Halloween - before Christmas!

Just had to get the Halloween pictures up before the Christmas ones take over. This pumpkin was an ambitious effort started by Katy, who got frustrated, then was finished by Jason. I learned not to try such an intricate pattern on a HUGE thick pumpkin. We've also learned not to carve our pumpkins until the 30th or 31st so they don't get all mushy and sad looking.
Starting out trick or treating, with the neighbors. Can you tell which are the Bakers? (minus the cat, she's pretty obvious)

This (recycled) costume was the big hit this year. Please note the lego guy "hands" - my favorite part. Yes, he can see - there are small slits in the eyes.

CC's pumpkin!! Drew herself and then we carved together.

Halloween party at Invesco Field (Mile High Stadium)

Pumpkin Patch

In October, Jason took a Friday off that the boys had off from school, so we could all go to Anderson Farms. It's in Erie, about 20 minutes away, and has a big fall-fest type of event. It was a perfect fall day, not too hot and sunny, not rainy. We had a great day!
Love this picture of CC driving Andrew in the barrel train.
This should have been a perfect opportunity for a family picture - 5 openings. One of the Bakers wouldn't cooperate - can you guess who? (do you like Jason's pigtails?)
They had a hay-bale maze with a few "holes" in the bales, for playing hide and seek. They also had huge corn mazes but we didn't get to do those.

Yep, I took this picture. I admit I have never looked this closely at any kernel of corn, to notice - hey, candy corn really DOES look like real corn! How about that??

I swore we weren't going to buy any pumpkins (I'm too cheap, and get them at Target instead) - but out there in that HUGE pumpkin patch, they had over 100 varieties of pumpkin - so cool. We came home with 3 - 2 of them "ghost" pumpkins, you can see them in the background.

Getting along!

Our wagon ride stopped to feed these cows - the feeding part was a little yucky but wow, look how this Highland cow's hair color matches Brendans!!

Brendan with the camera.

These huge pumpkins the kids are sitting on were for sale, $100 each.

Andrew, with game face on!

First days

This year, those first-day-of-school pictures have a different meaning for us. The boys moved to a different school, Jefferson Academy Charter School. It's still very close, only about 6 minutes from our house. It was a hard decision - we loved their former school and had created a nice community for ourselves there. JA (new school) has a middle school and high school, in addition to the elementary school - and we had been on their waitlist a few years, so we jumped in. There were some definite first-day jitters (for me as well as boys!) but so far, so good!

Can you tell it's a pretty bright, sunny day? Brendan: Mom, it's hurting my eyes! Just take the picture!

This was the last day of this bookbag for Brendan - for the first time he has to bring home (heavy) textbooks to use for his homework - this wasn't cutting it. The school recommends the kind of backpack that has wheels, and now I know why. Maybe for Christmas!

4th grade for Brendan, 2nd grade for Andrew!

And the next day, CC had her first day of preschool! She's going to Happy Valley Children's Ranch. So cute, it's almost 60 years old - a little farm, where the kiddos get to feed the animals, brush them, and ride ponies. She LOVES going to preschool - the teachers tell me she's very quiet there (weird!!) but is not sad to see mom go at all!

And now onto the beginning of what has been our lives (really) for the past 2 months - fall sports. Andrew is on a new inter-league soccer team where he plays teams in nearby cities. First year for the jersey uniform for him vs. a t-shirt - love it!

CC is playing soccer for the first time - cutest, cutest thing ever. Her team is called the Ladybugs - and she loves it. She was due to play after 4 years of going to every sport/game known to man for her brothers! Watching those little girlies swarm around the ball, kick in the wrong goal, and constantly look back at parents with a big grin - love it! CC's got an orange ball here, but for her birthday, big brother Andrew got her a purple soccer ball!

And yep, in the middle, that fierce-looking dude is Brendan. (aka "Baker") He requested to play football this fall for the first time, and we dove in. We all learned a lot this season, and as ever so proud of this kid who is not afraid to try ANYTHING in the world...how amazing is that!? He's really loving the game, and Jason is loving that Brendan will sit with him on a Sunday for HOURS and watch the professional games.

Love how CC's looking up at Brendan in this picture.

We're baaaa-aackkk....

Yeah, yeah, it's been forever. No reason, excuse, etc. - just that after a certain point of not posting it then started to seem like an insurmountable task to try to catch up. So, I'm not even going to try to catch up - just post some stuff that I remember or was interesting!

Here's our long-haired little man...no more buzz cuts for Andrew! Been growing it out for a few months now - it's not "styled" here (yep, we even put product in it : )) - but what a cute smile.


And speaking of hairstyles - here's little sister bear after I curled it a bit, and she's wearing one of my necklaces. Funny to see this picture - just the other day picked up the pieces of those sunglasses in the back seat of the car to toss out!
This I do remember - it's September 5 - our 12th wedding anniversary. We splurged and went out to dinner at one of our favorite grown-up restaurants - and brought the kids. Here they are toasting their Shirley Temples. (note that Andrew's hair has been combed recently)
Same anniversary dinner! A couple of weeks earlier - Jason's birthday. I enjoyed the very devilish look and color of this photo! Birthday cake, every year = choc on choc (chocolate cake, chocolate frosting)
Random, but funny - CC dressed herself to step out into the rainy night. She was so excited to have a reason to use the princess umbrella - just doesn't rain that much here!

