Warren the Singer

He's available to rent for parties and weddings-just call for pricing.

Beanbags and Cookies

For his birthday, Jake's Grandpa & Grandma gave him a beanbag chair. Both boys love to sit in it and look at books, but mostly they like to run and jump on it! I haven't captured that yet, but here are some cute ones of them relaxing in it.

Last weekend we went to Ryan's parent's home for the annual Christmas cookie decorating party. Dennis and Cathi and the Rutherford family have been getting together every year for the past I don't know how many years, probably since they were all in college, to decorate cookies, and at Easter time, to decorate eggs. It's quite a production now with the expansion of the families (our family alone is now 11, and the Rutherford's this year were 8), but it is a fun time to catch up and eat (decorate) some yummy cookies. I only got 1 picture this year, I was too busy frosting!

What do two VERY cute boys look like?

THIS!

How Boys Play with Toys

The Golden Compass

Hi all-

Al Mohler has a great review of the movie The Golden Compass and why we should be concerned as Christians about the message of the movie. You can read it on his blog here.

Birthday Fun!

Our little guy, our firstborn, is 3! His birthday was on Friday, and he had a blast turning a year older.

On Friday, he got presents from us and lots of balloons, which he and Warren loved. All the helium is gone now, but the boys are still playing with them, seeing what it takes to pop them (and torture mom). Warren's favorite method is biting.

We topped the day off with a pizza dinner (which Jake picked out) and cake with dinosaur candles.

Saturday afternoon we met Ryan's parents and the family at Downtown Disney and took Jake to the Rainforest Cafe for dinner. Before dinner, though, one of his presents from Grammy and Papa was to go to the Build-A-Bear workshop and make a stuffed animal. Jake picked out a puppy and named it Petey.

At Rainforest, we couldn't have had a more perfect spot to eat! They sat us right in front of one of the huge aquariums so we got to watch the fish swim during our meal. They kids all got a kick out of that.

After dinner, the 4 of us walked over to the huge Christmas tree on the way out to the car and took lots of pictures. Jake had been begging to see it ever since we arrived at the park, so we just couldn't turn him down.

All in all, it was a great celebration of one special boy!

Pre-Thanksgiving Fun

Before we left for my parent's, we had a little get-together with Ryan's fam. The kids made hats and actually kept them on for pictures. I guess Warren really likes his because he wore it to breakfast this morning.

Ouch

Good thing we already took our Christmas pictures...

Otherwise we would have had to wait a couple of weeks for this baby's face to mend!

Straight from the boy's lips

While gazing up at the sky the other day, Jake commented, "Look at all those birds, they're in a pile!"

Yep, It's a Baby

So I went yesterday for what I thought was just my registration appointment where I fill out all the paperwork, write my name and address a thousand times, decline all the genetics testing, affirm that my husband is the father (they really do ask that), and so on and so forth. And yes, I did do all of that, as well as let them take several vials of blood from me, but something new that Kaiser just implemented is performing an ultrasound at this appointment as well! I was pretty excited about this; I always am at the chance to see baby's heartbeat and wiggles on the monitor. Not so many wiggles this time, but a definite heartbeat. And only one baby too. I had thought perhaps that this might be a multiples pregnancy because of the way my body is expanding so rapidly so early on, but several people have told me that it's ok. This is my third after all, my tummy muscles aren't what they used to be, and I'm several years older than I was with my first. So who cares that I'm only 9 weeks and having to break out the ol' maternity jeans? (Me, a little, but I'll get over it.) I won't bore you all with a fuzzy ultrasound picture of what appears to be a peanut in my uterus, but I just wanted to share the rest.

I think that I am already starting to feel better. I don't want to say anything too early lest it not be true, but yesterday I ate breakfast and a huge lunch all without wanting to gag! Ryan's mom took us out to lunch for our usual Wednesday lunch date and after practically gorging myself because it felt so good to have a full belly, I felt great. So far this morning I've been ok too, so we will see.

We leave Saturday for the trek to my parents to spend the week there to celebrate Thanksgiving and Jake's 3rd birthday. It will be nice to get away for a while and maybe have to wear a jacket. It's much cooler up there than our recent 80's and 90's. Crazy fall weather.

