T-ball

As promised, some pictures from t-ball last night.  The kids got to have their parents and siblings play with them the last inning which is why Travis is in most of the pictures with Ryan - it was pretty cute to watch them "play" together.  And as always, a couple of pictures of the girls running around while at yet another one of Ryan's activities.

Ryan-less

As you may have guessed by the title, we have been without Ryan, or "Ryan-less" for the past week.  So what do we do when there is no Ryan in the house . . . absolutely nothing!  And I mean that in a good way.  Ryan is the only one with activities planned throughout the summer so without him around, we've been doing a lot less running, and a lot more "hanging out" and relaxing.  Lauren has had mixed emotions about being without her big brother.  At first, it was great.  She was the oldest now and could "boss" the babies (Ellie and Colt) around and no one could boss her - what a good deal!  About a day into it though, the feeling of power must have worn off and she was pretty sad without her brother.  One day Trav took her out to the Y to play for a while and about 20 minutes after they left, they were back home already.  When I asked what happened, Trav told me Lauren just got sad and wouldn't even go into the play area so they just left.  When I talked to Lauren about it, she said, "I miss my brotha" (her words, not mine).  She repeated to me over and over that she just wanted him to come back home right away.  Knowing that wasn't an option, I did the next best thing . . . we called him.  The minute she talked to Ryan, she sobbed and said, "I sad, will you come home now?"  Ryan being the good-hearted kid he is, put on his best soothing adult voice and said, "I can't come home right now Lauren, but I'll be there in 3 days, you'll be okay" - it was very sweet to watch them talking so nicely to each other especially when I know the minute he gets home, Lauren will probably punch him or hit him and their normal "hit and tattle" routine will fall back into place.  I've got to enjoy the sweet moments when I can.  Well, today is the big day . . . Ryan is finally coming home.  And based on my conversations with him while he's been gone, he probably won't want to live with us anymore.  At Grandma Connie's house, he was the main attraction - there were no little sisters to get in his way, he got to go have a blast at camp everyday, and to top it off, he got to pretend he had a dog (Grandma's dog, Violet) for a couple of days (he even told Grandma that Violet would be coming to live at our house when Ellie turned 3 - apparently he listened too well during a past conversation when I told him we couldn't have a dog right now because Ellie was too little so we would have to wait until she turned 3 - I guess I should have went for a bigger number).  He has sounded so excited on the phone, I can't wait to hear all the rest of his stories when he gets home tonight, and trust me, I'm sure he'll have lots to tell!  On top of his being away for so long, he is coming home tonight to play in his final t-ball game of the summer.  We're all planning on going tonight to watch him in action so hopefully I'll be able to snap a few pictures considering I forgot to being my camera on "picture" night.

Thanks Grandma Connie for taking Ryan!  A little heads up . . .Lauren is already counting down the days until she turns 6 and can stay with you as well - oh, the fun you'll have with the two of them!!

