I'm WAY behind on posts!  Here's a little catch up on what we've been doing the past few months.

Devan has been really interested in the Alamo, and the "War in Texas".  So we went on a little day trip to visit the Alamo.  He has since become a big Davy Crockett fan and loves the Davy Crockett movies.

The boys had fun playing their first season of soccer.  Brenan had fun being a stinker and moving the cones around when we weren't looking!













I had fun going on Devan's class field trip to Rainbow Gardens and the park.



The boys had fun having friends over for a water balloon fight and pizza.



Chad's Mom, Bruce, and Devan stayed with us for an extended weekend.  Devan is staying with us for the summer and working at USAA on an internship!











The boys just started basketball season.  They had never played before, but they are catching on quick and love it!

We've enjoyed crafts inside and staying OUT of the HOT weather.



We went to a festival for the 4th of July.  The boys had a ball eating yummy treats, shooting ducks with their marshmallow guns, and going on fun rides!

Party rockin in my house...

Yep we've been none stop partying this month. We are pretty much party animals over here. We started the month off with Devan's birthday on the 3rd and Tristan's birthday today. We had a ton of fun, but now this mom needs some rest :)

Devan started his big day off with a stack of 6 pancakes. We always make him pancakes for his birthday because it reminds us of when he was little... he would walk down the stairs in the morning still half asleep and say "I want some paaaaancaaaaakes." He still loves them as much as he did then and can eat an impressive amount of them in one sitting.

Devan LOVES LOVES LOVES Star Wars. In fact, he's a little obsessed. Needless to say he was quite pleased when he opened up his Millennium Falcon.

I can't believe how Devan has grown this year. Half way through the year I had to buy him new school clothes because he had outgrown most of his. He's also matured so much and is growing up to be a really awesome kid. I'm always so impressed by how thoughtful and loving this boy can be. He has a very real and sincere concern for others well being. Even people he doesn't know. The other day we had a pretty wild storm and Devan was so worried about all of the people on boats out at sea.

Devan is doing well with school. All my worries from the first of school have faded away. All of you who told me not to worry can now say "I told you so". He seems to really enjoy Math, History, Science, PE, and Art. He gets bored with writing. He can write very nicely when he wants to, but he usually just rushes through it and it ends up being a bit messy :) His reading is coming along pretty well too. It's still a challenge to get him to willingly sit down and focus on it though. He's been very interested in "The War in Texas", so we will probably be making a trip to The Alamo soon. He brought home a wonderful piece of art he made for the Art Fair. It is now hanging in our living room. And I can honestly say it's the one piece of art in our house (besides photos) that I know I will love forever.

Dad and the "Big Boys"

We need a picture of Brenan in this mix :)

Devan had his birthday party at United Gymnastics. The kids had a blast running, jumping, tumbling, balancing, and bouncing around. It was the perfect place for this age group. He invited his school and church class, and a couple neighbor friends.

We had a Star Wars theme of course and Devan really loved his R2D2 cake.

The boy in this picture is Devan's friend Danillo. They call eachother "brother". Apparently one day a girl in Devan's class was telling Devan he was doing a paper wrong. Danillo overheard and defended Devan saying "No he's not, and he's my brother!" From that day on they have been brothers. I think it is the cutest thing ever.

The whole group.

One last Devan story I've never got around to posting...

One day we stayed after school to play at the playground. Tristan and I were looking through a clover patch. Devan came over and I told them how it's lucky if you can find a 4 leaf clover and that they are rare to find. Devan reached down picked one up and said "I found one". Of course I didn't believe him, but sure enough when I looked over he had found one. Later that day I read only 1 out of every 10,000 have 4 leaves. Lucky boy :)

We had a great day celebrating Tristan's 4 year birthday today! He's wanted this Toy Story garbage truck for a looooong time.

Tristan woke up to a 4 layers of waffles, strawberries, and whip cream this morning, yum!

I love how he holds his thumb to show he's four.

Brenan loves the Mickey Mouse ears too!

Tristan's party was a Mickey Mouse theme. The kids got to pick out their Mickey Mouse ears, get their picture taken at the photo booth, decorate a cookie at the bakery, go fishing at the fishing hole, play pin the nose on Mickey, and paddle & balloons, then they broke the pinata, sang to Tristan, and cake, and opened gifts....whew! That was a lot to fit into an hour and a half. Luckily I had two AWESOME girls from my activity days group who helped everything go smoothly.

Tristan is such a sweet boy. He has a way of making you feel very loved and special. Every night he gives me the BIGGEST hug. He never lets Chad leave to work without a hug and kiss, and is always the first one to the door to greet him with a monster hug.

***I'm going to finish this post later..... must get sleeeeeeep!

Happy Birthday Brenan!

(this picture makes me laugh, I love the line of drool)

Brenan turned 1 today! I can't believe how this year has flown by. It's been a bittersweet day. I'm just not ready for him to grow up yet!! He has been such a sweet fun baby, I could keep him like this forever. Chad assures me there are good times to come still too.

This little boy has some major personality. It's hard for me to get much done with him around cause I just want to play with him. He has started taking more steps the last couple of days and is standing great on his own. He loves playing with his older brothers, and they are so patient and sweet to him. He gives the best slobbery kisses ever, and will give them whenever one is requested. He's getting a few more sounds down. He is totally all boy I can tell already. I'm going to have trouble with this little guy and his manners. The other day in the bath tub he was tooting up a storm (I'm pretty sure it was on purpose) and after each one he would bust out laughing. I'm in for trouble for sure, haha.

We had a little family party for him tonight that was fun. We ate chick-fil-a (I love that place) and then had cake, and sang to Brenan. I made him his own little cake and he dove right in. It was so fun watching him, he was in heaven. Devan and Tristan were happy to help him out with it to. We got him a cozy coupe car. We didn't have time to take him for a ride in it tonight, but I'm super excited to see how he likes it tomorrow.

