FALL SOCCER

Fall soccer started this past weekend for Tyler.

It's actually amazing how much he's improved since the spring!  I was so proud to watch him during the game and he was so proud of himself.

There are 5 kids on the team.  2 did not show up at the beginning of the game, so we put a shirt on Brady and he played for the entire first half until another teammate showed up.  Brady thought that he was a hot shot playing with the big kids!--And he actually did a pretty good job!

Tyler's team, USA, won the game and Tyler scored his first ever goal and then scored two more!  He did Awesome!

 Fall Soccer Team--USA

 Caden and Tyler

 Brady looked at me like, "Look at me, Mom!  I'm playing a soccer game!"

 Hands on their knees and ready to kick the ball.

 Waiting for Tyler to throw in the ball.

 Both Tyler and Brady going after the ball.  Brady did a great job at keeping up!

 Tyler taking off with the ball and Brady following.

 Tyler going in to make a goal.  Apparently Tyler wasn't running quite fast enough for Caden, so Caden's giving Tyler a loving little push to help Tyler run a little quicker!  :)

Tyler in action.

It should be a great Fall Soccer Season!  Go USA!

GAME DAY

Iowa vs. Iowa State Game Day

9/8/12

We spent the day at the Klein's house for the big game.   It was spent playing, watching the game, and making beaded neclaces, bracelets, and keychains!  Beautifully perfect weather for the day and spent with great company!

I laid out two outfits, hawkeyes and panthers, for the kids in the morning.  I told them they needed to go upstairs to choose which outfit they were going to wear for the day.  They both chose the best and decided on wearing Panthers for the day!  :)  Good choice, kids, especially since the Hawks got beat.

The amazing kids!  They truly are amazing.  Each and every one of them!  Especially those UNI Panthers boys!  :) 

 The men watching the game out on the deck.

Mandy had bought beads and string for the girls.  She thought that the younger girls might enjoy making bracelets during the game.  It turns out that instead of the little girls making them, we sat there and made bracelets, necklaces, and keychains and really enjoyed it!  I made the boys a Newton Cardinal and a Hawkeye keychain for their backpacks!  We ended up calling ourselves the Newton Cardinal Keychain Club.  :) 

What a fun day!

SUMMER EVENINGS

The days are getting shorter, the weather is getting cooler, the evenings seem absolutely perfect, and we are enjoying every second of these final summer evenings.

Since going back to school, our days are much busier.  The evenings go too quickly, but we have been spending most evenings outside playing in the backyard or riding bikes.

.....Still enjoying our late summer evenings and looking forward to fall!

Perfect!

FIRST DAY OF 4-YEAR-OLD PRESCHOOL

Tyler had his first day of school today!

Tyler has been ready and waiting for school to start again.  He absolutely enjoys and loves everything about his time at school with his friends and teachers.  He had a great 3-year-old preschool experience and is looking forward to a wonderful year in the 4-year-old preschool class.  He met a couple new friends today and just really enjoyed being back!

He talked and talked and talked about his day today.  I'm sure he's still laying awake right now thinking about everything that happened at school today!

We are so proud of him!

However, it's kind of scary that the next time I take a "first day of school photo," it will be his first day of kindergarten and he will be at school with me!  Wow!

 First day of 4-year-old preschool.  9/4/12

 Walking into school.

 

 He found his best bud, Caden, right away and they started to play!

This is the project that he completed at school today.  He cut out the yellow bus, wrote his name, colored the tires, thumb printed "people" into the bus windows, and drew faces/hair onto two of the "people."

What a great day for Tyler!

Love you, buddy!  I know you will have a terrific year!

TOMORROW'S EXCITEMENT!

This is a picture of Tyler's "homework."

He starts his first day of 4-year-old preschool tomorrow.  He is looking forward to going back to school and seeing his teachers and friends from last school year.

Name: Tyler

I like to eat: pizza and apples

My favorite toy: Airplanes

Lee will go into work later tomorrow morning so that he can take Tyler to school on his first day.  I look forward to seeing the excitement on his face tomorrow morning!

LABOR DAY WEEKEND

We had a really good Labor Day weekend!

Friday--We decided to take the boys to Grandma Mary's for a sleepover Friday night.  This is only the second time that they have stayed somewhere else without us being there.  They were gone from home for about 18 hrs. is all, but I know that it was long enough for all of us.  With the kids gone for the night, Lee and I went out to dinner with a group of friends to celebrate Lee's birthday.  Then we all came back to our house to play a game.  It was a fun night with some friends and the boys had a great time playing at Grandma's house!

Saturday--Lee went to meet my mom to pick the boys up on Saturday morning.  We went to a football party Saturday afternoon to watch the Iowa, UNI, and Iowa State games.  It was a great party and the boys always have so much fun playing with all their friends!

Sunday--After church, we went to buy Tyler a new bike!  And since Tyler now has a new, bigger, bike, Brady has Tyler's old bike and is doing awesome riding his "new" bike with training wheels.  Sunday afternoon, we had Katie, Mike, Taylor, and Bennett over for play and dinner.  It was a great afternoon to catch up a little and have the kids play.

