3 Things for Ryland & Raylee - They were tagged!

3 Nicknames:
Ryland: Ry, Ry Boy, Buddy
Raylee: Ray, Ray Girl, Sister Sue

3 People That Make Me Laugh:
Ryland: Himself, Raylee, Dad
Raylee: Ryland, sometimes Mom & Dad

3 Things I Love:
Ryland: Making Raylee laugh, Super Mario Bros 3, Star Trek Voyager
Raylee: Ryland making her laugh, her thumb, Mom

3 Things I Hate:
Ryland: Eating everything on his plate, sleeping in his own bed, leaving wherever he is
Raylee: Getting into trouble, Not eating exactly when she wants, Falling

3 Things I Don't Understand:
Ryland: How electricity works, Why everyone he loves can't live with him, Why we can't do everything he wants to do all the time
Raylee: Why she can't keep up with Ryland, Why she should eat green beans, Why her diaper gets dirty

3 Things On My Floor:
Ryland: A Baseball rug, probably clothes and shoes, things to pack for vacation
Raylee: Clothes to pack for vacation, items to take to Kelly and the new baby, teddy bears

3 Things I'm Doing Right Now:
Ryland: Telling Mom some long story about superheros, Pacing, Dancing
Raylee: Watching a movie, Talking to herself, Playing with a blanket

3 Things I Can Do:
Ryland: Ride his bicycle, Run really fast, Pretend
Raylee: Crawl, Pull up on things, Laugh

3 Things I Cannot Do (yet):
Ryland: Buckle his own seatbelt, Fix his own food, Turn without assistance on his bike
Raylee: Walk, Talk, Go to the Potty

3 Ways to Describe My Personality:
Ryland: Sweet, Caring, Crazy
Raylee: Precious, Sweet, Demanding

3 Absolute Favorite Foods:
Ryland: Mac-n-cheese, Peanut Butter & Honey sandwiches, Chocolate
Raylee: Squash, Apples and anything, Cheerios

3 Foods I do NOT like:
Ryland: Any vegatables besides green beans, Any meat besides chicken, Any sweets besides chocolate
Raylee: Green beans, plain rice cereal, anything containing a green vegatable

3 Beverages I Drink Regularly:
Ryland: Milk, Cherry Juice, Cold-Cold Water
Raylee: Formula - that's all she drinks right now

3 Shows I Watch:
Ryland: Scooby Do, anything Pixar, Star Trek Voyager
Raylee: Baby Mozart, Baby Bach, Whatever Ryland is watching

I've been tagged by Kathy and Lauren!

Alone or with people?
I probably most prefer to be with people. At my office it is only my boss and me so by the end of the day I'm ready to go visit somebody or get a group together to go eat. Versus my husband that sees 100 students everyday and is ready for it just to be us in the evening.

Summer or Winter?
Winter most definantly. If I didn't have a husband that doesn't like snow, I would live in the mountains of Colorado. I love the cold and the snow.

Black or White?
White. I'm not a black fan. I very rarely wear, decorate or color with black.

Observe, or get along from the very first moment?
Probably a little of both. If in a new group, I observe until I feel comfortable. But sometimes I do jump in there and jabber away from the get go.

Clown, or Drama (Queen/King)?
I'm not really either. I'm definantly not a clown and usually not a drama queen. But I guess I can make a big deal out of things sometimes.

A Hummer, or a BMW convertible car?
A Hummer. I've never been interested in convertibles because of the blowing hair factor. I think Hummer's are cool and have lots of space.

Loyal or………
I'm pretty loyal to friends and groups. I do loose loyalty sometimes for good reasons, but overall I'm rather loyal.

Best Burger in Town

When we went to Walmart this evening, Leland and Ryland ran inside while I stayed in the car with sleeping Raylee. As they returned to the car, the people next to us commented on our food. We had apparently ran over a whole hamburger! The bun was attached to our wheel and the patty was lying on the ground next to it. As we drove home, we sprayed bread all over the place. Things like this happen to us all the time. What fun!

Finally Pictures

Here are the other pictures I intended to post from our trip to Lubbock and our walk to ant hunt. AJ makes it for about half of the walk and then progressively gets slower so he rides in the basket of the stroller for the second half of each walk we take. Ryland is getting really good on his bike. He asks each evening if we can go for a walk - we walk, he rides. He got the bike for his birthday but it took some convincing to get him on it. Now, he wants to ride all the time. Oh to be a kid again. :)

We are ALL Superheros

Ryland has been into superheros lately. "We are ALL Superheros." Yesterday he was Superman and Spiderman at the same time. Last night Ryland wanted help putting on his snow gloves and said he was going to go climb a wall like Spiderman. I said ok and continued sewing. After not hearing him in quite some time, we decided to investigate. This is what we found. He had climbed the fence and was chatting with the neighbors. She had asked him if he was going to fall and he replied, "No. I'm Spiderman!" Life with a boy is getting fun.

Also, here is a picture of my friend at my office. He's been coming around for several weeks now. Today he climbed the tree and watched the traffic. He's becoming the office pet. If only he was tame. :)

Raylee

Blogger wouldn't post the rest of the pictures intended for yesterday. Here is one of my cutie (the only one that will upload). She loves going on walks.

