Fall Pics

We didn't do school pictures again this year, so it forced me to get out the real camera to attempt some pictures of the boys. It was quite the ordeal (isn't it always with these 3?!) but we got a few decent pics. And Ender even cooperated for one!

We also had our first Hallowern party, which we were super unprepared for...but we managed costumes for everyone, and Preston & Archer managed to get 1st & 3rd place for their costumes! They were super excited.

Oh yeah, we also carved pumpkins for the first year in a loooong time. We usually just decorate them due to John's allergy, but carved with friends this year. That will probably not be repeated though, considering the rash on John's arms that lasted for days! The pumpkins turned out cute though.

And last, but not least, Bryton has the cutest toothless smile these days!

I seriously hope it takes a long time for his teeth to grow in because he is just so stinkin' adorable like this!

Fall Hike

We had beautiful Fall weather today so we took the boys for a hike at Farragut. I could not have asked for a more perfect hike! It was so nice just hanging out with the boys without any of the craziness that has consumed our lives lately. The colors were beautiful, and the boys had fun playing "find the mystery plant" which was made up by Preston...someone would find a piece of a plant on the trail and then everyone else had to find a matching plant. 

The boys are also very into identifying different varieties of trees, which John loves to do also thanks to his days in the forest service. And I'm glad he knows them because I'm pretty pathetic at tree identification unless it's a fruit tree!

Lots of pics from the hike. Because it was a beautiful day and my kids are cute!

Fall

With the cold weather, wind, and crazy amount of leaves on the ground, there is no denying it: Fall!

Our morning rides to school have been CHILLY, but we'll be riding as long as we can - hopefully right up until the snow hits! I had to break out the winter coats last week though...brrrrr!

The End

The The boys had their last soccer games! P & B finished with a win on Saturday, and Archher's last game was the week before. I was very ready for soccer to be over. I know it's a pretty short season, but having 3 boys playing makes it seem like never-ending soccer games. Add to it the fact that John was coaching Archer's team, and it felt like we were always at a soccer event (and if we weren't, it was cub scouts!). 

We had fun parties for the boys' teams at the pizza place down the street from our house. We discovered that they do 2 free large pizzas for the teams, so it was a no brainer for us! Of course we ended up buying gluten free pizza for Arch and me, but it still was a pretty nice deal for the team to be provided with pizza.

I'm glad to be done with soccer for sure, but the boys all had such a fun season, and we really couldn't have asked for better weather for a Fall soccer season! It was a little cold towards the end, but the games were never rained on which is amazing! I loved how much my boys all improved this season. P & B really took things pretty seriously and hustled like crazy on the field (but still did a great job at showing good sportsmanship, which made me happy!), and Arch managed to always have fun (or at least look like he was having fun, even if he was cold, or tired, or whatever else a 5 year old complains of!). So, I'm glad it's over, but I'm also glad we had another successful soccer season!

Fall is Here

I'm still picking tomatoes and spaghetti squash (how I will eat all the squash by myself, I do not know! We discovered this year that John's pumpkin allergy does extend to spaghetti squash as well.), but Fall has arrived. Our morning ride to school is chilly, and the evenings are cold. It's been raining (mostly at night, thankfully!), and the sunny days are less and less. 

I'm not a "sweater weather" person, but I did enjoy my bike ride home from school with a pumpkin in the basket! We only ended up with 2 pumpkins in our garden, so thankfully a friend had extras and gave us one. No fights over pumpkins in our house!

In other news, Bryton started Cub Scouts! He's so adorable in his way-too-big-but-hopefully-will-last-a-few-more-years uniform. 

And then, there's this:

We got another freezer because we have 1/4 of a cow and 1/2 a pig waiting for us. And John is still hopeful that he will bag an elk this year. Archer has been asking (and asking...and asking...) for a playhouse, so he snagged the freezer box and decorated it for his playhouse. He told me the drawing means "Mom's Allowed!" Unfortunately, his playhouse wasn't looking so great after the Cub Scout meeting at our house, so I made him a little teepee out of fabric and PVC pipes. It isn't perfect, but it seems to be holding up okay for the time being. 

Halloween

2 Ninjas, and Jake (the Neverland pirate!).

I only made 1/3 this year and ended up buying the ninja costumes due to "time constraints" - or procrastination then panic. Whatever. It was hard to not feel disappointed during the school costume parade when my boys had generic costumes, but it's okay. Next year will be better. And Jake was still pretty cute!

