Happy Halloween 2010

Ahh...Halloween!  I love this time of year.  I love dressing the boys up, getting pumpkins carved, Halloween parties and candies.  This year has been an off year of sorts.  With my really bad work schedule (7:25 AM to 4:00 PM), several after school classes, tutoring, and my church calling we haven't been able to celebrate in the way I would like.

Yesterday morning was the first time we had to carve pumpkins.  We went to the pumpkin patch on Conference weekend and have had the cute things sitting on our front porch since, but we finally got to carve them.  We started cleaning them out and the boys were all about helping us out.  When we moved onto the marking the stencil, they quickly found something better to do.  I was left sticking pins in the Frank pumpkin and Brian got to trace the Vampire one.  When they were done I think they turned out nicely.

 Here are the funny boys in their costumes.  We had Darth Vader...

 and wolverine.

 We had such big plans for trick or treating.  We were going to go to a trunk or treat at our old ward, but got there after it ended, so we headed down to a cute shopping plaza were they were handing out candy.  Right after we got there it started a huge down pour--a real Ohio rain.  My right side was soaking and my jeans up to almost my knee were drenched.  We made it to about five stores and then decided to end at the video store and rent the boys a video game.  We ordered pizza on our way home.

We thought if the rain ended we would go up the street to another neighborhood and trick or treat.  The boys were so into their video game that they wanted to stay home and even helped pass out candy to the 15 or so people that stopped by.  I felt bad that they weren't going to get a haul of candy, but they didn't mind.  It was a fun night and we stayed warm.  Next year will be better.

Blue Slips

This post is serving two purposes.  One to send Grandma an "I love you" message, and two try out posting with my new toy I got from school.  We'll see how it goes.
I came home today from work with my new Flip camera and this is the story the boys told me right away.  They were so proud of themselves.  Charlie especially--he wanted a blue slip so bad the other week he made up a story that he had gotten one, but they wouldn't let him bring it home because they didn't want him to loose it.  Well his good behavior paid off, and he earned one today.
I'm sure proud of these boys.

Soccer Season Begins--Charlie's First Game

Chuck's first game was Tuesday.  I didn't know what to expect when he went to play.  I thought that he would pull the shy card or not be into it.  I was totally wrong.  He was the super star of his team.  When the coach put him in mid-way through the first quarter Charlie dominated the possession of the ball on his team.  He ran it down the field several times, but didn't every finish it off for a goal.  He had a really good time too.  The other team one this game, but they looked like the were just barely in the under 6 age group and had all played before.  It should be an eventful season.

If you notice, Tom was right on the side lines the entire time.  He was coaching Chuck and telling him what he needed to do.  One time the ball was heading the wrong direction and Tom nearly jumped right in to help out Charlie's team.  He's excited for his first game tomorrow.

Our International Child

I have worried about Charlie writing his name for a long time.  With Tom, it was easy--TOM.  Poor Charlie has more letters and most of them are curvy ones.  I also practiced more with Tom and Charlie, I feel, gets the short end of the stick most of the time. 

He had to "sign" an acceptable use form and this is what he wrote.

I can't tell if it's Arabic or Cyrillic, but either way this was his best signature.

Back to School

Brianna getting ready to start her Junior year of high school.

Heading out for day 1.  She's taking some hard classes this year:  AP US history, Pre Calculus, Honors English, Biology, Sports Marketing and Entertainment, Jewelry Making, Weight Training for HS sports, and Seminary.  She's going to do great.

Charlie getting dressed for his VERY first day of school.  I was really upset that I didn't take the day off to experience him going to school the first time.  Next time I'll know better.

Tom was so excited to go back to school and see all of this friends.  2nd grade will be fun for him.

Both boys before the head up the hill for school.  Brian went with them for the flag raising and said they were easily the best looking boys in the whole school.  I would definitely have to agree.

We even got a picture of Pete for his first day of classes.  He's taking the train and bus to school.  With his school ID he gets to ride for free.  He's liking his schedule and spends most of the day at school and then practice.

We were just missing David's first day picture.  He didn't start classes until Tuesday, so Monday would have been a stretch for him.  I think he's finally decided on a major.  I think we just might have another educator in the family.
I'm so excited for these guys to have a great school year.  Keep posted for fun updates.

It's feelin' like FOOTBALL

This past Saturday we went to Pete's scrimmage.  I forget how much I love football season and I'm excited that we can check out some of the games this year.
Here's some pictures of the day (beware there's lots):

Here's what Tom and Charlie did during the scrimmage:

Moving--blah!

We didn't take any pictures but the one of these two.  I think they were two of the cutest moving helpers we had.
If we don't move ever again it would be too soon.

