The Long Distance Kall

Thomas's Real Birthday

2011-09-20T16:18:00.001-05:00

The Longhorn's game was almost a month before his birthday, so we celebrated again with presents, food and cake at Grammy and Papa's house.

The Longhorn theme continued with his presents. But the thing he was looking forward to most was this...an electric guitar! Thomas had one lesson the week before his birthday, and than we decided to get him a guitar for his birthday (which he has wanted since he was 4)

He LOVED the guitar and even played in the winter recital two months later with his buddy William...which you can check out here

That is a "10" you are looking at...an edible 10 that he ate before heading off to school on his 10th birthday. This is a tradition we started many years ago and a fun way to start a birthday...but I can't believe he is 10!

Hook Em!

2011-09-08T17:31:00.022-05:00

So all Thomas wanted for his birthday was to go see a Longhorn football game. Steve and I thought that sounded like fun so we started looking for tickets. Turns out, Steve had a connection through Verizon with the Longhorn Network. Score!! So off we went to see Texas play Rice.

Here is our day, in pictures...

In the car on the way to Austin, getting excited...it was a quick drive. We made it in a little over 3 hours!

First stop, The University Co-op to load up on Texas gear. Ours was looking a little bit old and warn.

This Bevo in the back lot is a favorite!

Everywhere he looked was wall to wall Longhorn branded stuff. Thomas was in heaven. We got new shirts, hats, a lunch box, a couple of bracelets and even some Longhorn bottled water in the shape of the UT tower. You have to admit, that is pretty cool!

After a long and crowded time at the CO-Op we were running a little bit behind. We hit the road looking for parking. It took us a LONG time to find a spot and it was easily a mile away from the stadium. Luckily all over Austin you can find these "rickshaws" that took us from our car to the stadium.

We made it just in time to get our dinner and some drinks provided by The Longhorn Network...

...And some balloon "Bevo antlers" for Charles. Luckily for the people around us these popped before we even got in our seat.

We finally made it up to our seats; WAY up to our seats. It was nice and breezy at the top, and what a view we had.

Charles had a blast too. I was worried he might get tired of the game around half time, but there was so much to see (Rice fans painted in blue behind us) and where else can you scream your head off and not get in trouble??

Thomas has been a huge Longhorn fan for quite a few years, but it was fun to actually show him all the traditions at the school...and amazing how little he really knew. Seeing Bevo, and Big Bertha and the Silver Spurs and Texas Wranglers all in person was great. He didn't even know the tower lit up orange when we won!! And all the "alternative" lyrics he learned to the fight song from the crowd...well that is tradition too I guess.

Our beloved Bevo on the Big Screen!

The halftime show was great! Joshua, the budding trombone player, liked seeing the big band out there. But this was my favorite part. Rice started things off with this little dig toward A&M for leaving the Big 12 to go to the SEC. Pretty funny!

We left the game a few minutes early to try to beat the mad rush (there were 101,000+ in attendance that night) and we hiked back to our car. We were exhausted but had so much fun. Thomas REALLY bleeds burnt orange now!

First day of School

2011-08-22T09:03:00.005-05:00

Breakfast of champions!!

Picture by the Bluebonnet Bear..

Charles in his 2nd grade classroom

And Thomas in 4th, worried about being late

Joshua was still in bed...lucky him middle school starts an hour later than elementary school. I hope they have a great year!!

Charles' s (HOT) 7th Birthday

2011-08-16T18:11:00.000-05:00

Charles turned 7 during the hottest summer in Dallas since 1980 when we were trying to figure out who shot JR. We all knowTexas is hot in the summer, ALWAYS. But 2011 was like living on the surface of the sun. In fact, here are a few interesting facts about summer 2011 in Dallas

•June 2011: 3rd hottest on record; 2/10 of a degree behind 1980
•July 2011: 3rd hottest average high on record
•July 2011 hottest average overnight lows on record: 86 degrees on July 26, August 3, and August 4: unprecedented
•These three overnight lows beat previous all time high minimum of 85 from Sep 1, 1939
•August 3rd temperature of 110 degrees highest since September 2000; ties for 7th hottest daily maximum on record
•As of August 5, 2011 pulls ahead of 1980 for hottest summer on record year-to-date by a tenth of a degree

Sooooo, what did we decide to do for Charles's August birthday? Got to SIX FLAGS.

Sounds crazy? (it was) Sounds hot? (it was, very). But, we had fun, stayed relatively cool in the misting fans and shade and enjoyed our free tickets that the boys earned for reading at school.

Sweaty boys ready to hit the rides!

We went to six flags early in August since Steve was assigned to New York for Verizon strike duty. So when August 16 rolled around, we celebrated with cake and fun at Grammy and Papas house. Charles and his buddy James even spent the night!

The Mario cookie cake

Charles and James enjoying the pool, without big brothers around

And Grammy gave Charles this Zoku Popsicle maker that makes 3 Popsicles in 7 minutes!

This things is awesome...highly recommended!

We made popsicles for the rest of the summer...even breakfast Popsicles with yogurt and fruit. YUM!

Another great birthday, another year gone!

Winners!!

2011-06-02T10:23:00.010-05:00

All of the Kall boys had very successful Baseball seasons this year, and both Thomas and Joshua brought home the City Champs Trophy. Charles lost in a heartbreaking semi-final game after only losing one game all season. Way to go boys and coach Steve!!

Joshua and Thomas played on the same night just a few fields away from each other. Joshua's game was over first...which he arrived late to due to his Spring band concert an hour earlier.

Celebration!!

We headed over to Thomas's game already in progress. They ended up with a big win...

And did some celebrating of their own!

This was Charles' first season to play baseball, and of course Steve was the coach. Charles loved it, and was quite a good little player.

Part 2: El Paso After-Christmas Birthday trip

2011-01-15T21:06:00.019-06:00

A couple of days after Christmas, we piled in the car and headed the LONG 9 or 10 or 11 hours to El Paso (I can't even remember...it was just long). But, we were excited to go visit family and cousins and throw a SURPRISE party for Grampa Kall. He turned 75 in December, so we all got together to celebrate!

The day after our arrival, Charles had a bit of an accident. Let's just say he learned it was NOT a good idea to go for a bike ride with a dog, attached to his leash, hooked over your handle bars. Gaby (the Perry's dog) saw another dog, took off, and Charles met a brick wall. OUCH! Poor guy was really hurt. This picture is still hard to look at.

The day of the party, we tricked Grandpa into coming into the hotel where we had the dinner and dancing all set up by telling him we were all going out for Larry and Yvonne's anniversary. We needed him to drive them there. Somehow they got him down to the reception room and "surprise!!". He was very surprised to see all his friends there waiting for him...and actually quite touched. We proceeded to eat, drink and dance the night away.

Grandpa with his 11 grandchildren and two grand nephews!

Grandpa and his 5 grown children, Joe, Liz, Yvette, Steve and Larry

Time to dance!!

Joshua half-heartedly does the chicken dance.

While Steve "Gets Down"

The only Kall who wouldn't dance was Thomas. He did this all night! He was too shy to dance. Who Knew?

It was a really great party!!!

The San Antonio Kalls (Larry, Yvonne and crew) drove to El Paso in a rented RV. We thought it would be fun to take a drive up to Cloud Croft and play in some snow. The ride was fun until we got to the top of the mountain where the wind was gusting us off the side of the mountain and we had blizzard conditions. We white knuckled it to the top, let the kids out for about 10 minutes to play in the snow, then headed back down as Larry was afraid of getting stuck.

It was COLD. The wind was blowing so hard it was miserable. Just a couple of quick snowballs and everyone was done.

After making it down the mountain and saying a few prayers for making it, we thought White Sands would be more fun. Since we were "right around the corner" we headed over so the kids could play in the dunes.

It was deceptively cold and pretty windy, so even though the kids wanted to slide down the dunes, nobody lasted long. We loaded back up in the RV and headed back to...snow in El Paso!!

Christmas 2010 Part 1 - Flower Mound

2011-01-02T16:12:00.019-06:00

This was the first Christmas back in Texas for Grammy and Papa, so we really enjoyed spending the holidays with them.

Christmas Eve

The boys opened a few little presents on Christmas eve from Grammy and Papa which got everyone really excited for the next morning.

Before we went to bed, we were serenaded with Christmas Carols on the trombone and piano.

After the songs it was cookies and an acrostic poem for Santa, carrots for the reindeer and a note about pouring the milk slowly out of the teapot. Then off to bed!

Christmas Morning...they got so much stuff!
Charles got this game he really wanted called Loopz

AND an air hockey table...that his brothers are playing.

Thomas going through his stocking goodies

And everyone got robes and slippers and marshmallow gun shooters...

Thomas got a new helmet

A $50 bill and an Ihome (for the Itouch he can now buy with all the money he has saved). Look at that expression!

Joshua got some great stuff too, books, a FLIP camera, a new jacket. For some reason he just didn't make it into many pictures.

That night, we went to Grammy and Papa's for Christmas dinner and MORE presents!

Despicable Me (in 3D) and a new book for Josh

A cool hat and a penguin pillow pet just to name a few.

And Charles got this humongous dog that we later named "hairy".

Whew...it was definitely a Merry Christmas!

Fall 2010

2010-12-01T20:12:00.001-06:00

Halloween was a blast again this year. We carved pumpkins and went trick-r-treating as usual. Nothing out of the ordinary but lots of fun.

Thomas carved this Longhorn with no help!!! Pretty nice.

Joshua did this scary skeleton face and Charles did an old-school jack-o-lantern.

Thomas went as a UT Longhorn football player (notice a Longhorn theme with him)

Charles went as a policeman with big muscles...

And Joshua's costume was a bit of an optical illusion. He was riding around on his little friend's shoulders. He is with his buddy, Jeremy, who on a dare dressed like Cinderella.

We began the evening at our good friend's house, the Morales', with a little pre trick-r-treating party on the front lawn. Then all the little kids headed out together.

We spent Thanksgiving this year in Flower Moud. Danny and Tricia came into town with the kids too. For Danny's birthday we roasted hot dogs, made smores and had a little "party" at Grammy and Papa's house.

Thomas had to take a picture with uncle Danny because he turned 41 and that is what Thomas had on his shirt!

Uncle Danny is a big Longhorns fan too. He got this helmet for his gameroom.

Next on our list of activities was the ICE exhibit at the Gaylord. We had never seen this before although we always wanted to. This year was a Charlie Brown theme, which I LOVE! It was pretty amazing and fun to see. They keep the temperature at around 10 degrees, so they provide big heavy parkas to see the exhibit.

The Ice Slide!

Thanksgiving day was spent cooking, playing games, and eating!!

The boys enjoy some appetizers.

Grammy and the boys made these placemats one night a few weeks before Thanksgiving. And the placecards were Turkey cookies with everyones name on them. So cute!

Papa pretends to carve the bird!

And here is a shot of the kids table. The meal was great and it was fun to hang out with all the Wintons!!

Thomas turns 9!

2010-10-05T19:50:00.001-05:00

We celebrated Thomas's birthday this year with dinner and presents at Grammy and Papa's new house, and then the next weekend he invited his two best buddies, Blake and Jay to go to Medieval Times and for a sleepover!

Grammy made a "monster" cheeseball for an appetizer.

Grammy and Thomas

Cake and presents!

New Bike from mom and dad!

Medieval times!

