Lately

Brian has to use his remaining vacation for the year by mid-December (instead of the end of the calendar year) so he's decided to take a few long weekends.  This weekend was one of them - he took off Friday and Monday.  Unfortunately he was sick and then I was (am) sick.  So we didn't really do much but it was good to have him around and spend some time together, just the four of us.

One thing we managed to do is get some trees at Lowe's.  They must be getting ready for Christmas trees because all their plants were 50% off.  We bought three trees on our first stop there and managed to get them in the back of my car and over the boys.  Rylan doesn't look too happy here, but they both thought this was hilarious.

We are almost done with a bed along the right side of our house that I'll post pictures of when I get mulch spread (hopefully by the end of the week).  We've only planted about 25% of what we bought this weekend but we have now started two beds in our backyard that we are using to screen us from the garages in the alley behind us.  We aren't trying to create complete privacy in the back, we just want to soften the look in the back.  I'll post pictures of that too once we finish planting (those beds won't be done until the spring when we can get more plants and large rocks but we have them planned).

The boys have been playing with (chasing) Charlotte all the time lately.  They LOVE her so much (except when she's trying to steal their food).  Carter will copy what he hears us say and tell her, "I love you Charlotte, but not now!"  Rylan tends to hold his peanut butter sandwiches below the table and Charlotte steals them out of his hand all the time - he gets SO MAD.  But they run and run with her around the loop downstairs and love to get her all worked up.  She seems to love it too (so far, at least).

Yesterday (and today) the kids set up what they called a "booby trap" on the stairs.  So far, no one has been hurt!

After naps we had to get out of the house yesterday so we ran a few errands.  One place we went was Toys 'R Us (they had some great deals on Memory games and Crayola products).  Carter has already picked out what he wants to ask Santa for from the Toys 'R Us catalog - it's a Spiderman remote control motorcycle.  He was checking that out and the boys wanted to try on some masks in that aisle.  Brian got a picture of them with his new iPhone (he's finally gotten something other than a Blackberry from work!).

The kids had off from school today because of voting.  The kids have had short weeks 3 out of the last 5 weeks.  And then they are off all Thanksgiving week.  We just ran some errands today getting ready for Carter's birthday party on Sunday and went to storytime at the Brentwood Library.

Oh, and I HATE Daylight Savings Time.  The boys did better this morning but they had been getting up lately by 5:30 am and so for a few days they got up at 4:30 am.  Hopefully they don't do that again tomorrow morning!

Rockets

I downloaded more photos today from the website of the dad that took pictures during our soccer games this year.  Again, I am so glad he took pictures (and shared them) since I couldn't!

Game #4 (Sept 29):

"Go Rockets!"

Go, Carter!

Every game was different with how we handled putting the ball back in play when it went out of bounds on the sideline (it usually depended on what the coach for the other team wanted to do).  Either a coach would just throw the ball on the field or we would let a kid kick it in or we'd try a throw in.  Here is Carter doing a throw in (the kids were all pretty good at it when we tried it).

Three year olds don't often spread out :)

I don't think Caleb had a chance here :)

There were a lot of "Go Rockets".  Though it often became something like "Go Rockets Dinosaurs Sharks", or something like that due to the kids' requests.

Game 6 (Oct 13):

We played against one of our neighbors in this game (Cade is on the right in this picture and his mom, Michelle, is in the purple shirt).  She doesn't normally coach but their coach was out of town and she got recruited since she knows me.

We went to Touch a Truck before the game and Carter had his face painted like Spiderman so that's why he looks so funny!

Carter scored!

Game 7 (Oct 20):

Lots of pushing and me saying, "Same team!!!"

Go, Carter!

Getting ready to kickoff after the other team scored ...

Carter scored something like 6 goals in this game.  This is him turning around after scoring and telling Brian and my mom how many goals he'd scored so far.  He was always right on with his count!

Brady had the ball and Brett apparently wanted it.  Brett was our brute!

Another goal!

Game 8 (Oct 27):

This was our last game and it was cold!

A kid from the other team had a hat like Carter's (they are both from Children's Place).  During halftime they pulled their hats over their eyes and started "fighting".  It was really random and really cute.

Carter really did get better at getting into the mix trying to get the ball instead of hanging back and watching.

Dribbling ...

I love this picture.  Jacob has the best look on his face as he appears to be chasing Carter.  Jacob was our best player - he was a scoring machine but also was our only one that really understood and was good at defense.

And our little pusher, Brett :)  Carter usually stayed away from him to avoid getting pushed!

One last "Go Rockets!"

After our game we had our modified end-of-season party (no pizza, just quick cupcakes and trophies).  Brady missed getting his soccer stamp after the game so I had to give him one here.  We got the stamp about midway through the season and stamped the kids hands after games and practices.  They loved it.  Unfortunately a lot of them didn't let it dry first and would often rub their faces and be left with mustaches and such.

It was hard holding the kids back from the cupcakes!

This happened a few times during practice too.  I'd get low to talk to one of the kids and they all came rushing at me.  I'd lose my balance and they tackled me!

Halloween Storytimes

While Carter was at school on Halloween, Rylan and I went to two library storytimes.

Our first stop was at the Downtown Nashville Library.

We hadn't been there in awhile so storytime felt new again.  Plus all our favorite librarians and puppets were dressed up in their costumes too!

The Professor was dressed like a cowboy (Rylan LOVED this!).

Mary Mary was a witch and Tommy Dog (the puppet) was a pirate.

Library Pete was an aviator.

JJ (the lamb puppet) was a rainbow.

And Cedric the Dragon was a pig.

It was very cute and the kids loved being surprised with each new costume.

After storytime, the kids got to trick or treat throughout the children's department where they had tables set up with goodies.

Rylan got lots of fun stuff (no candy!).

Next we headed to the Brentwood Library to meet up with Missy and her boys.  When we got there we ran into Suzy and her boys and caught up with them.  Rylan was content looking at firefighter books while we talked - so cute!

Rylan always does great at storytime (even though it was his second of the day)!

After storytime we got to trick or treat throughout the library at several desks.

I'm glad Rylan got to enjoy his costume where he had a purpose wearing it (not just running errands at Target and such!).