Ramblings....

I am a bit sleep deprived today so I figure I will probably just ramble along until I get everything said that I want to say and I'll probably end up adding things that I'll look back later and think, "why did I tell everybody that?" Yep, one of those sleep deprived kind of days. The boys are napping now and this would be my opportunity to nap but for some reason I feel the need to blog before Ryne wakes up and tries to take over my computer. I cannot do any computer work in his presence these days....for some reason every time my computer is open he attacks it. Maybe he likes the sound of the keys being pecked away at or then again maybe he doesn't like the computer at all and is simply trying to destroy it. I may never know. What I do know is that his obsession with an open laptop makes it hard for me to do my online teaching work, my blogging, my emailing, and my facebooking...what other choice do I have but to forgo the nap in order to enter the wonderful land of blog?
So, why do I need that nap? Well, Ryne didn't sleep well at all last night. I am blaming in on teeth but I'm not really positive. He was easily consoled and back to sleep within minutes but the episodes occurred almost every hour. Kyle was out of town for a conference to I was the solo Mommy who got up every hour. Made me so thankful that he is such a great Daddy and would have taken his turn had he been home. On top of Ryne's sleeplessness add Kade to the mix. Somewhere around 2 am he decided to come get in bed with me since Daddy was out of town. That's all well and fine except for the fact that he wanted to chit chat! I don't know how many times I had to tell him to quit talking and go to sleep...each time was followed by, "but Mom, I just need to tell you something...."
I think I finally managed about four hours last night and that is on the generous figuring scale. I averaged four hours of sleep all through college and seemed to truck right on as if that were normal. Guess I've gotten old since then because 4 hours just don't cut it anymore for me.

Big news:
Friday afternoon I got to go to the grocery store alone. That's right I said all by myself! I asked Kyle if he would watch the boys because I wanted to take advantage of a couple of good sales that were happening at Safeway and Albertsons. You see I don't do "two grocery store shopping trips" with my boys in tow so this was going to be an exception if Kyle would watch them. He agreed and you would have thought that I was very thankful. I was so happy to be getting out alone that I might as well have won a day at the spa. But no...even better....88 cent Ragu....1.00 shredded cheddar....1.67 Captain Crunch....buy 1 sarah lee oven fresh pie get a second free along with two free tubs of bryers ice cream!
It was nice and I really enjoyed some "me" time even if it was "me and a shopping cart".

On to another topic. I keep journals for Kade and Ryne. Started the both when the boys were born. I did a pretty decent job of keeping up with Kade's until Ryne was born and since then I have really struggled with keeping up with either of them on a very regular basis. I like to write to them about what they have been doing, what stage of development they are in, what kinds of food they like, new skills they've learned, trips we've taken, how they are growing, and what I've been praying for in their lives. Well, I decided last night would be a good night to catch up since Kyle was out of town. I opened Ryne's journal first because I wanted to be sure to get an entry in for him...since I did so good with Kade his first year. I was ashamed. I hadn't written since May 30th! I had the whole summer to try to document for him and I did my best to remember everything. Six or seven journal pages later I moved on to Kade's journal. Real shame hit me! I hadn't written in Kade's journal since January 18th..the day after his second birthday. I was overwhelmed and didn't know how I would possibly get everything caught up for him. If you keep up with our blog, you know Kade is one very busy little guy who is constantly into something new and one of the funniest 2 year olds I know. Then it hit me that somehow I'm going to figure out how to print out my blog for both of them. It may not be written to them like their journals are but it definitely helps me document their lives. So in the words of Sid the Science Kid that was my "Uper Duper Super Shmuper Big Idea" for the night. Now I've just got to figure out how to make it happen.

So let me move right along and stop all the rambling. I know what the Grandparents are on here looking for anyway. PICTURES!

Here's what I've got:

Kade built a giant sandwich for "D" when we went out to eat the other night.
He was really into building that day because when we got home he built some giant towers and ships out of his blocks. Of course this was after Ryne went to bed or they would have never gotten this big. Check them out:


Maybe he's going to be a builder? I think he has skill.

Guess what else we learned works out well after Ryne's bedtime?
Haircuts for Kade!
He can sit in a chair watching a movie and let me cut away without the worry of little brother crawling through the hair and tracking all over the house.
Here are the haircut results:

Still a little wet from bath time but you get the idea. He always looks so grown up to me when he gets his hair cut. It is going to be Ryne's turn before long. I'm trying to hang on until that first birthday mark before we cut it. I just know he won't look like a baby at all anymore when he gets his hair cut. And he is still my baby!

We went pre-hair cut for some pictures at the park last week. Mostly because I wanted some ten month pictures of Ryne....why?....well, because I missed getting nine month pictures. Here are some of the results. I won't bore you with commentary on each picture so just take a look:













And here is one of just me and my best friend:

It is so good to have a best friend who will grant you a solo trip to the grocery store every now and then! I love him!

So, until I have time to ramble again....hope you are enjoying life!

I Couldn't Resist Another! It's Good to Laugh!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Just a Little Something to Get you in the Mood

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Grocery Shopping Big Waves and Lunch Dates

This past Friday grocery shopping HAD to be done.
You know what I mean by HAD to be done. No milk for the two year old, no formula for the 10 month old and no orange juice for the 32 year old (that would be Kyle), all of which are daily necessities at our house. It was a rainy day and I expressed to Kyle about how I dreaded having to go to the grocery store because there just was never a good time to go. Anyone else ever had that dilemma? If we get ready and go right after the gym and breakfast then there is no way to be back in time for Ryne's morning nap and he would end up all cranky in the buggy right in the middle of our trip to the grocery store. If we wait until after his morning nap then we only have about an hour before lunch time....and me and the boys CANNOT complete a trip to buy groceries in an hour. Then after lunch is naptime for Kade and Ryne. Cannot afford for Kade to miss his afternoon nap and Ryne is much more pleasant with nap number 2 under his belt as well. Okay, so we just go when afternoon naps are over at about 3:00....maybe not such a terrible idea if we plan to do something easy for supper. EXCEPT, this was Friday afternoon and traffic on the interstate is CRAZIER than CRAZY on Friday afternoon from about 3:00 to 6:00 or later. Probably would have spent more time on the interstate than at the store.
See, what I'm saying about not a good time????
So, my sweet hubby volunteered to go for me!!! Just said "make me a list".
I handed him the sale papers and the coupons and said I would work on the list but that the sale papers and coupons were a big part of going to the store. I could tell that was very exciting to him! Ha Ha! I was very excited that he was willing to go. And I still love him for being willing even though his plans were thwarted. It was a good thwarted, though. A deal came along for a trailer that we were needing for Life Church storage (so our garage could house cars again) and Kyle had to pursue it during his scheduled grocery run.
Now, you are wondering how the Lewallens would survive without milk, formula and orange juice aren't you?
Don't worry we had a family outing to Burger King for supper and then to good old Wally World for groceries.... in the pouring down rain mind you.... on Friday night. It was eventful to say the least. Checking sale papers, marking off the list, comparing prices, two bathroom breaks for Kade, steady stream of graham crackers headed Ryne's way, figuring out where to put the bread so that neither Kade nor Ryne smashes it, figuring out where to put Kade so that the groceries don't smash him, trying to figure out how close we are to being out of grape jelly even if it's not on the list we might run out and forget to put it on the list next time so we better just get some while we're thinking about it.....Can I just say that I was SO glad that Kyle was there to take Kade to the potty?!
I do think Kyle realized just why it is that grocery store trips take me so long.

