Better Late Than Never, Right????

Okay, so I just looked to see what the last thing was that I blogged and realized that the date said August 15th. And I do believe that today was August 31st. YIKES! I can't believe that it has really been that long since I've had time to sit down and update on Life with the Lewallens.
Well, undoubtedly life is BUSY.

Since the post about Ryne's first tooth, he has gotten another one....started pulling up on the furniture and our legs.....started cruising along the furniture.....started climbing the stairs (hello baby gate at the bottom now).....and has gotten his first cold.
Ryne is the only one who has been busy though.

No way I can upload pictures and catch you guys up on the past 16 days tonight but I will give you a preview of what's to come. And let me tell you....it is good stuff.

Granna and Paw came to visit. We had a blast going to Mount St. Helens, Victoria B.C., and Seattle. We celebrated Kyle's Birthday. We had our cousins come down from Seattle. We picked blackberries. We had FUN!

Then I started back to school. FYI for those who might not know, I teach online high school science classes from home. Found out that doing my school work while both boys are awake is virtually impossible because they need to be watched constantly. Kade wants to wrestle with Ryne and Ryne wants to eat Kade's food and go all the places that he shouldn't. It wasn't so hard in May to do my schoolwork while they were awake. Wow how three months really changes things!

Had a fabulous break from tyring to figure out a "schoolwork routine" and went camping at Mt. Rainier. Got to meet up with some great college friends who live up here in Washington. We took the boys and they took their little girl and we just had a ball.

I will have pictures and more details about our adventures for you soon.
Keep checking...I'm finally back to the wonderful land of blog!!!

And just because I feel like my posts are not complete without a picture...

Here are my babies! Had these pics taken in June but just got the cd in the mail this last week. I'll share more soon.

Ladies and Gentlemen We Have a Tooth

Ryne has been chewing on things since he was about three months old. So, we've been expecting teeth any day for about four months now. Well, today was the day and it totally surprised us.
I felt all around on Ryne's gums just yesterday morning and there was nothing.
Then this morning I kept hearing Kyle telling him, "boy, put that tongue back in your mouth." Kyle finally called my attention to how he was sticking his tongue out all the way to his chin over and over again. Kind of like this:

Only he was sticking it out much further.
I just mentioned that it was like he was feeling of a tooth on the bottom of his tongue but never imagined that to be the case since there seemed to be nothing yesterday. A few minutes later he crawled over my direction and I picked him up just to investigate and there it was...A TOOTH!
He let me take a picture to show you:

If you look real close and use your imagination you can totally see it just to the right of middle. Take my word for it, it's easier felt with the finger than seen with the eyes. But I promise, it's there! So, Congratulations Ryne, on tooth number 1!

Take Me Out To The Ballgame

Thursday was date day!!!!
For Father's Day Kyle got tickets to go see the Yankees (his favorite team) play the Mariners. And we told him that he could take whomever he wanted to the game with him. AND HE PICKED ME! And we had a date day. Our friends Jess and Karie kept the boys for us. In fact, they were so great to us that Jess volunteered to come over early before Karie got off of work so that we could leave earlier. Now that's a really big deal for us because we don't get a whole lot of "just the two of us" time since we moved to Washington away from all of our adopted Grannies and great babysitters.
So we headed out at about 3:30 that afternoon. Kade was thrilled that Jess was there to play with him and I don't think we could leave fast enough for him. Ryne was asleep when we left and I don't think he even noticed that we were gone when he woke up. Now that is exactly the way we like it. Since we got to leave so early we had time to stop for dinner before the game.

THE CHEESECAKE FACTORY!!!

Can everybody say YUMMY???
Here's what we had for dinner:

I had a Chinese Chicken Salad and Kyle had grilled salmon.
AND of course we had cheesecake for dessert. I think it should be illegal to go to The Cheesecake Factory and leave without having cheesecake. I had Snickers and Kyle had Chocolate Raspberry. They were so delicious and we were so excited about them that this is what they looked like before I remembered to take a picture for you:

Woops! They were completely gone when I noticed my camera sitting on the table as a gentle reminder to take a picture of our scrumptious dessert. Guess that means I'll have to go back soon so that I can get that picture, huh?

