Kids birthday party

There were hamsters... There was a barbie cake...

There was a new train set...

There was new play-do...

There were two very blessed, very hapy kids!!!!

Trick or treat

The kids had a great time trick or treating over in the Nordgrens neighborhood with Lydia and Joshua. It was a pretty cold evening but they lasted for nearly an hour and a half!! Rylan got out of the stroller and walked for quite a bit of the time. He would climb up on porches, hold out his bucket and say "peez!" and "date du" (thank you). So doggone cute (though I guess I could be a little biased !). Morgan and Lydia were princesses, Joshua was Jaq the Mouse and Rylan was a monkey.

Happenings..

We have been busy with work and company lately, both good things. I am still working at night part-time and at the shop when needed. Morgan started preschool which is also keeping us busy. Unfortunately, I did not get pictures of that momentous occasion because...I could not find my camera!!! :) I will attempt to upload some video here that my sister Sheri has taken this week while she and my mom were visiting. We have so enjoyed seeing Sheri! She had never seen Rylan and Morgan was too young to have memories of her before she left for Mozambique so this week with her around has been awesome!! Since my sister Holly and my mom have also been here, the kids have been especially spoiled...we will dearly miss them when they leave in a few days.


Here is a video of Rylan singing the blues...

Here is some video of Morgan swinging.

In addition, we have been to the apple orchard, free concerts in the park, bike rides, boat rides and every other outdoor activity we can fit into our days. I am all too aware that the cold is coming! I have lots more pictures to post soon but I will wait until our company is gone and we are lonely again! :)

Random thoughts...

Well the Rasmussen kids are getting bigger by the minute and I want to stop time every day as I see them do new things. I thought I would stop here and record what they are doing right now so that I can look back and remember it well.
This is our last month of being a non-school family. My big almost 5-year-old girl goes off to preschool this fall..sniff...I am sure that I will be the one struggling on her first day to hold it together. She, however, is more than ready for school to start. She has been learning her letters and numbers in anticipation. It has been a summer of trying new things for her. She will finally go in the pool with a swim vest on and she is so proud of herself. She also started riding her big-girl bike that Lainy gave her and we have been taking her around the neighborhood for rides.
Her hair has grown long and has blond streaks from the sun but otherwise she is physically the same...just a peanut at 31 lbs. She is my little collector. Her favorite thing to do is to gather up little items (usually pink ones) and put them in baskets..or boxes..or bags...whatever container she can find. She alternates between playing nicely with her brother and screaming at him for touching her stuff.....ah sibling rivalry!
My little boy is losing his babyhood. Though technically he is still in the "ones", he is rapidly headed for the "twos". He started saying yes this week but it comes out as a long drawn out "yeeaahh.." Kind of like a miniature Rain Man. Our conversations go something like this:

"Rylan did you have a good time with daddy last night?"
"YEEAAHH..."
"Did you get something good to eat?"
"YEEAAHH..."
You get the idea! :)

He's sweet and quick to laugh..but quick to holler if he doesn't get his way too.(Its pretty loud at our house these days.) He answers to a multitude of nicknames including RyRy, Bunsy and Mr StinkyPants...the last one is his sister's favorite. She is always the first to let me know when his diaper is full. She will look at him in disgust and say "Brother you STINK!!! MAMA, brother STIINNKS!!!".
Ah--they are a blessing to be sure. I am concentrating on enjoying them while they grow....trying to spend good time with them..teaching them what they need to grow up sweet and strong. Sorry for the lack of pictures. I promise some new ones soon. Hope everyone is enjoying their summers.

Whatcha doing?

We have been busy lately! I had a rummage sale this last weekend on Friday and Saturday. Friday was pretty much rained out and Saturday was just plain slow. I think we will attempt another one in the fall at my MIL's house since she probably has more traffic. That finished, we have been having lots of friends over, for dinner, for sleepovers, for playdates etc. Morgan's best friend Lainy stayed overnight with us last week. Then Morgan had a playdate with her friends Kirstin and Kenneth on Saturday night and we are headed to a friends house for dinner tonight since Robert is golfing today for the RTMA and won't be home until late.
I took both kids to the doctor today for "well-kid checkups" and they are....well that is!:) The doctor thinks Morgan is kind of light for her age (31 lbs at 4.5 yrs) but otherwise they are both doing great. We are planning to be more consistent with their diet of no-dairy and no-wheat to see if that will help her gain some weight. What a blessing for them to both be healthy though!! Morgan has discovered the joys of bike-riding thanks to a bike that we got from Lainy. I will post the video below. Notice that she is still not the greatest at steering, you should see the marks on the walls!! :) Oh well. It has been fun to see her enjoy it.
Rylan James is teething...again..sigh. I posted some video of the one and only thing that gives him relief right now...his beloved fussy. Notice that he carries around a spare one. Smart boy.

Fields of flowers..

The kids (Morgan especially) love to pick the "flowers" that are growing in the front yard. So I have fistfuls of these lovelies in cups of water all over the house. Rylan brings them to me one at a time and Morgan brings me handfuls of them. Very sweet! They are so proud to them to me and I have to be careful not to discard them or they get very upset.

Aint he cute!!!?

