InstaOctober 2014

Instagram + October = InstaOctober

Life is busy this time of year.  Who am I kidding?  Life is hectic no matter what time of year it is, and the month of October is no exception. The school year is in full swing.  We've been going to Ben's  soccer games on the weekends.  Will's involved with academic UIL at school.  We've been working at the land clearing brush and burning it.  Add normal everyday stuff into the mix and it makes for a full schedule.  All good things that we're thankful to have time for.  

Life is busy but it's good.

Here are the many things filling our days.

Will has been practicing to make the chess team for academic UIL.  Mark and I don't know how to play chess (shocking, I know! shame on us) and we downloaded an app on the iPad to teach him.  Will also plays against the computer to learn.  His chess teacher is really encouraging and I think he's learned a lot in a just a few weeks.  Ben will probably end up learning just because Will is so interested.  Here they are playing a game.  I use the term "playing" loosely but you know what I mean.

We're making progress clearing trees and burning brush at the land. There's still a lot of work to do before we're ready to build but every little bit of work done now is less to do later.  

Ben has some silly ideas.  On the night I took this photo, Ben was pretending that the bathtub was a coffee shop.  He lined up all the plastic cups I keep in the tub for them to play with.  I had to order a drink and play along.  In case you were wondering, I had a white chocolate mocha.

My sweet mother-in-law, Carol, had a birthday at the beginning of the month.  We celebrated her birthday by taking her out to eat TexMex.  It was impossible to get a photo of her with both boys cooperating so I took several and made a collage of the best ones.  Will and Ben sure do love their Mamaw Carol and so do we!

The boys go through phases with the toys we own.  We've had these puzzles for years and they normally don't pay any attention to them.  For some reason they decided to put them together.  They like anything that has to do with space and planets. I think Mark enjoyed learning about those things when he was a boy.  I know they didn't inherit those genetics from me. 

One of the funniest photos of the month.  On Instagram I said, "Transformers have destroyed the United States and they are about to take over the universe!" 

We don't make it to many of our niece's volleyball games, but we always have a good time watching her play.  She threw a personalized volleyball to the boys in the stands.  They love it!

I don't think this photo ever made it on Instagram.  We were running errands at Watters Creek.  Ben found a leaf on the ground while we were shopping.  When we got to Anthro I made the boys pose for a photo by the autumn leaves window display.  Ben proudly held up the leaf he found. 

On that same day, we hung out at Starbucks for a little while.  I love the weekend!

Weekends in the fall mean college football and the NFL.  Mark watches both, but he really loves professional football.  The Cowboys are his team.  They've been doing awesome but some of the games have been close.  It's so stressful and intense that I have to distract myself with Pinterest. 

Look what I found at Trader Joe's!  These cookies are awesome.  The calorie count, not so much.

It's time to bring back the Chai Tea Latte at night.  Mark and I treat ourselves to one now that it's cooler weather.  And by cooler weather I mean not 108 degrees.  It's been in the 80s.  

Soccer!

I've taken some photos of Ben using my DSLR, and now I just need to get them on my computer and the blog.  He's so stinkin' cute!

Who has seen Alexander, and the Terrible, Horrible....?  We thought it was really funny.

The boys love going to the movies and eating popcorn.

We had to go to Cabela's.  

Fascinating fish

That's all for now.  I have more photos to share but not enough time.  

Have a great weekend!