sweet home colorado: another looooong post of randoms

I just don't seem to have the time to blog these days, so here you have another "dump all of my photos, which are mostly from my iphone, and which I mostly post on Facebook" post. I'm still trying to post a few updates and to share a few stories here on my blog each month. So here you have it...

This September we celebrated the 60th Birthdays of my Mom and Dad! My brother, sister, and I wanted to be sure that our parents felt so loved and celebrated, so we did a little Pinterest inspired gift for them. See below...

I had fun designing, organizing, stuffing, and getting these postcards out and into the hands of 60 of my parents' closest friends and family members.

I had to crop off the address, but here is the backside of the post cards where people wrote messages, wishes, funny memories, etc. to my parents.

My parents had fun checking the mail each day and seeing who they received post cards from. For the most part, we had good participation. We still have a couple of postcards floating around out there, but us kids are determined to get them tracked down and sent back to Mom & Dad as soon as possible. Better late than never!

Here are some birthday pictures the boys drew for my Mom. Heath's cracks me up.

This is a portrait of his Grandma. Love the quote he said as he reflected upon his drawing. Ha!

Heath wrote the first poster and Nolan wrote the other two. Love Nolan's drawing of my Mom. He worked very hard to make her hair "flat". He's so observant. Brooksie scribbled in the corner of the middle poster as well.

We posted these videos on Facebook for my parents on their birthdays. We were so sad that we couldn't be there in person. But we wanted them to know that we were thinking about them and missing them for sure.

We also Skyped them the nights of their birthdays as well. On my Mom's b-day my brother Skyped in too and we gave them our combined gift...an ipad! It is so fun to be able to spoil them. They have done so much for all of us over the years and now we get to give back. The gift has been a hit and they have now been enjoying using their ipad from the comfort of their couch.

And now moving on to some other randoms...

I couldn't resist snapping this picture of Heath at TRU. We were playing a relay race game and he volunteered to be the kid to be "dressed" by all the other kids who retrieved clothing items. He loved every silly second of it. It has been an interesting endeavor being his teacher on Wednesday nights. He is so funny and loves sharing his ideas and he gets chosen often by the leaders to participate in activities in front of the large group. BUT he is not always the best listener TO ME! We are working on that. It is a late night and he is respectful to all other teachers, but he feels the need to challenge me. But it is such a special time for me to spend learning about and teaching others about Jesus with my boys. So we'll continue to focus on improving his listening skills with me a little more each week. ;)

Here's a snap shot from Cara's super fun ladies night out last month. It was a Southern Girl College Football theme. I dressed up in maize and blue to represent U of M! I would love to really live in the South and go to a game...seems so fun! We also did a "Favorite Thing" gift exchange. I came home with 2 cute scarves and an Old Navy gift card. Thanks for the yummy food and lots of laughs, Cara!

Heath's first Show & Tell...

He had to bring something that started with the first letter of his name. He and Nolan came up with the idea to bring his little baseball helmets. Uncle T. started their little collection. He was so proud of his Hats!

Oh, is it rowdy around here! All three get into the wrestling matches these days.

And then they quickly progress to weapons. Boys.

I snapped this picture this week. Yes, I took the picture before helping Heathy up, HA! Brooks all out flattened Heath to the ground. He loves rough housing!

Last weekend I got to take the boys to the movies.

We saw "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2". They loved this display in the lobby. They are always looking forward to the next movie thats coming out.

Usually Mark and my Mom take the boys to see all of the kids movies that come out, so it was a real treat for me to be able to go with them this time. I love watching them laugh out loud to all of the silliness! And the movie was pretty cute! We are SO thankful for Mark's free tickets.

We've been enjoying a beautiful fall. And I'm thankful for my mornings off to spend with the boys. I love walking Nolan to school, getting the laundry done, emptying the dishwasher, and playing action figures with the boys before I head into school. It makes our evenings way less stressful to be able to get some household chores done in the morning. And then my weekends aren't ALL LAUNDRY, ALL DAY LONG like they used to be.

Heath had "Donuts with Dads" last week. It was fun for him to be able to show Mark around his classroom, to have breakfast with him, and to make this fun craft. I think this is seriously one of the cutest crafts my boys have ever made at school. Love it.

We live super close to Chapparal High School. So we walked up for their Homecoming parade this past Wednesday.

We LOVE these neighbor girls and they LOVE our boys.

Brooksie had fun strutting around, waving at the floats, and sucking on his sucker. He had a whole basket full of candy that Mark collected for him, but he couldn't have cared less. All he needed was his sucker! Ha!

Nolan and Heath had a BLAST! They got right out there and waved and shouted, "Go Chapparal!" and got SO much candy! Their favorite floats were kids dressed up like minions from "Despicable Me" and another where they were dressed like Batman and another where girls dressed up like Disney charters- Buzz Lightyear & Sully.

Here is Heathy on a sugar high! And this is just HIS candy. Yikes! And in just 3 weeks it will be Halloween! I think we'll be set on candy until next Fall! Some of it has already disappeared to Oma's house and some might just have to find it's way to Mommy's prize box at school as well.

Heath had a Walk-a-thon at his school this week.

Here is the South East Christian Eagle! One little girl in Heath's class was deathly afraid of it and had to be carried the whole way! Ha!

Can you spot Heath walking out with his class? A local Dentist donated all of the t-shirts for the kids.

Ready to run!

It was a very chilly morning. So they only stayed out for about 20 minutes. He was so cute walking and running with his class.

Brooks and I joined them for a couple laps. Heath just SHINES when he feels special or proud. Love it!

That cold I mentioned earlier brought in this later that night...

Snow! Brooks liked walking around, squatting down, and touching the snow and wet sidewalks. It will be fun this Winter to be able to have all 3 out playing in the snow.

Friday night Mammoth Heights had a Sock Hop. It was a cold night and I didn't really have appropriate "Sock Hop" clothes for the boys, so we didn't dress up. Instead Nolan just sported his new MHE sweatshirt.

He had fun playing games and winning candy and prizes. This fishing game was his favorite because you automatically hooked a bag full of candy! Like we needed any more!

Trying his hand at bowling.

And watching Makayla bowl too...

Bean Bag Toss

Brooks dancing to some 50's tunes. He was walking around the whole school like he owned the place. Such an independent little dude.

We bought 5 raffle tickets to try to win some cookie decorating time with Mrs. Stackley. And we also bought some balloon creations, which are always a hit with the boys.

Heath chose a sword and Nolan chose an airplane. Both purple for the Rockies. And don't you just love his new sweatshirt. The Mammoth is super cheesy, but it's such a warm, cozy hoodie and I just love that he LOVES his school. He had fun spotting kids from his class all night.

After balloon animals, we headed to the lunch room for hotdogs and rootbeer floats.

Brooks once again running off on his own- with hotdog in hand. He keeps us on our toes.

That evening when we got home, I went through Nolan's backpack and organized papers. I found this drawing that he made during inside recess that day. Can you guess what it is?