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Bradley's Baptism

For anyone who is interested in coming Brad is getting baptized December 5th at 10 am.

Happy 8th Birthday Bradley

It unbelievable to me that my baby that held in my arms is now 8. I can hardly pick the boy up anymore. The birthday party of choice this year was Star Wars the Clone Wars with a Captain Rex cake. We sent out invitations, made the cake, and came up with the games. We made light sabers out of pool noodles cut in half with duct tape around the bottom. The kids went through Jedi training, before they were allowed to go to battle with their light sabers. They then went to the field behind our house and attacked the Dark Side, Joe. Eventually Joe convinced a few others to come over to the dark side. "It was the best party ever!" was all the thanks we needed from Bradley.

What has Bradley been up to this year? Well he is in the second grade in a new school this year and quickly made new friends. This fall he played flag football for the first time. When we moved into our new home he got his own room which of course he is loving. He spends many nights staying up late reading in his room. His newest goal is to read the Book of Mormon. He is into second Nephi. He is such a good example to me to find time at the everyday to read. Brad has always been a good kid but as he has prepared for his baptism I am impressed with how seriously he is preparing himself. He takes his role as big brother very seriously and tries hard to be a good example for his brothers. That's not to say that his brother's don't bug him and they always get along perfectly because they don't. He gets Matt out of his crib every morning and brings him down. He has been working like a mad man in his Wolf book. He can't wait to get his Wolf.

Bradley's favorites at 8
Favorite Color: Blue
Favorite Food: Crab Rangoon
Favorite Cartoon: Star Wars the Clone Wars
Favorite Toy: Legos
Favorite Book: 39 Clues, Encyclopedia Brown, Diary of a Wimpy Kid
Favorite School Subject: Gym
Favorite Family Activity: Movie Night
Favorite Pro Team: Seahawks
Favorite Place to Hide: Upstairs in Matt's Room
Favorite Thing about Being 8: I get baptized

Happy Halloween

Hold on Matt we want to take your picture. Oh there's his face.

Admit it you would be scared if you had to come to the door and see this.

Joe enjoying his Dad Tax

SWEET SUCCESS

The pumpkins were carved, the costumes picked out, and the candy bought, it must be Halloween Day. Bradley and Kyle chose to be ninja's, William a fireman, and Matthew was a cheetah. We bought some dry ice and made homemade root beer. They loved to watch it brew. We served it from a witches Calderon and had stew for dinner. "Dad your so cool," the kids tell Dad "Hey it was my idea!" was my response, I got to take my credit when the word cool is attached.

Now it was time to get costumes on, after everyone was dressed, we had to take pictures. Then they were off. Joe took his traditional trick or treating job and went with the kids. I also took my traditional job and stayed home to hand out candy. William and Matt came home first. Joe said William got done with the block and told him he was done. He didn't even want to go to anymore houses on the way home. William had so much fun handing out candy with me at the door. Matt happily ate a sucker. I cleaned him up and off to bed he went. Joe, Bradley, and Kyle went back out. As you can tell in by the picture they had sweet success.

Happy Halloween Pumpkins

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Carving pumpkins with four boys is a full blown event. First we went to Walmart and picked our pumpkins out from their pumpkin patch. . .I mean cardboard boxes. Each one needed the biggest one . A week later we carved the pumpkins for family night. Bradley, Kyle, and William each picked out what they wanted their pumpkin face to look like, cleaned the pumpkin guts out, and watched excitedly as Dad carved their pumpkins for them. Matt could have cared less but did try to eat a few seeds. His is the smallest pumpkin. Afterwards, as you can imagine, the floor and table took some scrubbing to get back to their orignal state. On the day of carving pumpkins I noticed our floors needed a good scrubbing, I wisely decided to hold off and clean them the next day after carving the pumpkins.

Spaghetti

This is Matthew, he loves spaghetti. We haven't had spaghetti for quite a while. This week we had spaghetti. He ate 4 plates of it and not small servings. I think we should have spaghetti more often. Then again, maybe not he got really messy, he went straight from dinner to bath.

Student of the Month

Kyle came home very excited on Monday with the news that he had been selected as the student of the month. "I get to go eat pizza with the principal!" He got the award for always following direction and being a good role model for others. Way to go Kyle we are so proud of you! He also got a gift package of free popcorn, movie rental, and can go make an ornament at a pottery store.

