It's true...I did get to take a break this week. Hired a sitter in order to have that break but it sure was nice. I'll have more to say about that later. First, let me tell you about what all we have been up to the past few days.
Tuesday was a big day for this guy:
Ryne not only likes to ride around on the cars now but he is also what I am calling a full-fledged walker. Tuesday was the day that he walked more than he crawled and he has done very little crawling since then. I love watching babies who are just beginning to walk. They are so cute the way they hold their arms to keep their balance and how deliberately they pick up their feet to take the next step. I'll have to post some video of "walking Ryne" soon.
On Tuesday afternoon we went for a family outing to Target and the Mall to finish up some Christmas shopping.
We are still in awe of the "family room" at the mall. It is a nice place to take a break and let the kiddos go free for a bit.
Kade and Ryne both enjoyed this stop. Kade also enjoys the fact that they have a potty and sink just his size....no stool needed!
We stopped in Hallmark so that I could look for something. Ryne and I strolled around while Kyle kept up with Kade. I turned the corner and this is what I found:
Kade was picking out books for Kyle to read to him. Who knew Hallmark could be such fun?
And of course we had to stop at the "mall playground" for another play break for the boys.
Ryne really enjoyed it. He is finally big enough to actually play on all the toys.
And Kade is big enough to climb up on top of all the toys....
And jump right off!
They were both very tired when we made it home that night. Hey, who am I too kid? I was very tired when we got home that night. But we did have a fun time doing some family Christmas shopping.
Here is another thing that we've had fun doing. Watching this grow:
Kyle brought this plant home for us several weeks ago and it had one blooming stalk on it that was beautiful. Then as those flowers began to wilt we noticed another stalk starting to grow and then a third stalk shooting up behind the second. We waited for about two weeks to see this flower bloom. Kade would check on it every day to see if we had flowers yet. Finally, we have flowers and are about to have more!
Watching these flowers grow and bloom has just been a sweet reminder to me of just how amazing our Creator is!
Wednesday was Bible study at our house day...which means house cleaning day.
No fun pictures of that for you, sorry.
Thursday was "Me Day". Every Thursday morning Kyle watches the boys while I go to my ladies Bible study at the coffee shop and that is always a nice break. But this week it just wasn't enough of a break for me. So, Thursday afternoon I hired a baby-sitter for a few hours and took off.
Just look at this:
This my friends, is a childless buggy!
I sight rarely seen in my world so I had to take a picture.
I know, we had just been shopping, but I didn't get finished. Had to get a few more stocking stuffers and craft supplies for LifeKids coming up on Sunday night. I was only gone for three hours but it was a sweet three hours. I listed to Christmas music in the car instead of noisy boys and whatever DVD Kade had picked out to watch. I didn't have to look for a parking place close to an empty buggy for loading up my children. Hey, I didn't even use a buggy in one store that I went into. I carried only a purse and not a huge diaper bag. It was so nice to have a break, y'all. I can't even tell you how much I enjoyed it...my measly three hours out. And I think I enjoyed it more because I wasn't worried about whether or not the boys were behaving for Kyle and if he was going to be calling to see when I was coming home to rescue him. I was paying someone to take care of them. She was getting paid to change diapers, get snacks, clean messes, read books, etc. Sure made me consider building in a section of our budget to pay for a babysitter three hours once a week next year.
So, to all my Mommy friends out there...I'm wishing you a three hour break of your own this holiday season....even if you have to pay for it....it's totally worth it!
And then came Friday...not a kid-free day....but a very fun day just the same.
Our neighbors took us all out for Korean food for lunch. We had such a fun time with them.
And it was a new adventure for us. Check out the food....
Tons of food and you cook it on a grill right smack dab in the middle of your table!
Mrs. Michelle came prepared for all four of our boys...
Carson and Kade had their own place mats and snacks and books to read and cars to drive.
Will and Kade had quite a stock of coloring books and crayons on their end of the table.
And check this out:
Will had his very own chop sticks...no help needed from you Daddy Dave.
And guess what....
They brought Kade his very own pair of chop sticks as well! He thought it was super cool and did a pretty good job with them. Too cute to watch a two-year old eat with chop sticks for the first time.
Great big thanks to Dave, Michelle, Will and Carson for taking us out to lunch. We had a great time and we are so glad to have such fun neighbors!
And the kids kept coming...bigger kids this time.
Friday night we had some other friends over for dinner. Brad, Anndria, AnnaLisa, Tori, and Vaughn came over for the evening. I did the good old standby easy dish of poppyseed chicken. And we all just hung out and had fun. The kiddos disappeared upstairs to play and when I went to check in on them this is what I found in Kade's room:
A rock concert! They were having a great time. And it was so nice to have kiddos that were old enough to let them go and play without having to be right with them. They are so good with Kade and Ryne and such good sweet kids.
Of course Ryne had to come downstairs to entertain us adults some.
Here he is with Anndi.
And with Kade's foam sword that he has learned to use. We got quite tickled watching him walk around and swing the sword while yelling out his best "aaarrrggg" just like his big brother.
Know what this means???? Ladies and Gentleman, it would appear that I now live with two little pirates! Oh dear, this is going to get even crazier...I can feel it coming.
After we got our little pirate boys to bed last night there was work to be done.
What kind of work?
The present wrapping kind of work.
After a couple of hours this is what we ended up with:
A tree all ready for Christmas morning.
And that is what we had here today...our very own Lewallen birthday party for Jesus!
We decided that since we would be out of town on Christmas day that we would just have our own Christmas morning before we left.
And today has been lots of fun!
