My oldest is 11?!

Shawn is Eleven!! October 23.Early morning on Shawn's birthday, the boys were watching TV on the couch and they all had orange shirts on (and not on purpose). I thought that was a good picture moment.
We gave Shawn his gifts that morning,while he got all the other gifts that night at his party. I gave him a book, because he loves to read and he is such a great reader- I guess he takes after me in that way.

Chris got him a Barcelona soccer jersey, since he loves them so much, I guess he takes after his dad in that way.

Shawn had a soccer game on his birthday, so of course we all had to go to that. It was a bit windy and cold, but we all got through it. Grandma Becky was there, and Grandma Jo and Grandpa Alan came at half time. It is nice that we live close so they are able to support the boys in their activities.

Grandma Jo made his cake, she used fondant this time. He wanted the Barcelona sign, and she did a great job, Shawn really liked it.

Here his brothers are helping him with the candles.

Cheesy grin, he doesn't like pictures so much.

This is what he likes to do in pictures, so I thought I would join him.

But then he did a smiley one too- thanks Shawn.

He got some Under Armor shirts from G Alan and G Jo, and they got him a cool Bronco sled for when it snows around here.

G Becky got him some really nice hair care products- he is growing up:( And an itunes card. I think it was a pretty nice birthday.

We also got him tickets to a Colorado Rapids game, he went Chris- dad, Uncle Nick and his friend Chandler and his dad, Derek.

Rocky Mountian National Park- Fallphotos!!

The Beautiful Rocky Mountains

We went for a drive one Sunday morning and we enjoyed the beautiful mountains and and the fun places to get out and play around with the boys.This was at the top of Fall River Road

On our way up Fall River Road, it is a one way road up one of the mountains and is gorgeous

Chris doing a little fly fishing with the older boys close behind, I think they enjoy hangin' with their dad.

A pretty good shot of Chris and I. I love the trees behind us.

Another cute shot with Lucas.

My 5 boys!

They can never have enough fun throwing rocks.

This was a great little spot to get out and romp around with the boys the river was shallow and easy to walk across, lots of logs to walk on and over, they had fun seeing fish in the river as well.

Chris pointing out the fish to James.

Shawn and Mikey getting along-pretty rare these days:)

Gorgeous aspens!





My mom (grandma Jo), James, Lucas and I went to Estes Park to stay the night at a condo and then get up and walk a few easy hikes. We all had a great time, and the weather was fabulous.

Lucas and I in front of Bear Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park

Cute James in front of Bear Lake

We found a little cave, James was too scared to get in it so we took a picture outside of it.

Grandma Jo, James and Lucas at the spot where we ate our lunch. It was a fun little spot right near Alberta Falls. There were birds and chipmunks that were trying to eat our sandwiches, they got pretty close too. One chipmunk even drug out one of the bags after I had put it in the diaper bag to eat the sandwich. The birds were fighting over some of the crumbs that James left.

Alberta Falls, I guess in the spring it it flowing much heavier and the water is shooting out over the top, I guess we will have to go back and get that picture next year.

James' first ride on a bus, he loved the big windows, and that he didn't have to be in his car seat.

Stepping off of the big white bus!

cute boys!!

I am sorry I am so far behind with my blog, I really want to do more on it, but my computer and my computer connection are so ridiculously slow that it takes 20 minutes just to do 4 pictures and by then I have a million things to do and don't get back to it, plus it is hard to type with a baby in your arm all day long- Lucas hates to be put down and unless I want to hear him cry I hold him many, many hours a day. So there are some of my excuses, but I am trying to get a couple out today, so hopefully you can see a few pics of my cute boys!

James is a very funny boy these days, he makes some of the funniest faces and says some pretty cute stuff, and some pretty sassy stuff. I guess that is what you get with two older brothers. Here is one of his sassy faces. And a very cool drawing that he made for me.

Shawn took my camera and took a bunch of goofy pictures, so I thought I would share one with you:) I am sure he will hate me for it.

I thought this was a funny shot.

Very concentrated, that doesn't happen very often:)

I love this picture of Luke, he is so smiley and the dimples are adorable.

This was a great shot of James at a soccer game.

