His First Game

Aaron watched both of his brothers turn 8 and celebrate by going to their first college football games. I bet he thought his turn would never come. :) Yet the day did arrive--Aaron's first game! He and his cousin, both 8 years old, attended their first football game with Grandpa. Grandma was supposed to go to the game, but illness interfered. Grandma's loss became Kaleb's gain, as he went in her place. What a delight for Kaleb! (Sorry Grandma!) My SIL and I also got to go. What a funny group we were--3 kids, 2 moms, and 1 grandpa! The weather was beautiful, the game was a huge blow-out in our team's favor, and Aaron loved it all.

On our way!

Here are some pre-game shots:

Arriving at the stadium

A picture with Mom :)

LUNCH!

Our seats were way, way up. Like, almost at the very top row. But I was impressed at how well we could see the field. I just don't think there's a bad seat in this stadium. It was very bright and sunny, as you can tell from my pictures. And sometimes we were pretty hot and thirsty. It's hard to get a bottle of water at the top of the stadium! But at least we weren't cold, right?!

panoramic picture

Aaron even had his name on the scoreboard--our other boys never had that--ha! :)

Ready for the game to start!

My sister-in-law got some great pictures of the action on the field. She was nice enough to share them with me! :)

Pumped up and ready to play!

A hand off to Burkhead, one of our favorite players.

Our favorite kicker! We used to watch him play every Friday night.

During the game I took a few pictures of Aaron and Grandpa. My favorite one is of them holding hands.

How sweet :)

At Braylen's first game, Derek bought him a hat. I thought that would be a neat thing to do for Aaron, since his hat was kind of small for him. Kaleb wanted one too, and he found one on the $10 table. Okay! I like to say yes, right?! :)

Some people might think a final score of 73-7 means it was a boring game to attend. Hardly! Since Aaron is our most competitive son, it was a relief for our team to win big. And since our team lost at Kaleb's first game, this big win meant so much to us. :)

After the game, Aaron was one tired boy!
(See his new hat?)

As we left the stadium among the sea of red, I took one last picture of Grandpa and Aaron. What a gift to attend this game together. I know Aaron will always remember it. :)

Is There Any Football On Today?

Aaron asks me this question just about every day. We will be driving home from school and he'll ask, "Is there any football on today?" On Tuesdays and Wednesdays I have to say no. On Mondays and Thursdays I have to be honest and say, "Yes, but we can't watch it because we don't have cable." But I get to say YES on Fridays for high school football, on Saturdays for college football, and on Sundays for the NFL. :) I love to say yes!

He's watching football today, and being silly!

***This blog post is all about the random silly things our boys are doing right now. I apologize in advance for the toilet humor. But in my defense, this IS a blog about raising BOYS!!!***

One day we were driving somewhere and I heard one boy in the backseat say, "What if your first name was Poopy and your last name was Pants?" (insert roaring laughter among the brothers here!) Use your imagination to come up with some other combinations along those lines...

Aaron and his little cousin, who sometimes has poopy pants!
I promise I did not let him play the drums on his tummy.
And can you see his bandaid? :)

One son of ours is studying poetry in school. He made up a poem at home and said it over and over and over to himself. When I asked him if he was going to write it down and read it for his teacher, he looked at me like I had lost my mind. Here is his poem: "Buttcheek 1 and Buttcheek 2, everyone has one--so do you!"

Another son is perfecting his literary skills through the use of alliteration. Here are some of his latest masterpieces:
Freeda Fish farts frequently.
Billy Baboon beats bad buttcheeks.
Timmy Toucan tells twinkle toes to twinkle.

A while back as we drove past the cemetery, Kaleb asked me why there was a port-a-potty in an amphitheater. What? I had no idea what he was talking about. Then I saw the new kiosk beneath a gazebo where someone can look up the location of a specific grave site. I am glad we cleared that one up. No dropping your drawers at the entrance to the cemetery! :)

Moving on to non-potty-talks...