We had a super fun Halloween. The boys attempted to trick-or-treat in our neighborhood, but we only had success at one house (and the other neighbor had given the boys their Halloween treats earlier in the week...so sweet of them to think of our boys)! The one house where someone answered the door, they told us that they were hoping we'd stop by since they bought candy just for the boys. Our neighbors are very thoughtful, but sadly we don't live in a popular T-o-T neighborhood. 

But that's okay! Because we have friends who do. We headed over to a friends house for chili, hot drinks, and lots of trick-or-treating. The boys had so much fun running around with their friends. They ended up doing way more trick-or-treating than our customary 10 houses or so. I was cold and tired, but we took shifts - out with the kids or warming up by the fire. Plus we had adult time as well when the kids were gorging on candy. All in all, a great night!

B in the costume parade at school (so hard to get a good picture!)

The big ninja!

My cute little Jake

Striking a pose before heading out for candy!

The boys with their pumpkins. With John's pumpkin seed allergy, this is our version of "carving" pumpkins.

John made us some pretty awesome vampire fangs!

Exhaustion x3!

Wow. I can't believe it's already getting towards the end of October! And I only have 1 out of 3 Halloween costumes done, yikes. I need to get on that! Isn't Arch so cute as Jake though? His was fun to make...P & B both want to be ninjagos which should be interesting...

John has been out of town all week so I've been single-parenting. It is EXHAUSTING. Seriously. Soccer practices (x3), soccer games (x4), cub scouts (x1, but I had to take all 3 and it was a nightmare!), swimming lessons (x3). And I skipped out on a basketball meeting (Preston will be playing, the other two won't). 

Thankfully the weather has been beautiful the past couple of days (sunny & around 60 degrees!). We have been riding bike to school most days, but we walked one day last week and I realized that maybe I don't actually despise Fall as much as I thought. I'm pretty sure I just don't like the fact that winter is coming. Fall itself is beautiful, and it's not unbearably cold...maybe we could just skip winter? Because really, it's hard to hate a season that looks like this:

There has been serious progress in swimming lessons, despite us taking 2 weeks off. Preston can now swim totally independently, taking breaths, for the entire length of the pool. Considering the extent of his swimming abilities when we started consisted of putting his head under water, and floundering around a bit, this is huge! And he LOVES it. Really truly loves it. B can do about half the width of the pool, which is awesome too. He's working on taking breaths. Archer is still working on getting comfortable being under the water, but he's getting there. Getting them in GOOD swimming lessons has made all the difference. I only wish we had started them here earlier instead of wasting our time on group swim lessons at the community center.

Here you can see Preston (middle) swimming the length of the pool while Archer's lesson was going on (and that's B with his pool noodle to the left).

The boys all won their soccer games today, and my two little guys both scored goals. Next weekend they all have their last games, and I have to say I'm ready for it to be done. Preston will start basketball right away, but we won't have to juggle all their schedules at least!

B is definitely our most serious soccer player. He is INTO it. He loves it. I have no doubt that this kid will be playing soccer again in the Spring. He's so fun to watch too! 

Day 1

Today was our first day of back-to-back soccer games and swimming lessons. It was crazy. Crazy. Crazy. 

We started the morning with soccer for Archer from 9:30-10:45, then games for B at 11 and 11:45. Thankfully those were at the same location, but then we had to rush over to Preston's game at 1:00. Preston's game was running a little behind so I had to leave with the little boys to make it to swimming lessons by 2:00, and then John and Preston joined us there when they were done.

I am exhausted. 

But on the plus side, we have two swimmers! Preston is now learning to take breaths while he swims, and B can swim for quite a while (hasn't gotten to learning to take breaths yet), and Archer isn't too far behind! I am amazed at how much they have learned in just a few lessons. 

The boys all had fun at soccer today, but I'm pretty sure we're going to have to figure out a way to stagger sports in the future so we aren't running around like crazy. I wish it could be a fun family activity for us, but with a Saturday schedule like this...well, not exactly my idea of fun!

Fall

The end of summer is here. This morning I had to bundle up to ride bikes with the boys to school. And I still froze. I'm sure we're not too far away from our first frost (but I'm hoping for a few more tomato harvests!), and some of the leaves are turning. Our backyard squirrels are busy gathering acorns and stashing them away for winter. It was inevitable, but it is so difficult to go from 90 degree highs to 50 degree highs in just a few days. Brrrrrrrr. It is nearing the end of September though, and that's totally pushing it here. It's actually amazing that it's stayed "summery" for as long as it has...but I will never be satisfied unless (until??) we live somewhere summery year-round. 

I was just looking through pictures on my phone (cleaning things up so I have space to take more pictures!), and found these cute pictures from Fall 2011. Preston was 5, Bryton was 4, and Archer was 2.

I can't believe how much they have changed in two short years!