Summer Fun

This summer was full of really fun things.  Brian and I bought the boys some summer workbooks to help get them prepared for this school year.  We were really diligent about working on them the first few weeks--but then with my trip to San Diego and moving and getting ready for my school to start early--we let the school work slide.

The boys did a really good job working and you can see Charlie concentrated really hard to complete his pages.

Tom did a good job with his too.  His work was of course harder than Charlies and he had a hard time when Charlie blew through his pages and he had to work a little harder.

We tried to get some fun in too.  One of the things that we liked the best was to ride our bikes to the church parking lot and ride around.  It's one of the only flat areas around so we were lucky to find a fun place to ride.  In the church parking lot there is a creek in the back and one of the times that we went the boys got to play in the water. 

Charlie ended up falling in and I had to jump in the water to get him (Brian would say that I panicked a bit.)  When we got home Chuck needed to change his clothes and get out of his wet ones.  Before he put his clean socks on, I had to take this picture.  He is definitely his fathers son.  They have the exact same tan line on their feet.

When we weren't looking he slipped out side and curled up on the warm cement.  I forgot where he was and when we went to check on him this is what we found.  I guess playing in the creek made him cold and he loved the warmth of the cement.  (I can't imagine that this would be a comfy spot.)

Father's Day...

I'm so aware that this is several months late. We had trouble finding the cord to connect the camera to the computer, but moving will do amazing things for you.
Here is Brian's haul after celebrating the amazing father that he is!

My pick--he is our grilling master!

And Chuck's pick--he wanted to get a bat for his Dad to play softball with.

And a trip to see this--too bad he doesn't go there any more.

We love you Dad!

What's New?

We have been having fun and trying to document it all.  Sadly, the cord to connect the camera to the computer is missing, so we will be finding ours (or a new one) soon.
We love you!

My Giant CRAPPY Idea.

This was an equation I thought for sure I would have gotten right. Boy was I wrong.

We decided to go to the Arts Festival today. I thought it would be fun to listen to the music and stroll round the different vendor booths. We left after I was done with school and headed down.
It was NOT the fun time I had hoped it would be. We were meet with near 100 degree temperatures (the hottest day we've had yet.) The boys whined the whole time about being hot, having the sun shine on them, being hungry, not liking what they saw, having to drink water rather than Powerade, etc. I wish I had the camera to document the "fun" time we were having.
Brian and I liked it and I think we will return again.
Maybe our next outing will be a fun time. Maybe I shouldn't plan it. Better luck next time I guess.

School's Out for Summer!

Brianna and Thomas are done with school for the year. I haven't seen Bree for longer than 5 minutes since the final bell rang on Thursday. Tom is really excited for summer. He told me that he was excited because, "I don't have to do math, or...learn things."
Well I just can't have that so we will be joining the local library's summer reading program and I'll have to find him some math things to do.
Charlie is not excited it's summer for two reasons.
1. He doesn't get to rule the house all day.
2. He is closer to beginning school. He told Brian the other day that he didn't want to go because the only letter he can write is a "w." I told him that we could practice some other letters and maybe learn to spell his name. I think he is nervous that he won't be the best at something--he usually doesn't have a hard time with new things unless he won't be the coolest.
My school however is not out yet. I have one more day. I'm excited to have a break, but thought it would be a good idea to teach summer school...someone should have clued me into that.
We'll see how summer goes...day one, so far so good!

Hello?

We are alive and we love you.
Life is so crazy, but starting to slow down. School is coming to a close and we are going to be having a slower routine.
I promise that I will document our summer adventures...who knows...you might get sick of us.

Another Surprise

Charlie wanted video games for his birthday, but I couldn't justify spending hundreds on a gaming console and then around $50 for each game. We had seen how the boys loved Pete and David's iPods so we decided to get one for the family.
We kept it hidden for a while and eventually pulled it out for the boys to see. I thought we'd get a better result then we did, but they were still excited.
Everyone loves playing the games on the iPod and it was a great purchase. We have a few fights about who gets to play next, but we knew it would be that way.

Charlie's 5th Birthday

I can't believe my baby's five. I wanted to start documenting how big he's getting by taking a birthday picture every year. (Please try to disregard my double chin.)
Chuck made out pretty well on gifts. He had to get the celebration bumped because I had Parent-Teacher Conferences unitl 8:00pm, so we had to move the party unitl Friday night. Truth be told he got a gifts from the grandmas on his real birthday, dinner and gifts on Friday night with us, and then cake and gifts from his cousins and uncle on Sunday. We had the weekend of Charlie.
He got a coupld of new Leapster games, some books, and a TON of Iron Man toys.
We got him to show us his Iron Man helmet.
Tom wanted to wear it too.
So did Brianna, who was hiding from the camera all evening.
We had a really fun time celebrating Charlie and we love that silly boy.