B's 8th Birthday ...

Sorry this blog has been such a SNOOZE lately! Just hard to keep up with everything ... blogs, Facebook, Etsy ... kids, etc. Anyhoo ... in case you haven't heard, BRETT IS NOW EIGHT.

We celebrated with an awesome pool party. Brett was in heaven... he probably went down the 2-story slide 109 times.

Here were the highlights of his Birthday Celebrations:

The banner [well, maybe not a 'highlight', but a tradition].

The treats.

His buddies.

The slide.

Legos & his new Jaguars shirt [thank you Gays].

His new bike.

And a self-inflating whoopie cushion [he's sitting on it]. We couldn't possibly forget that. :)

He has had an awesome year ... and I know this next one will bring even GREATER things. We love you Bretty-Brett! Happy 8, Big Guy!

I EAT ALL MY ...

[Pause the music so you can hear the video.]

Libby has just been cracking me UP lately.

Tonight, she was declaring that she was going to eat everything on her plate. But she kept getting interrupted. By her brothers. After laughing at her ...

"TI - YIT." [quiet]

"TIIIII ... YIT!" [quiiiiiiiiiiet]

"TI - YIT, BEPP!" [quiet BRETT!]

... I had to try & catch a video. I didn't get her yelling "TI-YIT", but you can still see she's serious about finishing this statement. She's gonna be a bossy one, I tell you.

Wizards vs. Rapids

This past Saturday night we took the kids to their 1st Major League Soccer Game. My best friend [since a year old] & also Libby's Godmother, Carrie, invited us to her family's tailgate ... all the Noonans [minus little bro Michael] were in town to watch the Kansas City Wizards play the Colorado Rapids. Carrie's brother Patrick plays for the Rapids [you can read about him here]. I hadn't watched Patrick play soccer since he was in grade school [MLS games on TV don't count].

We had SO much fun tailgating with the Noonans before heading over to the game. We were approached by somebody asking if we could help him out with a participant in the half time show. We totally thought Davis would do it ... but he was shying away from the attention just at the mention of it. So we turned to Brett who is ALWAYS up for the spotlight. :) He got to go down on the field with Kyle and race the tractor tricycle. The other boy won, but Brett still got to keep the tractor tricycle, a Wizards shirt, a hat & he won 4 tickets to the wizards last home game. Not bad for 2nd place.

The game itself was a total blast. So fun to watch. Oh & I'm sure we were fun to watch hauling a tractor tricycle out of there ...

... and taking it on the bus.

Soccer's in Full Swing

Yep ... it's soccer season again. Brett had a double-header on Saturday with back to back games & Davis [with Kyle as the coach] had one game in the middle of it. So fun. We camped out at the soccer fields for a couple of hours. Brett even got a GOAL. It was the 1st goal of the 2nd game, so it was pretty special. It was awesome. He was on cloud 9. :)

First Day ...

The boys had their 1st day of school on Wednesday. Davis is now in Kindergarten & Brett's a 2nd Grader! It was pouring rain, so we had to do our "back to school" photo inside on the steps.

We then headed off to school, dropping off Brett at at the main school ... ... and then we headed over to the other side where Kindergarten in is. I pulled through the carpool lane as usual & like a gushing mom of a new Kindergartner, I asked if I could hop out "real quick" to take a photo ... as I asked, I quickly looked to see if there were other cars lined up behind me. You know. I didn't want to be "that mom" clogging up the carpool lane. Well. There was nobody behind me. I quickly realized I was the ONLY MOM doing a drop off on the 1st day of school. As you'll notice in the photo, um... it wasn't just moms doing a walk in.

It was dads, grandpas, extended family. :) ha Luckily, Davis didn't care or notice. My sister Leah & my nephew Eli were visiting us so I came home to these 2 little guys. They enjoyed playing up in the boys room without the big boys.

Later that morning, we switched visitors with my older sister Becky. Leah and Eli went up north to stay with the Lewis Family and my parents came down to stay with us. I told my parents about being the only bad mom this morning at the Kindergarten drop off , so they helped me make up for it at pick up. We arrived with not just mom & sister, but grandma and grandpa. Grandma even had her camera. We got a lot of comments from people with our big welcoming party, so I feel like I did redeem myself. Since the 1st day was just a 1/2 day, we then went to Winsteads for lunch, followed by a trip to the park.

Happy New School Year! :)

It's us, only uglier.

I have some catching up to do ... but I just had to show you this photo. We took a spur-of-the-moment trip to Little Rock this past week. One night we went to dinner at the Cajun's Wharf. Great place. Right on the river. I handed off the camera to Davis thinking Kyle & I could get a nice photo together.

Wrong-O. Looks like we were hit HARD with the ugly stick.

I couldn't breathe, I was laughing so hard after I saw this. I still get uncontrollable giggles whenever I see it. I almost want to put it in a frame ... just as a joke. :) Is it me or do we look sort of Shrek-ish?

TWO Wheels ...

Saturday July 18, marked the day that the boys learned to ride a 2-wheelers ... aka NO TRAINING WHEELS. We biked in the morning, we biked in the afternoon ... then we celebrated in the evening with some ice cream. :)

Look Who's Sleeping in My Bed ...

Libby has been sneaking off to the boys' room at various points in the night. Brett's on the top bunk ... but Davis's bed is easily accessible.

Lucky Davis. :)

4th of July Weekend ...

{outside of the church where, I believe, their great-grandparents were married}

Here are some belated photos of the Immele Reunion in Pilot Grove & Boonville, Missouri. We had a great time! The kids loved having so many opportunities to play with their cousins! I took a ton of photos ... I might put them up on Snapfish or something. If I do, I'll link up!