Cards and Packages to Robert

A lot of people have been asking me about sending Robert Christmas Care Packages or Christmas Cards. I know he will totally love getting anything. Letters from home are completely priceless to our soliders. "Here is a link to care package ideas, most of the items on the list he has mentioned in the past. The fun ideas are all also really good. And itunes gift cards are good too, he can use these to purchase music, games, books on tape and more. If you have any questions just call me :) It would also be a good idea to have it in the mail before the 11th of December to ensure he gets it by Christmas. And as i mentioned even a Christmas card would be such a blessing to him. He loves and misses all his family and friends so much.
If you do send a package be sure to mail it in a APO box from the Post office to get special discounted rates for mailing packages to soliders

https://www.msu.edu/~sst/care.html

Robert Le Bel
ACO 1-186 IN 41/IBCT
Task Force Guardian
Camp Adder
APO AE 09331

New Robert Info

Just wanted to update everyone to Robert’s status, he called this morning and he is settled into his “home” for the next 7 months in Tallil Iraq. He will have email in the next day or so, so if you can send him an encouraging email that would be awesome!

Robert.lebel@us.army.mil

His address is:

LeBel, Robert
ACO 1-186 IN/41 IBCT
Task Force Guardian
Camp Adder
APO AE 09331

For those of you who are local…..I will be sending him packages every month or so, so if you want to include something in my package just let me know I am more than happy to send it for anyone. He sounded great, tired but great. He seems very upbeat and ready to see what the adventure brings.

We back home are doing just great too. We have had our share of challenges (i.e. broken down car, swine flu, etc) but the Lord has blessed us to see the silver lining in all of it. We are looking forward to the exciting events of October. We get to see Joe get home next week. The boys are so excited. Bobby has a taokwondo tournament on Saturday that is he super nervous to compete in and he finishes his testing next Friday for his next belt level. Then he will get to use weapons. And then of course there is Halloween which all the boys can't wait for. Soon we will be carving pumpkins and picking costumes. So Oct. will be over before we know it.

Fantastic End to Summer....

Well that all dreaded end to summer has finally rolled around, especially dreaded for the Le Bel family because it means Dad is going to Iraq. But we have enjoyed our summer to the fullest. We were able to attend our annual family campout! It was great and so much fun. The weather was a bit chilly but we still managed to swim in the river, hike, toast marshmellows, play in the dirt, jumprope, EAT and EAT and EAT, visit two seperate lakes we have never been to, and enjoy the company of our great family.

We also spent many lazy afternoons curled up on the couch (yes all six of us on one couch) watching movies and some of our favorite tv shows together. We remodeled mine and Robert's bedroom and made it a beautiful retreat and restful place for me to spend time while he is away. This was a much needed project, it was a sad pathetic space before. I am sure this will help raise my spirits while Robert is gone. He also managed to finish my "office" space. Which I will brag is also beautiful. The yard is also clean and neat and life seems to be in order for the moment.

Because of the delay in Robert's deployment we were also able to have Cody's baptism. He was so happy that we didn't have to put it off and Daddy was here to baptize him. It was great day and we did it at the Skinner's pool. We had our closest family and friends there. It was such a blessing that we are so thankful for and we are so proud of our Cody.

We also reached anothergoal in our home. All four of our boys are now full time students.....So strange to have Carson start kindergarten this year. Tuesday was his first official day and here at Jewett they do full day kindergarten so he goes the same hours as his brothers. He jumped off the school bus today and looked and me and said, "School is AWESOME!!!" He is too stinking cute for his own good. All four of the boys love their new teachers (so far) and are doing well. It is weird to have a totally empty house all day. I am hoping it will help to keep it cleaner :)

So the next step is saying good bye to Dad on Saturday the 12th. He will head out to Mississippi and then on to Iraq at some undisclosed date. We are hoping that between school, flag football, karate, baseball, and the holidays and family activities thrown in there that the time will fly by. We are proud of him for his service to our country. The boys can't wait to start their activities and I really I can't either. Time will fly by. Please keep Robert and our family in your prayers as we embrace this adventure. I will be posting some more pictures soon, just needed a break from work today so wanted to get this post done. Have a great Fall!!!