Thomas got Knighted

Our Knight (red and yellow) won the whole Tournament!

The boys reluctantly took a picture with the princess too. What a fun birthday!!!

Happy Birthday Chuck!

2010-09-07T20:55:00.014-05:00

When Charles was born 6 years ago, I never dreamed we would call him Chuck. It never even crossed my mind. It's such a crass nickname of a beautiful, old-fashioned name. Carlos. sure. Charlie, OK. But Chuck. Well, yuck!

Thank you Thomas.

One day, Thomas just started calling him that, and the name just comes out every now and then. Sometimes, it even kinda fits (sometimes). Regardless, it always makes me laugh!

So Chuck just turned 6. It's just incredibly sad, every birthday that my youngest son has is one birthday farther away from any babies around here. And that is just sad! (only for me of course)

But he is one fun, silly, wonderful, kid. He drives us CRAZY "doing his Charles thing" and as Papa says "but he sure does it well...that Charles thing"

Charles wanted a sleepover and a movie for his birthday, so that is what we did. He invited three boys over, we ate dinner, cake and ice cream, then headed out to see "Cats and Dogs". Charles has really been into this "Last Airbender" cartoon, so our good friend Amy made an AMAZING cake for him. How cool is that?

Here he is with his buddies about to dig into that cake, after swimming and hot dogs...

Enjoying the birthday song...

And making his wish!

After the movie it was presents...and off to bed!

The next morning everyone woke up at the crack of dawn. It was swimming and donuts and lots of this:

and this...

and even this:

Swords, light sabers and guns! What more could a 6-year old want??

Summer Wrap-Up - 2010

2010-08-31T21:44:00.000-05:00

The entire first half of our summer was spent playing baseball. Both Thomas and Joshua made the All-Star teams for their ages, and Steve coached Thomas' team.

Both the boys and Steve had a really good time with this. Both of their teams won trophies from at least one tournament, and learned a LOT about baseball. But it was really HOT watching all those games!

The next big thing that happened was Grammy and Papa MOVED to Flower Mound. Their car was delivered to our house before they arrived. It was such an exciting event that Charles set up his chair on the lawn to watch.

The boys also did a few of the local Flower Mound high school sports camps. Joshua and Charles both did the tennis camp while Thomas did football. And all three did a soccer camp. I was trying to keep them busy since this was my first summer since I'd had kids back at work...from HOME!

The two big boys went to camp in July (in another post) and we all went on a cruise to Alaska at the end of the month!! There are too many pictures to post here; I had to make an entire scrapbook from that trip. It was fabulous! There was ziplining and dogsleds and glaciers and sushi and formal night and high tea and hot tubs and swimming pools and FOOD! (just to name a few things)We took the trip with all the Wintons. What a fun time! Here are a few pictures.

The last thing before school was a quick trip to El Paso. I had to stay home and work, but Steve took the boys for some time with Grandma and Grandpa Kall. They Celebrated Charles' birthday with a Spongebob cake, went to Western Playland, and played a lot of cards!

The Pines 2010

2010-08-14T21:47:00.014-05:00

Joshua and Thomas went to camp again this year at the Pines in Big Sandy. It wasn't so traumatic for me this time around since we all knew what to expect. The boys had a fabulous time meeting friends, hanging with counselors and getting closer to God. And NOBODY got sick this year. Yea!! However, Thomas was really beat when I picked him up on Saturday morning. It took him about a week to recoup and rest up.

Joshua was in Branch this year which is the middle school group of kids. That means he got to do a lot more activities and had to sleep in one of the rustic cabins with no A/C. Yikes! Turns out, that really wasn't so bad.

His cabin was called St Peter.

Here he is on his bunk...

And with his buddies John Ramsey and Adam

He had a great week and turned out to be the king of Gaga. A dodgeball type game that was all the rage. He even beat his counselors and other teenagers around camp!!

Thomas was in the nice air conditioned lodges again this year with his buddy William and Williams cousin, Henry, who became a fast friend too.

Here is Thomas on his bunk right before we said goodbye:

And in the cabin with his counselors and friend William.

This camp does a great job recruiting awesome counselors who are college students that are not only tons of fun but amazing Catholic examples for these kids. Thomas's counselors prayed the rosary every night with the boys. And Joshua's counselors had talks with the boys about girlfriends and God and the Holy Spirit. Pretty cool!

We love this camp because in addition to being Catholic, the camp staff is awesome. And they are so modern too. They communicate "camp news" and upload tons of pictures each days so we get a good feel for what is going on. And even get to see our kids having fun. This year they added a mid-week video update which was awesome!
Here is an example of the camp news one day. You will have to click it to be able to read it.

On the last day, the camp has a morning service and the parents get to attend. This is fun for the kids because they finally learn their counselors real name. Thomas came running to me when he saw me. He was a little homesick at the end and happy to see me. I was was also really happy to see him!

Thomas and his counselors...one final pic and goodbye!

And Joshua saying goodbye to his counselors as well as his friends.

All in all it was a fabulous, fun week.

June Graduates

2010-07-04T09:02:00.021-05:00

June has just flown by. Today is July 4th, and we are planning to spend it with friends, but I thought I would get caught up on June blogging this morning.

We had two graduates this year at Bluebonnet Elementary. Charles graduated Kindergarten and Joshua graduated 5th grade. On the morning of his graduation, Charles ate breakfast with his tie over his shoulder just like the businessmen do at lunchtime. Then it was off to school and time for the ceremony.

Each kid got to walk across the stage to get their "diploma". Notice the crossed fingers...hmm..maybe he wasn't quite sure he would get that diploma.

Phew!! He made it. Big hugs from his teacher Mrs. Handel!

Then they all sang a few songs about growing up and moving onto 1st grade. So cute!

Mom and Dad are so proud of Charles! He had a really great year and has grown so much academically. Onto 1st grade!

The following week, the 5th graders celebrated graduation with an awards ceremony.

Joshua got an award for almost everything there was possible and was even chosen by his teacher to receive the prestigious "Presidential Award for Outstanding Academic Excellence" The certificate even has Obama's signature on it!!

After his ceremony we came home and he opened a present from mom and dad. Some new shades!!

The 5th graders have a special party/cook-out on the last day of school. Then they parade through the halls to "Pomp and Circumstance" while the rest of the students line the halls cheering. Then they head out to the front lawn for one last time singing the Bluebonnet song together!!

And a final hug to Mrs. Vaughn and Mrs. Lampe his classroom teacher and his LEAP teacher.

Off to Middle School!!!

Piano Recital-June 2010

2010-06-06T23:07:00.003-05:00

It was a very busy Sunday for us. Thomas had a baseball tournament and both the older boys had their piano recital. So, in between Thomas's games, we were thrilled to hear the boys perform. They have come such a long way in only 1 1/2 years of piano lessons!!!

Enjoy the music!

Thomas started us off with "Flashy Fingers"

And next Joshua played "Midnight Journey"

Here is Thomas playing "On Track Boogie"

And Joshua's last piece "Buckeye Rag" which he also played at the Bluebonnet Talent Show:

Oh...about that baseball tournament. Thomas's Allstar team came in 2nd place and he came home with a huge trophy! It was a good day.

Flower Mound City Champs

2010-05-23T22:26:00.009-05:00

We did it!!! Thomas's baseball team, the Storm, not only finished the regular season undefeated but won the city tournament. After a REALLY tough game Wednesday night, we beat the #2 Cardinals in the finals on Friday for the win. It was an emotional week for the parents as the kids learned to work through nerves and jitters they had never felt before. The boys pulled through finishing 16-12 against a really tough second place team. Way to go boys!

The team celebrates after the final out.

Steve received a team plaque for the first place win and all the boys got trophies

Thomas was so excited about the win. He said it was the best day of his life.

The 1st place Storm and 2nd place Cardinals. What a game it was!

Joshua wasn't feeling well, so he stayed home, but #1 Fan Charles cheered from the dugout. Thomas later said "you know I think it really helped us win because Charles was wearing my old shirt" Maybe so. All of us parents have a long list of superstitions, so Charles my have to wear that shirt to every game from here on out!

Happy Birthday Joshua- 11 years old!

2010-05-05T08:32:00.015-05:00

We spent Joshua's birthday at the Great Wolf Lodge. He invited two buddies and had a really great time at the waterpark and hanging in the hotel. Steve and I endured the two days...for his sake. This is definitley not a vacation for the parents!! But it was a blast for the kids!

This was where the kids slept. It is a separate bunk area in the room.

And here is our balcony. There is an indoor and outdoor water park there.

We opened his presents in the room after ordering pizza. He got some cool stuff:

But he was most excited about this...he finally got a CELL PHONE!

The wave pool was a big hit with everyone

And of course the waterslides. The Texas Tornado was everyone's favorite!! Thomas and Charles had a blast too.

We came home Sunday exhausted to yardwork and laundry. The next day (on his actual birthday)we celebrated with cake after grilling hamburgers. It was a great birthday.

Easter 2010

2010-04-19T22:39:00.018-05:00

Easter was a few weeks ago. I'm a little late getting this post done, but we did have a nice Easter. Grammy and Papa were in town for Joshua's play and house hunting!!! We are so excited they are finally moving back to Texas after all these years.

The first weekend, before Papa got here, we took the kids up to the CAC for an Easter Egg dive.
The Easter Bunny was there. Charles loves this rabbit and Thomas is still scared to death of her. We always get a big laugh out of that. It's funny because now that he is 8 he realizes it's someone in a suit, but openly admits he wants nothing to do with her.

Next they dove for eggs. Thomas helped Charles by holding his bag Then in went Thomas!

When they turned in their eggs they got goody bags. Fun!

Later in the week we dyed eggs. Even Joshua joined us for this. We had a monster theme going on. We are STILL eating eggs!!!

Easter Morning the kids found their basket and hunted for eggs in the house and yard. Then it was off to church. We went to brunch afterwards and got a few shots before we left!
What a cute family we are!!!

Beauty and the Beast (the bookseller)

2010-04-06T08:23:00.012-05:00

Bluebonnet did Beauty and the Beast this year for their musical. Joshua was chosen as the bookseller. He was hoping for a larger part this year, but he was a great bookseller!!

The kids did an amazing job. It really was so fun to watch.

Here is Joshua's speaking part during the first song.

And here is Joshua in the "Gaston" song. He was part of the chorus for this. They are watching Gaston arm wrestle.

More dancing and singing during "Gaston".

This is a scene inside the castle. Aren't the costumes great??

And here are Belle and the Beast. She did such an awesome job. What a voice!!

Here is a short piece of the first scene/song where Joshua has his big part!

Spring Break 2010

2010-03-21T16:59:00.012-05:00

The Kall family did not do much this spring break. Mainly because of this:

Steve had his tonsils and adenoids removed, his deviated septum fixed, his palate shaved and his uvula shortened. Basically, a complete nose/throat overhaul that he has been putting off for years so that he can sleep better. It was a pretty rough recovery, and he had it done two and a half weeks before spring break. He missed a lot of work and needed to be there the week of spring break.

So the boys and I decided to go camping!!!

That setting might look familiar to a few of you. Well, that's because it's our backyard!!! ha ha. We set up our new tent in the back yard and roasted hot dogs. The boys and their friend Jeremy slept outside. Everyone, that is, except Charles. He snuck into his bed in the middle of the night. He said it was scary.

