I looked at the calendar this morning and realized that today is November 20th. That means that it has been one month since I flew home from New York City. Guess what my last blog post was about. Yep, my super fabulous trip to NYC. I didn't intentionally set out to take a month off from blogging but it happened. As usual, we have been busy doing life here in Washington. I decided to take a short break from the blog world so that I could focus on a few other things. I haven't read my friends blogs or posted anything on ours in a month. I've missed it. I also realized that I wasn't taking near as many pictures of our life because in the back of my mind I knew this day would come. The "catch up" blog post.
So let's just get right to business and do a bit of catching up.
Just what have we Lewallens been up to the past month?
Well, Kade does lots of this...
He is really becoming quite the artist!
Check out this creative work...
Not sure what this was supposed to be but I thought it was cool.
Ryne has been doing lots of this....
Making us laugh!
I had a birthday.
Which really just means I got assigned a new number and had an excuse to celebrate with my boys. And that is what we did. They took me to dinner at Red Lobster for all-you-can-eat shrimp. Yummy!
On the way out the boys got to touch one of their live lobsters. You can tell that Kade was way more into than Ryne was.
Now you aren't going to believe this but I actually had 3, yes that is the number 3, birthday cakes. Here is the first one....
On our way home from dinner Kyle stopped at Farelli's and got a slice of my favorite "Big Fat Chocolate Cake" to take home and enjoy after the boys went to bed. It was quite scrumptious.
Those smiles are in the midst of eating that yummy cake.
The next day was my actual birthday so we celebrated some more...
Here are my sweet boys handing me birthday cards.
Guess what card the boys picked out for me.
Tinkerbell!!
And it sparkled and played music when I opened it.
It was perfect!
Birthday cake #2!
Another super duper yummy chocolate cake!!
Just ask Ryne...it was super duper yummy!
Now check out birthday cake #3...
Pumpkin cheesecake that my friend Kristy made for me.
Now who could have a better birthday than me?
Seriously, who gets to have 3 birthday cakes?!
We celebrated, ate cake and, just as with every other birthday, carried on with life.
I'm just so grateful for another year of the amazing life that God has blessed me with.
So what fun thing would we be doing next?
Attending a PLU ladies soccer game!
We know quite a few of the soccer players because they come to our college Life Group. We had been wanting to go watch them play all season and finally worked it out to be there.
Keeping Ryne off the field was not easy and we eventually had to strap him into the stroller and entertain him with the ipod. It was hilarious because he was totally glued to the ipod and every once in a while he would yell out "go Lutes!" without even looking up.
Kade, on the other hand, really seemed to enjoy the game. He watched and cheered and when he did get a little bored he just played around this tree and had a fun time.
This is Kyle and Jordan after the game.
The next big thing to happen in our world was Halloween.
Not that we are super crazy about Halloween but we are super crazy about parties and hanging out with our friends. So we did as much of that as we could.
Me and my eighties self with the ever handsome "iron chef" took our little musketeer and peter pan and headed to a party with our friends Brian, Alesha and Jacob.
Kade and Jacob quickly found out that costumes with swords are great fun!
Peter Pan was having an identity crisis and thought he might just would rather be iron man.
And just look at this cute family...
Grant, Mary-Hayden and Isabella made the cutest little pirate family I've ever seen.
The next day I had a jewelry party at the house...no pics....but since it was a party I had to mention it. When that party was over we headed out to our friend Maria's surprise birthday party! We met lots of new people and got to hang out with some of our favorite people, too.
Derek and Alissa!
And that oh so cute pirate family showed up there, too!
Maria and her hubby Jeremy sing a little karaoke!
Kyle and I even took a turn with the mics.
Another fun party with my "iron chef."
All that fun and Halloween was still to come.
On Halloween day we did this...
Put together the gingerbread spook-house that Granna and Paw gave us.
It was quite the sticky adventure.
But the end result was still a lot of fun.
That afternoon we had a Fall Fest at church.