Our next big family adventure came on Sunday afternoon when we headed here:

The Pacific Ocean

We heard that there were huge waves pounding the coast as a result of a storm that blew in. On Saturday there were 25 foot waves coming in every 15 - 20 seconds.
We had to check it out.

Here is some of what we saw:

The waves were not quite as big on Sunday but they were still amazing.
Probably 15 - 18 footers.

And of course we saw lots of these:

Kade's favorite...the birds of the beach!


Just another shot of the ocean with a really neat cloud formation.

And yes, we did get out. Kade couldn't just sit in the car and watch. Not when there was water to splash in and birds to chase!

Here is Mr. I Really Just Want to Splash in the Water...


Look, Mom taught me how to jump up and down and make my very own mud puddle.


Oh, never mind, I found a good mud puddle that was not near as much work. You should have seen this one splash!

And Mr. Happy to Be Anywhere Outside....


I really think Ryne was laughing at this:

See Kade Run

See bird fly!
Why he still thinks he has a chance at catching those silly birds, I'll never know, but he does love to chase them.

Ryne didn't get to do much bird chasing. Thankfully he was happy with this:

It was a stroller day for the little guy!


Hi everybody! I'm having lots of fun hanging out at the beach in my stroller!


An added bonus...our neighbors drove up and met us at the beach and we got to hang out with them, too. Then we all went to dinner together. Fresh seafood! Yummy, Yummy!

And my favorite picture of the day:

Just look at Ryne....He makes me laugh every day!

And I couldn't leave Kade out of the self portrait opportunity:

This boy had too much fun and was soaking wet by the time we got ready to leave.
Good thing Mommas know to pack a change of clothes when we are going to the beach just to "watch the waves".

Last night we had guests arrive to stay with us. Our friend Russell, from West Virginia is back scoping things out some more and he brought his friend Casey with him. So today Kyle has been out and about with those guys. I decided for some crazy reason that I wanted to get out of the house for fun and not for necessity (like that grocery trip on Friday). So I made up my mind that I was going on a lunch date with my boys. Yep, just me and the two little Lewallen boys, out for lunch. Kade wanted to go to Burger King and eat pizza. I had to break it to him that Burger King doesn't have pizza and then I had to figure out which one he was more interested in....Burger King?....or.....Pizza? Turns out that it was pizza that he really wanted so we hit up our local pizza joint, Farrelli's.
Kade knew exactly what he wanted. No need to check out the menu so he just set to work coloring me a picture:

That is Sprite that he ordered for himself in the cup beside his art work.


And that is his pizza with, and I quote, "I need mushrooms, and spinach, and I need chicken, and that's everything I need on it."
I love letting Kade order for himself at restaurants. It always makes the server smile!

As for Ryne...he had finished his two jars of baby food before we even ordered and so he spent the rest of our lunch date chowing down on crackers and pizza crust.

I can't believe how grown up this little guy is getting. Before I know it he will be ordering his own pizza with mushrooms and spinach and chicken!
We had a great lunch date. I was proud of the boys because they did really well. And I have to say, I was proud of myself for giving them a chance.

Oh, Guess what I found today?
We were getting ready for our lunch date and just look what I found:

A curl!
Maybe Ryne is going to have some curls after all?

Kyle just called and said the plan is to go out for dinner tonight with our guests.
Eating out twice today???
What is the world coming to?
I was just supposed to be doing laundry and dishes and stuff like that!

Nothing out of the Ordinary

I'm not real certain what "ordinary" is in our world. But I have to say that this week feels like there is nothing out of the ordinary going on. Feels kind of nice.
I guess these are the things that I consider ordinary:

Sunday morning Kade wanted to wear one of his pirate eye patches to church. I guess he felt bad for the three patches that didn't get to go trick or treating. Once we got in the car I found out that he had brought along an extra one for me to wear as well. How sweet.

We did let him wear his eye patch in the car on the way to church and I was a good sport and put mine on for a few minutes, too. Had to tell him that we didn't want to frighten any of the babies in the nursery in order to convince him to leave them in the car.

I think Ryne played hard in the nursery Sunday morning....

His hair looked as if it had gotten caught up in a whirlwind.

Kade saved his energy up because I think he had a feeling that Lissa would take him to the playground to play after church.

He was right!
On the days that we have Life Church services Kade has learned that we hang around after church and load up stuff that Sunbreak lets us borrow for childcare. While the loading is happening Lissa watches him play on the playground. Isn't it amazing how quickly kids pick up on routines?

And how quickly they learn to open drawers and cabinets and get out things that they shouldn't?

Yep, that is a box of 120 ish ziploc baggies all emptied on the kitchen floor.
You would've thought Ryne had found a treasure trove of toys.

We had our third Life Church service on Sunday night and it was excellent!
We talked about how everybody wants perfection but nobody wants to change. About how God wants to take all the bad stuff and chisel it away so that we are his original masterpiece.
Met quite a few new people who were visiting Life Church for the first time. And of course got to visit with many of our Life Church "regulars". It was a great night and we are praising Jesus for all that He is doing in DuPont and begging Him to use us as vessels to introduce the lost people here to Himself, the Hope of the World!

Monday was a beautiful day. Nice and sunny. We know that the rainy season is going to hit very soon and there may be many long sunless days so we want to take advantage of any nice days we get. So on Monday afternoon we loaded the boys up and went for a bike ride. To the library.
Kade loves to go to the library. He likes to play there and he likes that he can borrow new movies to watch and he enjoys filling up his library basket with books.
His one request when we set out for the library was to get "Jack and the Beanstalk". For some reason he is really fond of that story right now. We found a video of Jack and the Beanstalk and put that in the basket. Last time we checked out a brand new book of Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes and Kade sat and listened to me read all 42 of them in one sitting. By the third time we read through the book I could say one line and stop and he would tell me the next line. I was pretty amazed that he would sit and listen to 42 nursery rhymes all at one time and then for him to start learning them so quickly...wow. Two year olds are pretty amazing! He wasn't sure he wanted to give the Mother Goose book back so we found another one with some different nursery rhymes in it and that worked.