Fresh from the garden - zucchini. First year growing it, even though I know it's the "easiest." This one we let get a little too big!
More on this later - football for the first time for Brendan. This was the first time he put on the pads and helmet - I was gushing and had to take a picture.
Okay, I've broken the seal of no posts...will do more very soon!!
ps - Mike - your turn!!

...and the last of the Highlights!

Brendan had a total of 4 swim meets this summer, and I posted photos of the first one - so here's the last one. He's so great about being willing to try anything - there's no stroke that he hasn't raced in - so cool! Here he is getting ready for his last race of the day, and the season....

That's his timer saying something to him...wonder what?

Brendan did the IM - Individual Medley - for the very first time in the last meet. That's 25m of each stroke - 100m total which is a lot of swimming for a little guy! He did so awesome - came in second. You'll have to listen to annoying mom voice in the video (it's not all me...really) - B swears he hears us while swimming.

Love this picture of this very handsome red-haired guy.

CC's best little buddy is Megan - little sister of one of Andrew's former classmates. They are so stinking girly and cute together! Here they are holding hands going down the pool slide together!

So since we are now a football family...the Broncos had a practice session at Invesco Field (Mile-High) for free - so we went to check it out. I swear - a minute before some of these pictures are taken - Andrew is happy and smiling - then pulls out this face when the camera comes out!!
There were over 20,000 in the stadium for the practice!

I mentioned a couple months back that our good friends were moving - we were lucky enough to have a few days with them in July in their transition between here & Virginia - we went to a Rockies game and here we are tailgating below...

and here's 6 little monkeys, laying on the bed (plus Hello Kitty).

Whew! That's a lot of summer covered.

Highlights, part 2....

There's a HUGE Renaissance Festival in Larkspur, CO - about an hour south of us. We went once before when boys were teeny-tiny and had a blast! We went again this year with some friends and had a great day. It's amazing how in-character everyone in the Faire is - we are "milord" and "milady" all day long.
We brought along a pair of wings for CC and she wore them all day - here she is with her new friend Unicorn.
This picture is hilarious - I don't even know what this guy is exactly (feel free to tell me if you know! Death?) - he was just sitting there on the bench all alone, boys sat down with him and he didn't move a muscle the whole time. Love the wary look on Andrew's face.
They had a little children's area with a couple of free rides and petting zoo. It's a little butterfly CC is sitting in, she rode it about 3 times in a row. Brendan tried to get in one but he was too big!! We went to 2 separate jousting shows. Pretty cool except they had the entire crowd chanting "TO THE DEATH!" when the bad guy challenged the honor of the good guy. When they jousted, there was even fake (?) blood that came spurting out, to the boys delight. Below a little reenactment. (Andrew, apparently, is the bad guy)
Next up - each year we participate in the Children's Reading Program at the library, where you are rewarded for reading a certain number of hours in the summer. One of the prizes is free tickets to Lakeside, a verrrryyy old amusement park in Denver. It's fun to go, it's so "retro" - they have a ridiculously old, rickety, wooden roller coaster that we rode this year for the first time. I'm not a huge roller-coaster person anymore, and riding this one all I could see was the peeling paint, the perceived missing wood-pieces, etc. CC loved it and rode it twice (with Jason) - I couldn't believe it. I just love the letters in this sign! We start out in the Kiddie part of Lakeside - and work our way up. Here you can see Andrew's enthusiasm for the Chariot Ride. : )

Kids all love this one - the Frog Hopper. So cute!

Here's CC making sure Brendan is listening to her...ha!

And - another benefit in the Summer Reading Program - free tickets to the Colorado Rapids - local Major League Soccer team. We'd never been before so it was fun to experience it. Here the kids are with Marco Van Bison (really) one of the mascots. The game ended up tied 1-1...so weird to leave a major league game without a winner!
Here we are up at Standley Lake cooking out with friends Steph & Jay (newlyweds, can't believe it's been nearly a year since we were all in their wedding! Ah to see the boys in those suits again!) You can't see the geese that were VERY aggresively trying to eat dinner with us.

Highlights of Summer, Part 1...

...because I've been so lazy about posting, looks like it's time to get some stuff on here!
School starts in 6 days, so we're at the tail end here. I've said before that I sometimes feel that this blog is one long Christmas letter, but that no one would want to read the mundane/not-fun parts of our lives. I've realized something else about that - by posting these pictures, and stories, it helps me focus on these good things - the many blessings I (we) do have. And to see that the other stuff (dryer broke! Cavities!) simply doesn't have the same worth.

One of the true highlights of the summer was Vacation Bible School at our church. We didn't have it last year due to renovations in the building, so kids were really looking forward to it this year. They went each morning for a week - and loved it. Yes, "they" - even CC got to go! She had such a good time and didn't hesitate to say good-bye to me even the first day. I know it helped that her brothers were there, and her babysitter, and some neighbors...
Lots of fun, upbeat music every day, definitely the favorite part. Brendan is on the left with his black baseball hat backwards. The theme was "The High Seas" and all the songs, crafts, activities were around that. Here's the "set" for the stage - this is the "other" Brendan and Andrew (and brother Lucas) (many of you know that story!) in the picture with the Bakers.