New Nephews: Ryan, Jaden & Cody

Our summer seems like a giant traveling vacation.  The first stop on our tour was Spring, TX for the celebration of baptism for our new nephew, Ryan David Schleicher.  Ryan is the second son of Jon's brother and sister-in-law, Matt and Kim.

I finished my first 1/2 year of teaching on May 21.  It was a huge learning curve and I am excited to continue to teach 7th and 8th grade English at Raymond Central High School.  I am also the new high school varsity volleyball coach.  Following my final day of school, we immediately drove 14 hours down to north Houston.

Anyway...back to Ryan.  Jon and I drove to Spring on (Thursday) May 24.  We had so much fun visiting Matt, Kim, Ian, and baby Ryan.  It was a wonderful family visit as Mom and Dad Schleicher and Beth and Andy Hanson (Jon's sister and brother-in-law), and Elaine Walquist (Kim's mom) were also in Texas for the baptism.

Jon's boys :)

We just love this family!

Jon is pretty proud to share his middle name with Ryan

Very proud grandparents!

Two grandmas who love their grandchildren VERY much!  Precious

Can you tell we like to take pictures?  There are just so many wonderful memories we wanted to capture.  Jon and I took it as our personal mission to spend as much time with Ian as we could.  For a three year old, who is used to having his parent's life revolve around his schedule, we knew the transition of a brother could be a rough one for Ian.  We had a great time entertaining him!  Ian's third birthday was at the beginning of May, but we had our own birthday party for him.  Ian got an awesome Thomas the train set from Grandma and Grandpa.  It was well played with during our visit.

 He opened a toddler scooter from us and was a little unsure of it at first.  He did enjoy standing on it with both feet and having someone push him around while he steered :)

Finally he took it out for a ride in the driveway

Ian loved airplane rides

 Since Jon is one of Ian's sponsors, we gave him a sprinkler for his baptism birthday.  He named it Caterpillar Blue!  How cute!

 Matt and Kim's neighborhood pool opened on Saturday so Jon and I took Ian to swim in the little pool.  He had so much fun playing with balls and splashing. He especially liked watching Jon do flips off the diving board.

Jon loves taking Ian to the tennis courts.  They had fun hitting balls and they played this game where they pushed the ball back and forth with their racquets.  Jon told Ian this was called "Racquet Control".  Ian thought that sounded so cool that he would yell, "Racquet Control!" at the top of his lungs.

While we were there, we also helped make meals and of course had some great conversations, games, and laughs.  The four female guests in the house managed to work together to create a meal on Sunday after Ryan's baptism remembrance.

Ian is a wonderful big brother.  He loves to give him kisses and was eager to introduce us to his little brother, Ryan.  Ian was proud to wear his big brother shirt while Ryan displayed his little brother shirt.


When Jon and I left Texas on Memorial Day we had two nephews.  On June 2, we had FOUR!!!  Jason and Amy had their twins on June 2.  We are so happy for them!  We were in Kalispell, MT for Ashlea (Chelsea's sister) and Ben Anderson's wedding on June 1, and Jon was actually able to visit the twin boys in the hospital on his way back to Nebraska.

 When Jon visited, the twins were in the NICU while doctors monitored an infection they had received during labor.

Cody Andrew

Jaden Michael, the first born

 Before going into the NICU, Jon found some tape for a sign he had made.  If you look closely, his shirt said "Holy TWINS!"

Proud Uncle Jon

Jon and Lindsea (Chelsea's sister) posing with Jason and Amy.  

Very happy brothers

Lindsea had gone with Jon back to Nebraska so she was able to hold Cody on my behalf.  ;)

We are very excited to go back to Billings, MT to meet the twins (again) and celebrate their baptism in July.