Le Bel Update

Well it has been a crazy month for the Le Bel family. Robert graduated Airborne school and has his "wings" now. We are so proud of him. I was able to fly out and watch the graduation ceremony and spend a few days with him before we flew home together. It was amazing. Georgia is beautiful, way too humid, but when you live in a greenhouse everything is GREEN!!!! The buildings are so historical and majestic, and the people are very diverse. It was so much fun. We flew in on Monday the 20th and Tuesday morning we found out that Robert is being deployed to Iraq on August 17th. :( Obviously it isn't what we had planned for, but we had prepared for it. We are trying to enjoy every minute of time we have together.

The first weekend Robert was home we loaded the family up and headed to the coast to camp for a few days. It was so nice to escape and hide from the world after such bad news. We totally enjoyed the time we had over there. It was cool, in the 60's, while back home was over 100...

Robert started work on Monday and is adjusting to the short time he will be there. He will work for about two weeks and then have a few days off before he leaves. We are planning on going to Bend on the 14th for a family reunion campout, however, it may end up not working out. We did just find out that the National Guard may not let him leave the area. Apparently he needs to keep his phone on him and ready to deploy at any minute. So being 3 hours away maynot be an option.

The boys love having their daddy home, and don't stop hugging and wrestling with him. They are taking the deployment incredibly well, but I suspect it will be very hard when he actually leaves again. Carson gets to have his Daddy Day and get his Kindergaten shots next week. Then he gets to pick any activity to do with daddy for the day and then have a nice dinner out. I think it will be the Family Fun Center, but we will see what he chooses. The other boys are so busy enjoying summer. We have swam a lot, watched tons of movies, played lots of games, and now are hunkering down in our air conditioned house till the temps drop below 100.

That pretty much catches you all up to date. I have a lot of pictures to post but just havent taken the time to do it. I will soon, probably after Robert leaves. We are staying positive and enjoying our time with him. The Lord has a plan for us and we are supporting and embracing it.

So now he wants to jump out of airplanes......

Friday Robert graduated from Basic Training!!! He finished the Field Training Excersize last week. They spent 7 days out in the woods being "attacked" by the enemy and fighting to defend their camp. His platoon won 5 of the 8 banners during the week. In fact Robert was saying that his platoon is historically one of the best performing ever. We are so proud of him. He has done amazingly well over there and impressed many people. So much so that they have offered him an Airborne contract. This means that he will be learning to jump out of airplanes. He is so excited to do this. Me not so much, one more thing to worry about. But I have been assured it is perfectly safe. (Yes I realize he is jumping out of an airplane and in no way can that be perfectly safe) This also pushes his welcome home date back to July 12th. I have decided that I am going back there to watch his graduation from Airborne. I booked my flight yesterday and am so excited to be there to support him. Bonus, as long as things go as planned, (weather, training, etc) they will be parachuting into graduation. How cool to see that!!!!! He was very excited to find out I would be there to watch him.
As far as us here at home, we are doing well. Jason is 95% recovered from his surgery (he had his appendix out two and half weeks ago), and loves to show his scar off to everyone that walks by. All the boys have finished the school year and are already driving me crazy with their pent up energy. I am already trying to plan some activities for the next month so we don't all end up in the funny house. Cody's last baseball game is on Saturday, Jason can't play due to his surgery, then we are done with our activites for now. All the boys were very disappointed Daddy isn't coming home this weekend, but they are really excited that he gets to jump out of airplanes. While four more weeks doesn't seem like a big deal, to a 6 yr. old who just had surgery it is too long. Jason is the one kid who CONSTANTLY reminds me how much he misses his daddy. At least fifteen times a day. :( Very sad, but sweet. I will send probably one more update toward the middle of his training to let you know how he likes it. Have a great weekend everyone!

The Craziest Week in the Last Four Months.

