Halloween Already!

The sun is shining today. After lots of clouds, it's good to see the sun again. Our trees are really pretty this fall--lots of bright gold. It's already Halloween, and I just can't believe it. Tonight I will trick-or-treat with Aaron and Kaleb. I think Braylen might stay home and pass out candy? Not sure. Derek will be working, and I imagine he will be busy. Our friends we always have over on Halloween have kids "aging" out of our tradition. We knew it would happen, and happened it has. But our family in town still plans to come over and trick-or-treat with us. :)

Last week we took family pictures, and I could not be more pleased with how they turned out. I wanted to capture our family in this moment--with one "little," one "middle," and one teenager. Our kids are at such different stages, and yet they still play and laugh and romp around like the brothers they've always been. I want to remember these days with pictures. My first wish was for my brother to be close by. He's become quite the talented photographer--but there are too many miles between us. 3 years ago we asked a friend to take our pictures, so we decided to ask her again. She did an amazing job, and as far as family photo shoots go, this one was by far the most fun! Family pictures--fun? Yep!

This is my favorite one of our boys.

We almost left the dog at home for these pictures...I'm so glad we didn't!

There are many more pictures, and now I need to decide what to do with them! Braylen had braces put on last week. (October 23rd) He only needs one tooth straightened out. One! I needed my entire mouth re-done! He has braces on 8 of his top teeth, and we plan on being done in less than 6 months. We'll see how that goes.

We watched a friend's little boy last week, and he thought Kaleb's trumpet was pretty neat. He also loved playing football in the yard with my boys, piling on top of them when they were on the ground. Kaleb asked me why so many babies come over to our house--I think we've watched 3 different little boys these last few weeks. That is a lot to Kaleb, I guess. :) Good thing my boys are good with the little ones, cuz some of my friends keep having more babies! I'm happy for them, and we're all happy it's them and not us. :)

Sometimes Derek sends me a text telling me to look at the sunset. This is one of those times.

To wrap up this Halloween post, Grandma bought pumpkins for the boys again this year. Thanks to Braylen's idea to carve them on Tuesday, Derek was here to help. I take pictures and help design faces, but the boys and Derek do all of the work. Pumpkin guts and seeds went flying, and we had fun!

Kaleb's big grin and a funny little photo-bomber :)

And here are the finished pumpkins this year! They turned out great!

Status Updates

I don't spend much time at my computer these days. Seems like the school needs more subs this fall than it usually does, so I am there quite often. Braylen gets his braces put on this morning, so pretty soon I will go pick him up from school for that fun appointment, ha ha. We are adjusting to Derek's new shift--what other choice is there? When I think about what our life was like last fall, and what it's like now, the differences amaze me. Like everything else, there are good things and hard things about our "new life." Yet through it all, God IS faithful, and we keep on keepin' on. :)

Aaron loves his punk-o-bot. Remember this creation from last October? Now he's added legs and a hand-drawn symbol, similar to the Autobot Transformer symbol. I think he's going to wear this for Halloween again, which means I don't have to do any creative costume design--yay! What a good son. :)

Kaleb has been wearing his leg brace for almost a month already. He's had the BEST attitude with this--sometimes I wonder where in the world did his positive attitude come from? What an example he is to me. While his knee does not hurt, I noticed some swelling in it the other day. That concerns me, especially since the swelling is on the other side of the knee this time. He goes back to our orthopedist on Monday, so we'll have a better idea of what's going on soon. Thankfully they just started an archery unit in PE, so Kaleb can say goodbye to the weight room for a while and feel included in his class once again. :)

Kaleb and I thought these clouds rolling in from the west were pretty cool.

Our Aaron earned himself another character award at school this fall. There is no greater school achievement, in my mind. For my son to have outstanding character is more important to me than his grades. (But that is not an excuse for slacking off!) :) I hope he always treats others with respect and lives his life with integrity. Go Aaron!!!

I think he looks more like Derek as he grows up.

