Those Lewallen boys love their adventures

Ryne is feeling much better. Seems that he and Amoxicillin get along just fine! And that Amoxicillin had a fight with that yucky stuff in his nose and it is gone. He is starting to sleep better again, too. YEAH!!!
Since we are on the mend we've been busy with boy adventures like:

Building log ranches...




Letting Ryne try feeding himself spaghetti...

What was I thinking?


We tried letting Kade show him how it was supposed to be done...but apparently Ryne isn't a real quick learner.

It was nice weather on Saturday and we biked to the park to play and picnic.
This was the first time that we've been to the park since Ryne has been able to walk and it was a whole different world. He had so much fun getting to play on the playground...



Kade collected some rocks.


Ryne collected some bicycle helmets.


Kade pretended to be in a marching band.


And pretended to sell us ice cream from his ice cream store. He would lean out the "window" here and tell us what flavors he had available. And once we chose a flavor he would ask if we'd like a bowl or a hard crunchy cone.

And of course everything that Kade did....


Ryne had to try too....


Here they are taking turns doing this....

Driving the Pirate ship, of course!

And then came the picnic...


And the champion picnicker of the crew....

Ryne William Lewallen!

He was all about having a picnic.
Last time we picnicked at the park, I was feeding him baby food.

Not any more. This kid didn't even want any help!

Even when the picnic part was over and Kade had taken off to play, I kept seeing Ryne go back to the picnic blanket for more Cheetos!

See this smile...

You might not can see the eyes but the smile lets you know that it was a good day at the park.

And later that day a package arrived....it was the rest of Kade's birthday present from C.G. and Grandaddy. Remember how Kade was practicing being a marching band at the park? Well you won't believe what was in his package. Check this out....

A trumpet!
It was accompanied by a clarinet and a saxophone.
You have no idea how many times we've played "band" since then. Kade has assigned us instruments. He plays the trumpet. Kyle plays the clarinet. And I play the saxophone. And if Ryne wants to play then Kyle or I get to share our instrument with him. I'm telling you that if this musical instrument loving kid of mine doesn't end up playing some kind of instrument in serious fashion I will be completely shocked.

Finishing up Birthday presents spurred Kade on to work on his "Thank You" notes.

He will tell you not to bother him because he needs to concentrate. Is it even possible for a three year old to concentrate? I don't know how Kade catches on to the things he does, but he surprises me all the time.
For instance, Kyle has let him watch a little Retro TV with him lately. Some A Team and Knight Rider mostly. So the other day Kade asked Kyle if Michael Knight was on tv. How in the world did he even catch his name and know to ask that? Then Sunday morning after church I catch Kade running around chasing a little boy and I say, "Kade, settle down, be nice and don't run." To which he responded, "Hey, I'm not Kade, I'm Knight Rider and I'm chasing all the bad guys to get rid of them." I simply told him there weren't any bad guys at church and that he'd have to wait until later to catch the bad guys. So, yesterday we are heading to the grocery store and are about to jump on the interstate with all the many other cars heading south and Kade says, "Hey, I'm Michael Knight and we are in Kit, let's chase all those cars down."
I think he has watched Knight Rider twice and I think that is all it took for him to become infatuated with it. I told Kyle, we better take it easy on the Retro TV. Ha Ha!

As for Ryne, he has a different infatuation.
Chips!
Not C.H.I.P.S. from the Retro TV land. He doesn't care so much about those TV shows.
He is in love with the food, chips! Any kind will do.
Preferably the kind he can tippy-toe and pull of the shelf in the pantry.
Here's how I know...

Last night I found him on the floor in the kitchen digging into a back of barbecue chips that he brought out of the pantry. Not sure how many he ate before I noticed.
Today...

He just hung out in the pantry with them! Finished off this bag of Sour Cream N Onion chips and was happy as could be. At this age, Kade would have torn the house down for green beans....I guess all children are different! Ryne must take after me! Ha Ha!

That's what the little boys have been doing. Kyle has been working on getting ready for our next Life Church gathering that is coming up this Sunday night. And I have been working on a little something different. I'll tell you about it soon.

Ryne's first Haircut

It's been kind of a crazy week for us because Ryne has been a bit under the weather. For a week now he has been running fever off and on. I decided that there is no way his one year vaccines should still be causing fever from last week so we headed off to see the doctor today. Poor guy has a sinus infection. One thing that seemed to make Ryne happy was to get out of the house. So on Tuesday, for one of our outings, we took Ryne for his first haircut.

