Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is the official kick off for the Holidays. It also means we’ve survived the season of football, two youth conferences, and two boys’ birthdays, just in time for the busyness of the Christmas season.

We were with Gramps and Grams for Thanksgiving day, arriving a little late as I went to Wichita in the morning and ran a 5K with some friends from church. I haven’t been running much, and found the race difficult and was definitely the slowest in our group.  Once I’m finished, however, it feels great.

We missed Rob and Lori, Elliot and Sophie, who are recovering from Superstorm Sandy. You can check out their story here. We are looking forward to seeing them at Christmas now.

On Friday, Gramps and Grams treated our family to a Children’s Theatre event at Wichita’s Crown Uptown. We ate a very child friendly lunch of macaroni and cheese, hot dogs, chicken nuggets, French fries, applesauce and cookies, and then watched the performance Santa’s Magical Christmas. What a fun experience – thanks Mom and Dad! On a not so festive note, we discovered a leak coming through our dining room ceiling from the bathroom in our bedroom. When not with family, Russ spent the rest of his time throughout the weekend learning how and then fixing the problem. At first, we hoped the toilet just needed a new seal. Unfortunately, the problem was worse than that and included the need to repair additional pipes and a moldy floor as well. Of course, the home warranty insurance was useless. In the end, my amazing husband saved us money and has learned another handy skill. I’m so grateful for him!

Dellen’s Party

Dellen also enjoyed inviting several friends to the youth room for pizza and various games like pool, ping pong, and Wii. He drew his own birthday message on the wipe board. Love the dragon!Dellen’s party was much less chaotic and quite enjoyable. I was glad to put several faces to the names I hear him talk about. He looked forward to an activity where all the boys launched foam finger rockets at him. Below, he is all posed to fight them off. He was most serious. Grams and Gramps have been so much help during these parties – thank you! Gramps even taught some pool lessons along the way.

What fun life is when you are a seven year old boy. Love you Dellen!

Dellen is 7!

Loving this sweet sweet boy! Such innocent joy in his life and a strong determination in his approach to almost anything.

Celebrating you Dellen - you brighten our days!

A Friend’s Visit

It’s youth conference weekend, and we have a friend staying with us while the rest of his family is at SDYC. The boys are having a lot of fun with him.

Bows and Arrows

With Sam and Dellen’s birthdays two weeks apart, they end up opening their gifts from us at the same time and usually receive the same thing. This year each boy received his own bow with arrows. After Russ launched the arrows way out of our yard on a test shoot, we decided to take some further precautions. We are hoping that our neighbors on the south side of us, do in fact, never venture outback. We’ve only seen them a handful of times in almost two years, so we are betting that is the safest location in which to aim. We need some land in the country to raise these boys on!

Birthday Party at Gramps and Grams

The title of this blog post says it all. We had a fun evening celebrating Sam and Dellen in between their birthdays that are only two weeks apart. I took several pictures on my phone, which never turn out very clear. But even then, I couldn’t decide which were the keepers. Games being played, flames being lit, sweet smiles, missing teeth, puffs of air, wispy smoke, trick candles relighting. There was much fun each moment of the evening.

The Big 1.0.

Sam is 10! I can hardly believe it. He is very excited for this double digit birthday. We celebrated huge this year with a friend party in the church youth room that he invited several boys from his school, church and his football team to. It was a wild evening of rowdiness and fun. Sam, you are loved and truly celebrated. Each year has been a blessing to share with you as you grow. I am the luckiest mom in the world. We have a little saying that ends with me saying “I love you most than more” and it is absolutely true. Happy Birthday!