Happy Thursday everyone.

No No says the Wookie

Warren's new favorite word is "no." He uses it all the time, even when he means to say yes! If we ask him any question he answers in the negative. Here's a cute example:

And the reason I called him the Wookie is because of this:


This was Jake's Chewbacca costume from 2 years ago and Warren loves to wear the hat!

Catchin Up

Hello to everyone.

My sister reminded me that it was about time to do another entry because it's been 2 weeks since my last post! Thanks sis, and here goes.

Even though this happened weeks ago, many of you may not know that the church in Kansas decided not to hire Ryan after all. As you might expect, because of our excitement and enthusiasm about moving to Kansas, we were quite disappointed and shocked. At first. We had, after all, already planned our lives in Emporia. In our minds, we were there. This was a done deal, no question about it. In hindsight though, we got ahead of God's plan for us. Sure, we prayed that His will be done and we only wanted to be where He wanted us, but we were convinced Kansas was where He wanted us! We are so very thankful for the time we did spend out there and for the friends that we gained and the lessons learned.

Many of you ladies who suffer(ed) from morning (all-day) sickness during pregnancy may be thrilled to know that I, the one who skated through 2 blissfully un-sick pregnancies, am now finding myself wanting to run to the bathroom any time food nears the vicinity of my mouth. I have to eat though, because my insatiable hunger, if it goes for too long, makes my want to curl up in the fetal position and die. So I choke down as much food as possible at a sitting and hope it stays down. I also cannot brush my teeth without gagging at some point during the necessary ritual. Must be a girl this time because everything's so different, right? I know this may be TMI for some of you, but hey, pregnant women love to tell their stories!

What else...oh yes, my parents came for a visit a couple of weekends ago. We had a super time as usual, and also as usual, the time went way too quickly. My mom brought Warren back the quilt she made him and by his reaction, it was the coolest thing he had ever seen. By far. We laid it out on the carpet and he squealed with excitement and walked all over it. Pretty cute. My dad is known as the Candy Grandpa because he spoils these guys with it, and he was true to his name again. He also brought Jake a cool new semi-truck which Jake loves, but you'd never know it by the picture.


Lest you think by these pictures that my boys never smile, here's a great one of Jake playing outside a couple of days ago.



This morning after Ryan got home from school we went to the park and let the boys play for a good long time. They had lots of fun.

On a super-exciting note: Ryan registered for his last class in seminary! Woo-hooo! Party time! What a great time it has been for us to be here, but we are eager to move on to the next step. We can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for us.

That's about it for now. I hope you all are doing well and I look forward to hearing from you soon!

When's That Baby Due?

I keep getting asked that so I better address it.

Sometime in mid-June. I'll refrain from giving a specific date this time around even after I go to the doctor and get an official one because it's always wrong! Except if you're one of the 5% of women who actually deliver on their due date, and in their cases it was a fluke anyway because the doctors just don't know! My due dates for the past 2 babies were way off. I was late 6 days with number 1 and 8 days late with number 2, and would probably have gone way longer than 8 days if they had not induced and subsequently done an emergency C. So. Let's just say that sometime in June, possibly around the middle or middle-end of the month we are going to add a newbie to the mix.

There ya go.

Guess What?

Hey Everyone-

Check out these cute shirts I found for the boys...read them carefully!

If the shirts are hard to read:

Jake's says "I'm the biggest brother"

Warren's says "I'm the middle brother"

Home Again

Greetings to all.

I have come to the conclusion after 4 plane trips in 2 1/2 weeks that traveling with young children is hard! Fun (for the most part), but hard! I can't say that I want to get on an airplane with them again any time soon. It's stressful trying to keep them quiet and entertained. At least Jake is old enough to understand that he does need to be quiet and sit in his seat, but Warren is another story. Let's just say we were very thankful that he slept for a good portion of the flight coming home from Seattle.

This was on the tram from the parking lot to the terminal in Ontario.

Ah, Seattle. We loved visiting you. What a beautiful place with perfect weather. In case you think I'm crazy, Ryan and I are both cold weather lovers! We got to bundle up last weekend and wear coats! Amazing.