I'm so blessed to have this little guy as part of the family. Happy Birthday Brenan!

hmmmm.... what do we have here?

Tastes good...

Seriously Mom? I can just dig in, you're not even going to stop me??!!

K, I'm gonna need some reinforcements.

Nevermind guys, back off, I've got this.

Best day EVER!

Cruise, Christmas, New Year

Long time, no post! December was a busy busy, but very fun month. On the 10th we took off to Houston, and left the next day for a 7 day cruise. My Mom, Iwalani, Bruce, and Grandma Paquette were all able to join us. It was so fun to spend some time with family around the holiday season.

We had a little bit of a scare while we were checking in. Chad had left his passport in his checked luggage. Without it he wouldn't be able to board the ship! I am so thankful for good friends. One of our friends came to our house and found his birth certificate and had it faxed over to us. We were seriously down to the last minute of boarding. I don't know how Chad stays so calm in those situations, but I was a wreck. He said, "It's ok Lana, you guys just go and have fun, I'll drive home, and come pick you up when you get back." haha, I'm glad things didn't end up that way!!

The first couple days we just cruised, found our way around the boat, and ate to much. Our first stop was Cozumel. We didn't plan any excursions there, but me, my mom, and Devan got off the boat for awhile to check things out. There wasn't a whole lot to see right off the boat, but I did buy a Nacho Libre mask for the boys ;)

The second stop was Grand Cayman. We went to 7 mile beach there and it was beautiful. The weather was perfect and the boys had a blast!

The last stop was Jamaica. At the port they had a really developed, quite touristy area, with some shopping. We took the boys on a pirate excursion which was a lot of fun. They took us out on a pirate boat, sailed off, performed a show, had an encounter with some other pirates, took the kids on a treasure hunt, and had a little lunch. We all had a lot of fun.

Other than those stops we enjoyed our time at the ice skating rink, swim pool, different shows, and having the boys try new foods (Devan had escargo). Devan said his favorite part of the cruise was ice skating, who would have thought! We really enjoyed having the boys with us, so much in fact, that they didn't got to the kids club until the very last day. There wasn't much going on that day so we took them there and they had a great time, and ended going back that evening!

When we got home it was hard to get back into the swing of everyday life. I got a little to used to being waited on! We had made Christmas Eve plans with a group of friends, but had to cancel when Chad and Tristan got sick. Poor Tristan had a stomach bug that night, but thankfully he was doing much better by morning. We ended up having a nice quiet Christmas at our house. It was fun, like always, watching the boys open their gifts. (pictures to come... someday.)

New Years Eve we took the boys fishing. They got poles for Christmas and were excited to use them. We drove to Blanco State Park which is about 45 minutes north of San Antonio. They dam off the river there and stock it with trout. Also in Texas you can fish for free in State Parks. We didn't catch anything, but it was still a lot of fun, and cool to visit a new place. That evening our friends came over and played games. We played a fun one called "Ticket to Ride". (pictures to come... someday.)

Devan started school again on the 2nd. Although it's nice to get back onto a schedule, I was a bit sad to have him go again.

Tomorrow Brenan turns 1! I want it to be a happy day, but tonight I just feel sad about it :( That Mariah Carey song "Always Be My Baby" keeps playing through my head, haha. He's been such a fun, loving, snuggly baby I would be ok keeping him like that forever. Does he have to grow up?

Thanksgiving

We had a nice relaxed Thanksgiving this year with just our little family. Last year we ordered our Thanksgiving meal and it was horrible. This year I decided to do it myself and it turned out pretty tasty with Turkey, gravy, candied sweet potatoes, stuffing, vegetable cas
serole, jello salad, rolls, and pumpkin cheesecake for dessert. We went over the Thanksgiving story, and made little popsicle puppets to act it out, along with a couple oth
er activities, watched some football, and went on a little walk to work off all that food! It was so nice to have Devan home for a week from school. I miss having him with us during the day. Poor Chad worked so much the week of Thanksgiving. He worked through the weekend before, had an 18 hour Monday, followed by an early Tuesday. I was glad to see by Thursday he could relax and take the day off. Friday I had a photo shoot for a friend.

The other day I asked Devan if he'd like to go on a nature walk. He said, "

Ya, lets go on a nature walk and kill some animals!" Yikes, it looks like he has some Lufkin blood running through those veins. We ended up going on a walk, but did not kill any animals, haha. After the walk we stopped to vacuum at the truck. Some hunters had just g

ot back from a trip and were cleaning up their truck, when Devan heard they were hunting deer, he was quite impressed, and said "I want to go do that!"

Tristan is under the impression that there is nothing faster than uncle Jess's four-wheeler. We were on a walk and saw some big kids on their bikes. He said, "We're much faster than them" When I told him, they were probably faster, he said, "ya, but not faster than uncle Jess's four-wheeler!". A bit later we saw a motorbike and he was absolutely positive it was "not

faster than uncle Jess's four-wheeler!". I love how these boys idolize their uncles. I wish they could hang out with them more.

We leave for our family vacation in less than 2 weeks. I'm so excited to be cruising to Cozumel, Jamaica, and the Grand Cayman. It's just started to get "cold" here, so it's perfect timi

ng. I'm super excited that my mom will be joining us as will as Iwalani and Bruce, and Grandma Nancy. We'll have lots of hands to help with our 3 crazy boys!

A couple weeks back I took my friends family picture and she took ours. Our boys are so awful when it comes to family pictures. They weren't even unhappy that day, but this is still how our picture turned out...

Last year they looked just as grumpy...

Yep, when it comes to family pictures, no smiles for these boys.