Snappers game and Father's Day

We decided to take Rob's dad to a Snappers game for Father's Day. It was actually pretty fun for the kids though they did kind of melt-down by the 7th inning. Morgan surprised me by consenting to sit on the mascot Snappy's lap for a picture. Rylan was having none of that, so no pirctures of him.

They do some fun things at the game to keep people entertained, including games for the kids and a raffle. Here is Robert (his brother in the red shirt) explaining the raffle tickets to Morgan.

Gotta have popcorn at the game! Popcorn was about the only thing Rylan could eat there and he was pretty enthusiastic about it.

All in all it was a pretty fun day...we left before the game was over but I guess the Snappers lost. Oh well. Happy Father's Day to grandpa (and Rob too) anyway!!

Mama found the camera, see what we've been doing....

I finally located my camera (acutally Robert found it, thanks honey!). We have been busy with outdoor projects, indoor painting, part-time jobs (mine) vegetable plantings, jet-skiing (Robert)yard work and so on. The kids are loving the yard here and Robert's idea to put the playset out in the "woods" at the back of the yard was a good one. It is always shady and cool back there so no one minds being outside for lone periods of time. I bought the swingset on Craigslist for $250 and the playhouse for $50. Good buys, both of them. The swingset just needed some stain and some sand and we were good to go. Daddy has to put the slide up still but other than that, it is pretty much done back there. We have also put stairs off the back deck, a retaining wall off the back sliding doors and "grow" boxes along the side of the house. Whew! We have lots of other projects in the works, including a rummage sale in two weeks but we are taking a break for a while to enjoy. Hope everyone is enjoying the summer!

Awanas ceremony

Morgan finished out her awanas year last Monday and daddy was there to get some video of her singing andl of her and Ry in the parking lot afterwards. Enjoy!

Note: Morgan is the one with the light pink long sleeves in the 2nd row, it was kinda hard to tell so I thought I should point her out!

Beads and princesses and random pictures

Any temperature over 50 degrees is reason to party outisde with water and sand!

Morgan planting her tomatoes.

Here is what happens......

when small boys play with sister's beads!

Ry has been sick a lot lately. Snoozing in the high chair, he could not even make it through lunch!

Aren't these the three cutest dressed up kids?! Morgan and Lainy are forever playing dress-up together and this time they insisted that Ry get to play too. Hee Hee, isn't he cute!?

Guardian angels and the grace of God

Ever have one of those incidents with your kids that could have been a bad situation and somehow by the skin of your teeth you escaped disaster?! Rylan James is going to be my child that requires the assistance of multiple guardian angels. We were downstairs today in the basement and Morgan and Lainy were jumping on the Jump N Slide and Ry was wandering around. We have sections of the basement gated off so I wasn't too worried that he could hurt himself on anything. I was attempting to work on some financial stuff but was watching him at the same time. He wandered just out of my view and I called at him to come back. I heard him laugh and keep going so I got up and went around the corner just in time for me to see him step on the sump pump cover. It was loose....it tips ...and in slow motion I watch him fall in. Now I have no idea how deep the hole goes but he ended up straddling a pipe that was about 6 inches in. I had him by the arm in about two seconds so he just got his shoes and socks all wet. But I shudder to think about the result had I not been that close. Oh the years that came off my life!!! God sometimes gives you a "free one". Just a little reminder that these little lives are so precious and so in need of supervision. No more inattention for mama!!!

Crazy kids, crazy mama...

Okay is it just me or is winter lasting an extrordinarily long time....ok so it hasn't been that bad. I guess it's just that this is the first year I have had TWO very busy, very active kids to occupy. They are sick of being inside. Thank goodness for the one day this week when the temp was close to 60! We spent all of that day outside, didn't get one single thing done except for cleaning up the yard. Ah the bliss of being outside with no coats on!! We are back to playdo and coloring and painting and playing in boxes left over from Christmas presents. I even set up the Jump N Slide in the middle of the living room last week. Anything to keep them busy. Here are a few pictures of that and also a few of them playing in my Rubbermaid containers....

Hope for the future

Sorry that it has been so long between posts. I can't even use the excuse that we have been busy because with the terrible cold lately we have spent plenty of time at home the last few weeks. Just unmotivated to write I guess. My camera has been dead and I haven't made any attempts to revive it yet. I guess you could say that I am in that January-holidays are over-3 more months of winter-world's a mess kind of funk. But, if I look at it all with the right perspective, I have to say that there are plenty of things to be thankful for. So in the spirit of counting my blessings:

1. My kids are healthy, not struggling with illnesses or disesases
2. We are still employed
3. God is still in control and still good no matter what
4. Easter and the season of Lent is approaching with the reminders that Jesus has made a way for salvation and life eternal
5. We have family to lean on and enjoy life with
6. We have a church family to lean on and enjoy life with
7. The sun is shining today!
8. We have enough food, enough clothes, enough heat in our house
9. I am blessed to be at home with my children where I can raise them and enjoy them
10. Superbowl is coming up ( okay so I couldn't care less about the game but we are hosting a party that should be a lot of fun!)
11. We were able to rent our old house so we don't have double mortgage payments to cover.
12. Did I mention that the sun is shining?

I promise to get some pictures posted of the kids soon. They are growing so fast. Pray that all is well with you and yours as we start this new year!