The Rest of 2015, Part 1

Except for Kaleb's birthday, since I already wrote about that, I'm going to use pictures to tell the story of the rest of our year. While I may not write as many words in my blog these days, I've decided this record of our lives is my gift to my family. In the new year I'm going to try really hard to write a monthly post. I don't want to forget these days we're sharing as a family.

October 24th-31st

Visiting Grandma Muriel before Braylen's band competition

I started working part time at this book and gift store.
One reason I said yes when they asked, was because of this pro-police window display!

Kaleb's 8th grade band festival

Never too old to carve pumpkins!

Kaleb's antlers and Aaron's silly face

On Halloween, we helped our friends move...for the 5th time.
Obviously, they're VERY good friends of ours!

We made it home just in time for trick-or-treating, and for Braylen to attend a Halloween party.

*Love*

Traditional cousins picture, and a costume change for Kaleb.
Yep, we totally recycled costumes this year. 

In November, we had a GORGEOUS fall. I'm pretty sure we spent as much time outside as we could!

Our aspen tree had its best year ever.

Ginger loves fall.

Such beauty all around us

Our handsome teenage son

I caught them playing with monster trucks.
*Love*

Cleaning guns together

We spent one afternoon raking/mowing/hauling leaves away at Grandma and Grandpa's house. I mostly took pictures and enjoyed the beauty of the day. Isn't that my job, as the lady of the house? ;)

Braylen rode the mower.

Kaleb raked and loaded up the trailer.

Derek was everywhere!

Aaron used a rake and climbed trees.

They took turns getting buried with leaves.

Nebraska beat Michigan State!!!

November also brings deer season. This was Aaron's first year to carry a gun while deer hunting. He's the last of our boys to reach this milestone, and this makes Derek very proud! (Me too, but it means so much more to my husband.)

Grandfather, Father, Sons!

*Love*

Quality time with Aaron

Everyone but Aaron got a deer this year, but Aaron still has a chance in January to fill his tag! He's proven to be quite the marksman at the shooting range, so once he has a deer in his sights, I have no doubt in his ability to take a shot.

Kaleb and his cousin at their middle school band concert

Aaron told me he put away his clean laundry.
This is his way of hanging up a shirt.

Another gorgeous sunset

Kaleb's deer

More hunting fun with our friends

I love this pic of my boys!

This one too!

The boys rake leaves in our yard, while I take more pictures. :)

Thanksgiving, 2015 

Kaleb wears his turkey pin every Thanksgiving.
*Love*

Aaron is girl trapped with his cousin and his grandma!

I'm always boy trapped, ha ha!

The kids played in our freshly fallen Thanksgiving snow.

Derek's lovely grandmother Muriel

At home on Thanksgiving night, we sat on the couch
and watched football. Kaleb helped himself to some ice cream!

The rest of November was spent celebrating Kaleb's birthday. Whew, that brings this post to a close. One more to go and 2015 will be all wrapped up!

Kaleb's Birthday

Kaleb is 14 years old! We celebrated his birthday with family the day after Thanksgiving. Earlier in the week, Derek and I made a smoked pork roast in the midst of all of my Thanksgiving food prep. We had really yummy pulled pork sandwiches on Friday. :) Kaleb picked our usual sides to go with BBQ--homemade beans, cheesy potatoes, strawberry pretzel salad, french fries--and requested chocolate cake, of course!

Mountain Dew to drink, of course!

During the meal, each person shared a favorite thing they like about Kaleb, along with a blessing for the coming year. It's a sweet time for the birthday boy to hear how much he's loved by his family. Uncle Dave summed it all up by saying he hopes Kaleb finds his purpose AND God's calling on his life while he's still young.

Kaleb also answered some questions. Here's how it went...
1. If you could forever cancel a single thing that you have to do every day, what would it be?
--Waking up to an alarm!
2. If you could physically transport yourself anywhere in the world at this moment, where would you go?
--The top of Mt. Everest! (That way he wouldn't have to climb it.)
3. If you could suddenly possess an extraordinary talent, what would it be?
--Turkey calling and deer calling.
4. If you could have personally witnessed one event (or three) in history, what would you want to have witnessed?
--Jesus' resurrection, Revolutionary War, George Washington living at Mt. Vernon.
5. Name one memory that you will take with you forever?
--Times like this at Grandma and Grandpa's house with family.

A favorite gift from Grandma and Grandpa

The traditional family cake photo, where we tried to make the number 14 with 14 candles!

