Yeah, Pistons! No matter where we live we gotta Rep-Re-Sent for our boys on the court! No one really cares that we cheer for the Pistons out here, but Ry has gotten some "looks" for wearing his Michigan hat! With football season just around the corner we've been getting the boys ready to help Daddy cheer for the games--especially now that we are out west and will be able to see more Broncos games!!
This weekend Ryan took the teens out of town for an activity down in Lincoln. To keep myself busy while he was gone (like I'm not busy already, right?) I decided to tackle a huge project I have been trying to accomplish for a long time...I painted my fridge! Yep, painted it. It was this huge avacado green monster in my kitchen, and now it is transformed! It took 4 cans of appliance spray paint and many hours to clean, sand, tape off, and paint it, not to mention the clean up, but it was sooooo worth it! Now for the next project on the list...
Of course Sam turned 6 months old 2 weeks ago, but it's been kind of crazy around here!! Sammy is now 20lbs. and 26.5in. long. He's in the 90th percentile for both his height and weight. (sounds really big, I know, but if you compare kids he's actually the same size Alex was at 5 months! He is following pretty closely in the steps of his big brother.) He's got two teeth and is obviously working on more. His favorite foods right now are bananas and sweet potatoes, though he gets so excited he shakes when he sees any food or a bottle coming his way!
He's smiley, giggly, drooly, and busy, busy, busy. He moves as much on the outside as he did on the inside! He "talks" all the time, sometimes very loudly.
He loves to play in his excersaucer. Sometimes he just sits in it and watches his big brother play with those admiring eyes and laughs at everything Alex does.
He's getting to the point of frustration that he hasn't learned to crawl yet. He gets so mad when he is reaching for something and can't get to it. He would be so close to crawling if he could get his body to stay up in the air, but instead he ends up shoving his little face down into the ground. But you can already see how motivated he is.
Sammy was recently graduated from mommy & daddy's bedroom to a little room all to himself! I was tired of hearing every little noise the big guy makes at night but we just aren't ready to put him in the same room as Alex--he still wakes up around 3 or 4am to eat and I don't want Alex waking up with him!! So, we had this extra "storage room" off the livingroom that we were using as a coat closet/junk collector. I found out that the people who originally lived in this house used it for the nursery as it is just big enough for a crib and a nightstand. Perfect!! I made some little curtains to cover the shelf and window and a few little decorative touches and voila! Sammy gets his own bedroom!
The view when you first walk in...
Here's the crib under the window...
The only decorative touches I had room for...
And the little munchkin himself, snuggled up with his blankie I crocheted for him since just like his big brother he wants to pull a blanket right up over his face when he's sleeping.
We are so happy and excited that Ryan passed his ordination exam and was ordained by our church this past Sunday. We are so thankful to God for this ministry he has given us, and this one more way he has blessed our family!
Saturday morning the ordination exam began at 11am. We took a quick lunch break at 12:30, and then the questions finished up around 3:15 or so. Ryan says God was good to him in that the questioning went really smoothly. He had a few difficult ones, but it went well overall. After that the counsel went to discuss the exam and came back to announce that Ryan passed unanamously! On Sunday there was a really nice luncheon in the gym and then a special ordination service at 1:30 when he was officially ordained by the church. Now Ryan can start reading all those books he's been waiting to read instead of studying for the ordination....or so he thinks....actually I have this list of home improvement projects that we keep saying we'll do "after the ordination." Hmmm...let's go find the toolbox!
No children were harmed in the making of this photo...he's just giving his cousin a kiss!
The cheeseball!
I think I mentioned before how Grams bought an extra Cozy Coupe for the boys to play in so they wouldn't have to fight over the one she had. Well, they are two happy cousins now!! Alex, Sam and I are staying at Grams and Grandpa's house for a few days to give Ryan some time to focus on studying for his ordination this weekend. We are having a good time already, we met Nate, Heather, & Cole at pizza hut with Mom & Jen and enjoyed some time to catch up. Cole came home with us for a few nights to Mom's house, so the boys get more time to play together. I think we are going to the mall tomorrow and to the zoo on Thursday, provided the weather cooperates, so I will post more pics later. (p.s. Miss you already, honey!)
