Friday, December 30, 2011

We have a Three Year Old!

I interrupt the Christmas post extravaganza to bring you one very important Birthday post.

Ryne William Lewallen is three years old today!!!
 What a fun three years it has been with this little fella of ours.
Okay, so that fun has not come without its fair share of challenges....a fussy newborn, terrible twos, refusal to potty train....but the fun has certainly outweighed the not-so-fun times.  This boy makes us laugh every single day.
 He likes to make up his own words.  My favorite Ryne word lately is "slirmy."  When trying to put him down for a nap recently he told me that he couldn't go to sleep in his room because his bed was too slirmy.  When I asked him what slirmy meant he said, "not very good at all."  Slirmy is now a term in our family's vocabulary thanks to Ryne.  
He comes up with silly stuff all the time.  Just the other day he said to me, "Mom, I love you.  You're nice.  I'm going to call you Bobby because you're nice."  Or how about these as shared by his daddy....
Ryno funnies #1 10.6.11 - Kade (4) hops in the van and says, "I like birds. My favorite bird is a Robin. Ryne, what's your favorite bird?" Ryno (2) responds, "I like Apple Juice." Kade clarifies, " I'm talking about birds." Ryne quickly quips, "I know. I like Apple Juice."
Ryno funnies #2 10.6.11- Alissa says to Ryno, "See you later." Ryno (2) retorts, "I'm not later. I'm Ryne." 
Nothing is a good idea unless it is his idea.  For instance I can pick out a shirt for him to wear and he will refuse to wear it because he claims he doesn't like it.  Two minutes later he will bring me the same exact shirt and say, "how bout this shirt?  I really like this one."  Then put it on happily because it was his idea. Almost on a daily basis something like this happens.  It might be just a lunch selection that goes something like this..."Hey, Ryne how bout a peanut butter sandwich?" I ask.  "No! I don't want a peanut butter sandwich," he replies.  To which I respond, "Well, what do you want for lunch?"  "Ummmmmm, let me think...Oh, how bout a peanut butter sandwich?  I like peanut butter sandwiches," he says.  Of course he does, once it is his idea! 
He really has a super quick whit about him.  He responds to questions will silly answers without taking time to think about it.  And then he doesn't even act like what he said was silly, which makes us laugh even more.  Need an example?  Okay, so lately Ryne has been making up his own language sometimes when he talks to the babies.  It doesn't sound like a bunch of babel but like a real language that we just don't understand.  After he tried out some of this language on Tyce the other day while C.G. and Monk Monk were here the other day, they asked him, "Ryne, was that French or German?"  Without missing a beat he responded, "Oh, that was French."  Does he even know that French and German are languages?  I don't know but he sure acted like he knew exactly what he was talking about.
  I feel like there are lots more laughs to come in our world because of his silliness. 
 Ryne is quite the artist.  He really, really, really likes to paint.  He gets super excited when I bust out the paints for craft time at home.  And I cannot count the number of days that he has come home from preschool sporting a little extra paint from his creative time at school.  I think he just might be a bit artsy...not in the "everything has to be in a perfect spot" kind of way...but in the very abstract and creative kind of way.
 Most of the time Ryne is in his own little world and we just watch him and wonder what is going on in his mind.  We've given up trying to figure it out and just enjoy watching and wondering.
 Ryne loves cheese of any kind, and will eat chicken nuggets, french fries, cheeseburgers, noodles, crackers, popcorn, pancakes, cereal, waffles, bacon, ice cream, anything chocolate, and get this baby food veggies.  And will drink apple juice ALL day long if we let him.  Yep, he's a pretty picky eater which is new to us because big brother Kade has always been willing to eat anything.  I think our saving grace is that he does like baby food veggies so I don't feel like he is a complete carbohydrate junk food junky.  Looking forward to the day when he decides other foods are good, too.