A few days later we went to the Omni Imax theater in Ft Worth along with the rest of Dallas/ Ft. Worth, it seemed. We saw a show in the dome theater. We got there a little late because of the crazy traffic and ended up on the front row where you have to be in an almost prone position. It was still pretty fun though!!

Our next adventure was actually visiting the "Mound" of Flower Mound. Thomas needed to go there as part of a little research project for school. Isn't it just a lovely spot??

It actually is much higher than it looks from the street, but there were very few flowers on the mound when we were there. I guess it was a little too early still.
After our research was complete, we decided to do some geocaching. We started this last summer, and even though we haven't done it in a long time, we are getting pretty good at it.

And just like last summer, Joshua, Charles and I had a lot of fun. Thomas doesn't enjoy it as much. We end up bribing him with Sonic drinks so he won't whine. He did get excited when he found one, though...

That night, we had one last "camp" night with Charles's buddy James.

Someday we will actually take the kids camping. We have to since I just learned that camping is on Joshua's "bucket list" How sad. We have only talked about it now for the last three years!!!

We capped off the week and the first day of spring with this.

UGH!!! Nobody around here is even a little bit excited to see snow. We are all looking forward to some REAL spring weather. But, we did have a great spring break!

Elementary Art Show

2010-03-07T16:09:00.006-06:00

Joshua's coil basket was chosen for the annual LISD Elementary Art Show. This was a pretty big deal to him because art is not his thing. He has never been chosen for this before, so he was excited to get the honor his last year in Elementary School.

As you can see, he really did make a beautiful basket. Steve, the boys and I all thought his basket was pretty cool while he was making it at home. Then when we saw the other baskets that arrived at school from all the 5th graders, we realized his really WAS outstanding. He did a great job making it look so smooth and perfect.

This was one of those projects that took multiple trips to Michaels and quite a few hours of work at home to get it completed on time, only to find out the art teacher extended the deadline since nobody was finished!!! Regardless of his frustration with that, he did beautiful work and we are proud he got to be showcased at the art gallery.

Piano Man

2010-02-22T17:13:00.004-06:00

He is such a boy. Band-aid from ripping his finger up with PE scooter today at school (ouch). Red scuffed cuticles...but man, he can sure play the piano.

Check out the "hands-on fun" contest over at Iheartfaces.com

Snow Day February 2010

2010-02-14T16:32:00.016-06:00

A few days ago, we had the most snow EVER in Dallas in one day. Yes, the most EVER!!! We got over a foot of snow, and boy was it fun. The kids missed two days of school and played non-stop across the street at the park with every kid in the neighborhood. It really was quite a sight to see. So beautiful!!

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The snow was so soft and fluffy that we decided to make snow cones!!
A couple of neighbor kids joined us and they hid in the garage from the falling snow for a few minutes to eat them.

The Big One

2010-01-31T16:02:00.001-06:00

Steve turned 40 this year, so of course we had to have a surprise party. I spent about 3 weeks planning the whole thing with my good friend Justine. We decorated the house with 40s and hung a banner outside the house on his actual birthday. Then, on the following Saturday when Steve left to coach Joshua's baskeball game, we brought in Dickey's barbeque, set-up the house for the party, put out balloons, candy party favors and a "Stevie-tini" drink station. It took A LOT of planning, but we pulled it off. He was definitely surprised and we had a lot of fun!!

Steve came home from a business trip to New York to the house decorated. We had dinner and cake and he got a new chain saw and NBA2010 video game from us for his birthday.

SURPRISE!!
The funniest part about this whole thing was that I needed to call on Thomas's acting skills. About 15 minutes before it was time for us all to leave for Joshua's basketball game, I told Thomas about the party. (I can't tell him or Charles anything too soon if it is a secret. They can't keep them.) So I told Thomas he needed to get in bed and pretend he was sick so that we had an excuse to stay behind. He crawled into bed, turned the lights off and when Steve went to check on him, he moaned and groaned about a stomach ache. He totally fooled Steve. Quite the actor that kid is!!

The food was really good!!

And the cake was too, so they said!

We had fun making fun of Steve for all the fruity drinks he likes to order. We created a "Stevie-tini" in his honor for the night. Justine and I had a taste test one morning while the kids were at school to make sure we had the mix just right. It was a pomegranate martini, and it was quite tasty. Most of the guests really enjoyed them!!

I also put together a picture slide-show of Steve's life which was really fun and quite the tear jerker. Especially all the pictures of him and the boys when they were babies. And these chocolates were spread around for the guests as party favors. They have Steve's face on them from when he was about 8 years old and his face today. It's amazing how much Thomas looks like he did when he was young.

The boys felt really special being the only kids at the party and loved being in the slide-show. Charles got so excited when I told him we were having a surprise party that he started running around the house asking me what he could do to help. He said "this is my first surprise party!" It was really cute! They were all three so well behaved and just mixed right in with the adults. When they got bored with the party, they went upstairs and watched a movie.

Happy Birthday Steve!!

A White Christmas... in Pictures

2009-12-31T15:16:00.000-06:00

That is really snow on our wreath. And yes, we are in Flower Mound. We had the best Christmas this year, partially because it SNOWED! Grammy has always talked about wanting to have a white Christmas, and luckily she and Papa were in town for it. It was absolutely beautiful. The big man in red really came thru again this year too!!. What fun.

Christmas EVE presents...PJs and books for all.

The boys new nutcrackers this year. (the closest thing to playing with dolls we get around here)

The rest of the pictures below are all from Christmas Day. Lots of new toys and video games, a computer from Mom and Dad, playing in the snow, the cats checking out the toys, a gluten-free (yummy) chocolate wreath cake, ebelskivers for breakfast (stuffed pancakes...a new tradition??) and a yo-yo for Joshua.

Let the Holiday begin

2009-12-18T16:23:00.018-06:00

Christmas parties were today at school (actually, we call them winter parties)and now the boys are home for two whole weeks. Yippee!

The toboggan and snowball fights were the funnest.

They got Krispe Kreme back in the classroom. yum. This was Joshua's last "winter wonderland" at the elementary school. Next year he is onto middle school.

Thomas and buddy Jay had a blast with the snowballs too.

Building the "ice" forts was pretty fun too!

And the Kindergartners were so cute in their hand print Christmas tree shirts!

We are looking forward to the break, sleeping in and no homework!!

Here Comes Santa Claus...

2009-12-15T14:46:00.012-06:00

The Kall children are getting excited about Christmas coming soon. They got to tell Santa and Mrs. Claus what they wanted up at school last week.

I wonder what Charles was telling him. Santa seems surprised!

Charles and I made chocolate covered pretzels for teachers gifts. He is such the little chef. He hung with me for 2 hours and three bags of pretzels, never getting tired or wanting to quit.

The cats are even getting into the spirit around here:

Thanksgiving and Thomas's First Communion

2009-12-01T13:53:00.000-06:00

We got the whole week off again this year for Thanksgiving, so the whole Kall gang came to Flower Mound. We thought it was the perfect time for Thomas to make his first communion too since all his Catholic relatives would be in town.

First to arrive was Yvette and her two kids, Alxander and Annelie. We had fun spending time with them since we don't see them very often. Annelie and Charles are the same age, and after she got used to his craziness, they had fun playing together. The best part was making these adorable turkey cupcakes.

We made the cupcakes on Tuesday...

And then turned them into Turkeys on Wednesday...

This was the perfect project for these two. They are the littlest of all the cousins, but were very excited to have a project that was just for them. And what a good job they did!!

By Wednesday night, everyone had arrived and we were in full swing chaos. We had 9 extra people staying here at the house, and 7 others at a hotel. The kids played a lot of games both in and outside, and the moms cooked. Luckily the weather was beautiful all week and the kids spent a lot of time across the street at the park.

Poor Alexander busted his lip during a game of football!

I didn't get too many shots of our feast, but we did have a big one. Here are a couple of the kids tables.

Annelie was so excited when Jacqueline finally arrived. An escape from all the boys!

After Thanksgiving, we did some Black Friday shopping and celebrated Alexander's birthday at the bowling alley. Then Saturday was the First Communion.

Thomas was so excited (and a little nervous) to finally make his first communion. He was so handsome in his fancy clothes.

When we got to the church, Thomas was waiting in the back when his freind, Jay, arrived to support him. It was so nice for Thomas!!!

And here is his big moment!

We came back to the house for a celebration. We had brisket and queso and beans and ribs (at Thomas's request). We ate cake and Thomas opened a few presents. It was a really good time.

This jersey was from Thomas's godparents, Uncle Danny and Aunt Tricia, who were not able to make the first communion.

In spite of the craziness and the mess, it was a really fun week. We all miss our cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents!

Halloween

2009-11-05T10:40:00.000-06:00

Halloween was lots of fun at the Kall house, as usual this year. We went to the pumpkin patch because Charles insisted, but the other boys had fun too!

The boys by the "UP" display. Every year there are new displays from the various popular kids movie that year. fun!

Charles quickly got lost in the hay maze and had to jump on top to find his way out!

A few days later was Halloween. We met up with our good friends and had a little pre-trick-r-treating party in their garage and driveway. Then it was time to suit up. Joshua was the Riddler from Batman, so we spiked his hair up and painted it orange (like Jim Carrey in the movie). I also attached the mask to his face and blacked out his eyes! Pretty cool.

Thomas wanted to be Michael Jackson. He has been obsessed with him and his music ever since he died this past summer. Steve and I played a lot of his music for the boys just to let him know who he was and how great his music was. Thomas wanted all the songs on his ipod. We got creative with his costume turning an old black shirt of mine into a jacket and using other things we already had. Add a wig and a glove, and you've got Michael Jackson. He really liked wearing the black eyeliner. I know, I know...trouble.

And then there was Charles. He wore an astronaut space shuttle costume to a Halloween party the week before, but on the actual day wanted to be batman. We had an old, cheap dress-up batman costume and that was good enough for him. He didn't want a mask, a hat, make-up, nothing. But boy did he have fun trick-r-treating!

He wore the batman ear "hat" I made for him that afternoon for two seconds for this picture, than went without it the rest of the evening.

Fall Sports

2009-10-20T23:09:00.027-05:00

With school starting, that can only mean one thing in the Kall household...fall sports. This is the first time all THREE boys have played a sport at the same time. Joshua played tackle peewee football, Thomas played flag football and Charles played soccer.

Joshua was on the Gators, which turned out to be quite a good little team. He had a great first experience with football and wants to play again next year!

He played on both offense and defense. His biggest play of the season was catching this pass against the number one ranked team, TCU. The Gators later went on to win the game and come out on top for the regular season.

Here he is making a block, and all hot and sweaty after one of their wins.

The Gators went onto the playoffs and won all the way up until the very end. They ended the season in 2nd place. It was lots of fun to watch. Here is Joshua about to get his trophy after the championship game. That is his coach, Rudy, and ex-Dallas Cowboy, Tony Casillas, handing out the trophies.

Thomas played flag football at the YMCA and Steve was the coach. Thomas LOVED playing football. He has been waiting a long time to get to play it, and really had a good time. He was the quarterback most games, and was a darned good one.

Charles played soccer on the Big Dawgs with his best friend, James.

