Technically Challenged

Below is what I thought would be the easy way to show lots of pictures at once? I think my impatience with the uploading was the main obstacle. The pictures try to capture our week of Christmas travels to Rushville, IN and then on to Grand Rapdis, MI via Chicago area, too. We are truly blessed, not just because of the presents under that tree!!... but because God loves us and graciously gives much to us each day!

Week of Christmas

Early December in Review

Happy New Year to you all! We hope your 2008 is off to a great start. Thought we'd try to get back at this blogging thing. It was a New Year's resolution, and it's the 10th already? Why am I not surprised? The pics below are just a peak at what the beginning of December was like. It was a fun month, but it sure seemed to fly by.

Here is a not so good picture of Ryan's Sunday School class up on stage for their part of the Christmas program. I was videotaping and Steve was home in bed barely moving after his little fall from the rock wall. I pulled this one off of the church's website. Ryan is seated and is playing the part of Joseph. He was so proud to have that role:)!Here's a close up of little Joe! I was very thankful for a mature performance.:) Two years ago, the story was a little different. Here was a close runner up in the millions of pictures we attempted for a Christmas card. He is a handsome fellow, if I do say so myself!
Playing in the snow for me would mean sledding, building a snowman, maybe some snow balls? Nope, not for Ryan. For him, it means jumping and throwing yourself on the snow covered cement driveway!!!Even at nearly five, he still has such an awe of the Fisher Price Nativity scene. I love the admiration he gives that plastic baby Jesus. It was a battle to not leave the plastic scene up on the mantle. Maybe I shouldn't have been so mean? And while Ryan and I are attempting to get all the Christmas decor in just the right place, Steve is determined to make this year's gingerbread house a little more complicated than the last one? I know he'd hoped it would be a family tradition, but Ryan and I just don't seem to have the same level of determination, perseverance and patience as our hubby/daddy! Does that surprise any of you?
Next year we may have to move up to the professional grade Kitchen Aid mixer. This one was humming and not smelling so great after all that batter! Voila.... it didn't make it to the fully decorated stage this year. But the construction, in and of itself, is pretty impressive! Great job, Honey!
And these last 2 are actually in November. It's amazing that there is no line for Santa if you stop by on his first day at the mall... November 17th!!! Yikes that's early, but hey.. it was well worth the (lack of) wait! He even had to make sure Mrs. Claus had a few requests.... we all know behind every good Santa there is an even better Mrs. Claus, right :)?
We treasure the innocence of this picture. I'm sure we won't have too many more years of "believing" in the fun. Ryan did say himself that he loves Jesus the most and Santa is just for fun!

Marathon posting again...

Maybe I should stop this blogging thing? I'm obviously not very regular. It goes hand in hand with any other "hobby" I start :). I stick with it for awhile... then months go by before I revisit it. Does that mean I have some disorder? or does it just mean I'm easily distracted with the rest of life? Regardless... if you are a regular visitor to our page.. see below for some pictures/updates of the last month or so. I'll keep adding to them tomorrow when Blogger lets me upload pictures :(!
Thanks for stopping by!

One Day at a Time

Thanks to Pa Paw Choo Choo, Ryan has this great magnetic calendar that we can personalize and build each month. Several months ago it was a challenge to get him to do it. Now he does it completely by himself and takes off the square each day. We are so proud of him and of all he grasps as an almost 5 year old. He gets the days of the week and the concept of time and months... and is counting down in his own mind to December 25... that is his favorite day... so he says for now:)!
In a sermon, last month we were challenged to fill our squares...meaning our days on the calendar...with meaningful, Kingdom purposes. I know that some days I wonder if I'm doing anything Kingdom worthy.. but then the knowledge and faith I see developing in this little guy... that is satisfaction enough for me. I'm so grateful to be his Mom.

Batman to the Rescue

Batman was it this year... We had a fun Halloween evening with some friends as we headed to our church's carnival and "Trunk or Treat" in the parking lot. On the way home, Ryan said this was the best Halloween ever. We then thought we'd hit our neighborhood. Third house into it some older kids, not from our neighborhood, wander by with blood oozing down their mask. That was it. Night over. Hysterical screaming from them on. Then the comments change to ... "this was the worst Halloween ever" and "are our walls strong enough to keep the scary kids out?"... thankfully we didn't have nightmares that woke us up in the night.


Target 90% off clearance... gotta love it. Now we have 3 super hero costumes. They will get some good use from this very imaginative kid. Here he poses as Robin with 2 of his friends sporting the other 2 costumes.

