Autumn

Well, I have had the summer blues for quite some time now. I enjoy summer for about two weeks and then I am sick of it. I wish that it could be summer for only one month, spring for two, winter for three and then fall for six full months! I am in love with the Fall. It is by far my favorite season. I just love everything about it. I love wearing jeans and sweaters and a homemade scarf, I love picking out pumpkins and going on hay rides with my family, I love the cool, crisp air, I love the fantastic colors everywhere, I love the crunchy leaves under my feet, I love how I feel so alive in the fall. It somehow makes me feel more creative and it brings out this whimsical side of me. I can be so high strung much of the time, but the fall seems to even change my personality. I love seeing squash and gordes everywhere. I love putting a bail of hay and some mums out on my porch, I love buying school supplies (even though I no longer am in school, I still buy them), I love going on walks and sipping on tea or a caramel apple cider from Sbucks, I love sitting outside and chatting with my husband, I love being amazed at God's creation and how beautiful it is. I alwasy feel very nastalgic in the fall. I have so many great memories from this season. Memories from every stage in life; elementary, high school, college and even married life. I even met Ryan in the fall! I am not sad to see summer go and I can almost smell the fall creeping in! I heard a song today that brought back a lot of memories and it got me thinking of this fall and the suprises and wonder that it would bring!! I can hardly hold the excitement in! Anyway, here are a few pictures I took during the prime of the season last year! They are my favorite pictures of the boy!

Busy Week

We have been so busy the past couple of weeks. Things are moving along steadily at the house. My dad came out last night to help Ry Guy with some plumbing. Ryan has been tooling away over there most days. Things are starting to take shape and some of the rooms have already been primed!! That is exciting to see. There is still a ton of work to do, but at least our vision is starting to be seen by our skeptics!!
We also were house/dog sitting for Ryan's parents all last week while they were on vacation. It made for an interesting week! They have a 65 lb. Golden retriever. Gavin LOVES the dog, but me, not so much. He is just big and hairy and sheds all over EVEDRYTHING! He doesn't really go with my cleanly nature! So, I took matters into my own hands and decided to take action and do the job that everybody wants done, but nobody wants to do. I enlisted the help of Kyle and Laura and we shaved the dog. It was awesome. I only had to vacuum once or twice a day after that. Prior to the hair cut I was vacuuming several times a day, due to my neurosis. We also gave the dog a bath! So, after all that Cody and I became friends. He didn't bother me so much when he was clean. Ryan's paretns loved it when they came home. His dad even asked me to help him cut it shorter! Anyway, because we were in good old AP for the week, we got to hang out with some of our friends! The Gavitron and I went and hung out with KT Bruno and Lukie. We took the boys to the park and had a good time. It was good to see them again and we think that the boys had fun too! Here are some pictures of the event!

Ryan and I also got to go to one of our old favorite places, Wyandotte, one evening. We used to go down there all the time and get ice cream at Strohs Ice Cream Parlor. The last time we went there G-force was too small to play on the playground, so this time he was able to do that. Although, once we put him on the swings, we can't harldy get him off. He loves being on them! I will post some of those pictures later!

One other thing that has been keeping me extremely busy is AWANA! Ryan and I are heading up the AWANA program at our church and we are so busy trying to get that up and off the ground. I haven't been in AWANA in more than 10 years, so I am needing to brush up on a lot of things. I am amazed at how much time and how many volunteers these things take. It really makes me appreciate the people who volunteered when I was in AWANA!!

So, that is why the blog has been neglected lately! I will post some more pictures from our week at "Grandma's" house later if I can. I will keep everyone updated on the house too. I am working on getting some pictures of what it looks like now so you can see the before and afters!

So, thanks for tuning in and we will try and keep you up to date on all things!

Five Years of Wedded Bliss

Well, today it's been five years since Ryan and I got married ( and not even six years since we met!!). WOW! What an incredible five years this has been! I can hardly believe that it has been that long. It seems like just a few days ago that I was trying my best to sit next to him in our 1 John class at Northland and trying to strike up a conversation with him. It has gone by so fast, but in other ways, it seems as though we've been together forever. I can't remember a time when he wasn't around! I am so thankful for this man that God has given to me. He is godly, caring, loving, sensitive, a servant, helpful, wise, sacroficial, funny, fun, goofy, handsome, a great daddy, fantastic kisser (!!!!), and he is all mine!!!! I love that last part. Here is a video documenting the time since we've met until now. I hope you enjoy it!




