This past weekend we were able to take our first trip to St. Louis. Ryan was asked to come give their staff a 4 part training following the recent church plant school. None of us had ever been to St. Louis, so the boys and I tagged along for the ride. It is about an 8 hour drive for us. The boys always do great on the drive, but this trip was a little rushed since it was just a weekend. We drove all day Friday, Ryan did a session that night, three sessions on Saturday and then we drove all day Sunday.
While short, we had a great time. I took the boys to a really cool place, Magic House, on Saturday morning. There were tons of hands-on things for the boys! We also were able to enjoy some adult conversation with the other missionaries in St. Louis after putting the kids to bed or during and after dinner. The STL staff took great care of us and we are already hopeful of going back again someday!
Rest stop along the way.
Magic House
There was a huge tree slide of sorts that started on the second floor and went to the first.
This picture proves a point. Ben insists he is older and wiser than he really is. He couldn't stand on the hole a little smaller because he insisted he was tall enough for that one. Obviously not!
Amazing water table.
The 2 year old and under area.
A fully stocked grocery store. It had a cash register with play money and the scanner beeped when you moved items across it!
Shopping
Automotive shop.
Veterinarian Clinic - Nate loving on a cat.
Ben getting the cat's measurements.
The fishing pond. The kids could "catch" a magnetic fish, take it off and then put it back in the pond on the other side of this area and then watch it float back down to the pond in the river in the floor with plexiglass on it. I don't know if that makes sense, but it was super cool.
Awesome sand table.
Net tunnel in the littler kids area!
The tunnel led to the slide.
Nate crawled up to the top of the slide on his own, but got his foot caught under himself. He screamed! I had to climb up, free his leg and then he slowly slide down. I had enough time to grab the camera, but forgot the flash so it is blurry.
Head gear was a fan favorite when playing with friends for some reason.
Each year Wichita's big deal is the Riverfest. It is a week-long carnival type atmosphere and for a $5 button you can enjoy free entertainment, all the fried food you could ever want and some other activities for minimal costs. For our first Riverfest in Wichita we took our three month old baby to the fireworks, but we haven't been back until this year. I encouraged our family to enjoy it and I think we did!
First stop - the parade.
Jodi, a missionary friend, and I have two kids each and we packed our dinners and kids and braved the crowds together. We had a great time!
Our great spot along the parade route until people starting standing in front of us! Ben intentionally turned for the picture. Ugh.
Nadia's chair was a huge hit!
There is room in my lap for two!
There is room in Ben's lap for one!
There is room in Jodi's lap for two too!
Ben and Nadia doing a little street dancing during the parade.
Another day we took a family trip to Riverfest. We bought Ben a ticket to ride a horse and then he freaked out. So, Nate rode in his place. After walking around for an hour or so we started to leave and Ben put on his brave face and decided to ride if Ryan would ride with him! It was a big deal for Ben.
We saw Curious George. The boys waved and were so excited...from a distance. When we got close they both freaked out. I forced Nate to try because I thought he would warm up. He didn't!
With our $5 Riverfest button we got in free to the Wichita Wingnuts baseball game. We arrived during the second innings (after naps) and the boys lasted the whole game! We even ran (walked) the bases after the game! It was also "Bark in the Park" day so there were dogs everywhere. They were a welcomed distraction. And it wasn't very crowded so the boys jumped from bleacher to bleacher without distracting anyone and we enjoyed the game. It was great fun!
A brief update in words and then loads of pictures and videos.
Ben has started eating again! I am beyond excited, but still trying not to get my hopes up too high. Most days he skips a meal completely and some days he barely eats at all. We don't know why. In just the past few days he has started eating a decent amount of food (of course, Nate still easily eats double what Ben eats). He seems a little happier even. Or maybe that is just me. And he has started napping again! He was just playing quietly in his room from 1-3pm every day, but recently he has been sleeping 2-3 hours and a few days even longer! Weird.
Nate's language is really taking off. He jabbers constantly and I can understand a word or two in each sentence. Videos at the bottom. He has pretty much given up his morning nap, but not completely. Honestly, he still needs something but he wont sleep. By noon he is exhausted. We put him down at 1pm after lunch and he will only sleep an hour to hour and a half. Ugh. So, sometimes he and I are up playing for a good hour, sometimes two, before Ben comes to join us.
My routine isn't very routine anymore, but what about raising young children is routine?
Alright, enough words...here they are!
Aren't they so cute in their matching shirts?! Nate obviously wasn't in the mood for a picture.
Mother's Day
First, a trip to the zoo.
Feeding the giraffe with Dad.
Then, to the patio of World Impact after naps.
Love 'em!
Finally, he posed.
Caught Nate.
Apparently, Nate was tired because we got these two pictures!
Ben insisted on swinging.
July 2009 - Wow! What a difference three years makes!
Back to Mother's Day...I wanted a pic of me and my boys. They were NOT in the mood. Ryan took these two gems and said it was me "mothering." Sadly, he's right.
Other Recent Happenings
With this great of help, I don't understand why my house isn't spit spot all the time!
Bubbles on the patio.
Reading books with Auntie Lynn.
Nate's first time-outs.
Now, before you get all worked up...He completed his time-out, we gave hugs and kisses and then I asked if I could take his picture and he went and sat back down. It is a perfect representation of how sad he did look in time-out though. However, he completely deserved it! No doubt!
Me, a time-out? Yes! Yes indeed!
