Kayden's a Bear

Kayden received his Bear Award at Cut Scouts after wrestling a bear.  See his bear paws?

He did a good job pinning on the mother's pin.

All bandaged up and after receiving his award.  See the band-aid on his eye and claw marks on his cheek?  Looks like he got out of the Bear Den just in time!

Another Teen in the House

Josh has officially entered into the teenage years!  He celebrated his 13th birthday this last week and has enjoyed the perks of becoming a teenager by having his first girl/boy party.

We combined birthday parties with two of his good friends that share a birthday week.  Since it was going to be such a large crowd, we had the party at the church.

As you can see, there wasn't much mingling going on.  The boys stayed on their side of the room and the girls kept to themselves.  Even when they were eating pizza there was a clear division.  We wanted the kids to intermingle so we played some games.

 We played partner tag where they were forced to stand with someone from the opposite sex.

We played some relay games where they had to accessorize the birthday kids.

We also played a winking game where you had to guess who was winking and if you were winked at you were out.  And we also had a gift exchange with all the party goers instead of having gifts for the birthday kids.  It was a fun night for the kids and the adults!

By the end of the night the kids were all one big happy family.

 

The birthday kids: Josh, Eli and Ella.

On Josh's actual birthday I checked him out of school and we went and got lunch together at Cafe Rio.  It was fun to be together to celebrate his birthday during the day.

 Josh's birthday night was packed full of scouts and young mens so we opened gifts late that night.  All Josh wanted for his birthday was his own iPod.  He had saved his money and then for his birthday we pitched in the last bit for him to get an iPod.  He was pretty happy about it!

13 Things We Love About Joshua

1. He is so accommodating and wants to please everyone.  He really goes out of his way to make sure others are happy.  He definitely puts others above himself.
2. He loves his friends.  He is learning more about having friends and being a friend.  After a rough sixth grade year, seventh grade has been great!
3. He loves sports, especially basketball.  He puts his heart and soul into whatever sport he plays.
4. He is so animated.  He knows how to have some fun!
5. He has been taking piano lessons and is very dedicated to his practicing.  I enjoy listening to him play.
6. He is very patient.  
7. He is also very quick to forgive.  Both are needed virtues at our house!
8. He likes to earn and save his own money.  He did a lot of extra work in the yard and mowing the lawn this last summer to earn money.
9. He loves his brothers and he supports them in all they do.  He loves watching his older brothers play basketball together and also attends Kayden's games.
10. He has learned that girls make pretty good friends.  He likes hanging out with them and he likes even more that the girls thinks he is funny and fun to be around.
11. He loves being with his dad.  They are so much alike!  
12. Josh learned how to play golf this year.  His Grandpa White taught him and they went golfing together every week until the weather got bad.
13. His room is always nice and tidy.  He got a room makeover this year and he has been great about keeping it nice and clean.  He enjoys being in his new room--especially sleeping in his bigger bed!

Love you Josh.  I couldn't be prouder of who you are.  So thankful you have a kind heart and was placed perfectly in the middle of our family!

Kayden is Double Digits!

Kayden celebrated his 10th birthday this year by doing all things Zelda. It is his current favorite video game at the moment.  It was a great birthday week!

Since it is Josh's birthday week as well, they both got to blow the candles out on their birthday cake at Grandma Haacke's house.

The weekend of Kayden's birthday he invited all of his friends over to the house and we had a big Zelda birthday party. 

We started the night off with pizza for dinner.  Not sure how to tie Zelda into pizza, but it was tasty and the boys all enjoyed it!

The boys did some target practice with the sling shot as well as some archery.  They also had a big sword fight and played some elimination basketball.  Thank goodness the weather was nice!

We capped the night off with a rambunctious singing of Happy Birthday where Kayden blew the candles out on Tri-Force Cookies.  The singing got so loud that Kayden plugged his ears!

His friends all spoiled him as they showered him with birthday gifts.  It was fun to see them all so excited about what they gave him!

Finally Kayden's actual birthday came.  We opened his present at home after church.

That is one big present!  He had been wanting a Zelda sword and shield and finally got them!  He was pretty happy!

