Mickey Big Ears

For Christmas 2008 Ryan's sister and her husband gifted us and the rest of the family a stay in the Animal Kingdom resort at Disney World for this summer. At the time, Ben was 9 months old and Nate wasn't even an idea yet. The trip finally came!

Instead of Mickey Mouse, Ben called him Mickey Big Ears. It was cute.

We spent a week in Disney with Ryan's brother (Randy), his wife (Rebecca), and their six kids, (Wesley, Jeremy, Avery, Olivia, Justin and Valerie), Ryan's mom (Judy/Grammy), Ryan's dad (David/Grandpa), Ryan's stepmom (Mary Ann/Nana), Ryan's sister (Kelly) and her husband (Michael) and Michael's sister (Jessica). We were quite a crowd everywhere we went. In the parks we were at least 13 strong, sometimes more and we never lost anyone!

Traveling with both kids went better than we hoped! This is a mom thing, but I just have to post this for my memory... Nate only poops about every 3 days but when he does it is a full outfit change. I was really hoping he would go before we got in the car for a 3 hour drive and then in a plane for a 3 hour flight. On travel day we had the car packed up, Ryan grabbed Ben and I picked up Nate only to find Nate was covered in poop. Yeah. I got what I was hoping for. haha. On the trip home he pooped all over his stroller in the airport. I have learned to always have an outfit change for both boys (potty training can be equally disastrous) so Nate and I spent some time in the bathroom wiping yellow off everything and then I enjoyed my now-cold Starbucks!

We had a great time, but we were definitely exhausted. We were go, go, go all day long. The boys were in bed 1-3 hours after bedtime and Ben didn't nap for 5 days straight! I will print this blog to prove to the boys that they did go to Disney World!

I didn't get many good videos, but here are Ryan, Ben and Avery riding Dumbo but they didn't look at me, a group moment and Ben's first time in a big pool.

Our room was amazing. We could look out our balcony and see the animals in the savannah. This is without a zoom from our balcony.

We had a full living area and full kitchen and two bedrooms on either side. Our family of four shared the suite with Ryan's mom, Grammy.

As huge as it was, when you sleep two adults and two children in one room it looks like this! Ben slept on the sleeper chair and Nate actually got rolled into the massive bathroom every night.

One of Ben's favorite parts of the trip was the enormous bath tub. I told him he could have the whole bottle of body wash that the resort provided. We turned on the jets...

and found this. He was in heaven!

Another of Ben's favorite part was the big bus. We took the shuttle buses every day and Ben was a happy boy.

We spent a day at Magic Kingdom. Most of the pictures were taken on other people's camera so this is all I have from that day.

Ben and Ryan in line for the Dumbo ride.

We went to Epcot and loved it. All four of us could ride the attractions. Nate spent the better part of that day in the Moby. We both sweat bullets but he wasn't fussing so we were both happy people. I got a ton of "bless her heart" looks from people.

Ryan with his brother and mom.

We went to Downtown Disney for some shopping. Ryan and his dad bought matching hats that fit them perfectly - it says, "This is my happy face" and has a picture of Donald Duck.

Of course, Ben and I thought Grandpa looked best in this hat!

We spent some time hanging at the resort and splashing in the pool. Nate loved the water.

In Germany in Epcot.

Tired cousins. Valerie and Ben were best buds, tied to the hip. They rode in the rental stroller and another cousin would ride in ours along with Nate. They were so tired at the end of this day.

Olivia could not resist Nate. Wherever Nate was, Olivia was within an inch. It was so cute. He loves her too!

Typical toddlers - Ben and Val had a blast running up and down a small hill while we took a break for lunch.

If you can make out of faces in this pic, you will get an idea of a trip to Disney with little kids. Nate is fussing and Ben is grouchy and Ryan and I are trying to pretend we don't notice the gallons of sweat rolling down our backs. ha.

Hot and tired cousins, Olivia and Justin.

Nate loving his big ears.

Thanks Aunt Kelly and Uncle Michael!

Happy 6 Months

We tried to celebrate his half birthday with a cake, but we had tornado warnings and all kinds of heavy rain and hail so it was quick. Sorry for the not-so-great picture, second child.

My baby boy is 6 months old today! It does seem like it went by faster the second time around. He weighs in at 17 pounds, 12 ounces (50%) and measures 27.5 inches tall (75%). He has all the rolls to prove those almost 18 pounds! He is the happiest boy around and his dimples just make all the ladies melt. He is say "babababa" all the time now, mostly when he is playing alone which somehow makes it that much cuter. He is starting to sit up for about 30 seconds at a time if we prop him up. He rolls both ways with ease and I almost never find him like I left him. He scoots on his tummy mostly in circles and sometimes backwards.

I have tried several times to give him cereal and he just isn't interested so we aren't pushing it. We have a lot of traveling the rest of the month and I am not sad about not needing to take anything along to feed him but myself.

He grabs at everything and puts it all in his mouth. Once he really gets mobile we will have to reevaluate all the low-lying things around the house. Oh boy!