 Ryne weighs 34 lbs.  Dad says it is a pretty tough 34 lbs when it comes time to wrestle.
 Besides wrestling, Ryne enjoys playing with Kade...as long as they do the things that are Ryne's idea of course. He is a big fan of Angry Birds, super heroes of all kinds, pirates, Curious George, Cars, all things Toy Story, playing outside when it's not raining, going to his class at church, making friends with grown ups who will play with him, and loving on his baby brother and sister.
 He absolutely loves going to preschool and has learned a lot.  He knows all of his colors and definitely recognizes the letter "R" as his letter.  Every time he sees an R somewhere he  says, "Hey, look, it's an R for me."  He enjoys singing songs that he knows from school.  I think twinkle twinkle little star is his favorite right now.  He believes his teachers are his best friends and gets very excited when he sees them somewhere outside of school. He is a good counter and especially likes to count down....10, 9, 8, 7.....
Something else Ryne is really good at is being sneaky.  My favorite is when he is trying to sneak away from us.  He has this very slow walk with each step being big and deliberate.  I know when he starts off in this gait that as soon as he thinks he is a safe distance away from me he will dart off like a flash of lightning.  I seriously have no idea how he can go from crazy slow to crazy fast in the blink of an eye like he does.  Makes me laugh every time.  Well, now that I know to anticipate the dart at the end of the sneaky walk it makes me laugh.  We often compare  him to a turtle because he can dart under something, be it a table, chair, bush, etc like a turtle sucking up into its shell to get away from  you.  It is hard to get a hold on Ryne if he really wants to get away.  Thinking he is going to make a great football player one day.
 However, he may just turn out to be a great actor instead because he can  be quite dramatic at times.  He can fall apart like it is the end of the world because I gave him the wrong sippy cup.  Or squeal for joy simply because Tesa smiled at him. 
 His imagination is unbelievable.  I adore listening to him when he is playing because all of his toys talk to each other...and they apparently talk to him as well.  I tell myself almost every time that I need to be getting video of him. 
 We had a chance to celebrate his birthday early with C.G. and Monk Monk while they were here for Christmas.  We surprised him with Angry Bird cupcakes and he was super thrilled.
 He was also happy to know that he would still get to have the Curious George party that he requested with his friends.  Who wouldn't be happy to get two birthday parties?
 Kade was happy for him, too.  Why not?  Cupcakes now and cake later!
 Here is Ryne "turning his candles out."  He might would say those candles are blow-able.  He likes to add "-able" to words as much as possible.  He saw a knife once and said to me, "that is dangerous because it could make me bleed-able." He also prefers to say "upside backwards" when either "upside down" or "backwards" would be appropriate.  So many Ryne-isms in our world. I really should start writing down more of them.
 One thing is for sure.  He is a loving little fella who thinks he has it all figured out.
 He know he can get anything he wants from his C.G. So maybe he does have it all figured out.
He adores attention from his Daddy and will do all kinds of crazy things to get it. 
 He thinks his number one job in life is to entertain his baby sister and brother.  Can't tell you how many times we have said, "Ryne, just leave the babies alone and let them get a break."  I think he loves them more than anything else in the world.
 Well, he might love cheese more....it would be a close call. 
He will wander around and talk on the phone for hours to anybody who will stay on the other end and listen to him ramble.  He doesn't necessarily care about carrying on a conversation, just enjoys having someone listen to him when he wants to talk.  He walks around holding the phone up to things as though the person on the other end can see what he is showing them.  And while some might actually get to enjoy that kind of technology, it hasn't become a part of the Lewallen world just yet.  He just likes to pretend that it has.
 I cannot imagine our world without Ryne!  So thankful that God chose to lend this special guy to me and Kyle to parent.  While parenting certainly has its share of challenges, I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to be Mom to Ryne, or Bobby, or whatever he might choose to call me on any given day.  I'm just glad I'm his and he is mine for the time we've been given.  I pray that God will give Kyle and I wisdom to teach Ryne just how special he is and what an amazing plan God has for his life.  So excited to have the opportunity to watch that develop as he grows up.  I am blessed. Very busy but very blessed! If I could show you how happy I am about my blessings in this life it would look much like this....
Thank you to Kade for lending me his happy face!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Ryne!! I love you!!!

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Merry Christmas....

Four days late!
What's my excuse this time?  Come on...you know it's going to be a good one.  It is a good one but, in all honesty, I would rather not have an excuse at all.  We've had a household full of sickies!  Not fun at any time.  But especially not fun at Christmas time. Ryne was sick and missed a week of school.  Then both babies got sick and had to make a few trips to the doctor.  In the middle of that Kade had his turn and Kyle battled through a cold of his own.  Thankfully, I can say that I was well through it all.  Just a bit exhausted from lack of sleep, but  no illness.  And in the midst of it all, we had Christmas.  Parties, visitors, random acts of Christmas kindness to carry out, gifts to wrap and unwrap, candle light service at church, elves to search for.  We did our best to carry on.  And it was a great Christmas.  I just wasn't able to carry out my grand plan for blogging.  That plan where I would blog about each party as it happened.  A post devoted to  L.Fee and Grandaddy L.Fee and their adventures.  A day to update you on the fun we've had with our Random Acts of Christmas Kindness.  Well, that didn't happen.  Instead I was taking care of sick babies...and that is WAY more important.  I think you probably understand, right?  So instead you will get a random post in which I just ramble away about all of our Christmas fun! 

