Birthday Boy

One Years Old! I can hardly believe it! He started out the morning on a very healthy path with a sprinkle doughnut :) 

And some fruit and yogurt to make it extra healthy!

Halfway through the day he got a special delivery of balloons all the way from Nana Jane! Now, he LOVED these balloons. Loved them. He would grab the ribbons and just shake Shake SHAKE!

Being as how it was a school night and we had Birthday Dinner plans with Nana and Papa in a few days, we took Raylan to have his first kids meal of his very own! And wouldn't you know our little piglet scarfed the ENTIRE thing down himself! Four mini corn dogs, fries, mandarin oranges, milk and an ice cream cone! (Well Mommy may have helped with the ice cream cone just a bit)  

We came home and he ended the day doing his favorite thing: getting into trouble:

After the Birthday boy went down for bed to get his beauty rest, Arliss, my co-heart in crime, came over to tackle our first sign for the new side business we are starting! We have started a small business making custom wooden signs! 

Any wooden sign you see (can we say Pinterest?), we can make it for you! From modern streamline signs, to weathered reclaimed wood ones.....we can do it! So, let us know if you would like to order one! 

Our maiden voyage was doing a sign to hang over the dessert table at my sister-in-law's up coming wedding. 

TA-DAAAAAAAAAA

It took us a little longer than we planned but we learned the do's and donts along the way! It turned out great and my sister-in-law ended up loving it! More on that later....

One Year Ago Today....

.....this was where we were at! 

How time flies! Where does it all go? Maybe God keeps all these fun times that seem to fly by all locked up in a chest and while we are in heaven we can open it up and just look at them all! 

How did he go from this....

All the way......

To THIS?

It doesn't seem like he's only been with us for a year, it feels like he was always here. Thank you God for giving us such a sweet, handsome, rascally, perfect little boy. You really outdid yourself on this one!

Happy Birthday Raylan! We LOVE you forever, no matter what. 

Remember That One Time?

I grew up in Brazil and I hate pizza sauce. Pizza in Brazil resembles pizza that you get in Italy. Brick oven, thin crust and just a tiny bit of sauce. Pizza Hut, Domino's, Godfather's...too much sauce. Pitch Pizza? Perfect. If you haven't been there, go tonight because it's fabulous. Had a great family dinner there on Friday night! It's got a cool atmosphere and the food is D-lish!

But beware of the pizza coma......

Trying to read to Raylan is like being trapped in a burlap sack with a cat. He's all over the place. Standing up. Arching back. Licking the pages. Closing the book. Folding the pages. All the while, not listening to a word of what your saying and narrating the entire story himself. An exercise in patience and reading practice all in one! 

Saturday morning will go down in our history as, "Remember that one time...?" 

That one time was when we had the grand idea (heavy sarcasm) to schlep ourselves deep into South Omaha, through hordes of  traffic, to watch the Cinco de Mayo parade in the frigid rain. 

It was so cold. But we got tons of cheap candy and there were horses!

Raylan, thoroughly enjoying himself.

After the parade was over, we met up with our friend Laney and her two little kiddos to head to a little Mexican place for lunch. Little did we know that it was like 84 blocks away.....still in the rain with four kiddos and only one stroller. 

We made it in one piece! The place was a zoo so we had to pack ourselves into this tiny booth, the size of a checkerboard ....but it was well worth the wait and walk because the food was SO GOOD! And Coke out of glass bottles? Everyone knows that's hard to beat. We even had live music to entertain us! 

I know, I know.....frizzy hair, running mascara, red runny noses.....we looked like a hot mess.

Yup, Remember that one time in 2013 when we went to the Cinco de Mayo parade? I do! And it was a blast!

Bunny Ears and Hives

We reached a milestone a few days ago! Tying of the shoes! Yup! He did it. All by himself. And it was amazing! I had gone over it and over it and over it with him for days.....and then Daddy swoops in for like five minutes and BOOM he's got it! I had told him that he wasn't allowed to wear those shoes (They are his favorite-Converse All Stars. Takes after his Mommy!) unless he could tie them himself. He's been wearing them everyday since. Because he can tie them himself :)

Raylan still just likes to eat them...

Now that the weather is warming up, the Day Care kids and I have been trying to soak up every little ray of sunshine we can! 

They have been loving having their snacks and lunches al fresco!

Raylan and his peeps.

After this glorious afternoon outside, I noticed that Raylan had these HORRIBLE hives ALL over him! He had been sitting in the grass with this buddies for about five minutes and he just speckled up like a teenage kid in puberty! His pediatrician said that a lot of times a virus presents itself as hives or it could be a grass allergy. We are hoping for the virus because life is going to be pretty grim if he has to avoid the grass.....Thankfully after a few days of Aveeno oatmeal baths, Benadryl and Cortizone Cream, he's getting back to normal!

