After UIL

I booked a hotel on Monday that was close to the Alamodome, but also close to the River Walk. We probably passed the same streets 5 times before we found our destination because there are so many one way streets.

Brandy said she was hungry for something with breakfast. We did manage to pass a Denny's by our hotel, which of course we stopped and had breakfast for dinner.

Brandy was not very happy that we were picking up her up after the competition and not heading straight back. She coped a bit of an attitude and had a little meltdown, but was fine once she realized it wasn't working. Now, when we were seated down by the waitress, we saw 2 other marching band students with their parents who had the same idea as we on staying the night and making a day of being in San Antonio. I put my hand over my heart as if I was in distress that other parents were keeping their kids from school the next day. (haha)

Brandy's 09 State UIL Marching Comp.

So Brandy's school has been open for 4 years now. The marching band has made it to state twice now. Brandy's school left for San Antonio on Monday, although they were not performing that day. They got to roam the River Walk for the day.

Tuesday was the big day. We left mid morning to make it to their performance.

In this first photo, Jeremy was standing in front of the buses. There were a total of 26 schools. This was just a glimpse of the total of buses. Brandy's school had 6 buses alone!

Here is our marching band super star!
Here was Greg taking photo's of us from an upstairs window.
This was AMAZING!!
For this many students, they sure do an awesome job with their formations!
The red semi truck is our school's instrument transportation. Notice the Alamodome sign in the background! Perfect shot! YAY me!
Unfortunately, Saginaw Band didn't make the top 10. They did however, make 19th place out of 26. They all did such a fabulous job!! They could even go next year!

Parent's Performance

Sunday, the day before the band was to leave for State UIL Marching Competition in San Antonio, was the parent's peformance! Brandy as well as the band looks great out there!! We came to see their show.

Jeremy was busy playing with his phone getting photo's and sending video.
WOW.. a semi truck to carry their band equipment!


We are very proud of her! She has worked so hard and has a great passion for marching band. I pray that if it be God's will for her, that she will never lose sight of that passion. Life can become distracting. LOVE YOU BRANDY!!! WE ARE PROUD OF YOU!!!

Trunk or Treat

Saturday, October 31, 2009.

The evening started off with evening church. Our pastor started his new series "End of the World" this week on Halloween night. Right after services we grabbed a snap shot of the kids (and the bigger kid) before heading out the doors to Trunk or Treat. Our church held this event including hot dogs and hamburgers for $1.00 each. The candy was free of course... :)

Brandy dressed as Queen Esther

Kien and Gabe were the Lion and the Lamb

Jeremy was the guard whom is found in Acts 16:16-35

Here is our little Lamb. I have to say he did very well considering. At first he really didn't like the lamb ears, but was fine after I took them off and put them on again. Maybe a new thing wasn't to be taken lightly! :)
And here is our little Lion. He was a hit! Everyone coo'd and awe'd when he walked by. He was so excited about candy that every time someone would put candy in, he would want to take it out and eat it!! He also was NOT very happy when we left. Candy Candy Candy was all we heard most of the way home.
There was a lot of people at the trunk or treat event. It was also still a bit warm out. So I had to keep checking Gabe to make sure he wasn't getting hot.
Our beautiful Queen and our Guard was very hungry!

There was a bounce house right in the front of the parking lot. We tried at all costs to keep Kien occupied from throwing a fit because of his desire to jump. It had bigger kids inside, so to keep from having an ER moment, Greg was able to distract him.
So cute!
Queen Esther and our Guard decided to carry Kien to a few trunks so I could get Gabe's diaper changed and Greg could grab a bite to eat.
Once we were done there, we drove to our friend Mercedes parent's house. They came to our wedding and have been ever so gracious to watch the kids for us when we went out of town. They just adored all 4 of the kids and gave them some popcorn balls and chocolate of course. They all passed Gabe around and Kien really like Zac (Mercedes dad) and Janet (Mercedes mom) kept saying it was her turn to hold the baby. :)
Before we headed to their house we picked up Dawson, our friends youngest so they could go to a a halloween party. We told them to let him keep his costume on so that the Stuart's could see him too. Dawson is the little dracula standing by Jeremy on the right.
So until Mercedes and Tristan are ready to provide grandchildren to their parents, Mercedes said we can share the babies to pacify them for a bit :):)
Brandy waited so patiently to hold her brother.
Kien LOVED running around the property. Jeremy and Dawson tortured him by stepping on the back of his tail and making him not be able to go forward. Cute!

