Merry Christmas All!

All I want

for Christmas is

my two front teeth!!

As of last night, Ryan can now sing this song!

I should be packing and finishing laundry, but wanted to wish my (probably 3) blog readers a very Merry Christmas and a joyous 2010!!

Proud and Blessed

Look out below!!! There is a lot of bragging goin' on here :)!

How can there not be when you look at this sweet thing?!?

Our precious new niece/cousin...The first baby since Ryan, for either side of the family, arrived October 29th! Miss Caitlin Marie weighed in at 6 lbs. 14 oz and was 19 3/4 in. long.

Proud new Mom and Dad...
My little brother is such a great Daddy and my sis-n-law is a wonderful, natural Mommy, too! You guys are doing an awesome job! God has blessed you with a most precious gift!!

Proud new aunt...
I just love pictures of me... but I had to get my hands on her. This was taken by Ryan shortly before she got ready to head home.

Proud big cousin!... I love that he loves her so much! He prayed often for his new cousin to grow big and strong before she "came out" :)!
And he begged to get a picture of her "holding his hand". Priceless!
I can't believe my baby is so big and was almost that little, too!


Proud of this guy... The same week Caitlin arrived, I got a call from the principal. My immediate reaction was "oh no"! To my relief, he was calling to invite Steve and I to the next week's Chapel when Ryan would be awarded Student of the Month for his class.
We truly are so proud of this guy and thankful for the little man God is growing up. We still don't know the true criteria of receiving the award, but hey, it must not be a bad thing, huh? :)

Proud of this guy, too!...
He was sick with a fever and the "flu-like" junk so he couldn't make the first trip to WI to see Caitlin, but he did make the next week's visit. His cough was still lingering so he only got his hands on her once (not by his choice), just to be safe (because of my worrying!). I realized I didn't get any pictures of him with her. This was at the water park in Grandma/Grandpa's hotel.

And I don't brag on him enough, but he is a fabulous hubby, wonderful daddy, and the hardest worker I know. That work thing often gets taken as a bad thing, but I am so proud of him and all he does for our family and God's kingdom!

So, for all of the bragging above, God gets all the credit!

I am blessed!

And today especially, thank you to all the Veterans for your service and sacrifice!!

Bye Bye Roses!

Mostly cloudy. 25 degrees. Sounds of shotguns in the distance. Ahhhh. Sweet home Minnesota.

I know it's so trivial to talk about the weather and crazy hunters, but still we are shocked every time the ground is white in October! (and that people would care to walk around looking for creatures in it!)

Ryan's up and out in it, thinking he can sled... we'll see how well that goes! **Update on that** Slow, but sweet success!

Football later. Maybe it will melt by then?

Enjoy your Saturday weather!!

1st Day of 1st Grade

Well, of course, I have to post the annual first day of school pictures, right?
So, here he is.... our first grader! Looking so grown up with his "side pack", NOT a back pack! That was a must have this year. And while waiting for the bus, such excitement to see the other neighbors heading to the stop!
All aboard!
I met him at school as I still had to buy some snacks and bring a few supplies to the room(being gone for 12 days and getting home the night before didn't help things :)!~That's a whole 'nother fun post). The bus was actually late the first day so he got right to work! We like that focus... let's pray it stays!

And here he is, still smiling as he walks home from the bus! It's the start of week 3 now, and he is still loving it.

All day, everyday has gone much more smoothly than I anticipated. He is awake before I need to wake him up and excited about the new day!

As for me, I still have hundreds of summer photos I need to sort through and decide if they are blog worthy. But the big question I keep getting is "so what are you doing with all of your free time?"... maybe I'll become a regular blogger!

Doubt it! :)

Honestly, I'm finding plenty of things at home and not at home to keep me busy! This is a stage I wasn't ready to be at yet, "an empty nester" by day, but I'm taking it as a gift from God, and trying to find what it is He wants me to be doing!

Enjoy your week... until next time, I'll go eat my bon bons and read a book! :)

Rule Maker

An interesting conversation with Ryan at bedtime last night....

A little background, first. We had two uncles here with us (Dave and John) and a little bit of political discussion had happened over the course of dinner. (I'll spare you the details as I don't like to offend :)!) Below is a glimpse of part of my conversation with this thinker before we prayed...

Ryan: "Do the president and governors make all of the rules?"

Me: "Well kind of, along with other politicians, they do make some of the rules for our country."

Ryan ponders.

Me: "Why?"

Ryan: "I might like to be one of them."

Hhhmmm, this mom thinks. "Because you want to make all the rules?"

More pondering. He nods.

Me, probing: "What kind of rules would you make?"

Ryan: "Kiss all the babies 20 times a day."

Wow... where do they come up with these things? Have I told you I love this little man's heart? I'd vote for him! Maybe that's what we need... a few more kisses a day :)!

Enjoy yours!

Kinderball

(**Not to beat a dead horse, but 3 days of photos?!? Anyone impressed? I am!)

So Kinderball...anyone else ever hear of such a sport? Well up here, it's short for kindergarten t-ball I guess! I was amazed at the numbers of kindergartners that showed up the first night. It did seem to dwindle over the summer though. They did split up into teams eventually and attempted to play some games.

