Has it really been fourteen years? Happy Birthday Kayden!!

Time has sure flown by.  It almost seems like yesterday when I was in college and busily studying for exams AND also anxiously awaiting the arrival of our new baby.  Kayden arrived 8 days after his due date - the day that I was scheduled to be induced!  He was a big baby, 10 lb 3 oz, just like his brothers to follow.  He was such a good little one - a perfect first baby to have (well, at least that is what I remember and that's all that matters)!  We lived in a small, one bedroom place and poor Kayden had to share a room with us!  He sure became a great sleeper though - there was no tip toeing around, that is for sure!!

Kayden has grown and matured over the years, as you can see from these pictures.  He loves to be active - that means swimming, soccer, basketball and yep - football.  He is a great athlete and a very smart young man.  He is a good friend and stands up for what he believes in.  We are so blessed to have Kayden in our family!  Happy Birthday Kayden!

Jaren and his zany antics

Jaren has discovered how much fun it is to make video clips of himself.  Check him out:

http://youtu.be/YO3jMmyoQbs

http://youtu.be/OmllILyJqnw

http://youtu.be/f693-CFgu18

SAMFA Tier 2 Champions

This year, Kayden's team made it to the Tier 2 Championship Game!!

 They played against Taber Rebels at the U of L stadium (Kayden is #4).

It was a super exciting, action packed game with lots of good plays, but also some not so good ones.  One of their senior players got injured and had to be taken off the field in an ambulance. 

At the far right of the above pic, you can see Kayden low to the ground, tackling a Taber player.  The game was quite close for a while - (20-28) and there was a very good chance that Taber would score.  But, the Hawks were able to hold them off and secure the win!

What a view from this awesome field!

Again, Kayden is in the middle of the tackling!  Go Halladay!

This is a pic of the team celebrating with their trophy!  Now, for the semi finals this weekend!

Halloween Night - Trick or Treat!

Before we get the show on the road, we had to have a healthy supper to get us going!  Don't you love these cute plates I bought at Wal-|Mart! 

Here is our whole trick our treating crew.  I didn't get a good pic of Jaren - he was Lucky the Leprechaun (from the cereal Lucky Charms).

Tyler - the green ANGRY bird

Carter - the Yellow ANGRY bird!

Can you guess what Kayden is?  A chick magnet, of course

We had a ton of fun trick or treating with our friends this year and hope that we can keep up the tradition for a few more years!

Carving Pumpkins

Tyler's favorite part was slashing that dang pumpkin.  I think he ended up decorating all sides of his pumpkin!!!

The day before Halloween was Sunday - the perfect day to carve our pumpkins with Grama and Grampa.

Grampa and Jaren are hard at work.  Everyone except for Grampa and Tyler used a stencil and just look at how AWESOME Grampa's pumpkin turned out! (Grampa has hidden talents)

Grampa's sweet pumpkin

Mom and Carter pose with their creations!

Kayden and his Atlanta Braves themed pumpkin!

We had so much fun carving pumpkins this year!  I think I cleaned out everyone's pumpkin (except Grampa's) though - oh well!  I still had time to make my own scary pumpkin too - so I must be good at it!

Halloween Party

Linds and I went to a super fun Video Scavenger Hunt Halloween Party at the Parker's this year.  We had a blast with our crazy friends, doing things like painting a complete stranger's face like the joker, howling at the moon in a public place, wrapping a stranger in toilet paper and having a push up contest with a stranger.  There were many more zany things that the groups had to do as well.  Some even ate a live gold fish!  All in all it was a great time with good friends, yummy food and hilarious videos!

YW Halloween

For our YW Activity the week of Halloween, the girls carved pumpkins and then we had mummy faced pizzas (on english muffins) and these disgustingly yummy treats.  I found that labels on pinterest.  The girls thought they were great.  Really, how can you resist toxic bat droppings or magic toads!

Something new at our house

Yep, Jaren now has glasses!  It kind of all happened suddenly.  One day, he said that he couldn't read the numbers at the front of the chapel (for the hymns), then it all came out how he hasn't been able to see the board (or other things) for a long time.  Nice.  Good thing this kids parents are so on top of everything!  So, off to the eye doctor we went.  The verdict:  He is near sighted.  So, glasses are for school, TV, and the like.  He doesn't need them for sports (which he was very happy for)!

Anyway, I think he looks handsome and even smarter than before!

jaren's birthday party

Yes, I know that I am all out of sorts!  Jaren's birthday was back in August (and I know, I still haven't posted the summer pics yet) and yet, here are his party pictures?  What?  Well, we were finally able to arrange his party just a couple of weeks ago - so here it is! 

Ten Boys + Paintballing = A TON of fun (okay, and maybe some minor injuries)

 Jaren went paintballing for the first time this summer and decided that he MUST do that for his birthday party.  After the party, almost every boy said that they wanted to do this for their next party as well.  So, I guess getting shot at (and hit) is a fun thing?  This course - Ghost Town Paintball - was fabulous!  The people were super nice and very accommodating.  The boys loved that you could use all three courses too.

This is the happy un-birthday boy with his cake!

The whole crew that came to the party.  Don't they look scary?  Happy 11th birthday buddy!  I am glad we waited and had the party you wanted!!

Canada's got Talent!!!

A friend of ours got free tickets to the taping of the Alberta auditions for Canada's got talent, so off we went on a road trip to Calgary!  It was a long way to go for just a few hours, but it was a TON of fun.  As you can probably see from the picture, we had awesome seats too!  We may even be on TV next spring!  Hooray!  It was really cool to see how they do things when the show isn't live.  You can tell why they need editing - and they sure coached us how to CHEER, BOO and even say, AHHHHHHH!

One of the coolest things was Martin Short being one of the judges.  He was funny and witty and quite enjoyable - by far my fav out of the three judges (i have never heard of the other two - but "Stephan," one of the other judges seemed  to like himslef a lot).  By the end of the night, I think we were pretty hoarse from yelling, but like I said it was super fun!  Maybe, we will even go again next fall!

More from Magrath

Lindsey's cousin Kyle and his wife Pam got to bless their new baby girl on Sunday.  It was so nice for them to have so much family around.  They have a great little family of their own and are super busy!  I was able to snap a few pics of my handsome boys as well as all the cousins and Great Grandma and Grandpa Rice. 

Let the Summer fun begin!

Magrath Days Parade and all the Rice gang

Kayden and Wesley patiently waiting for the parade (CANDY) to start!

What these two are up to - we seldom know!

These cuties are waiting, waiting, waiting.  Blake was smart and brought a drink!

The start of the parade!  Hooray!  It is always worth the wait!

Zombie candy catchers?

I think the boys think if you call out to the "float" people that they will get more candy!

For a small town, Magrath puts on a really fun Parade!


This year we went to Magrath for Magrath Days (as we usually do).  It is always super fun - filled with family, baseball, yummy food, the parade and all sorts of great activities.  The boys love being with all the cousins!