Moving day.

We're moving to a new house today. The house is the same size (3 bedroom / 1.5 baths) but has a better layout (more spacious, especially the kitchen) and has a yard.

We weren't thinking about moving, in fact Katherine and I had recently had our annual conversation where we state that we're not doing anything major this year (and we all know how well we do at sticking to that... new jobs, new babies, moving, major life changes... we never listen to ourselves).

So we say "No big change this year!" And literally two days later Amy from our church sends us this message:

Good morning, Last night as I was thinking about my "old" house, the two of you came to mind. Forgive me if I'm being nosy or presumptuous. I thought at one time in conversation, you guys said that you rented a house in EGR. My house is empty as of tomorrow and will be available to buy, rent, or even a rent to own kind of thing. I don't know what you're interested in, or what your future plans are, but I thought I would share the information with you.

We both read it and had sort of the same reaction: "Interesting... but we're not looking to make any big changes." But we decided to look at it and once we did all of these frustrations with our current living situation surface (well, only two frustrations really: our kitchen is SMALL - uncomfortably small - and we have no outdoor space to sit in or let the kids play). This made us realize that Lyla's at an age where we can't keep her inside all summer, that she needs to be able to get outside and play (just as we need to be able to send her outside to play... if you know what I mean).

So we saw the house and we were hooked, then it became a question of how long would it take for us to overcome our objections and commit to what a huge effort moving is.

5 days.

So in the course of a week we'd gone from "No big changes" to "Moving".

So here we are. Moving the last of our stuff in today (if the rain allows us to) and starting the next phase of our lives.

We'll post more pictures soon so you can see what it looks like... or, you can come visit us. You are always welcome.

Playing in the snow

So this took place a few weeks ago but I thought you'd enjoy it anyway...

Only twice this winter has is been warm enough (with no snow fall) to take the kids out to play in the snow on a Saturday. But when it happened, we made a point of taking Lyla out to play in it. Both times we went over to our friends' house and played in their driveway and yard.

It was a blast getting to pull Lyla around in a sled, sliding down the mounds of snow that the snowplows had left, making snow angels, and building snow men. For being a relatively low-key kid, Lyla sure has a sense of adventure (so long as she isn't too cold). She loved every moment of it... and as a result, so did I.

Looking forward to this aspect of next winter and having Will join us as well.

Enjoy!!

Happy Birthday Lyla!!!! *or* Holy Moley, I Can't Believe My Daughter is TWO!!!

Seriously? When did Lyla grow up? It seems like just 730 days ago that Katherine was telling me it was time to go to the hospital. Yet somehow my Little Button became my Little Baby and my Little Baby become my Little Girl. All those country songs suddenly make a lot of sense...

Friday, December 4 was destined to be a special day even before it began. For us the magic began the night before when the first snow fall of this winter began to fall. We were forecast to get 3 or 4 inches over night and boy did we. We awoke Friday morning to a blanket of soft, white, beautiful snow covering everything.

Typically I have mixed feelings about the snow. I love the serenity and the beauty of freshly fallen snow, but I dread the cold and the exertion of shoveling our walks. But this was different because this was going to be the first snow that Lyla got to play in and that she would remember. And it happened on her birthday, what a neat gift.

I think that Katherine and I were slightly more excited about Lyla's actual birthday than the Birthday Girl was. Granted she had been talking about her birthday non-stop for at least two weeks and had made us sing "Happy Birthday" to every single person that we know, at least once. But I awoke that day more excited than I'd been in awhile.

We started the day with a special breakfast: blueberry pancakes. Special because we seldom make pancakes. They were good. Then we got dressed and all went to Target, whoopie!! Look, just because it was Lyla's birthday doesn't mean we can avoid the day to day tasks of running our lives. We all went together so that was fun.

After Target, we came home and Lyla got ready to go outside. We got her snowsuit on plus her hat and these great winter boots she got from her friend Sadie. Out Lyla and I went and shoveled the path. I had bought a small snow-shovel for Lyla a couple weeks ago and she was more than happy to help me clear off the snow. After shoveling, she and I built our very first snowman. Nothing too special, we used a carrot for the nose and leaves for everything else. Lyla really enjoyed packing the snow down. I think he turned out rather nice and he sort of looks like Grover from Sesame Street.

