Fourteen

Happy birthday to my oldest...my stubbornly refusing to smile boy...my Noah.

I think this look pretty much sums up how he feels about me taking his picture, lol. Course, then there was also this one:

...of Nathan trying to recreate his favorite photo from last year. ;) Last year, I took one of all three boys also...

And here's the one from this year:

Yes, Noah continues to grow. (Micah's catching up on Asher, too, as you can see, lol.) As further evidence, here's Noah and Nathan:

 And me and Noah:

Keep in mind, too, that at age 11 Noah was only up to about my ear. For those who appreciate actual numbers, on his 11th birthday, Noah was 55.5" and 72 lbs. Today he's 68" and approximately 128 lbs. That's a lot of growing in the past three years, lol. For what it's worth, though, I think he might be slowing down. :) 

I've spent much of the day trying to think of fourteen things to write about him. But I can't think of many things that haven't already been said. ;) He's pretty constant. He did start school this year (and is doing really well), but other than that, he remains himself. I think we'll keep him. ;)

Halloween

We had a fairly low key Halloween this year. Though we generally get into the spirit and decorate and all that, had a hard time this year doing anything above and beyond...just too many other things going on, lol. 

Regardless, Noah and Micah still managed to carve pumpkins:

(Asher opted not to join in.) Our porch and yard looked a little bare, but we were okay with that this year. ;)

And, this year we met up with friends...which makes everything better. :) We ate and admired costumes and finished costume prep and all that. (There were about five families altogether.) Then, Nathan took Noah and Gabe back to our place to hand out candy (as is their "we're too mature to take part in that trick-or-treating craziness" tradition) while our gang o' kiddos headed out to trick or treat. 

Micah and Asher made use of their Comic Con costumes (as was the deal we made when I agreed to make/buy those costumes back in June, lol) and made a delightful Loki and Thor again:

And then they took off with their friends for their first experience in trick or treating "on their own" (with a phone and boundaries and strict instructions about staying together, lol):

...and had a fantastic time. ;) 

Thursday thoughts

1. Last Sunday, Noah and Micah had JOAD practice. I snapped this picture because it cracks me up how much of a difference in height there is. ;)

2. I've decided I need to rearrange my Tuesday schoolwork schedule. :) After gymnastics around lunch time, the boys are wiped, lol. The last two weeks, for instance, Micah has fallen asleep during afternoon schoolwork (between gymnastics and karate). So. Going to need to make Tuesday afternoon's schoolwork more hands-on. ;)

3. I think I should get extra credit or something for not having opened the Halloween candy yet. Seriously.

4. Last night I re-started a past tradition of one-on-one nights with each of my guys...I realized it had been awhile and that I missed it. Yesterday was Noah's turn. We got some food and talked and spent time at the Fort Fun arcade area, playing games like skee ball and basketball shoot-out and air hockey and this weird snow mobile race game. It was awesome. Noah even consented to take this picture of the two of us:

Now. Off to get a heap of things crossed off my to-do list. Happy Thursday, y'all! 

Outside my window

1. The hungry squirrels are back...or at least one of them. ;) We caught him in the act yesterday, less than 24 hours after having placed some pumpkins on the front step. I was smart, though, I held out the pumpkins the boys are planning to carve and kept those in the garage. Ha!

2. Not last weekend but the weekend before, Nathan and I planted some bulbs out front to hopefully bloom come spring. Everyone keep your fingers crossed, okay? :) (We took a lovely class at the Fort Collins Nursery earlier in the month to learn about bulbs and such...yay, us!) 

3. Next week we should finally get our backyard almost all back in order, as the landscaper guy is set to come install our paver patio with minor landscaping around the edges. We'll still need stairs down from the kitchen to said patio, but the stair guy is coming then also to get us a bid. Whew. It will be lovely to finally wrap up all the hail storm projects!

4. It will be nice, too, when winter comes and all the roofing companies around the neighborhood finally get a break. Man. I think everyone in our neighborhood has gotten or is getting a new roof. It'll be so quiet without the constant hammering, lol.

5. We haven't been able to finish up our fall cleanup other than having had the sprinklers blown out already. The leaves out front have changed but remain stubbornly on the trees. The foliage that I'm told I should cut back hasn't died back yet. The darn grass continues to grow. :)

6. But I'm not complaining. Nope. :) I love that it's been on the warmer side such that everything's still full of fall color and sunshine. 

Ah, fall. :) I love fall.

Portraits

Just a few more pictures from our leaf walk over the weekend...

Nathan goofing off and Micah worming his way into our picture:

Adorable nine year old:

A brief moment of being still and actually smiling rather than making a Pikachu face and sound: (don't ask me why...really, lol)

A single instant amid a series of attempts...ha!

And I did manage one of Nathan and me:

Happy fall, y'all!