think it is appropriate here. As usual I am a day late and a dollar short when it comes to updating my page.

We had a great Easter party at school and all us kids had a good time hunting for eggs on the playground. I found lots of them and they were all filled with treats and other cool stuff. I'm sure I did plenty of other neat things around that time, but my memory fails me.

Mom and I finally pressured Dad into getting a new vehicle. He loves his old truck, but it falls short as a family car. After much deliberation and investigation (see Dad's motto above) he ordered a Scion XB. Yup, it's a box. It took about five weeks to come in and he picked it up in the first week in April. The "X-Box" as we call it, has all the features we need, plus it was cheap to buy and insure. Dad's tricked it out a little with some options and zooty wheels and really seems to be liking it. We have started using it to car-pool together and are all enjoying playing with the new toy.

We went to Mrs. Gladys' special ninetieth birthday party on April fifteenth. I hope we all live such long and healthy lives! She seemed to have a great time visiting with everyone and reminiscing. Cameron and I ended up skinny dipping in Mr. Ron's wheelbarrow and had a blast. Of course Mom had her camera and was able to take future blackmail photos of me. What else are parents good for?

Mom's best buddy Trish came down near the end of April and we had fun with her for the weekend. We gathered up Grama and took the X-Box on it's maiden road trip down to Scarborough Fair. It is our area's renaissance festival, and has been running for over twenty years. There were a lot of shows and demonstrations to watch and all kinds of neat shops to spend money in. I had a Gypsy lady paint a serpent on my leg and she gave me some wishing stones as well. I also met a couple of nice ladies who gave me some treasure for helping them read the map and figure out where we were. After a full day of fun we headed home and had homemade taquitos for supper. Yum.

Due to circumstance we had a free Monday and took a spontaneous trip out to Glen Rose, where there are some unusual attractions. Dinosaur Valley State Park was on our list of sights to see. The park was created after some well-preserved sets of dinosaur tracks were found along the creek bed in the area. I led the folks on three different expeditions around the park to hunt for the tracks. They are all well marked and have signs in the various areas describing what you are seeing and what kind of dinosaur made the tracks. Judging from the size of their footprints, I'm glad they aren't around anymore! Yikes!

Running out of enthusiasm looking at just footprints, we decided to go on down the road a piece to the Fossil Rim Wildlife Park and see some real animals. It is a private park funded by grants and donations and helps breed and conserve many native African animals. Several cheetahs had just recently been born out there as well as some other endangered species. It is a "drive your car around and see the animals in the wild" type place. The loop is about ten or eleven miles long with a stop at the half way point that has a restaurant, gift shop, petting zoo and some other attractions. Mom and Dad bought me a cool T-shirt to wear to school the next day and a flute that I could use to drive them crazy with on the way home. Aren't they great! On the final leg through the park we came across another herd of zebras. They started nosing around our car looking for some food. We didn't buy any at the entrance because we didn't want to attract too much attention. (So much for that theory.) Apparently, one of the zebras decided that if we wouldn't give it some food it would just eat the car instead. We managed to capture the moment on film for posterity. Dad was a little upset since the tooth mark went all the way down to bare metal on his new car, but decided that at least it made a better story than a door ding from some schmuck or a run-away shopping cart in a parking lot. I guess it's lot harder to accept people's laziness and stupidity than the urges of a wild animal. And it makes a better story. Other than that incident, a grand time was had by all.

Uncle Joel moved last weekend and Mom and Dad were among those who helped out. G-Pa picked me up Friday after school and I stayed the night with them so the Folks could get an early start on the move Saturday. While they were off laboring I played with G-Ma and ran errands and helped out G-Pa. I visited with some of G-Pa's friends while he ran out to get some parts. We had a lot of fun and discussed many worldly things. His friend Mr. Ed gave me a remote control fire truck that he had found. It makes all the right sounds as well as being able to move and raise it's ladder. We managed to successfully keep ourselves busy and I think I was as tired as Mom and Dad when they came back to pick me up from helping Uncle Joel. They said the move went well and his new place is neat. I look forward visiting once he gets settled in.

Mom and Grama went out and ran amok and had fun together on Mother's Day. Dad and I went over to G-Ma and G-Pa's and hung out for a while. I sent flowers to Mom at school on Friday and to Grama and G-Ma on Sunday. They all seemed to appreciate it and the flowers looked really good. It's nice to love and be loved by such wonderful people.