His first game was not a huge success. He got on the field that first time and would not kick the ball. He just chased everyone around and acted afraid to get into the mix. We were a little baffled because he didn't act this way at practice. At the first time-out I asked him why he wasn't trying to kick the ball and he said, "those guys out there are CRAZY". He had never had to go up against another kid and fight to get the ball. So after practicing on being more aggresive and bribing him with milk shakes, he had break-thru about three game into the season. He scored 5 goals and was so proud of himself. From then on, he was really into the sport and excited to try to score goals. He got very competitive, alway keeping score on the sidelines when he wasn't playing.

Thomas Turns 8

2009-10-01T11:39:00.000-05:00

Thomas's birthday is only a month after Charles's, so school starts and we are quickly planning a celebration for Thomas. He decided he wanted to skate again this year, but we chose to roller skate instead of ice skate this time.

We started the morning off with our traditional donuts on the birthday plate. We have done this for so many years now, the kids really look forward to waking up to presents from the family waiting and seeing how mom shaped donuts into their number. Eight was an easy one...It was just two Krispy Kremes from Kroger plopped down onto the plate.

Next Thomas opened Charles's present (a Tony Romo Cowboys jersey) and mom and dads present (a spark scooter). Joshua was still at a friends house from a sleepover the night before. When he got home later, he gave Thomas a set of Bendaroos.

The spark scooter turned out to be pretty cool. It is just a regular razor scooter that has a pad on the back that when pushed down with your foot makes sparks fly. Of course the pad wears down very quickly...something to spend allowance money on, but it's fun while it lasts!

Here is Charles checking Thomas out in front of the house. Working on the best technique.

Sparks are flying!

Later that afternoon we were off to SkateTown for the party. All the kids really did have fun!!

Thomas did pretty well. He only fell a few times.

Here are some of Thomas's buddies that were at the party:

These are Thomas's good friends Jessie and Olivia.

Check out Charles...he started off using one of the cool wheeled frame things to help him, but soon found he did better without it. He was so cute!

Charles's best friend, James, and his mom wheeled around for almost the entire party with the help of this cool little frame.

Even Steve reluctantly strapped on some skates and got out there for a little bit. And of course Joshua had fun racing around, faster each time!

After an hour or so of skating, we moved to the party area where they had hot dogs and chips and were able to cool off a little bit.

Then they played the ice cream game

And ate cake (yes, a cookie cake again. The Kall children are not fond of regular cake). It was a Cowboys cake...kind of.

We opened presents at home so the kids could have more time to skate. It was a really fun afternoon and a great birthday!!

Happy 5th Birthday Charles

2009-09-01T12:26:00.000-05:00

Charles is finally 5! He is so thrilled to be 5. Five is that age that is officially no longer a baby. It's off to kindergarten. It's riding a bike without training wheels and big boy stuff.

So we celebrated our baby not being a baby anymore with a party at the house. Since we already celebrated at Sea World in San Antonio with his cousins, this was supposed to just be a little "get together" swimming in the backyard with a few buddies. I planned to have a cake and some balloons and that was it. However, Charles kept saying things like "where are we going to hang the pinata?" Oh darn...I guess I need to get a pinata. Then he said, "lets play the games in the backyard". I asked him "what games" and he said "pin the tail on the donkey of course". So off I went to get that game. He was so cute. I was not going to get away with just swimming and some balloons. We were having a real deal party!!!

Of course we started off the morning with our traditional "donuts in the shape of a 5" and presents from the family. Joshua got Charles the game "perfection"

Thomas got him a blue light saber, and Steve and I got Charles a digital camera. Charles spends hours (and lots of battery life) taking pictures with my phone. He loves it so much, we thought he would enjoy having his own camera. This turned out to be lots of fun for Charles. Seems the apple doesn't fall far from the photography tree.

The party started later that afternoon. The boys swam and then broke open the pinata. It turns out that after only two kids, the Darth Vader head broke in half. Oh well, less time to wait for Candy.

Then we headed in to eat cake (cookie cake again). Our theme this time around was star wars and I was given strict orders to request a cake with very little icing. So the cake was kinda plain. But yummy!

Presents were next...the part Charles couldn't wait for. He got lots of great toys.

This was a really cool star wars blaster from his best friend James.

It's official, there are no more little kids at the Kall house!

Summer Wrap-up

2009-08-31T12:54:00.017-05:00

It seems that summer is over. Not officially, I guess. I think that happens in September sometime. But today, is August 31st, the temperature here is only getting into the high 80s, the kids are in school, fall is in the air. So, I have decided to post one final, summer wrap-up. I take lots of pictures. Everyone knows that. It seems that I am more of a photojournalist than a photographer. I get a kick out of telling stories with photos, so here is our summer story.

First on our stop of outings and adventures, was a trip up I-35 about 30 minutes to a little blackberry farm for some picking. We made the trip with our neighbors (and Charles's best friend). We packed a picnic dinner, and after spending at least an hour picking berries, we had a seat under a big old oak tree. It was hot and sticky, and tons of fun!

Thomas actually enjoyed this little outing. I wasn't sure if he would when we set out. He tends to get bored quickly and easily with something like this. This time was different though. He got really excited when he would spot an exceptionally big, fat, juicy and dark purple blackberry. He thought it was funny to eat the not-ripe red ones that were VERY sour too.

I knew Joshua would enjoy this because it is right up his alley. He likes to eat blackberries for one, and when put on a task he is all business. He probably single handedly picked more than half of all the berries we brought home.

And then there was Charles (with buddy James). He LOVES blackberries, so it was an easy sell. He ate as many as made it into the bucket, got really hot, and had to fight off some ants, but boy did he have fun.

Next on our "to-do list" for the summer was to buy a cat. Why, you say? Well, it turns out the boys have been asking for a pet for years, specifically a kitten. Thomas asked me when Charles was 1 year old, and I told him "no". I said when Charles was older. Thomas pressed further, "like when he is 4 1/2?" And I said "yes" Guess how old Charles is? He is five, but at the time of this story he was 4 1/2. And I am one to keep my word. Steve was not thrilled, but he gave in, especially since I promised. So after many trips to Petsmart, much correspondence with the humane society, and meeting many kittens we finally picked two. Yes two. We couldn't get just one, we had to get two. These kinds of things just happen sometimes. The kittens were litter mates (brother and sister), one black and one gray tabby. We named them Tori and Tony. We actually adopted them in late June and had to wait THREE LONG WEEKS to bring them home. The boys were thrilled and they all really love the kittens. Steve secretly likes them too.

The day we brought them home, the cats quickly hid from us as cats do. Thomas found Tony under his bed, so he crawled under with him and read a book. He put a sign up that said "shhh...cat sleeping" Here is Joshua and Tori. She is a really cute cat, but not quite as much of a people cat as Tony. She wouldn't come out of hiding for days when we brought her home. She is very sweet though and has warmed up to us now. She also figured out how to use the cat door to the garage much faster than Tony. So, I think she is the smart one of the two.

Tony is lots of fun for Charles because he puts up with almost anything. We are trying to teach Charles not to pick him up and drag him around like a stuffed animal. But it is hard becasue Tony lets him. The older boys went off to camp a few days after we got the kittens, so Tony and Charles have bonded. They are buddies.

The cats are a lot of fun to have around. They play and fight and knock things over like kids. But they are precious and the boys are doing pretty well taking care of them.

When the boys got back from camp, grammy and papa came for a quick visit on their way back from Hawaii where they visited my moms brother. They were here for my birthday which was really fun for me. Grammy made me a gluten free brownie "cake". I even got balloons and flowers. Steve bought me a GPS and mom and dad bought me a kindle. What a gadget geek I am. It was a really great birthday!

After getting a gps, I decided to try out something called geocaching with the boys. We had a week with no plans, so I checked out the geocaching website, downloaded the treasures into the gps and off we went. It took a few tries to figure out how to work the gps for this type of activity, but when we did, we actually got quite good at it. Who knew there were treasures or "caches" hidden all over the world that could be found with a gps?? Joshua, Charles and I really had fun doing this. Thomas complained the whole time. But, he did get excited when we found our first cache. This was the first one we actually found. It was in the woods behind our local Kroger.

We finished our summer fun with a trip to San Antonio to visit cousins and celebrate Charles's birthday at Sea World. We had a jampacked week of activity. The first day there we went to Landa Park in New Braunfels. It is a natural spring fed pool with a rope swing and a big slide. We packed a picnic and took all the cousins. They really enjoyed this. Here is Josh on the rope swing and Thomas coming down the slide.

Charles even got the nerve up to go for a ride on the rope swing (with a little help from cousin Christopher).

Next on our list of activities was a trip to Sea World. Charles had been asking for months to go to Sea World for his birthday. We hadn't been there in a quite a few years, and in spite of the heat it was a great day.

The Shamu show was fantastic. That darn whale always makes me cry. It's such a beautiful show.

Charles was absolutely mesmerized. He sat on Steve's lap eating cotton candy and whispered "Sea World is Awesome"

One of the best things at Sea World was feeding the dolphins in the dolphin tank.

The big kids ended the day at Sea World riding all the crazy big roller coasters while Steve and Charles saw all the rest of the evening shows. We closed the park down at 8:00 and headed home only to go to Schlitterbahn the next day. I don't have any pictures from Schlitterbahn, but boy was it fun. It is a massive water park that is so big you have to take a bus to get to the second half. It is built right next to the river in New Braunfels and part of the park actually uses the natural spring water. We had a lot of of fun there too, and will have to make this a yearly trip now that the kids are older.

We finished our visit with a little birthday celebration for Charles at Yvonne and Larry's house. It was a fun, exhausting trip and a great end to our summer.

First Day...all together

2009-08-24T22:43:00.009-05:00

Today was the first day of the first, last and only time my three boys will be together at school. Charles was super excited to go to school with the big boys. He has never been a big fan of school, so I was really glad to see him pumped up. They all popped out of bed and got ready quickly this morning. After breakfast we headed out to fight the first day traffic.

We stood in line to get into Charles's Kinder class. There are too many Kindergarten kids this year, so they are in the process of transferring or hiring a new teacher. But for now the classes are stuffed full. Charles didn't care though. He went right to his locker, hung up his backpack then sat down and started coloring.

All Business.

He was so calm, cool and collected I hardly had a reason to get sad.
(by the way, all the scratches on his face are from a run in he had with Tony, one of our new kittens. Go ahead. Click on it to get a better view. Let's just say we think he has learned a valuable life lesson. "it is not wise to run away from ones brother with a cat in your arms")

Joshua told us goodbye and headed to his class, then Steve and I walked Thomas down to his 2nd grade classroom. No problems there. Thomas seemed a tiny bit nervous, but all in all happy to be back.

When the boys got home after school, I was asking them all (but especially Charles) how their day went. Charles proceeded to tell me that his "pork egg roll" from the cafeteria was not an egg at all. I think he was actually expecting a rolled up egg. God love him!

Our Summer Adventures:Florida

2009-08-14T16:04:00.028-05:00

It is day three of Thomas's Tonsil surgery, and he feels pretty crummy. He's asleep at the moment so, since we are pretty much stuck at home, I thought I'd get caught up on the blog.

After school let out in June, we spent a few weeks at home and then headed to Florida to visit Grammy and Papa. As always, we had a lot of fun with them and were pretty busy too. This is a great summer vacation for us becasue they have a big boat that we usually get to go on, there are beaches nearby and lots of fishing off the dock in the backyard. (the kind of fishing where you actually catch fish)

We flew out on "standby" so we didn't know if we would actually get a seat. We ended up getting the last 4 seats (Steve joined us later) so all three boys were together in the back, and I was way up front by myself praying they would behave.

