Not What I Wanted To Tell You

I really wanted to take the time and download some new pictures I have and tell you all about them.
I wanted to show you pictures of our friend Dan coming home from Afghanistan and meeting his newest baby girl for the very first time.
I wanted to show you pictures of our tulips....they are beautiful!
I wanted to tell you some exciting stuff about Life Church.
BUT....
that will all have to wait.
WHY?
Well, because God just reminded me of something very important.
Let me preface this with a little insight into my world of Mommyhood as of late.
Kade seemingly skipped the terrible two's and decided to wait until this past week to really start causing us problems.
Seriously, poor little guy has been punished so much this past week it makes me sad.
But nothing seems to be working. Oh, it will work for about an hour, or sometimes twenty minutes, or sometimes only two minutes. I have been so frustrated. Because I know that he knows better than to do the things he's been doing and act the way he's been acting.
The behavior problems really got started last Sunday night at Life Kids. I went to pick him up after church and found out that he had been quite unruly. Needless to say, I was disappointed. As my mom always said, it is one thing to act up at home for Daddy and Momma but entirely another thing to act up for other people caring for you.
Ever since last Sunday we have just had this vicious cycle of Kade misbehaving. By misbehaving I mean this:
*doing exactly what he is told not to do.
*not doing exactly what he is told to do.
*being mean to his brother.
*being mean to other children.
*yelling at me.
*telling me "NO."
Oh, dear the list could go on, but I better just stop there. I think you can get the picture.

So, I am about at my wit's end and today we have to make a trip to Wal-Mart. My favorite! Ha!
After getting in big trouble last night and promising that today would be a good day, he just couldn't seem to hold it together. It was as if he couldn't control himself and just HAD to do whatever I asked him not to do.
This is not the child that I have lived with for the past 3 years 3 months and 12 days.

Why is it so important to me that Kade obeys us?
It's not just because I'm the Momma and I said so.
It's not just because I know what's best for him....or at least I think I do.
It's not just for my sanity's sake.
It's because I want him to learn how to obey his Heavenly Father.
And I know that starts with him learning to obey his earthly parents.

Then I picked up my Bible this afternoon to do some reading.
Was compelled to read 1 Corinthians 13. The Love Chapter.
In the particular Bible that I chose to read there are little devotions. And opposite the passage that I was reading this devotion title caught my eye - "To Love a Child"
I cried as I read it. God knew just what I needed to hear....doesn't He always?
I want to share it with you. It is a little long but I am thankful that I read it. Maybe you will be too.

To Love A Child

Placed on the chair for a "time out" the weepy two year old wonders why he misbehaves as he whimpers, "I be a good boy." In his heart, he is persevering at being good while we are certain he is mastering being bad. All the while, his defiant heart is crying out, "Don't stop loving me! Don't give up on me!" Who can understand a two year old?

God can. He understands children, and He understands mothers as well. God is aware of the problems pummeling our homes requiring patience and perseverance. That is why His definition of love begins with the word patience and ends with the word perseverance - or "never gives up." God knows our children will exasperate our patience, and He exhorts us to persevere in loving our children through all of the difficult times. We must never give up our efforts to mother, and we must never give up loving our children. They are crying out to us to love them the way God intended, the way God loves us.

In God's definition of love, He places the word always before the word perseveres. we are not given a choice. No matter the trouble, we are to always persevere. Webster defines perseverance as "to continue in some effort, course of action...in spite of difficulty, opposition...be steadfast in purpose; persist." We are to "always" persist and be steadfast in purpose. We are to always love. We are never to give up on ourselves or our children.

God is our example of perfect love. How often we exasperate Him, disappoint Him, and wrong Him, yet He never gives up on us. He never withdraws His love from us. He is patient and always perseveres. We must do the same for our children. Never give up on them. Never stop loving them.
-Elaine W. Miller
(From Splashes of Serenity)

I needed the reminder that if I love my children that means I will be patient and persevere.
Take a look back at 1 Corinthians 13...that's not the only thing love means.
So, I'm off now to practice loving my children.

Ending the Week with Beth!!!

As always it was an eventful week in the Lewallen household.
I'll try to do a quick recap in pictures....

I must go all the way back to last weekend real quick and share this picture with you....