As usual I'm sure there is plenty I have missed. If I left out anyone or anything vital it only due to my poor memory and organizational skills. Until next time, Love, Nick.

3/07/06

All right, I'll try to keep it short this time. Above and beyond the usual fun and excitement I recently had my fourth birthday. I have been wanting a "Big Boy" bed for a while now and we finally went out shopping for one the weekend before my birthday. After much searching I decided on a captains bed from Haverty's. I was excited to get it that day but unfortunately one of the parts for it was on back order. Bummer. Once again I would have to wait.

On the evening of my birthday we had supper at TGI Fridays with the grandparents, the Lastingers, Joel and Mike. Mom's uncle Bob and aunt Kay also happened to be in town returning from a road trip they were on and were able to attend as well. Everybody had a great time and I received some really cool presents. The waitress brought out a giant ice cream sundae for me and the staff sang Happy Birthday. They didn't believe me when I told them "No thank you" to the sundae. Nobody seems to accept that I don't like many sweets. Oh well, everybody else shared it and said it was great.

The weekend after my birthday I invited some of my school friends over for a party. I thought it would be fun for everyone to wear a costume and I was right! We had two princesses, Scooby Doo, Pajama Man and I was The Cat in the Hat. Mom used soup cans as moulds and made each of us a Cat in the Hat top hat cake. You rock Mom! I was also able to scam the schools bounce house and Dad set it up in the living room for us to wreak havoc on and burn some energy. Mom bought some supplies and we all decorated a gift bag and had personalized cups with transparent shells and our pictures inside. It was the best party ever. Thank you to everybody that came and for all the great presents.

After waiting an eternity, (two weeks) the missing part of my bed finally came in. On Sunday while Mom was out, Dad and I disassembled my old bed, cleaned my room and assembled my new BIG BED. And when I say BIG I mean BIG. Standing next to it the mattress comes up to my eyes! I have to use a chair to climb up on it. It has drawers and a cabinet underneath for storage and the best part is it has a door in the footboard the accesses under the bed. I have found that it is the perfect place for a boy to hide out and play. There are two flashlights at the ready in there and I have already started moving some select items in as well.

I said I would try to keep this short, so I will sign off now. Thanks again to everyone for making my birthday great. Love, Nick.

1/29/06

Ok, Ok... I (we've,,, Dad) have fallen down on the job lately and have totally failed to keep up with the web page. A lot has happened since I last posted. Where to start...

Halloween was a blast! I went to several parties and ended up trick-or- treating in Grama and Paw Paw's, the Lastingers and G-Ma and G-Pa's neighborhoods. Needless to say I had quite the haul and everyone thought my costume was the best. I'm all ready planning for next year!

We had a quiet Thanksgiving at our house with Grama, Paw Paw, Uncle Matt, Aunt Christy, Elizabeth, Tiffany, Macayla and Clay. Dad grilled a turkey breast and we had ham as well. We kids had fun playing in my room while the old folks sat around and swapped stories. Later we went over to G-Ma and G-Pa's for dessert. Aunt Danielle, Uncle Bruce, Trey and Allison came up for the holiday and I had a great time playing with them while they were here.

The rest of November is kind of a blur for me. I have been very busy as usual and if I have forgotten anything important please forgive me.

December went by far too fast. Just after Thanksgiving we set up the Christmas tree and Mom let me do most of the decorating. It was a little sparse on top at first since I couldn't reach that high, but we worked it out. We also bought some new garland to put around the top of the dining room. I helped Mom glue on some holly berries and pine cones and then weave in some lights before we hung it up. Dad connected everything up to one switch and it was my job to turn everything on when we came home at night and off before I went to bed. I made a Christmas countdown ornament using strips of paper and pulled off a new ring every morning before breakfast. I nearly burst before all the rings were gone!

