Christmas card photos

Aidan would not take his blue goggles off for these photos! These won't work...
We needed to fix this cranky bear before getting nice pleasant family photos...

Goofy kids!

Pretty cute Van Lears!

Ahh, we will use that one!

12 Days of Christmas

Aidan's version includes the four calling birds, three friendship, two pearl ducks, and a funny jingle bell thing!

Suckered them in

We raked up leaves this morning. Zachary helped by playing in the leaves...
Aidan thought it was necessary to get the leaves from other people's yards and put them in our piles to rake up. Helpful yes, but really?....

The nasty humongous spider that had a web strung across from the lightpole to the street sign. The pictures does not do this spider justice. You will have to trust me on this-it was huge and ugly!

This is the best part: Jake got the neighbor kids to help us and they willingly did for an apple in payment! Suckers....

Look at Jake just watching Dylan hard at work! Just kidding, everyone helped!

A big kid now and spaghetti boy

This kid can eat some spaghetti!

Aidan on his big kid bike that Mr. Jim gave him last summer. He is just now tall enough to really get going on it. He wants to "practice" on his fast bike every afternoon!

The best part is when a car comes (yes we let him ride in the non-busy street in front of our house) we quickly abandons his bike and makes a mad dash for the sidewalk! Safety first!

Soccer party

We had our end of the season soccer party at Fun City and had a blast! This cake was cool-it is made out of cupcakes and has LOTS of icing!
Aidan hanging out with icing on his face and admiring his trophy!

Zachary being his sweet self.

Aren't they the cutest kids?!

...and the silliest?!

My pumpkins!

We went to a pumpkin patch today. It was a perfect fall day and we had a great time! Aidan really wanted to wear his Halloween costume but I think he looks pretty cute without it! I assured him he will get to wear it in a couple of weeks.
Love those boys!

That is Zachary's "cheese" smile again!

BIG pumpkin!

Trying so hard to pick it up!

Aidan was pretty excited about all of the "silly people!"

Just chillin' with a "punkin!"

"that, that!"

Jake spent a few minutes making sure we were getting the best pick! What a super daddy!

Look at our big helpers!

Super cheese!

As soon as Zachary sees a camera he is right in front of it saying "cheese" which really sounds like "eeze!"
And he keeps doing it as long as necessary!

Super duper cheese!

Siblings

I love my family!

More birthday pictures

What a happy four year old!

Not a bit disappointed about the rained out park party!

Zachary was a little spoiled with attention on party day, too!

I LOVE LOVE this picture. This is a picture of delight. But more importantly, Lightning McQueen is being saved from being lost in the ball pit. The boy has his priorities!

Aidan's 4th birthday party

We were planning on having Aidan's birthday party at a local park but when the torential downpour began we moved it to Fun City. We had checked out Fun City as a rain option the day before and Aidan was thrilled with the idea. In fact, when the rain started Aidan said, "yeah, we get to go to Fun City!" Of course, we had a Cars Lightning McQueen party. There was really no other option if you know Aidan at all!
My Mom made the fantastic Cars cake!

Cars heaven!

Two of Aidan's uncles and his Grandpa sang "Happy Birthday" to Aidan after sucking helium balloons.

Just a picture to let you know that Zachary was there! He had a blast with the millions of balls that were flying out of the ball pit!

Playing

Zachary cannot seem to understand that he is not a big boy yet. He could care less that his feet did not touch the pedals he wanted to ride this bike (that is too big for Aidan)!
Our new toy for family bike rides. Now, if Aidan would just learn to pedal!

Soccer season continues...