School Days

First of all, I think that children grow and mature more between the time they start Kindergarten and start First Grade than any time in their life!  

Second of all, don't let the smiles in the "First Day of 1st Grade" pictures fool you.  He had a meltdown once we got the the school.  He did not want me to leave him there, which, of course, led to me having a near meltdown as well.  But, his sweet teacher, Ms. White, took him to see his kindergarten teacher and after a hug from her, he was better and had a great day!

I know it gets so nauseating to hear every mom talk about not wanting their child to grow up so fast.  And while I am excited about all the fun things to come, it does make me so sad to think of him losing his innocence.  Right now he thinks it's still cool to be a super hero or to kiss me before he walks in to class.  But the signs of "growing up" are there: he wants his hair brushed a certain way so you can't see the freckle on his forehead.  And he needs his shirt to be a certain length and in some cases a certain brand to be "cool."  

And if you're wondering why Talon isn't in the first day of school pictures it's because he was too busy battling a stomach bug that had us up all night!  Fun times.

Baseball Season

We had a great baseball experience this year!  We had a great team and loved our coaches.

Talon was on the move again this year at the ballpark.  Thankfully, I had help at most of the games!

Tucker is beginning to like baseball more, I think.  He really showed a lot of improvement this year and we were proud of him.

The Pirates ended up 3rd place overall!  

Here is Tucker at the team pool party holding his trophy!  He is so proud of it...

It's almost time for fall baseball.  We are hoping for another great team and a fun season!

Easter

Tucker woke up REALLY early this Easter- like before daylight.  Apparently the Easter Bunny tapped on his window (dang bunny).  We tried to get him to lay in the bed with us and sleep a little longer, but it wasn't happening.  So, we went ahead and got Talon up and headed outside.  It was a rainy weekend so we needed to get the egg hunt out of the way before the rain started again.

The boys got some fun stuff in their baskets this year.  Tucker got diving toys, Avengers Tervis Tumbler, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles wallet, two movies, lots of candy and a few more toys.  Talon got a bubble gun, books, Buzz Lightyear backpack, trucks, crayons, and candy, too, of course.

This is the first year that Talon kind of understood the egg hunt.  He isn't much of a morning person, so it took him a little while to get in to the swing of things.

Tucker found the golden egg!  The Easter Bunny hid it on top of the fence (smart bunny).

He was SO excited to find five dollars inside!  

Since we were up so early we went ahead to early church.  After Sunday School we headed home and took a few quick pictures before getting ready to go to the Tafts' for lunch.  I wish Talon was looking at the camera in our family picture, but oh well!

This is what I got when I asked Talon to say cheese:=[

Talon LOVED his bubble gun!  He just squealed and laughed the whole time.  And we heard him say, "bubbles!" about 10,000 times.

Of course Easter isn't about eggs and baskets.  It's about the most amazing ultimate sacrifice ever made. I LOVE Easter.  I love taking the time that we should take every day to thank Jesus for what He did for us.  I love seeing my boys learn more and more every year what Easter is truly all about.

Easter Eve

Along the years we have begun a sort of sometimes annual tradition of dying Easter eggs and eating with Mom and Alye (..and Paw and Olin) the night before Easter.  It's fun and really great to have some extra help with the eggs.  

We had an Avenger's egg kit and a Batman one.  

This was Talon's first year to get involved and he loved it.

Here is my little Easter set-up.  I love Easter/Spring decorations and was glad to get to use some of my stuff!  We had carrot cake cupcakes (Alye's favorite), a couple dips, fruit and cookies.  The best part was boiled shrimp that Mom made, it was SO good!  

We had a really fun night and made some great memories!

Christmas Night

After opening gifts at our house we had Christmas lunch with the Tidmore's at the Taft's house.  For some reason (probably because it's chaos with 9 kids) I never take any pictures.  So, here we are later in the afternoon at LeLe and Paw's.

LeLe does stockings for everybody: grown ups and kids, and it's so much fun!  Tucker loved his big kid Batman movie.  He laid down to open his stocking, we are usually pretty tired by the time we get to LeLe's!

Alye with all of her stocking loot. :)

Talon loving on "Ho Ho."

And what Christmas would be complete without LeLe crying over a Christmas gift?!  This year Alye and I got her a necklace with charms for our initials and the boys' initials.

We then ate, again.  It was wonderful, as always!  

Another magical Christmas!  So thankful for the birth of Jesus Christ and a special family to celebrate it with!

Christmas Eve and Morning

Let's just face it- I am not good at this blogging thing.  I just can't seem to find the time to keep it up, so here is Christmas, almost 4 months later, but whatever.

This year we had a tur-duck-en for Christmas Eve dinner and it was SO good!  Alye and Olin made smashed sweet potatoes and I made macaroni and cheese for side dishes.

The tur-duck-en was a first for all of us, so it took quite the group effort!

After dinner we got in our pajamas and attempted our traditional Christmas Eve night pictures in front of the tree.  Just keepin it real...this is what our life looks like...lots of fighting over toys.

We started a new tradition this year and it was so much fun!  Tucker got so frustrated the weeks before Christmas when Cameron and I would come home from parties talking about Dirty Santa.  He wanted to play, too!  We even played several pretend DS games.  So, I thought it would be fun to play on Christmas Eve.  We had a $10 limit.  

Cameron ended up with a giant light up candy cane which was hilarious!  And Olin's gift was lost before he ever even got it (we found it about a week ago).  But we had so much fun!

We woke up Christmas morning to find that Santa had come!  He brought the boys so many fun things!

We had fun playing with all of our new toys!

We had to tear Cameron away from the Wii!