Hello Again ...

Wow. So it's been a whole month + since my last post. September was just plain crazy busy, but we like it that way = ) The boys have been growing like crazy and are both really enjoying school. There have been a few struggles along the way, but what is life without challenges? We just keep trying to use these times as opportunities to learn and better ourselves. One example is that Riley recently had his first official "fight" at school. Ugh. It started out that he was doing flips on the monkey bars. On one of his rotations he accidentally kicked another boy that was standing nearby. The boy wanted to Riley to apologize, but Riley just kept telling him that it was an accident. The boy and a friend of his tried to bully Riley into apologizing to which Riley responded, "It was an accident, quit being girls and acting like crybabies!" (ugh, again. seriously buddy?) Anyhow, this stoked the fire more and the boys proceeded to chase Riley across the playground, up the steps, then down the slide. At the bottom, one kid held him down while the other punched him. Good grief. Luckily a teacher was there quickly and no one was hurt. But, this gave us another opportunity to discuss why it is the right thing to do to apologize even when something is an accident so things don't escalate. Yep, gonna be a lot of lessons learned the hard way with this one - I had hoped we would break that pattern or skip a generation, but no such luck = )

Anyhow here is a pic of our little Rocky - er, I mean Rock Star = )

This is one of his favorite things to do right now, rock out on the guitar that Aunt Tracy gave him. He loves to make noise - music, I meant music!

Here's our funny boy, Gage pretending to be a cowboy. He just loves this horse that my Grandma and Grandpa gave us before he was even born. Love that!

Speaking of rock stars, Corey and I had a date night this last month and went to the Heart/Def Leppard concert. Good music, good company, good beer, and good times!

Gage at his friend's bowling birthday party. I wish I had a picture of him actually bowling. We took to calling him the "psycho bolwer" because he is just crazy. He takes off running like a wild man and hurls the ball down the alley. It's nuts to watch, but he sure has fun and does a pretty good job, too!

Guess who had some sugar at the party?

Daddy and Riley cheesing it up during snack time!

We also got to spend some time in Pratt with the Huber side, which is always a good time. Riley just adores his big cousin, Hunter. And this crazy little dog they have, Coco, was a riot. She had just as much energy as the kiddos so that worked out well = )

Our beautiful niece, Paige, turned 13. Hard to believe she's a teenager now! Here she is with the cake I made for her. She kinda liked it = )

Gage is still obsessed with all things creepy and supernatural, so he was super stoked to play with Hunter's werewolf mask from a couple of Halloween's ago. Pretty scary stuff! Grrrrrr....

I also headed to Colorado to spend some much needed sister time with Tracy. We had such a good time! I had so much fun and she spoiled me so much - it was hard to come back! Here we are at a neighborhood bbq where there just happened to be this beautiful, bright double rainbow. Double blessing!

He we were being silly taking a pic in front of this amazing barbecue place. BBQ seemed to be a theme apparently. Anyhow, we liked the bear statue = )

Masses of delicious, down home barbecue. Had to take a photo!

We also had a sock hop at Gage's pre-school. This was so much fun! The kiddos enjoyed being at the school after hours and running around like crazy people in the gym. Aren't they cute little greasers?

This was also the month for our Cooper's Cause 5K. I really enjoy being a part of something so amazing. This is one of my favorite pics of the day.

Here's another favorite of me and Jamie. She did great a great job on the run!

These next couple are just silly. Riley has started taking tons of random pictures with his hand in the photo acting like it's grabbing at or pointing to stuff. Silly, but an interesting perspective!

Another silly hand photo.

And finally, we now officially have 2 boys that can ride bikes without training wheels! Woohoo, go Gage! These boys sure love their bikes.

I know this picture is blurry, but I thought it was fitting. The boys are growing so fast and learning so many things that sometimes I feel like everything is just a blur. I guess that's why I need to keep taking pictures and updating this blog so I can remember it all = )

Yep, I wasn't kidding about the busy part. It looks like October is shaping up the same. Good times!