Random Boy Updates!

Ryan and I have found ourselves laughing on a daily basis at our 4 year old!! He is always telling the most hilarious stories or making a funny comment. His prayers are always my favorite. The reason I love them is because he truly talks to God like I would talk to someone on the phone. Oh the things we can learn from our children. Tonight he said, "Dear Jesus, Thank you for the kids that I get to play with even though sometimes I don't know their names. Thank you for Sid even though sometimes he doesn't like me, and sometimes I have dreams about him. Amen" It cracked me up, it was just exactly what was on his heart and he told Jesus about it. It makes me so aware that I too can talk to God just as easily. Another thing that has been cracking me up is his infatuation with his new curtains. He use to have grey curtains that he called his elephant curtains, this was over a year ago. He just the other night said, "Thank you God for my new curtains, because they aren't scary and they don't have guys on them." All I have to say is "Thank-you God for 4 year olds that make us laugh!" Jude man is going through a "phase." He is our little baby which is probably why this phase is happening. He loves mommy and daddy and really only cares to be around us. At times, we are followed around by a crying Jude! He has a very particular personality. He will only eat things a certain way. For instance, if we give him a part of a banana he won't eat it. He wants the whole banana with the peel on. If we take the peel off, he won't eat it. This can be a very frustrating experience. Jude also makes us laugh a lot. He will just glare at us sometimes for no reason. He will avoid eye contact like he is shy when we look at him in his car seat! I just love his little faces and wish I could paint a picture for you. He is such a sweet boy and truly has a sweet spirit. He will give me kisses for a half hour at a time. I love the kisses more than one can know!!!!

Landon Turns 4 officially & Thanksgiving!

Landon's birthday is November 23rd, so naturally it falls around Thanksgiving time certain years. This year it fell on the day after Thanksgiving. We spent Thanksgiving in Minnesota, so Grandma Jeannie was so nice and helped us plan a fantastic day. We visited a train museum, McDonalds and finished it off with a pizza birthday party later that night. I am truly grateful for my in-laws, couldn't ask for better! Here a few pictures that capture our weekend in Minnesota!

Landon's 4th Birthday Party- ART WARS!!

Ryan is definitely the creative mind of the family. We were discussing Landon's birthday party which I usually plan and do on my own. Since he had the time he decided to help me this year. We kept discussing themes and my noncreative mind thought let's just do super heroes or power rangers because Landon loves that. Ryan had this idea that it would be really cool to have an art party. We argued about it a little bit, because Landon will do art work for about 2 minutes and then he is done. I argued that I didn't think Landon would really like it. The more Ryan talked about the party and what we could do it started growing on me. We decided that we would have stations for the party where they could complete different art projects and then include a couple games. We had a large art mural hung up at one end of the church gym, this was the finger painting station. They were all working to create a masterpiece. The other station was ty-dye. This one was heavily supervised by adults, but the kids were able to take home their shirt at the end of the night. After craft time was over, we played a power ranger game, pin the belt on the megazord. Ryan really wanted this game because he can still as a child remember playing pin the tail on the donkey and thinking it was so funny when people would pin it completely wrong. The kids did well, and a lot of them were actually really close to the target. To complete the night, we finished with a paint sword fight. The kids all were given a foam sword and then told they could dip it in paint and attack Jon Evans, John Vanderpool, Nate Simonson and Ryan. This was probably the high light of the entire party. They kids stripped down to their underwear to make sure they wouldn't ruin anything. I think almost every party Landon has had there have been children at least missing shirts! We are so grateful and God is so good! We have a healthy, growing, creative 4 year old! Our prayer for Landon this year is that he continues to understand God's love for him! It's so easy as parents to fail, but we hope and pray that we can continue to point Landon to God and show him that God never messes up!

Halloween 2012

Halloween was different this year as Landon knew exactly what he wanted to be. He would settle for nothing other than the Blue Power Ranger. We wanted to try to find a power ranger costume for Jude too, but decided to go with the Elmo costume we already had. Jude does love Elmo, but not as much as Landon did at this age. It is funny because Jude seems to grow up faster on us than Landon did. Landon loved Elmo until I was so sick of Elmo I forced him to like something else. Jude is already into super heroes and ninjas. Not sure if this older brother thing is good or not? Here's a few of the Halloween pictures we took! They were too spoiled!

The Apple Orchard 2012

This year at the Apple Orchard was beautiful weather!! We were a little worried that it would be cold because we waited until the end of October to go. We had perfect weather. The corn pit was the hit this year. It was crazy how busy the place was. When we first started going there you could go down the slide with hardly a wait. This year you had to wait for a burlap sack and then wait in line to go down the slide. It was still a lot of fun! It's fun to see Landon be able to do more the older he gets.

I feel so fortunate to have my family so close. It has been so fun to watch all these little ones grown into little people. Every year the event gets a little more wild as we just keep adding numbers! Grandpa Clate has been such a blessing to us all. I love that we can call him anytime and ask him about any question and he has the answers! Grandpas are amazing for that!