Let's Party On.....

We had told Sawyer that from now on he can either choose to have a birthday party with his friends from school OR a large gift from us. We're not made of money!!! So this year he decided that he wanted to have a party and he wanted to do a bunch of sports. We decided on a soccer gym and Sawyer couldn't have been happier!

It was nice because they had two full hours of active play time in which Sawyer was able to pick what sports he wanted everyone to play! They started out with dodge ball and per Sawyer's request, it was boys against girls.....now we can all take a good guess which team won by a land slide.

Mr. Naughty Pants could barely be contained! He wanted to get in there with those big kids so badly!

Unfortunately we didn't get as big of a turn out as we would have liked because someone  (me) didn't take into account that the party was smack dab in the middle of a Nebraska Huskers Football game....but that just meant more turns for the kids that did show :) They played dodge ball, kickball., an obstacle course and soccer! 

Trying to keep Raylan and his little friend Hieth from interrupting the big kids games....

Time for cupcakes and ice cream!

They were such a sweet group of kids and got along SO well together!

This is apparently Sawyer's new 'cool' pose......I have no idea where it came from...

Boys being boys!

Then it was time for presents! He got some really fun stuff: lego sets, micro chargers, board games, puzzles...

The group looking somewhat normal.....

....and then not so normal! :)

Sawyer had a great afternoon with his buddies burning off some energy. Still can't believe he is seven already, before I know it we'll be handing over the car keys! Yikes!

Halloween 2013

Presenting: Oompa Loompa (Charlie & The Chocolate Factory) and Darth Maul (Star Wars)!

I put Raylan's Oompa Loompa costume together myself with girls stretchy leggings, a brown turtle neck, two long strips of elastic for the suspenders, a pair of men's brown socks that I cut in half and sewed to fit his little feet and lots of white duck tape! I always love getting a little crafty with Halloween costumes! 

Now Darth Maul on the the other had did NOT want me to make his costume! Amazon to the rescue once again :)

As usual, we headed over to Nana & Papa's house for a quick dinner and then hit the streets to round up the booty! Sawyer is definitely at the age where walking slowly with your little brother is out and running from one doorstep to the next is IN! 

After the first two houses, Raylan caught on really quickly to what was going on. He would march himself up the driveways, stumble up the front steps, bang on the door with his little orange fist and shake his bucket! Then they would drop a piece of candy in his bucket and he would plunge his hand into their candy bowl to help himself to about five more pieces and be on his way. And of course, at almost every house, he got compliments of, "He's the cutest one we've seen all night! Can I take a picture of him??"

After Sawyer had pretty much doubled his weight in candy, we headed back to the house to sort it. Raylan didn't like to sort candy. Every time Sawyer would start to get everything all laid out, Raylan would sit down in the middle of the pile and swipe it all over......oh the joys of little brothers....

Raylan's rascally or should I say naughty behavior continued as Sawyer and Uncle Alex tried to play Jenga. Raylan would just sit and wait till they had all the blocks set up, reach over and swat out the bottom of it. Papa was then put on Raylan patrol.  

The following evening, some friends hosted a little Halloween party 

and the green gecko, batman, oompa loompa and Darth Maul attended. 

What's scarier than an Oompa Loopma? An Oompa Loopma with a sword. 

I decided not to paint his face orange with the white eyebrows....considering the previous night we pretty much had to put him in a straight jacket in order to do it.

Tons of food, itchy costumes, Cards against Humanity and scary movies.....Happy Halloween Everyone!

Carve Em' Up!

I hate Walmart. Sorry for those of you who love it, but who in their right mind goes to Walmart when Target exists? The savvy shoppers, that's who. I'm not a savvy shopper, much to my husbands dismay. I don't go to Walamrt to price match and save $22 every time I shop.....but I did go there to save $0.99 on pumpkins the other night! Good for me!

Sawyer was just dying to get his hands on this pumpkin....we got out the tools, spread out the plastic,

turned on the movie, "Halloween" and got right to work!

Daddy had to help jam the knifey thing in every once in a while for Sawyer....ok, he helped me too. 

Sawyer's, Mine and Bill's!

Ta-Daaaaaaaaa!

We let Raylan take a nice long bath (his favorite activity ever) to keep him out of trouble during the pumpkin carving......so he decided to make some trouble in the bathroom instead. Lovely. 

And when in the world will I ever learn not to keep the baskets of diapers near the tub????

Then we put together these little baggies of cheese balls for Sawyer and Raylan to give out at school and Day Care. They said, "Pumpkin Poo.....just for YOU!" on them! 

