And Then He Was Five.

Two weeks late but better late than never. Connor is now five years old. I can barely believe it were it not for his little reminders of the big milestone we've hit.

Life lately with Connor is pretty sweet. He's entered into the interrogation phase. This was a phase we never really went through with Brayden, so it's been an interesting journey navigating through one million questions a day ;)

Connor is my charmer. He can charm anyone from a mile away. Earlier this spring he said "Mom, at school, all of the "gwurls" (girls) want to marry me. But I don't know why... I'm just a kid." Oh, Connor, don't ever grow up.

Some of Connor's favorites at age five: Mario Cart on the Wii, playing scooters and riding bikes, drawing and coloring, action figures and Wild Kratts. We still haven't brought him for his well check, so I'll have to update this when we go... he's fairly tall for his age. This was his first year to play organized soccer for a team, and we played him up two levels on a U7 team with Brayden. He did great and even scored several goals throughout the season.

Connor has a great grasp on biblical understanding for his age, and one of my favorite things is to sit with him and listen to some of his insight on God, Jesus and salvation. Some of my favorites are: "We can never rip up or color on God's word... only use those light markers (highlighters). We can never punch or kick Jesus. That would just be mean and make rocks go in your heart (harden your heart). Mom, you are not the judge. God is the judge and He is the judge of you and Daddy and you cannot be the judge of me and Brayden and Tyler." Listening to his prayers are just the best and help challenge me to have the same childlike faith.

Connor-- I can't really believe that you're already five, and yet I can't even remember life without you. You are a joy and it is my honor to be able to call myself your mom. May you continue to pursue God with all that you are and all that you do, and may you grow deeply in love with Jesus more than you can comprehend or imagine. You are awesome and we love you so much!

Happenings.

We have had a busy several weeks with life happenings. Such is fall.

A few weeks ago we FINALLY dedicated Tyler at church. Bless his heart, the third child just gets put on the back burner sometimes. We were super grateful to dedicate him before he started Kindergarten. Ha!

Tyler was super impressed. :) I am so grateful for our community of fellow believers (who we call our chosen family) They not only encourage us in our walks with the Lord, but also come along side us to ensure that our children walk in truth too.

I have to brag on my bigs for a second-- I was SO nervous about having them up on stage. Anyone who knows us knows that my boys are not necessarily known for their still and quiet spirits. They did SO well the entire time we were up there.

Since family was already going to be in town due to Tyler's dedication (and because October weather is more predictable than November in terms of temperatures), we decided to throw Connor an early birthday party. Connor marches to the beat of his own drum and I love him for it. He basically chose every theme that you could have (sharks, power rangers, star wars and transformers). Can't believe my middle guy is almost five... where does the time go?


we just did a simple party at the park with a few of his friends from the various events we are a part of.

my friends have informed me that we are "pinata" people. Not sure how I feel about the title, but considering my kids think that hitting and destroying things is the best thing ever, it's at least the most fitting title we could garner.

This past weekend we had Halloween festivities. Friday Brayden had his school fall carnival, at which I got ZERO pictures. It was basically like shoving 1098271 children and adults into a small, overcrowded cafeteria and then telling them all to dress up and play games. By the time Drew lost Tyler and Connor, we were ready to go. Brayden did have fun seeing all his friends and his teachers though, which is really all that matters. Saturday we went trick-r-treating with friends. The boys had a blast, although I was quick to recant my approval of black ninja costumes for 4 year old boys. Connor was a streak of invisibility the entire evening, which left my heart in my throat much of the time as I feared he'd get hit by a car. Next year we are going for brightly colored costumes (or at the very least, lots of stick on glow sticks).

love my little super heroes!

We are gearing up for Thanksgiving now, even though the temperatures have us believing we're well on our way to a second summer. I hope and pray that as we approach the holidays that you and yours are able to take some time to reflect on how blessed we are and how many things we have to be grateful for.

Pumpkin Patch 2015.

Looking at our fall schedule, I wasn't even sure if we would make it to the pumpkin patch this year. But Connor kept insisting that we go (I think he is my traditions boy... he remembers everything we have done and will not let me forget it!), so we found a spare few hours one afternoon several weekends ago to make it happen.


I tried to take pictures at the beginning of our trip in order to have happy faces. I'm not sure there is ever a successful time to take pictures of 3 boys. They're much more interested in active things than sitting stagnantly with fake smiles for their mom.

Can't believe how big they all 3 have gotten. Halfway through our trip at the farm I looked at Drew and said "in four years, this won't be that awesome to them anymore." Sad reality of growing babies.


Connor was the only one who braved the ponies. He was all smiles the whole time.



feeding the animals was a highlight.

the boys had asked if they'd be big enough for the peddle cars this year, to which I had responded negatively (the big ones are huge!). We were so excited to see that the farm had added smaller karts for younger children. The boys had a blast pretending to be race car drivers.

Tyler helped Daddy drive a big one.

Brayden and Drew tried their hands (or feet, rather) at human foose ball.

trying to get other people to use my camera is always interesting. This was the best we could get of the family as we were headed out on the hay ride to feed the cows.


Since the entry fee into a lot of the pumpkin patches can be a bit pricey, we let the boys "pretend" to pick out a pumpkin and then went back to Walmart to get the ones we'll carve. Not sure we'll get away with that next year-- Connor let me hear it when he realized we didn't actually purchase the one he had found. ha!


we closed out our pumpkin evening fun hanging out with friends. Look at all of these Razorback boys! So grateful for such great friends that the boys can grow up with... we are so blessed!

To see our previous years of pumpkin patch fun: 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012| 2013 | 2014