So a little about our "super fun" trip: We arrived Friday around noon and drove down to my sister's new apartment in Tacoma. What wonderful timing that she and her family moved there for us to be able to visit with them. She and the kidlet and just arrived the night before we did, and Isaac had already been there a week or more, I believe, because he drove the moving van cross country. We had a very fun, yet way too short, visit with them. At least we are all on the same coast now, instead of them being in Georgia.

That night we had dinner with Ryan's entire side of the family (minus a few cousins who were unable to make it) which was really fun.

Saturday morning, we drove up to Seattle with Ryan's parents and sister, Natalie, for a tour of Nat's school and home, plus some of the city. The city was so gorgeous with all the fall colors blooming. Natalie showed us some of her favorite spots and some of the famous touristy spots, such as Pike's Market (I think that's what it's called-it is where they throw the fish around in movies).

This is the park where Natalie runs, the gasworks. Poor thing having to take in so much beauty when she's exercising.

In the afternoon, it was back to the airport where we left Ryan's backpack in the rental car garage to retrieve it (we gave much praise to God that it was still there because there was very important stuff in there-Bibles, Ryan's study notes, etc.) and then back to Tacoma to get ready for the wedding. The wedding was nice, but again, stressful trying to keep the little guys occupied and quiet for the ceremony. Ryan and I took Warren back to the hotel early, about 8 p.m., while Jake stayed with Grammy and Papa and danced the night away, or so we heard!

We stayed in the Marriot hotel in downtown Tacoma and had a great view from our room as you can see from the pictures. Tacoma, like Seattle, is a beautiful city.

On Sunday, we had the great joy of going to the church that Ryan's good friend from seminary, John LeProhon, is now the pastor of. He just started about a month ago. The church is in Kent, WA, if anyone in the area is looking for a fantastic church with a great preacher.

After church, Jess and Isaac drove up to Kent and we had lunch with them. We spent another couple of hours with them, which all the boys were happy to do.

We stayed with the LeProhon's that night and left Monday morning for home. When we left Washington, it was in the 50s. When we arrived back in Ontario, it was 90. Yuck.

So that's about it. Traveling over for now. If you want us to come and visit you and we must take a plane to get there, don't ask. At least not for a while.

Hope everyone is doing well, drop me a note to say hi!

Two boys = Twice the Fun

So I was in my bedroom folding laundry yesterday and the boys were out playing in the family room. I noticed that it had gotten really quiet all of a sudden, but instead of rushing out to see what they had broken or gotten into, I decided to let them work it out and come tell me if they needed anything. Another minute goes by and I see Jake walking towards my room towing Warren by his feet! I had just enough time to run and get the camera and capture a short video. I love it that they are starting to play with each other now, just warms the heart!

Catching Up

Well, after getting settled and back into our routine, we're off again! This time we are traveling to Tacoma, WA for a wedding. Ryan's cousin is getting married Saturday. I think this weekend will be even more packed than our Kansas weekend, if you can believe that, because we are cramming lots of stuff in. We land at about 1 p.m. tomorrow (Friday) and are heading straight to my sister's new apartment in Tacoma. We will spend the afternoon with her and the fam and then that night we have a large family get together with all the cousins and aunts & uncles on Ryan's side. Saturday, we will drive up to Seattle to visit Ryan's sis and see her apartment and college campus, back down and maybe squeeze in another visit with my sis, then the wedding. Sunday we are going to the church that Ryan's good friend from seminary, John LeProhon, just became pastor of, then we'll head back to John's house to stay there Sunday night. Our flight is on Monday at 1ish. The weather will be cold for us, low 50's or so. We are really looking forward to that! I'll let you all know how it was next week.

Some pics:

Warren sitting on the cow chair.

Some Sillyness

Jake enjoys "helping" us do the dishes, but it's more just him splashing in the water and filling up cups and bowls with water. Here he is playing with the noodles that were moments away from being destroyed by the garbage disposal.

Will someone please tell me how these guys grow up so fast right underneath your nose?! I have found that "cherish every moment" is an appropriate mantra while parenting very young children (and older children, I'm sure!). "Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights..." -James 1:17

We're Home...