Fishing, Family, Football, and Field Trip

Joe's Whopper

That looks better

A real Whopper

Tim's really nice one

Joe & Tim with their catch

Joe Fighting a Paddlefish

Tim Fighting a Paddlefish

Joe and Tim went fishing for Paddlefish today. Paddlefish eat plankton, so you have to snag them with a hook and you can't keep any that are 35 to 45 inches long. Joe snagged 4 and Tim snagged 6, but they could only keep one each. They would fight for a little bit and then play dead, so they would have to drag them in. As you can see they had a lot of fun and can't wait to do it again.

We went to the zoo and spent the day as a family. We road the train, William was so excited, excited beyond words. Then the train started moving, and he got scared. Now he is talking about the train again, but when we got off, I asked if he wanted to go again, and he gave me a resounding, No! We didn't stay all the long because it was cold. It is so fun to watch Matt walk around. He loves being able to walk around.


The boys finished up their first flag football season and they had a blast. They are already talking about playing next year.



Joe went on a Field Trip with Kyle's class to the pumpkin patch. They had so much fun and Kyle was so happy to have his Dad come with him on the field Trip.

Missing Tooth

Laffy Taffy with a tooth in it

Brad and his missing tooth

Brad's tooth was really loose, so I gave him some Laffy Taffy to help the tooth out. He took a bite down on the Laffy Taffy and when he opened up the tooth was stuck to the Laffy Taffy. Once he was finished rinsing his mouth he pulled the tooth out and happily ate the Laffy Taffy.

1st Snow

I was so excited to wake up and see the snow on Saturday. Joe said I was worse than a kid, probably because I woke him up at 6 to show him and then I couldn't stop talking about it. Luckily it didn't take the kids long to wake up and see the snow, and they shared my excitement with me. We had to make an emergency boot run for Kyle and William because their boots were too small. When we got home, there was 6 or so inches of snow on the ground. They played in the back for a bit and then decided it would be fun to go sledding. Matt was done with the snow at that point though. He kept face planting in the cold fluffy snow, and so he was done. Joe took the other three sledding. Afterwards they celebrated the sledding with hot chocolate.

I feel a little robbed out of my fall, my favorite season in the midwest. Usually they are beautiful. This year we went from summer to winter within a few weeks. Oh well the joy on my boys faces made it worth it. They had so much fun playing in the snow.

Labor Day Weekend

State Fair

Brad and Kyle (in back) chose this nifty thing for the ride.

Brad holding a baby chick

The Army Corps. painted their faces and then they got to get in a helicopter.

Future Astronaut Kyle, preparing for his NASA career.

I told William to smile for me, and he poked in his cheeks and smiled. He of course picked the train for his ride.

Labor Day Weekend, did it all really happen in just one three day weekend? On Saturday morning we met Tim, Amanda and Family and went to the State Fair. We had a lot of pictures that we took, but due some technical difficulties, a lot of the pictures turned on blurry. I was still able to find some adorable ones to post. Our boys as well as Tim and Amanda's little boy all read their books this summer to earn their free tickets. It was a gorgeous day for the fair. In years past we have been outside in 100 Degree weather. Not this year, it was in the 70's all day.

Thank Goodness for the day of rest in between events. To sleeping boys by the end of sacrament, thanks Joe!

Arbor Day Farm

Who can resist poking their heads through for these pictures, not us!

Standing on Bridge


Grandma and Grandpa Fredericks came with us.


Matt, building blocks


Sitting on a big chair


Part of the outdoor classroom

Building with logs


Cute Matt


William and Grandpa Fredericks


William carrying his bag, eventually it got too heavy!
Apple picking time, Bradley picking


and William


And Kyle showing off his prize pick.

Monday we decided to head down to Nebraska City, home of Arbor Tree Farms, and where Arbor Day (the day you plant a tree) all started. We started out on the Tree Adventure Hike. The boys loved looking for birds on the hike and looking at all the interactive signs along the way. There was a couple of big tree houses/towers/forts, that the boys had fun climbing as well. They had a really fun outdoor classroom that the boys played at for a long time. Then it was off for a little lunch, and back to pick some apples. We picked two bushels of apples (80 lbs for those who are wondering). They told us to cram as many as we could into our bushels that we bought, and so of course we did. We came home with a little more than 100lbs of apples. Guess who is going to be canning . . .me. They are really good apples, and you can't get fresher then plucking them off the tree yourselves.

Our boys woke up this morning to get ready for school, and they both said there feet were still tired. I would have to agree, mine are too!