What does Ryne think about the library?
Well, he usually crawls around and plays and requires that I keep up with him closely to keep him from pulling books off of the shelves. But this time he was pretty easy. Why? Well, you remember that new "skateboard" helmet that I got for my birthday that he was so attached to? I wore it on the bike ride and as soon as it came off of my head at the library he snatched it up.

And pretty much kept himself occupied playing with my helmet the entire time we were there.

Tuesday was vote day, try to clean house day, and baby sit for the neighbor day. I did make butternut squash for the first time. Kyle liked it...me, not so much. Good thing I only got one of those at the market.

Today is get ready for Bible study at our house day...
which translates
CLEAN, CLEAN, CLEAN
But I am taking a break to blog...should really be grading some chapter 4 labs for my chemistry students but this is way more fun. I will grade labs later when I'm not needing a "fun" break.

Before I get back to the laundry let me show you how Kade made great use of the laundry basket this morning. Ryne was napping and I was getting a shower. When I came out to check on Kade this is what I found:

All curled up nice and comfy in the laundry basket or his "boat" as he would be sure to correct me. I guess since it's not as big as the couch it doesn't get to be a "ship"?

What was he doing there?

Watching Jack and the Beanstalk!
For the second time!
He would go on to watch it two more times before lunch.
Anything you want to know about Jack?
Just ask Kade, I'm sure he's got the story memorized.

My favorite part of the Faerie Tale Theater version of "Jack and the Beanstalk"....
Jack's mother is "Mona". You remember....Angela's Mom....Tony and Angela....Who's the Boss....Red-headed Mona....yep, that's Jack's Mom!

Okay, dirty diaper and laundry are calling...Have a super duper day and Happy November to you!

Happy Halloween

We had a super fun Halloween here in Washington.

Oh...this isn't who you were looking to see?

Well, okay, here they are:

Sock Monkey Ryne and Pirate Kade
Is that better?

How bout an action shot?

AAARRRGGG!


Pirate Kade made sure his sword was nice and sharp before we headed out to trick or treat.


Sock Monkey Ryne just wanted to figure out what the excitement was about.

We loaded the boys up and headed to downtown DuPont where the businesses all do trick or treating for the kiddos.

Who wouldn't want to get in the car and go somewhere with these two:

Driving Daddy Pirate


Wigged Out Mommy CoPilot

The atmosphere was great downtown and it was a beautiful afternoon.

My pirate boys looking for some loot!


Ryne found some loot of his own!
He thought the paper on that sucker was delicious.


Kade found a fellow pirate at one of the businesses to pose with.


I think he's holding on to his hat because he sees a pirate girl headed his way....

Kade was intrigued by the pirate girl but she just had a quick hello for him and took off to search for more loot of her own.

Then we stopped in Farelli's Pizza

Can you tell Kade is giggling?

This is why....

A dancing pizza guy.


Ryne got his giggles when he was trying to figure out how I got my hair to do that.
He has checked out all of the hair care products under the bathroom sink (seriously, he has) and can't remember seeing anything in there that would make this happen. Ha Ha!


Just another look at my precious little sock monkey.


And then we headed back to our neighborhood where that little sock monkey got to say hello to our sweet little ladybug friend Audrey


And spend some time with Pirate Daddy.


While Pirate Kade made his way to all of the neighbors to give them all a special "AAARRRGGG".


As soon as we got to our house Kade couldn't even wait to go inside to check out his loot. Searched through and found just what he wanted...Chocolate...like Mommy like Son!


Ryne at least got inside before he checked out his goodies!

Then we spent the rest of the evening answering the door for trick or treaters.
I think Kyle and Kade had almost as much fun doing that.

We ended the evening with a couple of laughs.
Let me share:

Pirate Kade was trying to disguise himself as Daddy Pirate.
He couldn't see a thing and kept crashing into stuff.
I was laughing so hard.
And then the doorbell rang again.
We opened the door to these guys:

We LOVE our neighbors!
Mr. Joe, Mrs. Claire and Sammy really made our night.
Kade wouldn't let them leave without him giving them some candy!

Happy Halloween everybody!
Hope you all had as much fun as we did.

Not so sleepless in Seattle

Got to have my birthday date night yesterday!

Look at that smile on my face....can you tell that I was excited about my birthday date to Seattle?

Here is one of the reasons that I was so happy:

This is a hotel room.
This means a night with no babies.
Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my babies!!!
But, it has been a very long time since I've had a night in which I didn't have to get up with a baby during the night.
Thus the title of this post... "Not so Sleepless in Seattle".....I was looking forward to some sleep!

But first we had some fabulous dinner plans.

Here we are at Sky City Restaurant.
This is the revolving restaurant at the Space Needle.
Shhhh...don't tell Kade that we went to the space needle without him.

The food was AMAZING.
This was first:

Crab Bisque.
Oh. My. Goodness. Delicious!

Then:

Prime Rib
I was so excited about this yumminess that I forgot to take a picture until after I had already had some bites of this melt in your mouth steak.
Kyle and I agreed that it was the BEST prime rib to ever cross our lips.

And I had entertainment:

This gigantic carved pumpkin was on display for us to see outside the restaurant as we rotated around to it.


And Kyle provided some laughs as he checked out collection of shades at the Needle gift shop.

After our time at the Space Needle we headed back to our hotel.
We made our way to the lounge for dessert...

Carrot cake!


Chocolate cake and ice cream!


And now that we are Northwesterners, dessert couldn't be complete without some coffee.

After a great night of sleep with no babies needing attention we headed here:

Pike Place Market
For a late breakfast at an amazing French restaurant, Cafe Campagne

Kyle at this:

Omelet, potatoes, sausage, bread.

And I had this:

French toast!
Wow, was it good!!
Of course I would expect to have superb french toast at a french restaurant but this was even better than you can imagine.



We posed for a self-portrait before heading into the market to check things out.


We found out that these cabbages are a really big deal right now.

A big deal in flower arrangements. Look at these:

That purple stuff is cabbage!


The green, yellow and purple things...cabbage!
Who new cabbage could be so beautiful in a flower arrangement.
Yes, we brought a cabbage arrangement home with us.

