Baseball, Upnorth and Pictures

Well, the summer has been very busy with baseball. We are finally winding down, Caden is officially done, travel for Luke is done, and all that's left is Rochelle All Stars. Just think, football starts in 2 weeks!! What will we do with ourselves until then????

At one of Caden's baseball games Dylan found a friend to play with, her name is Dylan too!

The baseball game wore them out! They didn't seem to mind taking a snooze during the 5th inning.

Luke's last tournament of the travel season was in Naperville. The boys did a great job! Oh, notice Luke's baseball hat - don't you think the bill looks weird?

Over the fourth of July we went upnorth to stay at Nana and Papa's cabin. It was a full house with my sisters DeAnna and Laura and their families and our nephew Zach. All together there was 8 adults and 7 kids, 4 of them were under the age of 2! We all had a good time swimming, fishing, sitting by the fire and hanging out. It was great to see Caden and Zach having so much fun, they never get to see each other but they hit it off right away. I bought some fake tatoos at the store so they spent an hour tatooing themselves and each other! They had a blast!

We finally had professional pictures taken of Dylan (little late on that one!) and of the 3 boys together. I have had a hard time catching the 3 of them in a picture so I was happy to get this done. They all cooperated so well and smiled in all the pictures. That made it very hard to decide on which ones to buy! Here are a couple of them to check out. I will hopefully have the real pictures in a week or so.

I don't know if you can tell, but Dyl has 2 teeth on the bottom. Isn't it funny how he doesn't look like the other two?

He just learned how to do "So Big" while he was getting pictures taken - what good timing! Well, that's all I have for you and its past my bedtime so goodnight!

What a weekend - confirmation on Sunday

Okay so if graduation wasn't enough, Luke was also confirmed this weekend! Luke has been attending confirmation classes since January. Pastor Brett told the kids that if any of them could beat him wrestling he would confirm them on the spot. Let's just say they all were confirmed this morning!







This is the only picture I have of all three boys! It actually turned out pretty good.

Dylan decided to only want Luke to hold him all day! He even wanted Luke over me! Maybe he liked Luke's pink shirt????

We had Luke's graduation party on Sunday after the confirmation. We had a good time watching all the kids (16 of them!) and hanging out. All in all it was a great weekend.

We officially have a high schooler!

On Friday night we celebrated Luke's graduation from 8th grade. I was excited and sad and proud all at the same time! He looked so handsome and OLD! We were excited to see him get an award for being on the high honor roll all 3 years. He also received the Presidential Academic Excellence Award, which only 18 students out of 190 received. He then went to a dance afterward and had a great time.

I noticed in this picture that someone is the same height as me. I am not liking this!

Luke looking cool!

Luke and the guys. Notice the pink theme.

A Birthday and a Fun Run

On May 16th we all celebrated my nephew Noah's first birthday. It was fun seeing him open presents and eat his own birthday cake! He dove right in and had blue frosting from head to toe.

Ben and I were able to go to Caden's 2K Fun Run again at his school. We actually walked from

Tilton to Cooper Park and back. We have gone every year and really enjoyed this annual event.

Caden and Ben did run for awhile, but eventually Caden decided to stick to walking!

So its been awhile...

Easter at Nana and Papa's house

Okay, so I know I haven't posted anything in awhile, but we've been busy. Luke is playing on 2 baseball teams, Ben coaches one of them. Luke is also going through confirmation at church so let's just say he is a busy boy. Caden is also playing baseball, he says he doesn't like it but he really does.

Dylan loves hanging out with his brothers and they give him lots of love!

Dylan is getting bigger and into everything! He isn't playing any sports, but he's at all of his brother's games cheering them on. He's crawling and standing and still only saying "da da da da da". What's up with that?

Family Traditions

Well, we hosted Thanksgiving this year and it turned out great! I was a little nervous about cooking my first turkey, but with Aunt Karen's help, it all went smoothly. Everyone brought a dish which was great. We were able to catch up and spend time with family - DeAnna, Andy & the kids, Uncle Roger and Shirley, Aunt Karen, Mom and Randy, and Grandpa. We missed Laura and Joe, they went to Ohio this year.

Luke was a great help with Dylan while Ben and I were busy cooking in the kitchen.

We decided to pick out our Christmas tree the Saturday after Thanksgiving. We got up bright and early and headed off to Sinnissippi with Shawn, Jaime, Adam and Audyn Kemp. At 8:30am we were the 4th family there! We had hot apple doughnuts and cider and then headed off to the frasier fir field to cut down our tree. We didn't know how Dylan would do in the cold, but he was a champ. He hung out in the carrier and even took his morning nap there without complaint.

After picking out the perfect tree, Luke cut it down and Caden pulled it out of the field.

We were so glad we didn't wait until Sunday to get our tree. It snowed all day and night. Ben did end up hanging our lights on the house, but he and Caden did find time to build this cool snowman. Unfortunately, his head was bigger than his middle so it fell off shortly after everyone came inside! Oh well, at least we got some pictures of him before hand.

Halloween and more

After going to every store under the sun we finally found a halloween costume for Caden at home! He went from dressing up as the Huskie mascot, Victor E. Huskie to an old man. We found the mask at nana & papa's house and an old corduroy blazer (that Ben wore!) in our closet. He was a hit! He sat on the porch and scared all the trick or treaters. It was fun to watch!

Dylan has finally figured out how to smile. It is so wonderful to see him respond to us. He has even laughed a couple of times. He is getting big in a hurry, which we hate to see, but he is also getting to be fun. We had to take Dylan to another doctor on Friday to get measured for a helmet. His head is a little flat on one side in the back and the helmet will help reshape it. We found out that he is a little too young to have the helmet so we have to go back in a month. Hopefully his head will start getting better so we can forget the helmet altogether!


Ben, Luke, Caden and I went to the HUBS football game last Saturday and froze our butts off! They ended up losing in overtime, but we had fun anyway. Ben still isn't over the loss. How is he going to handle it when our kids are on the team???? Can you see how red my nose is??? That was a good 20 minutes after being inside!

Papa and Nana babysat Dylan while the rest of us were at the game. They were excited to see how much he smiles now!

Caden loves holding baby Dylan. He loves it for about 5 minutes and then he is ready to pass him to the next person. He and Luke have been great big brothers and are so helpful. I don't know how I would get ready in the morning without them!

If you notice in the picture, Caden has decided that he doesn't want to smile for pictures anymore. Its become a real pain to get a good picture of him!