After the kiddos were tucked in for the night, I tackled Raylan's Halloween costume.....it's just a sneak peek! 

You'll have to wait for the next blog post to see him in it! 

Spoiler Alert: He was ADORABLE.

Happy 7th Birthday Sawyer!

Can you believe it's been 7 years already??? I can't! Once you have a child, time is like a snow ball at the top of a huge hill that starts rolling down and gets faster and faster until it clobbers you at the bottom and you're dead. Wow, that got morbid really quickly. 

Let's get back to happy fun stuff! 

The birthday boy hopped out of bed quite early-Surprise Surprise....had a special Birthday breakfast with the balloons that Nana Jane had delivered!

He got to open one gift before school from Nana Jane. Nice Bill, nice....

I took time off of work to go and have lunch with Sawyer at school. His little friend Dane had the day off of school, so I picked him up on the way and took him with me. Sawyer was so excited to have Dane there! 

The boys and I enjoying McDonalds for lunch!

We also brought cupcakes to share with the class. 

He was so excited to show us the special Birthday crown that he got to wear from his teacher. 

Sawyer has been in love with the idea of surprise parties for a while now and we thought this would be a great year to have one while it's still easy to pull it off! Nana and Papa were sweet enough to host the surprise party at their house on Saturday night which worked out perfectly because the boys normally go their to spend the night on Saturdays so he didn't suspect anything. They had the basement all set up for when he came down and everyone jumped out and yelled, "SURPRISE!"

Chicken enchiladas are Sawyer's favorite, so I made those and we had a huge Mexican feast! 

Nana Kathy had this awesome make-your-own-cupcake-bar set out with all sorts of toppings. 

Present time!!!!! He got all sorts of fun stuff that a seven year old thought was awesome :) Among them, was two sets of boxing gloves from Aunt Joan, which I'm sure will result in a few ER visits....and the cherry on the top was a new bike from Nana Kathy & Papa Steve!

Raylan trying out the new snow saucer from Aunt Lin and Uncle Jeff (or should we say, Uncle Chad? lol)

We are SO SO SO proud of you Sawyer. We are so excited to see what kind of a young man that you will become and we pray that you will love Jesus all along the way. We'll love you forever, no matter what*

An Apple a Day.....

We have been a part of a WONDERFUL Journey Group at church for the past few years and have really enjoyed getting to know other couples that are in the same stage of life. Our friends, Kevin & Vanessa live on this beautiful vineyard that we get to visit from time to time! We were invited out for apple picking, soup dinner and a bonfire! What fun!

They have this great apple tree that is pretty much bent over, it has so many apples on it! 

We all picked loads and loads of apples and it still didn't look like we made a dent! 

Raylan thought that he was pretty hot stuff because he was eating an apple that wasn't all cut up. Ahh the small joys in life :)

Sawyer kept almost giving me a heart attack up on a ladder in the tree.... 

I think I just ate a seed.....

And did I take pictures of the rest of our VERY fun evening? The delicious food, the kids playing together, Vanessa's creative fall decor, or the HUGE bonfire? Nope. I must have been enjoying time with friends too much to remember! 

Oh well, I'm sure there will be a next time! Thanks Kevin and Vanessa for another lovely evening!

Vala's Pumpkin Patch 2013

Every year we take our children and all the Day Care kids to this HUGE pumpkin patch for a day of fall fun! It was a little chillier this time but that didn't seem to even faze the kids at all. We had quite a few parents and grandparents that joined us which was really helpful! 

By far the most anticipated activity is going to these GIGANTIC jumping pillows. They are like these huge thick plastic pillow things in the ground that everyone can jump on. I don't care what age you are, it is so much fun! A good leg work out too :)

Raylan just absolutely loved it!

Sawyer watching the 'Pumpkin Chunkin Cannon' shoot pumpkins really high in the air.

Lunch time! Praying for our food.....

All the kiddos got to pick a pumpkin to bring back to Day Care that we will be painting later on this week. Liz, our roommate for the past year has made the move back to Oregon and this was her last day with us....sad! She was practically Raylan's second mother for the past year and we are all going to miss her TONS!

Me and my Day Care kiddos!!!! What a group of goof balls! Every year I get them all matching shirts to wear to the pumpkin patch but this year was so cold they all had their coats on and you can't see them! Bummer!!!!!

Hot apple cider, chilly nights, turning trees, the scramble for Halloween costumes, snotty noses and pumpkins galore!

Fall is officially here and we are loving it!