We went to a really neat place called "Jack and Jill's". It is a salon just for children and it was super cute.

All of the chairs were some sort of vehicle.


Ryne chose to fly the plane while he got his haircut. Here he is all caped up and ready to go.


The first snip!


Flying away!


Kade entertained himself by spinning the propeller for Ryne's plane.


Sometimes Ryne was still and sometimes he wasn't so still. I was nervous about his not so stillness while she was cutting the front of his hair. But he did good!


Almost done...


And when he was finished he couldn't wait to get to the play area and take a little "play" break.
So we let him and Kade play for a bit before we left. It was a quick and painless first haircut. However, our baby is gone and we brought home a little boy instead. Guess you have to start letting them grow up sometime!

Hitting the Slopes

It was MLK Day and school was out!
Kyle planned a ski trip with his college Life Group.
I REALLY wanted to go so I sent out a cry over facebook for someone to be brave enough to adopt Kade and Ryne for the day so that I could make the trip.
Well, Bless my sweet friend Amanda's heart, she volunteered to keep the boys!!!
And I loaded up with the crew and we headed to Crystal Mountain for the day.
It was a perfect day for skiing. The weather was fabulous and the snow on the mountain was just right.
Plus we started our trip with a stop by this place for breakfast:

SONIC!!!!
This is Amy and Stephanie....and Amy had never been to Sonic before.
We were more than honored to be able to introduce Amy to the wonderful yumminess of Sonic.
We were off to a terrific start!

We got to the mountain within a couple of hours and suited up. I can't even tell you how bizarre it is for me to think that I live within a couple of hours of snow skiing. Skiing for me always meant loading up for a week and making a two day drive across several states to reach the mountains. An hour and forty-five minutes is a super short trip!


This is Jordan and me all geared up to head down the mountain.


And this is Kyle and me looking all smiley and ski ready. But I didn't spend much time skiing with my sweet hubby. Two reasons....One, he likes to ski fast and furious on those little trails that show up on the map in black. Me. Not So Much. I prefer a leisurely stroll down the green trails. Green is my favorite color. Even on ski trail maps!
Reason Two....

This is Stephanie!
She was on the mountain for the first time. And she wanted to learn to snowboard. She got some pointers from a couple of boarders and set out to learn.

She did a lot of this!
I remember my sweet friend Ashley teaching me to ski on my first ski trip when I was in college. She was so patient with me and just took her time waiting for me to get up again and again and again as I slowly skied/fell my way down the mountain. I can't imagine how much fun I would not have had if it hadn't been for her patience....THANKS ASH!!! So, I chose to try to be that person Steph. While I was absolutely no help in telling her what to do on a snowboard, I did my best to cheer her on when she was up and swooshing down a slope. Then when she bit the dust....er....snow....I would ski over to make sure she was okay.
Boy was she ever working hard to get down that mountain. But she was having a great time. And I was too!

After a bit it was break time....serious break time....this girl was worn out.

I didn't mind the break. We watched other people ski by.

My skis and poles didn't seem to mind the break, either.
I told you this was a serious break.


We took in the scenery. It was magnificent!

Then we got back at it...

There she goes!


UH OH! Steph went over a cliff!
She is hanging on to a tree down there. Trying to keep from falling into the creek below.


Had to call for rescue!


And there she is! All in one piece! And still saying that she LOVES this!

It was a very fun day on the mountain.


Here is the whole crew.
Back row L to R: Nick, Jordan, Jacob, Kyle
Front Row L to R: Kristina, Amy, Stephanie, me

Want some proof that it was a great day?
Well these are the pics of us loading up to head out.
Check out the smiles:

Only people who had lots of fun can smile like that at the end of a long day!

Dear Crystal Mountain,
Thank you for a very fun day of skiing!
We wish that we could come ski on you more often. Try to lower your lift ticket prices and offer day care and maybe we can have a more close knit relationship. I would really like that!
Love,
I-Own-My-Own-Skis-But-Only-Skied-Once-Last-Year-Terry-Lewallen

Little Bit of This and That

The Pirate Party was great but we didn't spend the past two weeks just prepping for the big party. There were lots of other things going on around here, too.
Like what?
Well, take a look.....

There was Basketball playing.






Water can carrying..

Where he thought he was going I don't know.

Trips to the Dentist...