After we took off a nice lady sitting in the row across from them switched with me and we all flew close together. I'm sure everyone around them was relieved I was close, especially after seeing those lolli-pops!

The first day in Florida, the boys were itching to go fishing with Papa. So, the following morning he got up early to get some bait and everyone headed to the dock. The boys did this two or three times while we were there, even off the back of the boat a few times. Thomas gave up pretty quick on this day because of the heat. Josh caught one and Charles tried. Yep, even I caught one!

Next we had a short ride on Charlotte's Web over to a marina where the boys got to play in the fountains while Papa pumped out the boat. This was a quick 1 hour trip, but the water was pretty rough which was so fun for the boys on the bow of the boat!

The best part about any boat trip?...your turn driving of course. At least Charles thinks so.

And the fountains were great too.

Our next activity was a Fourth Of July Cooking class that Grammy signed the boys up for. It was held at a cute little local shop/cafe and it turned out to be one of their favorite things this trip. They made red white and blue punch, sparkler fruit kabobs and firecracker quesadillas. Charles was in rare form for the first part of our trip. Lets just say we were butting heads a lot. So Grammy and I were a little worried how he would behave in class. Turns out he was great for the teacher (of course) and REALLY loved the food. Which meant we had a cup of coffee and browsed the shop while the kids cooked.

A few days later we packed up Charlottes Web for an overnight trip to Boca Grande. Boca Grande is about 2 hours away by boat (at least by our boat) and has a great beach. We were a little worried about the weather because they were predicting thunderstorms all day, but it actually turned out great. We did get downpoured on at the beach, but it passed quickly and was sorta fun.

This was our mode of transportation while on the island. Boca Grande is a tiny little place with just a few little shops, houses, a golf course and a great beach.

Here was our beach. Not bad!

An overnight trip in this boat is a lot like a trip in an RV. There is a full galley (kitchen) and two cabins. Plus the kitchen table turns into a bed and there is a couch too. We rented movies for the occasion and Charles was so excited to eat and sleep on the boat. After dinner at the marina we headed to the boat and did some fishing. Then we watched Iron Man and headed to bed.

Charles caught his first fish on this trip, and Thomas caught one too.

Steve had joined us in Florida in time to go to Boca with us. Here he is on the swim step in the back helping Charles get the fish off the hook.

Thomas really likes fishing, but he still won't get near it when he actually catches one. We keep telling him they don't count if he doesn't take it off the hook, but he isn't buying it.

The next day we headed home, and after acting up again, Charles was banished to "time-out" where he proceeded to konk out while Joshua caught up on some Harry Potter.

On the Fourth Of July, we swam in the morning and headed back out on the boat to see fireworks. The boys jumped in and swam a little bit, then we pulled out some glow stick. The fireworks were beautiful over the water.

The last thing we did before we left was celebrate Grammy's birthday. Dinner, presents, cake. The whole thing. That was fun since we rarely get to be with Grammy on her birthday.

It was a really busy and fun trip. We did a lot of swimming, movie watching and mini golf in between the boat rides. We will miss our Florida vacations if Grammy and Papa really do move back to Texas! One last thing...Grammy and Papa live a few houses down from the corner of San Mateo and St. Thomas which just so happens to be Thomas's name (he is Thomas Mateo Kall). It never dawned on us until this trip...so we had to take a picture of him by his sign. Too funny!

Removal of Tonsils, Take 2

2009-08-12T14:29:00.012-05:00

I have been greatly neglecting the blog and have LOTS to post from our summer adventures, but first a quick update on Thomas. He had his tonsils out this morning. Since we did this with Charles in February, we weren't too worried. Here is how our day went:

7 am: rise and shine. No breakfast for Thomas
8 am: dropped off Charles with James (best buddy) and Joshua with Jeremy (another best buddy)
8:40 am: arrive at pediatric surgery center
8:50 am: mom fills out paperwork while boys play games

9:00 am: we go back fill out more papers while Thomas watches "Ratatouille" on a little DVD player (bad choice when you are really hungry). Then they give Thomas some "goofy juice".

10 am: They wheel him back to remove his tonsils. Steve and I go wait and read/play games on our electronic devices
10:30 am: Doctor tells us he is done and did great
10:45: we go see Thomas. He is upset and VERY groggy. Quite out of it.

He was crying a little bit and trying to sit up.

Thomas proceeds to eat two Popsicles and drink a can of Apple juice in the recovery room while he is in and out of sleep.

11 am: Thomas is more awake. Takes some pain medicine and I talk to the nurse about after care
11:30 am: we wheel him out to the car and head home. Thomas is still pretty drowsy and sleeps in the car
12:00 we arrive at home hoping Thomas will sleep all day. No luck. He is camped out in our bed, watching TV and EATING everything in sight.

So far he has had 5 glasses of juice and water, two bowls of ice cream, a bowl of jello, and a cup of pudding. It is 2:30 right now. I am trying to talk him into a pb&j sandwich, but he is holding me to the "all the ice cream he can eat" that we promised. I gave him a bell to ring when he needed something, and it is ringing non-stop for more refreshments! Steve is working from home, and the "service" bell is ringing so much, we can't stop laughing.

All is well, and I know when the steroids wear off in a day or so his appetite will be gone, so we are happy he feels good and is eating right now.

Thanks for all the well wishes.

ps. In the time it took me to post this, he has eaten a bowl of grapes, a cheese stick and another bowl of ice cream!

The Pines...Part 2

2009-07-18T14:39:00.015-05:00

After a very emotional week, we went back to The Pines to pick up Joshua. You notice I didn't say Joshua and Thomas. That is because Thomas actually got sick on Wednesday and had to come home early. He was running a fever (103 degrees) and had a sore throat and headache. He hung out in the nurses office and was taken to a clinic. It turned out to be a pretty mild little virus, that he got at a bad time. We drove out to Big Sandy and brought him home that night. It only lasted a couple of days, but we were sad he had to miss the second half of camp.

So after a few days of rest, Steve, Charles, Thomas and I headed out again. We spent the night in a hotel in Longview which proved to be very exciting to Charles! Then on Saturday morning we headed to the camp for the 9am morning service at the Cathedral of the Pines.

The service started out with some songs and words from "Big Tuna" the camp director.
Then all the counselors had to tell their real names (the kids only knew their made up counselor names all week and spent hours trying to guess their names). They also told everyone what school they were attending in the fall

This is Ewok...a camp favorite who also happen to be one of Thomas's counselors. We aren't sure what his real name is. Nobody remembers...but he was really funny.

It was fun seeing all the campers with their cabins, in their new Pines shirts listening intently to these fine Catholic young men and women who were such good examples for them all week

Here you see that Thomas joined his cabin for this last little ceremony, and Joshua is listening intently to the counselors tell their names.

Here is Thomas with two of his three counselors as well as some cabin mates.

And Joshua with one of his Counselors (Bobo) who is staying at the Pines in the fall to help with religious retreats and nature education that the camp does all year round.

In spite of logging about 15 hours on the road and a sick camper, all in all, the camp was a great experience. Both boys want to go back next year, they made it home with all their stuff and had a great time. They played games, rode horses, swam a lot, rode canoes, tie dyed shirts, went down a huge slide into the lake, made smores, had a bonfire, watched skits, goofed off a LOT and made many good memories. All of this while learning more about their Catholic faith.

The staff was so great with Thomas when he was sick. They called us immediately, took him to the doctor, gave him medicine, treated him kindly and worried over him like he was their own. The camp director was completely aware of what was going on, and in addition to running the camp, he met us at our car at 10:00 when we got there on Wednesday. The nurse was also very calm and loving. This experience made me have great respect for the people running the Pines.

I am glad the boys had fun, and I'm glad they are home!

Here are some random pictures taken during the week by the Pines photographer.

The Pines

2009-07-12T21:08:00.009-05:00

Joshua and Thomas went to camp today. This is the first time they have been to an overnight camp, and they were very excited. A little nervous too, but mostly excited.

It's funny the difference in moms and dads in these situations. We give our kids such different advice. For example, I told Joshua "don't forget bug spray. But if you do get bites and need benadryl, don't be afraid to ask." Steve told the boys "always get the hot meal unless it just looks really really gross. You will be hungry out there and cereal and sandwiches don't stick with you." I told Thomas, "keep up with your stuff, hang up your towel. You don't want to be stuck with a nasty wet towel the whole week." Steve said "when you get there, get the lay of the land. Try to figure out where you are right away so that if you ever get separated from the group you can find your way back." All this advice was being fired at them over breakfast this morning, poor kids! Its a wonder they weren't nervous wrecks.

No, that was me!

So nervous I forgot my camera. Thank goodness for my good friend, Nicole

We settled them in, made their beds and kissed them goodbye.
Here is Charles saying goodbye to Thomas on his bunk bed.
And Thomas taking my advice...putting on his sunscreen. So cute! (he didn't see me take this one)
And here is Joshua in his bunk...which is right next to his friend, John Ramsey.
I'm sure I will get through this week somehow. Me and my buddy Charles will hang out a lot and there will be some quiet in the house. I'm not sure how I will manage.

Meanwhile...the boys will be having a great time !!!!!

Happy Fathers Day

2009-06-21T21:39:00.005-05:00

Guess what Steve got for Fathers Day???

Last Day of School

2009-06-16T22:16:00.008-05:00

Joshua and Thomas ended school for the year on June 5. They had parties and snacks and got out early that day. What fun.

For Thomas's party (where I am the room mom) the kids got to have outdoor games. Then we came in and had donuts, fruit and drinks.

For our class outdoor station, the kids did a "hula relay" race. It was hilarious watching the kids run down, put on the lei, glasses and grass skirt and do the hula. Check out Thomas...

Of course Charles was along for all the fun since his school ended the week before. He shared Thomas's chair and pigged out on donuts with him.

And here is Thomas with his teacher, Mrs. Stephens who he LOVED!

I missed most of Joshua's party, but he got to have root beer floats and then play outside for a long time. Here he is after the fun was over getting ready to go back inside and finish up for the day. Yep, there is ~~Waldo~~ Charles right by his side, not missing a thing.

It was a good year for both boys...summer here we come!

Goodbye May

2009-06-01T08:14:00.016-05:00

It is June 1st, but my did we have a busy May. It started with Joshua's birthday. There was a previous post on that subject, but we didn't have his actual party/sleepover until May 8. He invited 6 boys over for dinner, swimming, lots of goofing off and a sleepover. Only 4 of the 6 stayed the night, and all in all it was a pretty good evening. The only "incident" was actually instigated by Joshua. He and Jeremy decided to prank Shepherd (the first to fall asleep) by putting toothpaste in his hair. I'm not sure where they got THAT idea, but I was glad Steve decided to sleep upstairs in the guest room and had to deal with rinsing Shepherd's hair over the tub at 1:00 in the morning. Steve said he couldn't stop laughing...I guess we know where Joshua gets his sense of humor.

Here is Joshua blowing out candles on a big pile of brownies which he prefers over cake.
And here is Josh with his buddy Mason who used to live in this neighborhood, but moved away. This picture was right before the guys played a rousing game of "capture the flag" at the park. Joshua really likes hangin' with Mason.