After dinner we headed here:

Home of the Seattle Mariners. But more importantly for us it was host to the New York Yankees!
Don't we look like we are having fun?

Well, we were having a lot of fun.
Just check out how nice our seats were:

We could see everything so clearly...a new major league baseball game experience for me...I didn't have to watch everything on the big screen. Very cool!

See, this picture is from my seat. Kyle has some great pictures on his camera, actually got a shot of Derek Jeter swinging to hit a home run.

Here's another picture of the game. The Yankees won 11-1 and we were super excited. And I have to say that I was actually excited about the 1 run that Seattle scored as well, because it was a new guy that they just brought up to the Major Leagues Thursday afternoon and on his major league debut he hit a home run. I was really happy for him, so yea for the Mariners 1 run but Super Yea for the Yankees 11 runs!!!!

And check this out:

We were out late. This is my watch before the game was over and we still had an hour drive to get back home. Our baby sitters were totally prepared to stay late so I wasn't even worried. Besides, it really was nice to have some extended "just the two of us" time with my sweet husband. We realized that it was the longest that we had been away from our children together since Ryne was born. GREAT BIG THANK YOUs TO JESS AND KARIE!!!
Final conclusion of Thursday date day: We should totally do that more often!

Back Thingywobbers

Kade's new favorite word to say is "thingywobber". He has been calling everything a thingywobber for the past week now. If he knows the name for it then he follows the name up with "thingywobber". For example, "I need my sippy cup thingywobber." When he just simply wants his sippy cup. Or if he doesn't know the name for something he calls it a thingywobber. Which makes sense that he would use it as a substitute in that situation. I cannot figure out where he picked up on this word because Kyle nor I hardly ever, if ever, use the word "thingywobber".

Here are some things I've been hearing from Kade this week.....
"Mom, I need one of those thingywobbers."
"Hey, look at my slinky thingywobber."
"Whose thingywobber is that?"
"We just need two more thingywobbers."
"Just one corndog thingywobber, Mom."
"That's Ryne's diaper thingywobber."
Are you getting the picture?

So in honor of Kade here are our back thingywobbers for the week:

Back Thingywobber #1:
My little Razor"back"

This shirt was Kyle's when he was a little guy. The tag inside says 18 months. I remember putting it on Kade at about 1 year and it was skin tight so I got it out a little bit earlier for Ryne to wear. Either this shirt has shrunk in the wash over the past 30 something years or babies come a lot bigger these days! Maybe its a little bit of both?

And here is proof that this was Daddy's shirt:

His name is plastered on the back.

Back Thingywobber #2:
My very own personal back....it has been hurt and that has been no fun! Not sure what I did but last Tuesday evening it just really started hurting. And it was not getting any better. Kyle was kind enough to call and schedule me an appt. whith our local chiropractor on Thursday afternoon. This was my first chiropractic experience and I wasn't too sure what to think. I went in and he said that there was no telling what caused my back to start hurting....probably something building up over time (maybe carrying babies around for the past two and a half years?????). Anyway, he worked on my back Thursday, Friday and again on Monday. It is feeling quite a bit better now. But I did get these because of it:

My sweet Mom and Dad sent me get well soon flowers! Aren't they pretty?

Back Thingywobber #3:
John and Sharon got "Back" from their cruise on Saturday and we went to pick them up.
John and Sharon are friends from Colorado and they came up the weekend before and spent the night with us and Kyle took them to meet their cruise ship. So when they got back on Saturday we went to pick them up in Seattle and of course we had to give them our one day tour of Seattle. I'm sure you all know what it consists of by now.
*A trip to the market. It was Saturday and it was busy and I didn't even get my camera out.

*Some fresh seafood for lunch. We did Ivars because Kade requested clam chowder.

Here are the boys with John and Sharon waiting to be seated at Ivars. It was very yummy and the clam chowder was especially good.

*We had a Seattle "first" for us. We played the large, VERY LOUD, organ down near Ivars.

This is the organ...it takes two quarters and then the music begins.

