Project Life - 2012 Week 47

November 18 - 24

This was such a busy - and FUN - week!!
We were so blessed to have the whole week off from school so we were able to have a few days of just relaxing and hanging out. It was fabulous!
Then we got busy...

On Wednesday, the 21st, we met Evie at the mall to visit Santa.
Evie wasn't so thrilled to visit Santa, but Bennett was an old pro at visiting St. Nick.

While Evie was crying in Santa's lap :), Bennett patiently waited and showed me his letter. Now, I know that it looks really long, but if you can read it, he is asking Santa for some old Ninjago sets and figures (and listing that ones that he doesn't have so that Santa can just choose which ones he'd like to bring). He also asked for the Skylanders Giants Wii game. It also starts 'Dear Santa, I have tried to be good this year. (Hey, Nobody is perfect!)'. Ha! 

I think he's been pretty good :)

Thankfully, Evie got some candy from Ho-Ho and she got happy again. 
And we all ate some lunch. Such a fun day!

On Thursday, it was Thanksgiving! 
We celebrated at Gigi and Bubba's house again this year and it was wonderful!

We brought Papa's baked apples, 

 these cute little cookies, and 

 a cherry pie. 
Bennett did a great job with the turkey on the top, don't you think??

Bennett's thankful card:

Brad's and my cards:

After lunch, we took some family pictures. 

It really was such a fun and relaxing day. I didn't want to go home! I think we should have brought our pajamas so that we could have spent the night :) 
We have so much to be thankful for - and family is at the top of the list!

Oh, and we can't forget the big day on the 23rd!

Brad turned 40!! 

We had a wonderful time celebrating Brad - and we started celebrating 40 days earlier by making a 40 piece puzzle with a picture that Bennett drew on one side. On the other side, each piece had something that we loved about Brad on it. We had a great time telling him all the ways that we loved him! He is so special to us!!

On Saturday we had the family over to celebrate his birthday and to watch the Iron Bowl. The game didn't go the way we wanted, but we weren't surprised :)

 We had a great time just hanging out with everyone. So fun!

We wrapped the festivities with some homemade cupcakes.
We loved celebrating Brad!
Such a fun, blessed week!

Project Life 2012 - Week 46

November 11 - 17

I know that it is early for some, but we put up our tree on the Sunday, November 11!! After last Christmas our tree lights died, so we had to get rid of it. So for the past couple of weeks, I have agonized about which new tree to get. There were a few prerequisites: colored lights (not those crazy LED lights - just the normal ones like we had when we were little!!), no chunky plastic branches, a good green color, 7 1/2 feet tall and not too broad. Oh, and I had to get a good deal. This tree kept calling my name and met all of the criteria (although it certainly wasn't the cheapest that I saw :)

Anyway, Brad was home this weekend and willing to help put up the tree, so I jumped on the chance to put it up! Here are a few actions shots.

 Bennett can NOT stand the timer on the camera. Even though this picture is blurry, it makes me laugh. Yes, he is wearing antlers and a jingle bell. I'm pretty sure I had just said 'Ok, look normal'. Ha!

 The tree wasn't quite level, so it required 2 guys to inspect. I'm happy to report that they fixed it perfectly.

On Tuesday the 13th I had a meeting at church that kept me out past Bennett's bedtime. He's been picking me to put him to bed more often recently, so when I got home I found this note on the coffee table.

So sweet. 

Ok, I'm including these last 2 pictures even though they really belong on last week's post (remember the one that I said only had one picture!! Ha!)

This is the Thanksgiving decor in the dining room. Bennett helped me put it up the weekend after Halloween and we had the BEST time doing it.

 Bennett loved putting the cornucopia together.

 And he loved filling the jars with acorns. 

His favorite part though - definitely the 'harvest candy corn' jar :)

So thankful to have his help - it is so much fun to do things together!!

Project Life - 2012 Week 45

November 4 - 10

Only one picture this week, but it is a really special one!

On Friday, November 9, Bennett's school hosted Grandparents' Day and Bennett was lucky enough to have all 4 of his grandparents come!

The program consisted of a Veteran's Program as well as each of the Lower Grades showcasing several of the items that they have memorized over the past months. The 4th grade sang a Latin song, recited the phases of the moon and St. Patrick's Breastplate. It was a wonderful program.

Bennett also got to show the grandparents around his classroom, which was a lot of fun (so I hear - I had to wait downstairs... Grandparents only!!)

It was one year ago that Bennett and I first visited this new school (during this program). The program was just as wonderful (and moving just as it was today) and was the first confirmation that we were on the right track toward a new home for Bennett's schooling. It was exciting to bring Bennett's grandparents here to show them where Bennett is learning and why he is loving it so much. And, it didn't hurt to hear so many compliments from his teachers :)

Afterwards we took everyone out to lunch (at Shane's - are you surprised!??!) It was a wonderful day celebrating Bennett's grandparents!! We are thankful for each one of them and how they each nurture him in different ways. 

