Happy 7th Birthday Sawyer!

Can you believe it's been 7 years already??? I can't! Once you have a child, time is like a snow ball at the top of a huge hill that starts rolling down and gets faster and faster until it clobbers you at the bottom and you're dead. Wow, that got morbid really quickly. 

Let's get back to happy fun stuff! 

The birthday boy hopped out of bed quite early-Surprise Surprise....had a special Birthday breakfast with the balloons that Nana Jane had delivered!

He got to open one gift before school from Nana Jane. Nice Bill, nice....

I took time off of work to go and have lunch with Sawyer at school. His little friend Dane had the day off of school, so I picked him up on the way and took him with me. Sawyer was so excited to have Dane there! 

The boys and I enjoying McDonalds for lunch!

We also brought cupcakes to share with the class. 

He was so excited to show us the special Birthday crown that he got to wear from his teacher. 

Sawyer has been in love with the idea of surprise parties for a while now and we thought this would be a great year to have one while it's still easy to pull it off! Nana and Papa were sweet enough to host the surprise party at their house on Saturday night which worked out perfectly because the boys normally go their to spend the night on Saturdays so he didn't suspect anything. They had the basement all set up for when he came down and everyone jumped out and yelled, "SURPRISE!"

Chicken enchiladas are Sawyer's favorite, so I made those and we had a huge Mexican feast! 

Nana Kathy had this awesome make-your-own-cupcake-bar set out with all sorts of toppings. 

Present time!!!!! He got all sorts of fun stuff that a seven year old thought was awesome :) Among them, was two sets of boxing gloves from Aunt Joan, which I'm sure will result in a few ER visits....and the cherry on the top was a new bike from Nana Kathy & Papa Steve!

Raylan trying out the new snow saucer from Aunt Lin and Uncle Jeff (or should we say, Uncle Chad? lol)

We are SO SO SO proud of you Sawyer. We are so excited to see what kind of a young man that you will become and we pray that you will love Jesus all along the way. We'll love you forever, no matter what*

An Apple a Day.....

We have been a part of a WONDERFUL Journey Group at church for the past few years and have really enjoyed getting to know other couples that are in the same stage of life. Our friends, Kevin & Vanessa live on this beautiful vineyard that we get to visit from time to time! We were invited out for apple picking, soup dinner and a bonfire! What fun!

They have this great apple tree that is pretty much bent over, it has so many apples on it! 

We all picked loads and loads of apples and it still didn't look like we made a dent! 

Raylan thought that he was pretty hot stuff because he was eating an apple that wasn't all cut up. Ahh the small joys in life :)

Sawyer kept almost giving me a heart attack up on a ladder in the tree.... 

I think I just ate a seed.....

And did I take pictures of the rest of our VERY fun evening? The delicious food, the kids playing together, Vanessa's creative fall decor, or the HUGE bonfire? Nope. I must have been enjoying time with friends too much to remember! 

Oh well, I'm sure there will be a next time! Thanks Kevin and Vanessa for another lovely evening!

Vala's Pumpkin Patch 2013

Every year we take our children and all the Day Care kids to this HUGE pumpkin patch for a day of fall fun! It was a little chillier this time but that didn't seem to even faze the kids at all. We had quite a few parents and grandparents that joined us which was really helpful! 

By far the most anticipated activity is going to these GIGANTIC jumping pillows. They are like these huge thick plastic pillow things in the ground that everyone can jump on. I don't care what age you are, it is so much fun! A good leg work out too :)

Raylan just absolutely loved it!

Sawyer watching the 'Pumpkin Chunkin Cannon' shoot pumpkins really high in the air.

Lunch time! Praying for our food.....

All the kiddos got to pick a pumpkin to bring back to Day Care that we will be painting later on this week. Liz, our roommate for the past year has made the move back to Oregon and this was her last day with us....sad! She was practically Raylan's second mother for the past year and we are all going to miss her TONS!

Me and my Day Care kiddos!!!! What a group of goof balls! Every year I get them all matching shirts to wear to the pumpkin patch but this year was so cold they all had their coats on and you can't see them! Bummer!!!!!

Hot apple cider, chilly nights, turning trees, the scramble for Halloween costumes, snotty noses and pumpkins galore!