Lubbock, Family and Ants

We just returned from a trip to Lubbock. Leland had a yearbook workshop that he took 4 students to. They left Thursday morning and the kids and I went up after work Thursday evening. I decided that Leland shouldn’t have that huge hotel room to himself. :) The hotel was awesome – thumbs up to Arbor Inn – it was great. The room was huge and the pool was awesome. We had a great time. While they were at the workshop, the kids and I got to see lots of family. We saw my grandparents Friday afternoon. He had hip surgery about 2 months ago, so it was nice to see him doing well. We also saw my aunt Pam and her girls (they will always be little girls to me even though they are 13 and 14 now). Pam is a yearbook adviser in Idalou so she was at the workshop. She brought her girls to join us at the Clay Café Friday evening. It was great to see them again and have them play with my kids. We also had some college friends, Kris and April, join us at Spanky’s for supper. I am always glad when I can go to Lubbock and see friends and family without having to rush around.

You are probably wondering about the ants. While at the mall in Lubbock we went to the Nature store. Ryland (and Leland) spotted the Ant Farm’s. Both were so excited they talked me into one. After church last night, we all loaded up and went ant hunting. At the end of our street is open “range” land so Leland quickly found a good ant hill. He collected 10 or so ants for our farm. Ryland is loving it. He is a little disappointed they don’t have elaborate tunnels made yet, but it’s lots of fun for a 4 year old boy.


We are actually all home this entire week. I am so excited. My house needs cleaning but that is the only major thing. The boys will probably go fishing and maybe swimming but all in all, a relaxing week. I’m excited.

Family and Highlights

Yeah, my family is home! Leland and his students decided to skip the final morning events at the workshop and came home early. He got to town about 1:30. Grammy and my kids arrived about 3. I had already decided to take the rest of the afternoon off so I could see my family. We just hung out at the house. Leland (and Raylee) took a good nap while Ryland and I found the hidden pictures in the latest Highlights magazine. He and I love it when the latest issue arrives. We go straight to the matching section and the hidden pictures. This issue has a much larger hidden picture because it is the 60th year of Highlights. What a great magazine!

I have to clean my house this evening because we have some missionaries coming Saturday to stay with us. They will be meeting with our congregation Sunday afternoon about supporting them. My in-laws know these missionaries well, so that is how we got hooked up with them. It will be nice to meet some new people and learn about their work.

I hope everyone has a great weekend and gets to spend it with family. Enjoy.

Savoring the Silence

I have had a nice quiet week. Sunday I shipped my family off. Leland went to Dallas with 9 journalism students for a workshop and the kids went to Pappy and Grammy's house. Sunday was very quiet and relaxing, although I had a very difficult time going to sleep. Monday after work my friends Lauren and Shannon and I went to see Pirates - very good; we had a good time.

Tuesday evening I worked on making some baby blankets for my brother and his wife. They are due anytime. :) They live in Houston and apparently city people don't make homemade blanket for new parents. I have two full shelves of only handmade blankets in Raylee's closet. Kelly said she received just a few bought ones. So I'm trying to get a few made for her.

Tonight will be full of working on more blankets and church services. My family all returns tomorrow. I glad. I've really missed having my favorite people around me. I'm not quite sure that I'm ready for the craziness to return, but it will all be worth it to see them all again.

Ryland - so grown up

Ryland has asked several times in last past few weeks, "When I was a baby, did I have a brother?" We have been confused as to his reasoning behind this question until yesterday. While driving in the car at lunch Ryland tells me that he had to have had a brother when he was a baby because who else would have watched him and made sure he didn't get into things he shouldn't. Ryland is a very good big brother. He enjoy's protecting his little sister and making sure she stays out of things that she shouldn't be into. But I got a glimpse into his thinking when he was concerned about who watched him when he was small. I'm amazed everyday at how grown up Ryland is becoming. He turned 4 the end of June and has changed so much in one year. He worries a lot and wants to understand everything around him. Leland recently had to explain how water comes out of the faucet in great detail. Having a 4 year old is fun and exhausting because there are so many questions that require detailed answers. It all mankes me so curious what the future holds for him.

Clay Cafe

Yesterday the kids and I took Leland to Lubbock so that he could fly to Austin this morning. We got there in enough time to go to the Clay Cafe before they closed. My friend Lauren had introduced me to this place a few weeks ago while we were at Encounter. We had each made some art that day that I was picking up. The pictures are of our first art, a flower pot with Raylee's footprint and Ryland's handprint. Ryland did the finishing touches. :) We got there early enough yesterday that we made another project. We had lots of fun picking out the item we wanted to paint and the colors we wanted to use. Ryland was disappointed that we didn't let him paint, although we did paint his and Raylee's feet to use their footprints. We all had a good time. We already have a trip to Lubbock planned in a couple of weeks so we can pick up our new art then. Enjoy the pictures.

July 4th Holiday

We had a nice July 4th. Big Spring is strange and does the celebrations on July 3rd so we had a fireworks show on Monday evening. Ryland really enjoyed seeing the fireworks. Raylee slept in Leland's arms the entire time since it was way past her bedtime. Yesterday on the 4th we just hung out. We all slept in which I truely enjoyed and then headed to the high school. Leland had a few things to pick up and do before heading to a workshop today. We did have one drama while there. The keys got locked into a cabinet. We took the hinges off of the door but still could not get the cabinet open. We finally broke down and called a locksmith - a $40 charge since it was a holiday! Raylee and I went outside to wait and look pitiful. Just as the locksmith arrived, Leland called me to say that he finally got into the cabinet. Thankfully, the locksmith did not charge us for coming anyway. So what started as a very stressful moment, ended up very exciting. We rewarded the adventure with McDonald's - Ryland's request.

I hope everyone enjoyed their 4th of July celebrations.

Joining the Ranks

Ok, I've decided to join the millions of people with blogs. My family all has myspace accounts, but since I can't access myspace at work I've decided to go with a blog instead. Blogs are great ways to keep in touch with long distant family and friends. I myself read many blogs every morning. So here we go on documenting the Mallett family lives.