And look at that face....that is worth two quarters anyday. Kade absolutely LOVED the organ! And I have to admit that I thought it was pretty cool, too.

*Then you know that a day tour of Seattle wouldn't be complete without a stop here:

The SPACE NEEDLE!!
Yes, our annual passes have been worth the money.


And Ryne needed some down time so we let him crawl around while we waited for our elevator. I think he enjoyed his 8th trip the the space needle. He is averaging more than one trip per month at this point! He just might grow up and want to be an elevator operator for the space needle and I wouldn't be surprised. If he could get Kade free passes, I'm sure Kade wouldn't mind it either!

After the space needle we headed to the airport to drop our friends off to catch their plane back to Colorado. We had a good time getting to visit with them.

Back Thingywobber #4:
We got home from Seattle in time for a quick nap and then we got "back" in the car and headed to Red Robin for Derek's surprise Birthday party.
It was our first time to visit this Red Robin.
Kade enjoyed the t.v. in the floor:

Looks like he might could have set there all night.

And the birthday boy seemed to have a good time.

Ryne had to be sure to give him some happy birthday wishes.
We had a really good time getting to celebrate Derek's birthday with him. Kade noticed that Derek's cake had a two and a three on it (because he turned 23). The result of that: Kade says, "I'm two and D is two and three." Gotta love the mind of a two year old!

Back Thingywobber #5:
Our very first ever guests at our new house in Washington came back.
Right after we moved here last fall we got to meet up with some of Kyle's old friends from Oklahoma. Their son, Jacob, is going to college here in Washington and we met up with them to go to his football game. Then they went to church with us and came to see our house. Jacob and some of his friends have been coming to Bible study at house on Wednesdays and we've been having a great time hanging out with them. So, his parents, Janet and Campbell; along with his nephew, Connor; were back in town this week and they came by to see us! We grilled burgers on Sunday afternoon and had a great time visiting with them.

And the last Back Thingywobber:
We got our cell phones "back"!!
Yesterday evening our neighbors Justine and Eric came over and we did a little grilling out and card playing to celebrate Eric's Birthday. They left at about 11 o'clock and Kyle and I started getting ready to head up to bed. Neither one of us could find our cell phones. We looked everywhere that we could possibly think of upstairs and down. We could not find them anywhere. Kyle actually went over to Eric and Justine's and had them call us so that we could listen for our phones to figure out where they were. (we don't have a land line so we couldn't call ourselves...just want to make sure no one thinks we were crazy for having to get the neighbors to call us)
So, I'm listening very closely and I hear Kyle's phone ringing....it's upstairs....I run upstairs....I can hear it.....I go toward the office and it gets fainter.....back towards our room and it gets louder....in our room....fainter.....back to the loft....louder.....oh no, is it in Ryne's room??....I reach to open Ryne's door and I notice a blue glow coming through the glass of the entertainment center.....the entertainment center????.....I open the door and there on the bottom shelf was Kade's crayon box and placed neatly on top of the crayons I found both of our cell phones.
Wonder how they got there?

Got one word for ya....KADE!!!

Kyle and I laughed so hard. We didn't even notice that Kade had cleaned up from making Mr. Eric's birthday card. Apparently when Kade cleaned off the coffee table and put his supplies away, he cleaned up our phones, too. What a good guy to clean up his supplies and put them away where they belong. When Kade woke up this morning we asked him if he knew where our phones were. And of course, he said, "Yep, they are in my crayon box right in there (pointing to the entertainment center), I'll get them."

So there you have it...our back thingywobbers for the week.
I better get BACK to getting some housework done around here....Granna and Paw are coming to see us next week!

Haircut and Harmonica

Today I convinced Kade that we should cut his hair. If you remember from a few weeks back he had decided that he didn't want to have his hair cut because he was afraid he would lose his power like Samson did in the Bible. We've read a few more stories about guys who had power without having long hair and I think we have gotten through to Kade that not everyone has to have long hair to have power from God.
So here are the pictures:

BEFORE


AFTER

He looks a lot different, doesn't he?

How about Ryne?

