Buffs football game with the whole fam...

Brent's parents kindly offered us tickets to a CU football game, and our boys are too young to understand that there wasn't much of the Buffs to watch this season.   And I'm too clueless about football (yes, still) to understand much of anything, so we all had a great time!  It's extra fun for Brent to watch his boys take part in this type of event since he, himself, was a Ralphie Stampeder at a very young age.  Ralphie the Buffalo--CU's mighty mascot--is a key ingredient to making this event a hit for our little men.  It really was fun to be there as a family.  

Thanksgiving with "Grandma & Grandpa Mike"...

I love seeing Gavin in his pilgrim hat, playing with his cousin, Sarah. 

It has become a fun Thanksgiving tradition to decorate gingerbread houses over at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  And, of course, this means a lot of straight sugar consumption for our boys.  Oops, there goes another gum drop that was supposed to be part of the roof decor!  From left to right:  Gavin, Gage, Madison and "Baby" Sarah.  (Much like Gage's hair cuts add two years to his appearance, the addition of bangs to Sarah finally makes even me hesitate when referring to her as a baby these days.)  What happened to all of the legitimate babies??!

Gavin's pictures!

We gave Gavin a kid camera for his birthday, and I love how much he loves it!  And how much of a kick he gets out of putting crowns on his unassuming brother's head.  (He has a lot of fun with the props.)

I'm not sure if thanks are really in order to Brent for publishing this glamor shot of me, taken by our five-year-old son with his kid camera.  Get closer to my face, please!

This is Gavin's good buddy, Callie.  I think he took this picture the day he brought his camera in for show-and-tell.  My, how he will miss this girl next year. :(  She'll be at a charter school nearby, and he'll be going to our neighborhood school.  I know that they'll both make new friends, but I hope that they can somehow maintain their friendship, too.  It helps that Callie's mom and I are good buds, so we can help facilitate this, right Natalie? 

Karate class...

Gavin and Gage were invited to a karate birthday party to celebrate their friend, Max.  There are so many principles of respect and discipline that I like about karate, and it was great watching my boys participate.  In the bottom picture Gage is on the far left side, appearing to watch Gavin, who is second from the right side.  I love how well our boys make friends and delight in new situations.  This gift will serve them both well as they enter new classes and new schools with new kids.  It's crazy for me to contemplate that Gavin will be in real Kindergarten at a real, BIG school (thankfully two minutes from our house) next year.  Where has the time gone?!

I'm a pilgrim...

Here's Gavin in his adorable pilgrim hat around Thanksgiving time.  Our eldest son has become quite the little arts and crafter.  (That's a new term that you're probably just not familiar with.)  I love having a son who loves to draw, paint, cut, decorate, tape, glue and create.  I recognize that that is a real blessing, considering I have two sons and I could very well have ended up with just bikers and climbers (which they both are), but they both also appreciate art...and I appreciate that about them.  Just today Gavin proudly entrusted his cousin with his most recent sketch pad, long enough for a car ride during which she was able to view his work...in a different car.  She had no idea what a big deal this was for him--or how adorable I thought the whole thing was--but I was smiling inside and out.  Oh, how we mothers ponder these things in our hearts, and often we're the only ones around to see and hear them anyway.  What a privilege, really.  Lord, help me to keep this perspective. 

Park times...

We've recently discovered (read: acknowledged and accepted, for the most part) that Gage is as much of a mountain goat as his big brother.  These boys love to climb!  And, for most onlookers, it's a scary thing to watch!  I'm more used to it though--and know what they're capable of--but I fear that I may came across as irresponsible or blind sometimes.  I do realize that I need to be cautious.  Gavin fell out of a tree in our back yard the other day and landed on his back.  My automatic response was to say that he could never, ever climb that (or any?) tree again, but will that stick?

These pictures were taken at a fun park that we can drive to (as opposed to all the local ones that we walk or ride to), and Gage was playing with his buddy, Coranelle, that day.