Then we looked up and saw this:

What the crazy???

Oh yeah, it's Halloween and this guy...

Seattle's very own Ghost Buster!
Made us smile. Then we chuckled when we asked him if we could take his picture and was so eager to pose that he asked Kyle to hold his half eaten cookie so the pose would be just right.

From there we headed to Starbucks and saw this girl:

Yep, a pirate working at Starbucks!
Reminded us that we had to get back to our little pirate Kade and sock monkey Ryne so they could go trick or treating.

I had such a great time on my birthday get away! My sweet hubby really new what I needed.

Ten Months

See this adorable guy....

He was ten months old yesterday!
Yep, ten months. How in the world did that happen already?


Here Ryne is riding his zebra. He has his serious riding face on.
You can see that we have a big boy on our hands.
25 pounds!


Still just those two teeth on the bottom but we expect more any day.


He is the fastest crawler in the west. Loves to climb the stairs. Eats crackers like they are going out of style. Adores his big brother. Stands alone and we expect him to take off walking any day now.


Ryne keeps us very busy.
He loves to play with the dirt in the plants, likes to pull things off shelves, enjoys everything in the pantry that he shouldn't play with, unfolds laundry like a champ, chews on EVERYTHING that shouldn't be chewed upon (kade was not a chewer so this is new for us), catches every opportunity for an open bathroom door in hopes to find some water to play in.....get the picture? We stay busy!


Ryne brings us so much joy!
I cannot believe that he is already ten months old. We have so much fun with this little guy. He makes us smile and laugh every single day.
I am so blessed to get to be his Mommy!

Two Threes for Me!

Yesterday was my birthday!
I was thinking about how Kade said that Derek was "two and three" on his twenty third birthday this summer and decided to apply that to my birthday as well. I am "two three's"! And I couldn't be happier. I am so blessed. And I have had one very fabulous ongoing birthday celebration that started last Friday night.

We were having some friends over to play cards on Friday night and look what else showed up:

A birthday cake for me! Kyle was very sneaky and went out to get the cake and dropped it off at our friend Jeannette's house so that she would bring it over when she came on Friday night. So I guess I had a "surprise party" on Friday.


See what I mean about being blessed? With these three good-looking guys to spend my life with, how in the world could I not consider myself blessed?


And look at my fabulous friends who showed up to help me celebrate.
We had a great time and the cake was very YUMMY! Just ask Kade!

On Sunday night I got to see the beginning of my birthday. We were up pretty late doing some pumpkin carving. The reason we were up so late is because we didn't get started until late. The reason we didn't get started until late is because these guys:

Were cheering on the Yankees as they made their way to the World Series.


Of course they were watching from the pirate ship (all of our couches are now pirate ships).

So after the Yankees did their thing we got Kade to bed and the pumpkin carving began.

Getting started with the cleaning process at about 10 pm.


Kyle...carving like crazy!
(I did do some cleaning and carving, too. I just happened to take all the pictures so it looks like Kyle did all the work....it was a team project though)
And three hours later....

The finished product.
Okay, I know it is hard to make out what it is without it being lit.
So, here ya go:

Arrggg....
In keeping with the theme around our place we carved a pumpkin that we just knew Kade would love. Okay....I know, now you can't see the pumpkin. So here is another shot:

See it really is our pumpkin all lit up with a dandy little pirate carved out.
By this point it was 1 am and Kyle had the opportunity to wish me a Happy Birthday at midnight! What a fun way to start my Birthday.

We didn't wake Kade up to see the finished product...we chose to wait until morning to let him see it.


And he was quite pleased.
His first look was one of disbelief, as though he really couldn't believe there was a pirate carved into one of his pumpkins. WoW!

Kyle let Kade help him take the pumpkin to the front steps for display:

And now our pirate keeps watch at our front door for us.

What else did I do on my birthday?

Well, I didn't quite take the day off so I still had laundry to do, dishes to do, dirty diapers to change, floors to sweep and that kind of usual Mom stuff. But I did have a fun day with some extra surprises along the way.

Kyle told me when he left yesterday morning that he would be back around 11 o'clock to pick up Kade because they had plans. I said Okay and Kyle headed out. Then I asked Kade what kind of plans he and his Daddy had at 11 o'clock. To which he responded, "Oh, we are going to the store. To pick up a gift for your birthday." Kade doesn't really know what a secret is. I prodded further, "oh, what are you getting me for my birthday?"
"I'm going to get you a skateboard."
I didn't ask any more questions. Started trying to picture myself on a skateboard. Yikes!

Kyle did come and pick up Kade at 11 o'clock and they were home by lunch time. I really wondered if there was a skateboard out in the car for me.

After lunch time and nap time the boys and I played some football:




Then when Kyle got finished up with his work for the day it was celebration time....
Kade came down the stairs carrying a gift bag and singing "Happy Birthday"

You've got to watch these videos they are the BEST "happy birthday" singing ever. I didn't get my camera going until the end the first time and when I realized that I was barely getting Ryne in the shot I asked them to do a "take two" for me and they did. They are both so funny. I promise they will make you smile. Be sure to notice Kade's singing face in the first video and Ryne clapping and dancing at the bottom of the second one.



And here is what I got:

A "skateboard" helmet that I can wear while I ride my bicycle.
I think that getting me a "skateboard" helmet was the only way that Kyle was able to appease Kade's decision to get me a skateboard for my birthday. Don't you just love it?


Ryne loved the "skateboard" helmet....in fact he played with it the rest of the afternoon and cried when we had to take it away from him.


I also got a fabulous purple columbia sweater and a note from my sweet hubby telling me that we had a baby sitter for Friday and Saturday so that we could spend the weekend in Seattle. Not sure what all that will include but I do know that we have dinner reservations at the Space Needle. (I don't think I'm going to tell Kade about that because he might not want to stay behind). I am so excited about our weekend getaway! Looks like I will be celebrating my birthday for an entire week....remember we started with a surprise cake last Friday night.

After gift time it was dinner time.
Look at this fabulous birthday dinner:

Mmmmm, my favorite. Steak, baked potato and a roll.
Yes, you also see some grilled onions next to the roll....not so much my favorite but Kyle and Kade really like them so I always have a taste. Then the green stuff with cheese on top is something new we tried.
Check this out:

This is something that we saw at the market in Seattle when we first moved here and it intrigued us. It is some type of broccoli/cauliflower hybrid that we had not encountered in Arkansas. It is called Romanesco broccoli and I couldn't resist picking one up on my trip to the market Saturday. I have to admit it was quite Yummy! I think we will try it again soon.

