Colt's Game

Andee was not present for this event so this post was authored by Dave.  I apologize in advance if it is not as good as what Andee usually writes.

So a few weeks ago Andee's dad was nice enough to let us use his Colts tickets.  Technically, he gave Benjamin the tickets but Benjamin kindly let me tag along for the game.  Since Andee already had a church commitment and the game did not start until 7:30pm we decided it would be best to leave the younger kids at home and instead let Benjamin bring a buddy.


Here is a photo from our seats in Lucas Oil Stadium.  There is not a bad seat in the house but Benjamin did mention that there were a lot of stairs on the way to our seats.  We started at near ground level running up the ramp to get to our seats.  By the end of our climb Benjamin's pace had slowed to a crawl.  Benjamin's buddy Aidan was the same way.  His dad Gregg and I joked that exhausting the boys on the way to our seats was going to make our job easier.



Here is a shot of Benjamin soaking in the action.  He was very attentive and quickly realized when to cheer to rally the home team.



Here is a shot of Benjamin with his buddy Aidan.  Luckily we had some empty seats around us since their enthusiasm required a lot of elbow room.



Celebrating a defensive stop.  We didn't have a lot of touchdowns to celebrate unfortunately.



This was a 1st down play and everyone else was being quiet but Benjamin and Aidan were still fired up from the last play.  I am sure the players appreciate it.



"Go Colts!!!  Get that guy!!!"



With the game all but lost halfway through the 4th quarter we decided to go explore the stadium.  The boys were ready to stretch their legs and had lots of fun acting crazy together.



Benjamin modeling his daddy's Colts jersey.  He will grow into it.



That is one happy kid.



At this point it was about 9:30pm and the boys were starting to lose it.  They started chanting "My Buddy, my buddy, my buddy" and Gregg and I could not peel them apart.  At one point Gregg was holding Aidan and I was holding Benjamin and they nearly knocked us over since they would not let go of each other's hands.



This image does not reflect the craziness of the moment.  That mannequin is lucky he did not lose his arm.



Notice how we are restraining the boys for this picture.  The boys ran off together a split second after this picture was taken.



Benjamin explaining to the press core why we lost another one.  The important thing is that the boys had a great time.  Benjamin can't wait until next time he gets to see his Colts.

Anna's Big Week

We've been looking at yard sales to get a basketball goal for Benjamin for a while now. We finally found one....

Benjamin is pretty good at it...

We were surprised by this amazing rainbow outside our back door...

It was by far the prettiest rainbow I've ever seen!

Anna started preschool this week. She's been so eager to have math and reading and writing to do of her own after watching Benjamin do them all summer. She was so proud to have her own workbook to do these subjects and to be in school too!

My sweet, little preschooler.

This is her new desk that used to be her aunt's. Anna is very proud of it!

It was a big week for Anna because on Wednesday she also started dance class. This is her first year doing it and she is so excited!!! She has wanted to start ballet for about a year now. In the picture below she had just finished explaining to me that she had to discipline her baby and that Micheal and John (from Peter Pan) are also her kids. Busy girl!

Showing off her tutu!

She did so great!!

Afterwards, I asked her if she liked it and wanted to come back and do dance class again. She said yes that she liked it but that she didn't want to do that class again. She wants to do the real dancing where she gets to put her leg up high and spin around and around (like what she sees ballerinas doing). : )

Fun Saturday

I walked into the playroom and found Max like this (I just love how his leg looks like he dipped it in white paint)...

We spent all day on Saturday in Brown County hiking, swimming, shopping, and eating at a yummy restaurant. Here we are embarking on our little hike...

We went on a different path this time and found this neat stage. Dave and Anna decided to give us a little show and gave us their rendition of Peter Pan (Dave as Captain Hook and Anna as Peter).

Collin (or should we say Michael?) came into the show and tried to stop Captain Hook.

I loved how the trees made this beautiful background behind the stage with the sun shining through their green leaves....so of course I had to get some pictures. All three looking and smiling....that's hard to come by!

They really do love each other!

My beautiful girl!

She has a new phrase..."You gotta be kidding me, baby!" (baby is said in a southern accent with all the syllables drawn out) It makes me laugh every time I hear her say it!

Our big kindergartner who is doing so great with school!

Benjamin sitting on the steps in the auditorium.

Can you believe this little monkey is going to be 2 soon?!?! No? Me either!