So I really haven't been keeping my blog up like I should but once you read this you may understand a little as to why. This last few weeks has been a rollercoaster! We will start with updating on Robert. It has gone back and forth for a few weeks now whether he would enter Airborne training, which would extend his stay until July 12. It is an honor to have it offered to a member of the National Guard, and a once in a lifetime experience. Plus Robert has been dying to jump out of a plane :) . Thankfully the Lord has helped to make this decision for us and Robert will not be going. Things didn't quite work out and there weren't enough open positions. So he will be home in 11 and half days!!!! Yahoo! He has had so many wonderful experiences and I can't begin to tell them all. But to give you a few highlights. He has managed to get his two miles to 13:22, which is a whole two minutes less than before he left. He became GFT (Ground Fighting Tactic) Certified, which was earned by getting beat up by a rather large drill sergeant. Well, not beat up but beat. He held his own and reached whatever the criteria was to qualify. So yay! He has also completed a seven day Field Training Exercise where his platoon is dropped in the middle of no where and they have to go through the experience of being at war. They are attacked, clear buildings and vehicles and protect their camp. On the last day, wearing all gear and carrying all supplies they hike around 20+ miles back to camp. They call it the Honor March. Once there they have a ceremony called Turning Blue ceremony where they are officially soldiers. I can not express to everyone my pride and love for Robert for what he has accomplished, sacrificed, and achieved. He truly amazes me.

Also this week has been CRAZY. My little Jason Wyatt has been a sick boy for quite awhile, probably three weeks or more. So we went BACK to the Dr. on Tuesday and to shorten the story a little by 10 pm he was being rushed into emergency surgery to have his appendix removed. This was probably the scariest thing I have ever had to deal with. I am sure it is probably a pretty common surgery, but in the moment on my own it was terrifying. He pulled through like a trooper and was released the next day from the hospital. He has been home recovering since. He is doing really well and we are hoping he will be back to school in time for Kindergarten Graduation. I have to thank Debbie for dropping everything to come and stay with the other boys, and all the friends who have stepped up and helped out. Oh then on Thursday morning I got notified by the school that Cody was in the office and had ran into a wall (funny story), and broke his tooth. Well upon inspection, he shattered his front adult tooth :(. So we got to spend three hours at the dentist office on another emergency visit getting it filed and reconstructed. Again, he was also a trooper and really didn't even cry other than from a little embarrassment because he ran into a wall. Apparently he was racing a fourth grader and trying to look cool and "lost control and slammed into the wall". I know it sounds like Nascar, but no, this would be elementary recess. So needless to say I am contemplating having the entire family committed to a padded room for the next eleven days. Here are some pictures of Jason in the hospital. We had to capture the moment for Daddy when he gets home. Next post should be about Robert's Homecoming.

Ok, so no pictures, it won't let me post them. I will try again later. Have a great week all.

Finally I am getting around to this

Sorry the updates are few and far between, being a single mom is a lot of hard work! Especially during baseball season :) But I have had a lot of great letters from Robert and wanted to update anyone who cares! He is really starting to have some fun now. They have made it through the training and conditioning (i am sure it never really ends) and have started some of the application of the skills they have attained. As far as I can tell it just seems like a bunch of war games. Scenarios are set up and the soldiers have to accomplish their missions. This is the part that Robert has been looking forward to. He is one of four squad leaders in his platoon and is embracing this responsibility. They had shooting range qualification last week and Robert reached marksman. It isn't the best he says, but he is happy to just qualify and go to the next phase. We have passed the halfway mark until he comes home, so the end is in sight. We miss him like crazy and can't wait to get him back. He did get to call home for Easter and what a joy to hear his voice. He sounded fantastic! He said they have had two tornado warnings since he has been there and once touched down close enough to knock out power and slow down their training for a few days. He also said they have some of the most amazing lightening storms he has ever seen. He is loving the weather thus far. He only has about 4 weeks of actual training left. Then a week long Field training excersize and then a week or so to clean up, turn in equipment and get ready to graduate. I really have to admit time is starting to fly by. I still have some projects I want to get done before he gets back. His favorite day of the week is still Sunday when he gets a little down time to relax. He says to tell everyone who has written how much he appreciates the letters. They are what keeps him going. Even when he has to do pushups because there is no green dot (I too seem to keep forgetting this little detail.) He said as of this point he hasn't gained or lost any weight. Just maintaining. But he said he is hungry ALL THE TIME! They never seem to have enough to eat, or enough time to eat it in. He is definitely home sick and misses home and us :) a whole lot more than he ever expected to. All in all things are looking up for him it seems and he is ready to move forward and finish this little adventure.

