Joey!

Meet our Joey

What a sweet addition to our family.  He is certainly loved. 

Football camp

This summer James and Jesse went to a football camp put on by the local high school.

Because flag football season is starting and the boys are so excited,

I thought I'd better post these pictures first.

This it what Jake did while we watched, played cars with his cousin.

 James loved it, but took it very seriously.

 Jesse loved it too, but he was there to have lots of fun.

 

 James' favorite part was tackling the bags.

 And from the look on his face you can tell that Jesse liked teasing the football players.

Let the football begin....

Soccer days

This year Jake was our only boy that played soccer.  

It was also his first time and he had a lot of fun.

Can you see the intense look in his eyes?

 

 Jake also doesn't like his socks to match. 

 He had a great season and played very hard. 

His brothers had a great time teaching him the moves too. 

He sure is a great kid.

Fall is beautiful

The leaves are changing, fall must be here.  I love the colors on the mountain.

 Someday my boys will let me take a normal picture of them.  Oh wait, this is a normal picture of them.

At least Jesse likes to pose for me.

Kayla

This summer I was able to take some senior pictures for my niece.  

Here are a few of my favorites.  Isn't she gorgeous?

small miracles

Lately I have had a very bad case of the grumps.  Yuck.  So today I decided to look for things to be thankful for.  Here it is, my small miracle.

Jesse went to the dentist. ( I know he wasn't very happy.  He missed kickball at school for the dentist.)  But-- he did not punch the dentist!  They did not have to put him to sleep or anything.  He did amazing and it completely made my day.   So today I am grateful the my son did not punch the dentist.  Yes I was scared for a minute there when he raised his hand. And yes he has done it before.  We were shooed out of the office as fast as they could with numbers to 3 pediatric dentists.  But not today.  YEA!

school is here!!!

Monday was the first day of school.

Jake started kindergarten. Wow! He loves it. 

He really likes to ride his bike home with his brothers.

He has made a lot of new friends in his class too.  He doesn't know their names yet but there is one little boy that sits by him that he calls "English Man"  He gets English and Spanish mixed up:)

 

 Jesse is in 3rd grade this year and not so enthused. He isn't excited about homework.  But his favorite thing is lunch and recess.  

Yesterday I asked him what he learned about at school today,  he showed me a skinned knee and told me very seriously "Women cause pain and suffering!"  I guess that you have to learn sometime:)

 James is starting 5th grade this year.  It was kind of hard for me to drop him off at school and think that it is the last time that I get to walk him into school and help him find his class.  Next year he will go to middle school and we will have to find it before he goes on the first day.  Ahhh! When did that happen?  We are planning on enjoying this last year of  Elementary before we have to move on to the big Middle School.

 They are such great kids.  I've decided that I will never have a normal picture of all three of them again.  Someone has to be pulling a face.  Oh well that is who they are and I love them because of it.

Jesse's baptism

On July 2nd this very dashing man

 was baptized

 by this handsome man:)

It was a fantastic day.  Jesse is such a sweet kid.  He has a great big spirit.  We has a family dinner afterwards but I was too busy talking to everyone and snuggling my new great-niece. I didn't take any pictures.  But it was a beautiful day. 

Why do we do it?

Today I have a question for all mothers out there.  Tell me why do we do it?  

Yesterday I sat down with Jake to fill out a paper to introduce him to his new kindergarten class.  There was a question that asked what do your parents do?  His response was "my dad works and my mom cleans."  I didn't write that I "helped" him change it to my mom stays home with us. 

And today my nephew was over playing with the boys and he asked me why I don't work.  I said I like to stay home with the boys.  He said "Do you stay home to ground them?"

Really? is that really why I stay home with my children.  I'll admit I do clean, and i do ground them.  But I play with them too.  I teach them too don't I?   So why do we do it?   Even if we do work, why do we raise these little bundles of joy and why do we keep having more?  That's my question today.  Why do we really do this.

#3 Homework

Homework?

I know, I know, who in their right mind would try to make their kids do homework during the summer?  Well we tried.  We did it for a couple months.  One day I found James doing his homework here. 

 Anything is better if you are in a tree:)

And here are Jesse and Jake doing theirs.  So I am not excited for school to start because of HOMEWORK!!

#2 Rainy Days and Sprinklers

 Rainy Days
This summer there seamed to be a lot of rainy days.  We were at a baseball game when it started to rain.  And boy did it rain.  Everyone took shelter but it wouldn't stop so we all left and got drenched anyways.  We had a blast playing in it though.  I didn't get any pictures of us playing in it though, I was having too much fun.

Sprinklers

Nothing says summer like playing in the sprinklers. Here are the boys having a ball in the sprinklers in the backyard.

Jake just likes to squirt people with the hose.

it's a good thing that they don't mind.