Tommy's Last game of his first Upward Soccer Season

Wide open for a shot on goal...

Love his pre-kick stance here...

All bunched up...Not unusual!

More power with Super-hero arm action?!?

Had to work for the next goal...

Tommy's Post-goal face..."Yeah, I scored but I'm not gonna look up because I might smile!"  I love how he quickly glances at us after he scores to see if we saw it, and then when he sees our thumbs up sign he looks down as if he's trying to be humble.  Pretty cutie!

Tommy was excited to score three goals for his team in this last game.

Brothers, off to church, March 4, 2012

Dog-dog is in tatters. Check out the strings!

LOVE Noah's "checking out my big brother" expression here...
Typical Noah "DON'T Touch me!" expression and accompanying screech...

Tommy and his best friend, Reese

Tuesdays are fun days for the little boys and I because we drop the big kids off at their Options school and have time for just the three of us to be together. Often, we bring his best buddy, Reese, home with us for a playdate. Tommy often says, "Mom, Reesie my best fwend." "Yes, Tee, he is," I reply. The pictures above are from a playdate on January 3rd when the boys had gotten so hot and sweaty from jumping on the couch cushions that had, at one time, made up their fort but turned into their mosh pit. They came upstairs to the kitchen from the basement saying, "We are SO hot!" I told them they could always take their shirts off until they cooled down. Well, they thought that was a fabulous idea. I cracked up watching them sit on the stairs without their shirts "cooling off." Within two seconds of being bare-chested I heard Tommy say to Reese, "Youz lucky! Me wish I had brown skin like you!" Reese just looked at him blankly. Tommy quickly followed up those comments with this one, "You have man nipples. Me have baby nipples!" They then proceeded to pinch their nipples giggling together. So glad I was in the kitchen to hear that exchange!

A "party in back" mullet became an "angry all over" look for Tommy

Charlie is often the one who takes Tommy for his hair cuts on their "dates" together while the big kids do school with me at home. The only thing I've ever asked is that Charlie tell the hair dresser NOT to cut his bangs straight across (my pet peeve!) He left yesterday as normal and I've said the "no straight across" bangs comment for so long I didn't even say anything to them about his hair as they departed on their date accompanied by Fletcher. I didn't think anything about it until Charlie came in first and got the video camera started before calling the boys in from the garage. Apparently, Charlie and Fletch had dibs on how nuts I was gonna go about Tommy's haircut. They knew I was going to HATE it. Charlie had NO idea this was what the hair dresser was going to do to Tommy's hair when he wrongly said, "Mohawk." How could he say, "Mohawk" if he didn't mean mohawk, you ask. GOOD question! Tommy's best buddy had a "FAUXhawk" awhile ago that Tommy thought was cool. Charlie actually said to the hair dresser, "Mohawk" not knowing what he really should have said was "Fauxhawk" (I wouldn't have even asked for that! and neither of us even had a clue that there was an actual hair cut called a Fauxhawk!) The hair dresser messed up in that when Charlie said, "Mohawk," and his very next statement was, "and when he doesn't want to spike it up he can just comb it over." She said, "Oh sure. He'll be able to do that." She then proceeded to buzz the side of his hair and Charlie said he flipped out inside but Tommy just sat perfectly still and called out, "DADDY!! You WANT me have NO hair?!!" The hair dresser thought that was a riot. I wanna know how she ever thought he was supposed to just "comb it over if he didn't want to wear it spiked"??!!! She might have TRIED to clarify with Charlie before taking our son's hair down to the BALD look! Charile has had the FUNNIEST reaction to Tommy's hair! We are both glad that in a SHORT while we can just buzz the center stripe off too and say bye-bye to the mohawk! :)

p.s. it is funny to be in public with Tommy now! the looks he gets are a riot!

Tommy, December 2011

A few weeks before Christmas Tommy said, "Mom, when I'z get big, me learn to rollerblade?" I said, "Sure, bud. You could even learn to rollerblade now." I knew it'd be fun to find some used rollerblades for both Tommy and Paris so they could join Sarah, Fletcher and myself when we have ours on to go on the bike path. Yay God, because our local Goodwill just happened to have two pairs of rollerblades...yes, one boy's pair and another girl's pair...and YES, Tommy and Paris' EXACT sizes!!!! Paris' pink rollerblades even look like pink Converse tennis shoes which she owns and loves. Both kiddos were thrilled with their "new" blades! The note from us on Tommy's gift said, "Because you are a big kid now!" He and Parie have been practicing and both are making progress.
"Blading" in his Superhero workout suit from Gammy!
Tommy also asked us for a real penguin. He often said, "Mom, I really want a penguin. But if I'z can't have a real one, can I please, PLEASE have a penguin dress-up?" Well, that was his gift from us! I found a fun one online, and he is thrilled with it. We love the way he imitates penguins' waddle holding his feet close together and wiggling his shoulders side-to-side. He's done it for months without a costume on, and now it is extra funny when he does it wearing his new dress-up.
A pretty "yummy" Tommy penguin! :)

Tommy, Week before Christmas 2011

Tommy is so excited to show off his "set-ups" that have definitely grown larger since the days of two and three toys in his set-up. I'm constantly hearing, "Mom, come see my set-up! Close yaz eyes!" (yuhz...translates to your) Tommy then leads me to his set-up so thrilled that I've closed my eyes to follow him to his creation.

