Raylan's Dedication

 Last Sunday we had the opportunity to have Raylan dedicated at church! This is a time when we publicly commit him to Christ just as Mary and Joseph took Jesus to the temple to dedicate him. We are committing as his parents to bring him up in home that loves and follows God. 

It was really fun to have Raylan's little girlfriend, Bella being dedicated too that morning! (Don't you just LOVE that huge flower on her head?! Adorable!) It was a very special morning for us and we were blessed to have lots of Bill's extended family with us that morning to celebrate. It was a bummer that Nana Jane couldn't be there in person, but since our church does a live feed online of the services, she was able to watch it all the way in Brazil! How awesome is that?!?

We went out to lunch afterwards with the grandparents. (Sorry the lighting is terrible in these pictures!) Raylan really loves chatting with Great Grandma Jo.....I think he really likes looking at himself in the reflection of her glasses too! 

Raylan, you are such a wonderful gift from God and we are so blessed that God chose us to be your parents. It is our prayer that you will have an ever increasing hunger for God. We pray that your eyes be focused on what's really important in life, that your ears be attune to God's voice and that your mouth would be used to speak words of truth to those around you. And most of all, that your little heart be full of God's love and love for others. We LOVE you SO much*

Labor Day

I don't know why, but for some reason I kept calling Labor Day, Memorial Day this year! Even when I typed in the title of this post, I wrote "Memorial Day"....good grief. Anyway, this year we had planned to meet up with our group of friends for a BBQ at the park and the kids were going to go fishing ect. But it was drizzly and gross out so changed venues to our friend Chase's house instead. Sawyer and I made some super yummy scotcheroo bars (Rice krispie treats with peanut butter and then a dark chocolate butterscotch topping.....D-lish!) to take with us. 

Sawyer has fallen in love with the game of chess, which makes his dad VERY happy! Sawyer challenges anyone and everyone to a game of chess whenever he gets the chance. So they played a couple of games before we headed off to Chase's house.

Everyone just brought their own stuff to throw on the grill and then a side to share and it turned out so well! We had a great time eating, playing games and hanging out together! We are so incredibly blessed to have such a wonderful group of friends that we get to see so often.

Kansas City

Last week Bill and I decided to take a last minute trip to Kansas city over the weekend! It's been a while since the two of us have gone away together without the boys and we thought that Kansas City would be a great option. This also meant leaving Raylan overnight for his first sleep over at Nana and Papas house....which I had a minor melt down, but everyone survived just fine! :) 

My sweet husband came home with some chocolates from this fancy chocolate shop, whose windows I drool over all the time when we walk by....and a very sweet card! What a great way to start off our weekend together!

 We stayed at this really nifty historic place in the Power and Lights District called Hotel Phillips. We enjoyed some drinks and appetizers while listening to the live jazz music at the hotel bar!

We had planned to spend the majority of Saturday just meandering around the plaza, shopping and just enjoy not having a stroller with us...but of course it was raining....we decided not to let that stop us so off we went! 

As we were headed to brunch, we walked past the grand opening of a store called Moosejaw and popped in for a bit. In honor of the opening, they had a photo booth, a fortune teller, free mustaches and free beer! (It's ten in the morning for goodness sake!) Yes, I wore my mustache around the entire time and thought it was great fun until we left the store and realized it wasn't quite as fun when no one else around you was wearing them anymore....so I took it off.

We headed to Brio for brunch and man did they deliver! I had stuffed french toast with berries and vanilla cream! I think I just about died right then and there......they were sooo good!

Bill had a bit more of a manly dish of some sort of spicy sausage omelet with potatoes or something...I really didn't give his dish the time of day since I was so engrossed in my own. 

Even though it rained intermittently, we had such a GREAT day ducking in and out of stores, eating way to much, saw a movie, hit a bookstore and just enjoyed a kid-free day!

The main reason we decided on Kansas City was to use up a gift card that I had given Bill for Father's Day to our favorite Brazilian restaurant, Fogo De Chao. 

They have a wonderful salad bar and then you turn your card, green side up as Brazilian servers bring around  over fifteen different fire roasted meats. They bring them on huge spits and you grab them with these little tongs! You can just sit and eat forever :)

 For the Brazilians: they had polenta, caramelized bananas, aroz e feijao, pao de queijo, guarana, creme de papaya and of course.....Caipirinhas!

We had such a fun dinner, with the servers speaking Portuguese to us and giving us the special treatment, since they knew I was from Brazil :) 

Even though it was short, we had SUCH a great time away! 

......but I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty antsy to get back to Omaha and see the kids :) I swear Raylan grew while we were gone! And what trip wouldn't be complete without getting pulled over by the popo just a block from Nana and Papa's house? (No ticket....just a bored cop on a Saturday night....)