Austin turns 11

It's hard to believe Austin is now 11. December is always a crazy month for us. Not only because of Christmas but because we have Jason's bday on the 8th and then Austin's on the 21st. We always make a big deal of the boys birthdays so that they don't feel like because of Christmas it's downplayed. This year my mom was in for Christmas.
Austin and both our moms.

LOL....we didn't even think of regular candles so we had to wing it with big ones.....they kinda look like an 11.

Austin and Blake. The helium brothers. They love to suck the helium out of the balloons and go around the house talking silly to all of us.

Austin, Badad, John and Blake.

The week before school let out we had Austin's bday party with his friends. We had to do it on a Wednesday night and I wasn't sure if all the kids would show up.......all but 3 didn't!

Santa visited Clubbie

On Saturday Santa came to the Santa Teresa Country Club to visit all the children and pass out gifts. Since John was the youngest we figured he was the only one that would "sit" on Santa's lap. Well, we actually got all the boys to do it. Blake and Austin were easily bought off when we told them he had gifts. John kept reminding me that this was not the real Santa but just his helper.

Afterwards, we even were able to get the boys in some pictures with Grammy and Poppo

as well as Mimi and Badad.

Of course, once it got to our time with the boys all of our patience went out the window.

Boys will be boys

Living with 5 boys, I have seen more silly moments than America's Funniest Videos. One thing about our boys that I hope never changes is their uniqueness. They each have such a funny sense of humor and have no problem embracing it.

Jason turns 13

We have one more teenager in the house. Jason turned 13 on Monday the 8th. We had a great time with family over. Jason was very sweet and read each and every card out loud.

Eggs hatching!!!

So far, we have 2 babies and one on the way! They are the cutest lil gray puffs with their little beaks up in the air waiting for mommy and daddy to feed them.

UPDATE.....we have a total of 5 babies! Mommy and Daddy are doing great and the babies are growing and growing bigger each and every day.

Thanksgiving Picture

Here's a current picture of O.D. at Thanksgiving. He is at Aunt Barb and Uncle Bob's house in Va. He looks really good. Thank you Barb for the pic.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

I hadn't quite been in the Christmas spirit until today. Knowing that I needed to get my Thanksgiving decorations down and Christmas ones up before it was too late, I decided to listen to Christmas music all day to put me in the mood. Let me tell you...it worked. I am so glad that the majority of the decorations are up! The major project will be hanging up the Christmas lights around the house.

Babies!

Lately I had noticed that our 2 finches, Buster and Cracker, had been rotating times in their nest. I found it a little odd, but not knowing a whole lot about birds I didn't think too much of it. This morning when I went in to check their water and food, I noticed the male in the nest. He is normally the one that is chirping his little heart out when he sees me getting their food and water. Well, he finally came out. Since our birds at school had babies, I took a look in the nest not expecting to see anything and OMG we have eggs. Not just a couple of eggs but 6!! How exciting! Buster and Cracker are going to be PARENTS.

ATTACK!!!!

The afternoon air was much too calm. The army could feel that the enemy was near. It had been several days since the last attack, and this time they were prepared.

General Filley had designed a sure fire plan that would take the enemy down. He was confident his men could handle the mission.

He walked the battle field to make sure that everyone knew their positions.

General Filley assisted his men on the enemy lines. He wanted to make sure they were all prepared for what was going to happen next.

The men waited for what seemed like an eternity, until finally they saw it. The enemy was close enough to be seen. She was bigger than described!!! She was grounding all the planes, so attacking by air wasn't an option.

Even General Filley was shocked by her size. She was bigger then he had remembered!! He told his men, "Don't let her looks fool you. She seems nice at first, but don't trust her. She will act innocent and sweet to lure you in, and then she will turn on you." The men waited and waited to see what her next move would be.

At last, night came. It was the perfect opportunity (with her asleep) to perform a sneak attack. Jones was the bravest of the men. He quietly snuck in.

But to his surprise he wasn't quiet enough. The enemy awoke and grabbed him.

He had seen his last day. He was eaten alive!

This infuriated the other men and they attacked.

But the enemy was too strong.

Many of the men were stopped in their tracks.

But, they kept fighting, they were going to take her down......for the sake of their fallen friends. At last, she had been overtaken by their determination and defeated. "Strength in numbers had been their motto."

Victory was theirs! General Filley was proud!

Steve visits his Grandfather in Leesburg, Va.

Steve and O.D.

O.D. (Steve's grandfather) turned 90 this month. Since he hadn't seen him in a long time, he decided to join his dad who had gone up a couple days earlier. They had a really good time, ate some yummy crab cakes, visited O.D., Aunt Barbara and Uncle Bob, and took a tour of the land. One of the places they went to was Harper's Ferry in West Virginia. The view was amazing!

National Junior Honor Society

Blake was inducted into the National Junior Honor Society on Wednesday, September 24th!

Band and Football

Jason is playing for Lincoln this year! He is having a great time and doing really well. His favorite part of the game is the tackling. He had a game today and had 5 tackles! Way to go J!

Blake is part of Lincoln's "A" Band. Last night they played with Coronado High School (Wow, big league). It sounded really good, and when I told him that he mentioned that there were some parts where he and his friends messed up so they just pretended to play. lol

Look how tall he has gotten. I am not bending down and his isn't on his tip-toes.

Austin had a friend over last night so we took them and John to the game. Austin was impressed with how the band performed and John, well John was more interested in the snack bar.