Boyden Bash

The City of Boyden celebrated 125 years this weekend and had tons of activities. We had a fun grill-out at one of my HS friends' parents house on Friday where we got to see old friends and all their cute kids (14 kids under 5!!). I of course don't have any pictures but as soon as I get one from Cheri (yes, she was there with her camera), I'll post it.

On Saturday, Adam had a tournament so I took the kids to the parade and met up with my sister's family. The kids LOVED the parade. We knew it was going to be good when they were jumping up and down and waving with the first ambulance and were excited for their first handout--a brochure on the fire station.  There was LOTS of candy and other fun giveaways and they loved the trucks, tractors, and just friendly people waving!

 After the parade, I took the boys down to the park where they played for a while and then Ryan went through the inflatable obstacle course twice. It was a "race" style but he just went on his own while some older kids (and some smaller kids) barreled past him even though they started in the rounds after him.  It made me smile though to see him sitting at the top of the last tall slide chanting to himself "I can do it, I can do it" (Last time he was on a tall inflatable slide, Aunt Kim ended up having to go up to the top to get him!) He had a lot of fun but decided he didn't want to eat at the park and Cohen was just about falling asleep in the stroller so we decided to head home instead of waiting for some of the other activities to start. I had to wake them both up after 3 hour naps that afternoon!

Thanks, Boyden, for a great weekend of activities!

Summer Fun

 Ryan kept claiming that a bird was "staring at him through his window" during nap time and I have to admit I was skeptical. However, a few hours later I went and checked out his window well. We discovered this little fellow just hanging out on the ladder, staring at the window indeed. We watched him unsuccessfully try to fly out a few times and a few hours later he apparently made it out.

Cohen's favorite (and messiest) part of the backyard:

The boys loved a new little pool I picked up. Cohen didn't like sitting in it but liked splashing around the outside and throwing things in it.

Cohen loved filling up buckets in the sprinkler and then dumping the water out (sometimes in his mouth).

We went out for ice cream and played out side one night to celebrate Father's Day with Adam's parents. Cohen found a fool-proof way to win at ring-toss.

We enjoyed a grill-out and frozen yogurt at de zoete winkel with my sister's family and Ryan and Saylor posed in their new cut-outs.

One Saturday morning I woke up to find Adam and Ryan staining the playset (yes, my wonderful husband and a sleepy Cohen let me sleep until 8:00.) Ryan helped with the lower parts and then Adam finished during their naptime. It was long hot work, but looks great!

Ryan and Cohen testing out their new Twins rug for their upcoming shared bedroom. Nika is checking out her new go-to spot for nightly book reading.

We've had a great summer so far and looking forward to even more fun!

20-week ultrasound with Great News!

We anxiously awaited our 20-week ultrasound to find out how our little babe was doing and for more information on the placenta previa. We immediately got great news! Everything had shifted the way we wanted and I was completely cleared of previa and can now expect a normal pregnancy and delivery. Praise the Lord for answered prayers! Everything looked great for our precious babe.

We didn't get a great profile shot or anything, but the ultrasound tech thought this one was funny with the baby holding up a little peace sign. You can just see the bottom of the face.

Father's Day

Dad and his boys

Cohen: 1 year, 6 months

Oh baby boy, where have you gone? With your summer haircut (and summer skinned knees), you are growing up before our eyes!

Cohen is getting faster and faster and better at climbing. Sometimes this is good when playing at the park and in our backyard, but other times it means he ends up on the kitchen table joyfully experimenting with the salt shaker! He's developing a mind of his own and has a little tantrum routine he's worked up "No! No!" with double-arm waves, then running toward the offensive object/person and hitting it.

He loves getting dirty outside in the sandbox/sand and water table and somehow hasn't learned from multiple attempts that wet sand doesn't taste that good (or maybe it does--maybe we're all missing out.)

Little Dutch boy in a wooden shoe.

He loves running around chasing his brother or Nika and running FROM mommy whenever I'm trying to catch him. He HATES coming inside after playing.  He is not very picky when it comes to food and is really enjoying watermelon and grilling season. The kid also enjoys a good french fry (something Ryan does not appreciate) and ice cream. Inside, he still loves playing with marbles but will also entertain himself with trains, super heroes, Jake's ship, hot wheels, a little piano, or throwing balls of any kind. We didn't think he paid much attention to the TV and gets no say in what we watch, but he loves dancing to theme music and seems to especially like "Paw Patrol". He only pays attention to the TV, though, if he's in his high chair eating breakfast. He definitely has an interest in screens (phone, ipad) but we haven't really let him play or do anything yet. I'm sure we'll have enough of that later.

