Halloween 2024

 

Goofballs

 Tito was in rehab the weekend the boys stayed over.  He was recovering from surgery due to a brain bleed.  I tried to get a picture when we visited but one or more of them looked silly, so I asked everyone to make a funny face.

Sleepover

Nathan and Stacy went to Las Vegas for a combination anniversary birthday trip and I kept the boys for the weekend.  We visited Tito in rehab, went swimming, played games and cooked.  Actually, the boys did most of the cooking. 

Trevin cooked breakfast every day, Kaiden cooked dinner and the younger boys helped make cookies and muffins.  

 Gavin wanted to make a vanilla pound cake - no idea where he got that idea.  I have never made a pound cake, so we improvised with my lemon bread recipe and came up with a satisfactory outcome. 

Eight

 

Gavin turned 8 in September.  He is our favorite 8 year old in the world.

Guess Who

 Guess who showed up at Rylan's birthday party,

Five!

Rylan turned five yesterday.  

 

He sunk down behind the counter when we started to sing.

First Day of School

The boys started school on August 9th.  Kaiden is a sophomore, Trevin in 7th grade, Gavin 3rd grade and Rylan is in kindergarten.

Poor Rylan was feeling well and didn't go to school on his first day.

He was better later in the day and was able to go on the second day.

 

Family Time

 

Carrie was here from New York the first week of August which happened to be her birthday.  We were able to have the whole family together.  We had taco night and played the longest game of Uno of all time.  It was fun.

Library Adventures

Our library system has some wonderful summer programs for the kids.  We take the boys to as many as possible.  We have done this with Kaiden and Trevin and are doing it now with Gavin and Rylan

 

These pictures are from a drum music program.  The programs always involve the kids.

We also did a scavenger hunt in the library and a choose your own adventure.  The boys really enjoyed these.

Eldorado Canyon 2024 Edition

On one of the 100 degree days we went on our annual trip to Eldorado Springs.  As always we had a great time.

O course we put our feet in the stream;

had a picnic lunch and a checker tournament; 

gathered pine cones for Tito;

took our picture on the steps (Rylan did not want his picture taken so he wouldn't sit on the step with his brothers);

and took this picture for Kaiden who wondered how many steps up his brothers would need to be so they were all the same height.  Rylan still didn't want his picture taken.

Car Wash

Whenever you add water to anything with the boys they always have a good time, so why not add your car?  They did a great job on the car and had a good time spraying and dumping water on each other.

I had Kaiden blow out the garage. This was the look on his face when he discovered the blower has a turbo charge setting.

Rock Painting

Earlier this summer we painted rocks.  The boys have always enjoyed this activity.  It is one of the things they asked to do this summer.  At our neighborhood park someone started a rock snake and invited everyone to add to it.  So we took some of our rocks to the park and made the snake a little longer.

 

Duck, Duck, ??

 These ducks were on our lawn one morning when I went out to hang up the flag.  I texted the picture to Nathan.  He responded "Where's the goose?"  I couldn't figure out what he meant so I texted him back 
"Huh".  I hadn't even thought about it until he texted back "Duck, Duck, Goose."

Funny Kid

 Rylan was eating a roll and getting crumbs all over his chair and the carpet.  Stacy told him to eat over his plate so he literally pulled his plate under his chin and continued to eat.

Trevin is 12

 

Trevin's birthday was on a very busy weekend with a track meet, Mother's Day and a visit from his Grandpa.  So we celebrated the next weekend. 

Catch Up

 Easter

I can't believe I didn't get pictures of our Easter celebration this year.  We had our traditional egg and basket hunt.  Stacy found the melted egg and won the special prize ($5 this year).

Track

Kaiden continued to run track and improve his time at each meet.  He had his best time at the last week which was enough to put him #4 on his school's list for 800 meters.

He also earned his letter.  It was fun to watch him improve over the season and see him so happy doing this sport.

Field Day

Rylan's field day was more like play at the park day with parents and grandparents invited.

He had a great time running and playing with his friends.

Gavin's field day had some new activities other than the ones they had since Kaiden was in kindergarten.

They had to hold onto the bar for as long as they could.

They had to run around the circle when their color was called.

Mother's Day

We had a great day eating lunch and playing games.  Just what I wanted.

Track

 Kaiden's track season started a few weeks ago.  He made the varsity team as a freshman.  Today he set a personal best record.  We are so proud of him.

One Blanket, 5 Boys

When I was pregnant with Nathan, my sister, Ruby, made a blanket for him.  She used her stash of scraps and even embordered letters on the plain squares.  That blanket has had a lot of use over the years.

Nathan

Kaiden

Trevin

Gavin

Rylan

I searched and searched and couldn't find a picture of Rylan when he was a baby so I had him lay down on the blanket now.

 

Another Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday.  I celebrated all weekend.  On Saturday our dear friends brought dinner and we played games.

Yesterday these guys and their parents came for brunch.  We played Bingo afterwards.  Rylan won 2 of the 4 games.  Nathan won 1 and I managed to win the blackout game with the big prize.  Rylan is getting very good with his numbers and letters.  He called the blackout game with very little help from his Dad.  Not bad for a 4 year old.

 They brought this beautiful and delicious cake.

Yesterday six of my friends came for coffee and we laughed, talked and laughed for four hours.

Great birthday spent with family and friends.  That was the greatest gift.  I told Nathan I couldn't really think of anything I wanted and the only thing I needed was a new mop!!

Fifteen!

Kaiden turned 15!  The years have gone by so quickly.  He has grown into a wonderful young man.  He is kind (his younger brothers may not think so), he takes school seriously, loves basketball and track.  It is difficult to think in 6 months he can get a learners permit.  Even more difficult to think in 3 short years he will be graduating and starting his life as an adult.  

When I asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday he said he wanted to come to our house for the day.  I can't tell you how happy this made me - my heart was full of love.  We played games and then took him to lunch.  This is the dessert he wanted.  A brownie sundae with ice cream, strawberries and chocolate sauce.  He did share.

Love this kid.