2024 Wrap-up

 Holiday Program

Gavin had was in his school's Holiday program in early November.  Such a handsome boy!

Tito's Birthday

Tito turned 80!  We had a big party to celebrate.  His sister, Margie, her husband, Roger, and Tito's brother, Ricky flew in from California and Carrie came in from New York to be with him on his big day.

Tito wanted tapas and desserts for his birthday.  We had friends, family and neighbors.  Rylan and Gavin were so excited that so many people came.  They asked if the entire neighborhood was coming and went out to count how many cars were at our house.  We had a great time.

Basketball

Kaiden started playing basketball in December. 

After 3 games they are undefeated.  Kaiden was named defensive player of this game.

Christmas

We got together with the boys to decorate cookies once again this year.  We had fun and as always more of the decorations were eaten than put on the cookies!

realized I did not have a picture of these two in front of a Christmas tree.  Notice the NOEL letters on the mantle have been changed to read LEON.  Their father taught them well.

This is the only picture I have from Christmas Eve.  We traded gifts, played the left-right game for silly presents, played a hilarious game of I Spy With My Little Eye during dinner.  It was a great day.

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.