Check out Mr. Cool!
Ryne spent probably an entire hour trying to climb up the back side of the slide in the inflatable obstacle course. He was so determined. Eventually a sweet little guy helped him get to the top and he was so happy to slide down.
You won't believe who Kade found to play with...
Tinkerbell, of course!
They were stuck together like glue all afternoon. Our little friend Aubry sure did make one cute Tinkerbell!
Trick or Treating time was upon us.
After trying out a couple of costume options...
We ended up with the cutest ever...
Musketeer
and
Peter Pan
And we were off to visit the neighbors to see what kind of treats they had.
It was a super fun night!
And the boys were really excited to have a stash of candy to snack on.
We got to spend a couple of afternoons with Kayla and Connor while their parents were at a conference. We would pick them up from school and hang out with them for a while. I've told you before that Kade and Ryne just think the world of Kayla and Connor so they were super excited about this arrangement.
Ryne wanted to do homework with Connor.
And Kade talked Kayla into watching a movie with him.
The next weekend Greg and Karla repaid us by keeping our boys so that Kyle and I could go with a crew to Vancouver, B.C. for a Passion One Day conference.
We stopped on the way at the one Chic-fil-a in the state!
There were a lot of happy southerns at lunch that day.
When we got to Vancouver we had a bit of time to kill so we just walked around town a bit.
Posed with the famous gas powered clock in Gastown.
Had some yummy coffee with a fabulous presentation.
Alissa and I sported our "happy" raincoats.
Mollie, who recently moved here from West Virginia, enjoyed the trip to Canada. And I totally enjoyed getting to hang out with her. She is gold! Moved here to help with the new church plant just south of us in Tumwater and we've gotten to spend quite a bit of time with her.
Look familiar?
Think Winter Olympics 2010.
Posed with this cool Orca Whale statue.
Saw a beautiful rainbow.
And then headed to the main event!
Great message from Louie Giglio.
Awesome worship with Chris Tomlin, Matt Redmen and...
David Crowder.
Tens of thousands of people there. Mostly college age and it was fabulous. So, so, so glad that we got to go. And super glad that the Thompsons let our boys stay the night with them because we got home at 3am that morning.
Just in time to catch a quick nap and get ready for the next party.
This was a Baby Shower party.
For Baby Levi!
And his sweet Mommy Laura!
We had tons of fun! Can't wait to meet Levi sometime next month
This is a picture of Laura with the shower hostesses.
Kristy, Alissa, Laura, me and Amanda.
I had to include it because I laugh at just how short I am!
I'm so thankful that tall people aren't opposed to being friends with us shorties!
That is the last of the party pictures. But it wasn't the last of the parties. The very next Saturday I had a purse/organizing tote party at the house. It is cool stuff that Alissa sells and we ladies got to do a bit of Christmas shopping. That made three Saturdays in a row that we had "girl" parties at our house and Kyle watched the boys during party time. I promised him that would be the last of the "girl" parties at our house for a while.
Then look at what we saw out our front door...
The sign of a promise!
Of course, God's promise is a way bigger deal than mine.
Oh, but the parties still weren't over. This past week was Life Group party week.
Monday night my ladies Life Group went out to dinner. Tuesday night the boys and I joined Kyle for his college Life Group party that was a bonfire and cookout. To wrap it up we had our Thursday night Life Group party at the house and ate Frito Chili Pies and had some Wii tournaments going on. Such a fun week! So much fun we just couldn't stop. So tonight we had our Life Church staff and families over for burgers. Whew! I might just be partied out!! If that is even possible. I better recoop quickly though. At least 19 people are showing up here on Thursday for a Thanksgiving extravaganza!!!
Before I go I'll leave you with a few pictures that we took last week in preparation for Christmas cards. It was our first attempt at doing our very own "studio" photos. Not too bad for a first try...what do ya think?
Now to get pics ordered and Christmas cards started!