Raylan knows that Bill throws his empty pop cans in the trash basket in the office. He always rummages through it to find the empty cans and tries to get out any last little drop! I'm thinking Bill passed on his pop addiction.....great.  

Airing Out

We all needed a good 'Airing Out' after months and months of frigid temperatures and gloomy weather.  

The park down the street has a little creek that runs through it and now that all the snow is melting, the water is going through there at a pretty good clip! 

Always up for an adventure, no matter how small. 

 My boys.

Look what we found! Sawyer LOVES these football thingies that whistle when you throw them. Raylan kept wanting to eat it....

Sawyer must have jumped off this table thirty times....and after each one, he'd pop up and go, "Did ya' get that one??" Maybe he'll be a stuntman. The other day he told me he either wants to be an astronaut or a waiter at a restaurant......hmmmm 

Cuteness. Pure and simple.

It was a long afternoon of fun-now for a nap!

It's MY Mom!

Sawyer's Kindergarten class has a 'Mystery Reader' (parent's or grandparents) that come in on Fridays to read to the class. The reader is kept a secret until the day of and then clues about them are read and the class has the chance to guess who it is! Friday was my turn and it was SO fun to peek in and watch Sawyer's reaction after each clue was read~His two little fists would shoot up in the air and he would quietly go, "YES!" Here were my clues:

1. I don't work in an office, I work at home.

2. My favorite drink is a Coke with four limes in it.

3. I love watching, "The Amazing Race".

4. I used to live on a ship and sailed around the world for two years.

5. I am from Brazil.

As soon as she read, "I am from Brazil", Sawyer leaps out of his chair and yells, "That's MY Mom!" he was SO excited! It was so fun to see how proud he was and important he felt as he introduced me and showed me where to sit. I chose to read, "Miss Nelson is Missing" which was one my favorite books when I was their age and the kids LOVED it. They were just bursting with questions when I was done, not about the book, but about my time on the ship. They were so curious and it was fun retelling some of my adventures. I love every opportunity I get to be in the classroom with Sawyer and with this time being a surprise, it was awesome*

Mr. Into-Everything is still.....into everything. Big brother is getting very good at dragging him away from all his naughty temptations: TV remotes, storage baskets full of Day Care diapers, trash cans, Mommy's underwear basket, and the dog's food dishes. He was keeping my company as I was putting laundry away the other day and after a few minutes I heard him squawking like a seagull. I rush into the bathroom to find him COMPLETELY wedged in between the toilet and the wall! 

Our good friends, John and Ashton and their adorable son Jackson were in town last weekend and as always, we like to soak up as much time with them as we can. The boys are just eight days apart but Jackson is walking (rather I should say running!) all over the place and Raylan doesn't even stand up on his own. They spent a good part of the evening fighting over this empty plastic bottle......grabbing it away from each other, bonking each other over the head with it-Ya' know, just being boys!

Oh Sawyer....what a goofball. He is really into telling jokes right now, which would be great except for the fact that he only knows two jokes. His favorite one, he got from his friend Liam goes like this: 

When is a car not a car?........When it turns into a parking lot! 

Then re erupts in hysterical laughter. It is funny-the first 10 times you hear it. Someone please send this kid a joke book!

Cha-Cha-Cha

Sawyer made his first musical debut last week! The Kindergarten Classes performed thirteen very bouncy, up-beat, alphabet themed songs for our enjoyment. Bill and I knew this could go either way, being as how music is Sawyer's least favorite class.....but nevertheless, he was VERY excited about it! 

I starred in many musicals, assemblies and theatrical productions growing up and totally loved it! Bill, on the other hand, wasn't as drawn to the lime light as I was.....being the center of attention and God-forbid doing any sort of movement with people watching just about sends Bill over the edge! In this area, Sawyer is a perfect mix of Bill and I. As he was performing, you could tell he liked the music and as soon as he would start really getting into it, he would remember we were watching and get super embarrassed! He would stop doing the motions and start smiling and cover his mouth with his hands....

.....and being the ever appropriate mother that I am, start laughing and cannot contain myself. It was like a runaway train. You know when you start laughing somewhere or sometime that's completely inappropriate and you just can't stop? For some reason it just keeps getting funnier and funnier and no matter how hard you try to stop, you just can't? Yea, that was totally me. 

He was soooo cute though and we LOVED every minute of it! 

We went out and afterwards to celebrate his stellar performance! Thank you Nana, Papa, Alex, Grandpa Rick & Grandma Joan and Uncle Jeff for coming to watch him!