Halloween through the years.

Year one, Tyler debuted the football costume. He was a devil for his second Halloween. I don't have pictures scanned in for those, so I'm starting in 99' with Timmy's first year.

I resurrected the football costume for Timmy's first Halloween.


In 2000 it was the angel and devil.....appropriate for their personalities at the time.


In 2001, Trae joined the bunch and was a bumblebee in between his "hippy" brothers.


One more year with just the 3 of them and I made these cowboy costumes for them. One of my favorite years....2002.


By 2003, Tony was wearing the pigskin and the other boys were rounding out our theme for the year.


I'm drawing a total blank as to what they were in 2004. I have no picture handy and just cannot remember. hmmmm.......

Still letting me dress them alike, in 2005 I made these pirate get-ups. We even put vaseline with coffee grounds on their faces for whiskers.


I knew at some point, they'd want to do their own thing for Halloween. Here they are in 2006 with their first hodge-podge of costumes.


For the second year in a row, they all had their own ideas. I suppose it was bound to happen. Ha!


I still can't believe it that in 2008 they agreed to all dress the same again. This time as the girls we never had. This is by far my favorite year.....was there any question as to why.


So, here we are this year. It's 2009 and Tyler is saying it's his last year trick or treating. He's actually at a friends house with some other boys having pizza, going door to door, and watching a movie. The others are out with dad as I write. Of course, I had an idea for all of them this year, but it was hopeless. The older ones are at this age where they just want to be creepy and scary. I guess that's to be expected. :)



Off they go.....


Happy Halloween!!!

Autumn leaves

Is there anything better for a kid in the fall than to jump into a big pile of leaves?

It lasts for such a short time before the snow falls.

We have a great yard for raking leaf piles.

Wrestling woes

Last night, the boys had their first wrestling meet. Tony, Trae, and Timmy all won matches. Tony only got to do one round (out of the regular three) with his opponant because the other boy started crying and wouldn't continue....I'm laughing as I write that, is that wrong?? Trae pinned his guy...awesome! And Timmy had 2 matches...the first he lost to a tough competion. The second, he pinned....but there's a story there. We were just about done and the coach pulled Timmy to go do an exibition on another mat. He told me this so I could go over and watch. By the time I walked around to the other mat, Timmy was facing off with his new opponant.....a girl. The second girl now to join the wrestling group. This girl was at least 10 or 11 and had on a sports type bra thing under her singlet. Oh great, I thought....I really don't like this. Jason and I had talked to the coach last year about not wanting our boys to wrestle girls. Think what you want....we're being unfair....girls can do whatever boys can....we're being old fashioned....don't care....sorry, we stand by our feelings on this one. I'm watching Timmy try and grab her the way he would his male counterparts, around the chest from behind, grabbing a thigh to pull into position, needing to do a 'chest to chest' position to get the pin. These are just not things we feel are okay. Thank goodness, he pinned her....I say that because losing to a girl would only and insult to injury for a boy. When the match was over, Jason went over to talk to the coach. He explained to him that he tries to teach our boys to be respectful of girls, both by not 'wrestling' with them and also by not putting their hands on them in inappropriate ways. He said he teaches them to respect them with their actions and their hands.....thats hard to do in a sport like wrestling, can't get more hand to hand physical than that. The coach totally understood and said he would be sure to not team up the boys this way again. I gotta say, I often wonder about the parents that of the girl that don't seem to mind. If I had a daughter, especially one that was older like this girl was, do I really want all these boys manhandling her? I don't know...maybe it's just us. I have no idea if any other parent has said this same thing to their coach, but we feel comfortable with our position on it.

Dome and Hayride

Jason left for South Dakota on Friday to go hunting with his dad. It happened that it was a pretty eventful weekend that he was missing. On Friday night, the boys had a football event at the Dome. Timmy's team suited up and actually got to play a whole game on the turf, Tylers team played some flag football and had more fun. The boys thought it was pretty cool to be on the same field as all the great football players. They were laying down on it saying "Brett Favre was standing right here". Ha...it was pretty funny. Tim's team had their banquet afterwards at a pizza place. I had to leave the Dome with the 4 of them and bring them there, then get their pizza ordered since it was 8pm by now and they were starving, then leave them there to hopefully not go too crazy while I headed back to the Dome to get Tyler who was just finishing up. By the time we got back, they were just handing out trophy's and talking about each player a bit. Timmy hadn't gotten his yet (there were saving his for last cuz they knew I wasn't there). Fun night.



Tanner laying down in the endzone....






Trae was overcome with emotion and love upon seeing the goal post. Ha!...









On Sat. our whole family went on a hayride and had a bonfire. It was such a great fall thing to do and the night could not have been more perfect. The air was cool, but it was not too cold. The rain from the day before had gone away and we were left with a great night to be outside. The hayride was done on a horse drawn trailer through the woods and trails. It was a really beautiful time of year to be out around all the changing trees. The place we went to then had a bonfire ready for us when we returned from the hayride. We brought hotdogs, chips and marshmellows for roasting. The boys really had a good time. I wish Jay could have been there....did I mention he is hunting this weekend?
I think we've found a new family tradition for each fall. They do a winter sleigh ride also, that would be really fun too.













There was a big hill that the kids could run up and down while the hayride parked for a bit.

