a little girl time...

Our current routine is on Fridays, Kit takes Ryder to school and picks him up.  Ryder loves any chance he gets to be alone with his dad and pickups and dropoffs to school are no exception.  This last Friday, Eden and I decided to head out on some girl time.

 We headed to "lobby lobby", one of our favorite little errand spots for some craft supplies:

 She scored some stickers... because they were located directly across from the pipe cleaners I needed.  She worked me.

She is a total ham:

We walked past this display and Eden said how much Ryder would love it... 

Ryder would DIE of pure joy if I told him I was going to change his room decor to this:

 Then I had a minor freakout when we came around the isle to this:

(Eden was in her own little winter wonderland while I wanted to crawl into a corner and breathe into a paper bag!)

She was having so much fun looking at all the fabrics for some little projects I have in mind...

Then we headed to Once Upon A Storybook children's bookstore for reading and craft time!

It's a sweet little bookstore with a great selection and they have an upstairs area where they have their group events!

 The theme was bugs!

 We made finger print bugs in a jar.

This girl and I got a solid 2 hours of just doing our thing and enjoying each other and it was such fun!

We are excited for so much more times like these!

take me out to the ball game...

As a belated birthday present, Ryder and Kit got to go to an Angels game last week.

 A foul ball came and kit tipped it to the guy right behind him and then that sweet guy gave it to Ryder, saying his dad helped get it.

It was a pretty memorable game for these two...❤️

Ryder's first day of school!

Oh my goodness, it feels so long since that first day on September 1!  It went so much better than we could even have imagined.  My mom and sister came into town to give me emotional support and it was AMAZING! Thank you guys for loving on me so well!

Here are some photos we took before we left:

Ryder really wanted to eat waffles with a candle in them and for us to sing about his first day.  We were happy to comply.

He is only in half day so all I pack for him is a snack.  He felt SO BIG!

We took A TON of pictures. 

Getting to the school (and holding it together pretty well, I might add...❤️)

His teacher greeted everyone and we found his spot at his desk and there was a handprint craft that they wanted the parents to do with their little one.  This is where I lost it.  It's this poem about their tiny fingers and all that they will do with their little hands... Yah, that is just mean... but I will love having those handprints, so I will forgive his amazing teacher.❤️

She also gave the kiddos these sweet little bags of treats:

As soon as we hugged and kissed him and we were outside of his class, I burst into tears and said, "BUT HE'S JUST SO LITTLE!" My mom and sister had tears too.  That's solidarity right there.

Kit then headed to work and we headed to Sidecar Doughnuts to eat our emotions.❤️  It was amazing.  We sat and talked for well over an hour and it was so good for my soul to sit there with people who love Ryder as much as I do... They were in it with me!

I was so happy to see this little munch when we picked him up!  It's only half day kindergarten but it still felt long.  I am so happy for him and this new adventure.  He seams to be doing really well with making sweet friends and I have gotten to meet some of the moms of his friends and they are so kind. (Weird little fact, the two friends that he has been drawn to are little guys named Luke and Graham, both of which have moms that stay home and have three year old little sisters... Can I tell you how excited I am that he has little friends that he is excited to see every day?!?❤️)

updates and tune ups...

Ok family, last week was one of the biggest that we have had in such a long time!  With school starting and all the emotions that came with that. Then Ryder started soccer.  He absolutely loves it! There have been baseball games and huge house projects and the starting of small groups.  There have been significant prayer meetings for dear friends going on missions, bringing meals to new parents, and having sweet significant moments for our church community with storytelling.  I want to capture it all and be present with everything.  And in the midst of all that and wanting to share those sweet moments with you, our computer decided it was tired of all I was trying to make it save and capture.  So now my computer is getting a tune up because I was trying to put too much memory on it, so Kit updated it to 4 terabytes... I am told that should hold everything for my photo obsession.❤ So while I wait for the tune up and updates and all that good stuff, know that the pictures and the stories are coming, and that Carbonite is going to save it all...❤

heading to kindergarten!

These last few days, we have been getting ourselves ready for this big day.  Today is Ryder's first day of kindergarten! I am excited to capture all today holds, but here are a few snapshots with getting him all ready from the past few days!

We made a "survival kit" for his teacher:

 Ryder told me what he wanted her card to say... It was so sweet!

Ryder picked the combination of his uniform that he wanted to wear and we made sure that everything was washed, laid out, and ready to go:

(He specifically asked me to make sure that the socks and underwear were set out too...♥)

He asked if we could read books and snuggle on our bed.  We were there four almost two hours...

During this time, Ryder and I were able to talk about how he was feeling about school and his reply was, "I'm a little nervous, but I'm REALLY REALLY more excited!"

(Me too, buddy, me too...)

All of the sudden my baby boy looks so big!

Then we worked on our school family project.  We got the instructions for it at the back to school night and he was SO excited to do it!

He has been asking me to put a note in his snack bag:

(I know he can't read it, but he will LOVE that we sent him a "high five"...)

I asked what he wanted for diner and he requested tacos.  We had some fun with our chalkboard placemats:

we read a verse from Colossians over him at bed time and talked about how exciting this new chapter is.  He is ready.  He is going to absolutely rock it!

These next few days are for getting into a rhythm and schedule and for finding our groove...

We are excited for all that this new school adventure holds for our entire family...❤️