LOVE them....

I just LOVE my crazy kiddos and all the silly things they do!! Andrew loves to talk in silly voices and pretend. Luke creates a bed almost everyday on the family room floor with about 15 blankets and Allie loves all the attention her brothers give her. Luke treats her like a queen!!!

Granite Bay TRI...

We DID IT!!! On Sunday, September 26th Jesse, Toni, and I competed in the Granite Bay Triathlon. My sister had signed up for this race during the summer and she encouraged me to do it too. After a crazy summer with Andrew's cancer and grandma's passing, it was a bit difficult to train. I have been able to run but wasn't able to swim much and I had just bought a new bike a few weeks ago. It was great to get out there though and compete. The swim (.75 miles) went well (better than I thought, the bike (13 miles) was ok but I was a little slow compared to all the amazingly fast people on their rode bikes, and the run (5 miles) was difficult and very hilly but I did fine on that. Jesse finished in a time of 1:58 and was 6th in his age division, Toni finished in a time of 2:51 and was 5th in her division...YEAH, she even got an award, and I finished in 2:12 and was 6th in my division. Toni had made us matching "TEAM ANDREW" shirts and my mom made everyone else matching t-shirts to wear at the race. It was so cool to see a swarm of green shirts when I would come into transition areas. They were so easy to spot. The kids enjoyed watching and cheering us on. I loved when I came in from the swim and Andrew came running through the water to give me a hug, I loved when I finished and Luke had a snake skin on a stick for me (and he was very proud of his findings) and I loved when I finished and Allie was so excited to hug mommy. I think (and secretly hope) my girl may be running with me one day. She loves to "run" and always wants me to take her on a run with me. Thanks to my amazing Andy for chasing the kids and always being there to cheer me on! It was a great morning!!

Fairytale Town

Last week one day we headed down to Sacramento to pick up a bed for Allie from Craig's List. The house we went to was near the Zoo and Fairytale Town, so I decided it would be fun to take the kids to Fairytale town. We had never been there and it seemed like a great day to check it out. Since it was unplanned we didn't have a stroller with us and I had 2 two year olds, no snacks, one water bottle, and one diaper (thankfully only Austin needed one, if Allie needed one too we would have had a problem). Luke was a big helper to me with the little ones. We had a great time and they all loved it. It was actually nice to be "unprepared" because I had very little to carry around. We enjoyed it so much that we are taking Andrew back soon because he is learning about Nursery Ryhmes in school.

Our Toothless Boy!!

We have FINALLY lost our first teeth in our house. Last week we noticed that Andrew had become a "shark" and his adult tooth had popped up behind his baby tooth. We headed to the dentist on Monday and through an x-ray they saw that the tooth next to it was also about to pop up. Thankfully we have an amazing dentist who has all kinds of tricks up her sleeve. She was wanting to pull two of his bottom baby teeth so she went through the process with him and he was fine. Our amazing BRAVE boy was wonderful once again...not a tear was shed or any type of freak out was had. The dentist explained how he had magic rubber bands in his teeth and he could hear them pop as she wiggled the tooth with her pliers. He thought this was great and explained it to everyone afterwards. He even said that one of his teeth had a spring in it and it went "POP" when she pulled it out. He got a cool blow up guitar as a prize and then got to relax the rest of the day at home. The tooth fairy made her first visit that night. She wrote Andrew a note and let him keep his teeth and she brought him $2.00. Andrew was mainly excited that he got to keep his teeth, he really wanted them to show people. The tooth loosing phase has begun in our house...yipee for toothless grins!!!

Let's Get Ready to RUMBLE...

Andrew's soccer team had their first game last Saturday. The Rocklin Rumble did great and won 4-2. Andrew did great on defense and as goalie. We were so excited that he was able to play. He was only 3 1/2 weeks out of his knee surgery, but he felt up to playing, so we let him. He was playing cousin Ben's team and he wasn't going to miss it. I didn't end up with many action shots...somehow the game slipped away from me between cheering Andrew on, giving snacks, and calming down 4 year old temper tantrums. Hopefully in the next couple games I will get some good shots. We were so proud of our boy and the determination he showed to play his game!!!

Lukey Plans a Party....

Tonight Lukey had a "s'more party" He invited the three neighbor families. When Pake and Oma moved to Kansas City in July they gave us their fire pit. Luke has been talking about having a s'more party, so we finally got the party together. I knew he was really excited about this, so I let him take the reigns. We printed out invitations and he colored them and then delivered them to his friends. He helped me get the s'more supplies at the store and he planned the events of the evening. He wanted to play Bingo, so I printed out one of our classic BINGO games from a great kids website. He put out a board game (which never got played, but he wanted it out) We spread out his camping blanket and he set up the bean bag toss game. It was fun to let him take over and plan what he wanted. As his friends got to our house he said, "mom, I'm going to wait in the front room for my guests." The kids had a crazy time..playing, eating, and dancing to Party in the USA. As, they all headed home and we closed our door, LUke said, "wow, that was really fun mom, we have to do that again." I was so glad to see my boy so excited. He has been a great brother to Andrew this whole summer and over all he has been very good for us, considering the circumstances. I knew when he kept talking about this s'more party, that I needed to follow through with it and make it extra special for him. He was beaming all night and I knew he was very proud of himself for the "fun" party he planned for his buddies. As always I learn from my kids....it doesn't have to be anything complicated to make them happy...my boys had fun getting ready for this party and the neighbors kids were so excited to come over for s'mores in our backyard. Ethan, who lives across the street came up to me the other day and said, "do you know I'm really excited because I get to do something fun...I get to come to your house for s'mores."
Thanks Lukey James for being a great party planner...you make your mommy smile!!

Daddy's Girl....GO BLUE

Michigan had their first game of the season today so we were all decked out in our gear. Allie is the only one who really likes to pose for me. She wore her cheerleading outfit all day and kept saying, "Daddy, balle, balle, blue" She knows how to make her daddy smile!!

He's BACK!!!

It's been two and a half weeks since Andrew had surgery. He went back to school on Friday, which was a little sooner than we originally thought. Since he had only been to school one day this year, he was a little bit nervous. The kids were all excited to see him and his sweet teacher had his desk decorated for him. I checked in at morning recess and he was happily eating his snack and then he was off to play on the playground. I watched as he ran with all his friends and showed them all his green knee wrap. I came back after lunch to see if he was ready to go home, but he confidently said he wanted to stay. As he was heading back to class he came running back to me and gave me a big hug and said "bye mommy." It made my day....we had been having some difficult days with him at home and in that moment I felt like "my Boy" was back. Hopefully he will be back for good. He will miss a couple days in the next couple weeks for appointments, but for now he is BACK!!

Luke's First Day of 4 year old Preschool

Lukey had his first day of pre-school today. He is going to school on Tuesday and Thursday. He is in a class with his good buddies Ryan and Sarah and his teacher is wonderful...Mrs. Ralston. Despite the fun decorations, Lukey was still a bit nervous this morning. We knew he would have a great time, so after about 10 minutes of clinging onto us, we had Mrs. Ralston take him. She said he did great and decided to start playing with friends right away. We are looking forward to a great year for Luke. Although we love having him home and he really likes to be home, we know that pre-school is a great place for him. We love you Lukey James!!!