Tonight's Entertainment

Brought to You by Grandma Kate and the fine makers of Play-Doh.
Max's exact quote when we opened the letter from Grandma with the fun activities was, "This makes me SO happy"
Ryan did some stickers and colored a picture but pretty much only wanted to climb on top of the table. This kid is a tank and will stop at nothing.

From September 2010

Look at that concentration

From September 2010

I had one of these as a kid too and loved it!

From September 2010

From September 2010

Great-Grandma and Max

I only took one picture the whole weekend we were in Oregon, but it was worth posting.

From September 2010

Another First Day of School

Tony is back at school to complete a 2 year program to become certified as an airplane mechanic. For a close look at his program, check out the school website here. So he'll be in school all morning for 6 hours and then go straight to work for 8 hours. With travel and what not, he's going to be one tired guy. We appreciate him working so hard. Now I have to figure out how to pack 3 meals for him and how to keep it interesting. I'm not even that good at packing one meal for him.

Reflections

This week has caused a lot of reflecting. Our cousin Becky lost her best friend, Meg (only 29 years old) to cancer. Meg has a husband and two small children. Her story is here. Sometimes I feel truly blessed to know the people I do and to have come in contact with so many wonderful people. I heard a lot about Meg through Becky but met her just a handful of times. However, sometimes people can touch your soul. I know part of me was touched by Meg because she was a young mother with two beautiful children who was facing such a difficult battle, but she also had some amazing qualities that touched me even before her diagnosis. Meg helped Becky do photo shoots of our family. She had this amazing smile and you just wanted to be around her. She was warm and caring. She talked about her kids (as we moms like to do) and her love for her children was evident. I got to hear from Becky about what a selfless person she was. I got to visit a little with Becky and Ben today and see the photos of Meg on the wall and see again what a beautiful person she was. So this post is dedicated to Meg, her family, Becky and to all of the small ways that we can touch people and do good in this world by giving freely and helping others and smiling more often at the people around us.

This and That and how Jesus was Boring!

Here is a video of Ryan walking at 15 months. He's getting more confidant but still crawls after awhile of walking.


And Max made this the other day. It's an airplane/submarine. He's also been making up stories about the "Gumbel-Gumbel" so when you're around him, be sure to ask him to tell you about it. It's always very interesting.

From September 2010

One more thing...
As I was driving with the boys, Max said, "Jesus loves me". "Yes, he does", I replied (thinking awwwwwww, of course). The he said, "Jesus was boring. He was a little baby". Okay, just switch born with boring and you get what he was trying to say. haha

First Day of School

After moving to Renton, I was able to find several moms who wanted to do a co-op preschool. There were 6 moms in total so we decided to do 2 separate groups. Max is a part of the older kids co-op so he and two little friends will have school every Wednesday. Each mom will teach for a month at a time in her home and then have two months off. This is perfect for us and I'm totally excited. We got together and picked our monthly themes and the basic daily outline. Yesterday was an introduction to school. Here's a summary from my friend who is teaching the first round:
1st circle time we did the church "Hello Song", Absent & Present chart, ABC song & did Letter Bag C.
2nd circle we talked about learning at home, church, and school
I explained the rules: Helping hands, kind words, and listening ears (I might change them to just circle time rules)
I read aloud "Don't let the Pigeon Drive the Bus"
We painted a yellow bus
We made ABC block towers together, ABC hopscotch, and take turns picking a letter sticker.
Max had a blast.
Here he is holding a little poster to show all of his favorite things.

From September 2010

He has officially entered the cheesy smile phase. Here he is at joy school.

From September 2010

And with one of his new friends

From September 2010

Camping in Grand Coulee, WA

We had a fabulous weekend. We did get rained on but it was mostly at night and we have a fabulous water repellent tent. It rained the morning we were in charge of breakfast but it relented a bit and fabulous Heather came and made a fire for us while we were working with the cook stove.
Here's Sarah who's always coming up with fun games for the kids (red light, green light)

From September 2010

From September 2010

The cozy campsite

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Cute kids, great view

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From September 2010

Megan put on a magic show

From September 2010

Ryan and Landon cleaned up the dirt

From September 2010

They had a playground on the beach with a bunch of old school toys that you can't find anymore because they're so "unsafe". Thank you Grand Coulee for the nostalgia and fun