Finally, I recently spent 4 days with one of my best friends from college. She lives in California, but flew in to my state for a cousin's wedding. Lucky me! I picked her up at the airport and we had 4 days together. Rachel has ALWAYS made me laugh, and this weekend was no different. We stayed up WAY too late, watched movies, talked and talked and talked, and just enjoyed being together. However, we failed in one way--we never took any pictures. The only ones we have are from the photo booth at her cousin's wedding. Oh well! Next time I see her it will be my turn to fly to California. Lucky me! :)

Little Moments

A quote on my daily calendar jumped out at me this week. It goes, "The great doing of little things makes the great life." As a mom, I do lots of little things all day long. Sometimes while I'm doing them, they don't seem so little. Like buying groceries to feed our family of 5. I need a bigger cart--and a bigger bank account. But in the big picture of life, buying groceries is a little thing. Along with making lunches every morning, scrubbing grass and mud stains out of WHITE football pants every week, and helping kids with math homework--while clearing cobwebs from the corner of my brain labeled "algebra." There are many, many more little moments I could list here, but you get the idea. When added together, our little moments make up a great life. :)

Here are some of our little moments told through (surprise!) pictures: 

Aaron's watermelon patch, planted from seeds, was a success!

Look at this proud smile. The boy has had watermelon in his lunch every day this week--whether he wanted it or not. :)

Last week's football game--Braylen is in blue, all the way on the right, #22.

Braylen's #1 fans, his brothers. He looks for Kaleb's red sweatshirt in the stands.

I have to insert a little story here. At parent-teacher conferences a few weeks ago, Aaron's teacher told us of a time Aaron raised his hand in class. The school counselor was asking the kids about their fears. Aaron shared his fear of his brother getting hurt while playing football. Talk about melting a mommy's heart--to know my boys care for each other is the greatest feeling. They truly are each other's #1 fans.

Aaron's turn to bring crawdads home--how is that possible?!

This is "Shooter." He only has one claw. Aaron's other one is "DoubleClaw." Can you guess how many claws he has? ;)

Braylen and Aunt Pam ran a glow in the dark 5k last week.

This 5k benefited a local family adopting from China. With Braylen's excellent conditioning from football, this 5k was a piece of cake for him. I'm glad he has an aunt to run with, because I do not like to run. Not at all. I happily watched my nieces and my two other boys while these runners ran. They didn't walk once, and finished with a time of 31 minutes, 15 seconds. Woo-hoo!

Our neighbors moved to Green Bay this week.

Our across-the-street-neighbors moved in the week we brought Aaron home from the hospital, back in April 2004. Our neighborhood is new, so this house has never been owned by anyone else. When we learned of their plans to move, we were sad. They were such nice neighbors. Every time my boys asked them to buy popcorn, Yankee Candles, or fundraiser food, they said yes. They have no kids of their own, but enjoyed watching my boys grow up for the past 9.5 years. They cared for the golden retriever penned up in the yard next door to them. Poor Dexter never got out of his pen, never got any attention...until these neighbors took it upon themselves to walk him and give him Beggin' Strips every day. We will miss A&G in our neighborhood, and their two little wiener dogs, Thelma and Louise. I wanted to buy A&G Chicago Bears t-shirts as going away gifts, but made cookies for them instead. :)

Derek used to do "Super Aaron" all the time...and Super Braylen, and Super Kaleb. Pretty sure this phase is ending. Our boys are getting too big for this now. But last night I caught them at it again. :)

Today is the last football game of the season. What a handsome son we have. :)

That about sums it up for today! Aaron's funnies are few and far between now, and they're really not as funny as they used to be. Part of growing up, I guess. It makes me glad I captured many of them on my blog through the years. Here are a few more--

While talking to Kaleb about his latest favorite app--Clash of Clans--Aaron had this to say: "If you like video games, God's Kingdom is like the top kingdom in Clash of Clans...kind of."

I don't know what he was referring to, but this morning we were getting ready for school and Aaron said to Kaleb, "Time goes faster than you think." If he only knew how true that is...