He wrapped up his birthday week by having his shared birthday dinner with Josh at Grandma White's house.  It was a great birthday week!

10 Things We Love About Kayden

1. He loves to read.  In fact, after we tell him good night and get him into bed he sneaks on his bedside lava lamp and reads long into the night!  He thinks we don't know--but it's hard to miss that orange glow from under his door.
2. He works hard at school and is an excellent student.  His teachers all love him and say the nicest things about him.
3. I love watching him play sports.  His baseball team won the championship this year and he was super excited about that.  He also just wrapped up flag football season last month and is now into basketball season.
4. He has started karate this year and he is doing really well.  We have fun practicing his punches and kicks together.  Thank goodness for his punching bag!
5. He always flashes the "I love you" sign in sign language every time he gets out of the car.
6. He still likes to snuggle.
7. He still loves Legos and putting them together.
8. He loves his friends.
9. He always compliments me on my cooking.  Even if he adds "...but it wasn't my favorite" at the end of his compliment. He still LOVES tacos.
10. He loves his brothers and loves their attention.

Happy birthday Kayden!  We love you so much and are so thankful you are the caboose to our family!

Josh's Life Scout Rank Advancement

Super proud of Josh and his Life Scout rank advancement.  Jeremy is on his seventh year being Scout Master.  Pretty proud of him too!

Halloween 2017

We had a great Halloween this year. All of us dressed up. Yes, you read correctly, ALL of us. Even me.

For my exercise class that my friend holds, we all dressed up.  I found an awesome velvety sweat suit while shopping at JC Penny's with my sister that I couldn't pass up.  It looked like something straight from the 80s that a mall walker would wear.  So that is what I was: A professional mall walker.

I exercise with these ladies every Monday and Thursday.  I love them!  We have a good time together.

Kayden had been really wanting to carve pumpkins this year.  Poor youngest child--we haven't carved pumpkins that he can ever remember.  So Kayden came up with a design and his dad helped him carve.

The finished product, just in time for Halloween--as in the day before.

This year's costumes did not disappoint.  I always love to see what the kids are going to come up with.

This year McKay got into watching The Office on Netflix.  So he dressed up as Dwight.  I thought he did a pretty good job pulling it off!

Jaxon chooses his costume according to the comfort level.  So he dressed up as an Average Joe Dodgeball player.  He looks good--and comfortable.

Josh loved dressing up as an old man last year, so he wanted to pull it off again this year.  We added some old man pants and shirt to his cane and shaved head.  He looked great!  He ended up winning the costume contest at school and will have his picture placed in the yearbook!

Our family loves the old Nickelodeon TV show Avatar: The Last Airbender and Kayden especially likes the character Sokka.  So Kayden grew out his hair so he could have a man bun and then his Grandma White sewed his costume.  He definitely looked the part!

Everyone at Jeremy's office dressed up for Halloween this year.  Jeremy dressed up as Dracula and even made his own teeth to top off his costume.

I love the traditional Elementary School Halloween Parade.  I look forward to it every year!

Kayden waved at me as he came through.

And of course I made him stop so I could take a picture.

Kayden likes to trick-or-treat at his own pace and so he usually like to go with Jeremy or I.  We ran into some of his friends while out and about the neighborhood.  They had a good time knocking on a few doors together.

It was a fun Halloween!

Beautiful Fall

Fall is one of my favorite times of the year.  I love walking down in the hallow just below our house to enjoy the fall colors.  One morning during school fall break, Kayden and Suki joined me.

Suki loves to go exploring down in the hallow.  She will run ahead on the path, check to make sure that I am following her and then go back to her exploring.  Isn't the pathway beautiful?!?

Kayden and I enjoying our walk and the beautiful fall weather.

Imagine Dragons Concert

It was a cold night, but we LOVED the Imagine Dragons Concert!  Jeremy and Kayden stood in line forever getting hot chocolate and missed some of the opening bands.  But they didn't miss out on the main event.

Cold, but excited....for the most part.  Once Kayden had hot chocolate he was in a much better mood. McKay and Jaxon had seats that were separate from us.  But they had a good time as well!

The concert was very entertaining and we danced and sang to our hearts content!  It was everyone's first concert other than Jeremy and we all loved it!