I actually forgot my camera for our trip to the dentist. Kade got this nice little certificate though and I took a picture. Both boys went to the dentist and got great reports. Kade did a fantastic job and everyone loved him. Ryne wasn't so sure about somebody sticking things in his mouth...I mean that is his job to stick things in his mouth, not some strange man in a white coat. But he did okay, too. They went to a children's dental clinic and it was a good experience for them. I don't think Kade is going to mind going back in 6 months. I'm praying it stays that way.

Then we had Merman Kade..

Woops...

Both feet in one pants leg...wish you could've seen him trying to waddle around like that!

Kyle tried out the new smoker.

This was ribs and they were YUMMY!!! Then he tried salmon and it was also DELICIOUS!
I think I'm liking this Christmas present that we got for Kyle!

Kade and Ryne tried out some new presents, too.

Here they are working on sharing. Kade is always willing to let Ryne share his presents with him. But when it comes to Kade sharing with Ryne we still have some work to do.

Kade had an invention...

The pen-carrying sleeve! He figured out he could collect all the pens that we put out for Bible Study in his sleeve. Then he went around and passed them out from his sleeve. He was so proud of figuring out this new "sleeve gadget".

I got some pretty tulips...


And Kyle also planted some tulips for us....can't wait for spring time here in the Pacific Northwest!

Then we had this mishap....

I was rinsing out the sink and suddenly the hand held part of the spout fell off and water started just shooting out of the bottom of the spout. Before I could get the water turned off, the floor and wall behind me were completely drenched. Oh, and I was pretty wet, too! I dried the wall and floor, Kyle fixed the spout and life went on.

Ryne ate lots of bananas..

He was excited here because I was actually letting him hold the banana.

Took a trip to Red Robin...


The boys both had free kids meal certificates for their birthdays so we let them go to Red Robin to celebrate. Plus I didn't mind some Yummy Red Robin myself.

Did some Skype with the family.

Granna, Paw, Aunt Kim, Uncle B, Brandon and Taylor called us up on the computer to sing "Happy Birthday" to Kade.

Ryne had fun letting Daddy fix his hair....

In the bath tub!

I wasn't here for this but when I saw the pictures they sure made me laugh!

And when I saw this one, I was definitely glad I had scheduled Ryne's first haircut.

The night before the party we did birthday presents with Kade because we actually asked people not to bring gifts to the party...just to come help us celebrate. Believe me, we didn't need any more toys around here...ha!

So, I got a little creative with the wrapping paper and a marker because I didn't want to go dig in the closet for ribbons or bows. Besides, I don't think Kade minded.

Never seen a little boy get so excited about new pajamas. But look, they are PIRATE pj's!

Ryne seemed just as excited as Kade about the new sword and shield set. Two swords, two shields, two boys....sharing should be easy with this one.

C.G. and Grandaddy joined us on the computer to wish Kade a Happy Birthday and watch him open presents.

And read cards! I told you in the last post that Kade reading his cards is my favorite. C.G. and Grandaddy got to witness this "reading of the card" and I think they thought it was pretty funny, too. On this particular day every card ended with "Amen".


Trying out his new binoculars/view finder.


I think he's pleased with his birthday loot!


Got it all packed up in his new "Super Why" backpack and he is ready to go. I can already picture him wanting to pack his swords for his first day of school. Oh no! We are going to have to talk about that before the day comes.

Then Daddy and Kade worked on the big present..

A new Pirate Ship!

And it is pretty cool.
Got it put together in time to use as a center piece for the pirate party!

And to finish off the presents, we picked up gifts from Uncle B, Aunt Kim, Brandon and Taylor yesterday at Wal-Mart. Can I just tell you how much we love "Site-to-Store" purchases!

Each boy with their present box just waiting for us to say go.


Ryne thought just taking the paper out of the box was fun.
(if you notice...this is actually after his first haircut, doesn't he look cute? I will have a separate post for the haircut coming soon.)


And both boys are busy playing with their new toys! Kade is working on his Handy Manny Radio Repair Kit and Ryne is busy at his new computer.
THANKS Uncle B, Aunt Kim, Brandon and Taylor! They love their gifts!

And I couldn't help but show you this...

Just why the cardboard box was inducted into the toy hall of fame is completely understood at our house. Kade just assumed the box was part of the present and so he sat in it to play.

So you can see that life has been quite busy for the Lewallens...
Plus Ryne has not been feeling well ever since he got his shots last week...poor guy.
I also have a fun ski trip with our college life group and a first hair cut to update you on so I'll try to get to that soon.