I hear ya

Last night, Mindy came to the shop and I cut and colored her hair. We got talking about what's been going on with us and the adoption and I told her that I am more stressed out than ever about it all. The whole money thing just has me questioning how and when and everything else. She really was encouraging me to send in our application, start the homestudy, and go from there...see what happens. I told her that I know I'm over analyzing it and I need to stop thinking about it so much and just go. She told me that I should be excited about it, not stressed out. That's what I want, and I know I haven't been able to let myself get there yet. I let too many other thoughts get in the way.
So, there I was on the way home. I got in the car and was thinking about our conversation and was asking God to help show me what we're supposed to do and to help me just listen to His plan for us. Just then a song came on KTIS that I actually really don't like (a rare thing since I like most all the music they play) so I turned the station for a bit to Delilah....ya know Delilah?? She's the cheesy, overly sweet, love ballad dedication chick on the radio at night. Anyway, just as I changed to her show she said something that I couldn't believe. I even pulled the car over and wrote it down quick, cuz I didn't want to forget her exact words.
"Are you one of those people who has to wait before you leap? Do you think things through...sometimes too much? Do you think about things so much that you never leap? Just take the chance. Take that leap and see where it takes you." At this point, I'm looking around me to find God himself in the car disguising his voice as Delilah...and then He...er...she said, "You have to be excited about life. Just breath deeply and live fully."
Then she played the song, I Can Only Imagine...one of my favorites...and a Christian song on a secular station. Here I was tuning into the Christian station to begin with hoping something would speak to me and God made them play that ONE song I really don't like so that I would turn the station and hear His words at just the right time. I have no doubts. I don't believe in coincidence like this, I think He uses all sorts of ways for us to hear Him. Okay, I'm listening.

What to do...

I am just writing this cuz I've been trying to process it all since Tues. In the morning, I got notice from one of the daycare parents who's child I've watched for over a year and then in the afternoon, I got notice from another girl I take care of. Both had job and circumstance changes that prompted them to have to leave. So...just like that I'm down that money every month. Money that we save for our adoption, money that makes it a little easier to put up with even doing daycare when Lord knows I'd rather not, money that has to be replaced somehow or I'll have to do this longer. So, that last option is not even an option....I'm not doing this longer. I could replace them, but that would be rediculous too for only 5 months...I"m not doing that.
By Tues. night, I was telling myself I would just quit and figure out how to work extra hours at the salon and make up for it. Then I talked to mom on Wed. and she made me realize that was a hasty decision. So, now I'm at the point of trying to figure out if I can go back to working Fridays during the day and get a backup to watch the only 2 or 3 kids I will have. I'm liking this option the best so far. I've had time to think about it some more and I know I was jumping the gun at first....not that I ever do that....HA!
I know what I really need to do, I really just need to pray about it. I feel so strongly about this adoption and that we are meant to have this child that I have to believe that even this latest event puts us on a better path to get to her, not a harder one. It seems like a roadblock, but I think I need to just trust....have faith. We've come so far with everything. I feel with all my heart that there is a little girl in China that God wants to be a part of our family...so if thats true, why would he discourage us...He wouldn't. I think He's saying "Go this way instead". Am I strong enough to listen?

Timmy's team wins championship!

I'm so proud of him. He did such a good job playing for his first year! He was just about the smallest kid on his team, but that didn't stop him from being quick and fierce. He always played most of the game when they had one and he would do a good job of knowing where the ball was and going after it.

Tonight's schedule

How does this work exactly??

4:30 - Last daycare kid leaves
5:00 - Sit down for dinner
5:30 - Bring Tyler to football practice
6:00 - Get Timmy to field for his pre-game practice
6:30 - Take Tony and Trae to wrestling practice (Timmy will have to miss tonight)
7:00 - Pick up Tyler from football practice
7:00 - Hurry to Timmy's game to start
8:15 - Pick up Trae and Tony from wrestling (probably missing Timmy's game winning play in the 4th quarter of his game)
8:30 - Timmy's game ends
9:00 - Go home and eat yummy apple crisp that mom made today.
The boys think this is to celebrate Timmy's championship game, but I think I will secretly be celebrating how we manage to get through our crazy life and live to tell about it.

A picking we will go....

Today, we went to an apple orchard. Actually it was someone's private property. Our friend, Helen, knows someone who has about 30 apple trees on their property and they let us come pick as many as we wanted for free. Hey, can't beat that.
The house was out near Stillwater by Helen's parents' house. We got invited to their house for lunch and then to go picking. It was such a beautiful fall day out...the sun was shining and the air was crisp, but it wasn't too cold at all....a perfect day for apple picking.




Watch out for falling apples....daddy's shakin' the tree...



This one looks good....



Yummy....







This should be enough for a pie...or 2...or 5...







I'm not sure what they enjoyed more...picking the apples....



....or climbing the trees.

Wii quit

Wii are done trying to explain to the boys that if they don't take care of their things, they won't HAVE any things. Wii are tired of them losing, breaking, and throwing their things. It shouldn't matter if Wii paid for it or if they did themselves. It shouldn't matter how MUCH Wii paid for something.....whether $5 or $500 it should still be taken care of. Wii talk to them about respecting their things and Wii try and teach them to be grateful for what they have.....yet it seems Wii just continue to fall on deaf ears. Soooo.....Wii will be instilling some serious consequences.
This is what Wii went downstairs to tonight.

Notice how from every angle it looks like a pig sty....





No place is safe from their madness....









Wii want you to pay particular attention to the Wii components just laying around....



...like an old rag that no one cares about or some old popcorn that has gone stale. Who cares....why does it matter....



....it's just a game, right? We got it from Santa, so it's not like mom and dad paid $500 for the console, extra remotes, guitar, and games....nah....doesn't matter....



Would you believe they are actually SURPRISED when their games, CD's, and DVD's don't work and are scratched...Hmm....go figure.



This ends today.....



From now on, when you disrespect your things, Wii take them away....



Say buh-bye to the Wii, boys. You won't be seeing until after Halloween. Obviously taking it away for a day or even a weekend isn't enough for you to learn a lesson.....so it's gone for 3 weeks. Wii will not miss the mess, Wii will not miss the argueing over games, and Wii will not let you have it back until you have proven you can be more responsible. Good luck!