The Deer Hunt!

What a deer hunt?! We loaded the trailer and headed to the mountains with Todd's brother Kevin and his family, Todd's parents, and my dad. We had a great deer camp! This is my first year drawing out for deer so I was pretty excited to shoot "my own" buck. Todd and his brother Kevin also had tags so I just knew that at least one of us would come home with a buck...especially since Jaygen had been praying for weeks that Todd and me would get one. Well, the truth is that we didn't even see a buck (accept for on Sunday when Todd wasn't carrying a gun). I could not believe it! It was sooooo disappointing. Thanks to grandma Mullen offering to watch my boys, I was able to go on the hike opening morning and then again that afternoon but I had no luck. I was so frustrated. The hunt itself was a big let down but we still had a good time. Grandma Mullen and Candace decorated cupcakes and did crafts with all the kids while I was hunting with the guys (thanks gals for your help) and then Grandma Mullen carved pumpkins with all the kids too. Briggs, Lillian, Grandma Mullen, Pace, Isabelle, Candace
Isabelle, Jaygen, Pace, Lillian, Briggs

Pace, Jaygen, Grandpa Mullen, Isabelle, Lillian, Grandma Mullen, Briggs


The weather was freezing the whole deer hunt and it had rain so much that it was really muddy. Then the last morning we were camping we woke up to snow. What a way to end the deer hunt....minus the deer!!!

Pace, Jaygen Briggs

pUmPkIn PaTcH

A few days ago we headed up to the Big Red Barn in search of the perfect pumpkin. The boys were super excited to go! We had told them that they had to be able to carry their own pumpkin back but of course that didn't happen. They all were looking for the biggest one and how could we tell them no?! Jaygen thinks it is a race. As soon as the tractor hayride drops us off, Jaygen takes off running as fast as he can as if the pumpkins are going to disappear. Pace on the other hand is in to hurry. He was just wandering around looking at all the pumpkins and just taking his sweet time. Now, Briggs...oh Briggs! He was running around as fast as he could too and picking up every pumpkin he could lift and throwing it. Luckily none of them broke, but I think Briggs thought it was a field full of orange balls:) They had a little maze there this year too that the boys had tons of fun running through. It was a great family night!!!! Jaygen, Pace, Briggs

The search is on!

Briggs

Don't let the "cheesy" smile fool ya...Briggs is just waiting to chuck the pumpkin!

I know, I know...what is Pace wearing? This is one battle that I refuse to fight! He wanted to wear his football clothes, with his soccer pads, and his cowboy handkerchief tucked in his pants like football players do, and he had to have black under his eyes. He is such a character!

I couldn't resist this picture!!!! If you look really close you can see something shiny poking out the top of the maze...oh, that is Todd's bald head! Ha Ha Love ya Todd!

All three boys made out with their perfect pumpkin and mom and dad had to carry them! :)

The Karate Kid!

Jaygen totally surprised me when he asked if he could take karate! I never would have guessed that he would like anything like that. Well, you have to be 6 years old to take karate so the week he turned 6 we got him signed up. The first week he went, he kept telling me he was a little nervous. Then the second week I was the one that was a little nervous. I went to pick him up and got there a little early so I got to watch them for a minute. They were fighting (sparring) one-on-one in the middle of the floor in front of everyone. I could tell that Jaygen was petrified!!! My eyes totally filled with tears. I was so nervous for Jaygen because I knew he was nervous. Jaygen is not a fighter. He is such a sensitive little guy. Well, it was his turn to fight and he walked really slow out to the middle of the floor to meet his competetor. I was just waiting for Jaygen to start crying and come running over to me, but he didn't. He totally started fighting...punching and kicking. Then I totally couldn't hold the tears back because now I couldn't believe my little baby boy was fighting. Little Jaygen won his fight too...good job buddy!! Jaygen has totally surprised me. I never would have guessed he would love karate so much! He has passed his first move off and earned his first stripe so I guess I need to buy him a karate uniform so he looks the part. Jaygen's karate teacher gives out one medal each week, "the winners medal", to the student that she thinks worked the harderst and Jaygen got it last week. He was so excited he had to come right home and call grandpa Marshall to tell him! I am so proud of Jaygen for wanting to try something new. I hope he sticks with it...and I hope I can get my tears under control! :)