Daddy Turns #29

This year for Kale's birthday, he decided to take the reins and plan his day himself. I really thought it was sweet! He didn't tell us where we were going or what we were doing. He just drove. We drove for a while and landed in Owensboro!

Kale found this amazing park on the river filled with all sorts of things to do! The kids were SO excited when we pulled up and I was really impressed. Daddy's "find really cool places" is great.

A little photo run-down of our day as a family

After a long day of play we found this cute pizza place called Fetta Pizza. It was FABULOUS!

As we were leaving I spotted this "walk up window" sorry but I thought this was too cool. It's not something you see everyday!

The riverside was so gorgeous.

Then we settled on Cold Stone for dessert. We love Cold Stone!

It was such a good day.

My Big Boy Bed

Ryker has finally moved to his big boy bed. I caught this moment on camera because he looks SO comfortable! Goodness I love this little guy :)

Ryker Wayne | 8 Months

RYKER WAYNE | 8 MONTHS

How big is Ryker?

age: 8 mo's

clothing: 6-9 mo's 

You have 2 bottom teeth

Milestones:

Finger foods are becoming a think finally. No more gagging. You pick it up, examine it for a second and then it goes straight into your mouth :)

Foods that you love:

sweet potatoes

apple puffs

maple puffs

green peas and rice
bananas

I have moved to making your food myself. I can make all your food for 1 week in about 20 minutes. It saves us money and you LOVE your homemade food!

You really examine your food. Its comical how you look at it, taste it and if you like the taste you eat it.

  You are sitting up on your own and standing using items to hold onto. 

A Day in the Life:

You get where you need to go. You are SO fast. We really have to watch you carefully these days. You are also standing and scaling things. We love it. You love it. You think you are funny when you stand. 

Naps are short lasting from 30 minutes to an hour at most. You also go go go go go. It's like you never stop. And we think you need more sleep BUT you don't. :)

You are teething again. 2 more bottom teeth for a total of 4 teeth on the bottom. I can't see that you have any top teeth coming through but I'm not ruling it out. 

You play. And play. And we are now able to play with you. Daddy and I get on the ground at your level to play. I love putting you up in the air, up on my knees and throwing you up in the air. You really love crawling over me back and forth after I lay on the ground. It's like I'm your personal play yard :)

Your family loves you:

This month has been the most difficult month by far. You need a lot of attention. More than ever. You fall, get bumps and bruises and well, you get a little frustrated more often when you can't climb over the baby gate for example. We removed our baby gate from between the living room and dining room. You pushed through the gate anyways now that Marley broke it. So you now have free range of the entire living and dining space which makes you pretty happy. That baby gate made you SO mad anyways.

Note from Mom:

Ryker - you love me but dislike me at the same time. This month has been a little aggravating for you. I have to force you to take your tylenol and your naps. But, I think things will get better after you get these teeth in. I love you! You are my baby!! My youngest. The one who gets most of my attention these days. You like me more than daddy at this time but I know that will change :)



Watch Me Grow:

newborn

1 month

2 months

3 months

4 months

5 months

6 months

7 months

8 months

VBS 2015

Vacation Bible School 2015


Giving back and serving our Lord this year was an incredible experience. Kale and I had the pleasure of being group leaders of the 5th grade at VBS for our church. It was fun, exciting and quite the experience for two people who have never been in charge of a class like this before.

We weren't allowed to take photos of our class or the participants due to some rules the church put in place but we were able to grab up a few pics with our kiddos who attended VBS this year and may or may not have taken a few oopsie pics! But that is classified info. so carry on :)

 

Our service project for VBS 2015: 

To collect and purchase baby items for Potters Wheel in Evansville. One half of the 4th grade delivered brown bags to a selected neighborhood on Monday. Thursday the other half went back and collected all of the bags filled with baby items. Then on Friday our 5th grade class got to deliver all of the bags to Potters Wheel. It was truly amazing to see all the donations and gifts from our community to help others in need. Kale and I were blessed beyond measure to get this reality check and to see so many smiling faces and to know the ones we didn't see are smiling too.

I took the kids shopping. We gathered up some funds and I told them to pick out whatever they wanted for all the babies in need. They had fun doing so. It was such an amazing contribution and a good way to spend some money doing something really good. It felt good.

 

We purchased diapers, wipes, soap, lotion, blanets, towels, clothes, binkys - I mean it was just amazing.

Then our 5th grade class went to Potters Wheel to deliver. Such an amazing experience. We handed our plates of food, napkins and drinks. Then cleaned up after dinner was done. 

Bus Ride There

Prep Speech from our director

We also made bags for all the kids filled with water, granola bars and fruit snacks :)

We helped the kids make cross necklaces

And this is our stage at CFC where the donations were placed daily from our church VBS members! You can see it went from nothing to grand in just a week!

The stacks just kept getting bigger and bigger. It was so amazing!

And no for a little showing of US during our fun times at CFC!

Exhausted but worth it!

VBS was so much fun. God is Amazing. Opening our eyes to things we normally don't see. Kale and I loved volunteering and I know we will continue to do so!

~ Our Shank Family