This is Kade watching my laptop screen rather intently.
Why? What is he watching?
AYC!!!
Arkansas Youth Conference took place in Little Rock, Arkansas last weekend.
When we lived in Arkansas, Kyle always did a lot with AYC and so it was just a part of our lives every spring. Kade attended his first AYC was when he was less than three months old. Then the next year my Mom actually came up to take care of Kade for us and took him to his second AYC when he was one. Last year we were living in Washington and we all had to miss AYC. It was sad. It was the first AYC that Kyle had missed since...oh, I don't know....maybe since its beginning. But this year they had a livestream for AYC and we could watch online. We didn't have to completely miss AYC. And it was as if Kade just knew it was something that he was supposed to be paying attention to. I loved that as a three year old living in Washington state, he got to "attend" his third Arkansas Youth Conference.

Okay moving on for a quicker recap of the rest of the week.

*Sunday was Life Church! It was good!
I worked with Life Kids in the Rubber Room again and it went super great.
There were some new faces in the coffee shop and I heard that Derek did a great job with the Word. We already have three people committed to being baptized on May 2nd. Praising Jesus for good Church. And praying for another excellent night tomorrow.

*There was Sidewalk Chalk! It was fun!





*Then this guy....

was sick!
I thought it might be allergies and not just a cold so I called the doctor and got him an appointment on Wednesday. Alissa came to go with us to the doctor and then out for a lunch date. On our way to the doctor, poor little Ryne got so sick in the car. It was major throw up everywhere. Bless his heart, he just sat there and never got upset at all. I called Kyle and told him that I had an emergency and needed him to meet me at the house to help. I turned to check on Kade riding next to Ryne in the back seat and asked him if he was okay. He said, "Yeah, I'm okay. I just had no idea that Ryne was going to throw up." I assured him that I had no idea either. I called the doctors office to let them know we wouldn't make it to the appointment and thankfully they had one just an hour and 15 minutes later. It took all of that hour and 15 minutes to bathe Ryne, clean the car and get ready to go all over again. And it only happened that quickly because Alissa watched the boys while Kyle and I cleaned. I'm so thankful that Kyle was available for my 911 emergency and that Alissa had made plans to go with us that day. Wow, how God always knows just what we are going to need!

We did make it to the doctor.....just a cold it seems.
And we did still have our lunch date....

Kade always loves getting to go eat with Lissa....

And Ryne....well, he had a fun time rubbing his corn dog in his hair.

*A crazy day for Ladies Bible study.
It was also a good day because our new friend Laura got to come join us.
And this sweet girl....

Baby Natalie was all smiles for us.

It was a sad day because it was Jeannette's last Thursday with us.

Oh, yeah why it was crazy...

This little fella and a buddy of his came bolting in the door behind someone.
And then there were these two pooches with no owners in sight just running crazy in the coffee shop. They didn't want to leave and didn't want to be caught. A pretty crazy distraction from our Bible study no doubt. But we must say it was a memorable day.

*And MORE sidewalk chalk....

Kade would tell you, "I'm a big fan of sidewalk chalk."
He has picked up on the fact that if you are a fan of something it means you like it and if you are not a fan of something it means you don't like it. And those are the terms he uses now. Instead of saying, "I don't like yogurt." he will say, "I'm not a fan of yogurt. I'm a fan of ice cream instead." Seriously I don't know how many times a day we here "I'm a fan of" or "I'm not a fan of". It does make me laugh.

Apparently he was a fan of Earth Day because while we had the sidewalk chalk out on Earth Day he drew this...

It's a world!
And all of those different colors you see are different parts of the world.
I remember one color was "DuPont, where we are now."
And the green was the rain forest.
I think the brown was Lacey (where we go to the grocery store)
Oh yes, every spot of color was a specific place.

See doesn't he look like a kid deep in thought?

Ryne joined in for a bit...

But then he disappeared.

I found him running along the fence toward our neighbors.
He had his eye on this....

But I wouldn't let him take the mower for a spin.


So he decided to just pull the grass up with his hands.

Which reminded Kade that he was good at pulling something up too.

And I found him searching for weeds to pull.
I think I am loving that I taught Kade about pulling weeds.

*We made pizza.
Okay, Kade made pizza...

He brought me his apron and asked me to put it on him and then he disappeared into the pantry. He emerged with my rain boot full of "ingredients" that he needed for making his pizza.
He handed me a box of baking soda and said, "Mom, can you open this? It is my special ingredient for my pizza." I have no idea where he learned about ingredients???

*We had a date night!
Friday night D and Lissa came over and watched the boys while Kyle and I headed off to dinner.
We tried a new place in downtown Olympia. It was such a nice evening.

This was the result of such a nice time out....empty dessert plates and an empty restaurant. Yep, that's right, we were the last one's out the door.