Tommy fully bundled for his snow play.
Almost fully bundled for outside time! One more layer to go...the "Broncos coat"...just because it happens to be blue and orange, how convenient for our budding Broncos fan!
Thankfully, Tommy loves his snow boots (almost as much as his cowboy boots, but not quite!) I was shocked when he began asking for the snow boots regularly. Not sure why I was shocked since we've had snow on the ground for WEEKS now! This is new for us. It has always snowed and melted away within a few days, but not this year! Tommy has definitely bitten it on the slick ice on more than one occasion in his cowboy boots so he is wise to be asking for the snow boots! It is slippery out there! Our friend even broke his foot slipping on ice just a few days before Christmas.
Tommy has most recently become obsessed with wearing his (one and only) tie. He wants to wear it everywhere. It all started four days before Christmas when Charlie wore a shirt and tie to work (which he NEVER does!) Charlie had to give the message at a teenage girl's funeral and the family had asked everyone to wear her favorite color, pink. Tommy was going to a friend's house for a playdate while Charlie and I went to church for the funeral, but he insisted on wearing a tie like his Daddy. He would not take it off that day, wanting to wear it even for nap. Two days later he was insisting on wearing it to "Uncle Dan and Aunt Anise's" house for our Christmas celebration with Charlie's stepbrother and his wife, despite the fact it is an Easter tie and looked atrocious with his Christmas clothes. I let him wear it with his red sweater vest with which he was delighted. He wore it the entire day that Friday enjoying every minute of it! The next day, Tommy even asked to wear it to the Christmas Eve services we were attending, but I refused. I love that he loves to wear a tie...wonder how long that will last?!?!

Daddy's tie that inspired Tommy's love for his tie (a hand-me-down from his best friend, Reese)!

It was awfully quiet...

This is how I found the boys when I went to investigate why it was so quiet.

The big kids told Tommy that he'd made Noah look like a pilgrim.

A few Tommy comments...

Tommy really wanted to play with Noah in the leaves today (Oct. 17, 2011), or more specifically, throw leaves all over Noah. I found some quotes I'd written down that Tommy said about Noah earlier this year and wanted to record them on the blog. On June 14th Tommy said, "Now him not grumpy. Now him smile to me!" And on May 8th he said, "Noah is so cute- so, So, SO cute!" I agree TeeTom!

Tommy after church on Oct.9th:
Some other quotes I want to remember: On May 9th Tommy said about Snow White, "Her have a cape! Her fly? Her fly her have a cape!" and about Sarah's room, "Me love her room new!" Reminds me of the quote my mom has told me that I said as a little girl, "Look at my new brand shoes!"

On June 14, 2011 while I was prepping the blender for smoothies Tommy said, "Now me hide. Now me cover my ears. That loud!"

I love that although I first heard Tommy call a fish "schiff" back in July 2011, he still (yay!!) calls them "schiffies" to this day (Oct.17th, 2011).

I LOVE how Tommy prays! He remembers to pray for people that we love daily. He requests to be the one to get to pray at mealtimes and bedtime and is the first to raise his little hand up if I ask who wants to pray before we eat. He has prayed every night for Gammy's ribs to heal and for her to feel better. He prays every night that we won't be grumpy the next day (ha! I think this is hilarious!) He also prays for his Popsy's salvation when we see punchbuggie cars when we are out driving around. This melts me. I've heard him pray on more than one occasion as a beetle drives by, "Please God, save my Popsy. PLEASE God let Popsy have his faith in You!" I love that Popsy's namesake is fervently crying out for his salvation. Precious.

Favorite shots from Leadville, CO family adventure day (August 2011)

The whole reason we ventured to Leadville was because Charlie has wanted to visit the town to see the highest airport in North America, the third highest in the world, ever since we lived in Dallas. He has been "flying" out of Leadville's airport on the flight simulator with students for about 10 years and was super excited to see it in person with his own kids. This is a picture of Paris in front of the only runway the airport has. You can clearly see the Rockies to the west of the runway strip. The town sits at 10, 200 feet elevation and look how big the Rockies still look behind Paris!

Paris is holding Colorado's state flower, a columbine.
Loving the color and texture of this doorway Sarah is standing in.
She is oh so grown-up now in many ways...her forever drawings of families of people, HUGE families of people, have varied slightly in the past few weeks to include more and more fashion statements in terms of the individual family member's attire. She still has drawings of huge families, but she also includes fashion designs that she has created for them to wear.
Sarah is dreaming of teaching art (and music and dance) to children in Africa. She says she wants to go to art college and maybe study fashion design, too.
Sarah would like to play on a more competitive soccer team.
Paris would like to play violin and is interested in taking music lessons this year. She would still love to take riding lessons if given the opportunity.
Paris is such a sweet girl who plays well with all her siblings.

She can fight well with them, too. :)

Family Day at the South Platte River July 21, 2011

After a fun day at the river, and LOTS of sunscreen, Tommy's hair is pumping...
We remembered to take our tire inner tubes to float in the river with, and Paris and Fletcher had a ball walking the tubes upstream and floating past our family over and over again.

Paris poses with her new goggles on...isn't that exactly what you need to enjoy a cold Colorado river...goggles?!

Tommy just LOVES looking like a superhero with his goggles on! He didn't even wear his in the water...just on land. It's all about the superpowers, you know!

Three harvests and counting...

The kids SO desperately want a garden every year, but we have always been moving in June and July (the past three years!) This year we aren't moving during the summer (WAHOO!!) We started some container gardening and have gotten three harvests of lettuces and spinach, enough for lots of salads for all of us! The kids LOVE chef salad, especially with their own produce. The kids really enjoy watering the pots by hand and cutting the produce themselves. Tommy and Paris had a ball cutting the most recent harvest, and Tommy washed it by himself in the sink which he thought was TONS of fun!