On Monday, his actual birthday, it was back to school after Thanksgiving break. His band class all sang Happy Birthday to him, and of course he had presents to look forward to at the end of the day. When you're 14 years old, having a Monday birthday is just as much fun as any other day. :)

Kaleb had a little bit of snow fall on his birthday.

Birthday dinner at home--orange chicken with rice. With boys, it's all about the food!

Brothers forever

One loves Ford, one loves Chevy.

Thanks to Dad and Uncle Eric, Kaleb has a Buck hunting knife now.
He's on his way to manhood!

I'm happy to buy him a chocolate donut balloon and a new Star Wars shirt, among other gifts.

I can hardly believe our little holiday baby is 14 years old. He's a fun-loving son, and I feel incredibly blessed to call him mine. The older he gets, I'm reminded how fleeting these years are. Sweet Kaleb, you are the one celebrating a birthday, but I'm the one who received the best gift 14 years ago today--YOU!!! As you keep growing up, my verse for you this year is a reminder to always keep eternity in mind. Every decision, experience, and challenge set before you this year--it all matters for eternity. I love you, Kaleb!

2 Corinthians 4:18
"So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."

Lots of Little Moments

Our days are made up of lots of everyday moments, like always.

Cross country meets for Braylen and Kaleb filled up our fall, along with a few flag football games for Aaron. He fractured his right arm during a recess soccer game, ending his football season 3 games early. Derek finished up night shift and switched to days early in October. That's never an easy change to make. It takes about a month for everyone to find a new rhythm. The marching band season for Braylen came to an end at the end of October. He tells us he's not doing band next year, so the end of this season was bittersweet. September and October were very busy for our family, like always, but it's the kind of busy that we enjoy. Our years with our kids at home are speeding by, and while I don't write about it as often as I used to, we're still having fun with our sons. :)

On October 30th I started working part time at our local book and gift store. I didn't go out looking for a job, I simply went to the store to buy a card for my nephew. The owner found me and told me I needed to work there--at least during the holiday season. I thought about it for a couple of days and decided I had no real reason to say no. I work about 3 days a week, and I'm done when the kids get out of school. I'm liking it a lot! My start date of 10/30 is significant to me because YEARS ago after my maternity leave with Braylen, I came back to work at the hospital on 10/30. While I will always be a nurse, and hope to use my RN in the future, right now I'm really liking the flexibility of working in this store.

Kaleb and Aaron are the best of friends and the worst of enemies, sometimes all in the same minute. Sharing a room is getting harder and harder, but neither boy wants to move to the basement. And since Derek returns to night shift in February, that bedroom is hard to give up to one of the boys. So we practice a lot of compromising. Whoever thinks boys don't battle emotional highs and lows, doesn't have boys. We're seeing so many emotions in our home these days. Raising kids is hard, even when you have really great kids.

Braylen's taken some career inventories at school, but his focus right now is on the right now. I think that's normal for any 16 year old boy. He and Kaleb are good at staying on track at school, asking their teachers for help when they need it, and are getting good grades. Of course Aaron's doing well in 5th grade. I try not to think about life after elementary school, but every now and then those thoughts sneak through.

4 years ago this month, Aaron was diagnosed with absence epilepsy. What an amazing blessing to be able to say he remains seizure free with no medicine! All glory to God!

Braylen shot a nice sized buck yesterday on the opening day of firearms deer season. Aaron's hunting deer for the first time this year, but so far he, Kaleb, Derek, and Bill are still on the hunt for their deer. Hopefully they'll all be successful before the season ends on 11/22.

I think that's enough random rambling! Here's a few pictures to tell of the things I might have left out--at least through 10/22, since I haven't downloaded any since then.

10th grade and 8th grade

One of Braylen's meets

Aaron's back pack weighs him down! :)

Kaleb's friend Jeremy moved to Alaska. This is from their last day together.

Braylen's grandparents gave him a special gift he can use now and when he's grown.
It's beneath the paper on the table. A bonus 16th birthday gift.

Kaleb's playing the bari sax for jazz band--and the trumpet for concert band.
Talented kid!

One of my typical days since I started wearing a fitbit in August.
As a bonus to being active, I've lost 9 pounds.
Everything fits better, which is what I was hoping for.

Aaron broke his arm on 10/9 but thankfully all he needed was this brace.
It's all healed up now!

Making applesauce--yummy!

Aaron, Captain of the Safety Patrol at school.

Aaron's trophy and prize for completing his marathon before and after school.
He ran a total of 28.5 miles this fall!

Braylen is the one on the far right.

Braylen having some fun with his drum!

I took these two to the park on a pretty fall Sunday.

We had a beautiful time!

Ginger girl, 6 and 1/2 years old already.