*And to top it all off I got to see Beth today!
Beth Moore, that is. Not in person...she was in Georgia....I was in Washington.
But I did get to be a part of her "So Long Insecurities" simulcast and it was an amazing day.

Amazing because I got to go with Alissa!

Amazing because Beth was bringing the Word!

Amazing because we got to see our friends LeAnn and Pat.

Amazing because we made some new friends.
The girl in the middle is from DuPont and we see each other at the gym and actually met once at the preschool open house we took Kade to.
The girl on the left is actually the cousin of one of my sweet friends from college. Such a small world!
The girl on the right is a super sweet girl that we had an opportunity to pray for today and I am believing God to do great things in her life.

Actually, I'm believing God for great things in my life as well. Today was such an encouragement to me. I have not read the book "So Long Insecurity" yet but I certainly plan to do so very soon. I need to keep reminding myself the things that God was teaching me today.
I'd try to tell you all about it, but my notebook is overflowing with notes and I'm sure Beth does a much better job in the book. So pick up a copy soon!

*Dinner with Jeannette and her Dad!
Jeannette's Dad came up from California to help her pack up and move. We got to meet him tonight. Jeannette took us out for dinner and we had a great time.
We enjoyed visiting with him and Ryne enjoyed his apple juice....

It was straight apple juice...no water added. He barely came up for air.
Now he knows what he's been missing! I hope I'm not in trouble.

What a week!!! I am blessed beyond measure!

One of My Most Very Favorite Things Ever

Yes, I am jumping on the bandwagon!!!
Kelly...over at Kelly's Korner has been hosting a "Show Us Your Life" Friday for quite a while now. I always enjoy reading everyone's posts but have never joined the party myself. Well this week was one that I just couldn't pass up and I thought it would be a great place to jump on board. Why?
Well, because this week is about one of my very most favorite things ever.
What is the topic, you ask?
"How you met your husband."
And yes, that means that my sweet husband, Kyle, is one of my very most favorite things ever!! And I love the story that God gave us....