I'll work on that post next.
Until then, can you guess what might be in any of those boxes?
Tuesday was a big day for this guy:
Ryne not only likes to ride around on the cars now but he is also what I am calling a full-fledged walker. Tuesday was the day that he walked more than he crawled and he has done very little crawling since then. I love watching babies who are just beginning to walk. They are so cute the way they hold their arms to keep their balance and how deliberately they pick up their feet to take the next step. I'll have to post some video of "walking Ryne" soon.
On Tuesday afternoon we went for a family outing to Target and the Mall to finish up some Christmas shopping.
We are still in awe of the "family room" at the mall. It is a nice place to take a break and let the kiddos go free for a bit.
Kade and Ryne both enjoyed this stop. Kade also enjoys the fact that they have a potty and sink just his size....no stool needed!
We stopped in Hallmark so that I could look for something. Ryne and I strolled around while Kyle kept up with Kade. I turned the corner and this is what I found:
Kade was picking out books for Kyle to read to him. Who knew Hallmark could be such fun?
And of course we had to stop at the "mall playground" for another play break for the boys.
Ryne really enjoyed it. He is finally big enough to actually play on all the toys.
And Kade is big enough to climb up on top of all the toys....
And jump right off!
They were both very tired when we made it home that night. Hey, who am I too kid? I was very tired when we got home that night. But we did have a fun time doing some family Christmas shopping.
Here is another thing that we've had fun doing. Watching this grow:
Kyle brought this plant home for us several weeks ago and it had one blooming stalk on it that was beautiful. Then as those flowers began to wilt we noticed another stalk starting to grow and then a third stalk shooting up behind the second. We waited for about two weeks to see this flower bloom. Kade would check on it every day to see if we had flowers yet. Finally, we have flowers and are about to have more!
Watching these flowers grow and bloom has just been a sweet reminder to me of just how amazing our Creator is!
Wednesday was Bible study at our house day...which means house cleaning day.
No fun pictures of that for you, sorry.
Thursday was "Me Day". Every Thursday morning Kyle watches the boys while I go to my ladies Bible study at the coffee shop and that is always a nice break. But this week it just wasn't enough of a break for me. So, Thursday afternoon I hired a baby-sitter for a few hours and took off.
Just look at this:
This my friends, is a childless buggy!
I sight rarely seen in my world so I had to take a picture.
I know, we had just been shopping, but I didn't get finished. Had to get a few more stocking stuffers and craft supplies for LifeKids coming up on Sunday night. I was only gone for three hours but it was a sweet three hours. I listed to Christmas music in the car instead of noisy boys and whatever DVD Kade had picked out to watch. I didn't have to look for a parking place close to an empty buggy for loading up my children. Hey, I didn't even use a buggy in one store that I went into. I carried only a purse and not a huge diaper bag. It was so nice to have a break, y'all. I can't even tell you how much I enjoyed it...my measly three hours out. And I think I enjoyed it more because I wasn't worried about whether or not the boys were behaving for Kyle and if he was going to be calling to see when I was coming home to rescue him. I was paying someone to take care of them. She was getting paid to change diapers, get snacks, clean messes, read books, etc. Sure made me consider building in a section of our budget to pay for a babysitter three hours once a week next year.
So, to all my Mommy friends out there...I'm wishing you a three hour break of your own this holiday season....even if you have to pay for it....it's totally worth it!
And then came Friday...not a kid-free day....but a very fun day just the same.
Our neighbors took us all out for Korean food for lunch. We had such a fun time with them.
And it was a new adventure for us. Check out the food....
Tons of food and you cook it on a grill right smack dab in the middle of your table!
Mrs. Michelle came prepared for all four of our boys...
Carson and Kade had their own place mats and snacks and books to read and cars to drive.
Will and Kade had quite a stock of coloring books and crayons on their end of the table.
And check this out:
Will had his very own chop sticks...no help needed from you Daddy Dave.
And guess what....
They brought Kade his very own pair of chop sticks as well! He thought it was super cool and did a pretty good job with them. Too cute to watch a two-year old eat with chop sticks for the first time.
Great big thanks to Dave, Michelle, Will and Carson for taking us out to lunch. We had a great time and we are so glad to have such fun neighbors!
And the kids kept coming...bigger kids this time.
Friday night we had some other friends over for dinner. Brad, Anndria, AnnaLisa, Tori, and Vaughn came over for the evening. I did the good old standby easy dish of poppyseed chicken. And we all just hung out and had fun. The kiddos disappeared upstairs to play and when I went to check in on them this is what I found in Kade's room:
A rock concert! They were having a great time. And it was so nice to have kiddos that were old enough to let them go and play without having to be right with them. They are so good with Kade and Ryne and such good sweet kids.
Of course Ryne had to come downstairs to entertain us adults some.
Here he is with Anndi.
And with Kade's foam sword that he has learned to use. We got quite tickled watching him walk around and swing the sword while yelling out his best "aaarrrggg" just like his big brother.
Know what this means???? Ladies and Gentleman, it would appear that I now live with two little pirates! Oh dear, this is going to get even crazier...I can feel it coming.
After we got our little pirate boys to bed last night there was work to be done.
What kind of work?
The present wrapping kind of work.
After a couple of hours this is what we ended up with:
A tree all ready for Christmas morning.
And that is what we had here today...our very own Lewallen birthday party for Jesus!
We decided that since we would be out of town on Christmas day that we would just have our own Christmas morning before we left.
And today has been lots of fun!
I'll work on that post next.
Until then, can you guess what might be in any of those boxes?
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