November Snow - by Brad

In the last 10 days we have received several inches of snow. Probably more snow than I remember seeing in November. We are supposed to get another 4-8 inches in the next 24 hours. Even when there was just enough snow to cover the grass, the boys were wanting to get out the sleds. In the past years, Wesley and Spencer were a little apprehensive about sledding, but this year they were all in.

I helped the boys make a small snowman (not pictured). They came running into the kitchen wanting a carrot for its nose. Not more than 15 minutes later, the snowman was toppled and Wesley was eating the nose...  

All three boys making tunnels in the deceased snowman...

After the second snow, we made a sledding course along side our house. The route is probably about 175 feet long... if you count the 15 feet they slide into the street. The boys found a couple pairs of old ski masks for some added goofiness...

A nice series of snow-in-the-mask. At least Spencer is still smiling!

And a couple pictures I thought were cute...

Halloween + - by Brad

Yeah, this is a little late, but here are a few pictures of the boys carving their pumpkins...

And the finished products...

Here's the trick-or-treating crew. We drug these kids around the neighborhood to about 25 different houses. We have a motorcycle man, firefighter, pirate, little house on the prairie girls, and a robot (kind of).

This doesn't have anything to do with Halloween, but the other day, Spencer moved a chair up to the sink, tore his pajama shirt off, threw it on the floor, and started doing dishes.

Boys Weekend - by Brad

Lindsey headed to her annual "women's weekend" in Leavenworth with the ladies in her family, so I had the boys to myself from Thursday through Sunday (I think that's more than a weekend). I had a fun time with my boys. Thursday afternoon one of their friends came over and played for the afternoon and then I took them to Awana while I had music practice at church. Friday I took the older boys to school and Spencer and I had a nice morning running errands and visiting with my parents for an hour or so. After we picked up the boys from school, they decorated their wooden boats for the Awana "Yacht Races" event. One of the highlights was that Elliott and Wesley got to race each other. Elliott ended up taking second place for the second year in a row. He got a nice new trophy for that.



Saturday morning I woke up to a hideous sound that I thought was the smoke detector. After I smacked it around a few times I realized it wasn't the smoke detector, but it was Lindsey's arm-band running light equipped with an attack siren. Spencer somehow got to it and set it off. Of course he went running and I was left trying to figure out what was screaming at me. Once I was up and awake, I made our traditional Saturday morning pancakes... but I forgot to add the butter when I made the batter. Luckily when I slapped enough butter on the cooked pancakes, they didn't taste bad. After breakfast we headed to Riverfront Park and I let the boys play around and burn off some energy before we picked up the promised McDonald's for lunch.

The leaves were falling and the boys decided to make a game of catching the leaves before they hit the ground...

Throwing acorns at dad...

Some goofy poses...

After the Happy Meals I gave Wesley and Spencer haircuts, bathed them, fed them dinner, played games, watched movies, went to church Sunday morning and waited with anticipation (and scrambling to clean things up) for Mom to come home.

A couple funny dialogues from the weekend...

Spencer came downstairs with his eyes a little watery and looking a little bloated.

Me: Did you just drink my coke, Spence?

Spencer: No... BELCH.

Monday morning before school started I walked by Elliott's room as he was getting dressed when he stopped me and said, "Dad, I only have one pair of pants because you forgot to do laundry this weekend!"
I am pretty sure Mom was laughing in the background.
To which I replied, "I know, I know, I'm am definitely not as great as Mom."