Most days when I pick the boys up from school they tell me, "School was fine." That's all I get. But one day (September 21st) Aaron walked out of school and said, "Today is one of the best days of my life! I can't even tell you every single reason why it's a great day--there's so many!" Here are some of his reasons:

• His good behavior ticket was picked out of the jar in his classroom, earning him a prize.
• He got a new book from the book fair. (Thanks Grandma & Grandpa!)
• We were planning to attend the high school football game that night.
• The next day he was going to his first college football game!
• He bought a snack from the snack sale and it was cheese dip with cracker sticks.

What a great example of how an ordinary day and become so much more than ordinary!

Aaron with his cheese sticks snack (and some sausage on the side!)

Kaleb and Aaron gave me some funnies last month at their great-grandma's funeral. We were at a Lutheran church, which is an unfamiliar experience for our boys. When the pastor walked in wearing a white robe tied with a belt around the waist, Kaleb said, "Is he going to do karate?"

During the responsive reading part of the service, Aaron put his right hand over his heart like we were saying the pledge of allegiance. It was so cute we just let him keep his hand there. :)

My 3 Stooges playing flag football :)

Kaleb loves candy corn and I can't keep enough in the house to feed his appetite. Today he told me he had a dream last night about candy corn. How strange! Maybe I can make him a candy corn birthday cake next month?

And that's all I have for today!

September Soccer

Since 6 weeks of our lives were consumed with soccer games, practices, and clinics, I suppose a blog post is needed. :) The boys have fun playing and we have fun watching...but like all good things, they must eventually come to an end. :) This year Kaleb was on the Tidalwaves, while Aaron played for the Tigers. We were blessed with perfect soccer weather, therefore, no make-up games. Several of Aaron's teammates have older siblings who are friends with Kaleb and Braylen, so they enjoyed going to Aaron's games to hang out with their buddies. It got a bit nutty when their games were on the same nights at different fields, or when supper had to wait until games were over at 7:30. Overall, it was a fun season and I am glad they participated. Kaleb's team was undefeated this year, and the kids were awarded trophies at the end of tournament play. Aaron's team played hard and had fun. And isn't that what it's all about? :)

See the bandaid on his knee? It was like his elbow--never without a bandaid!

Aaron still loves to be goalie!

Switching to Kaleb's pictures--we cheer for blue now!
Kaleb loved playing as a mid-fielder. He never volunteered to be goalie!

Cheering section for Kaleb--Aaron frowned upside down so it would be a smile. Silly!

Our champ :)

Now that it's October and we have our evenings back, I do not miss soccer at all. Now if only the grass would stop growing so we could stop mowing the lawns...

Changing topics here--today is the day my grandma passed away 11 years ago. I bet she would have enjoyed watching my boys play in their soccer games. Maybe she was watching them after all. She just has a heavenly seat. :)

Next time I hope to post a few funnies. The kids have been giving me great material lately! :)

Photographer Braylen

Braylen takes lots of pictures. LOTS. Obviously he has no idea what it is like to use film and to develop every picture taken. It's a good thing, because I'm pretty sure we would be broke by now if we developed all of his pictures! All joking aside, I enjoy watching this hobby of his unfold. Sometimes he has well-behaved models to pose for him. Like his brothers and our dog. Other times he takes pictures of flowers, trees, the sky, green grass, sprinklers...or whatever else is within view. Here is a sampling of some of his August/September pictures. Thank you Braylen for sharing your pictures with me!

Ginger at her water bucket

Water, anyone?

This is one of Braylen's favorite pictures.

I love the perspective here!

Ginger is a very cooperative model!

"Corn"
Taken from a moving vehicle through a window!

Here is one last picture. It is one that I took of my budding photographer! (I've been told the settings were wrong when I took this picture. Oh well!) The other day Braylen told me he might want to be a photographer for the White House someday. Until then, he can be my white house photographer. We do live in a white house, you know! :)