After dinner we watched our boys ride their Diego car until bedtime.
Just look at these little guys...


I am so blessed. I had a fabulous birthday!
And in all of that I didn't even mention the phone calls from family and friends, the cards and gifts that I got in the mail, and of course the countless Facebook Birthday wishes.
I like being two three's!

I Just Realized....

I was just thinking after I posted my last update that I remember we went to the pumpkin patch last year right after we moved here and had a great time with Kade. I was wondering if I had blogged about it so I went to my blog archives and checked out October 2008.
Guess what?
My very first post on "Life with the Lewallens" was pictures from the pumpkin patch.
So I guess the last post was kind of an anniversary of sorts and I just realized it.
So check out how things have changed in a year:

2008


2009


2008




2009

Date, Party, Pumpkins and Football

In an effort to stay less than a week behind on my blog update I am going to throw out a lot of pictures and just a few words. The pictures are what the grandparents are really wanting anyway, right?
So here goes...life with the Lewallens for the past week in pictures:


We had a DATE NIGHT!!! Can you tell how happy we were to have one of those?
Planned on seeing a movie after dinner but when we got to the theater we realized there wasn't really anything that we wanted to waste the time and money on so we headed to look for dessert.
We found it at a very yummy place in downtown Olympia called Cascadia. They make all of there desserts in house and we can't wait to go back sometime.

Kyle's cheesecake

My peanut butter kiss shake

We got our boys all ready for some trick or treating:

Sock Monkey Ryne

Pirate Kade

We got to go to a birthday party for our friend Will:

Ryne wants to share Will's juice box. All that guitar playing made him thirsty I'm sure.


Kade and Will play Cowboys


Cake time!
I'm not sure if Kade likes the cake or the singing most.

Then Will's mom took us all to a place called Charlie's Safari. It is a huge play area for kids.
Will's Dad is out of the country for work right now and so Michelle asked Kyle if he could come be the Daddy to go into the jungle gym with the big boys while we kept up with the babies.
Oh my...what a jungle gym!
We had no idea how big it was going to be. There were crazy slides, lots of climbing, mazes, ropes, trees, and things I'm sure I didn't even get to see.
Kade had a really fun time after we got there and he realized that there wasn't "a big rhinoceros that might get him on the safari".
Here are a few pictures from Charlie's Safari:

Kade leaping off of one of the slides.


A slide for all of the boys!


Ryne even had a place to play.


Kade had to take a break from the jungle gym to build a house.


The birthday boy!


Carson (Will's little brother) had a great time, too.

And here is my favorite picture of the day:

Kyle was completely exhausted after a couple of hours at Charlie's. He let me take a turn in the jungle gym with the boys and while it was LOTS of fun....boy was it a work out!
Happy Birthday to Will!!!

And we finally made it to the pumpkin patch:

One of the reasons that I really wanted to go was to take pictures of the boys.
As you can see, they weren't much for posing and looking at the camera.
So, here's hoping you enjoy all the action shots I took:










We did manage to get one family shot. A friend of the girl taking the picture for us offered Kade a dollar to look at the camera. Yep, she paid up!



Kyle really likes this picture because he says he looks like he just laid a pumpkin. Ha Ha!




And they had a petting farm:

Pigs


Calf


And somebody spotted the ponies at the end of the barn!


Ponies


Ryne liked the ponies too until this one took a little nibble of his fingers. Poor Ryne, I hope he isn't afraid of ponies for the rest of his life.


Goats
(sorry you can't see their heads)


Chickens
I think these guys were Kade's favorite because he kept wanting to chase them and try to catch them.


Kade loved washing his hands in the "big bath tub"

And one last stop at the pumpkin patch to find out
"How Tall This Fall?"




Saturday morning I finally made it to the Farmer's Market in Olympia.
Been trying to go for months now and it just never did work out.
Look what I got:



Kade thought all the fresh fruits and veggies were really cool and wanted to eat them all right away. He settled for having his picture made with them.

Then on Saturday afternoon we went to a football game.
Last year right after we moved to Washington we connected with a friend from Oklahoma who is going to school at PLU just a few minutes away from us. His parents and grandmother came up for a game and were our very first out of town guests. So, we had a reunion!
The game was a bit different this year. I wasn't pregnant. Kade new how to stay in one place and cheer for the team. I don't know how many times I heard "go Lutes!"
We had a lot of fun. Here are some pics:

Janet, Campbell, Conner, and Ryne


Ryne really watched everything that was going on.


See how intense that look is


Kade stayed glued to the rails where he kept cheering on the lutes.
Well, all except for when the band was playing and then the band had his full attention as his danced his little jig to their music.


Ryne and Daddy in their sweaters....beautiful football weather!


Ryne finally tuckered out and fell asleep in my lap


Kade and Conner needed a break from the stands and so they went to play a little football game of their own.


Go LUTES!


Congratulating Blake and Jacob on a victory!

Yep, we've been pretty busy!
That's life with the Lewallens!

Play it Ryne!

This was a couple of months ago when Ryne first took interest in Kade's "piano". I just now realized that I forgot to post it like I had promised. Batteries in the piano are currently dead...it is a pretty popular "toy" at our house. Will get new batteries and try to get a new video of this guy and his piano skills. Better yet, I'll try to get a Lewallen brothers duet video. They are too cute when they play the piano together. Hope you enjoy!

Just trying to Catch Up....

See these cute guys..

Want to know what they've been busy doing that I haven't had a chance to tell you about?
Well, I'm going to tell you whether you want to know or not.

They greeted their Daddy at the airport after he was gone to Romania and Moldova for ten days on a medical mission trip.

I had never seen these boys so happy.

Yep...that's Woody you see in the background. He made the trip too. We were glad to have him around for a while. Now he is gone back east and we miss him.

Daddy brought back gifts.
Here are a couple:

Soccer ball...minus the air for better transport.


"Magic" flute.

What else have they been doing?

Making trips to Wendy's:



Bike Rides:


Elmo Rides:


Being happy:

toys make Ryne happy


"Daddy cookies" aka Oreos make Kade happy

They've been learning to play together:

Did you know that plastic red cups make fabulous toys? Noisy but lots of fun.

New seating arrangements at the grocery store:

Yes, Kade got booted to the back so that Ryne could take the front seat. Ryne outgrew the carrier and we had to do what we had to do.

