The Whole World in His Hands

A few years ago I heard about this really neat corn maze down by Columbia. I wanted to go then, but never got the chance. So this year after driving by it on my way home from meetings, I decided that we were going no matter what. So the next day we all loaded up and headed out.

This is what the maze looked like this year. Every year they do something different. I really like this one.



It was an absolute beautiful day for it. It wasn't rainy, it wasn't cold and it wasn't too hot. It was PERFECT!

They had 8 different checkpoints that you had to find and answer the question that they had on your little paper. We looked for checkpoint 7 for 45 minutes! We found checkpoint 4....
4 times!!!!

At the very end after you have answered every single question you check to see how many of your answers were correct and then you drop it in a trashcan to try and win a big grand prize at the end of the year. I got all but one right! Jared thought he would be cool and answer differently than me b/c he thought he was right on a few of them and he wasn't:)

All in all it was fantastic and we can not wait to do it again next year!

Enjoy all the pics!

Imagine that! This boy finding the mud!

Our first checkpoint we found!

This was overlooking the field from on top of a bridge in the middle of the maze.

After 2 hours and 4 minutes, we were finally done!!!

Slippin' and a Slidin'

We were going to have Braylon's best friend, Logan for a weekend so we decided to get us a slip and slide so they could play outside all weekend. They loved this thing!!! They played, played and played some more.

We've been busy

We have been super busy!!!!

We have been to the Great Wolf Lodge, had Christmas parties, Christmas programs, shopped and had some family time.

Enjoy the show of pictures to follow:

braylon feeding the fish at cabelas

getting to see santa at the great wolf lodge

braylon sliding down the slide ALL.BY.HIMSELF. he was so proud of himself.

doesn't he just look ornery?

the 3 B's

and again

love this picture of jared and bronson

bronson and tinley at the christmas program. this little girl thinks bronson is HOT~

playing the bells together

rubbin his belly for some song action

his christmas party at school. i didn't get to take very many pictures because i was running back and forth between his and braxton's rooms. i didn't even get any of braxton's party.

i also didn't get any pictures of them at the great wolf lodge b/c they were too busy running around while i was chasing after braylon.

we had a great time at the great wolf lodge. it was so nice to get away from the hustle and bustle of things and just relax.

First Snow of 2009

What a great night tonight was!!!

First we had our first Awana Christmas Program. The kids did great. (pictures to come soon)

Then Jared went coon hunting so the boys and I headed home for some mommy/son time.

We watched The Christmas Shoes and I cried like a baby.

Then the boys wanted to know if they could open "just" ONE present. So.... I let them. They opened the one that was for all of them, a dvd player for the van.

Then they were so excited that it was still snowing and that it was all over the ground that they wanted to go out and play in it.

I looked at the clock and it was after 10:00, on a school night.

I thought "what the heck?" we only live once.

So I yelled "get your stuff on, we are going out to play in the snow!"

They couldn't believe it!!!!

So we all ran around and yelled and laughed, we made snow angels and they tackled me and we laughed until we cried.

They kept saying..... "this is so much fun"! even after we came in I heard them say how much fun it was!

AND it was so much fun!! I am so glad that we did it.

I hope it is something they remember forever!

Can't you just see the excitement:)

Our snow angels!!!!
L to R... Bronson, Braylon, Me and Braxton

aLvIn the elf

I saw on one of my friends blogs about Elf on the Shelf. I thought it was a great idea and decided that my kids needed one. So..... I ordered one:)

He arrived last week on Friday and the boys couldn't quite understand it all. I read them the book and they asked lots and lots of questions. They couldn't understand how he could fly, why he couldn't talk to us and how he got here......

They decided to name him Alvin! Braylon came up with the name. So we registered his name and printed out our certificate of ownership and he is ours forever!!

So meet ALVIN!

Isn't he just adorable?

Bronson jumped out of bed Saturday and Sunday at 7 to try and find him. I was so excited to get Alvin but wasn't excited to have Bronson waking me up that early to see if I knew where he was.

Hopefully having Alvin around will help with some of our behavior issues and all!

I am so excited to be starting this new tradition in our family.

Halloween Parties & More

Halloween brings on some Shaw family traditions. Every year the boys carve lots of pumpkins and then we deliver them to my mom and dad, my two grandma's, jodie york's and we used to take one to jared's grandma and one to our neighbors, but they are all in the nursing home. So here we are cutting, cleaning and carving the pumpkins for everyone. When we deliver them, everyone is super excited to see them.

I couldn't get a good picture of all three of them. In every one of them one of them was "acting" crazy! BOYS!

Every year my babysitter brings all the kids trick or treating around the square and to my office. Here is the group.

AHHH, doesn't this cop look awful cute with his mommy?

Braylon and his partner in crime, Mason.

Ashlyn, Adi and Braylon.

I just LOVE this picture! Can you just see how ornery he is? It is just pouring out:)
I kept fixing his hat, b/c everytime it would fall down, it would make his ear stick out. He could've cared less!

This was Bronson's first year for a class party. And it was my first year of trying to divide my time up between two rooms. That wasn't what I call fun.

Bronson eating an apple. Silly kid.

Braxton's class got to play some games. Braxton's team did pretty good and won most of them.

Bronson the pirate! We lost his headband at school and we looked everywhere for it. The lost and found, Braxton's room, his room, the halls.... nothing! He found it later that night..............in his POCKET!

This was the extent of Braxton dressing up this year. A punk rocker. He thought he was too old, so he just handed out candy this year on Halloween night. It is so sad, he is growing up way too fast.

All in all we had a great Halloween.