Here are a few pics from last week of the boys playing together. I mean, I guess you can't really call it playing together, but they seem to be at least enjoying each other's company! Sam, of course, still LOVES to watch every move his big brother makes. And Alex fluctuates between bringing toys to Sam and taking toys away from him! But here's a little tidbit to make a mommy say "awwwwhh!": Alex has been spending the last few days at Grams house and apparently he spotted a picture of Sammy on the end table, picked it up, smiled really big and started talking to it! Maybe they will be friends after all!
Sammy & Alex go with us to most of the Youth Activities that we have. Often I take them home if it goes too late, especially if it's a Saturday night and they need to get a good night's sleep before church the next day. But they love being there. Sam loves to watch everybody and to get lots of loves from all the teens and give them his huge dimply smile. Alex loves to run, run, run. We often say that the team that can play a game with our son running around underfoot and not only win, but not injure the little guy gets extra points! The teens really seem to like having the kids there and are so sweet with them. These pics are from the volleyball games we had last weekend. You can see more pics of our activities on our youth group blog--just follow the link in the column to the right.
...we took a quick trip to Grams and Grandpa's house to see them and Uncle Matt who was there for the weekend. We had a good time grilling, playing in the yard, and watching movies. It was quite interesting at night since there were people sleeping in about every room available and babies that kept getting scared by all the thunder from the crazy storm we got...but most of us took a quick nap in the afternoon to make up for lack of sleep! It was nice to see Matt and to spend some time together. Mom got one of those Cozy Coupes off of Ebay, and the little boys were "sharing" it all weekend! :-) Grandmother that she is, she went out and bought another one so they each can have one next time they are together!
About a week and a half ago Aunt Jen came for a visit. She was here for 5 days, and for 5 days Alex had a constant . He loved it! And Sammy had somebody to hold him as much as he wanted. He loved it, too! A little spoiling from an Auntie is loads of fun. We didn't head out of town or go on any big trips, but we had a great time just hanging around here, playing with the kids, and watching HGTV! Thanks for coming and for your extra hands for a few days, Aunt Jen!
We now know why Sam was such a crabapple last week and why he kept waking up 2 times a night...He cut his first tooth! And it's a sharp little guy, too! No more teething on mommy's fingers, for sure! Of course I can't get a pic of it yet, there is too much drool and too many fingers in the mouth to get a good view! My baby's growing up!
Last week Aunt Jen was here for a visit. Alex hasn't really been sitting on the potty much lately what with all the family visitors and trips. It's just been too hectic. But I guess he wanted to show off what he knows about the potty to Aunt Jen because he up and decided to show the potty some attention! Here's what he has to say about it! He still does his "chatter" all day long, though he has almost 30 words that he knows now. I think there are a few mixed into this clip.
A little over a week ago the Coons came for a visit and spent some quality Nana and Papa time with the boys. Unfortunately the boys had head colds the whole time and I caught a stomache flu at the end of the week, so we weren't able to get out and do too many things, but we had a lot of fun playing here at home and actually remembered to take a good number of pictures!
People told me that the 2 year photo shoot would be the hardest. I thought they meant hard because of the "terrible twos," but that wasn't the tricky part of our photo shoot-- Alex behaved like a gem! The thing was just getting him to stay still long enough to actually get a shot! We were scheduled for 10am, and since there was nobody else scheduled until after 11am, the photographers took their time with us and eventually got a few shots that worked! The key to our success...a toy cell phone they had as a prop (not my choice of prop, but hey, it did the job) that really clicked with my son because of his obsession with cell phones! (Apparently Walmart's photo studio is owned by the Sears Photo studio, and is switching over to the digital program they use, so hopefully next time I have a photo shoot to post I will be able to do so from their website and not have to do a "gettofabulous" job like this one! Oh, well, I wanted to share the cuteness anyway!)
This one is sweet.
I like to do the pics I put on the shelf for our "family photos" in black & white.
This is the look that says, "Dude, did you ask if you could take my picture? I'm kind of on an important call here."
Yeah, Pistons! No matter where we live we gotta Rep-Re-Sent for our boys on the court! No one really cares that we cheer for the Pistons out here, but Ry has gotten some "looks" for wearing his Michigan hat! 
With football season just around the corner we've been getting the boys ready to help Daddy cheer for the games--especially now that we are out west and will be able to see more Broncos games!!
