The Takeover of the Robot Christmas Tree

Below is a story created by Colin that he wrote with a friend at school.  His teacher was quite impressed with the story and helped them type it up and format it.  Then she gave them each a copy and they illustrated it.  I just love the creativity of the story and the drawings.  For example, pay close attention to the pictures of the Christmas tree.  Notice that the "fingers" are the lights from a tree and the feet, in several of the pictures, are presents - "To Colin" and "From Santa".

He just loves to write.  We have a ton of stories he has written at home and they are quite entertaining.

Picture Update

While I am way behind on updating our blog, things are going well here.  Just extremely busy (go figure).

However, here are a few recent pictures of the kids. 

Colin's Second Grade Class Picture

Noah's Preschool Picture

Alyssa, just looking cute

Compare and Contrast

This is fun.... trying to determine if Alyssa looks more like one or the other of her brothers.  These are pictures of each of them taken while still in the hospital.  It's interesting as Alyssa was reminding me so much of Noah until I went back and looked at Colin's pictures...

Colin Wester

Noah Wester

Alyssa Wester

Big Brothers

The boys are so excited to have a baby sister.  They give her a lot of attention and often offer assistance to help out.  Noah was playing with her yesterday and said, "I'm so glad this is not a dream."

Here's a few pictures of some proud big brothers.

You Are My Sunshine...

We just got some pictures from the professional photographer here at the hospital.  She really got some great photos of Alyssa.  I've added some here, but there are more at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/westerfamilyphotos/AlyssaSPictures#

 

Tickled Pink (A Party of Five)

Welcoming our new baby girl, Alyssa Brooke Wester, into the world.

See this link for a lot more pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/westerfamilyphotos/AlyssaSPictures#

Born Wednesday, 10/13 at 8:09 a.m.
Weighing 7 lbs, 10 oz
19 3/4 inches

Pink Is In The Air

As hard as it is to believe, we are only four days away from having our baby girl, assuming she doesn't have other plans and decide to come early.

We have the c-section scheduled for 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday morning and we will be welcoming Alyssa Brooke Wester into the world.  The boys are so excited about her coming and getting to see her.   Well, I guess the parents are too...

Recognition Galore

Over the past few weeks, Colin has been recognized at school for several things.  Which of course, makes Mom and Dad very proud of his accomplishments.

First of all, he was recognized for Responsibility, which is the character trait they are focusing on for the first 6 weeks of school.  He received this recognition last year as well, so I'm proud of his constant focus on being responsible.

This past Friday, Colin was recognized for reaching 50 AR (reading) points.  Last year, he reached 205 points by the end of the school year.  He set a goal this year to reach 300 (or at least more than 205) and he's well on his way.  He's actually already above 70 points now, but he wasn't recognized until this past week.  He's such a speed reader....

In addition to this on Friday, he was recognized for the A Honor Roll, which is quite an achievement.  However, he did one better and was also in the Principal's Club, which is for those who have 95 and above in all subjects.  Quite the scholar....

 

A Scouting We Will Go

Colin has officially joined the Cub Scouts.  He has several friends who were in Cub Scouts last year (Peter, Dylan and Adam).  This year, Colin was very interested in joining and I think this will give him some great extra activities and interests to pursue.  We've only been to one den meeting so far, but there are lots of activities coming up such as a pumpkin unloading at a church here in Wylie.

Here's a picture of our handsome Cub Scout:

First Day of Second Grade

Colin started second grade last week.  He think his new teacher, Ms. Fox, is really nice.  We would have to agree.  He was disappointed that one of his best friends from his class last year, Eduardo, had apparently moved to another school in Wylie (Akin Elementary).

The first day, when Ms. Fox brought Colin out to the car, she told Tammy, "I wish I had 19 kids just like him."