Grandparents Travel North

We were so happy to have my folks come up over Mom's fall break. We know the drive stinks, but we were glad they made it. We had fun just hanging out and playing at home together, eating out some and getting that pumpkin ready for Halloween. Here are just a few pictures from that late October weekend. I think the "southerners" were frozen from just a cool breeze, as we Minnesotans would call it :)!

Of course we had to take them to the good 'ole Spicer park, too. It was a cool day and the lake was a beautiful blue and the leaves were crunchy under our feet.

Have to throw a picture of us in here every now and then, too!

Ryan had been to the pumpkin patch at a farm about 30 miles away with his preschool class, so we opted not to make Grandma and Grandpa drive any more. Parking lot pumpkin picking is just as fun, huh?

If we are with Pa Paw Putty during pumpkin carving time, he does the drawing and then Steve does the carving... but here he takes the honorary official stab. Look out pumpkin!

PaPaw Putty takes on Ryan with some boy energy...

The True Judge

Well, I was so fortunate to be chosen to do my duty this month of October... JURY DUTY!! Yay! Actually, I've only been called in a few times, and no trials yet. They seem to settle while we wait or get rescheduled due to new evidence or various reasons. It's been more of an inconvenience making arrangements for the day for Ryan and then changing it all when I get to leave than it has been an interesting learning experience. But, the the first day as I'm taking him to someone's home...
"Mom, what's jury duty?"
Well, try to explain that in four-year-old terms. I did my best and said some things like it's where we help decide if someone(big people, usually) did somthing wrong and what their punishment should be.

"But, Mom, only God can punish big people... He's in charge." Oh, how true. Yes, we can do our best here for a better world, but God has the final say. I hope Ryan and we, too, will live each day by the True Judge's rules!

Posting Mania again...

When it rains, it pours. Below are more posts to get you up to date on our life the past few months... at least the moments in pictures that spur my memory! They are in chronological order going backwards :)! Maybe now going forward I can post more regularly! Enjoy...

1st Day-Preschool Year 2

Thursday, September 6th. Ryan would have started back in July...but the day did finally come. He was very excited to go back and see the same teachers, some of the same friends and some new ones. This year he will be one of the older kids... but I think that is going to be a good thing for him. We've been told already that he is doing SO well this year. Well then... how bad does that mean last year was? :) Serioiusly though, he has matured so much and does much better at following through with projects and listening. We're proud of our Preschooler!

The classic first day pose...

Posing by the "mailboxes"...we pick up our day's goodies here each afternoon.

Off to explore. There was no hesitation for Mom to leave this year, and sadly there wasn't much of that last year, either.
It's hard to believe that this time next year, we will have a Kindergartner!

Young at Heart

We headed, as I've mentioned in previous posts, to Grand Rapids over the Labor Day weekend. We helped some with Donna's condo and the other good excuse for that weekend was a "mini-reunion" at Pete and Cathy's with many of Steve's brothers, cousins and aunts.

My man...ready to ride :)! I think this was his nephew's helmet... and given Steve's big head (no hidden messages here) it left a large dent in his forehead for a day!

I am speed(or not)! Just ask Cathy... the pro :)! It helps if you can work the clutch before you get going, right?

Many of the gang camped out in the yard for the weekend. We, however, took our camping as far as it goes for us and stayed at Jim's plush campground... aka his home! Thanks Jim. Here's a look at the tent city and the "big boys" taking a break from the trails.

And Ryan's special friend for the day was "Buster" the caterpillar! He was very attached. Mom forgot to get him some water and the next morning he was rather dried up and not moving :(! We laugh, but it was a heartbreaking moment for our Ry-guy. It was just added emotions to the day as we were working at Grandma's where he was very upset to be without her. Missing Buster was just icing on the cake :(!

Water Boy

One weekend in August, when PaPaw Choo Choo was on his way home, we headed to the Cities to use a waterpark package we had bought at an auction. He was able to hang out with us there for the two nights before he travelled the rest of the way home. It was indoors and had a night time feel all day long. It was a good time...

The room had a special "cubby hole" room with bunk beds where the oldest and youngest in our family slept :)... Mom and Dad got the king size bed in the main area of the room.
Here he comes... Ryan made countless trips up and down this slide. He always seems to make friends easily too!

AAAAAAHHH... get a look in that mouth. That voice box gets lots of use these days :)! He usually doesn't stop talking unless asked to be quiet!

Here's our Venetian evening... right in Minneapolis!