So get ready....here goes nothing.....
This is the only picture I got of my sweet babies all together this Christmas.  Now that everyone is feeling better I am going to recreate Christmas sometime in the next couple of days and take their Christmas pictures that I had big plans for.  Part of me wants to just forget about it but I know that if I do, I will be so upset with myself this time next year.  Oh and they were all looking so cute dressed up for our Christmas eve service.  And let me just say that the ONLY way I was able to get them all ready and to church that night was because of the BIGGEST, BESTEST surprise EVER that we got for Christmas....
C.G. and Monk Monk came!!!!
Seriously, I had NO IDEA.  Kyle didn't even know they were coming.  We had just gotten home from taking our sick babies to the doctor, had eaten lunch and put everyone down for a nap.  I was working on wrapping some packages in the kitchen when Kyle came around the corner and I heard my Mom's voice as they stepped into the kitchen.  I was completely shocked!!  I didn't even move for a few seconds trying to figure out  how they pulled that off.  Guess who was one happy girl??? ME!!!  Their timing was such a blessing.  Not just because they were here for Christmas but because they were here to help out with sick babies.  Plus we did get to have lots of fun with them.  More about that later....I must back up a bit if I think there is any chance of really catching up.

There were parties....

Our annual neighborhood Christmas party.
Tesa put on her party clothes.
Of course we ate.
Jeremy and little miss Audrey....who apparently grew tired of her party clothes.
Our fabulous driveway neighbors (we share a driveway) Joe and Claire!
The Maria's!
 We played some fun games. 

 Looks like lots of fun, huh?
 "Face Off" was my personal favorite.
 Had to get a cookie from your forehead to your mouth.
 I think the "snowball fight" was Kyle's favorite.
Looks like maybe it was John's favorite, too.
We had a great time with our neighbors. 

Life Group Ugly Christmas Sweater Party
Dave really went all out on his sweater.
 Tesa and Tyce sporting their party duds!
So nice to have extra arms who want to hold babies!
There were more games...
But at this point my blog seems to be tired of me and my pictures and refuses to let me upload any more.  And OH I HAVE SOOO MUCH MORE!
More party, more elves, more RACKS....LOTS of Christmas pics and fun with C.G. and Monk Monk.
Guess you will have to stay tuned for that.
And since tomorrow is my sweet Ryne's third birthday I might just not get around to finishing up for a couple of days.  But I promise I will get back to my update for those of you who really want to keep up with our virtual scrapbook Life with the Lewallens.
Feeding babies and going to bed for now!




Sunday, December 18, 2011

Five Months....

Yikes!  We are only a month away from celebrating our babies' first half birthday.  Wow, time really is flying.
I might not have posted on their actual 5 month birthday but I did actually take the pictures on the 15th.
Here they are, our 5 month old cuties...













 Wondering why these two seem so distracted by something other than my camera?
Well, this would be why.....
 My handsome assistant, Kade!  He was good at keeping them nice and happy he just had trouble hanging out under the camera lens. 
 And before it was all said and done, he nicely asked to have his picture taken with the babies.  There they are, nice and fuzzy in the background.  Where's Ryne?  Oh, he was sleeping sweetly.  He is still such a great nap taker for me. 

Can't give you any updated stats on the babies because they don't go back to the doctor for several weeks still.  I can just assure you that they are growing.  Tesa faster than Tyce.  Already had to change out her stash of clothes again.  She is now a 6 to 9 month girl while Tyce is still hanging out in his 3 to 6 month duds.
They are both super happy babies.  Tyce is a giggler.  He smiles for miles and LOVES to have somebody, anybody, just looking at him.  Tesa is more of a talker than a giggler.  And she is our chilled-out baby girl.  Not much gets her worked up and she is happy as can be to just hang out by herself most of the time.  When it is time to sleep, she just wants to be put down in her bed and left alone.  Tyce on the other hand would rather you cuddle, pat and rock him to sleep.  I don't know that these twins could be much different.  Love them both to pieces and we are thoroughly enjoying watching there sweet little personalities develop. 

Here is a quick look at the newest thing in their world....VEGGIES....
 Tyce likes them, but not as much as cereal. 

Tesa's turn!
 She wasn't so convinced at first bite but she is now a big fan!  She certainly likes her veggies more than Tyce.  I told you they are quite different.

So much more to share but out of time for now.  The next Christmas party going down tonight.  Can't wait to get a chance to share some party pics and catch you up on all the elf adventures around here.  Have a long list of to do's that might have to get done first.  But stay tuned, I will get back here eventually!