A week later we went to a Rangers game. It was hot and sticky, but a lot of fun. There is a section at the ballpark where the kids can go hit and pitch balls of their own.
This was one of the "family nights" at the ballpark, and there were spectacular fireworks after the game. Thomas was very "into" the game. the Rangers played the Angels and WON!
Next in May was the last day of school and field day for Charles. This was a big day for the Kalls because we have had a kid in that preschool for the last 7 years, and we are DONE! It is definitely bittersweet. I no longer have any babies which makes me very sad, but we have great memories from that school and are excited to have all three boys at the same Elementary next year.

Charles is doing the "Alphabet Parade" with his class and eating a popsicle after field day activities.

And here he is giving big hugs to his awesome teachers!

Finally, the boys had field day at their school as well. Don't worry, Joshua DID get a haircut soon after these pictures were taken!

Here is Thomas with his buddy Blake.

May was fun, but we are all READY for summer!!

Piano Recital

2009-05-31T16:21:00.004-05:00

The boys had their first ever piano recital today. It was so much fun to see all the other kids that take piano from their teacher. Speaking of their teacher, her name is Mrs. Tackett and she is the boys music teacher at school. We really lucked out getting a spot with her. She is SO sweet, but really pushes the kids. She does nothing but encourage them and tell them all how great they are!

We are so proud of how well they are doing with piano. Here are their "movie" selections. Thomas played Star Wars, and Joshua played a song from the Lion King. Then they played their duet, "Yo Ho" from Pirates of the Caribbean.

A little piano

2009-05-21T15:35:00.003-05:00

Check out Joshua and Thomas playing a duet they just learned at piano lessons. They have been only playing since January. This is so much fun!!!

Joshua's Big Week

2009-05-06T23:00:00.013-05:00

Yes, that is a 10 you are looking at on the plate. Our baby is 10. Double Digits. It's hard to believe. We celebrated his birthday on Sunday with the donuts and a few presents. Charles got him a fish webkinz

And Thomas got him a fun new DS game

Those presents were great, but after opening them, I handed Joshua a treasure hunt clue to his final birthday present. He followed the clues all through the house and finally ended up in the garage where this was waiting for him:

A Ping Pong Table!!!! That is his buddy Shepherd who came over that day and played ping pong all afternoon with the boys. We didn't know what to get him for his birthday. Joshua never really wants anything. Then after remembering all the fun they had playing ping pong when the Perry cousins were in town, we thought it was the perfect choice. So come on back boys...we are ready for you now!

We also went out for ice cream with Shepherd that night since Grammy sent Joshua an ice cream gift card! They both got the LARGE scoop at marble slab and ate every bite.

In addition to having a birthday this week, Joshua was chosen as "kid with character" for 4th grade at school. Here is his nomination form from his teacher and Josh in his Kid with Character shirt he wore on the morning announcements. We are very proud of him. (click on it to read)

And to top it all off, we have had this entire week off from school due to the swine flu ridiculousness. What a perfect time to have a new ping pong table. The school came to their senses and ordered us all back on Thursday, but it was a fun break while it lasted. (at least for the kids)

Budding Artists

2009-04-23T09:27:00.011-05:00

The last couple of weeks, Joshua and Thomas have been very busy with artistic endeavors. First, we found out that Thomas's artwork was chosen to be displayed at the school district art show at a real gallery. We had no idea that the school district even had an art show, and were so excited to see his work. The art teacher chose one piece of artwork to display from each class. Thomas's class was studying the French impressionist Edgar Degas who is famous for his paintings of ballet dancers. Here is an example of a Degas:

To make it more fun for first graders (especially the boys), the art teacher had the kids do a chalk pastel of "frog ballet dancers."

Here is Thomas showing off his work at the Art Gallery

And a close-up of his work

This is a tough assignment because it is hard to not make a total mess when using chalk pastels. And Thomas added interesting details like the wood floor and stage lighting. He definitely got his artistic ability from his dad because I cannot even draw a frog, let alone one doing ballet.

Here you can see some of the other artwork from his school, including the two other "Degas frogs" that were chosen.

Joshua has been busy with the fine arts as well. He was chosen to play the "dog catcher" in our first ever musical, Annie jr., at his school. We went to see the play on opening night this past Tuesday, and everyone did a really great job. Joshua nailed his dog catcher role!!

Here he is running on stage looking for a dog. We weren't allowed to use a flash so the pictures are a little dark.

And here he is talking to Annie, asking her about her dog, Sandy. He only had one line, but lots of kids didn't get any lines!!

Here he is after the play with his buddy, Shepherd who played a servant.

This was such a fun experience for Joshua, even thought he had a small part. He learned all about what it takes to put on a show, like the backstage area, the costumes and lot of rehearsals.

Easter

2009-04-21T22:33:00.024-05:00

We had a great Easter this year in San Antonio with the family. Of course the boys LOVE getting together with their cousins, and had a great time with them during this quick weekend trip.

The boys still love to color eggs.

They interrupted a football game to come do this on Aunt Yvonne's patio.

Jacqueline shows off some of the finished eggs!

Later that night we played a big game of bingo. What fun!

And finally Easter morning. Everyone found their baskets easily. The boys got the usual. Swim suits, pjs, candy . Then it was off to church.

We enjoyed Easter services with the whole family. SOOO many boys!

And finally Charles got to have his Easter egg hunt that he talked about for weeks.

After looking for eggs on top of the swingset...Charles decided to slide down. Oops!

Even the big boys loved hunting eggs.

After the hunt we had some delicious barbeque that Grandpa grilled and tons of other great food that Aunt Liz and Grandma Kall cooked. Right before we left, we got to sing to Michael, wishing him a happy 15th birthday! Wow time flies. I still remember his Winnie the Pooh party in Austin when he turned 2.

A Thomas update

2009-03-31T22:30:00.005-05:00

So here is a little bit of news about Thomas. Baseball just started up again this spring, and he and Steve decided on a new team name. They are now the Storm, and have some pretty sharp new uniforms. Check them out:

These were taken right before their first game. Thomas happen to get TWO HOMERUNS this game! Grammy even got to see them.

Oh ya, Thomas chipped his tooth too. I took this picture to show the dentist. He just laughed and said "ya, most boys get a chip in their tooth at some point". Thomas didn't get this from a baseball in the mouth. No, he simply ran into the side of the house.

The brick side.

Don't ask.

Yep, it's the front, permanent tooth.

This one's for you, Yvette!

2009-03-31T21:43:00.009-05:00

Joshua has been studying Texas history a lot in the past month, and he came home from school with this "postcard" today. It's so cute that he thought of Yvette to send this to. And he seems to think she lives in Sacramento! :) Here is the front of the card. The setting is the late 1800s and he is showing all the wonderful things that Texas has to offer. Notice the "good life" he refers to. And here is the part where he is trying to get aunt Yvette to move to Texas! (click on it to enlarge if you can't read it) I especially love the "take a vacation from California and come live here, PLEASE!" Hmm..it seems like Yvette might have heard something like that from other family members before! :) One last thing. Every kid in his class was given a speech to memorize from a famous character from the Alamo. Then they performed all of these "Voices of the Alamo" at school. Joshua was William Barrett Travis. The sound isn't great, so turn up the volume.

Spring Break 2009

2009-03-31T21:23:00.005-05:00

We didn't take a big trip, or even do much around here. But we did have a really great Spring Break. The boys did a lot of sleeping in and movie watching, and we were lucky enough to spend the first weekend of spring break with Liz and the "Perry" cousins who came to visit. In spite of the rain (which it did the WHOLE time they were here) we had fun bowling, playing ping pong, going to the movies and seeing a show at Medieval Times. There were also a LOT of ipods, DS's, video games and a few card games going on. I didn't pull out my cameera one time while they were here, but I did get one tiny movie clip. It's pretty cute. Check it out:

We are so glad they came to visit and missed them as soon as they left. Hopefully we will see everyone again at Easter!

After the Perrys left, we were lucky enough to have a visit from Grammy. The boys always love to see Grammy. Our only real "big" outing was a trip to the zoo on Friday. We actually drove over to the DART train station at Central and 635 and rode the train all the way to the zoo. That train ride was as much fun as the zoo itself. It took us about 40 minutes to get there, and it dropped us off right at the front gates. The weather was gorgeous and the boys had a great time. We even got to buy "nieve" from the little guy with the snack cart while waiting for our train back.

Destination Imagination

2009-03-07T23:16:00.011-06:00

Joshua participated in Destination Imagination (DI)this year for the first time. Most people don't know what DI is. Here is a short explanation:

DI is a global (yes global) competition that kids in Kindergarten thru 12th grade can enter. With the guidance of a Team Manager, who serves as a facilitator, not a coach, the team creates an action plan and works together to create everything needed for their Presentation. There are different categories to choose from, but all Team Challenges can be broken down into two parts: the Central Challenge and Side Trips. All DI Challenges have different required elements that teams must include as part of their solutions; these requirements comprise the Central Challenge.

The kids have to prepare a skit of some kind that includes costumes, props, and the script itself. They perform this in front of various judges who are judging them on their creativity as well as how well they followed the rules of the topic they chose and got their message across. Every aspect of this is 100% kid directed and executed. Our team chose the "instinct messaging" category. They had to choose an animal and creatively show how this animal communicates with each other. There were MANY steps involved in this including having 3-d props, two "sidetrips" etc. The kids chose seahorses for their animal.

Needless to say, the costumes and props they came up with were outstanding. And the judges thought so too. Our team not only came in 2ND PLACE for this category, but they won the coveted Da Vinci medal for their outstanding props. This is a REALLY big deal. These kids worked on this for almost 6 months. They competed against 23 other elementary schools in this category. Just placing 2nd place was outstanding on its own, but to be awarded this Da Vinci award is quite impressive. There were only 3 or 4 of these given out in our entire regional competition. We are talking 50 plus schools, and our 4th and 5th graders at Bluebonnet got this award.

Way to go "Go Lows" (that is their team name). We are so proud of you!!!

Joshua and Julia do some last minute repairs to the seaweed habitat! The two male seahorses get their costumes on. About 30 minutes before the performance. Here is a side view of this great seahorse costume. In addition to the seahorses, there was an angelfish in the performance...

and a clown fish too! So clever.

Here it is! Click play to see all 7 minutes of their fantastic performance.

Ouch!

2009-02-25T14:04:00.008-06:00

Poor Charles slammed his thumb in Steve's car door on Sunday. I wasn't there when it happened, but he was still whimpering an hour later when he came home. He woke up that night with shooting pains in that hand. It was a doozy.

I'm not sure what it is about him that makes him so accident prone, but we have had to administer more first aide with Charles than with the other two combined!

It's a good thing he's cute!!!

Thomas and dogs

2009-02-16T12:42:00.005-06:00

Something funny Thomas said...

The whole family was in the car, driving home from somewhere. We turned down our old street and said "hi old house" like we always do. Next, here is what happened.

Steve: Look guys, there's a wiener dog
Boys: Where? I don't see it.
Steve: Right over there.
Joshua: Oh, I see it.
Thomas: Where, I don't see it
Steve: right there
Thomas: Oh...(long pause)
Thomas: (quietly, whispering almost to himself) So that's where hot dogs come from.

Huh?

No wonder nobody around here likes hotdogs!

No more Tonsils for Charles

2009-02-08T21:31:00.011-06:00

Charles went in to have his tonsils removed on Friday, the 6th. He wasn't really ever sick because of them, but he did snore pretty loud and even had trouble talking. His tonsils were extremely large.

