Wow!! Our first blog. I haven't written letters in 6 months because I kept envisioning the day when I would finally start our blog. Well, today is the day. But, since I haven't written letters, I doubt many of you even know what's going on with us, so I thought I'd start our blog off with a brief spotlight of each of our family members (thanks for the idea, Braden and Cheri!!). Enjoy!
Kyler's our oldest and just had his 7th birthday on Monday. This year he wanted to go camping for his birthday, so on Friday night, we headed to Petaluma, California to camp for the night. We had a blast building fires, roasting hot dogs and marshmallows and huddling in the tent to keep warm. The next morning, we rented a little banana bike for him that he drove all over the park.
Kyler loves to build things, especially if those things come with tons of tiny pieces that take lots of time and concentration to put together. So, for his birthday we gave him a 1118 piece K'nex rollercoaster. He amazes me. We put together the first one as a family (and took 3 hours doing it). The next night, he took it all apart and built a whole new one in less than 2 hours total by himself. He's so proud that it's taller than mommy!
Aspen is 5 and such a sweet kid. She is mommy's little helper. What would I do without a girl? She really loves to help with all the household chores, from cleaning to baking to feeding Jordan to changing dirty diapers...Ok, maybe not that last part, but she does love putting the clean diaper on. She's such a great helper and I love the time we get to spend together doing it all. Here's one of our favorite videos of her trying to get Jordan ready for bed!
She also has 1 lost tooth (literally, it fell out of her mouth AND she lost it before the tooth fairy came!), 3 loose teeth and a very competitive nature that keeps her asking all her friends how many loose teeth they have so she can be sure to be ahead of the pack!
And, she learned to ride a bike!! And, boy does she love it!! She'll ride and ride and ride!! I love it because I can finally fit all the non-riders (Jordan and Ryden) in the double running stroller while all the riders (Kyler and Aspen) ride their own bikes and I can go rollerblading. We have a blast, though admittedly I'm worn out long before they want to stop riding.Ryden is a nut, what more can I say? He cracks us up all the time. He just loves to be the star of the show and always does it in the most humorous ways.
He turns 4 in a month and can't wait to have a dragon party, no, a car party, no, a water party, no....In the end, I think we may have a dragon race car party through the sprinklers!
Ryden is spunky. He loves to jump off of anything, climb over anything and explore (and even eat) anything. Ok, I take that back, he won't eat anything I serve him, but he will eat anything that looks interesting on the ground or in the dirt or under a picnic table, if you catch my drift. Unfortunately, I don't get all the photos of him in his spunkiness. Usually, I'm too busy laughing, but here's some fun shots of his huge jumps into the pool!
We discovered there's no need for a dog in the house with a kid like Jordan. A few days ago we found him chewing on daddy's shoe while reaching for the frisbee. When we moved the frisbee, he crawled after it and brought it back!! YEAH!!!!
He's so adorable and so much fun. He is totally content to let the kids do whatever they want to him. He loves to laugh and will just start laughing because you are. It so fun to watch and so nice to laugh so much. He's almost 8 months, has 4 teeth, crawls, eats EVERYTHING and is such a cutie!
Enoch and I are loving this stage of life. So many times, we just want to pinch ourselves and make sure we're not dreaming. We feel so blessed to both be home with the kids. Enoch has also followed some of his life-long passions and has recently launched a webdesign business that's actually pretty amazing. He's having a blast getting his entire vision off the launchpad and life has been fun in the process. I'm so proud of him. Sometimes I'm amazed at how business minded he is. I guess that comes with listening to so many success CDs and reading so many success books. I learn from his vision and perseverance every day. And, of course, I love his silly side!
I'm just loving being a mom. The kids are so loving and so forgiving. They just love being together. I'm so grateful for the warm weather and the chance we have to go on hikes, have BBQs, play outside, go to the park, etc. etc. My kids teach me every day to relax, have fun, and enjoy the moment.
Enoch and I also had a great opportunity to speak at a business conference in Santa Rosa, California. I love public speaking. Enoch and I have so much fun doing it. I will admit, though, this time he was so hilarious that I laughed through most of it. He is so funny. But, he's so good at teaching points through laughter. At one point I actually had tears rolling down my face from laughing and I'm supposed to be composed on stage!!
The highlight of the night: When Enoch surprised me with a beautiful bouquet of flowers for Mother's Day the next day!! Way to go Enoch!