Project Life 2012 - Week 44

October 28 - November 3

Well, football is over and our baseball is coming to an end as well. It looks like we survived our fall sports calendar!

On the 28th, after Bennett's last game (he got to pitch again!) the team had their team party. The coach gave each of the teammates a ball with a special reward written on it.

 Bennett got the 'Best Teammate' Award. 

We were very proud of him! 

He had a great season and grew so much this fall! Many of our friends thought that it wasn't beneficial to play this fall since the teams were mixed ages (Bennett played with boys that were a year younger than he was). But for Bennett, it was perfect! He got to be a leader, got to really polish his skills, and got to play positions that he's been hoping to play for many seasons. We loved Coach Matt!

After the party we hurried over to the church to catch the very end of 'Trunk-or-Treat'. This was the first time in several years that we haven't had our own trunk, but we just couldn't figure out how to be in 2 places at once :)

 Bennett and Brad dressed as... baseball players!!! 

Don't they look great!

We had a great time and Bennett scored a ton of candy and goodies in 20 short minutes!

I've got to share how the costume came about... Bennett wanted to be a football player this year, but he only wanted to do it if he could have the big pads. We were sitting at Shane's having dinner (remember the last post about the black eye?) waiting for our dinner and he said 'Well, do you think that I should just be a baseball player for Halloween?'  I just about fell out of my chair!! I had told him that I didn't want to buy big expensive football pads, but I was prepared to buy some sort of costume!! I casually said 'Sure. I think that would be a great idea' and it was settled. I'm not sure how it was so easy, but I sure was thankful!!

On Halloween night we were invited (well, really I kinda asked if we could go over!!) to our friends' house to trick-or-treat with them in their neighborhood. Our neighborhood isn't very big and is kind of hard to navigate, and theirs is so much fun. They were so kind to let us come and we had a blast!

 We took a bumblebee, ninja, and baseball player out for some trick-or-treating :)

 Bennett insisted on carrying the bat. Can you guess how long it took before I ended up carrying it?

We got so much candy and walked so far that the dads came and found us so that we could unload the bags and keep going. That is some serious trick-or-treating!! :)

On Saturday, the 3rd, we celebrated Gigi's birthday (one day early) at mom's house. We took some pictures of Evie for her Christmas card and Bennett hopped in for a few.

Getting Evie to sit can be a challenge, but she sure does love her 'Bebbit' :)

Project Life 2012 - Week 43

October 21 - 27

On Sunday, the 21st Bennett got to pitch again and I was there to catch it with my camera!

I forget to breathe when he pitches. I just was beginning to remember to breathe when he is up to bat!! He, however, is cool as a cucumber :)

+++++++
Well, we went through our whole flag football season without any wins - until the very end! We went out winning, which shocked everyone. Well, everyone except for the boys!

We played in the tournament on the 22nd and wouldn't you know it - we won!! 

 Shocked. That is really the only word that I can have to our win. I have to admit that I had counted the game on the 22nd as our last game. That'll teach me to make plans :)  And wouldn't you know it that the next game, which was on the 25th was a late game!! In case you don't know it, we are not much on late night activities around here. 

But, regardless of how I feel about late night activities, we were moving on up the bracket! So, on Thursday, the 25th we headed back to the fields for another game. 
This game didn't go so well for us.

The boys were sad, but they had a great season. And, as Coach said, they made great improvements over the season!
And, as a consolation, we had a little impromptu team party at Brusters, complete with trophies. Ice cream and big gaudy trophies make everything better!
Then I hurried Bennett home to get into bed. Gotta stick to the schedule :)

On Friday, the 26th, Bennett's school had a their Service Day. Since it was our first time to experience this day, I was excited to be able to go along! We went to downtown shelter to let the kids play with the younger children there. I wasn't sure how it would go, but I was sure that God would work it out, and boy, did he!

When we arrived it was like most mission trips we have been on - pure chaos. Of course, the kids really didn't know and were having a great time just doing something out of the ordinary. We finally got divided into groups and our half of the 4th grade was to go and 'play' with the 3 year olds in their classroom. Well, just as we settled in to read books, the fire alarm went off. We all headed outside - the residents acted as if this happened all the time (and come to find out, I think it does! It happened once more before we left!!)

Well, we had brought silly b@nds for the children (the kids had donated from their own collections) so we let them give them out while we were outside. It was awesome to watch! Bennett was so excited to interact with the children and just give. 