We have been really busy with Taekwondo, baseball, yard work, school, scouts and all the other things we have going on. Life never slows down and it helps us to mark of the days. Jason will be turning 6 next week!!!! He is very excited about that, and Carson has Kindergarten Round up in May, he is beyond excited about that!!! Bobby has his first National Tournament for Taekwondo on May 8th, and he and I are going on a little road trip together while the boys stay with Grandma and Grandpa. Both Bobby and I are excited for it, we have never been able to do something like this together. I will keep you all posted on how he does.

Robert Update!

Ok so I got my first letter from Robert since he entered actual Basic Training (BCT). He is doing well, and has managed to keep his sense of humor in tact, so that is reassuring. He says that this has been a drastic wake up call and his body is being pushed beyond anything he had ever imagined. He said he is hangin in there and trying to adjust to the sleeping arrangements. He isn't getting much at the moment. Other than the immature children as he puts it, he is dealing with things ok. He says there are a handful of really cool guys, and a whole load of obnoxious morons. They are really getting tired of being punsihed for their mistakes. He has endured a few injuries in his first week, but probably cause his body wasn't ready for what he is doing. He has a rib out of place, and he says his body is no longer sore, it just plain HURTS!

Surprisingly he has already gone through the gas chamber! This is a chamber they must all enter with gas masks on. It is filled with tear gas, once inside they must take their masks off for I think ten seconds, put them back on and "clear" them. It sounds similar to scuba diving, as far as clearing your mask. Then they have to take it off again, state their personal info like SSN and stuff, then wait for 45 seconds and leave the chamber. Needless to say it sucked! If you don't do it perfect the first time you get to do it again. Robert was very relieved he only had to do it once. They have also done the Eagle Tower, (repelling down a 40 ft wall) which Robert found really fun, and the confidence course, which is a basic obsticle course in a determined amount of time. All of this and it has only been his first week of training! I mailed all the letters I have written over the last three weeks on Friday so he should be getting those today or tomorrow, that will definitely raise his spirits, and make him realize he has a crazy wife who has way to much time on her hands, I bet there were about 15 letters!

That about sums it up for now. I am going to try to post any new updates as they come in. He says it is very hard to find time to write, they do get some personal time, but he has been using it to catch up on sleep. Please keep him in your prayers, and check back often!

A Military Man

Ok, so I haven't wanted to say anything until it was official, and it can't get more official than this. Robert has joined the National Guard and ships to BootCamp on Tuesday the 24th. This is something we have been weighing and due to the current economic situation and the status of his current employment, we went with it. He will be gone four 4 months, and we will have little to no contact with him, other than letter writing. As scary as the thought of being without him for four months and being a single mom with FOUR BOYS, sounds in my brain, I am very at peace with our decision. This is something that Robert has wanted to do for a long time, and is an exciting opportunity for our family. We have definitely weighed the options and pros and cons of the sitution and know what we are getting into.

I am so proud of his desire to support our country and our family, and I support him 100%. I just wanted to fill everyone in on our crazy life, and let you all know if I seem a little crazy for the next four months, it is probably just because I am.

25 Random Things about me

Ok so I need to update my blog and I don't have any pictures to share at this point. I definitly have news to update you all, but I need to wait till Wednesday before I divulge anything. So this is my cheating way of updating. I thought it was cute on Facebook so I just pasted it here. It may give some of you some insight into my crazy mind. Maybe not, but it was fun trying to think of things.