This is Kyle and me at our wedding rehearsal dinner.
I couldn't help but choose a fun picture because our story is so much fun.
So you ready for the story?
I will back up just a bit but here it goes....
I'm in the second or third grade and attending G.A. camp with my church. I remember plainly my Mrs. Nancy telling all us girls one night while we were settling down for bed how important that is was that we start praying for our husbands. So, that's what I did, I started praying for my husband. You'd think that since I started praying so early that I would be well prepared by the time I turned 18 to meet and marry the man of my dreams. Not so much!
Junior High came and went...no man of my dreams.
High School came and went....no man of my dreams.
Don't get me wrong, lots of great guys who were great friends, but just not the guy for me.
But that is okay because I am heading to Ouachita Baptist University for college in the fall of 1995 and I just know I will find "him" there. Seriously, lots of available Christian guys and after all the school motto is "Ring by spring or your money back!" Ha!
Well, it was true...partly anyway, lots of available Christian guys. And they made for amazing friends whom I cherish to this day. However, the motto did not hold true for me, there was no ring on my finger by that spring....nor by the next spring, nor the next, nor the next.
God still had not brought him into my life.
But what God did do in those four years at OBU was completely change my heart and perspective on the matter. I learned that I hadn't come to Ouachita to find a man but to grow closer to the Lord. God taught me early my freshman year that I needed to quit looking.
Specifically He took me to a verse in Proverbs and pointed out to me that it wasn't my job to be on the hunt.
It says in Pro 18:22 "The man who finds a wife finds a treasure, and he receives favor from the LORD. "
So I quit looking! And life was good. I still kept praying for the man of my dreams, that he would be looking and that he would find me, and that I would be a treasure when he found me.
I graduated from Ouachita in December 0f 1999 a single woman.
Taught a semester of science in Texarkana, Arkansas. The man of my dreams did not find me.
I wanted to keep him looking hard so I moved to northwest Arkansas where I taught for another two years. I loved living there and really enjoyed the school where I taught but for some reason I really felt like God was calling me to a new place. Maybe God was wanting to keep this "treasure hunt" interesting for the man of my dreams! ha!
What exactly did I feel like I was supposed to do?
Go to medical school!
Yeah, crazy, I know, but that is what I started pursuing.
I told God that I was willing to do whatever He wanted me to do and go wherever He wanted me to go. I was all in! All His and ready for it to be me and Him only...forever. Maybe there was no man of my dreams. And I was COMPLETELY okay with that for the first time ever. And completely ready to do anything and everything that God had in store for my life.
What did that mean for me?
Well, first that meant a move to Holly Springs, MS to be a nanny for a family with two children. I had other options...cool options like Greenwich, CT and NYC. But I really felt like God was telling me to pick Mississippi. Crazy, I know. As a part of the nanny gig the family paid my tuition at Ole Miss where I finished up the one class I needed as a prerequisite for medical school. I fell in love with the family and became a part of the family myself. I applied for medical school. And I waited to see what would happen.
In the mean time, some of my very best friends from college moved to West Memphis, AR.
I had the weekend off from my nanny job and had no where in Holly Springs to go nor any friends there with whom to hang out. West Memphis was only about 50 minutes away so I spent the weekends with my best college buds, the Carozzas. Marc was in optometry school and so he studied a lot and Ashley and I got to have lots of fun together. One of the fun things that I got to do with them on the weekends was go to church. At first we had fun visiting different churches trying to find the right "fit" for them. You see, it was church for them because they lived there...I was just tagging along for fun.
Now, pay close attention here, it gets good.
One particular Sunday morning we went to a church that another friend from college told us we might want to check out. We went, the people were super friendly and we even met a guy that was about our age who was pretty cool. Then as we finished the singing and the preacher came up to preach, we realize the cool guy about our age was actually the pastor. Young preacher man, cool. On our way to the car, my friend Ashley leans over to me and says in my ear, "hey, did you notice that the preacher man wasn't wearing a ring?" I rolled my eyes at her and just said "Ashley....I don't live here remember, and I'm planning on going to medical school." To which she replied, "I know, I know." And that was the end of it.
Marc and Ashley did end up at that church with the cool young pastor guy. And I went to church with them almost every weekend. We all became great friends. And I got accepted to medical school. Took the summer off before medical school and just played with my friends in West Memphis, including the cool preacher guy, and took a mission trip to the Amazon.
I had whispers from some here and there about the preacher guy but my mind was still set on medical school. Remember, me and God only forever...whatever He wanted me to do.
In the Fall of 2006 I moved to Little Rock, AR to live with my sweet sister and started medical school. The second week of school I got a phone call from the cool preacher guy and he said that he had to come to Little Rock a couple of weeks later and wanted to know if I'd like to get together for dinner. "Sure," I said. I always enjoyed a chance to hang out with my friends.
Then I asked, "Why do you have to come to Little Rock?" And his response, "I need to see you."
WHAT?????
Totally caught me off guard.
So we had our first date and it was great.....but I was confused.
God? What about me and You only forever??? What about me just doing whatever you want me to do for the rest of my life???
God, I don't know what to do with all of this!
And so we kept dating and I kept studying and I did lots of praying.
Then one night God and I had a very serious conversation where God was the one asking the questions. It went something like this.
Me: God, what do you want me to do?
God: What do you want to do?
Me: I want to do whatever you want me to do. What do you want me to do?
God: What do you want to do?
Me: I want you to tell me what to do.
God: What do you want to do?
Me: God, I just want to please you, I want to obey you, I want to do whatever you tell me to do.
God then brought a verse of scripture to my heart.
Psalm 37:4 Take delight in the LORD, and He will give you your heart's desires.
God: What are your heart's desires?
Me: God, you know I've always wanted to be a wife and mother. But, I've given up that desire.
God: I'm ready to give it back to you. You have learned to delight in Me in every situation and place I have put you and now it's time for you to have your heart's desires.

It was at that point that I knew I was done with medical school. I retired early (I prefer that terminology...quit just sounds like a term of failure and I wasn't failing) from medical school. The cool preacher guy and I continued dating and we were engaged four months later. Eleven weeks after that we were married. Crazy, I know. That was fast. But when God puts the pieces together and says go for it....why wait? Besides, we had both been waiting a really long time on the other end of this deal.

So, here we are six years later....cool preacher guy and cool preacher guy's wife! What an amazing six years! I love getting to be married to one of my most very favorite things ever!! Oh, and he is one amazing Daddy, too. See, God dumped on me my heart's desires...wife and mommy. I am extremely blessed beyond measure. I am so thankful that God told me my freshman year of college to "quit looking" and let him find me. And I am so thankful that Kyle didn't quit searching before he found me!

Oh, you wanted the quick version.
Okay: Seven years ago I was spending the weekend with some friends in West Memphis. I went to church with them on Sunday morning and met a preacher named Kyle. Turned out he was single and I married the preacher!

