Fall Pictures - Sports & School

I just had to scan in and show off my cute little Braden...okay okay, so he isn't so little anymore :( But he sure is CUTE! Here is his Fall 2008-2009 school picture, and his Lees Summit Football Association Flag Football 2009 picture. He is just getting so big so fast, I cannot believe he is already seven years old! I just love the picture, it is the perfect 1st grade shots with those missing and half grown in teeth! Anyway, enough of me going on and on about how absolutely adorable my boy is...I hope you enjoy the pics as much as I do :)

Pumpkin Carving - I love Fall!!!

I was hoping he would hold off a couple more days, but Braden just couldn't stand it...he just HAD to carve his pumpkin tonight. Not that I don't enjoy pumpkin carving, I am just not so sure it is going to hold up to last until this Saturday. Whether or not it does was irrelevant, I just couldn't tell my excited little boy "no" when he asked if he could as soon as his foot hit the inside of the house this evening. Aunt Dana was home tonight and available to help out in this crafty project. --side note here, for those who didn't know, my little sister, Dana, moved in with us last weekend :) After the intense process of picking out the perfect pattern, the kids got to work. Braden was hesitant at first to stick his hands into the pumpkin, but soon he was an old pro at it, and they both got their hands dirty making sure the pumpkin was spic-and-span to start the carving process. It was too funny watching them have so much fun! See the pics below of their gooey good time!

The fun has began - cleaning out the guts of the pumpkin

I just love Dana's facial expression in this picture - ha!

Braden's turn!

Time to set the pattern, this is the tedious part, and Braden does such a great job with it, so patient!

Pattern is on, now it is carving time. He was getting tired of me taking pictures...that is what this facial expression was for - if you need translation, it is basically saying "really mom, ANOTHER picture!?!" hehehehehe!!!!!

Ohhhh, spooky! The final product, and a VERY proud creator!!!!

Okay, so Braden was feeling very Halloween festive this evening, and wanted to hang up our orange Halloween lights (which are for the camper when we go on our fall camping trip - gotta decorate for the seasons!) in his room. I caved because I didn't want to smoother his individuality. We grabbed some tacks and made him the happiest boy in the world this evening! He wouldn't let me unplug them when he went to bed tonight...they served as a night light this evening, too funny!

Lights up and plugged in...hard to see with the bedroom light on....

Lights up and plugged in...hard to see Braden with the lights out, but I am pretty sure you can tell by the body language how proud he is of his Halloween decorations! :)

Cousin Time!

Last weekend my sister, Angie, and my nephew, Kyle, came to Missouri to visit the Allee clan. We had a blast playing and visiting. When they got into town Friday night, the boys played all over the house, while Angie, Terri, and I drank a bottle of wine and played Yahtzee...one of our favorite past times I might add here ;) On Saturday we had a fun filled day. The boys were just begging to go to ChuckECheese for lunch...I am pretty sure it WASN'T the lunch part they were after. Anywho, we loaded up Braden and Kyle and drove to ChuckECheese, after all...their wish is our command, right - or something like that - ha! We ordered our pizza, got both of the boys to eat a single slice before they took off with the bucket of tokens in hand. The played for a couple of hours and just had a blast, sometimes together and sometimes we would find them on complete opposite sides of the game room. Angie and I enjoyed each other's company as well as watching the boys play and interact, it is so awesome to see them together since they haven't seen each other for two years. I was able to snap a couple pictures of them playing away at the arcade at ChuckECheese.

Look at those smiles, I love putting them there on their faces!!!!

Fun times!

Braden and Kyle are less than a day apart in age...you would never know that by the difference in their sizes - ha!

Next we were off to the Halloween store. The boys were going to go together to pick out their costumes for this year. Braden kept telling me he wanted to be something scary this year for Halloween, but he couldn't decide what it was exactly he wanted to be, he said he needed to scope out the store to figure it out. We didn't end up with anything scary...cool won over scary in his book...but we sure had fun with all the hats and sunglasses while looking for a costume! This is my all time favorite picture of Braden so far too date I think...he thinks he is so cool and suave, such a lady-killer -hehehehehe! They both loved the hats, and were right at home posing for their pics...it was like a fashion show! He was willing to put on whatever I handed him - too funny!

Now he picked out all of his sunglasses he tried on, these were his favorite ones! Another pair of MUST try on sunglasses - too cute! Fun with all the creatures in the store, these two kiddos have such great imaginations! Nothing scary about this costume, but it was super SWEET according to Braden :)

Kyle loved his costume, and Braden loved his! Kyle is going to be a tooth fairy and Braden is going to be a black ninja - we had a blast with them in this store while trying to find the perfect costume for the two of them!

Caroline Cousin's Pumpkin Patch 2009

I am very behind on updating the blog with posts, but better late than never, aye! :) A couple of weeks ago Terri and I piled up the kiddos and headed North to Caroline Cousin's Pumpkin Patch. Diana joined Braden and I, and Terri and her two sweetie pies joined along in the fun as well. We filled our tummies with warm soup and grilled cheese and then off we went to find fabulous pumpkins for this Halloween season. It was a COLD day...cold is saying it mildly really, it was FREEZING, especially when you figure it was the beginning of October and last year we went in shorts and t-shirts (definitely not the case this year, as you will see below in the pics). The kids had a blast playing on all of the playsets, tricycles, feeding the animals, playing in the maze, going on a train ride, and getting to pick their very own pumpkin. We did have to take a break in all that fun to go inside and warm up with a cup of hot chocolate and a pumpkin donut for a snack - yummo! We had a blast, and this day ended as most days do when we take Braden out for a day full of fun - he was asleep before we even made it to our drive way - that is how I know that we had a great day out! I hope you enjoy the pics as much as we enjoyed the day, even if we were a tad-bit cold!

