Movin' on up from Webelos to 11 year old Scout!

Brennen is now an 11 year old scout and he is LOVING it! Here are a few pictures from his crossing over on the 26th of January.

 Brennen and Devin have so much fun together and Brennen has been a great example for Devin, they both love scouts. I had fun being Brennen's Webelos leader and now I get to work with Devin in Wolves.

 Brennen being presented his plaque

 The traditional pinning of the mom. Ethan is studying the plaque while Devin looks on intently....taking pointers I'm sure.

 Brennen being welcomed by the 11 year old scout leaders.

Congratulations Brennen, we're so proud of all your accomplishments and can't wait to see you through this next step in life.

The Red Sox first game of the season (Brennen)

Just a few shots of Brennen at his first Baseball game of the season. The Red Sox (which is also the name of Devin's team...I hope this doesn't become too confusing for future posts, also both the boys are #1) won their game and Brennen scored a point for the team. He's really enjoying playing this year and has fun working on his skills with dad in their spare time.

Wrestling Match

Brennen was able to have Preston over last night, and tonight Brian came over for dinner. When it was time for Preston to leave with his dad Brennen decided to do what he could to get Preston to stay. Brennen told Brian that he would take him down in a wrestling match and that if he did than Preston could stay. Brian never said that he accepted the challenge, but played along with the boys. Here Brennen is taking his Uncle Brian down ;]. when all was said and done Preston went home with his dad...poor guy.

I just love his cute little smile!

Halloween Parade

The Elementary does a Halloween parade so the kids were able to dress up and show off their costumes. I was really surprised that the kids were able to wear their masks, every school we've gone to doesn't allow masks. Below is Devin as the Black Spidy...funny story about this. I saw Spidy coming through the hall and to get his attention I hollered "Devin", because as you all know that's the black spidy's secret name. I thought that he didn't hear me so I got a nice side shot of him...come to find out we have a picture of some other kid!! But you can be assured that this is the real black spidy.

Black Spidy with his pal Phantom Kid a.k.a. Jonah.

This is Devin's teacher Mr. Hemphill, it's really quite funny because you imagine the Hulk as a big guy but Devin's teacher is quite short. It was fun to see all of the teachers dressed up, they really got into it.
Here is Brennen waiting to start the parade, he didn't want to put his hood on until he was walking, but this shot reminded me of some books that I read...Twilight. Jacob (Grant) and Edward side by side, although I didn't picture Jacob so scary.
Here he is walking along. Brennen will be all decked out for Halloween, this is the stripped version of his costume...dunno if I want to do it twice and better for Halloween then for a parade.

It's pumpkin time!

Mom & Dad doing the carving.

Ariana decided that she did not want to hurt her pumpkin this year so she drew a sheep on it because if you ask her-sheep rule.

Brennen was quite animated while he was gutting his pumpkin.
Devin rolled up his sleeves and went strait to work.

We tried to get Ethan in on all of the fun, but he doesn't like to get his hands goopy. All lit up! Oh by the way Ari's is an indoor pumpkin apparently.

Skating

Just a few pictures of the kids playing on their skates.

Brennen is getting really good on his skates!

Don't worry, Chris is right beside him.

Ari just relaxing

Devin is still working on his technique. Here he is gliding down our road that is on a hill.

This is Devin stopping and yes he falls on purpose.

Here he is chilling out before he makes another run.

Ari getting prepped to skate.

Ethan just loved having the skates on, I thought he would be scared but he was a real trooper

He saw an airplane in the sky and this is what he did so that he could see it better of course.

Halloween Fingers

This is our Halloween tradition...edible fingers. On the left near Brennen we have our mummy fingers, while Devin watches over the Frankenstein fingers and the Werewolf fingers are below. The kids love helping out with this project and sharing them with our friends and neighbors.

Ethan decided to taste test one of the werewolf fingers while we were not looking...I think he approved!

Great Morning

What a great morning for mommy! This morning I was able to sleep in. Apparently Chris snuck in from work and he and Brennen cooked breakfast for us all, waffles with blackberries, hash browns and even cereal if we so choose (Devin)...it was wonderful! Brennen made the waffles from scratch and boy were they yummy, keep up the great work Brennen.

Later in the morning we were surprised to see snow falling! I don't think we are ready for snow just yet...the leaves need to change first for crying out loud.

the park at dusk

Here are a few pics of our venture to the park down the street from us. The kids had a great time. Dad was able to go with us this time although he did homework off to the side he was able to get into the action later in the evening, we just love having him around and with his new schedule it seems that we have him a lot more.

It's pretty easy to get a good picture of Brennen, he just loves the opportunity to have his picture taken...isn't he so cool!
Ethan was not afraid of anything...but mommy was afraid for him! He would walk to the edge of every high point on the playground. Lucky for mom he has a great big sister and older brothers who love and help watch out for him.
It was pretty hard to get a picture of Ari without the growth on her ear. Mainly because she avoids having her picture taken and the only time I could sneak a picture in was when she was distracted by Kara...Thanks Kara!!
Devin and Brennen loved playing on the see saw, they got a bit crazy on it, but what do you expect from fun lovin' boys.
Ethan was petrified on the swing. He kept pointing over to the other kids on the swings so I though we would give it a try (we have never had much luck on the swings before...Devin was the same way) and once I let go of the swing he clenched on for dear life as the expression on his face changed from uncertainty to pure terror. Poor kid, I think we'll give him a break before we try that one again.

Popcorn For Sale

Brennen wanted to earn some money to buy his brother a birthday gift...little did Devin know he was working for his present.

Soccer season has begun!

Both Brennen & Devin had games at the same time so we had to decide where the camera went. Brennen has one more game than Devin this season, so we sent the camera over with Devin. After Devin's game we went over to see if Brennen was done and we were able to get the last kick of the day on camera...and here it is. Great job Brennen! Brennen also made two goals for his team.

Devin had a great game also, he was moving down the field and getting into the action, he has improved so much from last year...great kick Devin!
Devin volunteered to throw the ball in every time it went out of bounds...and I have to say he has a pretty good throw. He was also there first in line every time they needed someone for kick off.
Here is the video of Devin's first goal of the season.