Halloween Fun!

We had so much fun last night getting ready for Halloween. I have to say the older the kids get the more fun holidays become. Let me start this post by saying that we have been going through a financially challenging time in our family. With both mine and Robert's jobs relating directly to the state of the economy we have been dealing in some difficult times, and been dealt some serious blows to our income. That being said I decided this year I was not going to spend ANY money on cosutmes. The boys could decide what they wanted to be, but they had to MAKE their costume from what ever they found in the house. So last night was our Halloween party at our house. We carved pumpkins, ate pizza and put together costumes. While I was slightly afraid the boys would maybe not look quite as "cool" as their classmates at the halloween parade, we went ahead and put some costumes together. I don't have pictures yet, I will post those later tonight, But the boys actually looked really great. Bobby is a beat up karate kid with bruises and a black eye. Cody is Indiana Jones, Jason is the Incredible Hulk, and Carson I think is going to Iron Man (He has decided he wants to be Carson Lee Le Bel for Halloween, the only not "stupid" costume he could think of.). Overall the costumes look good, definately homemade, but creative, and the boys had a BLAST putting them together. Then we watched halloween cartoons; the boys love "The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown", and it is so fun watch them laugh hysterically at Snoopy. I think we have created a new tradition in our family. Hopefully next year we will have some extra money to help the boys create costumes, but I think creating them and putting it all together was fun and excting for all of us.
Watch for my pics later, Robert also dressed up today, but I don't want to ruin the surprise you will have to check back for a picture later :) !

Yes I am fully aware that I am a slacker!

Ok I know I have been really slacking at the blog thing lately. But I do have a valid excuse, we have been going through a lot lately. It has been a challenge just to keep up with the boys. But we definately have a strong faith in God and know we will pull through the hard times. That being said let me up date you all on what has been happening in the Le Bel home the last month.

First of just in time for Halloween Bobby is orange.......well his belt is anyway. We are so proud to let everyone know that Bobby passed his test on Friday and is now an Orange Belt! He did so fantastic at his test and barely made any mistakes at all. We are pretty excited about this he works really hard at it. He has his first tournament on November 8th and his coach has really high expectations for him. We will definately post some pictures when that time comes, but until then here are some of his testing. (Keep in mind these are from my cell phone, so they aren't the best quality.)Next Cody decided he wanted to play Flag Football this year. We were a little surprised because he has never mentioned it before but we went ahead and let him do it. He was on the Jaguars and actually did really well. He even got to pull someone's flag this year which is a big deal when you are only a second grader. He learned a lot and will be playing again next year I have a feeling. He was great at defense. He would step up to the line and growl really mean at the other players. It was awesome! We are so proud of him as well. It is so much fun to watch the boys get older and excel at what they love, and learn new things. Robert and I are going to be really busy running to Taekwondo at he olympics then over to NFL football games when they grow up :) ! Here are some photos of Cody and his team, they won about half of their games (weren't supposed to keep score, but those darn dads just couldn't help lol!) But trust me they definately had the coolest color of shirts.

We also had our primary program at Chruch this month and I have to tell you it brought me to tears. The boys were so cute up there, all the kids were. Bobby sung with a small group for two songs and did wonderful. They all did well on their "parts" and I was a very proud mom! Carson was so cute, he got up and said part which was "I am a Child of God" (no one could understand a word of it), then sat down and looked out at the crowd and started crying. So he sat with mom and dad the rest of the time. Did I mention his was the first line of the whole program. He was so funny though cause he sat in the congregation with the rest of us and sang right along with his classmates. There is something about children singing for God that opens your heart. I have to give a big thank you to the wonderful teachers who helped. They out did themselves.

Bobby also had the honor this month of reading a poem he wrote at Author's Nite at school. It was very exciting and he was very nervous. He read a poem he wrote about himself and each line started with a letter in his name. It was very well written and so neat to see him up there in front of the whole crowd. It was a pretty full house. The picture isn't very good, but I am so proud of him I am posting it anyway.

Finally to close I would like to share with all of you what happens when you make your kids go to bed early and they aren't tired yet........

Jason woke up like this, this morning. I asked him what was wrong with his face and he looked at me like I had gone crazy and informed me that he was born with that face. I told him to go look in the mirror. He had forgotten that he had drawn on it while he was in bed waiting to fall asleep. When asked why he would do such a thing he said he wanted to look like Cody (Cody had a party at school and they did face painting, it was washable) Jason's face on the other isn't washable and will probably take days to get all of it off. The good news is Jason wants to keep his face looking like this, it is "cool".

I appreciate all of you who read my blog and am sorry it has been so long since a post. I will try to do better, thanks to those of you who push me to post something. I am glad someone wants to read about my crazy life.