Braden, Terri, Ethan, Olivia & Diana posing for a fun picture while enjoying the afternoon at the pumpkin patch, look at all of those smiles. It is true...you can still have fun outside, even when it is cold!

I had to go potty really bad, and they had this little picture spot set up right beside the port-a-potties...Braden thought it would be hilarious if he made me pose in the photo-op location before I got to use the real deal...so to please him I complied...he thinks this picture is as funny as he thought it would be - little snot - ha! Getting ready for our train ride...do they look frost bit at all? ;) Braden and I on the train ride, we snuggled up together to stay warm. On to the pumpkin patch, they are excited to go and see all the pumpkins and pick their very own!

They each have the pumpkin of their choice. The rule was, you pick it, you carry it! This eliminated them picking out a 40 pound pumpkin expecting their moms to carry it around the pumpkin patch the rest of the day! Braden is very proud of his pumpkins...even cold he still beams with pride ;) On our way back to the park portion of the pumpkin patch, the day is almost over :( One last activity...Braden wanted to give it a whirl to rope a calf...he wasn't all that great with actually roping the calf, but he sure looked good twirling that rope :) CRASHED OUT - he got warmed up, and then he was out like a light!

Iowa Visit

This past weekend I made a solo trip to Iowa to visit my sister Angie, her daughter Sara, and my new-found brother Gordon, and his kiddos: Courtney, Drew, and Kade. It was an awesome visit. I arrive late Friday evening just in time to join Angie and some co-workers for dinner and drinks, then we headed back to her place where I met her significant other...who happens to be named Josh...and we managed to "throw dice" (pretty much played Yahtzee) and managed to down three bottles of wine between us. We had a blast! Then Saturday the three of us met Gordon and his kiddos at a park in Des Moines for our first meeting. We had a blast! The kids are great, and Gordon is such a great guy. We all got along wonderfully, and it was such a comfortable environment. It didn't take long for us all to be joking and teasing around just like brothers and sisters...the way family does :) We played games and just hung out. We all had separate dinner plans, we we parted by around 5:00 p.m. That is when Angie, Josh, and I went to Shoe Carnival to harass Sara while she was working ;) She is such a good kid...I say kid, but she is now a whopping 20 years old! I cannot believe I have a niece who is the big 2-0! We went out to a fab dinner and enjoyed each others company. We got up Sunday, did breakfast at IHOP and then was on the road again to come home to my boys. It was a great visit, but I was ready to be at home with my favorite two men :)

Me, Gordon, Courtney, Kade, Drew & Angie

Sara...at dinner :)

Me, Gordon, & Angie - three siblings

Me, Courtney (my niece), and Angie

Gordon & his two boys - Kade & Drew

Angie and I being silly :)

Courtney and I with Angie's nasty feet ;)

Circus comes to Town!

This past weekend we went to the Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey Circus. WOW, what a show that was. I had done some search online for reviews, and had heard some very unpleasant reviews, so I was very skeptical of what we were going to get…but then again, A LOT of the skepticism was from PETA and the likes, so I should have know that it would live up to its GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH title! It was definitely a fabulous show. We were able to join in on the preshow festivities down on the floor. Braden was able to see all of the clowns and performers up close and personal to get autographs, and to assist in a juggling act. It was so cute to see him get chosen as a volunteer for one of the floor preshow activities. He got to join one of the jugglers in the ring as they stood in the middle of two other jugglers throwing bowling pins back and forth in their juggling act. He was nervous he said, because he “didn’t want to get hit by one of those pins”. We got popcorn, and cotton candy, and warm soft pretzels, and lemonade, and soda…all to enjoy while we watched the show. It was a two and a half hour show, but it was full of fun and packed with color and excitement…we just kept saying to each other “How do they do that!”, and Braden’s face would light up each time he saw something amazing, which was a constant thing the whole two and a half hours. So much fun, we had a blast, I love our family outings!

Braden and Daddy down in the middle of the preshow...Braden wasn't tall enough to see everything, so daddy made sure he didn't miss a thing! :)

Here is Braden standing in between the jugglers throwing pins...hard to see since I was so close, but I didn't have time to scoot back, and if I did there would have been way too many people in the way to get a decent shot...so this is what I ended up with.

Braden and Josh's favorite part is when they put 7 motorcycles in this steel ball, and then they started going crazy driving all over the place in it...WAY cool they thought! :)

Here is a shot of the motorcycles in action...hard to keep up with the camera!

I love the tigers...could you imaging THIS massive beast jumping at you?!?

Ahhhh, I loved the elephants too :)

This was a "HOW DO THEY DO THAT" shot, can you tell :)

G-O LS Titans!!!!

For the past several weeks, the Allee's have been spending our Saturday mornings at the football fields. Braden loves it, and we enjoying spending our time watching him run the ball down the field, or run his butt off to get to the flag of the opponents. Terri and her kiddos joined us for the game...she is such a great Aunt, she has made it to every one of his games and plans on coming to tomorrow's game too :) I am quite the cheerleader, it is in my blood, so I wasn't really getting too many good shots with the camera, I didn't want to miss anything by looking at the screen on the camera...which I think was bothering Terri because eventually she took the camera away from me and took the pictures for us :) It was a beautiful morning, and the Titans played a great game :). I hope you enjoy some new pics of our little man playing football!

Hard to tell because I didn't zoom in, but this is a picture of Braden running the ball down the field - GO BRADEN!

Our favorite spectators...the Ham's with all their game day gear :)