Another thing we had to do was say goodbye to our friend Hana.
Hana joined our Bible study shortly after we moved to DuPont. She was here as an exchange student at a local college. We fell in love with Hana very quickly. Kade was especially fond of her and called Hana his "best friend". Always looked forward to seeing her at Wednesday night Bible study. When we found out that it was time for Hana to go back to Korea we were very sad. We took her out for a goodbye dinner the night before she left and had a really good time. We still keep in touch with Hana and we miss her a bunch. Here are some pictures from our farewell night:




Can you tell how much Kade likes her? And of course Stephanie joined us because Stephanie was our connection with Hana...they were friends from college. Thanks Stephanie for bringing Hana into our world!

And we've been doing some coon watching:

Or maybe the coons have been watching us!
This raccoon here was at our back door and it didn't come alone.

Friends!

Three raccoons...you are seeing correctly...it is daylight and there are three raccoons hanging out in our backyard while we are all at the back door watching them watch us.

See Ryne trying to make friends!

We tried to scare them away but these guys don't scare easily.
But eventually they did take off...

And away they went up and over the fence.

See ya next time fellas!
These raccoons are pretty neat but when you consider the fact that they are in our yard in the daytime and apparently not afraid of us at all then we must consider them a "problem". Remember we have two little guys who like to play in the backyard and they might think these raccoons are pets. Guess we won't let the boys play alone in the backyard for a while.

So, you see we really have had a lot going on and this isn't even everything that I want to share with you. I still have some great pictures from our first family camping trip to Mt. Rainier. I'll try to make that my next post.

Hope you enjoyed seeing what the Lewallen boys have been up to.

The Rest of Our Trip South

When I left you last we were in Arkansas enjoying some time with my family. We had a great time. We did almost get hit by a tornado on Friday morning and were out of power ALL day. Lots of huge trees down but no one was hurt. We still managed to have a great time.

On Saturday morning we headed to Arkadelphia, AR to Ouachita Baptist University for Homecoming at my Alma Mater. It was my ten year reunion and I was excited to be taking these guys with me:

They look ready for an adventure, don't they?


Monk Monk went with us and it was nice to have her to help out with our boys. They love her. Can't you tell by looking at Kade here?

The first stop was at the Tri Chi drop in.

Kade found TC and had to have his picture taken with him.


Me and my sweet hubby enjoying the day.


And look, we found Randa Roo!!!! One of the founding members of Tri Chi...but better yet, one of our most sweetest friends!


Ryne went with Monk Monk to listen to the band and he had a really big time.

Then it was time to head to the class reunion dinner. That's when things got just a little bit sad. There were quite a few tables set up for our class but they were almost empty. I say almost because I did at least find these fabulous ladies:

Krystin and Stacey showed up. So good to see these girls!
We had to laugh because we were able to take our own reunion picture.
Kyle was so kind to point out that at least I knew the names of those girls. They could have been people I didn't even know while in school and that would have been sad.

Then we had another class member show up and request to be in the class picture.

We had to tell Chris that we'd be happy to take a picture with him but he didn't really count since he works there now and was getting paid to be there.
Before the dinner was over there were a couple more class mates who showed up to say hello but all in all the turn out was a bit disappointing being that we had traveled 3000 miles and all.

On the way to the bookstore we ran into these guys:

They were too cool to show up for the dinner but were heading to the football game. Just like the Nate, Ben, and Joey I've always known. Glad I ran into them because we skipped the football game in order to keep Ryne and Kade from being in the wind too much.

After we left OBU we got to go see Monk's new place in North Little Rock.
It was really nice. Wish we could visit her there more often.

I had to take a picture as proof that I'd been there.

Then we were off to Spiro, OK to hang out with the other side of our family for a couple of days.
As soon as we got there Granna had prizes to pass out for Halloween.

Pirate gear....right up Kade's alley.


Ryne was enjoying the balls.


Taylor was cracking me up in her fake purple hair.


Brandon was fond of his pirate gear, too. Kade just wanted to get busy playing pirates.

Look at sweet Taylor's bib:

Isn't she precious?!


Ryne let Daddy borrow his fireman hat and I thought he looked pretty cool.


Kade and Ryne quickly found Granna and Paw's stash of toys. The barn is always a big hit.

After church on Sunday we went out to dinner with a bunch of friends and had a great time.

Here's Kade hanging out with our sweet friend Jo Alice.
She took him for cookies so of course, she was his favorite!


Ryne didn't last long....he crashed out on us while munching on some crackers.
Look how out he was:

Didn't even know he was left sleeping at the table all alone.
He was resting up for the afternoon activities. A big birthday party!

Taylor's first Birthday was last month and Brandon's fifth birthday will be next month. So we had a party while we were there to celebrate.

Notice the little Razorback cake on the left....they were so sweet to include me in the birthday festivities!


Ryne found Taylor's toys that he liked.

Brandon opened some presents.



Kade wasn't worried about anything happening because he found Aunt Kim's piano to play.


Ryne thought he should read Brandon's card to him.


Uncle Kyle and Aunt T just wanted a picture with the first birthday girl!


Oh, look I got to open presents too!


Kade was just ready to sing and have cake now.


Granna and Paw with all of their kiddos!


Kade, what have you gotten into now?


A funny Ryne face that I had to share! I think he might have seen Kade in his previous get-up.
Or maybe he saw this:

Taylor was driving her Daddy's Power Wagon.
She was just showing the boys how to do it.


Ryne was getting the hang of it.


Kade wanted to be able to use the pedal's too.


And the gang's all in!


Yep, all in the power wagon that Uncle B has been restoring.
Isn't it cool?



Hey Aunt Kim, you think you could talk Uncle B into letting me drive that rig again?

On Monday night we had a special treat.

Maw Maw Frances and Aunt Bib came down from Fayetteville to see us.

And we roasted marshmallows and made s'mores.

Aunt Bib is the best...she help Kade roast his own marshmallows.


Which allowed this good looking marshmallow roaster to roast some marshmallows for me!


Yummy S'mores!!!!


It was so good to spend some time with Mom #2 and Billye. I so appreciate them coming to see us when we are in their neck of the woods.

We had a great time getting to be in Spiro but on Tuesday we had to pack up and get back to the airport in Little Rock. Made it back to Washington late on Tuesday night. What a whirlwind. I am so thankful that we were able to make a trip back to see our families. Oh, and Homecoming was fun even if I didn't get to see all the people I had hoped to see. Maybe the 20 year will be better. I'll try to make it back for that one!

It's Been a Year

This past Saturday, October 3rd, marked the one year anniversary of Kade and I boarding a plane with one way tickets to the great state of Washington. Kyle picked us up at the airport that night and took us to our new home in the fabulous city of DuPont. A city in which Kade nor I had ever been. A home in which we had never stepped a foot into before we purchased it. And the adventure began!!!

