I can't BELIEVE that our baby is THREE!!

William Peyton Robert Bell is THREE years old today, but we started celebrating early!! Peyton celebrated his birthday at school on Friday with his friends (since he shares a birthday with a little girl in his class). The kiddos ate yummy Sheriff Badge cookies on Toy Story napkins, and sang Happy Birthday to Peyton!!


We celebrated with family and friends on Sunday with a Toy Story party. Sheriff Woody had a great time at the party!!

Woody getting the party favors ready for his guests!
Woody and his good buddy Buzz Lightyear!
[a note from mom: It melts my heart that Peyton loves his big brother Ryan to the moon and back, and I feel so blessed that Peyton has a big brother who loves him enough to wear a Buzz Lightyear shirt just to please his favorite pal, Woody!! My heart is full ♥]
Happy Birthday, dear Peyton!!
Peyton proudly tried on a few of his gifts right in the middle of the party! Gotta love his excitement!!

A few of the other "characters" that celebrated in Toy Story fashion!!




Of course a birthday is not complete without a birthday celebration on the special day!! On Monday, January 30, we celebrated with family! Peyton got to open gifts again and he loved that!

Here is is trying on his gifts again!!



It is so hard to believe that three years have passed since the baby of our family was born! On that day we knew things would never be the same and we are reminded of that each day that we see his sweet smile, hear his raspy voice, are entertained by his free spirit, listen to his "words of wisdom," or get kicked or tackled by our fearless and tough youngest brother!!

End of the week excitement!

On Thursday night, the Harlem Globetrotters played at Ford Park. Dylan was invited to go to the game with his friend Brady Corcoran, and Dad bought us tickets to go to the game too!! Let the game begin!

We had so much fun watching the Globetrotters play the Elite... Wilson loved the silly parts and Peyton made his own funnies!!


It was a very close game, but the Globetrotters pulled out a victory! I was so nervous that they may not win, that I couldn't even watch at times! The Globetrotters ran away with it in the 4th period, making one four-point shot after another... that is the kind of excitement that I like!!

A lot of my buddies were at the game too! Evan Whitehead came to sit by us in the second half! We could see our buddy Cooper Slott in the section directly across from us, but we were never able to talk to him. We had fun waving at him across the court!
We ran into Brody Bennett and Slade Lynch on the way out!

When we got home, we had to try out our new basketballs in the driveway! Here we are with the Corcoran Boys when they dropped Dylan off! We have to say a BIG thank you to Mrs. Katy's (Brady and Logan's mom) dad and mom, Larry and Nena Dowden, for the basketballs... they sent them as a special delivery to us during the game!! We were so excited!

It was an impromptu fun night for all of us! Thanks to Nana, Granna, Uncle Jerry and Aunt Allie for coming to the big game with us... we hope you made happy memories like we did!!

On Friday afternoon we came home to a Screech Owl on our front porch! The owl would look at us as we gathered round, but he did not move. Mom called the Parks and Wildlife Department and a State Game Warden came to rescue the owl. He said that he was probably injured (possibly from flying into the glass door) since he wasn't moving with all of the action surrounding him. We are hoping that he will be able to make sure that the owl is rehabilitated and returned to the wild!

The Neighborhood Watch of Dylan Drive... I bet that owl didn't know what he was getting himself into!!


Friday was Little Dribbler night a the Bulldog Basketball game. [Ryan Bell. Paxton Packman. Joey Hebert. Matthew Mendoza. Cooper Slott. Zach Macon]

We made a victory line as the Varsity team took the court!! [Cooper Slott. Paxton Packman. Ryan Bell. Corbin Chandler. Matthew Mendoza. Kamden Grant]

I got a little anxious because the game was so tight, but the Bulldogs pulled it out in the end... whew!! All three Nederland Bulldog teams defeated the Port Neches Groves Indians! [Joey Hebert. Paxton Packman. Corbin Chandler. Cooper Slott. Evan Whitehead. Ryan Bell]

We had basketball pictures on Saturday afternoon and played a game on Saturday evening. I made my first two penalty shots in the game! I made it home from the game just in time to see Mom and Dad leaving for a party with their friends!
Hugs from a pround Momma!!

Peyton's 3rd Birthday Party will be on Sunday... celebration updates soon!!

Sending Birthday Wishes to Heaven!

Today is our Paw Paw's 59th birthday. We all agree that he should be here with us on his special day, but since he is celebrating in Heaven, we decorated cupcakes and sent up balloons with our Happy Birthday wishes! Here are pictures from our party for Paw Paw.


Kacy and Kiley... sweet girls enjoying their sweet treats!
Lana decorating her cupcake - looks yummy!
Jake, Ryan, and Logan



Getting ready for the big send off!
Dylan tied a heart to his balloon string. Sending his love to Paw Paw!

Paw Paw is always on our minds and in our hearts. Not a day goes by that we don't want him here to share in our happy times and even our sad times [he is the first one that we call for when we are hurt or have a bad day]. We would like him to be here to congratulate our success, or tell us better luck next time and keep working hard to reach our goal! He always knew how to make good times great, and turn those not so good times into something much better!! Happy Birthday, Paw Paw... we love you always!

Gladiators, Good Character, Great Grades, and Granna's Birthday!

Lots of fun things to share since our last post!!

On Tuesday, Dylan tried out for the 7U Gladiator Baseball team and on Wednesday we learned that he made the team! The Gladiators are a Select Baseball Team (tournament team) that trains at the Southeast Texas Baseball Academy in Beaumont. Dylan is very excited that he will get to practice and play at Ford Park this year!

Ryan received the Character Counts Award for Trustworthiness and was also recognized for his Goal-Setting at school! His 3rd grade year has been a great one... he has been complimented on his attention to detail, his work ethic, and his neat work. He brought home his best report card yet and we couldn't be more proud!!

Friday was jersey day at Langham, so all of us joined in the fun! Ryan is wearing his new Boston Celtics jersey that he bought with the money that he earned scoring goals and making saves during the soccer season! He wore it to school proudly!!

On Saturday morning, we woke up bright and early to watch Ryan and his buddies play basketball! These boys play together as The Bulldogs in the YMCA league. They won, had fun, and are looking forward to their next game together!


BUT before these boys play together again, they must play against each other in the Nederland Little Dribblers league! The 1:30 game was a very exciting game... Coach Barrow's team [Ryan, Paxton Packman, and Payne Barrow] vs. Coach Slott's team [Corbin Chandler, Evan Whitehead, Cooper Slott, and Preston Johnson]. The boys played hard against each other, not letting their friendship hold them back...






But after a picture perfect ending, the boys on both teams were all smiles!!




Ryan played his last basketball game of the day at 7:45 on Saturday evening, and even though we didn't play as much as he did, we were worn out too!! We enjoyed Sunday at home playing in this Southeast Texas "winter" weather, and Ryan joined the 9U Texas Roughriders for a Sunday afternoon practice!

We celebrated Granna's birthday on January 23, with a yummy dinner at Texas Roadhouse followed by cake and ice cream at Aunt Allie and Uncle Jerry's! [Ryan is not pictured because he was at basketball practice during the cake and ice cream part of the celebration. We missed him, but he had fun at basketball!] Video games were fun entertainment for all!
Granna, we hope you had as much fun celebrating your birthday as we did. We love you bunches and can't wait to make more memories this year!!