Back Up and Running

 Thank you to an insightful friend who helped me get my blog up and running with more space to post... and a Dad who knows EVERYTHING about computers and found a super easy way for me to re-size my pictures so that my super awesome, cool camera that I love doesn't take up all my blog space in 1 post!

So here goes my attempt at getting caught up from September!

The cub scouts prepared an outdoor meal by the flagpole in our neighborhood so they could have a flag ceremony, too.  They had a blast!

Gaven finished his second season of soccer.  He was a super stud! It sure helps to have 2 big brothers that never "go easy" on you!

 

 

 

Kammy continues to insist on feeding herself, and mommy continues to let her!

Braeden's Fall baseball team, The Heat, finished the season winless... but we couldn't be more proud of him!  He pitched for the first time and caught for the first time!  He kept a VERY positive attitude and did what HE needed to do to improve... we're looking forward to this Spring!

 

 

Carsen's team, the Yankees, also finished up their fall season... they won some and lost some, but did very well for how young they were!

Life was a little bit crazy while baseball was going because we had baseball AND soccer. All three boys on 3 separate soccer teams and the two older boys playing baseball.  Carsen's soccer team finished the season undefeated and won 1st place!

At the end of September, we celebrated my 34th Birthday at our favorite restaurant, Cheddar's!  We played hangman while waiting for our meal.

 

The boys went all out for "red-ribbon" week at school. For some reason, I ONLY got a picture of their crazy sock day.

Jason was out front, changing the oil in both cars, so the boys got Kammy's "car" and proceeded to change the oil.  My favorite was Gaven's idea to use orange flip-flops as the wheel ramps!

A couple random pictures of Kammy at the soccer games:

It seems like there isn't a day that passes without our doorbell ringing or the sound of knocking at the front door with the boys' friends coming to see if they can play.  It's to the point now when, anytime there is a knock at the door, Kammy goes running toward it saying, "Col

Random picture of the babers sleeping...

HALLOWEEN

Kamryn and I went to music makers (a little music class) where we celebrated Halloween.

At our church "trunk-or-treat"

 

We had our awesome missionaries over for dinner and they taught the kiddos a lesson using a kitchen hand-towel and turning it into a turkey.  It was a MAJOR hit with the kids!

 

Halloween night, we went with our friends around the neighborhood.  Here is the whole clan:

Looking back on things, this was when we started to notice signs of Carsen coming down with "mono."  We hadn't been trick-or-treating long when my child that normally has energy for days and NEVER sits still, wanted to ride in the jogger.

I think this picture was taken before their games on the last soccer Saturday of the season.

Kammy LOVES books (she fits right in with her brothers)... she was all ready for church and entertained herself with her books...

We had a bright sunny day out, so I took Kamryn out back for a few pictures:

A week or two after the season ended, we got together with Carsen's team for a pizza party.  There wasn't that great of a turn-out and I didn't think to take a picture of the kids until 2 of them had left, so we only have 4 of them!

The next day, Carsen started getting really sick.  When he woke up and came out of his room, I could tell he had a fever.  I did the "mom thing" and just felt his neck to see how hot he was.  I felt more than just "hot."

This picture doesn't really do it justice... the lymph nodes in his neck were SO swollen that it looked like he had golf balls in his ordinarily skinny neck.  I took him to the doctor that morning and he tested positive for strep.  We were suspicious about mono because our little neighbor friend had it a month before, so they also drew blood for mono.  We didn't get the mono results back for another couple days, but it was positive.

Braeden's soccer team party:

Since Carsen was not allowed to play for a couple weeks, Gaven had filled in for him in their first flag football game of the season.  He was just about the littlest one out there!

THE DAY I FILLED IN FOR MY BROTHER:

He came SO close so many times to getting a "tackle" (pulling the other team's flag)...

...And he ran for a touchdown!!

So close again!

...and again!!

 FINALLY!!! He got him!

A random sweet picture of Braeden and Kamryn

Kammy was our next "sick" victim, catching Carsen's strep.

 When Carsen was finally healthy enough again, he was super pumped to get back out there playing football!  Their team went undefeated and pretty much crushed EVERY other team they played!  They were all little studs!

Running for a touchdown...

Making a tackle...

Handing the ball off to Kai...

Another TD...

New England Patriots

Braeden had a GREAT flag football season, too! He wanted SOOOOOOO badly (and that's even an understatement) to be the quarterback on his team.  We would practice every day out back before the season started, and even though I thought he was doing great, I tried to prepare him for the fact that he might not be the quarterback - especially with this being his first year! 

When we left the first practice, and he told me he was the quarterback, I wish I could have captured the look on his face!!  He wasn't nervous, but I was VERY nervous for him!

I don't know WHY I was nervous for him - he did GREAT!!  He threw touchdowns to his teammates, made good decisions and looked like a "REAL" quarterback in the backfield!  His coach actually started trusting him enough to let him go through his own progressions!

We had been wanting to go watch our good little friend, Kole, swim at a meet for a while.  It just so happened that they had a local meet on a Saturday that we were able to go.  The boys had never been to a live swim meet before, and they LOVED it!

Sweet Kole!

We were SO proud of Kole.  The way they did the divisions, he was mostly swimming against kids WAY older than him, but he took on the challenge with NO FEAR and did AWESOME!!!

One last picture for this post of Braeden's football team.

Miami Dolphins...

I'm going to continue to work on getting caught up, now that I know how!