"Angie" weekend

First of all, let me start out by saying that I love my husband and my children very much.  With that said, I will say that life is much, much easier without them around!  That is right, I spent an entire weekend alone - free to do what I want, whenever I want - how exciting!  To kick off my "Angie" weekend, I hit up Canterbury Park with my good pal Jen.  She had free drink tickets for the night, so you can assume how well that turned out.  The highlight of the night came during the fifth race - it was the one and only race I bet on, and with luck on my side, I won $0.40.  That's right people, I bet $6.00 and won $6.40 - I was so excited.  So excited in fact, that I gave my winning tickets to Jen and let her use them to bet on the next race, I am not a gambling type of girl and it was the least I could do as a "thank you" for all the free drinks.  Friday night wrapped up relatively early so when I rolled over at 6:30am on Saturday morning alone in my bed with only a slight headache, I was happy.  I had a lot planned for Saturday . . . clean the house top to bottom, pick up and assemble our new tv stand, go through all the kids' clothes and pull out everything they have outgrown, grocery shop, make a Target run, and last but not least, make a return at Kohl's.  The cleaning part was a breeze, and if I have to say so myself, the house looks great!  Up next, pick up the tv stand.  With a little help from my neighbor, I was able to get the huge box into the basement and was super excited to get everything put together.  I even called my brother to come over and help, but before long my excitement was gone.  Upon opening the box, I discovered some damage to the right side, and right base of the stand so instead of rearranging and having everything put together before Trav got home, I instead ended up calling the furniture store and getting a replacement.  Not to be deterred, I decided to put the tv stand incident behind me and get on with the rest of my list.  Up next, go through all the kids' clothes.  About 10 minutes into this project, I realized that this wasn't going to be any easy task.  Before I knew it, about 5 hours had passed and 3 tubs of clothes were ready to be shipped out while 4 others remained waiting for their chance to resurface when the timing was right.  By the time I finally wrapped up with the clothes, I had just enough energy to run to the grocery store and stock up before I headed home for a little rest.  My rest lasted long enough to watch a so-so movie, and then it was back to work.  I made up some food, cut up some fruit, and then called it a night around 9:30pm.  This is when I hoped back into bed, watched another so-so movie, and drifted off to sleep happy with my accomplishments for the day.  Sunday started early again (it is amazing how I can get up early when I have no kids around, but when they are here, it is a struggle to pull myself out of the bed - odd).  Feeling refreshed, I headed out to the gym for a nice morning workout, hit up Target for my usual $100 (how I spend $100 every time I go there is beyond me, but I usually do), and then stopped at Kohl's to make my return.  After that, I headed home, took one look at our dirty garage, and decided to do a little more cleaning.  Satisfied with the new look of the clean garage, I finally went inside, showered up, ate some lunch, and just relaxed - which is exactly what I plan on doing until everyone gets home!  After all this down time, I am ready for everyone to be back home and destroy the house again in less than five minutes - oh well, at least I had two whole days with everything looking good!

Balls and missing teeth!!

With another miserable day to look forward to, I planned a fun little outing to burn off some pent up energy.  So I packed up the whole gang and headed out to the local "Bounce House."  This place is full of inflatable bounce houses, an inflatable obstacle course, and for the babes, a ball pit - talk about fun!  We were there a good two hours and somehow I only managed to snap this picture of Ellie and Colton in the ball pit - no time to take pictures when I'm busy chasing two babies and two kids all over the place!

By the time we wrapped up, the babies were getting hungry and Ryan and Lauren were sweaty messes from running and climbing all over the place with their new friends (Jack and Claire - a brother/sister duo just like them and the perfect ages, what a deal).  With the fun morning over, it was lunch and then long naps for everyone.  They must have all been tired because there was little to no fuss and they were all out cold - perfect! 

Now, onto the missing teeth . . . so Ryan has had one top tooth just tangling by a thread (or should I say, "root") for the past few days.  It is so disgusting to see him turning it almost all the way around, and then pushing it back and forth with his tongue - if there is one thing I don't do well with, it is loose teeth.  So there we are tonight; me making dinner, and the kids walking and talking in the kitchen when Ryan shouts, "I lost my tooth, I think I lost my tooth?"  I turn around and say, "what do you mean, you think you lost your tooth?"  He says, "it just fell out - I think."  As it turns out, he was jumping a little, the tooth was apparently loose enough, and with good good bounce, it just dropped into his mouth - weird, but at least I didn't have to participate in any part of the removal. So here is our toothless boy proudly showing off his first tooth he lost as a 6 year old (and also his first top tooth he has lost).

And just because she always wants her picture taken when the camera is out, here is our crazy girl doing what she does best . . . striking a pose for the camera - what a diva!

9 years and counting . . .

