Why was the chicken afraid of guys?

Because he was afraaaaaaid of them!  Get it?  Yeah, me neither, even after hearing it approximately a hundred times over the past week or so.  Yes, Ryan has discovered the fine are of joke telling, like his brothers before him.  I wish I was better with video, because Kyle swears he never did this.  Grant was into the knock knock, who’s there, poopy pants as opposed to Kyle and Ryan’s non-sensical questions.  I am trying to get back to real time blogging, although I still need to get some of our Christmas 2010 memories down before they dissolve away.  The pictures of ice cream and Kyle with his certificate are from his first reconciliation.  I wish I had better things to say other then I showed up, but that’s really about it.  Of all of my issues with the church, reconciliation is one I find most, I don’t know, weird I guess.  I was able to go through the motions for Jason and Kyle’s benefit and I am glad that we were there as a family.  Other then that, not much going on besides basketball on Saturdays and snow day after snow day.  In the past two weeks, they have attended a total of 2 days, I think.  2 were scheduled and the rest due to snow or cold.  We have been watching way to much tv and playing way to much computer and I really need to work on getting out of that rut.  The forcast this week is better, so hopefully we can all regroup and start heading in a better direction.

the big boys go to Bennett

October also brought the second annual trip to Bennett for Jason, Pipa Andy and the big boys.  I don’t have much to report since I stayed behind with Ryan and had Lilly spend the night, but at least they took the camera this year and seemed to make it back in one piece.  I had Lilly spend the night and the irish twins were lots of fun, decorating cookies and dressing up.  I was all excited to watch High School Musical without the boys to out vote me, but Lilly insisted on Star Wars.  We compromised on Madagascar and all was well until I drifted off only to wake up at 11 with her crying that she wanted her mom.  She settled on grandma, who showed up almost immediately in her pjs and all was well.  I did at least get to French braid her hair the next morning for a trip to Wonderscope.

a volcanos victory

This didn’t make my earlier post on soccer, but I had to include documentation of Kyle’s team’s third place finish in the post season tournament.  There were I think 12 teams in his division and we ended the season in 6^th, claiming an unlucky bottom seed in the top bracket of the tournament (they split the tournament into two).  Our first game was against the top speed the boys played so very tough, hanging in a scoreless game until well into the 2^nd half and then scoring to everyone’s extreme delight (the usually mild mannered coach threw his clipboard in the air).  But the elation was very short lived as the well disciplined other team marched down the field to score on the very next play and then again a few minutes later.  I was so upset, way more then I should have been over a kids game.  I really don’t know how I am going to handle things when they get older and the stakes are higher.  They lost the 2^nd game to the 2 seed later that afternoon (again 2-1 and well played), but came back the next morning to win in an 1-0 shut out, giving them enough points to claim 3^rd place.  I was obviously so proud of them.  We celebrated with chili dinner at our house with a fire and smores and showing a movie one of the dad’s had made.  Very fun time and I was proud to host.  Most of these boys have been together since they were 4 and I know they are getting to the age they will start to do other things, so I was glad we had the time with them and the special party.

have a fire tonight?

Is a question asked routinely by Ryan.  The full version is “dark outside, have a fire tonight” and lately followed by him saying “don’t think so” (insert heartbreak).  But he defiantly shares his father’s love of watching fires and thanks to a bevy of wood provided by Pipa Andy, we obliged quite a few times this fall.  The pic above is of course our pre-trick or treating cookout fire, accompanied by the obligatory pumpkin and kids in costumes shots.  Ryan was all about trick or treating this year, not to happy to be dropped off with mom after doing the block with Dad.  Kyle and Grant kicked it into high gear, collecting will north of 100 pieces each.  The Great Pumpkin really hit the motherload after they picked out their favorites.  Ryan has played costume sidekick the past few years and I am not sure how long that would continue.  I really wanted to make the Thing 1 and 2 costumes so I could at least say one time that I made my kids costumes, but could not for the life of me find red sweats.  Kyle is done with character costumes, wanting to be something scary like a teenager would be, and settling on the evil jester.

has it really been 10 years?

Well, it turns out that it has and we decided to celebrate with a trip to Vegas, sans kids of course.  It was a good trip, we left early Tuesday morning and came back Thursday afternoon (our actual anniversary), which was just enough time.  Not being big gamblers, we actually got a little bored at times, which lead us to shell out money to see the aquarium exhibit at Mandalay Bay as shown in the pic of Jason with the jelly fish.  But don’t get me wrong, it was soo nice to get away.  My wardrobe was made up almost entirely from things borrowed from Ashlie’s closet it was fun to not feel like ourselves for a few days.  We had some amazing food and saw the Viva Elvis show by Cirque, which was really, really cool.  I enjoyed gourmet cupcakes, sleeping in, watching cable and getting completely lost in a great book.  Our good friend Gail sent us the champagne, which made us feel very upscale.  As I mentioned, we were not big gamblers, I lost probably $50 (16 on Deal or No Deal) and Jason the same.  I did however end up even when on the way out to meet Jason to catch a cab to the airport, I saw a slot machine my friend had recommended.  I put in $5 and walked away with $56 after winning 50 free spins on my second or third try.  I was so excited when I went out to meet Jason, he probably thought I won $500.  The kids did great with grandma and pipa.  Mom said on their way back home the first day, Grant said “Grandma, it’s great to have no parents tonight!”.