1. I am a twin, my mom is a twin, and my last pregnancy was twins, but one did not make it through the first trimester.
2. I have moved no less than 35 times in my life.
3. I love the Rogue Valley and have no intention of ever moving away. This is truely my home!
4. I wanted to have all girls. But most of you know I was more than blessed with all boys, and now I wouldn't change it for anything.
5. My graduating high school class was 16 people. ( This included me and my twin brother, we were 12% of our class haha)
6. I have only kissed three boys, including my husband.
7. I only knew Robert 8 days when he asked me to marry him, and I said yes.
8. I depise my natural curly hair, it actually makes me cry sometimes.
9. I was the cheerleading captain, homecoming queen (soph year), senior class president in high school, (keep in mind there were only 17 people in my class haha)
10. I have a Bacholers Degree in Accounting, and LOVE it. I thrive balancing checkbooks, auditing, and making spreadsheets.
11. I am INCREDIBLY clumsy. I trip over stuff not even there and have even fallen over file cabinet drawers I forget to close. It is great entertainment for those around me.
12. I was on a two person cheerleading squad as a freshman in highschool in Yakutat AK. We Rocked it to Vanilla Ice!!! Although pyramids were tricky.....
13. I had a mad crush on the New Kids on the Block, and love the fact they are doing a reunion tour!!!! They got the Right Stuff Baby!!! Joey is dreamy!!!
14. My first kiss was at age 16, and I had to stand on a rock to be tall enough to reach his lips, then I fell off mid kiss....so embarrassing.
15. I have never drank alcohol.
16. I drove off a cliff when I was 17.
17. I had a car in four hit and run accidents in two months, (two in one day). (No I wasn't the one hitting and running.)
18. I was a janitor for an office building and a school while I was in college. I had to quit cause I couldn't life the garbage bags high enough to get them in the dumpster.
19. I used to have a wolf puppy, that grew into a wolf dog and ate farm animals. (I had to give him away, after he ate two sheep and tried to eat a cow). He was great in Alaska, but not a good dog for the lower 48.
20. I am really a terrible driver, and I get distracted very easily.
21. I won a full ride scholarship to college and was able to graduate debt free!!!
22. I have a hard time coming up with 25 random things about me.
23. I played varsity baskeball in highschool (those who know me well, or went to high school with me knows how funny this is)
24. I never went to my high school prom :(
25. My best friend from birth is married to my husbands brother. (All part of our master plan!)

Christmas and Snow....

These pics have been a long time in coming so I will keep the commentary short and get to the good stuff. I just want to thank all of you who care to follow our family through the year and experience life with us. We appreciate you all so much and love you dearly!!!!

Bobby being an awesome big brother and reading stories to the boys. He is so good with them.
Christmas Morning, we had a wonderful family Christmas this year. It was great to be together and the food was fantastic too!

Our first and only Snow Day this year, The boys started their fun at 5:30AM

Happy New Year

I have to be honest I am more than happy to say GOODBYE to 2008 and HELLO to 2009. I have high hopes for this year. My first plan is to drop this last five pounds I have been working on. I am seriously rededicated to this. I am also hoping that our finances will settle down the first part of this year. We have a lot of exciting things in the works and are in a waiting pattern right now. I am feeling really optimistic and hopefull at the year ahead and can't wait to start it.

As far as our plans for tonight, we have decided to hunker in at home and play games with the boys and let them stay up WAYYYYYY too late and have our own little party. I am going to go get all their favorite foods, and make home made pizza. It should be a lot of fun, we will see. I have tried this before and realistically they just get cranky when they get tired and I end up sitting up alone. But to me this is better than just going to bed early due to lack of other plans. I LOVE LOVE LOVE to celebrate holidays, so I drive my family crazy putting together these little shindigs, I hope one day they remember how hard their mom worked to celebrate life!!!! :)

Happy New Year to all and be safe my friends. We love you!

5:30 AM Wake Up Call.......