Petting Nika "niiiiiice"

Cohen is attempting more words like shoe, swing, sand, let's go, books, and catch and imitates quite a few animal sounds. In addition to calling us Mama, Dada and Ry-Ry, he is also now pointing to himself and saying "me Co-Co." It's pretty cute how he says it, but I hope he doesn't regret that the kids at daycare (and we sometimes) call him Coco. Maybe it's better long-term than his other daycare nickname - Smudgy!

Cohen is overall a pretty content child, loves going for stroller rides, playing outside, taking baths, reading books, and goes down to sleep pretty easily between 8:00 and 8:30 and sleeps until 7:00 or even 8:00 (on the weekends.)  He loves his brother, but is getting to the point where they compete over toys so that becomes tricky, especially when a majority of our toys are technically Ryan's, so we've instilled a "all the toys are for sharing with everyone" and the only ones Ryan gets to keep from him are the small Legos. Cohen also likes to climb up on the kitchen chair and color with Ryan and his attempts to eat the crayons are lessening.

Official 18-month stats:

27 lbs. 4 oz. (86%) He only gained 4oz. in the last 3 months.

32.5" (53%) He gained 1.5" in the last 3 months.

1st Selfie?

Summer Meeting

This year's Pizza Ranch summer meeting was a little less extravagent than the past 2 years at Disney World and the Kalahari at the Wisconsin Dells. We were in Sioux Falls for a few days of meetings and celebrating while learning about how we are moving forward. It didn't work to take the kids this year, but Adam was able to join me for the Award's banquet and stay overnight 1 night.  Here are a few pics from the event.

Allan Greene from LifeLight talking to our group. We spent a few hours at the LifeLight grounds doing a service project.

Packing volunteer bags at the LifeLight grounds office.

Registration gift-ready to learn about PR's "Next Chapter"

Awkward selfie before the awards banquet, checking out my 18.5 week baby bump.

It was a great/exhausting few days and I only had a little energy to do some needed shopping on my way out of town since I never get to Sioux Falls. It was good to be home and see my boys again!

Boone Bros

A few random snapshots of Ryan and Cohen in some of their sweeter moments.

Ryan: 4 years, 8 months

Our curious, talkative, wild-and-crazy boy is keeping us on our toes! From his funny questions to his declarations that "I know everything about...(planets, dinosaurs, animals, farms, bugs, etc.)," and then attempts to prove it, we know it'll never be quiet with him around. This picture is from Kingdom Kids where he loves it when I am the "teacher". He gets to do all sorts of things like play playdoh, color, do crafts, listen to stories, sing songs, have animal crackers, and run around with 20 other 3-4 year olds!

He has been using his imagination a lot lately, coming up with storylines and roles for everyone to play, whether it's exploring space in the rocketship at Kinderspeeland park, creating a band out of buckets and spoons, or playing "castle" at home (he is the knight, I am the princess, Cohen is the baby king, and either Daddy or Nika is the dragon, depending on who is a more willing participant), there's always something going on.

Ryan still likes coloring and was pretty excited about a box of 64 crayons I brought home one day (I was getting tired of hunting for the tiny stub of red and peach). He's branching out from the usual people, sky, flowers drawings to include things like an Angry Birds/piggy setup. His favorite things to draw with chalk are always a big pirate ship and a mermaid (with my help). He also begs to do "experiments" all the time, so we have a few science experiment books for kids and lots of things pinned on Pinterest. Anything involving baking soda and vinegar is usually a hit.

One funny story from this month was an afternoon I attempted to take a nap after the boys were down for their's. I vaguely heard movement in the kitchen, but ignored it for a while. After a good hour, I discovered a very purple-sticky face Ryan washing his hands in the sink. After much prompting, he kept lying and making up stories about what he was doing. I finally sent him to his room for not telling the truth and lo-and-behold he fell asleep. Nika's constant whining under his dresser clued me in to the box of mini Fruit Roll-ups and scissors stashed there. That along with purple mess on his sheets and face gave me the ammo to finally get him to fess up that he'd snuck upstairs, gotten the new box of treats, opened 3 of them with an adult scissors, and ate them in his bed. He was completely amazed at how I knew. Moms are geniuses, I tell you.

Another one of Ryan's favorite things about Spring is that the bugs are back. Yay! : /  We let him bring his net and bug box on a walk around the hospital pond and Puddle Jumper trail and he was totally in his element, acting like Wild Kratt. This is where he is most happy:

Here's our happy, silly, ticklish, ready-to-wrestle Ryan!