Christmas

Christmas Day was warm!

We were so grateful for the chance to spend the day outside at Grandma & Grandpa Jones' farm.

Grandma had received a new horse for XMAS and "Pal" was so gentle. Brady got to ride her - all over the farm. I couldn't believe it. He loved every minute of it - until she started loping towards the end of the day and he fell off. He quickly recovered though - and I hope feels comfortable and can enjoy riding her again. We think she just got excited because there was another horse out. Brady's story has changed many times since the incident - he becomes more of a superhero through each telling :)





Yep, he's a natural :)





We also got to see Shorty, their miniature horse and play football/Apples to Apples (while Scooter the goat looked on :).





And last, but not least, we had a bonfire and they took a ride on Grandpa's train.

(We were timing to see how quickly the cat would decide this place got too hot!)





It was a fun day! I'm sure it's going to get cold now. Blah.

Christmas Eve

It is tradition to celebrate Christmas Eve with Ed's dad's side of the family and this year we were able to have it at our house. I think a good time was had by all!

The boys always end up on Grandpa's back for rides - pretty soon (if not ALREADY), they will be too big.


Brett was excited to trick Grandma Jacki and give her pickled pigs feet for a gift. They had given him a doll last year (mistakenly) so he thought this was very funny.


Brady was given Apples to Apples Jr. and we had to try it out. Brett loves to play now (even though he has to partner up with someone because he can't read - he doesn't seem to mind AT ALL :)

We ended the night with an egg nog toast - Aunt Debi had brought a cute wreath made out of shot glasses.

Party, party!

The boys had fun at their school holiday parties on Monday.

Brady's teacher is Jewish and he has learned a lot of songs that he really likes and knows how to play a Dreidel game. I'm glad that he is learning about other traditions. (He did have a normal holiday class party Monday afternoon, but I'm not sure what they did :)

Being the room parent for Brett's classroom has been a new experience for me - luckily I had one mom show up to help with the Christmas party. They have been fun to plan/attend and I'm getting better with each one (I think) - 2 parties down, 1 more to go (Valentine's Day)!

This year I got all of my ideas from Pinterest. Love that site!

We played "Pin the Nose on the Snowman"- which Brett said was his favorite thing.



Had Santa Graham's and juice boxes -

The last activity we did was play a version of bingo with Gingerbread men and dice.

And then last, but not least, they took home reindeer treat bags!

Tis the Season

We celebrated Christmas with my family in Lebo last weekend - it is always fun to see how the kids interact as they get older. It has really worked out well (in an unplanned way :) - Garrett and Breckyn, Brynna and Brady and Brogan and Brett can kind of pair of on age-related stuff. And yes, there are way too many "B" names. Lol!



Still playing with the wrapping stuff -



The boys got camo shirts from my brother's family and dart guns from my sister's - they were ready for action!



We made it out to my grandpa's farm a couple times for walks - one of my favorite holiday traditions to do with my brother's family/kids/dogs.



We left one night just as the sun was setting. The ride home was wonderful - we saw more than 20 deer!

Rudolph

I fell in love with this reindeer in the last issue of Good Housekeeping. It was very easy and quick to make - I love it. This is my idea of taxidermy :)

Hoop it up

The basketball season has started for us!

Brady and Brett's basketball games started last weekend. They play in the GABL league. Brady continues to play on the same team and has been practicing for several weeks (5 on 5, four 6 minute quarters) - this is Brett's first year to play and the K league plays 3 on 3 with 30 minutes of practice and then 30 minutes of game.

Fortunately Brady's team has stuck together since they started in kindergarten - they have a great head coach and this is Ed's 2nd year as assistant coach, which I think he really enjoys. It has been really fun to watch them practice and play - they have grown up so much. They won their first game!


Brady's on the end sporting #13 this year.



I think the kindergarten league is set up really well - I love that practices and games take place on the same day, right after each other. Brett had a moment when they were warming up before practice where I think he got nervous and thought he would run over and say he was hurt (his finger :), but he got over it quickly and I was so proud to see him play aggressively in the game and even tell the coach that he wanted to stay in (they had 5 players, so one player always stayed in when they switched in and out). He did great and had lots of fun!




There's my lefty - the boy guarding Brett in this pic is actually his teammate (Brady's basketball's coach's youngest son, Keaton) - they practice together during Brady's (and Landon's -Keaton's older brother) - practice so that is nice!



Should be a fun season!