Today marks another year of wedded bliss (bliss might be a strong word depending on the day) for Trav and I - we are now up to a total of 9.  Nine years, two houses, five different jobs (between Trav and I), and three kids later, and we're still hanging in there - not too shabby!  Here are a couple of pics of the two of us when it was just the two of us (warning, we look like 12 year olds in some of these).  Oh to be young and carefree again!

Trav's first visit to SDSU - yes, we may have been drinking

Our first trip together to California

End of season basketball party at our college house

First wedding we attended together (we got engaged shortly before this)

Crazy how much life changes in such a short period of time.  So to Travis . . . thanks for the good times, the bad times, and everything in between, thanks for our three wonderful (again, this could be a strong word depending on the day) children, and most importantly, thanks for choosing me to be your wife - what a lucky lady I am!

Loken Family Gathering

We had our first "Loken Family Gathering" in almost 10 years (yeah, it has been way too long)!  Ash and Mike flew home this weekend to attend a friend's wedding so as we usually do, the whole family decided to get together so everyone could see them.  The "whole" family is usually just our immediate family, but this visit was better because Bob, Cherie, and Kate (uncle, aunt, and cousin) were able to join us as well - we were one cousin short (Matt had to work), otherwise the whole gang was there.  It really shouldn't be that hard to get everyone in the same place, but somehow, it has been a fete we were not, and really still have not (we need Matt to be complete) been able to accomplish in a long time.  There was lots of catching up to do, lots of laughs, and lots of fun!  Aaron and Ann made enough food to feed a small army, and amazingly we ate almost all of it - not so good for the waistline!  We also drank our fair share of alcohol which resulted in a rough day on Saturday, but it was all worth it for some good 'ol family fun!  Here are some of the 50 or so pictures I took (drinking and cameras make for lots and lots of pictures).

Soccer picture day

As you may have guessed by the title, today was picture day at soccer.  In preparation of the big day, I pulled out my camera early and caught Lauren and her babes "dropping a beat"(I jokingly used that term once when Ryan was doing his version of "rapping" and it has stuck since) and "making music" (Lauren thinks anytime she beats on something or makes any kind of noise, it is music) on the bathroom door. 

Their "beats" got a little annoying after 10 minutes, but who can complain when a 3 year old is keeping two babies busy allowing time to pack - certainly not me!  With the music session wrapped up, and naps over with, we all loaded into the van.  Once we got to soccer, we left Ryan with his team and headed to the nearby park (Lauren does such a good job of sitting and watching all the time so every once in a while, I try to sneak over to the park and let her have some fun too).  After Lauren broke a sweat with all of her climbing and running, she was ready to head back to the game and sit down with a snack and some water - mission accomplished, one tired little girl!  With Lauren content and the babies munching away on some snacks, I grabbed out my camera and started taking some action shots (which can be tricky sometimes considering Ryan still does as much talking as he does playing).  Here are some of my favorites of the boy in action.  He really likes to wind up and do what he calls, "super kicks" - unfortunately for him, sometimes by the time he is done winding up his leg, the other team has already taken the ball away.  Oh well, at least he still has fun and loves talking about all of his "super" moves he did (or tried to do)!

4th of July!!

It's hard to believe that the 4th has already come and gone. In my book, the 4th of July signifies the halfway point of summer and because this summer hasn't been so great weather wise, that really stinks! On the flip side, the 4th of July also means a long, fun weekend - yay! We spent our time at Grandma and Grandpa Loken's house. The weather was nice and warm (which is perfect swimming weather), so we took full advantage and spent much of our time in the pool. Aaron, Ann, and Colton also joined in on the fun so there was a full house. By Monday (today), we were all ready to get back home and relax so after the parade in the morning, we packed up and headed out. As I type this, all three of the kids are sleeping (Ryan might be reading, but either way, they are all quiet) which is nice so Trav and I can both have a little time to relax as well before another busy week starts. Hope everyone had a safe and fun 4th of July!!! Here is a picture replay of the weekend.