Showing off the good form/position! Always wanting to do the right thing! :)
Batter up!
Running those bases...they did scrimmage, but not too many outs. Therefore, Ryan did not like to be last at bat, because then they just stopped and the other team batted. He wanted to be able to run all the bases!
Looks like a little leader with the gang... hope it's a good influence :)!
Another "smile" command from mom=this face!

Ryan enjoyed Kinderball, but wished they would have pitched!

On a Roll!

Day 2 of successful photo uploading! I did learn that Steve did a few "updates" to the computer the other night.... we'll see how consistent the "fix" is :)

Here's a play-by-play of soccer one day in July. (you can always double click on the photo to see a larger version) Ryan was in a kindergarten group that met once a week for six weeks. He had a good time with some friends from the neighborhood and school. He is a cautious player... wanting to do the drills correctly, even if speed had to be sacrificed! I love my new camera as it allows more "in motion" shots! (Thanks for the b-day gift, honey!) Can't believe how big this kid looks at times!Water break! This was one of the few hot July mornings we had...Kick it, baby! School buddy, C.
Neighbor buddy, S.
Goalie! Way to stop that ball, Ry-guy!

Ryan is a good sport, yet likes to win and do things well :)! The perfectionist is shining through as he tends to be his own worst critic. Wonder where that comes from?

From Ryan.... yes, he liked soccer this year and his favorite part was that he got to be a goalie!

Seriously??!??!?

What just happened? I complained in a post yesterday about the photo frustration (that's been going on for months, if not a year) and voila! Today I uploaded all of these faster than I have ever before! Maybe I need to start posting all of my "impossibles" in life and your blog prayers and power will intervene :)!!!!

So these are just a few from the beginning of the June archives.

Niece Jessica's beautiful wedding day in Grand Rapids.
Brother Bill and his daughter Jessica.

Brother Jim doing the ceremony (from his Blackberry!) and the Bride and Groom (Welcome to the family, Nick!)

Brother Trouble - Steve, Eric and Pete @ the reception.

Ryan with the ladies.... Ryan and cousin Kyle were a hit with the single gals as the night went on .

Check out these moves...

Got back from GR and Vacation Bible School started the next day. It was a fun week that Ryan so enjoys. And the decorations are so amazing. The gym and basement of church are totally transformed!
Ryan and a few buddies from the week.

Singing praises! I love the heart of this boy!

And finally for today... a few shots from swimming lessons at the YMCA. This summer he's finally taken off and can "swim" on his own comfortably. He may not have the strokes perfected, but he keeps himself afloat. His new favorite is jumping off the diving board at the local pool. Lake water with seaweed in sight is another story!

"Smile", Mom says... we obey so well !


Well, depending on Mr. Computer here, maybe you'll see some more summer happenings shortly! Hope the 2 of you still checking in enjoyed these!

Take 500

Numbers -yes. Photos - kind of. Words - not so much....

I can do some things, but writing deep thoughts is not one of them I do well or enjoy taking time to do. This blog is evidence. I started it just for a way to post some photos and then family/friends near or far could look at their own leisure. Thought it would be better than mass emails.

Well, the photo option is about to cause me to call it quits. Maybe some computer savvy person will read and send help. Anytime I try to upload a picture to the blog or an email or simply edit a picture, whatever program I am in will lock up. End of photo session.

All that said ~ I've seen some bloggers do "Wordless Wednesday" posts. Well, because of my lack of photo inspirations on the blog... we'll just change the title to Wordless Woods!

Hope you are all having a great summer and maybe some day I'll bombard you with lots of fun summer shots! I even got a new camera for my birthday and may have to get a new computer to do any thing with it :)!!!

just for kicks... let's try a photo today.....
This program is not responding!

No kidding!

Thank goodness for auto save on Blogger or you wouldn't have gotten this much! Happy Thursday!

Finally....

No, not finally a post... but finally Ryan can join most of his friends in saying he's lost a tooth! He's wished all year he could be part of the club.

It's been "loose" for months it seems and we saw blood on Thursday morning, getting ready for his year end Kindergarten program. He didn't like the blood, but it wasn't quite ready yet. I told him to leave it alone and we should make it through the morning at school. That night in the bath tub, you would have thought he had struck gold... "Mom/Dad ~ get in here NOW... it's gonna come out!" It was a painless experience and such a big deal. We have a certain family member to thank for telling him that the Minnesota Tooth Fairy brings $10 per tooth! I think they were wrong!

The best part of all.. he could go to school this week and share the excitement with his teacher and friends before the year ended!

It's Friday....

but SUNDAY's coming!!

I heard that today and just had to repeat it. It's Good Friday... a day we are so thankful for, yet rejoicing even more on Resurrection Sunday that our Savior lives!

As Ryan wrote on a picture he made yesterday, "Jesus rocks!"

Happy Easter to you all!

A New Season?

Where? Here? A kind friend was prompting a new post by saying it was a new season... time for a new post....

Well here you go, Wendy :). This is the view today.

And some wet clothes to go with it....
I much rather prefer these wet clothes where we were a few short days ago on Spring Break...
Ahhh... the life.
We returned from FL late Sunday night to a Winter Storm Warning (why don't they call it a Spring Storm Warning?) for Monday night thru today. Another snow day for local schools. Nice. Don't get me wrong.... I'm sooo glad we headed south, but it sure makes it harder to deal with this lovely stuff.