*if you look closely, in the background of one of the pictures, there is a B. Strohbehn look-a-like. It is a slight resemblance, but it does look like her!

photo shoot 2

 

Photo Shoot

I have been working on idea's for decorating the new house (which is coming along slowly, by the way) - specifically Gavin's play room. I wanted to put pictures of his favorite frineds on the wall, and then I came up with this idea last week and went to work! Gavin wasn't terribly cooperative, but it made for some funny pictures. I am going to have these printed in poster size, so I hope they turn out well!

Family Night

We had a great night on Friday night. We decided to take Gavin to an awesome park that is close to our house. We walked around for awhile first and looked at the ducks in the pond. Gavin loves to see the "birdies". Then we took him to the playground and let him run around. He loves sitting in the swings! When we have to leave, it is not a pretty sight sometimes. He did well on Friday though. I was so suprised at how brave he was on the slides, too. He had no trouble going down them all on his own. I would climb all the way up to the top of the playscape with him and think he would want me to go down with him. But, before I could even hunker down to get into position, Gavin would already be taking off down the slide! It was pretty funny. Of course, he always went down backwards. After the park we took Gavin out to Coldstone. Ah, coldstone, the creamery of all creameries!! Okay, we really went there for mommy. I am an ice cream fanatic! Gavin got to enjoy some as well though! We had a really fun night and just got to enjoy each other and spend some family time together!




 

Family Night (cont.)

Here is our little ice cream lover checkin' out all of the flavors!

 

Happy Birthday and Congratulations!!

Today is my brother Herb's 27th birthday!! Happy Birthday Herb! I hope you have a really good day! My brother is the best big brother you could ask for! Well, I wouldn't have said that when I was in high school, but you know how that goes . . .

Below is Herb's son, Jonas, who is almost 10 months old. One of the cutest kids EVER! He is such a sweetie too. Jonas is about to be a big brother as well! On Tuesday we all went out to dinner for Herb's birthday and Jonas was wearing a t shirt that said, "I'm the big brother." It took me about 20 min. to even notice it. I am so excited to be an auntie agian! I have been an aunt since I was 12 years old, which would make my oldest neice almost 13! I can't believe that. Time goes by so fast. I can remember vividly when my mom told me that Hannah was born. I know exactly where I was and what I was doing. I now have three neices and three nephews and the numbers seem to be rapidly increasing!




So, Happy Birthday, Herb, and Congratulations to you and your beautiful family!

 

ALL BOY

I've recently realized that my posts have been painting Gavin in a rather femine light, with all of the cooking and the "arts and crafts". I just wanted to share with you all how much of a "boy's boy" Gavin really is. Yesterday Gavin was jumping on the couch and he totally crashed down on his mouth and was bleeding all over the place. It made him really mad and he was yelling and hollering and of course, spitting blood all over me and him. We filled up quite a few wash clothes with blood. It was a pretty dramatic sceene. When you get injured in the mouth, it seems to bleed forever. It was hard to even get a look at the injury, but I finally determined that he was going to be fine and it just looked a lot worse than what it was. Well, no more than an hour later, he had this huge fat lip. It looks pretty funny. These pictures were taken last night, several hours after the incident, but it still looks pretty bad. I actually dont think that the pictures do it justice. Baisically, you can see the underside of his lip on the from the outside. He keeps bumping it and is having a hard time talking. It is funny to hear him try and over enunciate his words. Anyway, here are the pictures. The quality isn't that great b/c I was holding him down to get a good look at it. I was literally sitting on him and his arms. This is our rough and tough boy.



 

Like Mother, Like Son

This is me at 12 months

and here's the boy at 12 months

Every one says he looks EXACTLY like Ryan, well, what do you all think?

I guess it's not fair that i didnt post one of Ryan's baby pictures. I'll have to dig one up and see if I can find one of him at this age - I know his mom has one somewhere.

Signing Time with Alex and Leah

I just wanted to put a plug in for a great show! It's called Signing time with alex and leah. It teaches sign language to small children. We started teaching Gavin some sign language when he was about nine or ten months and it was incredible. He didn't have to whine till I figured out what he wanted, he could tell me! Our friend Ella, who is two, knows tons of signs already. She is the one who introduced us to the show (thanks Jen and Ella, we miss you!!). Anyway, we learn several knew signs each week. Its on PBS on Thursdays at 5:00. I am sure that that is different depending where you live, but you can go to PBS Online to find out when it shows in your area!!

Gavin's Painting

Gavin had his first painting experience the other day. Everything was going fine until he started eating the paint! What can I say? He's not too bright, he takes after his daddy!! Although, if you notice in the pictures, Gavin is painting with his left hand!! At least his got something from me!!!