He wasn't really nervous about the operation. In fact, he didn't seemed bothered at all by the whole idea. Here he is hanging out in the waiting room before the surgery

After waiting there about 30 minutes, they took us back to a bed that was essentially in a hallway with nothing but a TV playing Kung-Fu Panda and two chairs. This was where we talked to the doctor and anesthesiologist before the actual procedure. Unfortunately, we ended up waiting here for about an hour and a half because they got behind. That was pretty tough, but we made it through playing lots of "I spy" and drawing on the paperwork about patients rights we were given. Charles also got his hospital bracelet here.

Then they finally brought the "goofy juice". I can't remember the name of the drug, but it is in the Valium family. They give this to the kids before they take them back so that they don't freak out when they are wheeled away. After he was taken to the OR, they gave him gas to fall asleep and then inserted the iv. So, Charles didn't have to be stuck with a needle one time while awake. He was pretty funny after he got the "Valium"; he started acting really silly and then would stare off into space. At one point he said "I was dreaming I was in a restaurant." I think he was hungry, poor guy. He kept leaning to the side of the bed looking through the bars.

Then they came and got him for the surgery, and we waited for him in the waiting room. The surgery took about 30 minutes, maybe less. They called us back just as they were wheeling him back to the recovery room. He ate a Popsicle for them before we even saw him, and ate another one while we were with him. He said his throat hurt and kept sucking on his lips. He asked for his glasses right away too.

About 30 minutes later the nurse came in and removed the IV. It was in his foot. Who knew.

After that we were cleared to leave. Steve went and got the car, and the nurse wheeled him out in a kiddie wheel chair. He got to pick a little stuffed animal with the hospital shirt on him. He chose the Cow and later named him Texas.

The ride home was uneventful. He dozed a little, and didn't throw up. When we got home, Steve put him on the coach to watch TV and he was quiet for the next few hours, in and out of sleep.

By the time the boys got home from school, you would have never known anything happened to him except for the fact that his voice is quite a bit higher and squeakier. By then he was running around, jumping, and had eaten jello, ice cream, a bowl of oatmeal and lots of juice.

He is still doing well, but the pain has started to kick in. His throat is scabbed over and he gets pretty sore when its time for his next dose of codeine or Motrin. He also doesn't have much of an apetite and spikes a low grade fever every now and then. We heard that the first couple of days are the easiest, and now know it is true. But all in all, he is doing really great. Thanks for all the thoughts, prayers and warm wishes from everyone!!

Garage Make-over

2009-02-05T12:07:00.011-06:00

This post is really for our dads...they both helped us with this project. It's just much easier to put it on here than try to do this via email.

We have never had an organized garage. We were stubborn enough to have it somewhat clean so that we could park both cars inside, but it has never been organized. When we moved to this new house 2 1/2 years ago, we got an extra 1/2 car space in the garage which was perfect for a work bench and all the various tools we own. We just never got around to it, and a hand-me-down chest freezer was our makeshift tool bench. That being said, Grandpa Winton bought Steve a tool bench for Christmas and it inspired us to finally get completely organized.

I only wish I had before pictures to share.

Before the work bench arrived, Steve installed ELFA shelves all along the back of the garage. It gave us TONS of needed storage space, and looks great. Here it is.

The next area he tackled was next to our trash can. Normally we had a line of dirty cleats, boots and work shoes lined up from my car along the path to the door. It was pretty out of control considering each person had at least 2 pairs of shoes there plus skates. That's 20-30 shoes stacked up and in the way. So, Steve installed drawers next to the trash can. The really nice, deep Elfa drawers. There are also two shelves way above them for our recycle bins. We each have our own drawer for shoes, gloves, hats, skates...whatever. Even Steve and I have a drawer. Check it out.

We even have a spot for firewood now.

The drawers are also labeled...with my new handy-dandy labeler.

This is where our shoes used to be...all along this wall. Looks nice huh? We even got a new rug and have a spot for the ripstick and helmets.

And the pieze de resistance...the work bench. It took about a month to get the actual hardware to put it together. Sears had a product issues, but it looks great, holds all our tools and makes us very happy. Steve took it all one step further and installed a pegboard above it for virtually all of our small tools. Now everything is in easy reach. I bought an organizer for all the little screws, hooks, anchors etc. (hanging on the right)

I even labeled every one of those little tiny drawers.

Thanks Papa for the work bench, and thanks Grampa Kall for the advice with the pegboard. The next time you are in town, you will have no problem finding any tool you need to help us with our next project!! Hee hee.

Stock Show

2009-02-05T09:34:00.008-06:00

Over the long MLK Jr. Holiday break, we decided to check out the Ft. Worth Stock Show. At the rodeo itself, it was "Mexican Heritage day". So after rambling around the stock yards for a while, we did catch a bit of the rodeo which was fun for Steve and I, but excruciating for the boys (especially Joshua). It started off great; a big bowl of popcorn, a nice seat away from the COLD outside. But even I will admit, after about the 5th mariachi cowboy, I was ready for a walk around the midway. It still counts as culture nonetheless.

When we got to the midway, we had a little lesson in economics. The prices for rides on the midway were $1 per ticket and each ride was anywhere from 3 to 5 tickets. We had already been there about 3 hours and spent all we wanted on food and other stuff, so each kid got to pick one ride. The older boys picked the big slide and Charles wanted to ride the teapots.

Fine.

When they were done, Joshua decided he REALLY wanted to walk through the fun house. Think State fair. Funny mirrors, moving walls etc. It was another 3 tickets. Since we literally had $5 left in our pockets, I said no. He told me he would pay me back at home, and I so I let him. (I always loved the dumb fun house as a kid too). He walked through and when he came out we asked him if it was worth $3. (that is 1/3 of a months pay for him). He said "yes, it was"

Darn pride.

When we got home, Joshua pulled out his most recent IOU from his wallet. That IOU was from me...I don't remember what it was from but promised him it was as good as cash. (IOU $10 signed mom) He promptly changed the $10 to $7 as payment to me for the fun house. Not only did he make good on his promise to pay for his ride, but he now understands how our banking system works. The whole concept of money exchanging hands "on paper". Ha!

Here are a couple of pictures from our day!

The food was surprisingly good all around the stock yards. Here were some cowboys cooking up burritos.

The animals were all so cute.

The cows were cute too (hee hee)

The petting zoo was a big hit with all three boys!

Here is the Mexican rodeo. The little Mexican kids were adorable.

All in all, it was a really fun day!

Thirty-nine

2009-01-27T20:15:00.003-06:00

We celebrated Steve's last birthday in the 30s with lasagna, cake and a day off from school. The kids were home all day due to the drizzle, cold weather and threat of ice. Only in Texas do they close the schools because it MIGHT get icy out. The ice never materialized, but it was fun spending the day with Steve on his birthday anyway. Even if he was working and on conference calls the whole time.

Happy Birthday Steve!!!!!!!

Basketball Part 2-Joshua

2009-01-22T21:52:00.007-06:00

I finally made it to one of Joshua's games WITH my camera. I really love action/candid photography, but basketball poses some serious issues. The lighting is generally poor and the action is fast. Even with my "fancy" lens it is tough to get that perfect shot that is also lit up and in focus. Here are a few good ones from the game last weekend.

This is a pregame shot. Joshua is on a very tall team...he is no shrimp but looks like one next to these guys.

And here is coach dad (in the middle) giving some last minute reminders.

Here are a couple of shots of Joshua handling the ball. His handling has come a long way. Now if we can just pull out some aggression! He is such a thinker, that the actual game of basketball is tough for him. Steve is trying to get him to use instinct. He has come a long way though...he even surprised us all this game with a behind the back move! Joshua later told me "you know how they say 'think twice' before doing things? Well in basketball, you are supposed to not think at all." That is tough for our little cerebral one.

The kid in red was on Joshua's Lacrosse team. He is little, but pretty much stole the show for his team. He is quite an athlete!

So I can remember... when he grows up

2009-01-13T08:22:00.002-06:00

No pictures today, just something funny Charles said.

Charles: Mommy, do I have school today?
Me: no, not today.
Charles: Yea! We can go to Costco!!
Me: Why do you want to go to Costco?
Charles: so we can go eat SAMPLES.

Winter basketball

2009-01-10T15:08:00.004-06:00

The older boys are playing basketball again this year with the Y. Here are a few shots of Thomas at his game today. He is with the same team as last year. It is actually a 2nd grade team, and he is really improving. He has gotten really aggresive out on the court. He was a rebounding fool today.

Pictures of Joshua to come soon...

Feliz Navidad!

2008-12-29T22:47:00.012-06:00

What a great, relaxing Christmas we had. It was so much fun spending time with Grammy and Papa.

After much anticipation, Joshua, Grammy and Charles finally made a gingerbread house (actually it was a train) Thomas helped for about 5 seconds, so that really doesn't count. Joshua was the only one who hung in until the end. Charles lost interest about half way through.
Here is our masterpiece!

We went to church on Christmas Eve (Grammy and I went an HOUR early this year, so we finally got a spot up front) Then we came home and opened some presents. But first a few pictures in front of the tree.

And finally Christmas morning arrived. It turns out Steve was up half the night putting together a bench that mom and dad had bought for me which was a surprise(what a great guy!) so he was exhausted. But other than that, nobody was sick and we all had a lot of fun. There are too many pictures to show, so here are a few favorites.

More Christmas fun

2008-12-14T11:23:00.009-06:00

We have been busy this past week with lots of Christmas activities. First was Charles' Christmas program at preschool. He did great. He sang, and did the motions and hung in there in, even when the girls behind him starting losing it.

Here he is at the beginning:

And doing the Jesus Loves me song..."they are weak but he is STRONG"

Still smiling, til the end!

Next we all went to see Santa. Yes, Santa!! Thomas told everyone that the shorter the list the better because Santa wouldn't think you were being greedy. Then he proceeded to ask for twice as many things as the other two! The cutest part about it all was that Thomas took a shower and put on his Christmas sweatshirt that he made last year in Kindergarten before going to see Santa. That was all his idea.

Some of the things they want: a new bike (Josh) DS games, WII games, a ripstick, geotracks...whew!

And yesterday was the annual Flower Mound Christmas parade. It is a really fun parade, and we go see it every year if we can. This year the cub scouts got to participate if they wanted to. Thomas was very excited to be in the float. Joshua chose to watch from the sidelines since he was already in the Homecoming parade earlier this year for student council. (He really just didn't want to miss out on all the candy.)

Thomas took this very seriously. He sat and waved the ENTIRE time, and yelled Merry Christmas. By the end, most of the others were just goofing off. Not Thomas. He was so cute. When it was over he asked me "how did I do?" This was a big deal to him. He will be a great employee some day.

Here he is before we took off. The float had a fake fire and the boys pretended to roast marshmallows.

And here is the whole gang that participated. Thomas is front and center.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

2008-12-04T15:40:00.008-06:00

The Kall boys are giddy with excitement as soon as the first Santa appears on a lawn anywhere within a 20 mile radius. So, we have been decorating and singing and talking a lot about Christmas. And it's only December 3rd! It's so much fun though.

Check out Charles in his new gingerbread apron. He is patiently waiting for Grammy to arrive from Florida so they can make a gingerbread house together.

