Robotics

Tristan has had the privilege this year as a fourth grader to participate in the robotics club. He meets once a week after school to learn about robotics and to create a VEX robot for competition. He has been to one competition so far and made eigth place out of thirteen. He was very excited!! He will be competing again sometime this month. (he can't wait since he gets to miss part of school for it :)

Snow!

I guess it had to happen sooner or later but I sure was liking the nice weather and would have done just fine without any snow this year. It's been wonderful to play outside in lighter coats and not have to bundle everyone up.  However, the boys were very excited to finally have some snow to play in. Declan did not like the process of getting ready to go outside and wasn't a big fan of the snow when we finally made it out. He did end up playing a little while but wouldn't leave his gloves on so it was short lived. Liam, Tristan and Colin played outside for almost two hours building snow walls, knocking them down and enjoyed a good ol' snowball fight. (That's when Liam came in) It has been a fun weekend to just stay home play in the snow, enjoy hot chocolate and have some down time as a family of six before the little guy gets here.

Surprise!!!!!

We definitely were!! We are expecting Shockey boy number five in March. Our due date is March 22nd. Which happens to be right in the middle of spring break this year.  The boys have only know for about two weeks. We waited until we found out it is a boy before we told them and they are all excited. We are starting to figure out how to arrange everthing and everybody and look forward to meeting this very active little boy this spring.

Zombies, Monsters, Birthdays and more...

Happy Halloween With Daddy's birthday, dressing up, and trick-or-treating we really have fun on Halloween. This year Daddy was a zombie, Tristan went as Harry Potter, Colin was a wizard at school and Nevel Longbottom for trick-or-treating, Liam was a ghost and Declan was a cute monster. We started at the church for trunk or treat, took a little break at Gramma and Papa's house where we met up with the Truesdells then Daddy, Uncle Brendan, Mr. Truesdell and another neighbor went out trick-or-treating. They were gone a good hour and a half or more. I guess as they are getting older they can make it longer. After trick-or-treating the boys weighed their bags a respectful 4, 4 and 5 pound bags of candy (not quite sure how one was a little more when they went to the same places). Which did not include the haul from church that had been dumped out before the neighborhood trick-or-treating. Then a Broncos dinner, Daddy's bday cake, and a couple of quick sink baths (Liam's face was totally black from his eye makeup) a fun day and night came to a late end. Too bad Halloween couldn't always be on a weekend rather than a school night. It's now four days later and I think we have come down from the sugar high and are back on track for bedtime. Oddly enough the boys only have had two pieces of candy (that I know of) a day. They seem to be so excited for the trick-or-treating and not as excited about eating it after the first day. I'm thinking this is a good thing.

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Declan's First Birthday

My little man is one year old. (by now almost 13 months) He has become quite the adventurous little guy. He started walking about 10 1/2 months old and is now running more than walking. It's hard to keep up with big brothers. Declan is such a lover and great at making the rounds for hugs and kisses to anyone around.
For his first birthday we had a little party where many family members where able to join in the celebration. A great surprise was Great Grandma and Grandpa Schulz from the farm were able to be here. (thank you Uncle Jim and Aunt Connie) We enjoyed dinner, cake and then the Husker game of course.
Declan started out a little timid with his cake but that did not last long as he soon dug right into it with two fists. I had to hose him down in the sink afterwards to get all the cake out of his hair. It was a wonderful day to celebrate a beautiful, funny, love able, daring little boy.

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New School Year

School has started for Tristan and Colin. Liam is patiently waiting for preschool to start. Declan clings to Tristan and Colin when they come home. Which they think is cute until he won't let them alone.
Tristan started fourth grade. He's getting so old. Colin is in third grade. They both love their teachers and have big classes. Tristan has 33 students and Colin has 26. Unfortunately they were both sent home sick the third day of school and missed the next two days. I guess it's better to miss now before the school year starts getting busier.
We have also started fall baseball which is keeping us very busy. Tristan has double headers every Sunday from now until October 2nd. Colin has just one game on Sundays. However, they are at different fields. The calendar to the right is updated with the game times and locations. It's shaping up to be a busy fun fall.

Happy Birthday Colin!

My sweet boy is 8! He began his birthday celebration with a pirate treasure hunt party at Lake Zorinsky. (It was a friend party for both Tristan and Colin) Greg planned the whole thing and was very into the details. He commissioned Lindsey to create an authentic looking treasure map. (It was awesome) We had bandannas, earrings, tattoos, facial hair pretty much anything you would need to become a pirate. Once all the kids were decked out in pirate gear they went on a treasure hunt.They had to follow the map to different areas where they would then get a clue to find the treasure. The first stop was the cannon ball stomp. The kids put balloons around their ankles and tried not to get theirs popped. The next area they came upon was a puzzle. The kids had to find 20 the same color of boxes that they then had to put it together to create the image of a jolly roger symbol. Then they were off to find the treasure. It was A LOT of fun! After the treasure was found we went back to the picnic area and had cupcakes and ice cream. We all had a wonderful time. The last child was picked up and in their car just as it began to hail! We all had to wait it out in the picnic shelter.