Saying Goodbye

I am learning that saying goodbye is just a part of life here in DuPont, Washington.
Goodbyes in general do not make me happy.
Unless, I'm saying goodbye to something that I'm not so found of. For example, I didn't mind saying goodbye to diapers with baby boy number one. I won't mind saying goodbye again to the paci for baby boy number two. I certainly never miss saying goodbye to allergy season. And I absolutely love getting to say goodbye to pounds on the scale or zits on the face. I think you get the picture. However, those aren't the kinds of goodbyes that I am having to learn to deal with.

Nope, unfortunately it is the people goodbyes that seem to be around every corner for us.
In fact this past Saturday we had a little goodbye meeting with some of our sweet neighbor friends.
The Quinbys

Rip, Audrey and Baby Adelle are moving to Arizona this week and we certainly are going to miss them. Why are they moving? Well, it's a military thing! And there is a lot of that around here. And thus the biggest reason I will have to get used to saying goodbye. Unfortunately I'm going to have to get my little fellas used to it as well.

Just look at some of their friends that the military will soon take away from us...

Sweet Michael and his Mom Tasha are just waiting for Daddy to come home from his assignment and they are off to the east coast in just a couple of months.


Aaron will be packing up with his Mom, Dad, and little sibling in the making to move to a new place where his military doctor daddy will continue his studies.


Sweet Brooke along with her sweet sister...

Raelyn and their brand new little sister Natalie will also be leaving us within the next few months. Seriously, we play with Brooke, Realyn, and Natalie every week.

And then there are our best neighbor buddies...

Will and Carson on the right. We don't know yet when they are leaving...in fact they may be here for another three and a half years....but it is inevitable, the military will take them away from us to.
See, I've got to beg God to give me wisdom to know how to prepare my boys for saying goodbye to their friends.
Gee, I've got to beg God to give me wisdom to know how to say goodbye myself. Because you know what...all of those kiddos have Mommas that are my friends...and those kiddos are taking their mommas with them. Boo Hoo!!

I told you last week that we were saying goodbye to our friend Jeannette and directed you to Alissa's blog to read about our "Jeannette Day". Here is one of the pictures from that day:

Jeannette is on the left of me and I am preparing to tell her goodbye this next week as she will be moving to California to be closer to her family. Can't even begin to think about how much we will miss her. She and I get together often to hold each other accountable to living the life Christ has called us to. We have dinner together, play cards together, Bible study together. She has become a huge part of Life Church and our work here in DuPont. I am so sad to see her go, but I am super excited that she is getting to be with her family and I look forward to seeing what God is going to do with her there to bless them.
Now, looking to the right of me are two more very dear friends. First there is Dawn, Aaron's mom, who will be leaving with her husband Chuck and their bun in the oven to have a new doctoring adventure for military doc Chuck. And then Amanda...Mommy to the three precious girls I mentioned above....who will be leaving with her husband Dan in the fall to wherever the military sends them next. I'm trying not to think too much about Dawn and Amanda leaving yet, because we still have a few months with them.

So, what does a girl do when she has to keep saying goodbye to people like dear Jeannette...

who have become a big part of my life? Remember only a year and a half ago, I had to say goodbye to everyone who was a part of life I as knew it (except my precious husband and son), to move across the country and start over. I guess that was just prepping me for more of what was to come.
I guess with practice maybe it will get easier????
We already said goodbye to our sweet friend Susie a couple of weeks ago...

She headed to Arizona to work for Young Life. We miss her but she is doing great. Her family lives here in DuPont so we do have hope of getting to see her from time to time. But for those with no ties left in DuPont, except for the Lewallen's, we can't hold out hope of seeing them again in person this side of heaven.
I am starting to learn some big lessons on saying goodbye.
#1 Facebook is a huge blessing in the world of technology and I can depend on it to keep me updated on my friends who move away.
#2 I have to remember that God has good plans in store for my friends and I certainly wouldn't want them to miss out on God's blessings just to stick around here and keep me happy.
#3 Goodbyes are just a part of life...some of us have more of them than others...that's just the way it is.
So what am I going to do???
Well, I'm going to beg God to bless my friends in the new places that He takes them and I'm going to ask Him to allow me to keep my heart open for new friends so that I won't shut down the friendship train for dread of having to say goodbye.
I've got so much still to learn about saying goodbye graciously.
Until I get it down....

I'll just put on my best big girl smile and be sure to sport the sunglasses to hide the tears I can't manage to keep inside.
I still cry over friends I had to tell goodbye a year and a half ago. I miss them to this day...maybe it never will get easier. I'm okay with that.