And here are Thomas and Charles showing off their new nutcrackers. This has become a tradition of ours. The boys get a new one each December 1st. This year Joshua got a Mexican nutcracker, Thomas got a cowboy and Charles got a pirate. They just love these things. They play with them like barbies. Now if I can just convince them that they don't really crack nuts!

We decorated the tree last night too! The boys couldn't wait another second to put up the ornaments.

Kids Kids Kids

2008-11-25T22:22:00.010-06:00

As you can all imagine, I have been taking a LOT of pictures lately. And one of my favorite things is capturing those cute moments from the kids I shoot. The family shots are fun too, but there is just something about kids. Here are a few of my favorite kids pics from the past two weeks!

Here is "M"! He is on Thomas's baseball team. I did a whole family shoot with them, but his mom wanted some of him too...doesn't he look like a model?

Next are the precious "G" girls. I took tons of fun pictures with dogs and mom and dad in their amazing front yard. The girls are so sweet, and check out the freckles and manes of gold on these cuties!

Next was the adorable "S" kids. I have never had such an easy time shooting a 4 year old boy. And his sister was fabulous too, not to mention gorgeous!!

And here are my good friends, the "Ms". I also took some really great shots of the family, but what a fun shot of these 4 cute kids.

The "D" kids are neighbors and it seems the little 4 year old in this family runs the show. He really hung in there though, and was such a hoot!!

Last but not least the "B" boys. They were soooo easy. Really. And boys usually aren't. I just LOVED this shot. Precious.

My Big boys are still Little

2008-11-14T14:52:00.007-06:00

Time goes by so quickly, and my boys have gotten so big. They are constantly walking a line between being little and sweet, and big and pushy and making their way in the world. In spite of it all, every now and then I get a glimpse at how little in spirit they really are.

Thomas got to bring Franklin the turtle home last weekend to take care of. It is the 1st grade class pet. He was very excited to pull him out of the backpack and show me. He decided to write a story with Franklin watching. (this is Thomas's favorite past time. We are hoping he is a famous author someday) Notice how he placed the pencil on Franklin's lap, as if he is going to pick it up and add a paragraph to his story.

I need to remember these sweet pictures when he is yelling at his brothers or rolling his eyes at me because I asked him to pick up his socks.
And little Charles has gotten so big too. He is reading as well as a 5 or 6 year old and seems to know just about everything that his big brothers know (almost). But deep down, he is really still so little too. The other day, he drug his Thomas tent downstairs and decided to watch cartoons inside. First he got a snack of peanut butter crackers and then moved the coffee table out of the way. He got all situated and began enjoying some Clifford the dog cartoons.

Chirstmas Card Photos

2008-11-06T10:57:00.005-06:00

I just wanted to share a couple of pictures I took the past weekend of two great families. These are just a couple from the day that I liked, but there a lots more great ones coming. The "L's" were so much fun to work with. They said they hadn't had a family picture since their little boy was born. Can you believe that?
Here they are:

And the "M's" look so great all in brown. What a photogenic family.

Halloween

2008-11-02T20:35:00.006-06:00

Happy Halloween everyone! We had a great time trick-r-treating again this year. We met for hotdogs, chips and drinks in our neighbors garage, then off we went. Thomas was Boba Fett (from Star Wars), Charles was a Clone Tropper who would NOT wear a mask (also from Star Wars) and Joshua was a Mexican bandido. Isn't he a riot?!
(ps.click on this picture to enlarge it and check out Thomas under the mask. I think he saw a ghost)

The boys were very proud of their pumpkins this year. We decided to go old school and carved some plain old Jack-o-lanterns. Joshua and Thomas actually cleaned, designed, and carved their pumpkins all on their own. Charles drew his design on a paper, and I copied it the best I could when I carved his pumpkin. Here they are showing off their finished Jacks.

Just in case you weren't sure...here is Thomas without the mask. His pumpkin was screaming.

Photo Session

2008-10-29T23:50:00.009-05:00

I decided to open up my Christmas card business again this November. So, I dusted off the camera and headed out with Charles for a quick practice photo session to get my fingers working on the camera again. (And because I never took an official 4-year-old picture of him and he is so darned cute in those glasses). Charles is generally not a great subject. Pictures are NOT his thing. And he is at the age of the goofy grin. But he was quite cooperative today! I was so proud. I am just having a hard time deciding which one to print and hang on the wall.

Lacrosse

2008-10-27T18:49:00.008-05:00

Well thanks to his Aunt (who played Lacrosse for Stanford) and cousins in San Antonio, and with a little nudging from his dad (ok, a lot) Joshua decided to try Lacrosse this fall. To my surprise, the YMCA started a Lacrosse league for kids, and we signed up. He started practicing in September, and the the plan was that the coach was going to sign the team up for some tournaments. He decided that since not only the team but the sport was BRAND new to our YMCA, we would ~~get killed~~ not do well at a tournament. Instead, he found a Lacrosse team in a nearby city that he set up a mini game schedule with. Our first game was this past Sunday, and what fun it was! Our boys (team Force is their name) held their own. We scored one goal, and yes the other team scored 5, but it was still a really competitive game. The team we played has been together for 3 years.

Joshua played defense the first half, and was a midfield man the second half. While playing midfield, you really don't stop running. He was BEAT when it was over. He did really well, though, and almost scored at one point in the game.

Here he is mixing it up at midfield.

It was pretty hot! And Joshua was soaked!

Charles and his little buddy were riveted by all the action!

Cakes everywhere!

2008-10-17T11:12:00.008-05:00

The boys had a cake decorating competition at cub scouts last night. There were three themes they could enter: "Halloween", "Scouting" and "Favorite Team". Joshua chose to do a scouting cake, and Thomas chose Halloween. So Joshua and I came up with a cake with the shape of the Webelo symbol on top. Oh, by the way...He won first place in the scouting theme!

Here is the winning cake.

Of course Charles wanted to get in on the fun too!

Thomas wanted to make his cake a witch. I found a "pattern" online, so we cut it out and followed the pattern. He wanted to make her face green, and then we had the idea of putting gummy worms for her hair. It turned out really cool. In fact, we think he should have won for his witch, but he didn't. In fact, he didn't even place. There were a LOT of Halloween cakes and very few scouting and team cakes. So he had a lot of competition.

Here is his cake. Pretty cool, huh

He REALLY liked this project. He took great pride in making it look just right. He meticulously put each oreo on the hat in just the right spot. He couldn't wait to eat it when we got home later that night.

Pumpkins and Glasses

2008-10-11T18:20:00.010-05:00

Charles got his glasses today. He is sooooo cute! He has been a total champ with this whole thing. I was a little bit worried about him not wanting them, not wanting to wear them, losing them etc. But he seems totally into it. He was quite amazed when he first put them on. I think everything was so magnified it almost scared him. Plus it made him a little dizzy at first.

We picked them up around noon after Thomas's baseball game, and he has worn them all day. We told him that he can only take them off for baths, bed, swimming, things like that. And if he needs to take them off for any other reason, he must put them right in the case. He picked out a blue case with stars all over it. So later this afternoon, I told him I needed to trim his hair. He asked if he could take his glasses off so that they wouldn't get hairy. I told him that was fine, so he ran over, got his case and put them in. So cute!

Joshua and Thomas think Charles looks cool. Thomas even said that he wished he could have glasses, but quickly changed his mind. He said "no, that is just one more thing to have to be responsible with".

Charles and I went to pick out some pumpkins for the front porch today. He is so excited about fall and Halloween.

He played in the sandbox today like it was no big deal. His glasses didn't even phase him.

Charles at the eye doctor

2008-10-08T22:54:00.007-05:00

Well, it looks like Charles got his dad's eyes, poor little guy. After miserably failing the eye screening at his 4 year check-up I finally got around to taking him to the eye doctor. I was pretty sure he needed glasses, and after talking about it for a few weeks, he was actually excited to get glasses. Although he did tell me at one point "I can just use binoculars to see the TV, mommy"

So we went today to see Dr Bowen. After measuring his eyes she already knew he was near-sighted, but then she did a little bit more examining to verify his prescription. It turns out he is around 2100 in each eye ( a little worse in the left actually) which is a prescription of around -2.5 and -3 for anyone who cares.

We are going tomorrow to pick out his glasses. Dr. Bowen said to expect him to make comments about the leaves on the trees because he probably hasn't really noticed them very much up to this point in his life. So sad! :(

Here he is checking out the eye equipment
This is where she told Charles she was looking at the back of his eyes and could see part of his brain. He thought that was pretty cool.
Mr. Serious, just like Joshua was at that age. Charles was the perfect patient for this exam...very cooperative.

School Pictures

2008-10-04T21:49:00.008-05:00

The older boys got their school pictures back yesterday. Let me start by saying that I am a big fan of school pictures because they are so bad! The kids don't have their parents with them to help them look good, and you just get what you get. So here they are:

Joshua

Thomas

So as you can see, the pictures are cute, but Thomas's is looking pretty goofy! Here is my dilemma...should I keep the picture of Thomas or have him do "retakes"? I like to put the school pictures in a frame and display them for the rest of the year. Even though I said I liked school pictures because they aren't always perfect, this smile is pretty bad! Let me know what you think by answering my poll at the top of the blog!

Happy Birthday Thomas

2008-09-29T22:15:00.008-05:00

Our little Thomas is 7! It is hard to believe. On his birthday morning we had our family tradition of donuts in the shape of a "7" for breakfast and a few presents from mom, dad, Joshua, Charles and Grammy and Grandpa. Then it was off to baseball. Later that day we went to pick out Thomas's new bike and helmet. Check it out!

A week later, last Saturday, we had his party at an ice skating rink. Thomas invited some kids from his class and his whole baseball team. He even invited 4 girls from school! The rink was FREEZING cold, but the kids had tons of fun skating, falling and skating some more. The big surprise was Charles. He not only tried to skate, but did an awesome job. He was able to go around the rink all by himself! So cute.

Cub Scouts

2008-09-29T22:08:00.005-05:00

Joshua and Thomas both joined Cub Scouts this year. They were very excited to get their uniform and get started. The first thing we had to do was sell popcorn! That wasn't too fun for me, but they loved it. Each boy has to sell $200 worth of popcorn, so we had $400 to sell. They did it though. You should all be thankful...it would have been red bows around boxes of microwave popcorn for everyone come December if they didn't sell it all!!

The first pack meeting was last Thursday, and they built a "raingutter regatta". This is basically a single hull sailboat out of balsa wood that they raced in a raingutter by blowing in the sail. Neither Thomas nor Joshua won their heat, but they got some great ideas for next years race.

My first Blog

2008-09-29T21:36:00.004-05:00

I have decided to enter the world of blogging, so here I go. Let me get caught up on what we have been doing lately. The boys started school about 5 weeks ago. Joshua is in 4th grade, Thomas is in 1st grade and Charles is in pre-school. Joshua has a great teacher named Mrs Hall who is actually out on maternity leave until after Christmas. But he really likes the "sub" so all is well there. Thomas has a new teacher to our school named Mrs. Stephens. She is a nice combination of silly, sweet and firm. She has quite a handfull with her class, and she is very patient. So far so good. And last Charles. He always says that he doesn't like school, but I have decided he just wants to be at the big school with his brothers. He has two awesome ladies teaching his class this year. They have tons of energy, which they need since they have 17 4-year-olds!!