Boys Get Trampled

The boys have been begging me to take them to see Uncle Dave play with TBT. FINALLY!!! They came to Fargo in August and although Tim couldn't come because of a Cru event, we brought some other friends and had a great time!

 Laura was the first friend I met in Grand Forks back in 2005. We've been dear friends ever since and our kids are now friends! 

 The Turtles put on a great show and Dave even gave a shout out to the boys! It was fun watching the boys jump around to their music!

Back to School

Even though we got 3 extra weeks of summer this year, it still went by fast!

 Crosby is in 1st grade and has our favorite, Mrs. Huus. He is in a class with Olivia Dafoe and his buddy Crosby Barent. He loves going to school and has improved so much in his reading even in the last couple of weeks. 

 Cooper is in 3rd grade and has Mrs. Mord. He has his best buddy, Isaac Dafoe in his class which he was pumped about!! He brings a football to school everyday to play during recess.

 Carter is in 4th grade with Mrs. Ritland. It is acutally a combo class of 4th and 5th graders. He has 3 good buddies-Tyson Vanyo, Easton Weiser and Finn. He loves the challenge of being with some older kids and having more independent work time.

Annual picture! This is our second of three years where they will all be at the same school!

End of Summer

It is almost October and I am posting about the end of summer:) Never too late, right?

 The boys played in a late summer flag football league that they all enjoyed. Tim got to coach Crosby! 

 I went for a run one day and all these guys followed me on foot, blades and bikes:)

 Grand Forks has many fun summer events. This was a family fun night at University Park. We ran into Cooper's good buddy, Channing. 

 Ninja Stars!

 Tammy and I took the boys to a Red Hawks baseball game in Fargo when Tim was back in New Jersey.

 Vacation Bible School at our church. I led one of the classrooms and the boys all brought some friends. It was a busy but fun week!

 We spent countless hours on the trampoline!  

 All ready to cheer on UND teams this year! 

 This rarely happens anymore...but so fun when it does:)

All summer we had kids over almost daily! It gets crazy but I love being the house where the kids hang out:)

We made a quick pit-stop at Family Camp on our way to our staff retreat and got to see all these wonderful people!

Carter went golfing with his friends one day and got the itch. There is a little free course by us that we tried out. Super fun!

 We squeezed out one last fun summer event and took the boys to Turtle River State Park for a day. We hiked, had a picnic, and the boys swam!

Carter's 10th Birthday

It feels surreal to have a 10 year old. I've been a mom for a decade? Really?? I remember the day this kid was born like it was yesterday. The unimaginable joy, and then the tears of fear as we left the hospital and realized that we were fully responsible for this small human being! 

Carter MacLeod, we love you more than words can express! You've completely changed our lives in the best possible way. We love watching you experience life-so expressive, enthusiastic, adventurous and brave. You have a confidence and independence that are impressive to us. (When all your good friends picked football for a fall sport, you picked soccer because you thought you'd like that better). You make friends so easily-you are kind, inclusive and so fun to be around. You have amazing God-given gifts in sports and academics. You are growing in character and are trustworthy. 

Happy birthday buddy! xoxo

His excitement over my "yes" to getting cheese balls for his b-day party!

Most of his good buddies could make it!

 Landon Rinde, Tyson Vanyo, Sawyer Harlow, Brody Schneider, Cooper Barendt and Gabe Schauer (Easter Weisser couldn't make it). 

 Carter asked to have a pinada at his party! The guys loved it! 

 He picked a robot cake which surprised us but then he told us it had the most frosting! 

The guys spent the party time playing with nerf guns (like most days here)! 

Power clashing on his 10th birthday! I tried to help him change but he said he wanted to double up on plaid being that it was his big day!

Anderson/Skalman Farm

We took yet ANOTHER road trip a couple of weeks ago as we need to give a ministry update at a partnering church in Minneapolis. We were long overdue for a stop at the Skalmans on the way and it worked out perfectly! Unfortunately we had some van problems that delayed up a couple of hours but we still had some good time roaming around the farm and catching up!

Our six boys!

We got to watch Steven feed the pigs!

 Chickens, pigs, acres to run, four wheelers, and great old friends!!

Time with the Grandparents

Mimi and Gramps offered to watch our boys while we traveled to Colorado!

 We drove down to the Cities and stayed the night before leaving. 

 The boys had a blast!!! They went to a carnival, parade, saw their cousins AND got to go to Ninja Camp!!! They had THE BEST TIME EVER!!!