His routine is a bit like this:

8:30am - wake and nurse

9:30am -11/11:30am - nap

12:00pm - nurse

1:30pm - 3:00pm - nap

3:30pm - nurse

5:00pm - 5:30pm - catnap (sometimes)

7:00pm - nurse

7:30pm - to bed for the night

His routine is pretty stable. If we are on the go he naps fabulously in his car seat and stays asleep in the carrier as Ben and I run errands. Ever morning I am surprised that he needs a nap one hour after waking from sleeping 13 hours straight. But, if I keep him up until 10am he is extremely difficult to get to sleep and it makes for a rough morning with Ben running around the house while I'm trying to get an over-tired baby to nap.

He is a left-thumb-only sucker. He plays with his hair with his right hand. In his 5 month update I wrote that I didn't foresee Nate becoming a tummy sleeper any time soon. Not long after that I started finding him on his tummy when he woke up. It is still about 50/50. He almost always goes down for naps on his tummy but always goes down for the night on his back.

We gave up the dream feed a couple of weeks ago. We had some people over after the boys went to bed and they stayed way past the dream feed time. I just decided to see what would happen and Nate woke at 8:30am like always. So, that was done and we haven't looked back. Nate is willing to flex his routine a bit except for the 7pm feeding. Our Sunday church service is in the evening and I always know what time it is because Nate will fuss at 7pm on the dot! It is amazing. As long as I nurse he is willing to play and be fine until we get home for bed. Silly boy!

Ben likes to get in the crib when we go in to get Nate up from a nap. Nate is always so happy to see his big brother crawl in with him.

Almost everyone that meets Nate comments on his happiness or his dimples. He gives the best, huge grins when people acknowledge him and has just started to bury his face in my shoulder while smiling. It gets a big reaction! He is also willing to let anyone hold him unless it is eating time. I watch him float around the room at staff functions going from person to person. He is a complete delight and we can't believe he is getting out of the baby stage so soon.

I'm THAT mom now

We did it! We bought our first minivan. And I couldn't be more excited. I have been driving Ryan's truck and there is just no space for anything or anyone but the two kids. Now, I feel like I have room for everything I could possibly need to put in there. For now at least :)

We have been crunching the numbers a lot lately and trying to see what our options are. We have looked online and done a bit of research. On a whim, we went to a dealership a week ago just to see what kind of deals they had. We knew we were buying used. We knew we had a very limited amount of money to spend! We knew that would limit our choices. We found something that was just too good to pass up. This van has only had one owner and is exceptionally clean. It is older and has a lot of miles on it, but apart from our Texas trips, we don't drive more than 150 miles in a week! We are hoping to get a lot of good years out of it yet.

Since we knew exactly how much we could spend, we were pretty set on getting that number on paper. We sent the saleslady back behind the big glass windows a few times to talk with her manager. She never seemed very happy about it, but always came back with a good result for us. After we finally got to the number we wanted she would not stop telling us how good of a deal we were getting. It really felt like she was trying her best to make us feel guilty about getting such a good deal. We haven't felt guilty about how much money we left there and we don't plan to! We finally picked up the van yesterday and traded in my car for good! Now, I just need a good name for my new van!

Super Cuteness

Ben's summer fashion.

Eat your heart out...(He kept wanting to see D (my mom) and Papa (Ryan's stepdad) through the camera. It was so cute that I couldn't cut it out.)

Nate is getting quite vocal these days.

A friend of a friend was getting rid of a twin size bed and we were the lucky recipients. Ben loves it! He often throws all the pillows off to build "me house."

Nate is getting close to sitting up. He can sit for a half a second!

He has perfected his push-ups for sure!

What Do I Do?

On any given day you will find me at home trying to understand the verbal demands of a 2 year old and keep a decent nap schedule for a 6 month old. It's not a glamorous life, but I love it and it definitely keeps me busy. My work around the house is never done, even now the dryer is full of clothes that desperately need to be folded.

In the rare few moments of quiet in my house, generally after the kids have gone to bed and on Wednesday and Sunday mornings when Ryan watches the boys for me, I work. Most of my responsibilities within the ministry involve me and my computer and a random bit of creativity or just something I saw on a google image search that I recreate.

I make prayer cards, fliers, invitations and all other sorts of printed material for the ministry. I created a video for our city to use at speaking engagements. I work on a team that sends a monthly e-newsletter updating all the monthly happenings in our ministry. I manage our website and attempt to keep it running and current.

I have a Human Development and Family Studies degree for which I worked very hard. I have no formal education in any of the things I am currently doing for work. God has really given me some natural gifting and a whole lot of persistence in just figuring things out so that I can use my spare time between dirty faces and dirtier diapers to bless the ministry in a non-traditional missionary way.

Mix with all that the weekly church service and cell group times along with staff meetings, bbq's, a whole bunch of emails, trips to the zoo, tricycle riding, lots of giggles and tickles, and you have a fairly good idea of what I do when I'm not vacuuming in pearls like June Cleaver.

Check out the video I made and learn a little about what we do at World Impact Wichita.

Click on the picture below to take a glance at our monthly e-newsletter that I put out! It even links you to the website that I administrate.