Carving Pumpkins!

Jeremy is so silly! He had a great time with his carving.

Brandy, being the "school spirit" of the household decided to carve SOS Band with music notes. How cute!!
He got to pick this pumpkin out (and actually all of them) and loved that it was little. of course Gabe's was even littler, but how proud he was!

We had went to pick up some pumpkins so we could carve them, but when we went to the store, they were sold out! We ventured to the next store and THEY were sold out! So, having lunch with Greg after a few errands, Kien and I stopped at a party store to look for a lamb costume and saw that Krogers still had a few pumpkins! I let him choose them for everyone since I wasn't going to drive back down 30 miles south just to pick out pumpkins to find them gone again. Also, the kids had church that night so there wouldn't be time anyway.

Our Final Pumpkins!

Here are the masterpieces!

:) (I forgot to add them to the post when carving them)

From the top left to the bottom right

Kien's

Mommy's

Baby pumpkin Gabe (daddy carved while he snoozed)

Daddy's

Jeremy's

Brandy's (note it says SOS Band *Horn*)

Pumpkins!

Kien was so excited to do his pumpkin. He got a later start than everyone else because he wanted to do pumpkins instead of finish his dinner. So we made him sit in his chair with his dinner and started carving in front of him. After a couple reminders to finish his dinner so he can participate too, he finally did!

Because we had so many pumpkins to carve, and didn't want Kien handling any of the carving utensils, we just let him decorate his pumpkin by coloring on it. He was completely content with it! Daddy started showing him how to do it. I was a bit apprehensive on letting him use markers since he's never used anything but crayons, he actually did much better than I thought. PLUS- Mommy made sure that he had the washable kind! :)
Oh how he loved coloring on his pumpkin! You could say he was in Pumpkin Heaven!
Of course I did consider the consequences of Kien using marker, and Greg confirmed with this photo that he did in fact color on his hands. :)

Sunday Funday!

We were getting ready for church and of course when Gabe is smiley, we cannot miss a chance to just enjoy the moment! He loved looking down at me!

While Brandy and Jeremy were socializing I snapped this photo of Greg and the two little ones after we picked Kien up from his sunday school class. Awww..
To the Pumpkin Patch! I was a bit overwhelmed because it was muddy and very busy. We had to take a stroll through the pumpkins just to get away from the flood of people! Brandy was bored, Jeremy and Kien loved it!
Proof that Greg can smile!
Gabe ate and slept for the most part while were were there. He did wake up so we could get some photos then back to sleep. Although I am sure that if I didn't keep batting the bee's away he would have awakened suddenly with a scream from a sting!!

More Pumpkin Patch photos

Kien got to see a pig!

Kien is getting to be such a big boy! Not quite tall yet!

They hay stack was a hit for both Jeremy and Kien.
Of course for any child, the bounce houses are a favorite. Jeremy is too big for them now, and Kien did NOT want to leave. When Greg finally got him close enough to the exit area he grabbed him quickly because Kien refused to leave!
Awww.. Kien LOVED the train! When we were leaving he cried and cried and cried all the way to the van because he wanted the bounce house and the train!
He liked the pumpkins!

Kien really didn't care about all the different characters, he wanted pumpkins here!

Although this was not Kien's first pumpkin patch visit, it was however his first pumpkin patch in the Walsh household. We HAD to get the photo for both babies!

She is sooooo beautiful!
One more shot of Jeremy on the mound in Flower Mound.