Monday--We spent some fun, quality, family time at Bass Pro Shop!  :)  We took the kids bowling and for lunch at Uncle Bucks in Bass Pro.  It was so much fun!  They had a blast!  And after bowling, we spent some time shooting and checking out the many fun things in Bass Pro Shop.

 Tyler on his new bike and Brady on his "new" bike.

 He fits much better on this new bike.  It's called the "Rocket" so it, of course, goes really, really fast!

 Brady has also been doing an awesome job on his new bike with training wheels!

 Tyler, Taylor, and Brady

 Bowling at Bass Pro's Uncle Buck's.

 Brady checking to see if a bowling ball is going to come up that Alligator's mouth anytime soon.

 Brady bowling.

 Laying on the bench and checking out the awesome ceiling full of fish and sea life.

Lee giving the boys shooting practice.  They loved this!

BRADY'S 3RD BIRTHDAY AND LEE'S 31ST!

This past weekend was a birthday filled weekend, with Brady's 3rd birthday being on Saturday the 25th and Lee's 31st on Sunday the 26th!

Brady wanted a basketball themed birthday, so that's what Brady got!  It was so wonderful that his actual birthday was on a weekend this year. We were able to spend the whole day celebrating him and soaked it all in.

I absolutely love to celebrate birthdays and I love to see the happiness on the face of the birthday child or person!  Love Birthdays!

We kind of had a gloomy, rainy day on Saturday, so we hung around at home and inside for most of the day.  We did enjoy an awesome basketball party with family and even got out a little later to play some outside.

I really can't believe that our baby is 3 years old!  Brady is one energetic 3 year old.  He is full of attitude, spunk, personality, courage, sweetness, humor, and so much more.  He is an absolute joy to be around and I have enjoyed watching him grow into such a wonderful little boy.

Brady had so much fun on "his day" this year and loved all the attention that he received!  Here are many pictures from Saturday and a couple cute ones from Lee's birthday on Sunday.

I walked into Brady's room when I heard him moving around on Saturday morning to tell him 'Happy Birthday.'  I grabbed my camera, walked into the room, and there was this cute, happy little boy propped up from his pillow, excitedly waiting for the day!  Look at those dimples!  (and his scratch on his face from another little kiddo at daycare.  oh well!)

I asked him how old he was and this is him showing me three fingers.  Too cute!

My mom came into town on Friday night.  She let Brady open up one present right away Saturday morning.  It just so happened to be one of his favorites.  Brady absolutely loves these kinds of puzzles!  It looks like he's hurting himself with this smile--not very natural!  :)

Sprinkle cake doughnut with three candles for his birthday breakfast!

This is the basketball birthday cake that I decorated.  And yes, those are Reece's Pieces!
Tyler and Brady actual made the cake with Grandma on Saturday morning.  They were such great help and loved baking a cake in the kitchen with Grandma!

Basketball, basketball, basketball!  Presents, presents, presents!

I bought both Tyler and Brady some little "party favors" that they got to open right away.  They each got a basketball water bottle, sweat bands, slinky, eraser, keychain, silly bands, tattoos, notepad, and whistle.  I put Brady's "stuff" in this Basketball lunch box, which he loves to carry around!  And for most of the day, Brady was dressed to impress in his Air Jordan basketball outfit---until later, when he wanted to change into his basketball pajamas.

Cute picture of Tyler and Brady checking out one of Brady's new toys.

Love this game!  This was from my Dad.  I remember playing this game all the time at my Grandma and Grandpa's house with my brother.  Now, Tyler and Brady are loving to play it.

Brady checking out all of his new presents.  He needed to decide what we should take out of the cardboard first.  Presents for his 3rd birthday include: Hot hoops, Semi-truck, puzzle, remote control car, rocket blaster, hot wheels dinosaur track, velcro frog catchers, hot wheels, hot wheels carrying box, over-the-door basketball hoop, Imaginext airplane, loud & colorful gun :), transformer, velcro basketball "darts." 

Brady also received many cards and phone calls from others on Saturday.  He enjoyed talking on the phone and hearing 'Happy Birthday, Brady!  How old are you?"  And every time he would answer with "three" and a big smile!

And Tyler was even lucky enough to have gotten something new on Brady's birthday.  Tyler also got an Imaginext airplane.

Grandpa Freese, Tyler, Lee, and Brady playing Hot Hoops.

Grandpa Freese and Brady had a blast playing basketball out in the garage for awhile while it rained.  Brady would blow his whistle and say "Time to play basketball!"

Feeding Time!

Now that he's changed into his basketball pajamas, he's excited and ready to eat his cake!

Brady and Tyler with Grandpa Freese.

Brady and Tyler with Grandma Mary.

Tyler and Brady with Liz and Josh.

Our Family.

Tyler had to show everyone how he could ride his bike without training wheels, so when most of the raining had stopped we went outside to ride.

Who's birhday is it today?  This guy's.

This is the cute little look and point that he did when we asked him whose birthday it was.

And on Sunday the 26th, we got to celebrate the awesome birthday of our wonderful husband and Dad!  And this cake I did not make, but instead bought from Culver's!  Yum!

The boys love to help Lee blow out his candles!

What a fabulous weekend of birthdays!