More Birthdays and Ordinary Days

Crazy hair day.  Sam is my only child so far that has gotten into this day.  It's been lots of fun.

Sam's Blue and Gold scout banquet this year was Star Wars themed.  Here is the Sarlac pit we made for Sam's dessert.  Pretty awesome I thought.

If you can't tell.... Andrew and Niles are being death choked by Grayson in this picture.

A good start to Andrew's birthday was when his art was selected as one of the winning pieces from his school to be displayed at the community art show.  Go Andrew!

That's Sam kissing Andrew.  Both those boys would die if they knew I posted that, but good thing they don't read the blog often.  :)

Something that I'm liking about birthdays is that my the kids always gift to each other.  It's not something I encouraged them to do or even help them do unless they ask for help.  They really just started doing it on their own.  Sometimes it's a gift that they save money up to buy and sometimes its some of their leftover Halloween candy, but it's always a piece of themselves and I think it's so wonderful.  Andrew even asked me if he could return one of his birthday gifts this year and use the cash to buy a b-day present for Graysons birthday.  Sometimes my kids amaze me.

I thought it was kind of funny that he got 2 identical cards from his 2 grandmas.  

I don't do this often, but about every 4 years I let the kids do a big party.  12 is pretty big in my book so we went to Elevated Sportz and had a great time.  It was a perfect place with boys with a ton of energy.  I had to almost drag a few boys out of there when our time was up.  LOL!

I don't have pictures of some of the most important parts of his birthday, but last week Andrew was ordained in the priesthood to the office of a deacon.  There is something really special about the change that happens as one prepares to move from primary into an organization where he is now the one asked to serve others.  He'll be asked to lead, teach and assist in priesthood ordinances and that change is a big one.  This Sunday he got to pass the sacrament for the first time.  Despite his nervousness he did such a good job and I felt so proud of him for being willing to serve in that way.  I also felt so very grateful for the wonderful young men's president who sat near him and instructed him and took him through the process with loving patience.  I had the smallest glimpse of the man Andrew will grow up to be and it's a happy happy thing.

Birthday and other Goings On

Aaron once commented that as our kids get older it just serves to make us feel older and older.  So...yep... we now have a 14 year old.  Does this look like the face of a woman with a 14 year old daughter? Ok.  I guess it does.  LOL!  I have had so many others adults comment on what a good kid Lizzy is.  So responsible, so respectful, so sweet and she really is all of that.  In some ways I can't believe she's already this old, but in other ways, she seems much older.  I can trust Lizzy with most anything and know that she will follow through and do the right thing.  She's just a good good kid.  

We had her basketball team over for a party the day before her birthday and they had so much fun.  What a great group of girls.  They played sardines, laser tag and pie face.  Here their coach Bryan, just took a serious hit in the game.  It was pretty fun.  

The greatest surprise for Lizzy, however, was a visit from her BFF Grace.  She had no idea they were coming and it just made her birthday complete.

The next day we went ice skating with the Strongs and had a great time hanging out.  

Speaking of the Strongs, the next weekend we did our annual BRONG cabin stay... (get it Browns+Strongs haha.  )

We always have so much fun together.  Here are a few fun pics.

The pictures are all pretty self explanatory, except that this one is the kids playing MASH.  I was pretty surprised to see it be such a hit, even with the younger kids.  There may have been a little bit of cheating to put couples together from our families.  LOL!  

 You just can't go wrong with snow, hot chocolate and good friends!

Christmas

Ordinary Days from Last Fall

 My favorite new building project all decorated for fall. Love it.

 I got to go with Grayson and his preschool class to the pumpkin patch.  It was so fun and fall-ish.  They got to go on a hay ride, pick a pumpkin, do the corn maze (which Grayson was totally scared of), and play at the play land complete with a cool zip line.  

Many years ago Grandma B took a cute picture of these kiddos in this wagon.  Years later she was getting rid of the wagon and decided we needed a farewell picture.  We've grown a lot.  In numbers and size.  It was great getting together with cousin and great that Sam's baptism gave us a great excuse to make the trip.

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Fun hiking with the Browns.

An elfish character from one of her favorite books.

Snack machine.  Yup... it was a fun one since we created it together.

Another homemade one that was lots of fun, even if it was a bit harder to put together.  It took a few tries to figure out what would work.  Turned out cute though.

And... a knight.  And really he pretty much just wore his costume for the picture.  He doesn't like being burdened by all that stuff to carry around.  It's much harder to jump and run fast and gather lots of candy.

We had a pretty busy fall with all of the boys playing a sport this season.  Grayson gave soccer a try and after a rough start (he wouldn't go in for the first game) he eventually got the swing of things and had a great season.  He had watched his older brothers play so he understood how the game worked faster than many of the other kids.  And we found out... he's pretty fast.  :)

Andrew tried flag football and it was tons of fun.  He found that he enjoys the strategy and pace of  the game and so now isn't sure what his favorite sport is.  He had a fun team this year too.  Here they are celebrating the end of the season.

Sam, of course, played soccer and had an awesome season.  His coach was the best, so devoted and committed to making it a great season for all the boys.  Even when his own son broke his collarbone part way through the season, he was there for the boys, rain or shine.  We're hoping he gets to be on his team again another year.