Dave calls this Collin's old man face...

Me and my babies after our yummy supper. It was a really fun day and we even skipped their naps and so they were all in bed by 7:00....how awesome (and unheard of) is that!!!

A friend of mine and I learned how to make felt bows this week. It's a fun craft thing that I'm really enjoying and it makes Anna happy too!

I made that! : )

Costumes, Songs, & Sore Noggins

Not too much to blog from the past week. But here are a few pictures....Grandma came for a visit and brought some new costumes for the kids to play dress up in. They love them (Benjamin's favorite is Wolverine right now....don't ask me why!) and so now I keep finding Super Girl and Wolverine running around my house....sometimes I think they even forget they have the costumes on!

We moved some furniture around in our living room a little bit and for some reason Collin is really into the rocking chair now. He especially loves to sit in it with me and have me sing him songs as we rock. He's so cute how he asks me...he just says one word for me to know which song he wants. He'll say "Jesus" for Jesus Loves Me or "twinkle" for Twinkle Twinkle Little star (which he now knows all the words to as well as ABCs!). He also likes Old McDonald has a Farm and will climb in my lap, get right in my face and in a sweet, eager voice tell me "dog, sheep!" to tell me he wants me to sing that song to him. He's such a sweet little boy (which is good because he still has quite a bit of attitude)....he tells you thank you for anything you give him/do for him on his own and says bless you when someone sneezes.

These kiddos are stressing me out! They have all three gotten hurt so much lately! Benjamin and Anna both got hurt above their eyebrows recently like I've mentioned, they've also both ran into the corner of our kitchen counter with the side of their heads and gotten knots/bruises, and Collin and Anna fell into the same table within two days (that table has since been moved)....Anna landed on her chin and had a big red sore from it and Collin fell backwards into it and hit his head hard and bit the inside of his mouth in the process which bled and then got so sore that it was swollen on the inside and made a sore all the way through to the outside of his cheek. As if that hasn't been enough, Anna got hurt really bad at church last night. She fell while running onto the sidewalk and skinned both knees pretty good, scraped up her hands, and got the biggest knot/goose egg I've ever seen on her forehead. It's pretty gross looking and it was much worse yesterday. Thankfully they are always okay after they get hurt, but I'm definitely ready for a break in the injuries! Here's what her bump on the noggin looks like on day two (it's still swollen but kind of hard to see in the picture):

She's still my happy girl, though!

Adorable Faces

We've been passing around a cold the last week or so, so we've spent most of our days at home and in our jammies (much to Anna's displeasure sometimes). Thankfully, no one has been too terribly sick and we have managed to still enjoy lots of adorable moments with these adorable faces. I bought the kids a pirate ship that is made of cardboard and we put it away until a good moment to enjoy it. Their castle (which is also made of cardboard) from the same company finally came down and so we put together this one this week. They LOVE it. Benjamin keeps telling me I think this ship is EVEN MORE fun than the castle! Hope you enjoy these adorable faces as much as I certainly do!

I love this picture of Collin with four of his absolute favorite things: 1) gammy #1 (blanket) 2) gammy #2 3) his Elmo doll 4) this couch - the kids LOVE this couch....they play on it every single day and in every way imaginable.

Loves his gammy.....

and his Daddy!

Anna's adorable face is often a silly one as well....

Benjamin and Anna have all of a sudden decided they want to sleep in the same room together. So for the past week they have alternated sleeping in each other's room on their little blow-up beds....

I made this hat to match Benjamin's coat for this winter. Unfortunately, it is no where near big enough for his noggin (even though I followed the child size). So Collin is now the owner of this hat while I try to find time to make Benjamin a bigger one.

When we go to Brown County we sometimes stop at the flea markets they have along the way. I found this cute car that I can push Collin in while the big kids ride their bikes. He loves it and it makes bike rides a lot more enjoyable for both Collin and I.

My adorable boys!

Benjamin's turn!

To follow these adorable pictures I'll leave you with an adorable (to me, not Dave) story. Dave was working on his computer one morning and got into something he wanted to finish before heading to work. So he was home a lot later in the morning than he usually is. The kids and I were hanging out while he worked and he turned on a Michael Jackson song on his computer and started dancing (in a VERY silly way, I might add). Anna and Collin were smiling and thought it was funny while Benjamin was just sitting on the couch watching it all. After the song (and the dancing) ended Benjamin said, "Well I'm glad that's over!"