When I lamented with Aaron over his lack of funnies lately, he replied, "That's because I know how the world works now, Mom." I thought that was pretty funny! :)

Marching On

I absolutely love the month of October! Cool days, pretty leaves, and blank days on my calendar. Goodbye, crazy-busy-September. As much fun as you were, I am more than ready to see you go. :)

Mom and Dad's visit came at the perfect time, as I stated in my last blog post. Here are a few more highlights from their visit.

"Tailgating" before the high school football game

Since Braylen had to be there early, we had to be there early!

It was a beautiful evening, and I loved being surrounded by people I love.

Auntie Sarah! My heart will always belong to little blond boys...

The 8th grade marching band. Trust me when I tell you Braylen is on the left, towards the back.

The next day we were a bit closer to Braylen and his marching band. :) It was another pretty day. To me, nothing says "fall" better than a parade and pancake feed at the fire station.

The morning of the parade

Derek used to play the drums in this very same marching band. :)

Our crew, minus Grandma, who is taking the picture!

Uncle Derek!

Let the fun begin

Our favorite marching band and our favorite marcher :)

I can't think of one thing I would have changed about our long weekend with my parents. Thank you, Mom and Dad, for making the effort to come and visit us. For any other family members or friends who might be reading this blog, you are always welcome to come for a visit too! :)

Braylen's football game last week was very different from his first game. Playing for the A-team means bigger kids, harder hits (yikes!), and less playing time. He played safety on defense and tried to return punts. (None of them were catchable, thanks to a strong wind.) Early on in the game, Braylen went down on the sideline with a yank on his facemask and a stomp on the top of his foot. ( At the time I didn't know what he hurt.) And then he didn't stand up. He just writhed around on the ground while people surrounded him. Agghhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I f.r.e.a.k.e.d out inside. But I sat there like a good football mommy and prayed he would stand up soon. He did. And then he stayed out of the game for one full rotation. When the coaches put him back in I was relieved--this means he's okay--and I was scared all over again. Good grief, I have GOT to get a grip! Braylen went on to make two strong tackles and we were so proud of him. Derek and Grandpa took videos and pictures, and I stood there with my hands on my cheeks like a ninny. Here's Braylen's strongest tackle.

He makes the hit

He hangs on

He starts to bring him down

Bam!!! He's down.

Kaleb came home from school on Wednesday and told me his left knee felt loose inside. Did it hurt? No, it just feels loose. Hmm. He went on to mow a lawn and play outdoor games at youth group. Then he told me it was hurting him. I looked at it and wow, was it swollen! He iced it, took ibuprofen, and I wondered which doctor to call in the morning. After 2.5 hours at the sports medicine clinic, an x-ray and MRI, we found out Kaleb is bleeding in his knee. It's coming from the spongy, knobby part of the femur. The doctor says this indicates a fracture--but not a complete break. The official diagnosis is chondular fracture of medial femoral condyle. Our orthopedist is the best in the state--really, I am not kidding--and our entire visit to his clinic clearly had God's Hand all over it. He put Kaleb in a locking leg brace, which can only come off to shower and sleep. One major bonus of having a lightweight 11 year old son? No crutches! Kaleb can walk, but no soccer or PE (obviously) for 2 months. If everything heals as it should, we hope to be done with the leg brace at the end of October. Kaleb has been a real trooper, and I am proud of him. Oh--and how did this happen? We don't know!!!

Thankful for a brace and not a cast

Origami Yoda :)

So, Braylen plays football and Kaleb goes to school...and who ends up with a broken knee? I think there's a lesson for me to learn through this. :) Last but not least, Aaron finished his 1/2 marathon at running club yesterday! Since I missed the official finish line photo at the school, Aaron and Derek made their own banner and Aaron ran through it in our front yard. Just for me. :) Thank you, fellas! 13.1 miles is a lot for Aaron's little legs, and we are proud of him!

Hooray!!!

And that is enough for today. Next time I hope to share a few funnies. Happy October! :)