christmas

another great christmas has passed, and now comes the annual cleaning out!! re-organizing, donating, condensing...ahh....its a good feeling when its done! here's a few pics from our holiday!

we are trying to start our own traditions, and each year we read the christmas story the night before we have our "christmas". andy read it, and we used a white board to draw illustrations with the boys and try to get them involved.....they loved it!! then we open presents the next morning...

tysen trying out his new 'motorcycle'...

the clearances after halloween has paid off once again!

logan's most excited about the new playstation 2! a kind donation by my little brother is his greatest treasure....

and ian got his electric guitar with real strings. this little set is really cute and you can hear the guitar and microphone thru the little amp. i mean, its cheap, but pretty cute for their age! :)

then came the traditions with extended family. we do our 'christmas' on christmas eve morning...then spend the night with my family that evening. we have a big breakfast and then do our gifts with them....the cousins love getting to spend the night together! (though we miss aubren and milia who are with stacy's family on christmas eve)...

bible story time...

matching pjs for the boys!!

let the sleepover begin!

after naps on christmas day we load up and head the vanderveers where we have dinner and gifts with them....then we spend the night there with whoever is able to.....

now we're home!! :) and the countdown to next christmas has begun....

sleepovers

cousin max spent the night with us on wednesday...he's 7 months younger than tysen...which is just enough to make tysen feel older and wiser...and so i have to re-direct a lot of "no-no's" as tysen trys to correct anything max touches! but obviously, they all had a blast!

ian teaching max how to sword fight...

family pictures

thanks to my big brother, trey, for taking these family pictures for us!

the meltdown when tysen realized we were done, and he wasn't getting anymore smarties!

thanksgiving

my stomach is still full from all the feasting this thanksgiving. why does the food have to be sooooo good? we had a great time visiting with both sides of the family. we spent thanksgiving day at mom's house with all the family, and then friday spent the day with andy's family. we are so blessed to have amazing families with lots of cousins to play with!!

karis and i were checking out the ads for black friday, and nieces reagan and milia were hanging out too...trying to eat the paper!

winding down with movie time on the pull out couch!

then on to the cousins on the vanderveer side! we all wore brown to get some family pictures!

with ana and papaw

with everyone together. ritchey couldn't get away from work, but andy's awesome photoshop skills were able to work him in....:):) (he's the one front and center...)

just in time for christmas!!!

Logan is 6!!

well, he's six years old today. we sang to him with a candle in an orange danish roll this morning. a tradition we do with all the boys. (sometimes its donuts...they get to choose their breakfast). we surprised him at lunch and showed up at school with sonic. and we're going to attempt chuck e. cheese tonight. tysen isn't feeling great, so we'll see how that goes. logan has been asking for weeks to go, and we keep saying we'll go on his birthday! he had asked for a castle to play with his guys in, so here's him putting it together with dad.

he also loves the Cowboys! asked specifically for this Romo jersey....made me so proud!

weighing in....

i've been working a lot, ya know, same old thing and trying to get this baby weight gone...so imagine my surprise to step on the scale and it read this....

my husband is awesome...this is definitely the scale i want to weigh in on every time! :):)

(and i still don't know how he did it)

dressing up for halloween!

the only way i could capture all 3 boys together...here we are on our way to the Denton Bible fall festival...batman (ian), ninja turtle (logan), and my sweet giraffe (tysen)...

tysen's first sucker....a huge hit!

trick or treating that night in cousin max's neighborhood.

and now there are 9!

for mom's bday this year, we decided it was time to give her a formal 'grandkids' picture. we got them all matching and adorable and set about the difficult task of getting them all to at least look in the same direction! there are 9 of them now...and logan (not even 6 yet) is the oldest. we got crazy andy to do a puppet show which had them all laughing hysterically...as you can see...

my little guys...

and of course one with granny...

L-R- logan, tysen, granny, milia, reagan, ian, audrey, zach, kenzie, and aubren

us older kids were feeling left out...

we're almost all here...missing baby brother, sam, and brother in law, brian...and we seem to be missing a little maturity from my husband in the back. :)

brotherhood boys

all these boy's fathers have been friends since highschool. its such an incredible friendship...we hope they all grow up and have the same bond...

ian.tysen.luke.max.logan.keaton

2009

my little men

since i've recently found a place to print my blog, i'm determined to record memories, and funny stories...so one day they can look back and see what they were like when they were little. its definately not because i have a terrible long term memory. ha!

so...typically there will be short little stories here and there, but since i have been horrible about this in the past, this one is going to be a long one. i don't want to forget the little things that i love about my boys...

a few things i love about my little men...

...i love the way that logan cannot hide his dimples when i start to talk about them. he just grins and grins, and he can try as hard as he can not to smile, but those dimples always poke through!
...i love it when the boys play together. like, when they pulled berries off the bushes, and put them in their bamboo sticks, and made "super berry bombs".
...i love the way ian adjust his glasses whenever he is talking with little girls, or when someone compliments his new glasses.
...i love it when tysen says "lav-la" (meaning 'love you').
...i love ian's imagination--i swear we could make a movie of his life and make millions if we could record him 24-7.
...i love that the boys love worship music! their favorite song right now is "there is no one like you".
...i love to see tysen stop and swing his arms while he bounces to music.
...i LOVE to see the boys get so excited when they see their cousins.
...i love how ian expresses things with his hands. its like he's teaching a lecture.
...i love that andy takes them out one at a time every wednesday morning for breakfast. and i love that we won't talk about it for 2 weeks, but logan never forgets when its his turn!
...i love it when tysen does something to make the boys laugh, and then he keeps doing it to get more and more laughs. tonight it was logan saying "tysen, did you toot?" (he was honestly just asking), and tysen leaned forward, pointed at him and said "too?" and the boys just rolled with laughter. so tysen kept saying it over and over, and then throwing his head back with dramatic laughter.
...i love how ian watches his reflection in the tv when he's talking to me.
...i love that when we pull up to the church, tysen starts squealing "daddy!!"
...i love that logan organizes and follows the rules.
...i love ian's macho strut.
...i love ian's comparisons. "hey! that boy's name is max, just like my cousin's name is max!"
...i love how tysen says 'no'...its a very dramatic "ohhhhhh".
...i love to walk in and find a fort of blankets all over the living room (as much as i hate the mess)
...i love my new "mom to three boys" t-shirt!!!
...i love family walks.
...i love being the only girl.
...i love to hear the boys bring up Jesus when talking with random kids at the dentist.
...i love pictures of my family.
...i love it when logan and ian will randomly quote a Bible verse they learned at church.
...i love movie nights...and can't wait for tysen to be older so we can all enjoy them!
...i love when ian draws our family and i'm the biggest one on the page (cuz it means he loves me the most). :)
...i love to see tysen run and attack the older boys.
...i love all that all 3 have big blue eyes.

i think the main point is clear...
I LOVE MY BOYS....

State Fair

its a family tradition to go to the state fair! its ridiculously expensive, but we manage to do ok, since we get free tickets, and take our own food/snacks...the boys love it! their favorite part is always the petting zoo...and they love the dog show, and building with all the food samples. :) we were joined by their cousin max this year (and kyle's dad and sister/boyfriend)....

tysen and max watching the goats...(this is about where max found some goat food and ate it-yum!)

logan loved this cowboy area since he has a newfound love for football...and the cowboys!

naptime...thank heavens! we got to sample foods while he was sleeping!

traditional family picture....

"i'll trade ya my chex cereal for a cheerio!"

our one treat...fried oreos....o my gosh--soooooooo good!