"What About Kristen and the Blog?"

Have you heard yourself (or someone else) asking this?  Or thinking it?
Where IS she?  What is going on?  Why hasn't she updated that blog in for-ev-er?

All good questions, dear readers.  Good questions indeed.  Life here has taken a turn for the busy.  Don't get me wrong, we always keep ourselves busy, but it's been an especially busy spring with more busy in the forecast.  So I will apologize now.

In the last three weeks, many things have happened.

Mama went on a trip ALONE to New Orleans for her cousin Margaret's wedding.  Yeah for Maggie and Ed and yeah for Mama!

Beautiful Bride with her dad

Some mighty fine VanDusen women

Hanging with Cousin Peter

As you can imagine, while the cat was away, the mice played.  Thomas enjoyed his new shaving set tremendously and "shaved" his entire body numerous times.

Fortunately, they saved a little bit of the wild madness for me to witness when I got home.

Ryan fits into Thomas' underpants?!?!

Dad also traveled.  Fortunately for us, Nana Honey made last minute plans to come hang out with us.  Yippee all the way around!

Thomas desperately wanted to take her out to lunch at Chili's, so of course, off we went!

Not sure which of the four of us enjoyed the dessert the most!

Thomas' favorite part of the time with Nana Honey was the gum parties that they had.  Thomas has somehow become obsessed with gum.  He wanted gum parties with Nana in the morning, noon and night.  We had gum parties while cleaning.

We had gum parties while playing Legos.

Lego bucket on Ryan: Isn't this how everyone plays Legos?

On Thomas: If you're going to put it on your brother, it also goes on your head.

On Mama: I don't think it really fits

We had gum parties while talking on the phone.

Can you talk on the phone and chew gum at the same time?

We had gum parties while playing outside.

How about playing hockey, walking a baby and chewing gum?

Of course in between all this travel, we have made time to do the things that make up our weekly routines.  Playdates, a mainstay of our sanity,  keep all three of us in better spirits.  We bade farewell to an especially harsh winter by making snowmen Rice Crispie treats with our pals Becky Reed and Alden.

We try to make time each week to Skype with our families.  It is usually a matter of who is already online during breakfast when Thomas requests them or who is home and available during Thomas' nap.  Ryan and I have been catching Papa Bear a lot lately.

We also try, often unsuccessfully, to capture how quickly Ryan Man grows. 

 He reached a few benchmarks today.  First, while Thomas was at preschool, we worked on some physical conditioning and he was able to repetitively pull himself up from a sitting position!  I offer my two pointer fingers and he does the rest of the work!  He also expressed an interest in sweeping, the first step in helping out around the house.  Most notably though, came a definitive series of "Ma.  Ma.   Ma." at dinnertime.  Of course, since Thomas uttered only "Da" for two months before a "Ma" finally passed his lips, I think Ryan's development is HUGE!!!

 So about Kristen and the blog...as you can see, big news and big goings on around here.  But not nearly as big as the goings on at Aunt Erica's!  Congratulations Erica and soon-to-be Uncle Drew!

Caca's new jewelry and celebratory drinks