Jayden's birthday

We had fun celebrating Jayden's birthday. Mason had a band concert on her actual birthday so we did a dinner and his concert on that day. Here is a photo of Mason carrying his Barisaxophone. His horn is the length from his chin to his knees. It is a HUGE instrument.

Mason had a tournament on Saturday the 8th. His team played really well and won the tournament. Here is an "after" photo in which Mason is very sweaty. ICK! Coach Denny thought that the medals would make good "bling" earrings. :)

Now to Jayde- she was very excited to get her High School Musical East High house. She got that on her birthday.

She also invited two friends (Abbey and Claire) and they went to Build a Bear. Jayde made a High School musical bear. It was a good time. The last photo is a picture of Jayde after her exhausting birthday party :)

So Many Updates

We have a lot of things going on and lots of photos to boot. First on October 12th Oscar had his 3rd birthday. So we made him waffle and put a little frosting on it. Needless to say he LOVED it! :)

Jayden had a concert at school. Here are some photos of that!

Mason had several football games. His team ended up winning the city championship game so that was very exciting! Mason is number 32. Eric is in the white T-shirt.

We also went trick or treatings at the Houghs. Hunter joined us as well. Jayde is Hannah Montana. Hunter is Iron Man. Sam is Batman and Lizzy (our friend's little girl) is a witch. Alex is tigger but he wouldn't photograph much :)

Finally we have Mason's tournament this weekend. He and the J-Hawks went undefeated in 4 games to take 1st place in the tournament. That was a lot of fun. The boys played really well together. Mason is #15 (he is right above the ref in one photo).

That is about it for now. It has been crazy to say the least but in a good way. I will keep updating photos as events happen. Jayde has a birthday this Friday so that is exciting. She is taking some friends to Build-a-Bear. We will see how that goes!

Ta ta for now! Don't forget to vote Tuesday! Go McCain/Palin!!! :)

Brrr

It is getting colder out. Yikes. Today was down right chilly here. It is going to get worse in the next few days. It is supposed to rain pretty much non-stop for the next three days. Yippee.

Mason has one more football game left. Thankfully it is supposed to be nice by the weekend. He is playing for the championship. He is pretty excited about it. I will let you all know how it goes.

Jayde had a sleep over last weekend. Her friend Clare stayed over night. The girls had a blast singing and dancing all night. They were back up around 7:30 in the morning and back up playing. She had to go home for us to head to Grandma Judy's birthday party. Surprise mom :) Hope you enjoyed your party!

We are going to try to head to a pumpkin patch this weekend. We haven't done anything like that for the last couple of years so we are over due. I will post some pictures of some recent events when I get a chance.

Talk to you soon!

Ho Hum...

Sorry I haven't updated in a while. Actually there isn't much new to report which in this day and age is a GOOD thing!

Mason is still playing football. He made two touchdowns and two fumble recoveries last week, not to mention several carries. That is pretty good! He played full back and linebacker. He likes both so who knows what he will be when he grows up. It is funny to see him catch the ball and stand like 2 feet taller than the kid who is defending him.as 4 kids try to bring him down and he drags the along :) It goes back to the "my kids grow like weeds" thing- guess he still does ;)

Jayde is doing well. Same as ever. She is such an interesting child to say the least. She really can do anything she puts her mind to so it will be so fascinating to watch her grow into an adult. She took a timed math test at the beginning of the year and really struggled (hello-just finished summer- math wasn't a common thing practiced) but since she didn't get very far on the test, she was on a MISSION. She plays the Gold Medal Math CD we have on the computer and tests on it. Eric made math sheets and she times herself on them- ALL ON HER OWN!!! Needless to say they took a test a week or so ago to get into Math Club and Jayde passed with flying colors. Goal achieved.

Jayde wanted her kicks in dance to be better so she has been stretching out so they are perfect. She asked to have her routine music loaded on her Ipod so she can practice her dance routines and she does that several times a day. It is really something. She is a perfectionist by nature so you know she gets that from me right?? NOT!!!!

She is the POLAR OPPOSITE of Mason. He isn't all that motivated unless it involves sports or competition. He is doing terrific on his grades- mostly As-but has a couple high Bs that could be higher with a little effort. Not too bad considering he is in two sports now and has confirmation work to do.

Well, that is all to update now. God Bless.

I want his life!

Oscar has the life. I realized just how good he has it today since I had the day off. He gets to lounge around on the furniture of his choice while enjoying the climate controlled environment in which he lives. It pretty much is about 70 degrees in our house year round. He has taken over the chair as his favorite perch- probably because he can see the front door and the back door all from that spot.

In case you were worried about him being lonely or neglected in any way due to our busy schedules, I have proof that the worry is unfounded. Here are a couple of photos from today showing the "tough" life he leads....

I love Football Season

I love fall. It is my favorite season by far. I love Football season. The air is crisp and the temp is cool (or should be- not lately). My favorite time to decorate the house and the leaves change color. It is exciting!

The kids like the fall. The days seem a little shorter but they aren't as stuffy any more and that is nice. I love the fact that we have NO leaves to rake! Our old house in Ankeny was a nightmare. We spent hours after hours raking those dinner plate size leaves. UH!

Mason's football games are pretty fun. Jayde has been going to her friend Claire's house during the games. The girls have a good time hanging out for an hour or two and Jayde doesn't have to sit through games that she has no interest in watching.

Not much else to report so I will sign off for now.

I love Fall!

I love fall- it is by far my most favorite season. It typically isn't all that rainy, it is cool- not scalding hot. You get to look forward to Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Who wouldn't look forward to a season where you get so many days off from work! :)

Any guesses on what Jayde has decided to be for Halloween?? Drum roll please- a cat. Just kidding she wants to be Hannah Montana. In all fairness she was leaning towards a cat for a while but then saw a Hannah Montana costume in the store and the squealing ensued. I explained that she had a wig and microphone already and just needed to spruce up an outfit and she could do that rather than buying a 30 dollar cheap version of a costume! YUP I am a GREAT mom HA.

Mason is too cool for Halloween you know now that he is in Middle School and all- but 10 bucks says he will convince his sister that she needs to share her candy that she acquires. That will work because the Good Lord knows she doesn't get to eat it all! He isn't stupid!

Jayde made me a lovely portrait out of cut up little squares that I had to share. Yes it looks like I have three chins- which I guess wouldn't be THAT far off- but she clarified to me that it was a smile, my chin and a necklace. I like how my necklace connects to my hair hanging down-that is handy.

What are the things on the side of my head you ask? They are exclamation points silly! As Jayde says- because you are my !Mommy!. I cracked up at that one! Another thing she said is that one off the squares fell off on the top of my head so "Mom- you have a hole in your head- Sorry!". Probably for the best really-I could use a little ventilation! You gotta love her.