October! :)

In no particular order, here are some random happenings from this month ...

My dear friend, Aliceson, watched Ryan for me while I completed my final evaluation of a student teacher from Concordia University-Texas. Here is Aliceson's son and our Godson (Sammy) and Ryan. Ryan loves spending time with "Ms. Ah-son" and "Yammy" and was asking to see their dog, Annie, here.

 Ryan always reminds us to look for "Yammy" and "Cay-cub" (Caleb) when we're dropping Ian off at kindergarten each morning. Here, the two little ones are having fun keeping their hands in their pockets while in front of the early childhood building.

A couple of weeks ago, we were able to celebrate Aunt Chelsea's birthday (another wonderful perk of living close to them!). Ian and Ryan were thrilled to meet and play with Aunt Chelsea's birthday gift from Uncle Jon -- a new dog named Belle! Ian did an especially good job of being gentle with the puppy.

 Ryan wasn't quite as gentle but certainly loved getting and giving kisses.

 The boys enjoyed singing "Happy Birthday" to Aunt Chelsea.

 She was a great sport and let the boys blow out the candles ...

 ... and even open her gifts for her!

 Happy birthday, dear Chelsea! We love having you both (and your little one on the way) living so close! Thanks for watching our boys a few times lately. We loved our "date night" to see the high school musical and go out to dinner a few weeks back -- thank you! And, Chelsea, thanks for single-handedly watching our two boys and your two dogs while Matt was at parent-teacher conferences and Kim was tutoring this week. Y'all are awesome! Our boys (and we) LOVE you!

 One day this week, we decided to implement an idea Kim saw on a blog -- window paint! We mixed together flour, dish soap, water, and food coloring to make some paint for the windows. The boys loved every part of this activity -- stirring up the "paint," painting the window, and spraying the paint off with a hose at the end. They thought it was hilarious when Momma would go inside and peer out the window and they could paint right where I was peeking through the window. They kept laughing and saying, "You're in a car wash!"

 And the final random occurrence from a few days ago ... this little bird (sparrow?) found its opportunity to come INSIDE our house when Kim left the front door open (for literally only 1-2 minutes)! Ryan thought it was GREAT to have a bird inside and was eager to help me attempt to catch the bird in a box. The bird kept getting away from us but, thankfully, flew back out the front door after not all that long. What an adventure!