Long Time No Post!! :)

Yikes! Time got away from me - I can't believe it's been almost two weeks since I updated this!! I'm surprised at how busy I'm managing to keep myself with the kids gone all day - it's amazing to me that's it's already October tomorrow. I have a few minutes now that all my boys are watching the Vikings - just took the picture to the right a few minutes ago. They are so cute, all piled into Mark's big chair with their Vikings blanket, trying to learn the in's and out's of football. They needed some "daddy time" - Mark was gone at a church retreat on Friday night and part of Saturday, and the boys MISSED him. I love how much they love to be with their Dad.

Had a busy weekend - Mark was gone until yesterday at noon, so the kids and I laid in bed yesterday morning watching cartoons for a while, then went to Target, then went to their soccer game, then got their hair cut, then had lunch, then went to a birthday party, and THEN Mark and I went to an extremely boring Chamber of Commerce dinner. Uggh. At least it was a free meal and the food was good. This morning, I had to be at church at 8 a.m. for a meeting, then we had Sunday school at 9, after which we had to race out to Zion to attend their service for the school's 50th anniversary - all the school kids sang a big medley of songs (8-10 of them!!!) and it was the SWEETEST THING EVER. They made mom all misty eyed - it was spectacular. :) And wouldn't you know, this was the one time we didn't bring the video camera. In some ways, that was good though - I was completely absorbed in them, and not worrying about what angle to get. After an open house in their classrooms, we came home and are looking forward to a quiet evening at home with a movie.

Last weekend (a week ago) we closed out our camping season with our camping buddies the Rossons. It was a really nice weekend - great weather, great time. (Check out the picture of the "crooked cabin"!) On Saturday night as we were "doing bedtime" in the camper with the boys, Mark mentioned that it was our last night of camping until next spring, and within 5 minutes, both boys were in their bunks crying in their pillows because they didn't want camping season to be over. It was really cute, and it made me thankful that we are creating such awesome memories together as a family - it's clearly having a big impact on them - - and I'm sure their eagerness to go camping will diminish a little each year as they get more involved with other things. We made it out seven times this year! It was even sad for Mark and I to put the camper away until next year . . . .


Doing the Hamster Dance with Kyle and Lacy . . .

We also wrapped up the soccer season this week - the boys' team actually has their two last games this upcoming week, but we'll miss them because we'll be in Iowa visiting my sister and her family. I'm posting a couple pictures from this past week. We saw a big progression in the boys during this season - I can't wait to see how they are doing in the spring.

Jack's in the red shoes, center of the picture:

Action shot of Noah:

The kids have been doing GREAT in Awana - they earned their vests and books on the very first night - got through all their memory work perfectly. I thought they might need a little "break" then, but they eagerly did 3 more verses for the following week. In flipping through their books (which they can take at their own pace), it's staggering to me what they have to memorize, but so far it doesn't seem to be a problem. Oh to have that mental capability again!! :) I couldn't do what they are doing, I don't think!

Mark's officially on jury duty starting tomorrow - he has the month of October - but he doesn't have to report this week, so he's happy about that. Only 4 more weeks to go!!! The kids only have school 3 1/2 days this week (yeaahh!) and then they have 1/2 of Thursday, all of Friday and all of Monday off. I'm so excited to have 4 1/2 days in a row with them!! We're departing on Thursday for Iowa and will return on Monday. We have some fun things planned with the Wranek family, so we're all getting anxious to leave! Have a great week . . . . .