Horses

Over Thanksgiving break my brother was working horses every day and I finally got motivated to ride horses again. My parents bought "Honey" a pony awhile back and I wish I had a picture of her. She is a very sweet 5-year-old and I had a great time riding her (but boy was I SORE the next couple days!).

While I forgot to take a picture of her, I did take a picture of her friends - Barney & Wild Paint :)



On Saturday we visited Grandma & Grandpa Jones and met their miniature pony, Shorty. He was very cute - the boys loved him.





We forgot to wear our heavy coats, so we took him into the garage and brushed him.

First Christmas Decoration

I had a fun weekend with Dedra and baby Graham! It was great to have a baby in the house again - the boys enjoyed playing with him (and making videos on Dedra's phone :).

We shopped a little and crafted a little (and she ran a 1/2 marathon Sunday morning!) . . . . and with Dedra's help, I got the one thing made that I had hoped to. I have literally had these Christmas ornaments in the corner of our dining room since last January so I was anxious to get the wreath made.

Our first Christmas decoration has been hung so now I'm ready to put up the rest this weekend!

11-11-11 Photo Challenge

Take a photo tomorrow - 11-11-11 at 11:11 am photo challenge!

Golf Outing

I went golfing! Okay, I didn't golf, but I really enjoyed driving the cart on the trail up to the 3-hole "youth" golf course and watching the boys golf. They did a great job and it was a beautiful day (Friday before Halloween when the boys were out of school). The trees were beautiful. And it cost us a whopping $2 each for them to golf that afternoon. Bonus!









Pretty trees.



And here's a close-up of the "shiner" Brett gave Brady the day before (threw a stick at him in the pasture) - hope this never happens again! Everyone thought he was wearing Halloween makeup that night at BJF's Halloween carnival (which he thought was cool).

Rock stars

It's "Say no to drugs" week at BJF and today was "Rock Star" day. The boys were in full character without me saying anything but photo time. Pretty funny.

Decked out :)

Ed made some great updates to our deck, so I thought I'd share the progress.

I'm not taking the time to dig through the files for a "before" shot, but as some of you may remember, when we moved in (and up until a few weeks ago) our deck had a seat around the long side (where Ed is standing in the photo below). It was fine, but now that we've removed it the deck seems so much bigger.

My favorite part is the side with the stairs opening up to the brick patio (that we put in when Brady was a baby). It ties the patio to the deck so much better. The "before" shot here was a side with half railing and a much smaller stairs.



And this weekend (luckily before tonight's rain) we stained it. Thought I'd take a quick pic before the dog's trampled it!

Strikers - Fall 2011

The Strikers stayed together for the Fall 2011 season! And no, they weren't undefeated (like their first year), but they had a great season. The Shawnee Soccer league combined with another and they now play as part of the Metro United league, which is a little different.

The coach is a high school basketball coach and his son, Ben (between Brady and the coach) is also on Brady's winter basketball team so we'll be seeing them shortly. We love that we are kind of to the stage with Brady that he is hanging with the same teams for all of his sports- so he probably has about 40 different team mates that he plays with. I think that is great!





Last year they played 4-on-4 with no goalie, this year they played 4-on-4 with goalie. A whole new game. Brady started out playing goalie for 1/2 of the game and then I think they needed him on the field more, so he ended up doing goal/corner kicks. He took great pride in being called "Thunder foot" but he has a lot of work to get better.

He spent a great deal of his time this fall playing baseball . . . . but he's said he likes soccer just as much (if not better) so we've told a team that he can play on their indoor winter team. I swore this winter would just be basketball, but guess not! I think it will be very interesting to see how the winter league goes. He seems to really like soccer. I'm just along for the ride. . . . .

OMG - the hair!

Hunt Orchard

A family tradition that I love is going with Ed's dad and family to Hunt Orchard in Amazonia, MO (where??). It's my favorite pumpkin patch and they have AMAZING apple slushes. And this year we had awesome weather. We have been so spoiled this fall - so thankful!



Brady was most looking forward to shooting the gun at the targets. He did REALLY well.



Little Britches took some shots too. We assured him he had hit something in the pasture beyond :)



The deal is you have to be able to carry the pumpkin you pick. Brett could do this. . . .Brady could carry his for a very short time. :)



Grandpa Stockwell is holding Brady's pumpkin in this pic :) Brady is holding the pumpkin I had to have because it was green/orange and tall and skinny. They measure the circumference to price them - my pumpkin was a whopping $2. Bonus buy of the day



The boys also had their first caramel apples (on a stick). I'm already looking forward to next year. . . and yes, I will probably be making them go when their high schoolers. I love pumpkins! :)