Family Portrait

Family Portrait
"But Mom, what if a train comes?"

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Brandon is a Basketball Star!

Brandon LOVED his mow-hawk.I had to get a picture of this because it is such a rare thing to find. Ryan and I are going on a pioneer trek with our church and he decided to make his own shirts for it. I thought that would me I had to make them, but I was mistaken. He really took this task on and is about half way through his first shirt. He has had to pick it quite a bit, but he is doing it. Which leaves me, and every other wife on Earth, asking the same question. Is there anything this perfect man cannot do?

My boys go through phases where they fight and phases where they are inseparable and love each other like crazy. Well, right now they are in one of those close and happy phases, which means they don't go to bed well at night because they are having too much fun playing together. But every night this week when we go to tuck them in, we find them snuggling in the same bed together. It is so cute. It would be cuter, however, if they actually went to sleep at a reasonable hour.
Look at this cute little face. Every day that Cody has school, he dresses up like this with his little hat. And I get to kiss that face. He is so cute.
And this little face too. He loves his Siena sweatshirt. And since black is still his favorite color, he loves his sweats too.
We took the kids to a hockey game Friday night. Or, as Cody calls it, "Ice-Hockey". We must be specific here. And the real shocker...they were really good. And we only spilled one drink on the people in front of us. Not a bad night.
Brandon has started basketball for the first time. He had his first game yesterday. In order to prep him for the game, I told him that his goal should be to get one basket this year by the end of the season. I thought that was a reasonable goal. Turns out he is the star kid on his team (despite being the youngest player). He made 3 in his first game. New goal: learn to pass the ball.
I sort of missed him shooting, but here is a video of the shot and the after effect:

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Welcome to the 80s!

It was 80s day at the kids school today. The best part was when I was fixing their hair this morning. Ryan shaved Brandon's hair last night so I could give him a mini-mow-hawk this morning. While doing Kathleen's hair, I was telling her that it was easier when I did it because I could use an aerosol can instead of a pump sprayer...unlimited hair spray style. She then asked all excitedly when I got to dress up for 80s day. Well...yes...we had THAT conversation. I am old. Every day was 80s day.Brandon started playing basketball. His coach sits with them and talks. It is pretty cute.
The boys and I accidentally dressed to match on Sunday. So we had to get a picture.
Okay, so I am a little behind. The pictures are from New Year's. My parents and Tanner came to visit. It was sooooo much fun.

Brandon likes to sit on the horse while he plays the wii.


We decided to let the kids stay up late and celebrate the new year, well at least the 10:00 version that we could watch the east coast celebrate.

Brandon finished his lego set. He LOVED every minute of it.

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Happy Christmas!

WARNING!!!
If you cannot stand spoiled rotten children, STOP reading NOW!

Grandma decided to do a 12-days of Christmas thing in the mail for the kids this year. So every day for 12 days they got a fun toy in the mail. Even on Sunday! Don't know how Grandma managed that...
We made some chimes this year out of pipes. The kids has so much fun with them that we finally had to put them in the garage. They were more than welcome to go out there to play with them...which they did...a lot.
Our Nativity involved Ryan being the donkey.
Cody insisted on being baby Jesus this year, while Brandon insisted on being Joseph and Kathleen, of course, was Mary. It is funny to see them all with their little opinions on how the nativity should run. But I sure loved watching them be so excited to do it. Then even asked if we could act our nativity out after lunch, because they were too excited to do it and didn't want to wait until after dinner.


Our Christmas PJ's:

Ryan played Santa this year.





Notice Ryan's new shirt and sweater. I think he looks super HOT!


We got Mario Kart for the Wii for Christmas. But the best part was watching the kids play it for the first time. The couch was empty, but they were all squished into a corner.
Yesterday evening, they remembered to check the mailbox and this time found little wrapped presents from Grandma. What a perfect end to a fun day.
Ryan and I have a tradition that I had growing up where we do a puzzle on Christmas. Ryan, being the smart man that he is, got one of the Eiffel Tower that glows in the dark.
Ryan got me a map of the United States. I have all kind of maps of the world all over, but I have always wanted a big one of the U.S. The best part is that we hung it up and are using it to display the baseball games that we have been to. We have a goal to attend a baseball game at every major league park by our 34th anniversary. So far we have made it to 4.
Ryan insisted that I take a close-up of one of the tags I made.
Brandon's Lego "Clone Turbo Tank" is coming along. I love watching him work on it every chance he gets. It is taking a lot of work and time.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Pre-Christmas Busy

My handsome boys in their matching-ish ties. Brandon had to wear it to school one day. He got a lot of compliments.I made sugar cookies WITHOUT my kids. I was surprised at how much cleaner it was to do it that way.
We celebrated our 5-year anniversary of living in our house. We ate on the floor in the kitchen to celebrate (that is what we did the day we moved in when we didn't have any furniture yet).
Cody's school party:
Brandon's Polar Express pajama party:
Ryan and I celebrated our 11 year anniversary (lots of anniversaries in December at our house).
Ryan took me to this really fun and fancy restaurant for dinner with an AMAZING magic show. It was so fun.
Then we had fondue with our kids. Kathleen insisted we take a funny picture. Well, let's be honest, it is a better way to describe us. Way to catch our personalities Kathleen.
Ryan made the kids red and green pancakes for breakfast.
Kathleen danced in the Nutcracker.

She was really excited about her bun in the net. She even added a red bow and had me do her hair this way for four days in a row.
Alyssa and Clayton came to visit.
Kathleen and Brandon had their piano recital.


We went to Bounce with Ryan's work for a party. I guess the Velcro wall was the favorite of the evening. But we should let you know that we raced through their biggest blow-up obstacle course and I beat Ryan with a whopping 27 seconds.