Well, no haircut for this guy yet...hopefully we can make it to the one year mark like we did with Kade.
Ryne spent his afternoon being entertained by Kade and his harmonica. He is actually pretty good with this instrument of his. So, I thought I should share some entertainment with you. Kade was happy to be recorded because he knew he would be able to watch himself.
There are a few videos because I couldn't pick just one to show you because they all made me laugh.
The first one is especially funny because Kade has obviously never heard the phrase "hit it"!
Then if you listen to him in the last two you will hear him talk about being on the blog....isn't that funny that my two-year old knows what I do with all the pictures and video I take?
I hope you enjoy:

Hit it Kade!

A Very Trusting Neighbor and a Sermon via Kade

Look at Ryne all cute in Kade's red cowboy hat!

Looks like he must have known that red was going to be the color of the day.

Our next door neighbor, Joe, brought home a BRAND NEW RED CORVETTE today!

It is beautiful and Kade is checking it out.
I kept telling Kade that we can just look at Mr. Joe's car. We shouldn't touch it.


Then Mr. Joe goes and lets Kade crawl right in and really check it out. Yikes!

And look who had to crawl in and check it out next:


Then....

Mr. Joe goes and lets Kyle take it for a spin!!!
And on top of that, he and his sweet wife Claire watched our boys so that I could ride with him.
Yes, I have replayed this in my mind several times.
It goes something like this:
Joe buys a brand spanking new red corvette and brings it home TODAY.
Then tonight he let my two year old climb in it and my husband drive it. AND instead of insisting on being my dear husband's passenger so that he could keep an eye on his beauty, Joe insisted that I go for a spin with him. Of course they did know we would come back because they had our children. But there is one of two things happening here.....either Joe really trusts us or he is just plumb crazy!!! I don't know maybe it's a little bit of both.

But, in all seriousness, we are very thankful to have great neighbors like Joe and Claire. They are great with our boys and our boys really seem to like them a lot. And now they have a beautiful car that Mr. Joe told Kade he needed to come up with a name for. This ought to be fun!

Now Part 2

A Sermon Via Kade

So we are in the grocery story yesterday and I didn't have a very long list so we were going it one buggy style. Kade sitting up front and Ryne in his carrier in the basket with the groceries piled around him. I had gotten some baby yogurt for Ryne to try and the only place I had left to put it was next to Kade in the front of the buggy. I told Kade what it was and not to mess with it. He agreed. Last stop in the store was to buy shampoo. I am busy trying to find the best shampoo deal and look up to see Kade playing with the yogurt that I had requested that he not touch. When I go to take it from him I notice that he has been squeezing it and one of the yogurts had burst open and yogurt was ALL OVER the front of Kade.

Now I'm really upset. Middle of the shampoo aisle, yogurt everywhere, diaper bag buried beneath the groceries and not a trash can in sight.... As I am wheeling around in search of a trash can I am voicing my disappointment to Kade. He isn't saying much. Finally find a trashcan, and dig out the wipes from the diaper bag and go to work cleaning the mess up. Right in the middle of my lecturing Kade again on how upset I am and how disappointed I am that he disobeyed me he interrupted with a very sweet and convincing,
"It's okay, Mom, you still love me!"
To which I respond, "Yes, Kade, I do still love you but I am very upset that you disobeyed me."
And then another, "No, Mom, everything's okay, you still love me!"
Ugh!!! He just didn't get that it wasn't really okay because he disobeyed. Just because he knew I still loved him no matter what, my two year old thought that made everything and anything okay.

So, I'm in the car and I've calmed down from our yogurt incident and I'm thinking back through the whole deal. Then I totally hear God speaking to my heart, "I completely understand how you feel. Sometimes it seems like my kids, too, just look at me after being disobedient and say 'It's okay, God, you still love me.' And while it's true, I do still love them and will no matter what, it doesn't make it okay to disobey." Right there in my car I had to thank my Heavenly Father for using my two-year-old, yet again, to help me better understand his heart as my Father.
So, that was my sermon, via Kade.
Only one yogurt was messed up in the preaching of this sermon and the rest are stowed away in the fridge just waiting to be eaten up by baby Ryne.