Fall is officially here and we are loving it! 

This, That and the Other Thing...

It's been forever, I know. But we've been busy, OK :) Here's what we've been up to:

Bill and two of his coworkers did a Triathlon! 

Swim, Bike, Run! Well done, Bill!

We were n a wedding! Bill's sister got married here in Omaha and we were all able to be apart of it and share in the special day! 

It was such a gorgeous wedding!

I ran my very first Marathon! 26.2 miles! (42+ Kilometers) Ran it in 4 hrs. 3 min and felt like I was gonna die! It felt so good to finish and something to cross off the bucket list!

My girlfriends and I threw a baby shower and had High Tea! Fancy, Fancy! 

Raylan's best friend, Jackson came to town for a visit!

Sawyer just gets more and more handsome every single day.

Mr. Naughty Pants decided to bring in some extra items into the bathtub while I wasn't watching....

Sawyer insists that they wear matching jammies at night time. They are soo rascally together and I love it!

I asked Sawyer to keep an eye on Raylan for me while I went to take a quick shower the other night and when I got out, I found Raylan in the cupboard trying to eat the ink out of a printer cartridge....

Bill and some friends from work ran the Market to Market run! 78 miles!

Thanks for all of you who prayed for Bill's 5th Actuarial Exam that he took a few weeks ago. Unfortunately he didn't make it this time, but he's back at the books and trying again in February.

So, as you can see life has been keeping us out late, up early, to school, at work, to cooking club, at Bible Study group and on the treadmill! (with a few naps here and there!) 

TTFN, Ta Ta for now!

Eight Watermelons Later...

Sunday night was our church's annual 'Baptism on the Green'! They combine a huge baptism event with an end of summer blowout! 

There were free hot dogs, chips, drinks and Raylan's favorite-watermelon! He practically ate a few watermelons all by himself. 

And he was a nice sticky mess afterwards to prove it!

Sawyer invited his buddy, Josh from across the street and the two of them had a ball running around together 

and getting into all sorts of mischief! 

There was this family that ran a ministry called 'Champions for Jesus'-they have ten kids and as a family, they do this whole basketball show and they are A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. The things they did with basketballs were just jaw dropping. 

They also did a whole unicycle routine too and finished by all riding on these huge ten foot tall unicycles! 

These two cuties were the youngest and they came out and did a few laps on their unicycles 

and were like the most adorable things ever!

In the middle of the show, they had a fantastic gospel message that they shared. They have performed in over thirty five countries, with celebrities and most recently were on 'America's Got Talent' (Last Tuesday actually!) Sawyer and Josh sat through the whole thing going, "WOA!!!!!!!!"

There was also a live band, bouncy houses, train rides, trampolines and free ice cream from the Ding-Ding Man!

If anyone needs ideas of what to give Raylan for Christmas, your best bet is a plastic water bottle. He entertained himself for an hour with this thing.....oh the small joys in life......

It was such a special evening to watch over one hundred and fifty people get baptized! (Including a friends from our Journey Group!) They concluded the evening with a fireworks show!

  

First Grade, Here He Comes....

The first day of school kind of crept up on us! So yes, I was that mom at Walmart (yuck) at 5:30 a.m. in my pajama pants getting a pencil box and liquid glue....the two items that Target had run out of last weekend. Out of liquid glue....really Target? Shame. We put together a little gift for Mrs. Pederson for Sawyer to bring on his first day. It said, "I'm doing Flips that you're my teacher!"

Just like last year, we had a big first day of school breakfast! Scrambled eggs, strawberries and cinnamon rolls-Sawyer's favorites! 

Opening his 'Welcome to First Grade' gift.

The three of us......Raylan was being a sleepyhead.

Traditional first day of school photo shoot! (Mind you, all of his buddies were all walking up to their bus stop right as we went out to take pictures....so you can imagine how embarrassing that was for him!)

Can anyone spot the photo bomb??

Drop off for the first day of First Grade is a whole different ball game than the first day of Kindergarten. Last year, I sobbed my way through the school, into the office to pay his lunch bill and all the way out to the car and the entire ride home....but this year, I totally kept my cool! Way to go, me! He was so excited to see his friends and knew his way around the building. 

What a good looking group!