A year ago, God moved us to DuPont, Washington to start a brand new church. And God has blessed us tremendously. There are so many stories that I could tell about how God has provided that I probably couldn't even begin to remember them all while sitting at this computer right now. It has been a great year. Ryne was born! All of our family has been able to visit us at our new home! Life Church has started with three Life Groups and Monthly Sunday night services! In fact, this past Sunday we had our second service for Life Church and it was amazing. Kade has really grown up and keeps us laughing and scratching our heads at his crazy antics every day. We have made some incredible new friends and God has allowed us to keep up with our "old" friends as well. We have really missed our family but I am so grateful for technology....cell phones, computers, airplanes....we have been able to keep in touch quite well.

When I think about the past year I am rather bumfuzzled. So much has happened that it is hard for me to think that all of it has happened in one short year. Then again, October 3rd, 2008, seems like it was almost just yesterday. Anybody else ever had a year that felt like that?

I have to admit that it has been a year of adventure. God is amazing in all that He does for us and in all that He teaches us and in all that He allows us to be a part of. I am so thankful that He saw fit to use our family in DuPont, Washington and I pray that He receives ALL the glory for anything good that comes from our moving there.

I noticed when I logged in that my last post was on September 25th. Yikes, it is October 8th. And I had such high hopes for getting all caught up.

You see, Kyle was gone for ten days on a mission trip to Romania and Moldova. I didn't mention this in earlier posts because as I have shared before when he was gone, I don't really want to advertise to the world that the boys and I are home alone. Just makes me feel a bit more safe. Anyway, I really thought that while he was gone I would be able to get all caught up on blogging from our summer adventures. Well, who knew that taking care of two little guys all by myself was going to be so tiresome? Made me very grateful for all of the military moms or dads in my community who stay behind and take care of the kiddos while their spouse goes off to defend our country. Wow! They are amazing people. I am not cut out for that job!!! I realized just how much I depend on Daddy's help. It keeps me sane. But, the boys and I did well and we survived without too many mishaps. Nothing major went wrong. But we sure were glad to pick Kyle up at the airport last Monday. And then things got even crazier around our place. Tuesday was recover from the long trip day and get laundry done. Wednesday was prepare for and have Bible study at our house day. Thursday was ladies Bibles study, Life Church launch team meeting and company from West Virginia coming day. Friday was busy with Life Church planning, visiting Olympia with our friends day. Saturday was just a blur. Sunday was a beautiful day and Life Church's second service at the coffee shop downtown. It was great and we were exhausted. Monday was take our friends to Mt. Rainier day (pictures to come later of our adventures with our friends from West Virginia). Tuesday was board a plane day.

Yep, that's right, you read correctly, I wrote "board a plane day"! Ryne, Kade and I got on a plane Tuesday morning and headed to AR. Here's the proof:

Kade was a super traveler. He drew lots of pictures on his drawing pad and read lots of books and even enjoyed checking out the sky mall magazine. Ryne, on the other hand, was quite restless. Thankfully, though, he didn't disturb the rest of the plane....just me.

Here is Kade pulling his backpack through the airport in Little Rock.

When he spotted C.G. and Grandaddy he took off running with his backpack. That's why the picture is so blurry!

Ryne found Grandaddy

And when we made it to Junction City Monk Monk was there! Didn't take Kade long to convince her to play pirates with him.

Found the fire truck! And look who's big enough to ride along now!

Look at these boys! They were having a big time on the fire truck.

And then Ryne discovered the little red car and had to go for a drive!

Kade helped C.G. make cheese biscuits.

And then helped wash dishes.

Kyle will follow us to AR today. Saturday is Homecoming at OBU and my ten year college reunion. After that we will make a quick trip to Spiro to see the rest of our family before we have to head back to Washington.

One of these days I'm going to show you some pretty amazing pictures from the rest of our summer adventures. For now we're living it up in Arkansas!

Good Bye Summer....

It is officially fall but the days here in DuPont have been just fabulous! The rainy season has yet to set in and that's okay with me. Hopefully we can get a few more bike rides and picnics and trips to the park in before the rain comes. One of the things that we have enjoyed about the summer here are the flowers. So since summer is leaving us I thought I'd share the pictures that I've been collecting of our flowers from the summer. Yes, these are all from our house either planted in the ground or in pots of some kind. It has been fun. Soon we will be planting tulips to add to our next summer collection.
Enjoy:

















Okay Grandparents....I know that's not exactly what you were looking for so just for you....
Here they are:

This is the best I can do....

Too tired and delirious tonight to write about anything.
So here is some entertainment for ya:

Kade at our local Farmer's Market one afternoon....

Ryne is already figuring out how all of Kade's instruments work.
We've got another music lover on our hands....

Including this one just because it makes me smile. Hope you get a smile from it too!

How to Celebrate the First Day of Fall....

Welcome Fall!
91 Degrees in DuPont, Washington today.
Before you start thinking that it was miserable let me remind my southern readers that we are taking a Pacific Northwest 91 degrees.....totally different from 91 degrees that you guys know. And we don't reach the high until early in the evening anyway so that is nice.
It was a beautiful sun-shiny day! We know that the rain will be coming soon and setting in to stay for months and the sun shine with be very scarce in our part of the world, so we took advantage of this beautiful first day of fall and planned a trip to the park.
We went with our neighbor Michelle and her two boys Will and Carson.
I can't remember if I've told you anything about them or not but I do need to fill you in. David, Michelle and their two boys moved in a couple of months ago and we noticed off a the moving truck was unloading that there was a little bike and it looked like a little boy bike. And sure enough it was. We had them over for dinner and got to know them a bit. They are a military family who moved here from North Carolina and their boys and our boys hit it off from the get go. Especially Kade and Will! Will is 3 (4 next month) and Kade is 2 (3 in Jan.) and you would think they have known each other forever. They run and chase and tackle and scream and act ALL BOY like I cannot believe. The first night that we hung out William kept saying "this is the best fun ever!" I haven't gotten any pictures of them playing before today because it has always just happened as an unplanned thing when we happen to all be outside. And there is no leaving these boys to go get the camera. Carson who will be 1 this month and Ryne (8 months) mostly just sit in their strollers and watch the big boys play. Carson is the sweetest thing and so easy-going. Every now and then Ryne has too much stroller and has to get down and try to join the big boys.
So, all of that to introduce our planned outing today. It was a trip to the park to play and picnic.
Here are some pictures:

Check out the sequence of the first three as we set out.

Kade is leading but keeping an eye on Will to make sure that he's still back there.