After playing in the snow we came in and were treated to a nice lunch of grilled cheese sandwiches and soup. It was the perfect meal to warm us up from the cold. After we finished, the kids went down for naps and Katherine and I started to get ready for Lyla's party.

For her party we wrestled for a long time as to what to do. Last year we invited a few friends and their kids over, four families in total. In the subsequent 365 days, 3 of the 4 families had another child and all the other kids aged a year. As a result, having the same families over would have been pure chaos.

So instead, we invited two families for dinner. I made pork street tacos and they turned out pretty good. After dinner we did presents and then cupcakes. After dinner, the chaos slowly ratcheted up until the kids ended up hitting a wall. The following pictures will give you some idea of how chaotic just two additional families can be:

Playing with friends...

More friends, more playing...

Adults trying to converse as the kids play...

More playing...

Pretty soon Will had had enough...

So we opened presents...

And then we played with the presents...

Pretty soon Will and Kevin had had enough...

So it was time for the cake...

Lyla likes cake.

So does Ian...

So does Sadie...

And then it was over.

The next day, we woke up and played with our new toys.

Lyla drying her hair with Mommy..

Later that morning, we went over to Sadie's house for her 2-year-old birthday party. I decided that Will and I should dress a like... I'm glad I did.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LYLA!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!

Beautiful beautiful beautiful. Beautiful girl.

Our dear, dear friend Jessica (aka Aunt Jessie, owner of "Aunt Jessie's White Car" as Lyla so fondly and frequently pointed out as we drove in said car while in San Diego) snapped these lovely pictures of Lyla during Jenny and Shane's wedding reception.

Thank you Jessie for taking such beautiful pictures of our daughter.

The Lyla and Will show

Okay, so Will is clearly Lyla's favorite ("HI WILL HI WILL HI WILL HI WILL HI WILL HI WILL HI WILL HI WILL HI WILL HI WILL HI WILL HI WILL"... we hear it all the time). And Will nearly explodes with squeaks and laughter whenever Lyla looks at him. It's beginning to feel like Katherine and I are just there to take care of the details so they can spend time together.

I'm definitely not complaining, I love how close they are and hope it sustains their relationship into and through high school. I think I'm mostly looking forward to when Will is a little older and able to hold himself upright so when Lyla hugs on him and whatnot.

Here are Bonnie and Clyde goofing off while I'm trying to get a decent picture of them:

Will fans

First off, Will is 6 weeks old. We can hardly believe it. He's growing a lot to and has really filled out in the past week or so.

Since Will was born a lot of people have been wanting to come by and see him. Especially the people from our church (seeing as we missed four weeks of church - two of the Sundays we were in the hospital), so we've had a bunch of visitors which has been great. Unfortunately I don't always think to take pictures because either we're busy and I can't remember where the camera is, or our stinky camera from 2002 is slowly dying and replacing it is not top on our list of priorities, or our friends insist that you don't take their picture even though for the past 3 weeks they've given you a tremendous amount of grief for not taking their picture when they visited you in the hospital... you know who you are.

Here are some, but not all, of the people who've visited us in the past 6 weeks.

The McDowells:


The Wammacks (sorry other Wammacks, I don't know why I didn't get pictures of you):
The Hawkins's:


The Greg (Greg is my roommate from college who drove into town while he was on a work trip. Unfortunately the rest of his family couldn't come visit):
The DeBoers (I guess Luke was camera shy):


The Adams's (except Tom who was, well, busy with other plans... and didn't invite me... grrrr.):



We're looking forward to many opportunities to visit with more friends and family this summer. We're planning a vacation in July to visit St. Louis and then Branson, Missouri - first for the Ring Family Reunion where we'll see my dad, Fei, Matthew and Anna, hopefully my brother and sister, plus a number of my aunts and uncles, cousins, my dad's cousins and other family. Then we're headed to Branson to spend time with Katherine's brothers and parents. I can't wait for Emily and Ally to meet Will and to see the three girls running around and playing together. Yay summer!