Happy Birthday Patrick!

The end of November brings one of my most favorite days.... Patrick's birthday!

I love that he was born!

This year I decided to be a super awesome wife and make him his most favorite cake... German Chocolate cake. I personally hate it. I think it's gross and I hate coconut. But it is his favorite. So I got the idea of making him a personal sized German Chocolate cake and the rest of us would just have regular chocolate cake. 

He loved it by the way!!! 

Happy Birthday Patrick!!!! 

First Friday

The first Friday of every month there is an event downtown called First Friday. It's an artsy thing with lots of booths, artwork, little concerts, and food.  We had never gone before, but in November the boys' school had an art exhibit down there, and both Bradyen and Conner had been chosen to have their art work displayed. So they both really wanted to go see it. Their art teacher had sent home a note inviting the kids with artwork and their families to come and see the display and said it was a "family friendly" event. Well, not many things in downtown Vegas on a weekend are what I would consider "family friendly" but the boys were so excited to go see their artwork hung in the display that I agreed to take them. And I came to the conclusion that his art teacher's definition of "family friendly" and mine are very different! So we didn't stay long with all the drunk/high/buzzed/artsy folk, but we did get to see the boys art and do a few fun things in the teeny tiny Kid Zone they had. (note to self, just because there is a 'kid zone' does not make an event family friendly!!)

This was the art exhibit that the boys art was in.

Conner found his art first.

(Translation: "Dear Frida, I want to be a Chihuahua. Because I think they are cool. I want to be a dog. I can play catch with my mouth then. Sincerely, Conner") 

 "Frida's" head is made of clay that Conner sculpted.

Brayden also found his "scratch" artwork. 

Brayden is becoming quite the little artist. He really enjoys drawing things and he's pretty good at it. 

The boys and Mr. Bones from their art class.

 One of the few things in the Kid Zone was a petting zoo of sorts. Here's Conner petting a bearded dragon. He thought it was so cool! They also saw a monkey, llama, armadillo, and a macaw parrot.

They got to color a "Day of the Dead" skull too. 

But probably one of their favorite things was getting to draw on the street. The city closes off several streets for this event and that is where everything is set up. And here, people could write notes or draw on the street. The boys thought it was so cool!

There were also some hula hoops that kids could use. The boys had fun trying to hula hoop. They were actually pretty good! They must take after their mom, I used to hula hoop with the best of them!

As we were leaving, they spotted some people making balloon animals and hats. So the boys just had to get one. They chose these super tall hats. They were seriously almost as tall as they were. As we were standing there getting their hats made, there were ummmm.... how shall you say.... "adult themed" hats being made right in front of us by the other balloon person. I was just so glad my kids are still innocent enough that they had no idea what they were. We left after our hats were done. :)

It was fun to go see the boys art. I'm glad that they both love art so much, but I think we will steer clear of First Friday's from now on.

Soccer

Conner started playing city soccer this year. 

He has played for a few years on a super casual church team, but we wanted him in something a bit more structured so we put him in the city league. And he loved every single second of it!

He got put on the Warriors team with some awesome coaches and he learned so much and progressed a ton over the season. The Warriors had an almost undefeated season with 7 wins and only 1 loss... and even that was a very close game that they almost won.

In this particular game, he was playing defender, and his team was doing so good, the ball was never making it down to him on the other end of the field.  While he was bummed he didn't get to play as much in that game, he was pretty excited that they won.... again!

Conner with Coach Natasha and Coach Robin

His coaches were amazing. At first I was worried they were too strict and that they didn't remember they were coaching a bunch of 7-9 year olds, but I soon saw their structure and strict way of doing things paid off and it didn't bother Conner a bit. He learned a ton from them! They practiced twice a week and he learned to play forward, defender, and midfielder. When I asked him which was his favorite position to play, he told me all of them.  His coach did a great job of rotating him through different positions so he could learn how to play each one.  At the end of the season his coach even asked if Conner was going to play again in the spring and if he was, he wanted him on his team and told us how good Conner was (especially for being almost the youngest on the team) and how he had progressed so much over the season and had so much potential. Conner can't wait to play soccer again in the spring.

Conner is also going to try Basketball this winter. He's never played it before, but wants to give it a try. This kid just loves running a playing and is willing to try pretty much anything. He's awesome!

Flag Football

Brayden decided to play Flag Football this year. 

He had a fun season and I think he learned a lot. 

He was the Center for his team, the Jets. All of the kids (except for the coaches 2 kids) had never played before. And I'm not gonna lie, they were pretty terrible in the beginning of the season. But they practiced and practiced (2 times a week!) and really improved as the season went on and ended up with a record of 5 wins and 3 losses.  

Brayden and Coach Greg

Biker Dude!

For a while now, Landon has decided that he is just as big as his brothers and thinks he can/needs to do everything they do. This sometimes end in disappointment for his little 3 year old heart. But one thing that he has wanted to do for a while now is ride his brother's bike. They are of course too big for him, but don't think that hasn't kept him from trying! Usually he can be pacified with riding a scooter, but sometimes, not so much. So we were thinking we needed to get him a small bike so he can feel like he's just like his brothers. 

A few weeks ago while at the DI (shocker I know, I usually hate that place and never find anything good and end up feeling like it was a waste of time going there) I found a cute little bike in great condition for just $5!!!! Which since I know he won't need that small of a bike for long, that was just the perfect price. It didn't have the training wheels, but we still had ones from Conner's bike in the garage. So we brought it home and Patrick put on the training wheels and we dug out an old helmet that the older boys have grown out of and Landon was happy as could be! He kept asking if he could go ride him new bike, he was so excited to have one all his own! 

He looked pretty dang cute out there learning to ride and pedal. He's still trying to get the hang of pedaling forward to move and not backward which makes him stop. But he's getting better! He loves it!

Halloween Again!

 We had a great halloween this year! The kids had fun dressing up, they got to go to 3 trick/trunk or treat activities and they got a TON of candy. A success in any child's book I think!

This year at our house we had a super cute Firefighter....

An Army Guy....

And War Machine (from Iron Man 2)

And then they just decide to strike a pose. I promise I didn't tell them to pose like this. 

These kids crack me up!

Like I said, the boys had 3 different events they got to go to. They first had our Ward Party, then the Trunk or Treat at school, then I took them around our neighborhood on Halloween to go Trick or Treating. In all, they had more candy then they knew what to do with. I think Conner counted something like 200+ pieces of candy. And they loved every bit of it! (We of course helped them with some by making them pay their "candy tax" to their parents and some ended up in the garbage after a while)

We also had fun carving pumpkins. 

And our finished products...

We had a fun Halloween this year!

Student of the Month

 In October Conner was so excited one day when he came home from school and informed me he had been chosen as Student of the Month in his class. The first one of the year! He was so happy!

His teacher chose him for the Tiger of the Month for "always having a positive attitude". 

He loves his teacher this year and is happy to be in the same class as many of his friends. 

He really is a great kid in school and works really hard and I'm so proud of him!