What Were YOU Doing at 6:30 This Morning?

Were you tucked in your nice, warm bed, still asleep? Getting ready for school? Making breakfast? Or maybe just getting kids up for the day? We, or I should say Tanner and Parker, were already dressed and outside playing in our first snowfall of the year. They couldn't wait.

Kaitlin Strikes Again!

If I'd have known the propensity which Kaitlin would have toward dressing her brothers like girls, I might have tried one more time to have another girl. Poor boys, they don't realize how many blackmail pictures we now have for their dating years! Parker is the most recent victim:

Kaitlin's First Recital

Kaitlin has been taking voice lessons since school started, and had her first recital. She was really nervous, but did a great job. She is now working on her Christmas songs for her Christmas recital in a few weeks. In addition to that, she was selected for the Middle School All State Honor Choir, which will take place in Eugene, Oregon in January. This is a pretty big honor for her since only two singers were chosen from her school. We are excited to see her concert in January!

Combing Their Own Hair

All the boys are needing haricuts, but yesterday was too busy to get them in. So this morning, as we are getting ready for church, I am trying hard to get too much hair on their heads to lay flat. Tanner, and then Parker, insisted on combing their own hair for church, which resulted in this:

They are a little spiky, especially in the front because they spent all their time just combing straight up the front part. It made me laugh, but also cringe at the same time. because they are going to church with their hair combed staight up in front. Oh well, I guess I should be glad that they want to comb their own hair, right?

Fun with Tanner and Parker

I have some cute pictures of my home boys, and thougth I'd pick a few to put up.

Here are the boys after a Halloween birthday party with their spider hats they made.

The thing Parker is pushing is a roller skate, and he and Tanner have taken to putting their stuffed dogs in them and pushing them all around the house. And heaven forbid we can only find one of the skates, and they have to take turns.

And here is my army boy, with his self-developed army hat. Looks thrilled with himself, doesn't he?

Mastick

You would think that after 13 years of having kids, I should know by now that when they are unusually quiet, they are up to something. Enter Parker, who is proud to show me his "mastick", which I am assuming is his makeup language for lipstick, but confused with mascara. Either way, it's a mess:

Pretty, huh?

Soccer Fever

Soccer is finally over for the season, and while I am not missing two practices and 1-2 games per week, in cooooold weather, I am missing watching Josh and Luke play. They have not played on a team before this year, and I was really impressed with the progress they both made. Josh did really well, getting to play defense and forward almost all the time. Luke was forward and mid-field, and did pretty good as well. It got to be so much fun at the end of the season to watch them play and see how much they had learned. At the party at the end of the year, their coach made sure to tell them to request him for their coach next year, so they could play for him again.

For Josh, two practices and the games were not enough, and you could often find him outside every day after chores and homework playing soccer in the backyard until dark, or until they'd kicked the ball over the fence into the neighbor's yard and couldn't get it back. He got Tanner playing with him, and I think we'll have another soccer player next year. Tanner really enjoyed the time with Josh, and got to be pretty good for a 5-year old. Parker even tried to play with them and Luke, when they would let him. I think Tanner wants to be on a team next year, so I'm sure we'll be twice as busy, with two sets of practices and games next season. I love watching them play, so I'll try not to complain as I am running every night of the week, and spending Saturdays watching soccer games. What fun!!

Halloween and Punkin Carvin'

Carving pumpkins is always fun. The kids saved one for me to carve, but I haven't got around to it, yet. Maybe for Thanksgiving?

Halloween was typical this year. We usually have one sick kid, and this year it was Tanner. We had trunk-or-treating Saturday, so that we wouldn't have to trick-or-treat on Sunday, and Tanner threw up, so he missed out. He was so bummed, but all of his brothers and sister shared their candy, so we was somewhat pacified. He did get to dress up for his school party on Friday, so at least he got to wear his costume.

I tried so hard to convince my kids to be something different this year, but Josh was the only taker. Tanner and Luke were ninjas again, Kaitlin was lady Zorro, Parker was Batman, and Josh was a mummy. I had a lot of fun making his costume, and he turned out really cool looking, but I might be biased. =>