HAPPY BIRTHDAY LANDON!

Today is Landon's 3rd birthday - I can't believe it! When Brayden was 3 he was so old and mature and responsible (or something close to that) and Landon is just so....not. Landon is my party guy, my funny man, my wild card. If he does a handful of things I ask him to do all in one day, it's a good, amazing day. Landon is just such his own person and I love that. I love his independence and free spirit. I've said this before, but he is seriously one of the funniest people I have ever met. I could post everyday with something funny that he has said or done.

Landon had a fun birthday today starting with a trip to build-a-bear this morning. He picked out a cute dog, dressed him in football clothing, and named him "Danny Doggy." Landon's little dream of owning a doll stroller even came true and "Danny" now has a new ride. Landon pushed his little stroller all over the mall and as weird as it is to get a 3 year old boy a doll stroller, Landon loves it and admittedly, Landon makes doll strollers look good. :) We had a little family party tonight full of pizza, chocolate cake, and lots of great presents from grandparents.

I am posting a couple of videos of Landon that I have taken the last 2 days (I apologize in advance for the quality...they got grainy when I shrunk the file size.) This first video is of the boys swinging in the backyard yesterday. I was floored when I looked out the window and saw Landon pumping himself! In this video clip I asked him where he learned to do that and he said, "Brayden learned to me how, so now I know how!" I'm glad his English is so good. :)

So you can all feel a part of our celebrations, here we are singing to Landon tonight and him blowing out his candles on his cake. Green is his favorite color in case you couldn't tell!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LANDON!

What a weekend!!

All the stress has been set aside and we have been partying at our house! Wednesday night I flew to Utah with Charlotte for my sister Natalie's graduation from BYU. It was SO MUCH FUN! Ryan took a couple of days off work and stayed home with the boys and had "guy time." Ryan drove preschool carpool, got the boys hair cut, went to the gym, did extensive yard work, played at the park, continued the selling of our garage goods on craigslist, and even managed to have the house more sparkling clean than I've probably ever seen it. I love my family and it was so fun to play last week. Along with graduation festivities, we ate lots of food and helped Natalie with final wedding details. Also, it was so fun for Charlotte to play with her cousin Addie (they were like little best friends by the time we left) and I enjoyed spending more time getting to know Natalie's fiance David. I took a million pictures, here are some of the best:

It's all coming now....

I knew that today would come. I didn't know when, but somehow I knew that eventually it would hit me. The enormity of the situation we're getting ourselves into, that is. I spent all day Monday and Tuesday morning getting our house ready to go on the market. Yesterday it was official - sign and everything - and we had a broker open house to get some momentum going on the house. Today, I had a consultant from a moving company come through the house to estimate the cubic meters that we are shipping and the weight of the items that we plan to store. That alone was pretty close to enough to send me into a tail-spin, just realizing the ridiculous amount of work that we have ahead of us. I can't imagine if we were actually moving ourselves! Once the moving guy left I spent the rest of my morning selling things to people on craigslist. The upside is that our garage now contains a few less items, and the downside? There are only (what feels like) 1.2 million more items to go. Once the kids got down for naps I should have definitely spent my time doing something productive, but instead got consumed with researching belgian schools, french-language learning materials, and the rockin' new stroller I'm going to need. All of these items only represent 1/100th of the details going through my mind right now. I can hardly put a respectable meal on the table these days I am so preoccupied (speaking of which, we are having pot-stickers and veggie burgers for dinner. What a combo, right? It's all just to fulfill another thing to do: clean out the chest freezer!) I am so excited for this move, but can I just close my eyes for a moment and be immediately transported or something?

So, to try and end this post in a less stressed-out fashion, here are some pictures from last weekend. We had such a great long weekend! Ryan turned 30 on Friday (which should have been a post all by itself....sorry Ryan!), Ryan's sister Andrea came to visit us from Wednesday to Saturday, and I spent Saturday and Sunday in Seattle with my mom doing a little girls weekend and shopping for my sister's upcoming wedding. Ryan and Andrea took the kids to the beach on Saturday and supposedly there are some pics for that somewhere, but for now, Ryan's birthday pictures will have to do!

Reading through his birthday books - all about Europe of course!! :)

Ryan and Andrea - if you notice the string around Ryan's neck, he is actually wearing a transformer's hat. No 30th birthday is complete without transformer's hats...at least that's what Brayden thought!

Drum roll please...

There has been a lot of movin' and shakin' going on at our house lately, which has definitely led to my blog-neglect. Most everything going on has been fairly minimal, except for one thing:
WE ARE MOVING TO BELGIUM!!! Ryan has accepted a position with PwC in Brussels, Belgium starting in July and really, we could not be more thrilled. We feel so good about this move and we just can't wait to see what Europe has in store for us. We will definitely miss our friends and callings and Oregon in general, but we can't wait for this adventure. We will be there for 2 years and then will come back into the US firm wherever there is a need, which is also a source of excitement to us.

The least exciting thing about this whole process is dealing with our stuff. We will be shipping over only clothes, some toys, books, etc., but plan to buy everything else there, which leaves a lot to be sold or stored. Anyone need a house? or a car? two cars actually....or a TV? or bedroom furniture? or a bike? or a stroller? got a couple of those too.... you name it, we will probably be selling it in the next couple of months. After all, we have an entire house to liquidate. :) Thanks for being part of our lives up to this point and we look forward to sharing this next adventure as well!

Welcome to the Family!

In the last few weeks my extended family has grown by 2 people! I thought I would take the opportunity to say WELCOME!

Here is Roderic Wells Lewis III (officially dubbed "little Roddy") He is my newest nephew and came 4 weeks early at a whopping 6lb 2oz. Isn't he beautiful?! ALMOST makes me want another baby. Please note and don't forget to emphasize the ALMOST. :)

This is my sister Natalie and the man in her life - her new fiance, David Main. We got to meet David for the first time this weekend (disgraceful I know!) and are so excited to welcome him into the family. He and my sister were so ridiculously starry-eyed. It was very cute and exciting to see her so happy!