From September 2010

We were surprised that Max liked it so much

From September 2010

Ride 'em cowboys

From September 2010

From September 2010

The kids found a praying mantis which was a hit

From September 2010

From September 2010

From September 2010

We celebrated a few September birthdays including Sarah's which meant that we had to embarrass her. It really is the law.
We had her play, "pin the tail on the husband"

From September 2010

Everyone enjoying the fun. Not sure why Max has covered his eyes

From September 2010

What Sarah saw when the blindfold came off

From September 2010

(That's Shane--NOT her husband, Andy)
Yes, he was in on it. Mwahahaha

From September 2010

Waiting for the laser show at the Grand Coulee Dam

From September 2010

From September 2010

The dam at night

From September 2010

The show

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On the way we stopped at Dry Falls

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From September 2010

From September 2010

So much fun! Thanks to the Sarah and family, Heather and family and Jennica and family for a FABULOUS time!

Fifteen 1/2 Months

Our sweet Ryan Anthony is 15 1/2 months old. He saw the doctor and he is doing so well. He still crawls sometimes but he's a much more confidant walker. His smile melts our hearts. He signs "more" and "please". He says, "mama", "dada", "nana(banana)" and flies airplanes complete with airplane noises. He loves to ride his rocking horse and he loves to wave bye bye. He weighs 24 lbs. and 15 oz (55th percentile). He is 31.5 inches long (60th percentile) adn his head is 51cm (99th percentile). Here are some pics I took today:
Here's my camera-shy-future heartbreaker

From September 2010

And his partner in crime

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From September 2010

He missed 2 Christmases but Finally Got His Two Front Teeth

December 2008--one month after the crash--the joke was that all Tony wanted for Christmas was his two front teeth (this was facial reconstruction time). December 2009---the joke was that all Tony wanted for Christmas was his two front teeth (this was jaw surgery time). But September 14th was like an early Christmas! ; )
Tony had his two broken teeth (there were two broken on either side of the gap where the two missing teeth were) pulled and bone stimulating compound put into his jawbone to prep it for implants. In the meantime he gets a snazzy bottom retainer with four false teeth. This man is gorgeous teeth--or not, but here are a few pictures of the new smile!

From September 2010

From September 2010

And Tony being Tony (the red you see is just part of the retainer)

From September 2010

A Not-So-Wordless-Wednesday

I've had to be creative about activities this week. We had to cancel a few playdates because Ryan isn't quite better. Some clues as to what we're dealing with are the fact that his bedsheet and crib bumpers haven't been on since Saturday. I have washed upteen outfits/towels, he has had 1 (or 2) baths everyday and a quote that was heard in our house yesterday from Max about Ryan was "Mom, there's poop everywhere!". Yes, yes, there was. So we haven't gone very far. He sees the doctor tomorrow. Something is going on in his little tummy. No more vomiting but well, still not fun. So we haven't gone too far from the house just in case. Yesterday we went to the library and today we went to the temple (just 15 minutes away now!), Deseret Book and the grocery store.
My little climber has turned lights on

From September 2010

and off

From September 2010

Airplanes even come in the bathtub around here

From September 2010

Riding the Pony (check out the cute airplane pjs from Aunt Patty)

From September 2010

And playing games (amongst other things)

From September 2010

I guess I didn't get a picture of Ryan's costume change. I hope his little sickness ends soon! ;)

Green Thumb Questions #2

Aunt Dorothy and Aunt Patty have such great knowledge, I just have to ask them a few more questions...:)

This is the front of our house with the mini-jungle. I'm going to remove the 3 maple trees because they're so close to the house. I'm also going to cut the irises down. How much would you leave above ground? Do you know what the little hedge in front of the door step is? I just want to trim it up, is that right? There's another monster something or other that I have a closer view of later.

From September 2010

Do you know what this is? It's kind of spread out all crazy-like. I'm not sure how to trim it up. I want to cut it down pretty small. Would that be okay?

From September 2010

This is a close up. It kind of reminds me of an Azalea but it's so big and out of control.

From September 2010

This is the tree monstrosity that is right in front of the house, blocking the window, etc. It's going, but I was wondering what it was.

From September 2010

Is this hosta okay? Do they get this dead? Do I cut off the tall things that grow out of the middle?

From September 2010

This is a different kind of bush. Do you know what it is and should I just trim it and shape it. Would now be okay?

Oh, and Aunt Dorothy, I was wondering what kind of hedge trimmer Uncle Ken used for the laurel. This one is pretty thick and so we need something much stronger than the little electric one that was here.