Looking forward to this Thanksgiving week because I have SO much to be thankful for!
I pray that you all have a very blessed Thanksgiving!!
So let's just get right to business and do a bit of catching up.
Just what have we Lewallens been up to the past month?
Well, Kade does lots of this...
He is really becoming quite the artist!
Check out this creative work...
Not sure what this was supposed to be but I thought it was cool.
Ryne has been doing lots of this....
Making us laugh!
I had a birthday.
Which really just means I got assigned a new number and had an excuse to celebrate with my boys. And that is what we did. They took me to dinner at Red Lobster for all-you-can-eat shrimp. Yummy!
On the way out the boys got to touch one of their live lobsters. You can tell that Kade was way more into than Ryne was.
Now you aren't going to believe this but I actually had 3, yes that is the number 3, birthday cakes. Here is the first one....
On our way home from dinner Kyle stopped at Farelli's and got a slice of my favorite "Big Fat Chocolate Cake" to take home and enjoy after the boys went to bed. It was quite scrumptious.
Those smiles are in the midst of eating that yummy cake.
The next day was my actual birthday so we celebrated some more...
Here are my sweet boys handing me birthday cards.
Guess what card the boys picked out for me.
Tinkerbell!!
And it sparkled and played music when I opened it.
It was perfect!
Birthday cake #2!
Another super duper yummy chocolate cake!!
Just ask Ryne...it was super duper yummy!
Now check out birthday cake #3...
Pumpkin cheesecake that my friend Kristy made for me.
Now who could have a better birthday than me?
Seriously, who gets to have 3 birthday cakes?!
We celebrated, ate cake and, just as with every other birthday, carried on with life.
I'm just so grateful for another year of the amazing life that God has blessed me with.
So what fun thing would we be doing next?
Attending a PLU ladies soccer game!
We know quite a few of the soccer players because they come to our college Life Group. We had been wanting to go watch them play all season and finally worked it out to be there.
Keeping Ryne off the field was not easy and we eventually had to strap him into the stroller and entertain him with the ipod. It was hilarious because he was totally glued to the ipod and every once in a while he would yell out "go Lutes!" without even looking up.
Kade, on the other hand, really seemed to enjoy the game. He watched and cheered and when he did get a little bored he just played around this tree and had a fun time.
This is Kyle and Jordan after the game.
The next big thing to happen in our world was Halloween.
Not that we are super crazy about Halloween but we are super crazy about parties and hanging out with our friends. So we did as much of that as we could.
Me and my eighties self with the ever handsome "iron chef" took our little musketeer and peter pan and headed to a party with our friends Brian, Alesha and Jacob.
Kade and Jacob quickly found out that costumes with swords are great fun!
Peter Pan was having an identity crisis and thought he might just would rather be iron man.
And just look at this cute family...
Grant, Mary-Hayden and Isabella made the cutest little pirate family I've ever seen.
The next day I had a jewelry party at the house...no pics....but since it was a party I had to mention it. When that party was over we headed out to our friend Maria's surprise birthday party! We met lots of new people and got to hang out with some of our favorite people, too.
Derek and Alissa!
And that oh so cute pirate family showed up there, too!
Maria and her hubby Jeremy sing a little karaoke!
Kyle and I even took a turn with the mics.
Another fun party with my "iron chef."
All that fun and Halloween was still to come.
On Halloween day we did this...
Put together the gingerbread spook-house that Granna and Paw gave us.
It was quite the sticky adventure.
But the end result was still a lot of fun.
That afternoon we had a Fall Fest at church.
Check out Mr. Cool!
Ryne spent probably an entire hour trying to climb up the back side of the slide in the inflatable obstacle course. He was so determined. Eventually a sweet little guy helped him get to the top and he was so happy to slide down.
You won't believe who Kade found to play with...
Tinkerbell, of course!
They were stuck together like glue all afternoon. Our little friend Aubry sure did make one cute Tinkerbell!
Trick or Treating time was upon us.