Thank you Jesus for giving me friends that aren't easy to say goodbye to!

Why Housework Can Wait....

It has been a lovely week in the Pacific Northwest.
And there are more than enough jobs that need to be done inside my home...I mean enough to keep me constantly busy for probably a month...and that would have to be a child-free month in order for me to get it all done.
I can't believe I'm going to show you this but I do have a small picture of the kind of jobs I'm talking about.

This is a pile of clean laundry that needs to be put away and folded. And that is adorable little Ryne sitting atop the pile of clean laundry that he and Kade packed into the suitcase that I still haven't put away since our trip to Portland last month. I know it is atrocious! But at least they are clean, right? And for some crazy reason my boys both love to play in piles of clean laundry. Ryne tries to put everything on and Kade either builds volcanoes or houses with the piles.
But I have not left the clothes all piled on the floor just to see this smiling face....

Nope, although I do love that smiling face, we've had better things to do.
The biggest of which is spending time outside. The weather has been so nice and we've had outside projects to do and the boys are both big enough to run and play. We just couldn't pass up the great outdoors.

And to think, if I had been inside folding laundry I would have missed this visitor to our back yard...

Mr. Woodpecker!
We had fun watching him carve a new hole in his tree.

And we had fun just playing outside every chance we had...


Gotta love this shirt...and if I had panned out some on this shot you would see that Kade is swinging his rake at a huge pine tree....because don't you know that's what rakes are for when you're three....and you're a boy!






Daddy is teaching them well!


And finally Kade seems to have figured out what the rake is supposed to be used for.

And some other fun things to do...

Kade had been begging all week to go to Farrelli's for pizza. Just so happened that we had a friend in town for some training and she wanted to meet us for lunch and Kade got his request!

This is one happy camper...working on his very own specially made pizza.

Ryne worked on his pizza dough, too. But I don't think he liked the taste of it. Ha!

And here you have it ladies and gentlemen...

Kade's specialty pizza!
I know you are all just licking your lips right now.

Thursday we definitely had more important things to do than housework.
Remember that Thursday is Ladies Bible Study day.
This was a special Thursday because Kyle was out of town at a conference and so I was without my Thursday morning baby-sitter. So the boys got to go to Forza for Bible Study. They were excited.

We set up in the back corner so that they wouldn't escape!


And they started out playing really well together at their table.
But then Kade got tired of sharing his table and Ryne just knew there was something more fun waiting for him in the diaper bag. He found the snacks...and the books....and the medicine bag....and the wipes....and the sunglasses....and....well, he went through everything before the study was over.

And here is the aftermath! Kade still busy coloring. And all of Ryne's mess scattered everywhere. But we still had a great time and thankfully all the ladies were very understanding of my two little tots tagging along.

Before I move on I have to tell you that Kade really wanted to go to the conference with Kyle. When Kyle told him that he was going to speak at the conference Kade immediately wanted to know if it was a "man conference". We figure this question came about because I went to the "ladies conference" a few weeks ago. Kyle told him yes, that it was a man conference and Kade said, "Well, I want to go. I'm a man." So Kyle quizzed him a little further and asked him what he would do if he went to the man conference with him. This is what Kade said, "I would tell them all about God. I would tell them that God is the savior, that He watches out for us and that He is our Super Hero." I think Kyle should have let him go! But Kyle did say that he was sure to tell everyone at the "man conference" just what Kade wanted to tell them. I hope that one day Kade gets to tell lots and lots of people about Jesus. I would be so proud!

Now, moving along...
We got home from Bible study and had nap time. Ryne didn't nap for long so he and I headed outside to enjoy the pretty day and I grabbed the camera hoping to get some fun pics...





A little Peek-A-B00


A precarious situation here.


And this is the face of a Daddy's boy who just saw his Daddy come driving up!


We had a fun time playing outside in the sunshine.

And eventually Kade did wake up.
He wasn't in much of a picture mood. He just wanted to get to work. Lissa had brought him his own gardening gloves and he couldn't wait to put them to use.
I talked him into smelling the flowers for me....

That is some serious smelling going on there!


I gave up trying for a cute pic and just gave him his gloves!
Look how happy that made him.
Then I taught him how to pull weeds. That made me happy!
So, in the end, the laundry was still piled on the floor but the flower beds were weed free!
Can't wait for those boys to be big enough that they can fold the laundry.

Hope you've had better things than housework to do this week, too!