This morning I woke to the sound of children playing outside in the snow......AT 5:30 AM!!!!!!! I am laying in bed and hear giggling and laughing and screaming so I look out my beroom window and there are all four of my boys having a snowball fight and building a huge snowman. Robert gets up and runs in the mornings and apparently he accidently woke up Bobby this morning when he left. So Bobby looked out the window and sees a winter wonderland that he had been patiently waiting for all weekend. So being the thoughtful big brother he is, he felt it necessary to wake up all his brother and help the little boys get dressed and go play in the snow. I couldn't believe it when I realized what they were doing. First off it was COLD!!! I didn't even want to get my cozy hiney out of bed, let alone have a snowball fight!
Let me tell you about this great snow man they built. It was actually taller than Bobby! Considering their meager resources they did very well. They were going for a whole family of snow people, but Carson kept destorying them as soon as they were done. So they decided to attack Carson instead. Poor kid, he deserved it, but this was his first year to really go "play" with his brothers. It was a lot of fun to see it. I took some fun pictures once it was light enough to take them, but I can't find my cord to down load them right now. So I will post them later. I just had to tell you about all the fun we had this morning.

I have a good excuse!

Ok it has been brought to my attention that I am slacking in the posting department and yes I am, but I have a good excuse. I have been without internet for the last few weeks. I have been able to check and send email at work, but that is it. We switched providers and there was a little snaffoo in the process. But I am back up and running now so on with the posts.

That being said I am dedicating this post to a plea for help! I am a realistic person. I know that I have four boys ages 8 and under and I work 30 hours a week, so my house will NEVER be immaculate. BUT is it too much to ask for these beings to clean up after themselves? I am working so hard to keep my house picked up and festive for the holidays. Yet everyday I come home from work my house looks like a backpack bomb exploded! (Don't get me started on the fact I have a standing "no opening back packs until mom gets home rule.) Being the realistic person I am, I also understand that I must pick my battles. My chosen battle is too keep bedrooms picked up. I am losing this battle. I am trying to teach the boys simple talents to make life easier. Their rooms will look like confined disaster areas on any given day, and there are tears, and whining and crying, and more tears when asked to clean it. The older boys are much worse than the younger at these fits. Now don't get me wrong, I have fantastic kids, who for the most part mind really well and are very respectful, but they realy are slobs. If anyone has any suggestions or ideas I am open for this. Very soon our schedules will be changing and I won't have my Enforcer around as much as I do now, and I am going to need all the help I can get.

I promise my next post will be festive and merry and full of good cheer. Just needed to get this off my chest. (Deep sigh) I feel much better, so I am going to go hug my little pigs and tuck them into their messy rooms....(Actually they are clean right now cause I was mean and made them stay in them till they were done.) :)

A great movie

Ok so we went to Blockbuster on Saturday and rented a bunch of movies. One was called the Outlaw Trail. It was an excellent movie about a relative of Butch Cassidy and his quest to clear his great unlce's name. The more I watched this movie I kept thinking this looks like it was done by an LDS production company. Just the way people were portrayed and the dressed, and maybe the fact the whole story was about a group of boy scouts. By the time it was over I was OBSESSED with figuring out who did this movie. Well low and behold it was Ryan Little. All you LDS followers of my blog probably know who he is. He also did the Singles Ward and the RM. It cracks me up that just by watching the movie you can pick up on this stuff. Best part there was no language, no violence, and it was a great well written, and even funny movie. The older boys loved it. Anyway just thought I would share my found treasure of a great family movie for all

Tagging my Friends!

TYPE ONLY 1 WORD.IT'S HARDER THAN YOU THINK!!!

1. Where is your cell phone? desk
2. Your significant other? HOT!
3. Your hair? annoying
4. Your mother? special
5. Your father? released
6. Your favorite thing? kids
7. Your dream last night? weird
8. Your favorite drink? pepper
9. Your dream/goal? eternal
10. Your fear? alone
11. Where do you want to be in 6 years? happy
12. Where were you last night? karate
13. Your Favorite Ice Cream Flavor? chocolate
14. What you're not? perfect
15. Muffins? chocolate
16. One of your wish list items? money
17 . Where you grew up? everywhere
18. The last thing you did? read
19. What are you wearing? clothes
20. Your TV ? old
21. Your pet(s)? many
22. Your computer? crappy
23. Your life? happy
24. Your mood? great
25. Missing someone? brother
26. Your car? old
27. Favorite thing to wear? makeup
28. Favorite Store? Target
29. Your summer? short
30. Your favorite color? Purple
31. When is the last time you laughed? morning
32. Last time you cried? yesterday
A) FOUR PLACES I GO OVER AND OVER: work, home, store, church
B) FOUR PEOPLE WHO E-MAIL ME(Regularly):debbie, lindsey, nic, my boss
C) FOUR OF MY FAVORITE FOODS : mexican, thai, italian, Cheeseburgers
D)FOUR PLACES I WOULD RATHER BE RIGHT NOW: home,hawaii, ireland, anywhere (I am at work!),
E)FOUR PEOPLE I THINK WILL RESPOND: debbie, jenny, suzy, shawnel

Congrats Bobby!