After 3 great days in Kansas, we made it back. The trip was everything we hoped it would be, and more. Thank you to everyone who prayed for us this weekend and for safety in travel; we saw the goodness of God through the whole weekend. There is far too much that happened to write about here, but I'll summarize:

We had a pleasant plane ride early Friday morning. The boys were very good and Jake was thrilled at his first time on a plane! Pastor Dave picked us up from the airport and took us back to his house where we relaxed and played all afternoon until 6:30 when we went to John & Maria Wernli's home for some delicious barbecue brisket and lots of other goodies. At the dinner we met the elders of the church and their wives. John's brother, Dave, who is on the board of elders, has an ATV and gave all the kids rides around the property. It was the highlight of the evening for Jake. Well, except maybe for running around after the chickens, he liked that too!

On Saturday Ryan and I spent time with each elder. In the morning we had breakfast at George and Rose's home for Ryan's favorite, biscuits and gravy. George then drove us around Emporia and gave us the grand tour. It is a very nice little town and Ryan and I could definitely see ourselves living there. We then went to lunch at Barry and Joy's house with the boys. They have a playroom and goats (who were outside and not in the playroom), so it was great bringing the boys. We had a very pleasant time with them talking about what Ryan's position would be at church and different ideas about the ministry. After lunch, we took the boys back to Pastor Dave's house where we were staying so they could take a nap because Dave Wernli was picking us up to drive us around the Flint Hills. It was a great time of sightseeing and talking about, well, everything with Dave. He showed us around his family property and farm house and taught us about silage, which is what they feed their cattle. While very different from the California landscape, Emporia and the Flint Hills possess their own beauty, and I very much enjoyed seeing them.

Sunday morning Ryan and I met with the Jr. and Sr. High group for a little get-to-know-us time. Ryan then preached during the service (very well I thought!) and we went out to lunch with John Wernli, his son, and his sister and family at a great Mexican place. Warren couldn't stand not being the center of attention, so as a grand finale he threw a big glass plate off the table. Good times.

Sunday afternoon, Ryan met with Pastor Dave and the elders for the grilling time. They asked him lots of questions and he asked them some questions. I hear it went pretty well. Sunday eve was a potluck at church for us to get to know some of the families who go to Flint Hills Christian Church. We very much enjoyed that time and met some great people.

One strange coincidence (or shall I say providence) was that Pastor Dave is a huge Chicago Bears and Cubs fan! If you didn't know, Ryan also inherited this strange trait to have in California from his dad. So Sunday night, the Hintz family and us all went back to the Wernli's home to watch the Bears (lose) play. That's Jake in the background wrestling with Jonathon, John's son. Warren is on the right, and the other two are Nathan and Amberly, the 2 younger Hintz kids. They also have an older girl, Julia.

Monday was pretty relaxed in the morning; the boys played with the Hintz kids and we packed up and left for the airport at 3:00 for our 6:40ish flight. That's something pretty different for us, the airport is 100 miles away so you have to leave way before the flight. Another mostly uneventful flight; Warren slept for a good 2 hours and Jake was very quiet. We were all so exhausted from a long weekend, and very sad to go. We couldn't have asked for a better weekend in terms of the wonderful people we met. They loved on us and showed us so much kindness. We felt like we fit right in!

So what's the next step? Well, on both sides, we will take the next week or two to go over the weekend, process all that happened, and after much prayer decide if the Lord is leading us to Kansas.

Jake exclaimed Friday morning when we woke him up at 4:50 a.m., "This is gonna be fun!" Right on kiddo.

Kansas

"Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya, tomorrow, you're only a day away!"


Tomorrow's the day folks! We leave early a.m. for our trip to Kansas. We have to be out of the house by 5 a.m. to be at Ryan's mom's by 5:30 so she can get us to the airport by 6. Yikes! We are all so eager to see what the Lord will do on this trip, and Jake is very excited about the plane ride and getting to play with the chickens at John & Maria Wernli's home! Our plans have been changed slightly, as we are now staying with the pastor and his family (the Hintz's) instead of the Wernli's because Maria ruptured her Achilles tendon and is, understandably, not able to have the 4 of us romping around her house. This works out great though, because Dave and Becky Hintz have 3 kids, 2 of which are our boys' exact ages. So they will have lots of fun playing together.

