All aboard!

Emery made a train and Rylan loves to go for rides on her "choo-choo train", as he calls it.

Gymnastics

Emery decided that she would like to try out gymnastics. She started the beginner class yesterday at the Grand Rapids Gymnastics Academy. She had a BLAST and was even more pumped when she was chosen 'Gymnast of the Day' at the end of class! You go, girl!!

Take a hike!

Every year, since Lane was about 4 years old, we hike along the Prairie Lake Gorge. It is always so pretty and peaceful out there. The kids love to explore and climb the rocks. Rylan is quite the little hiker! He was leading us at one point and we had to walk pretty quickly to keep up with him. He will fall down, get right back up, and continue plowing through the woods. He always finds himself a walking stick along the way and carries it all around. It is too cute!



Lane decided to do a little off-road biking this year!


Rylan using his walking stick to get down the terrain.

Purple and Gold!!

My mom took Lane to the Vikings/Colts game this last Sunday. The Colts won....bummer! They still had a fun time though. Check out these pictures they brought back:


Lane and my mom...loyal Vikings fans!

He did it!

Rylan peed in the potty this evening, after his bath, for his very first time!!! Yay! He's getting to be such a big boy! I suppose it's time to buy some Pull-Ups and get more serious about this whole potty-training thing.

Binky-free!!

We had been discussing breaking Rylan of his pacifier addiction for about a month or so now. Emery had hers until she was 3 1/2 and I didn't want to do that again with him. It was always a pain scrambling to find a pacifier at bedtime or when he would want it in the car and freak out if we couldn't find it. Also, he was starting to chew on them and make holes in the nipples, so we would then show him that they were broken and have him throw them in the garbage. He seemed to be pretty rational about the whole thing and had no problems tossing them into the trash. Anyway, Jake and I went out for dinner on Friday night and when we got home and started to get Rylan ready for bed, we realized his last binky was no where to be found. So that pretty much forced us to put him to bed without one. We thought it might be a struggle, but he went to bed without much of a fuss even after we told him that his binky was all gone. We are proud to announce that he has been binky-free since Friday evening! Woohoo!!! I think that sometimes we parents make more of a big deal out of these kinds of things than the little ones do. (But I do hope that he isn't the one that finds the lost pacifier!)


The above picture was taken after he had had a long day on our trip in Indiana in July of this year.

Mr. Monkey

So Rylan has always been a little climber, but he had tamed it down a bit until recently. He has been such a monkey this past week! I have been busy cleaning out dressers and closets the past couple of days, so he knows he isn't getting as much supervision as he obviously needs! I know when he is quiet that I better go and see what kind of trouble he is getting himself into! At one point this afternoon, I heard him go "mmmmmmmmmm", and he sounded pretty happy about it too. I figured I had better go see what he may have found in the pantry. I went into the living room and busted him digging in my purse! Just as I walked in he unwrapped his second (or third?) piece of my gum and shoved it into his mouth as fast as he could, since he saw me approaching him rather quickly. Stinker! It was short-lived, but I know he enjoyed it while he could with a great big smile on his face. Note to self: Make sure Rylan doesn't wander off for too long while you are tackling cleaning projects -before he creates disasters of his own! Or better yet...wait until he naps!

Here he is up on top of his dresser. He noticed that our cat was napping up there, so he climbed up the knobs of the drawers to get closer to the "doggy" (he gets them confused sometimes).


Here he has remembered that his rocking chair can come in quite handy! You can tell by his face that he had quite the sense of accomplishment. Never a dull moment around here!

Emery's turn to try her hand (or hands) at an instrument!!

Most of you know that Lane has always been very musical and plays the violin in the local orchestra and percussion in the school band. Well, Emery decided recently that she wants to learn to play piano, making her our newest little musician in the house! She had her very first lesson this morning and when I asked her how it went, she said "It was AWESOME!" I hope she continues to feel that way for years to come. I can't wait for her first recital!

Take me out to the ball game....

Even though the Detroit Tigers beat us 6-4, we still had a great time!

Back to school!

Today the kids went back to school and Jake started his new job. Big day up here!


Our 3rd grader!


Our 8th grader!


Waiting for the bus in the rain

Maybe she wanted a baby sister?

I could hear Emery giggling yesterday while she was playing with Rylan. She had decided that he needed a new hairdo and she just thought it was hilarious. She grabbed the camera and snapped this picture because she thought he looked "so cute!" Poor kid.