Thanksgiving

This year, Thanksgiving was with my side of the family. Everyone was able to come down and we had a GREAT time!

Ju and baby Jax arrived first. My kids were/ are obsessed with that little guy! All three of them just loved to be around him. Trent was pretty good with giving "soft touches", Seth liked to tell us about every move Jax would make and Wade's favorite part was holding Jax. The little guy even fell asleep in Wade's arms once--so cute!

John, my dad and Paula came into town next. My dad, probably, spent more time at the park than he did at my house. Each day was filled with multiple and LONG trips to the beloved park. As you can imagine, the kids were thrilled! Trent is now old enough to go with Ampa and, both my dad and I think, he had the best time of all the kids.


Ben and I assumed our usual positions as co-cooking chairs. We can cook a pretty yummy Thanksgiving dinner if I do say so myself. :) Even though I am ready to pop, I was still able to pull off my usual assignments. Matt also took on his usual: Gary's pumpkin pies (Yum!)

The rest of the weekend was spent hanging out, shopping Black Friday deals and movies. It is always so much fun to be together and I fell so blessed and THANKFUL for my wonderful family.

Fall Soccer Season

The boys just finished their soccer seasons this past weekend. Wade completed his seventh season and Seth completed his second. Soccer has become a BIG deal around the Roper household and we are all enjoying it. I love that my boys have something to look forward to especially since it is something that teaches them teamwork, hard work and gives them lots of physical activity.

Even though Seth has only been going for 2 seasons, he is REALLY good. He is lucky because he had a big brother to practice with long before he was old enough to play.





Wade continues to do really well. He LOVES to play and we LOVE to watch him! He will rarely walk away from a game without at least one goal (usually more.) His team is also more and more competitive so the games can get really exciting. It's, really, not a bad way to spend a Saturday morning :).

Birthday Parties

I may have already said it, but I have decided that we are a family who is only going to do "friend birthday parties" every other year. I have too many kids as it is :) and they, actually don't seem to mind at all. In my kid's opinion, all you need for a birthday party is cake so we made sure we had cake and with that (and a fun night out) we are done celebrating birthdays for the year!

As you have already read, we celebrated Seth's (Matt's and Jess') birthday as a family. As luck would have it, my Grandma and Grandpa (Granny C and Great Grandpa) came into town so they were here to celebrate Wade's special day (along with the Bryner's, of course.) We had his favorite dinner--homemade broccoli cheese soup (I promise, it is his favorite), opened presents and, OF COURSE, ate cake!

The day after the family party, Matt and I took Wade, Seth and the Bryner family to "Amazing Jake's" to finish off the celebrations! Trent stayed home with Granny C and Grandpa which ended up being perfect since he wouldn't have had much fun riding around in a stroller.

The boys played games, rode rides and ate pizza. It was a lot of fun and a perfect night of birthday-celebrating-family-fun!

Wade

My bright, blue-eyed little boy is 6 years old! I can harldy believe he is that old. Time has really flown by. I can still remember so many details from his birth, the day we brought him home and all the wonderful experiences and memories that have followed.

I said it last year on his birthday and I have to say it again: this sweet boy changed every aspect of my life for the better the second I held him in my arms. Nothing will ever change that. Nothing could ever have changed me so completely or correctly than my Wade.

Wade is such a great kid and, together with Matt, the 3 of us take on each new challenge and learn about life as he gets older each day. I feel so blessed to be his mom, to be the one who gets to make mistakes or make good decisions, but mostly to learn and try to make the best life possible for him.

Wade is an oldest child through and through. He and I are so much alike--Matt will often laugh about the little quirks and details Wade obsesses over because they are so much like me. Fixated on routine, organization and control coupled with hard work and pleasing others are some of his (and my) personality traits.

Wade goes to kindergarten and absolutely LOVES it! His teacher adores him and he loves her too. He loves to learn and does well at it. He is reading, writing, adding and subtracting. It is amazing to watch his little mind tick and listen to him tell me about his day and what he learns about. I hope that his love for learning will stay. I know it is only a matter of time before school becomes a chore rather than a privilege so I am trying to relish this time and make it as fun for him as possible.

Besides school, Wade is:

*a soccer star (scores several goals at each game)

*loving all sports

*participating in running club at school (he averages 4 miles per practice!)

*taking a weekly music class to prepare him for piano

*a great friend and loves to play with his pals

*a gamer (LOVES, LOVES to play the Wii and Nintendo DS)

*a family man (loves to visit or have ANY family member visit us)

*a fast runner

*a good ball thrower

*enjoying riding his bike

*a CTR 6 in church

*loving to eat EVERYTHING (I can't imagine what it is going to be like when he is a teenager :)!)

*loves sharing a room with Seth

*a fantastic big brother (so sweet and loving with Trent, always looks out for Seth and can't wait for his new sister to arrive)

*a wonderful son!

Happy Birthday to the sweetest, best little guy ever! Love you so much!!

Halloween Mania

I have learned as your kids get older, life seems to get crazier and busier. Now that I have one in Elementary and one in preschool I cannot expect that their schools would NOT celebrate Halloween (nor would I want to) and that coupled with ward and neighborhood parties sent my family into Halloween Mania.

Seth had the opportunity to wear his costume FIVE times this week. FIVE times! At least I got good use out of the $20 bucks I paid for it :).

Thankfully, Halloween is a favorite around here because of all the family birthdays that are happening. This year our kids went as Mario, Luigi and Koopa Troopa (the turtle.) Matt and I had high hopes that I would go as the Princess and he as either Yoshi or Toad, but since I have a massive growth :) on the front of my body, I couldn't find a good costume so we decided against it.

During the week was the ward "Trunk or Treat" (fun!), red ribbon week at Wade's school, birthday parties, Seth's school "play" and our neighborhood party. PHEW! I am glad for the few weeks we have to break before Thanksgiving.

These are of Seth's school play. That is sweet, little Trent (in the blue striped shirt) sitting right in front of the kids--he wanted a good seat!


We had some of our friends and neighbors over for dinner before trick-or-treating!

This costume lasted on him as long as it will take you to look at the pictures--about 5 seconds!

All the kids...

And we are off to get CANDY!!