I caught him reading alone after we came home with 26 kids books (and 8 Ryan books) for $15 at a local used book sale. FUN! We haven't stopped reading them since!
The boys had gotten wet outside and so they were stripped to underwear/diaper. They disappeared to play and came back like this...
They both love music.
Nate's words.
He says "Yeah" all the time! All. The. Time. I can be asking Ryan or Ben a question and hear a "yeah" from across the room. But, he does know how to actually use the word. He shakes his head "no" if he doesn't want to answer in the affirmative.
We took a trip to Houston a few weeks ago to meet our new niece, Ella. She is Ryan's sister's new little baby. She was exactly one month old when we got to meet her. Here is our trip in a nutshell.
From there we went to my uncle's farm in Brenham for a little family reunion. There was a lot of food and laughter and the great outdoors. Here is that trip in a nutshell.
Ugh is how I feel about the fact that I have been really slacking in my blog posts. Ya know what would really help? Leave me a comment! Let me know you are reading! It will nudge me to post more often. I haven't stopped snapping cute pictures. I just need to actually put them on here. I have started doing a lot more with photos and videos for work, so essentially I have turned my hobby into a job and then lack the energy to keep up my hobby. Ugh.
But, here is an attempt at an update and maybe this will encourage me to get caught up on everything else.
Ben created his first self portrait!
He also gave me this lovely pose.
Zoo trip.
The mother seriously followed Ben around. It was pretty cute.
Trying to get a pic - Ryan wasn't with us.
The boys were annoying this lioness. She was happily gnawing a bone and after the boys came along, she walked off.
For future embarrassment.
We have been introduced to 'helicopters.' They are little seed pods that fall from the trees and if you throw them up they come down like helicopters. The boys love it! We always get Maren to stop and play and often have gotten others to play too!
Nate sniffing the pretty flowers while we all do a little yard work.
We had an awesome work group of high school students come help us in our yard. They added dirt to level our yard, planted grass seed and doubled our sand box. They were so sweet to let the boys help. And the boys did a great job of staying out of the way when they had to.
Double the fun!
Here is a quick video I put together as a thank you to the group. Pictures of the boys are in there a few times helping!
My handsome little man in his new shoes and shades. Thanks Aunt Kim!
Messy eater!
Watching tv. Nate is just now starting to notice the tv and Ben is allowed one show a day and he knows if something in our routine causes him to miss his show!
Friends!
Nate - He is already running and he has only been walking for a month. He is everywhere! When Ben is in timeout, Nate is on the step too. When Ben is sent to his room for whining (a frequent happening), Nate runs along behind to join him. You get the picture. Nate is also very smart! He knows that Ben cannot get up from the timeout step or leave his room if he has been banished there. So, like a great little brother would, Nate gets a toy and runs off with it leaving Ben screaming for his return. Ah, the joys of brothers! I am sure sisters would do this too, but never as loudly as my boys do! He is also talking up a storm. He tries to repeat a lot of words. His first word was ball, followed quickly by dog. Anything round is a ball and he hollers dog at the tv at every animal commercial. He also says mommy and daddy and said Nate once. He makes a bah sound for bath, brother and Ben. He says shoes and puts his finger to his little lips and says shhhh when we are trying to sneak out of his room without Ben hearing us. He says Bob, as in Bob the Builder! There are probably more, but I can't think of them now.
Ben - He has been on a hunger strike for far too long. It drives me crazy, but I don't have a solution yet. He will often choose to skip a meal rather than eat what is given, almost never breakfast though so that makes me feel a little better. I don't know the reason and I don't know how he does it and keeps up his energy. He loves to read - to be read to and to sit and "read" alone or with Nate (although they can't share the same book or someone will scream). He loves to help with anything and everything still. He helps cook about every meal, he will put away his things as well as ours. He can often be found picking up things that have fallen off the shelf at a store. He remembers everything! It is sometimes hard for us to get the connections he is making. Tonight a friend brought stir-fry for dinner and had soy and teriyaki sauce on the table. Ben said, "that sauce is like the last time when it was in the middle of the table." My brain went searching for the connection and remembered that we visited our old church plant for Easter Sunday and they had Asian food and the soy sauce packets were in the middle of the tables! How did he remember that? Actually, I am about to turn 30! How did I remember that? ha.
Ben's first time shaving! He is growing so fast :)
Myself and Ryan - We may not be as cute as our kids, but just maybe you want to know how we are doing too. We continue to feel like we are right in the middle of what God has for us and there really is no better place. We will have been with World Impact for four years on July 1. Wow! This past weekend we hosted the first (of many) Christ the Victor Church Plant School. It was an intense weekend of training, worshiping together and unifying ourselves. Four teams were commissioned to begin or continue planting Christ the Victor Churches. Ryan was on the planning committee and had huge input into the conference. He also did a few teaching times and preached the Sunday sermon. AND he ran the sound and visual for the whole conference. He is pretty awesome. I know I'm married to him so I may be biased, but God has really given him a gift of teaching and I love hearing him preach. Childcare was provided for our kids - 8 toddlers ages 3 1/2 - 1 1/2 years old. My boys are never in childcare since we don't have family here and our personal lives and work lives mesh so much so that they just stay with me. It was hard for all three of us. The boys cried almost every time I left them (and I cried once) but it was reported to me that they always calmed down within ten minutes! That made me feel good, but still made me sad. I am thankful for amazing volunteers and the intern from the St. Louis ministry that cared so well for my sweet boys.
Here is a video summary of the weekend that I made for the conference attendees.
