School Pictures | 2018-19

Ryder is attending Pre-Kindergarten at Faith Lutheran School this year. 

He attends Mrs. Mattingly's class on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday mornings, and is seeming to really enjoy this new adventure!

Ryder originally started at another school, which we believed would offer him a high quality pre-kindergarten education. Unfortunately, we were wrong. The "exceptional academy" we selected turned out to be nothing more than a crappy daycare center, and Ryder spent less than two miserable weeks there before we pulled him out.

After a lot of research, a promising tour, and at the recommendation of many local friends, we enrolled Ryder at Faith Lutheran, where he almost immediately began to thrive.

Although Stewart and I are not religious, we feel so much better about this new school and all that it offers. Ryder gets to look forward to a fun year filled with new themes each week. He'll build pre-reading skills and math skills, have sensory time, and work on vocabulary/language building. This will all be accomplished in a fun atmosphere with toys, games and seated work. 

In the classroom, students focus on kindness, community and safety, which creates a caring environment for optimum learning and growing. Children are encouraged to use kind words, to listen to one another and to share. This is all done through positive reinforcement, modeling and redirection. 

We love that Faith Lutheran School has strong academics, small class sizes, and caring, loving certified teachers. Additionally, they also offer on-site childcare before and after school, which is great for us as full time working parents. At childcare, Ryder will continue to develop his social, emotional, cognitive, and physical skills. All of the childcare providers at Faith value play based learning, creativity, and curiosity. Every child is loved, accepted, and valued as an individual. 

After transferring to Faith Lutheran, Ryder's behavior and mood almost immediately began to improve. He started laughing and singing again, he began to talk about friends and teachers, and each day he came home with adorable art projects, drawings, and stories. It was such a relief to see his happiness and ease as he settled into a loving environment where his well-being is clearly the priority of every adult who he interacts with.

Our sweet boy is growing up so fast, and we can't wait to see how much he learns and grows this year!

An Alway Family Easter | 2018

Happy Easter from our two silly wittle wabbits.

After quite a bit of effort, that's about the best family photo we could get. Why do photos with small children always have to be such an impossible battle?!?

We spent Easter this year at my parents' new house.

We headed down south on Saturday, because that evening Stew and I had a fancy night out planned to celebrate his Battalion Chief's retirement. It was fun to dress up and spend an evening together.

While we were gone, the kids dyed eggs with Auntie, Nana and Papa.

Ryder also helped Papa with the burn pile out back...

The kids were both thrilled with their Easter baskets from Nana and Papa, and Kiley discovered that she loves marshmallow chicks and rabbits (she is definitely her father's daughter).

AJ, Morgan and the cutest baby bunny ever also came over to celebrate.

Once Ryder discovered the colorful eggs hidden all over the house, he could hardly contain his joy and excitement. It was super fun to watch.

Kiley was her usual cranky self, but Nana diligently tried to cheer her up.

Matching spring flower outfits for Kiles and Auntie!

Ryder's school also hosted an elaborate Easter celebration where he got to dye eggs, participate in an egg hunt, and hang out with the animals. 

We hope that you had a wonderful Easter with your family. 

And here's hoping that Spring weather is right around the corner!

It's Christmas Once Again

Lucky for us, Christmas this year went on for several weeks.

Our most recent celebration included exchanging gifts with my sister Nichole's family, who came up from Oregon for a few days. And for the first time ever, we decided that it was a perfect opportunity to have a professional family portrait taken. 

It thrills me to no end that I finally have a photo of all the people who I love most in the world all together. 

Back at my parents' house, the kids were spoiled with yet another extravaganza of present opening.

Ryder was thrilled with his dinosaurs, and cousins Sophia and Aubrey loved their American Girl dolls. 

Kiley's tunnel was a huge fan favorite, and we had fun figuring out exactly how many small humans you can actually fit inside...

As much as Kiley liked all her new toys, it's really the simple things in life that entertain this girl...

I grew up surrounded by tons of cousins at every holiday when I was growing up, so I absolutely love it when I get to see these kiddos together. They get along famously!

No one could get enough of sweet baby Kinley.

My mom was in seventh heaven with all of her grand babies.

All of the excitement was a little much for Stew...

We also celebrated Sophia's birthday, which is coming up next month.

And although we weren't blessed with another White Christmas, the sunny weather meant that Ryder got another chance to go outside and drive his Power Wheels Jeep. He was much less intimidated this time!

Ryder never misses an opportunity to feed the goats at Nana and Papa's house.

As our final Christmas celebration draws to a close, I'm overwhelmed with emotions... It's always sad when the parties are over and everyone has to go their separate ways, but I'm also looking forward to some time at home, and the return of a little routine in our lives.

But I sure am glad that I have such a big, amazing family to celebrate the holidays with once again.

We wish you a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!