So happy!

So happy!

Mountain fresh air and great friends

On Labor day we went with some friends of ours, the Russell's, to Lost Lake up Poudre Canyon outside of Fort Collins, it was beautiful- but very windy!!

Here the kids are getting up close to the lake to see if they can see any fish, I am pretty sure that they saw several minnows swimming around

James and Brinley being so cute despite the awful wind gusts that kept sweeping by. While I was trying to nurse Lucas, my friend Jill was so kind to let James climb up on her lap and hide from the wind under a blanket.

All of our cute kids sitting on a big log by the trail. I think they all have great smiles, except Shawn who of course has a goofy grin. This was the best one out of all the ones I took. Shawn was not in a picture mood today, nor has he been for a while now. I guess I have to take what I can get.

Isn't it beautiful!

I think this picture is hilarious, both Chris and Derek with all their fishing gear, I guess Chris looks a little more funny with the shorts, jacket, wool socks and sandals. Oh well he loves to fly fish so whatever works.

James was so proud that he was climbing to top of this rock over and over, it was very cute. It wasn't a very large rock, but I guess for him it was.

Shawn and Chandler whittling while we waited for the guys to fish a little bit. The boys both got their whittling chip pin at scouts this Summer, so Shawn was excited to use his pocket knife that his uncle Jake got for him for Christmas.

It was so nice to get up into the mountains and feel the amazing fresh, cool air, I am so very glad that we live so close to them again, and you will see in posts to come that I have been going up to the mountains as much as possible lately.

James is potty trained!!!

(This was September 15th-18th and he has been doing great- barely any accidents!!!)
Well, the first day was pretty funny because he was sitting on his little potty in front of the TV watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (with his Ninja Turtle underwear-of course) drinking lots of Gatorade, soda and water. Chris got quite a laugh with this picture and I am sure he will hate me for taking it when he is 16, but I could not resist. Even thought the first couple of days were hard he finally got it by the third day. The first day I could only handle the underwear for a few hours and after 4 accidents we were both done. The second day was difficult because he remembered the first day and didn't want anything to do with the underwear. But I persevered and tried again, and I also read some more online stuff to make it so I didn't cry all day again:) I read Dr. Phil's potty train in 1 day and wow- it actually worked! By the third day he had done it and was thrilled about doing it from then on.

As you can see lots of sitting on the potty really helps that muscle memory and and he was so proud!! He didn't go all those times that is just if he sits on the potty and "trys" to go.

Yea James I am so proud of you!!

James turns 3!!!

I can not believe that James is three! It has gone so fast. He is such a wonderful little boy with quite the imagination and desires so much attention, and he seems to get it when he really wants it. Here he is wearing a costume as all the family came to the party, he loved wearing his cape and he really liked the Batman mask that he found in the dress up box.
I originally wanted to tell everyone that I am sick of toys and never want to see another one in this house because we have so darn many, but how can you do that to a 3 year old, so here we are again with bucket loads of toys and me having to find a place to put them all, oh well he loved all his gifts- that is what counts -right?

Cool cake that Grandma Jo and Uncle Brett made. The joy of being close to my mom- she gets to make all my kids birthday cakes that actually are cool, I just make the 9 X 12 cakes and frost them in the pan, or maybe if they are lucky they get cupcakes. Yea for Grandma's cake decorating abilities.

Grandma Jo got him a Darth Vader Pinata full of yummy candy, this was his first one and he did a good job. (it also helped that the top of the head is only fastened by a few staples and wacked off after about 3 hits, but he is three and he didn't care.)

Oh the candy!!

Everytime some one brought a gift he would get up to the table and say I love this one and give it a big hug- it was too cute!!

Another toy to hug:)

I originally wanted to tell everyone that I am sick of toys and never want to see another one in this house again because we have so darn many, but how can you do that to a 3 year old? So here we are again with bucket loads of toys and me having to find a place to put them all, oh well he loved all his gifts and that is what counts-right?

Look another Nerf gun- how many does that make- 101?

He got lots of Star Wars guys and loved them all, he loves to make them fight. I hope you had a great birthday buddy, we love you very much!