After trying out a couple of costume options...
We ended up with the cutest ever...
Musketeer
and
Peter Pan
And we were off to visit the neighbors to see what kind of treats they had.
It was a super fun night!
And the boys were really excited to have a stash of candy to snack on.
We got to spend a couple of afternoons with Kayla and Connor while their parents were at a conference. We would pick them up from school and hang out with them for a while. I've told you before that Kade and Ryne just think the world of Kayla and Connor so they were super excited about this arrangement.
Ryne wanted to do homework with Connor.
And Kade talked Kayla into watching a movie with him.
The next weekend Greg and Karla repaid us by keeping our boys so that Kyle and I could go with a crew to Vancouver, B.C. for a Passion One Day conference.
We stopped on the way at the one Chic-fil-a in the state!
There were a lot of happy southerns at lunch that day.
When we got to Vancouver we had a bit of time to kill so we just walked around town a bit.
Posed with the famous gas powered clock in Gastown.
Had some yummy coffee with a fabulous presentation.
Alissa and I sported our "happy" raincoats.
Mollie, who recently moved here from West Virginia, enjoyed the trip to Canada. And I totally enjoyed getting to hang out with her. She is gold! Moved here to help with the new church plant just south of us in Tumwater and we've gotten to spend quite a bit of time with her.
Look familiar?
Think Winter Olympics 2010.
Posed with this cool Orca Whale statue.
Saw a beautiful rainbow.
And then headed to the main event!
Great message from Louie Giglio.
Awesome worship with Chris Tomlin, Matt Redmen and...
David Crowder.
Tens of thousands of people there. Mostly college age and it was fabulous. So, so, so glad that we got to go. And super glad that the Thompsons let our boys stay the night with them because we got home at 3am that morning.
Just in time to catch a quick nap and get ready for the next party.
This was a Baby Shower party.
For Baby Levi!
And his sweet Mommy Laura!
We had tons of fun! Can't wait to meet Levi sometime next month
This is a picture of Laura with the shower hostesses.
Kristy, Alissa, Laura, me and Amanda.
I had to include it because I laugh at just how short I am!
I'm so thankful that tall people aren't opposed to being friends with us shorties!
That is the last of the party pictures. But it wasn't the last of the parties. The very next Saturday I had a purse/organizing tote party at the house. It is cool stuff that Alissa sells and we ladies got to do a bit of Christmas shopping. That made three Saturdays in a row that we had "girl" parties at our house and Kyle watched the boys during party time. I promised him that would be the last of the "girl" parties at our house for a while.
Then look at what we saw out our front door...
The sign of a promise!
Of course, God's promise is a way bigger deal than mine.
Oh, but the parties still weren't over. This past week was Life Group party week.
Monday night my ladies Life Group went out to dinner. Tuesday night the boys and I joined Kyle for his college Life Group party that was a bonfire and cookout. To wrap it up we had our Thursday night Life Group party at the house and ate Frito Chili Pies and had some Wii tournaments going on. Such a fun week! So much fun we just couldn't stop. So tonight we had our Life Church staff and families over for burgers. Whew! I might just be partied out!! If that is even possible. I better recoop quickly though. At least 19 people are showing up here on Thursday for a Thanksgiving extravaganza!!!
Before I go I'll leave you with a few pictures that we took last week in preparation for Christmas cards. It was our first attempt at doing our very own "studio" photos. Not too bad for a first try...what do ya think?
Now to get pics ordered and Christmas cards started!
Looking forward to this Thanksgiving week because I have SO much to be thankful for!
I pray that you all have a very blessed Thanksgiving!!
1 comment:
oh man! that was the most pictures i think i've seen in a post! way to go! :) you are SO BEAUTIFUL! somehow i missed your birthday...sorry about that! So glad you got to celebrate multiple times. Those boys are so beautiful, too. What a good looking family! Glad you have had such a wonderful month. :) Love to you!
Post a Comment