Braum's

There just might an ice cream place that we really like. After working on Dylan's talk for church, and then a quick trip to the library, we went to Braum's to make sure it was still tasty.

I had pumpkin and it was so good, so we bought some and took some home. Nice treat!

Pack Meeting

November 16--Aaron was in Arkansas that week, but was back in time to take  Blake to his basketball practice while I got pack meeting set up...and then bring them over after practice. Blake was about 5 minutes late to pack meeting, which ended up being right when we started.

Anyway, I thought these treats were cute.

Homework

This is what the kids look like after school doing their homework...although they don't usually wear a beanie and gloves.

Truett's Birthday Party and the Spa

November 11--I took Dylan to Truett's birthday party. It was over at a park by our house. They made these cool barriers for them to have nerf gun wars. 

Truett is Dylan's buddy from soccer. I work with the mom in yearbook. We really like their family.

They played a lot and then ate.

Then hit the pinata.

We came home and went in the spa. I had turned on the heat before we went to the party. We were told a year ago that our heater wasn't working and was totally broken so we needed a new unit. Well, we called another company to come check it out and well, $100 it was fixed, well, we thought because we hadn't checked it out yet. But it worked and the kids LOVED it. They love swimming so much. Our spa isn't huge, but big enough for them to do a little swimming in.

That night our babysitter came over and Aaron and I went to Top Golf with some friends. One of our friends got us all in for free, so we just had to buy food. It was a lot of fun even if I am terrible at Top Golf.

Thanksgiving Lunch at School

November 8--it rained all day long. I had jury duty, so I reported to the court house. It is such a loooooong process, so to make a long story short, I was juror #7, but then I kicked myself off because I  told them I needed to pick up my kids at 3pm. That counted as my jury service. 

I raced over to the school to have lunch with the boys. It was their special Thanksgiving Lunch. I was a little late for Dylan's, but I still made it. I talked with some other parents. They were super upset over the little boy in the class that is having behavioral problems.

I waited for a little bit after having lunch with Dylan and then Blake came in. They both were surprised to see me because they knew I had jury duty.

We had Kenny come sit with us...it was his birthday!

Later that day I went to Cub Scouts and helped out since one of the leaders was gone. This was their fun activity before they did scout stuff. So funny to watch people play Twister. 

Half Marathon

Saturday morning I ran another half marathon. My friend ran it, but she is amazing and beat me by 6 minutes. I finished in 1 hour 51 minutes...it is good for me. I got 4th in my age group. It was warm for me. We started at 60 degrees and by the end it was in the low 70s....with the sun. I never run when the sun is out. Better then freezing cold  though!

Aaron brought the kids at the end, so they cheered me on at the very end.

I walked around for a couple minutes, said bye to my friend, then we headed over to Dylan's basketball practice. They had a parent meeting, so I had to sit down for an hour--that was not fun. Blake had his practice Friday night--but Dylan's will normally by on Tuesday night and Blake's will be Thursday. They both really like their teams and are really excited for the season.

Post Halloween

The day after Halloween I had  to go to work, so I dropped off the kids at school and  then ran to Walmart to check out their sales. I scored some great deals. Got some cool costumes and also this fun haunted house that we put together later that night.

Small world--the teacher that I taught that day is good friends with the family who we bought our current house from. I got to hear some fun stories.

Happy Halloween

Our pumpkin---it's a ghost--pretty awesome huh?

That day for lunch I met up with some friends. It was fun...and tasty.

Getting ready to head over to the Neumann's house.

It is our tradition to go with the Neumann's and their neighbors. 

Blake, Dylan and Beckett sprinted from house to house..they did not wait for the girls. They got sooo much candy.

Every year this family decorates their golf cart. It was Jurassic World this year. I was talking with them for awhile telling them how much I look forward to this every year. It is so creative.

Their loot!!

Parent Teacher Conferences

October 30--the boys had the day off of school for parent teacher conferences. I was able to talk with Blake's teacher at 7:30 and then Dylan's teacher at 8---this way we could have the rest of the day to play.

Blake had been the Superhero student. He had to fill this out and it was up in the 3rd grade hall. One of the things that I love about Texas is that he can write that Jesus is his hero. 

Update on Blake at school--his teacher is a tough grader I learned, but he was struggling a little in the begining of the year with his creative writing so we worked on it at home. Well, he has improved a little in this, but she has found out that he is fantastic at writing with exploratory writing (non-fiction) writing. So she is working on him with that, building his confidence by showing how good he is with that. He is really, really good in math. She showed me the district assessment tests and the questions that every kid got wrong...except Blake...he got them right. She adores Blake and loves that he wants to learn. Once again, we feel blessed to have a great teacher for Blake. There are a lot of good teachers at this school, but I sure feel like Mrs. Gullickson is a great fit for Blake. 

Update on Dylan--well, his teacher said it, "Dylan isn't just a little bit above the class...he is a lot above the class." She is impressed with his reading and math. He knows how to add and even subtract (some subtraction) without counters. She also said he is great in science. She said that she wished she had 22 Dylan's in the class because then she could skip to class every morning. There is one kid in the class that is a pain--my words, not hers. They have had to pull in the assistant principal or principal almost every day. I don't know why parents think it isn't okay to well, parent their kids and make the schools try to teach the kids discipline and how to behave. Anyway, I feel bad for her, so I told her to send stuff home with Dylan for me to work on--cut out, etc. She has to spend a lot of time helping this friend. Anyway, Dylan is doing great and this was a shocker for me...is one of the fastest kids to get unpacked, or packed or get to the rug for circle time. I feel like he is slooooow sometimes, but apparently he is the Flash compared to these friends. Kindergarten teachers have so much patience!! We are so grateful for Mrs. Robinson. We loved her with Blake and we love her even more now!

Once I got back, we headed over to the park since we don't get to go very much anymore. We saw some friends there too.

We also went to the library, carved our pumpkin, worked on Dylan's homework and then went over to dinner at our friends' house, the Wright's for dinner. They are new in our ward and they are pretty amazing. Their oldest is 17 and youngest is 4. They are CPAs and she is a runner....love her.

Last Day with Grandma and Gramps

Sunday--the boys had their primary program at church. They did great. Alec, a young man who my parents knew on their Ohio mission who showed up at our church a couple months ago looking for them, drove down from Oklahoma to come to church with them and then came over to our house after to have food and then headed back to OK. 

Gramps decided to "sing" the boys a song.

We took some pictures and then took them to the airport. We sure love it when they visit. I think it will be especially hard for the boys to not see them for a little over a year, so it was great that they were able to come out for this visit. Thanks for coming!