Playing catch up

Some basketball pictures from over the summer...

Sweetheart

Wow, I've really been slacking on this blog!  I just had to write today about what a sweet boy Tristan is.  He's become my little helper lately and is seriously SO helpful.  He'll do whatever chore I ask him and never complain.  In fact, he asks me multiple times a day, if he can do the dishes, or some other chore for me.  Last night I only got about 3 hours of sleep because Brenan (who usually sleeps great) decided he was wide awake from about midnight to 4 am.  Thankfully he took a really long nap this morning (about 3 hours), and Tristan quietly played and watched shows for 2 hour letting me rest!  When I woke up he asked what jobs he could do, and happily agreed to clean his room.  What a sweetheart.  Do I have to send him to school next year?  I just might keep him home an extra year!

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!