Tyler is 19

OH MY, MY, MY, where do the years go?  19 years old today.

My firstborn, at college, away from home, it is his birthday.

I sent him a balloon, brownies and cologne.

sad, weird feeling not being with him on his birthday.  I don't like it.

Happy Birthday Tyler, hope you have/had a great one.

Stay true.

Love ya!

Its that time of year again...Are you ready for some football?

I traveled to Ohio last week for Andrews football team:

we played really bad, and lost...it was a long drive...

Then this week we traveled to St. Louis for Trevor and his high school...it was a long drive...

I am really encouraged by Trevor and his football team.  Trevor chose to not go to the public high school where Tyler went, he wanted to mature in his faith, and become a stronger person, one who believes in God and strives to put Him first.  The football team is only 5 years in the making and they have done well.  So well in fact that they put us in the hardest division this year.  That is NOT a good thing, since they graduated 26 seniors on the football team last year, and this year they only have 6 seniors, with only 4 of them returning from last year.  To say that this is a building year...understatement.  Trevor my freshmen is their starting kicker.  He is super excited about this, it is a great opportunity for him.  He will play Varsity kicker, JV offense/defense and freshmen offense/defense.  He loves it, me not so much...this is why...

Trevor hurt his leg last week, kicking, and needed to have some electrodes hooked up to him to get rid of the "bad things" in his leg making him swell and what not...all I heard was ACL and I really didn't know much after that.  Luckily it was just a level 1 sprain, and he is all good to go.

this picture was taken after the varsity game on Friday night,

the boys from the 2 schools came together and prayed...

my eyes started to tear up... 

then after they did that, our team came over to the bleachers

and you have about 40 high school boys,

singing,

singing,

On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand..

I really started to tear up then,

(No picture, because I was so encouraged by the sight, I forgot)

the next day JV played

Trevor kicked, punted and played most of the downs

we lost,

but again,

its a building year.

ugggh, its going to be a looooong year 

so lets play some football!!!!

Off to school

Today is the first day...

First day of Jr. High for Andrew

First Day of High School for Trevor



Austin is a Junior in High School

and of course Tylers first day of college...

I know you can't see it, but I made him hold up his fingers to show grade 13

Fly my son, spread your wings...

Weird...that is how it feels to drop off your child at College.  I didn't cry, Tom got choked up...it is weird to know that he is gone....gone to start a new chapter in his life.

The morning started like this:

for the life of me I can't figure out why he sleeps here, he has a nice big bed, but he loves to sleep on the couch...

NO, don't take my picture 

loading up the submo... 

last pictures 

unlocking his room for the first time 

looking at the room, wow is it small

we are renting this "loft" system for the bed,

that way the 2 boys have more room on the ground

but, man is it tight to the ceiling  

after putting the futon together 

out in front of his dorm,

he is on the 11th floor

facing the back 

last goodbyes of the day... 

awwwww

I almost lost it here... 

nother one Tywer, nother kiss Tywer

(Ava Grace talking to her biggest bro)

Lord, I pray that you watch over Tyler, protect him, keep him grounded in you.  Lord, please place Tyler with the right group of friends and keep him from straying.  I pray that he will continue to be a man of God, worthy of the fight.  Amen.

Midevil Times Fun

Tom wanted to take the kiddos to Midevil Times Castle and watch the show.  We had been there before when the boys were younger.  We also took my parents and Toms mom along for the fun.

The family before we left:

our blue table 

Ava loved it

she kept her arm around Tom

when she didn't have her arm around Tom

she waved her flag

She will be a good cheerleader

she would yell, Go Blue 

watching and taking it all in yelling

horsey, Go Blue

I didn't know if a girl would like this show, but it is fun and very entertaining.

A trip to the zoo

I took my parents, Andrew and Ava to the beautiful Brookfield Zoo the other day.  It was an absolutely beautiful day out.  Andrew was such a big help in showing Ava all the animals and making sure she saw everything.  While it is summer Brookfield Zoo has an open air butterfly garden and you can walk thru and see the butterflies flying around.  Andrew was even lucky enough to have one land on him.

this butterfly landed right on Andrew 

a zebra clad girl, looking a zebra 

this brown bear came right up to the window

he showed us his teeth 

this polar bear gave us a great show

he swam right up to the glass also

awww, so cute