I can't wait to tell you all about it, we return Monday night, so I'll hopefully be able to write something here Tuesday. Have a great weekend, check out Mike Huckabee, talk to everyone soon!

Values Voters

In case you missed the debate on Monday night (I know, you're probably saying, "What debate?"), here is a great clip from Mike Huckabee. It was the Values Voters Debate where Huckabee won with 63% of the vote. Amazing. Huckabee has the momentum and all he needs is for all of us to keep spreading the word. He mentions in this clip that the presidency should not be about who has the most money, and he's right. It should be about who will make the best President. Watch this short clip and let me know what you think about him.




Also, check out One Mom's blog, she is a large part of the grassroots campaign to elect Gov. Huckabee for President.

Walking

Warren sure is taking his sweet time walking! It's very fun watching him wobble around and learn how to walk. For your viewing enjoyment:

Huckabee '08

Hi folks,

If you haven't already done so, I encourage you all to take a look at Mike Huckabee's web site. I know many of you may have already made up your mind about your candidate for the presidential election in 2008, but it's worth giving other candidates a shot. Huckabee was formerly a Baptist Minister and his concern for the country and the issues we face is genuine. He is right on with the issues and knows that as President, he is a servant to the country, not the other way around. If you like what he has to say, please pass the word on to people you know about him. Let's get his name out there!

Secret Confession

I can't wait to move! Doesn't matter if it's Kansas, Italy, Alaska, or Castro Valley, I'm just itching to get out of this house, neighborhood, city! I really have enjoyed living here, there are so many positive things about this place: we have a large fenced yard for the boys to play in; there is Anabelle, Jake's age, for a companion; we are close to Ryan's family (which is great for a variety of reasons--free babysitting, grandparents close by, a cool air-conditioned home when it is 100 degrees here, etc.); the rent is very reasonable; I have a very large kitchen and ample storage space for the size of the apartment; it's a very cute little place; and not the least of which is that we've seen our boys grow and learn here, which is what will make living anywhere special I suppose.

But, this place is noisy! The infernal birds come twice a day and either wake us up, or keep us up at night. The home is really old and most of the windows don't close properly so dust and noise can freely enter. From outward appearances this is a nice, quiet, peaceful street, but make two right turns and you're on the major street that runs through Arcadia and Temple City, so we've got lots of through traffic near us. AND, the tree cutters were here this morning chopping down a tree in our yard at 7 a.m. Of course we were awake (actually Ryan was at work already) but it's the principle of the thing! I long for a nice, quiet home away from the big city.

I know that all those things really don't matter much, I think what's really going on is that we are just ready for the next step. Our time here is coming to a close and we want to move on. We go to Kansas on Friday and it's been hard waiting to see what will happen!

So there you have it, I'm ready to go!

Soaking up all the beach we can get!

We went to the beach again last Sunday with Ryan's family for a little BBQ. We all had fun, especially Jake and his cousin Hannah, who always have a great time together playing, and this time they got to play in the ocean! It's so cute seeing all the cousins together and now Jaina is starting to get interested in the big kids too. She loved Warren and was giggling and talking to him as they sat in their car seats together. I didn't take many pictures, just some cute ones of Jaina and Warren. Jaina is becoming a beautiful little girl, I love this picture of her.

As usual, we had to strap Warren down while we ate, or else he would have been all over the place getting sand in everything. Thank goodness for car seats that double as a restraining seat. After we ate, he was entertained for a long time climbing (and falling) all over the seat.

Cuddling Brothers

The boys are in the habit of bringing their pillows out in the morning and playing with them on the couch. It's awfully cute because they usually exchange pillows and just play together for a little while.

Last week we put a clock in the boys' room and taught Jake how to tell when it was 7:00 a.m. in an effort to keep them in their room longer than 6:00 in the morning. They wake up at that time usually so we thought we would give it a try to see if they will just play in there for a while. So far it has worked! Jake comes out at 1 or 2 minutes after 7 and proudly announces, "It's 7!" We can hear them playing starting at about 6:30 when they are both awake enough to play together. Sometimes Jake reads books, plays with the play mat on the floor, or jumps on the bed, but mostly he gets all the stuffed animals off the shelf and puts them in Warren's crib, along with anything else he finds on the floor!