Thanksgiving

Well I thought I'd better post about Thanksgiving before Christmas arrives! We were in Pipe Creek...we had a great time with cousins and grandparents. It's always nice to see the OK side and catch up! I am seriously spoiled and don't have to do much of anything - besides kinda keep an eye on 4 kids ;)

the boys....

lovin' the trampoline 

 Braden and Cooper, riding Kurt's old go cart (new engine)

  guess who :)

BB gun...we had fun shooting at the target although I get a little obsessive. Must.hit.target.

 Danny Boy...such a pretty horse

 Cousins...love Reese hanging out with the boys along with her baby and purse

 

Halloween

Yep - I'm that far behind :) Here's a few photos from Halloween...Reese got the hang of it pretty quickly. She had fun running after the boys and carrying her bag. Truitt did ok with his arm, we took the sleeve off of Spiderman and it fit perfectly! Braden at frist decided not to dress up but then changed his mind and chose to fall back on 'army man', same as last year. As David Letterman said "Should I be worried my 8 year old doesn't want to dress up and take candy from strangers?". We'll see if he does it next year :) I'm not bothered either way.

Truitt

The day before Halloween Truitt broke his arm falling off the rings (like moving monkey bars) at the playground. Truitt, Braden and a neighbor went to the park a few houses down to play while I stayed in the front yard with the littles. I heard him crying (not screaming) and saw them all walking back so I headed over to meet him. Before I got close Braden came up on his bike and said "mom something is wrong with Truitt's arm". He's 9, he knows when something is really wrong. As I hurried I could see just how wrong it was...oh my! I did pretty good, just covered my mouth (to hide my gasp) and then told everyone to get in the car. We went to TCH and waited no more than 3 minutes - awesome! They were able to set the bones and then we saw the Ortho the following Monday. They put on a hard cast, it will come off in 2 weeks and another will replace it for another 3 weeks. If all goes well he'll have it off a week before Christmas.
 As I sat in the ER I found myself thanking God for a broken arm, thankful it wasn't his neck or his back or worse. We have great medical care and my child came home with me....so.very.thankful.

 This got us to the front of the line in the ER - ouch!

 Getting used to the hard cast - he's doing well.

Fall party at school, he was happy to see me :)

Aggies

We went to the Aggie game last weekend. Apparently it was "the crappiest game of the year" so we scored some cheap tickets for the boys. We met up with Oma and Grandad, had a picnic (they spoil us!) and then walked to the stadium. The weather was warm but we were in the shade and then the sun set - it was a perfect game for the boys to attend. We had a great time with family watching the game.

 throwing the football around

 walking by the stadium

watching the band pass by

 Walking up, up and up. Kurt used to hold my hand walking up these ramps :)

It's late, they all made it to the car before they crashed.

Truitt starts Kindergarten tomorrow...wow. With the older 2 at school my house will be functioning on a lower decibel level...nice! Truitt is my game player, begs me to create masterpiece lego creations without instructions or pieces, is the king of headstands in our house and he saves me from all things crawly. I will miss him during the day BUT I know he will do well and enjoy school.....at least for a little while as Braden keeps reminding him it is ALL day, EVERYday :) Love, love, love this boy.

11 years later

Yesterday was our 11th anniversary...this is us, 11 years later. I must say I like what I see :)  Marriage isn't always easy but I am thankful I made a promise to my man on that special day. Feeling blessed.

Before and After

This surgery was much easier on Reese - thankfully! She is doing well and we are pleased with what the doctors did for her :)

A car and a baby doll :) Can you tell she has brothers??

Surgery - Part 2

Reese had her lip/nose surgery on Tuesday the 17th. We had a preop appointment on Monday and it was terrible. They were over 2 hours late then we had to pre-register. Our appointment was at 1:15 and We got home at 7....what a day! I was hoping this was not indicative of what was to come! On Tuesday we woke her up - straight out of bed, sip of water and straight into the car. We got there right at 8 (on time) they however were running 30 minutes behind. This was better than 2 hours which is what happened with her first surgery. Once we dressed her in her scrubs she just played, so content. Kurt and I decided that she either didn't remember the trama that happened to her last time she was in this predicament or she just didn't care! We said goodbye, I kissed her and told her bye and off she went....no drama, so good. Everything went smoothly and we met her in the recovery room. She slowly woke up, no crying with this surgery, she had some water, sat in my lap and after an hour and a half we were able to go home. It went about a smoothly as possible. Thanks for your prayers and encouragement friends!

 When Reese got home the boys were very sweet to her, bringing her pretend food and playing with her.  Truitt kept saying "Reese you look so different!"

Feelign better the next day...wearing random hats and shoes :)

Last Day in CO

On our last full day we went to Black Hawk, wondered around a bit and had lunch. After lunch we took a tour of the Hidee mine, the boys had fun.

Everyone had to pick a hard hat...love this photo

They each got to mine a bit of gold for themselves to take home. Braden was disappointed that he couldn't trade his gold for a Lego pack :)

      

 Blake with the big chunk he chipped out of the wall

 Truitt really enjoyed panning for gold, the man explained it to him and showed him how it was done. He must have stayed there doing it for about 10-15 minutes while the other boys had no interest.

 Reese LOVES watermelon....can you tell?!

Reese finally decided she would feed the ground squirrels on her own....feeling brave!

One day drove out fairly close to the cabin and found what was left of a very small town. The boys had fun climbing and running around. We also did a hike at the end of the road, very pretty.

Truitt with his ground squirrel, that was 'pick' from the souviner shop at Rocky Mountain National Park. He was only lost once on this adventure but thankfully found.

There were lots of wildflowers everywhere - so pretty. Just wonderful scenery....so thankful God has given us such beauty.

Blake is getting a ride from Dad

Blake finally felt brave enough to feed the critters

This was the Boulder fire we could see from our cabin. Fortunately the winds (and the Lord) were in our favor. This cabin has been in the family for so long, it would have been so sad to see anything happen to it. We are very thankful for them letting us use it for almost a whole week!

Kurt and the boys were busy building a dam, Reese and I sat on the side and cheered them on....and played with flowers.