Bunch of Paynes: January 2015

Thursday, January 29, 2015

An Extra Special Saturday

I love Saturdays. I don't set my alarm. We eat a big breakfast together. The kids usually play happily together in their pajamas for a while if we don't have anywhere to go. And last Saturday began just that way, only getting better as the day went on with some extra special things thrown in.

After breakfast, before playing with his sisters, Rooke decided to join me in my time of Bible reading. What a blessing to this mommy's soul!

Later in the morning, we all went to cheer on Rooke's car at the Cub Scouts pinewood derby. His car is the one on the far left.

He didn't win a trophy (an unfortunate result of Mom being a pinewood derby rookie), but he was a good sport and brought home a participation ribbon.

Later that evening, Rooke and I enjoyed a special date together to the Minot Symphony! My brother-in-law drew my name for Christmas and gave me tickets to the performance as my gift. I had been looking forward to this night since Christmas!

The theme of the concert was "animals" (it was their family performance for the season) and they had an "instrument petting zoo" set up for the kids to try out different instruments.

So focused.

We had seats on the floor for the first half and then found some empty seats in the balcony next to my sweet friend and fellow music teacher for the second part. It was a later-than-normal night for Rooke, but he stuck with it and we both enjoyed the night. Watching the conductor and the intermission cookie snack were the highlights for him! =) Sitting with my son for his first symphony experience and whispering explanations to him was the highlight for me!

Thursday, January 15, 2015

Happy Birthday Rooke!

Our boy turned seven this month!

Ryan was out of town for Rooke's real birthday, so we had a family birthday night early. We started the night started at Pizza Planet for some games. A few rounds of skeet ball, Mom busting some moves on Dance Revolution, Dad helping Rooke play a hunting game (when in North Dakota . . .), and Air Hockey earned us enough tickets for Rooke to "buy" his sisters each a friendship bracelet and pocket himself a handful of tootsie rolls!

While the boys played, the girls danced with their own reflections!

After dinner at Qdoba (Rooke's favorite!), we treated our birthday boy and the family to Coldstone!

At age seven, one of Rooke's main love languages is still food! So his actual birthday started with a full breakfast and a gift.

After church, we invited our friends, Sam and Patricia, to join us for lunch in celebrating Rooke.

We enjoyed Rooke's favorite: British meat pie and mash.

Then he got to open a few more presents:

When I asked Rooke what kind of birthday cake he wanted this year, he thought for a second and then said, "A Bible cake!". He came up with the design and color scheme for the cake all on his own. He's a cool kid.

Seven candles!

I love this series of photos because you can see how he had a hard time blowing out all the candles!

Rooke is our contemplative thinker and has a great memory. He is observant, inquisitive, boisterous, physical, and smart. He doesn't usually like being in the spotlight, and certainly doesn't want to be singled out for anything, but he has a quiet confidence about him and has strong opinions about what is right and what is wrong. Rooke loves playing with legos and just in the last month has started to really enjoy reading pretty much anything he picks up. He likes board games or card games and has taken a recent interest in football (proudly wearing his new Seahawks shirt!), which Ryan thinks is awesome! Rooke loves Jesus. And he loves his family, even though his sisters annoy him like crazy when they play "Baby and Mommy" together! We are so proud of our seven-year-old son.

Happy Birthday, Rooke!

Saturday, January 10, 2015

Trying on the Wedding Dress

Ryan and I celebrated our twelfth anniversary on January 4th! After a nice lunch date together, we came home and looked through our wedding photos with the kids, which was followed by a peek at my wedding dress. Gretchen immediately wanted to try it on!

While wearing the dress, she stood straight up and asked, "Did you have to be very proper when you were wearing your dress?" =)

I took a turn trying on the dress, and then she asked to wear it again. I hesitated, and she was quick to convince me by saying, "Mom - I just want to put it on and sit down and look at everything that is happening around me and people can just look at me." Oh my!

Saturday, January 3, 2015

Christmas Week 2014

We had a memorable Christmas week celebration this year with my parents in town visiting! It's been a hard adjustment not living relatively close to them anymore and was special to share in the festivities of Christmas together.

The kids sang a couple songs in church. I know I'm biased, but my mouth hurt from constant smiling so much that morning! They wanted their songs to be a surprise for Kaye K and Big Daddy. Bridgette took her practicing at home seriously!

Big Daddy turned SIXTY!! It was great to celebrate with him on his special day. My dad is a profoundly wise, servant-hearted, loving, competitive, fun man. He's aged well. =)

Between Big Daddy's birthday, Gretchen's birthday, Jesus' birthday, and Rooke's birthday coming up . . . birthdays were on the brain for this little one who daily reminds us of her age. Except she says "ager". It's one of her cutest words! And she will tell you her "ager" right now is "this many" (she's very good at being two!) but in March she will be "this many" (three fingers!).

We played a lot of games!

The kids were thrilled to open their traditional Christmas Eve pajamas from Grammy Deb and G Daddy!

Christmas morning opening stockings was a fun way to start the day!

After a big breakfast, Rooke helped us to read the Christmas story.

The amazingly fun after-math chaos!

We enjoyed a delicious ham dinner together in the evening. I love the British tradition of poppers, so I brought some back from England for our Christmas dinner!