Will is in the lead but keeping an eye on Kade to make sure that he's still back there.


Gee it is so much easier when we just walk right next to each other.


The baby boys had it made...they got to hang out in the strollers.


Then after about 20 minutes of walking (we didn't realize how long the trip to the park was going to be on the trail that we took) These guys were getting tuckered out. Kade just sat down and said, "I've gotta take a break, I'm too tired to keep going."

So, for the next 15 minutes or more....

This is how we traveled. Kade on my shoulders as I pushed Ryne. Wish you could see the number that he did on my hair while he was up there.

Then here are some picnic shots:

Kade having fruit treats.


Ryne and Carson getting some hang out time.


More of the little guys.


Okay I have to explain Kade's hat here. I kept trying to pull it up some and he kept putting it back down telling me that it was hiding the sun for him.


Slide time.


William.


Gansta Kade? No idea what's up with this hat.

Then we started home. Kade was going so slow and I know it is because he was exhausted so I let him ride here:


Ryne didn't mind....

He was snoozing underneath him.

Kade begged to get down and walk with Will.

Will begged for Kade to get down and walk with him.
I gave in.
Then....

We could not get these boys to keep moving. Look at them checking out this sign as if they really understood everything it says. *look closely and you can see Mt. Rainier in the background
So I had to hoist Kade back up to my shoulders to get the rest of the way home.

Kade and I were exhausted but Ryne had his nap on the walk home so Kade was the only one who got to rest. Ryne and I woke him up after a couple of hours because we had plans.
We wanted to celebrate the first day of fall and that included a trip to home depot to cash in our "buy one get one free mum coupon".
The only way I could get Kade out of bed was to tell him that he would get to drive the race car. Worked like a charm!


Ryne got his first try at driving the race car and LOVED it!

Kade even enjoyed sharing the driver's seat.

And here's what we got:


I was going for mums and Kade requested pumpkins to go with them and I couldn't resist.
WELCOME FALL!

Happy Birthday Daddy!!!

Happy 38th 23rd Birthday Daddy!!!
So sad that we can't be there to celebrate with you today. Thanks for letting us have a virtual party on Skype the other night and for letting us indulge in party hats and party horns. Kade was especially fond of the party horns. Speaking of Kade, I wish you could have heard him last night when we were praying and we prayed for you, he started right in practicing his "Happy Birthday to Grandaddy" song. It was VERY dramatic and melodic and funny and I really hope he sings it just like that to you on the phone today. I had to stop and listen and then try really hard not to chuckle out loud so that we would be able to finish praying when he was done.
I hope that you have a great day today even though you will probably be working hard. Know that I love you very much and I feel so blessed that you are my Daddy. You have been a great Daddy and I am so thankful that you have always loved me and believed in me and trusted me and that you were always willing to make sacrifices so that I could have and do the things that were important to me. I promise that your love has not gone unnoticed nor unappreciated. And now not only are you a great Daddy but you are one fantastic Grandaddy!!! Just ask Kade and Ryne. They know for sure that Grandaddy loves them, too!
I wish that I would have taken some pictures at our virtual Birthday party to put on here but for some reason that didn't occur to me. So instead, since we can't be there with you today, here are some pictures of us with you so that we can have our very own blog birthday party....minus the party hats and party horns of course.
Love you lots!

Big Hugs from Washington on your Birthday!

My Problem Is.....

Yes, I do have a problem. Well, I probably have more than just "a" problem but for now I'm only focusing on one of them and just going to pretend that it's really the only problem I have. So what is said problem? I DON'T KNOW WHERE TO START!!!! This summer was so crazy busy with all of our staycationing as our friends and family came to visit and all of our prepping for Life Church launching that I got WAY behind on blogging. I just looked through pictures and realized that there is so much that I want to share from the past few weeks but I just don't know where to start. I'm overwhelmed. And then my boys just keep doing stuff everyday that I think is "blog worthy" and that seems to just put me farther behind. Do you think it's okay for me to request that they be boring and dull for the next two weeks so that I can catch up on my blog? Probably not! I don't think they could do it even if they understood what I meant by boring and dull.
Ryne will probably be walking in the next few weeks and then we will have even more adventures. Kade says something every day that makes me laugh so hard I can barely stand it.
So since I don't think I can make myself stay up and blog all night long.....EVEN THOUGH RYNE NOW SLEEPS THROUGH THE NIGHT!!!!!.....I have a plan to take baby steps everyday until I feel like I have caught up.
For this blog I am going to make it plain why I feel like my boys never give me a chance to catch up. Because everyday I get things like this:


A little boy who thinks his rain boots are every day attire...especially when it's not raining. Seriously, we never go to the mailbox without wearing our rain boots!


Music lover #2. He is just like his big brother when it comes to music. He plays all of the guitars. Likes to bang on the drums. Dances with the best of 'em. And just wait until I post the video of him playing the keyboard.


More on our raccoon issue later!


Peek-a-boo!


What ever makes them do the things they do?


Guess I'm just glad it wasn't full of sweet tea!


Daddy's new bike.


There's a reason why the cardboard box has been inducted into the Toy Hall of Fame.


See? There's a reason.


How bout this hairdo?
Still trying to figure out how to work with the big cowlick in the front.


Yummy, a new snack. Yep, looks like Ryne likes snacks just as much as Kade.


Music lover #1 getting some guitar time with Jess after Life Church was over.


Hey big brother, mind if I sit in your lap and drink your milk?
Kade was so into "super why" that I don't think he even noticed that Ryne was in his lap or that he had his Spider Man cup of milk.


A new bike trailer for the boys! We love family bike rides.


Mr. Cool!


Mr. Silly!


I can't keep him on the grass these days...he wants to chase Kade all down the sidewalks and into the playground that is covered in mulch and then he wants to eat the mulch.


Never have seen a kid so excited to be riding in a fake car with a fake Elmo!


Ryne has daily visitation time with Squirt...they are really becoming big buds.


And now just look at these clowns of mine....don't they look like the type to keep a Momma busy? Well, they are very good at that and they keep me laughing and crying and wondering and praying, too. So, now you know why I just didn't know where to start....because all of these pictures don't really have much of a story to got with them they just portray life...which is what we stay busy doing.
Still to come:
A camping trip with the Harrisons
Kade dances at the Farmer's Market
The Raccoon Family Issue
Special Delivery from the Swan's Man
Ryne's Keyboard debut
Farewell to our friend Hana
The Flowers of Evans Court
Future OBU Tigers
And of course whatever else happens along the way as I try to get these posts done.
Thanks for being patient with me Family and Friends! Love you all!