It was fun trying to decide what to get for people and all though it was tiring I really enjoyed helping Christmas shop. We decided that we wanted to have a standing rib roast for Christmas supper and Mom set out to get one. The grocery store she went to was sold out due to a sale they were running. After commenting disappointedly to the butcher about it he said he might be able to help. A lady had special ordered a roast and then failed to pick it up at the appointed time. Since she had been kind of snooty about it the butcher wasn't inclined to hold it for her and asked Mom if she might want it. After about 2 nanoseconds of thought Mom said "you bet" and a few minutes later she was the proud owner of a 17 and 1/2 pound rib roast that she bought for less than half price. SCORE! She dry aged it for three days and then Dad found a way to squeeze it on the grill to cook for Christmas supper. It was deee-licious, and we were able to give everyone some to take home and still have left overs for days. It was an exciting Christmas for me this year. I about popped with anticipation waiting for the big day and was not at all disappointed. Everyone, including Santa, was more than generous and like all kids everywhere I ended up with far more than I needed even though I didn't get everything I "wanted". I am already looking forward to next year.

We went down to Danielle and Bruce's to celebrate with them over the New Years weekend. It was a great visit as usual and I really didn't want to leave. My cousins are so much fun to play with and I never get to visit long enough. I think we need to get an airplane of our own so we can fly down whenever we want. Dad can maintain it and G-Pa can fly it. Maybe if someone wins the lottery. Or Santa could bring one next Christmas.

Dad decided to do some painting after the holidays and tackled their bedroom and bathroom. He painted the bathroom a really bright neon blue and Mom and I picked out a new shower curtain with tropical fish, some water and coral themed accessories and a bright pink trash can to go with it. It's almost like being in an aquarium and definitely wakes you up in the morning! Other than inside the closets the only thing left unpainted in the house is the front hallway. I think Mom and Dad want to tile the bathrooms and entry next. We'll see... Dad still has some home improvement projects that seem to be in perpetual limbo that I think he should finish first.

Grama, Paw Paw, G-Ma and G-Pa went with us to a model train show a few weeks ago. There was everything from G scale (almost big enough for me to ride) to Z scale (an entire locomotive is about two inches long) trains, kits, layouts and anything else you could think of. A nice man allowed me to operate a train on his Lionel layout and let me keep an alien from his Area 51 train as a souvenir. We were there for about three hours and all had a blast.

A local retailer was going out of business and was selling off their inventory for pennies on the dollar, so we decided to buy ourselves a KitchenAid stand mixer that we had wanted for less than half price. I had been itching to try it out so last week Dad helped me make a red velvet cake from scratch to break it in. Mom had found a recipe for one and saved it since red is my favorite color. I had Dad unwrap the butter and crack the eggs since it was so messy but the rest of it (except for the oven work) I did all myself. The frosting came out a little runny since I put so much food coloring in it trying to make it red and not pink. It all kind of ran down the cake when I frosted it but it sure tasted OK. Everybody seemed suitably impressed with my culinary skills.

I have been really enjoying school. Getting up in the morning is a low point, but it gets better once I wake up and get to class. I am taking Spanish, Ballet, Drama and Gym-Jitsu as well as my regular school work. Before you think Mom and Dad are some kind of over achiever slave drivers I must say that I enjoy all of it and the classes are on different days and during regular school hours, so the only running amok I do is in Gym-Jitsu and Ballet and that's part of the class.

In class we do "works" that help us develop skills we will need for such things as reading, writing and math. It is almost always fun and I "accidentally" learn stuff all the time. I have been practicing writing both upper and lower case letters as well as working on my phonics. Lately when I come home from school I have been spelling out words by myself using the refrigerator magnets we have. I also have been working on my reading and can read Hop on Pop and some of my other books unassisted if I stay focused. Every day it seems like something else "clicks" for me and suddenly something gets easy.

What else... Oh, I am going to have a birthday/costume party this year and my costume just came in the other day. I will be the Cat in the Hat and Mom is going to make individual hat shaped cakes for me and a few school friends to eat. I am excited to have my friends over and to see what costumes they pick for themselves. I would like to invite the whole school but Mom and Dad say I have to keep it down to four or five. It should be a great time and maybe we can play pin the tail on the Cat and other Seussian modified games. We hope to take lots of pictures and maybe we (Dad) can get them up before my next birthday.

Well, I see the "manic-descriptive" gene has passed down to me, so I better sign off for now. I'm sure I have left out plenty of neat stuff, but I am sure everyone is done for now, I know I am.

Love, Nick.

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