Congrats to Bobby he did amazing at his tournament. We are so very proud of him. He placed 1st in forms (this is a traditional demonstration of a tae kwon do form). He was pretty much flawless. He worked very hard and it paid off. Then he had to spar. He took 2nd place in sparring which was so good. He won every match except the last one, where he fought girl who was a purple belt. He did really well, but this girl was quick! Everyone was blown away at how well he did for his first tournaent. Here are some pictures of the awesome day.
Bobby introducing himself to he judges. The girl standing in the white is from his school. The other kids in the school of all ages were so supportive. They are wonderful. Mr. Rios (the instructor) made them these amazing hoodies to wear as a team. They looked very cool!
Bobby preforming his form in front of the judges.

The kids checking in and getting ready for competition. The guy standing behind them is Bobby's teacher. He is such a great instructor, and is so great with the kids.

Bobby showing off his bling! He is AWESOME!
This is a video of Bobby's last match. It happens to be the one he lost, but it took that long for us to figure out how to use the video function on my camera.

Anyone Interested????

I won 4 tickets to a special Kids program at the Ginger Rogers Theater call CSI: Foresnics. It sounds wonderful, however it is for Nov. 8th and this is the day of Bobby's tournament so I can't use them. It is recommended for grades 4-8 and looks like it will be really really neat. If anyone is interested in these tickets let me know before I give them back for someone else to take.

Here is a link for more info on the program: http://craterian.org/onstage.html

I am heartbroken I can't go. Bobby would LOVE THIS!

Two more pics....

The boys insisted I include these cause they were their favorites.

This one shows how much candy they really got. I have no intention of actually letting them eat all of it. Just trying to figure out how to "make it disappear" when they aren't looking.

And it just isn't Halloween without Jack o Lanterns. This year was fun because the boys all had a hand in carving them. It was a lot different because I wasn't freaking out and yelling at babies to put the knife down.

And now the moment you have all been waiting for.....

The costumes

Carson was a Rock Star, I talked him out of being Carson Lee in favor of the only thing he thought was cooler than himself. I love his confidence. He put his costume togther totally by himself. Apparently Rock Stars wear baseball pants, mismatched shoes which you can't see, and vests.

Jason was the Incredible Hulk. He used Bobby's green baseball socks a green sweatshirt and face paint. We stuffed his shirt to make muscles. He was pretty intense and scary.

Cody was Indiana Jones. He was very convincing. He wore my jacket from high school and Dad's hat and actually put this together at the very last minute because he kept changing his mind.Bobby decided to be the Karate Kid. He is pretty focused on his Taekwondo right now with his tournament coming up and kind of has a one track mind. As you can see he is pretty intimidating.
Finally, my hubby. In case you can't read it his tag says From:God To: Women.......

That is right ladies, God's Gift to Women and he is all mine!!!!

You will notice I am absent from our line up. I had every intention of dressing up, however when I got to work on Friday morning I found our store had been broken into. Some moron threw a log through my window in my office and decided to dump all the drawers from everyones desks and spray our showroom with a fire extinguisher before the cops showed up and busted his hiney! Needless to say I spent the entire day cleaning and was completely wiped out when I got home. Too tired in fact to even think about dressing up.

Here is one last photo of the boys bounty after trick or treating. They made out like bandits and I will pay for it everyday until the candy is gone. They are meditating around the bowl, not sure where they got this but it was pretty funny.

Yeah those are my feet, see I am in one of the pictures! :)

Happy Halloween all, now bring on Thanksgiving!