Somehow, after the fire alarm, our group was allowed to go outside with some of the little children to play on the playground. What a blessing! At first, the big kids weren't sure what to do, but after a little encouragement to 'just play', they began doing what kids do best. Bennett found a friend after just a few minutes. We don't know his real name - he only wanted to be called 'Batman', so that's what Bennett called him :)

They sawed down trees and pretty much were inseparable for the 45 minutes that we were there. We brought Popsicles, which were also a hit as you can imagine. Finally, they brought out the $ store goodies that the kids had donated. It was so cute to see each child as they finally understood that the gift was theirs to keep. As Bennett helped Batman put together his big Styrofoam airplane I walked up and as I watched them together I realized that Batman didn't understand that the plane was for him. Bennett was putting it together for him and Batman was content just watching. I encouraged Bennett to tell Batman that it was his to keep. At first Bennett was a little defensive, but once I explained, he understood. My heart swelled as Bennett told Batman that the plane was his to keep. For ever and ever. And the smile on Batman's face was enough to melt my heart.

The experience at the shelter reminds me of all of the other times I've been on mission trips - I go thinking that I am going to help others (or in this case to be a chaperon on a field trip), but really, God does a work on me. My heart broke as 2 little boys on 2 separate occasions cried for me to pick them up and not leave them. I could only imagine the heartache that these little guys had been through at such a young age. 

Bennett didn't want to leave when it was time to go. He told me that he had tears in his eyes when he heard it was time to leave. He's asked several times if we could go back and visit Batman. His heart has been changed and he has a new understanding for loving others. What a blessing. 
I'm thankful in so many ways.

Project Life 2012 - Week 42

October 14 - 20

Home! I'm staying home for a while! :) I love being home!!

On the 17th we enjoyed a nice dinner outside at Shane's. We love that place!

Did I mention that Bennett got a nice black eye?

It happened on the 12th at a friend's birthday party. Apparently the boys decided to play a little game of tackle football while waiting to pick up the sister of the birthday boy. No helmets, of course! My friend (the mom) felt terrible. Bennett got lots of attention with it, though, so I think it turned out to not be such a bad thing :) This picture doesn't really even do it justice. It was really a doozie!!

On the 19th we celebrated Mooma's birthday (a week early).

Bennett did a great job decorating her cake! Remember the other cake disaster?? 

Well, this one was a success, don't you think??!!

 We had a wonderful evening celebrating Brad's mom. She is a wonderful mom and Mooma! We are so blessed to have her so close by!

On Saturday the 20th we had another flag football game!!

I have to admit - I still have NO idea what is going on in these games :)

But I do know to cheer when Bennett crosses the end zone!!

(But I just had to ask Brad what it was called... is it an in-zone?? No, he says 'END zone'. Oh, I say. One word? Nope, he says. Two. HA!)

Here Bennett is celebrating a touchdown!! I love it when he gets to be in on the action!! He is so happy!

We were too! 

Oh, and I am a sucker for the huddles. Oh, those boys are so sweet. 

I know that they wouldn't want me to say that. But, I mean, come on. Look at that. I know that they are talking about how to crush the opponent. But from the sidelines, where the mom is sitting, that looks like something really sweet is going on, doesn't it :)

AND... after the game Pa and Brad took Bennett to the shooting range.
I said 'no' for long enough, I guess.
It is no secret that I don't like guns. It's kinda strange that I don't like them, since making bullets in the basement with dad when I was growing up is a very fond childhood memory, but anyway... I just don't. And do I want my baby child shooting a gun? Well, no.
But, Pa promised me that he would only bring the little guns, so I didn't say no.

And then I made them promise to bring me a picture :)
At least I could document it, right?
They also brought the targets with the bullet holes. 
I think next time I might go and show them how mama can hit the bullseye.
Oh wait. I don't like guns. ;)

Project Life 2012 - Week 41

October 7-13

One of the main goals that Angie and I set for the trip was to get some good family photos... you know that I am ALWAYS up for that! :) Here were some from the first try...

These were all taken on the morning of the 7th. We started at the beach, but it was too bright and windy. And Evie wasn't really feeling it :)

Mom did a good job with the group shot, though, don't you think??!!

After the photo op, we headed to the beach...

Evie likes the sand - as long as she doesn't have to touch it :)

I don't think that we've ever seen the water so smooth! They boys took a kayak out and saw tons of fish!

That night we went out to eat at Run Runners and Bennett and Evie enjoyed a little cousin time on the lawn. The picture isn't the best, but I still love it. They are the best of friends. He loves her and she loves him right back. sigh...

 On Monday, the 8th, we started with our usual early morning beach trip...

And ended the night at the Crab Trap with the hopes of some sunset pictures...

I think we did pretty good...

What do you think??

It was a great trip. I love my family! I love that Bennett gets to spend time with them. I love that Brad puts up with me (and with them). And that they put up with me :)

So much to be thankful for.