Sunday Best

Ryan has more Sunday clothes than there are Sundays left in this season/size. I'm not sure why I even bought fancy clothes when we usually go to the "casual" service in which neither Adam nor I wear anything fancier than jeans. Plus, Ryan rarely actually goes into the church sanctuary.

We usually bring him straight to the nursery when it is attended. It allows us to get more out of the service, doesn't disturb those around us and he has fun playing with new toys and new people. This Sunday we went to the early service, so I put him in more formal clothes. Sure hope the nursery attendants enjoyed seeing Ryan in his Sunday best!

He ended up wearing his fancy clothes to my parents where we had an incredible Thanksgiving meal with my sister and her husband, my grandma, and my grandpa. It was fun to watch my grandpa interacting with Ryan! They rolled a ball back and forth and Ryan even stole grandpa's walker and ran away with it! Everyone liked seeing how much he's improved in his walking. He now walks around the house from room to room and will walk to objects instead of just people. In our house, he can walk from the kitchen all the way to his crib!

We enjoyed a wonderful afternoon with family!

Bye Bye Birdie

Saturday night Adam and I had a date night to our local high school musical, Bye Bye Birdie. It was such a great show! There are so many talented singers at our school--they had 7 make All-State this year! The show had a lot of funny moments and we had a great time. We were glad we didn't attempt to bring Ryan because I think he would have cried every time the girls screamed at the mention of "Conrad Birdie." Plus, it looks like he had a pretty good time at home with Uncle Wade and Aunt Abbie.

Bubble Bath

Daddy's Workout

In many home gyms, people use whatever is readily available in place of professional equipment. Broom sticks are great for shoulder stretches; water bottles or soup cans can be used as hand weights.

We also make do with what we've got.

Some enjoy it more than others.

Ryan's First Trip to the "Zoo"

Look at the smile on that kid's face. And I'm not talking about the one in the stroller.

As soon as I saw that Adam's brother lives mere minutes from Cabela's, alarm bells started going off in my frugal mind...until I came up with a plan. I look forward to the day when Ryan is about 7 and all his friends are raving about going to the Henry Doorly Zoo and Ryan's going to be like, "Yeah, I go to see the animals too, and the aquarium. The stuffed moose is my favorite...and the geese flying overhead, they're neat too." Because basically my plan is to convince him that Cabela's IS the zoo so we can go for free instead of shelling out the big bucks just to see some emu and elephants. If he's lucky, I might even buy him some kettle corn in the parking lot. Or better yet, a stick of the finest beef jerky preservatives can preserve.

Another great thing about this zoo is that you can get closer to the bear cage!

Unfortunately, any money saved on fake zoo visits will probably be spent on hunting and/or fishing gear at Cabela's.

Because there are basic necessities when you're hunting wascally wabbits.

Husker Country

Last weekend we took a trip to Adam's brother and sister-in-law's.  One of the highlights this time were tours of both of their workplaces. First, we visited Andy's first grade classroom!

 

"So, Buster...we meet again."  

Ryan got to try out the special "wiggle seats" that are offered to students who have trouble sitting still. They are slightly inflated and cause you to have to constantly move to balance yourself.  Andy has done so much work putting together his classroom. He has a lucky bunch of first graders!

After the school tour, we headed to Wheatfield's for a supper celebrating Adam's grandma's 75th birthday! There was so much to choose from and the only thing that kept me from devouring the dessert case was the promise of birthday cake at home. 

It happened to be the night before Halloween but I'm not sure what was scarier for the local Husker crowd- the eight foot spider hanging from the ceiling, or the presence of a one-year-old in an Iowa Hawkeye warmup. We actually heard the disgusted comment from the party sitting behind us! HA! Go Hawks!

After supper, we toured the public areas of the hospital where Kim works. It is beautiful and has the most amazing bathrooms--each stall has it's own sink! Also, Ryan threw his pacifier into the hospital's waterfall/fountain. I hope his wish comes true.

We had a great time with the family and are grateful to Andy and Kim for letting us stay with them! Ryan loves spending time with you and so do we!

Blocks from Great Grandpa

Last weekend, Ryan opened his birthday present from Adam's Grandpa and Grandma. Ryan knew just what to do! He tore into the wrapping paper, took off the lid, tossed aside the tissue paper and then pulled out his new blocks!  Great-grandpa had made him a whole set of painted wooden blocks that fit into a special wagon he can pull.  Ryan thought they were pretty neat and likes knocking down the towers we build. What a special gift!

Now if we can only convince him to stack them instead of eat them.