our new nephew, carter jeffery leep

i am working my way backwards on whats been happening in our life. we were unplugged the last week and a half on vacation. so while we were gone our nephew was born. malachi and abram are excited to have another boy join the verwys cousins. carter jeffery leep was born on the 29th to ryan's older sister, rebecca and our brother-in-law jeff. his big sister's look like they love him a ton and we are so excited to meet this big bundle this christmas!!



9 lbs. 12 oz and 21.5 inches and he was 2 weeks early! what a handsome guy.



leep family



carter (brand new) and addisyn (6 weeks)

happy 51st birthday bellflower

this weekend we celebrated bellflower's birthday at the family fun zone - they shut down the street downtown and created a little party. this is the first year without a parade. what a great decision to have this new set up. for those of you who have attended the past parades i think you can agree with us - that free cotton candy and games beats seeing 20 middle school marching bands... anyway. we had a fun hanging out, playing games, eating junk food, and enjoying the inflatable slides.

although we are surrounded by city upon city and concrete we still feel like bellflower is a small town. we are close enough to walk downtown, we run into friends, and its a great gathering for our community. and just a fun trivia fact: my mom was born in bellflower the year it became a city.

the tower

i should clarify - malachi built the tower with ryan and yes he knocked it over very shortly after it was built. because why would you leave a great tower standing, they are meant to be knocked down...

2 3/4

malachi is a bundle of energy, joy, wonder and life. he is a ton of fun and also drives my crazy sometimes. i've decided i don't need to understand why he does some of the things he chooses because he is 2. two years old just do some of those things. his questions make me laugh and make me realize that his brain processes so much. his new thing lately is to wake up on wednesday mornings the morning after i have bible study at night and ryan puts him to bed and ask. "Mom how was your Bible study last night?" i think to myself are you that grown up to ask me that question. the pictures are of him showing off his tower, made with abram's new blocks. and enjoying the feel of rain in his hair, this is a rare occurrence here...

abram getting bigger

abram loves music and loves playing with his dad. he also thinks its pretty cool that he can climb up and down everything; the fireplace, chairs, beds...
what a fun little guy. he is also kind of warms my heart, i say kind of because i'd rather not have this occur in the middle of the night. he now knows that he can call for me in the middle of the night. so i wake up to mama, mama, mama - love his little voice just not the time of night he chooses to use it.

my accident update

so the assessor person came today to look at the damage. he says to me, so you almost made it through the intersection didn't you. i reply, yes. he then proceeds to tell me that he is not finding me at fault because the other driver would have had enough time to see me and should have braked... so this is good news!

so either it was the other drivers fault or no-fault. this is the bright side to my accident now we just need to go get the car repaired. the adjuster also opened my tailgate for me. so in the mean time i can drive my car and get the tailgate open.

my first accident

i guess it has to happen at some point, right!? yesterday i got in an accident. i didn't see a car coming from behind the giant suv across from me also turning left and as i completed my left turn i was hit in the bumper. the light had been red and turned green, there was no one next to car across from me also turning left, so i turned. i didn't see that sporty black mercedes coming up next to it...so i turned left and then saw the car. one more foot and i would have made it through, maybe if he would have at least braked. all the neighbors came out to see the accident, it was pretty loud. i called ryan because i had no clue what to do - the other guy didn't want to deal with the police so we didn't call.

so my bumper got smashed, i am fine and he was fine, although i was totally bummed yesterday. just that sinking feeling that this is not what i planned on as i drove to my friends baby shower, not wanting to pay my insurance deductible, not wanting to have my car all busted, just not a good thing. so there you have it, my first accident after 15 years of driving. i went to the baby shower after the other guy and i exchanged info. tried to have fun at the shower and then went home. ryan just gave me a huge hug when i got home because it wasn't like there was anything to say. his hug helped, i have a great husband, but i was still just brooding my disgust and saddness. sometimes you just have to sit in that sinking feeling and let it work its way out. today its better and i already got a call from my insurance agent...




the damage - my tailgate won't open...

fall

it is 67 degrees and cloudy... i am drinking a hot cup of tea!

pretending southern ca has a fall

so i am jealous that i have friends & family who really experience fall, i truly miss this season. it was 100 degrees today, the first of october and i was bummed. i miss fall weather, the leaves becoming brilliant colors and being in the mood for a warm drink. instead i went swimming this afternoon because it was so hot, i didn't really swim, the boys did. but i'm not complaining and i should be thankful the sky spit some rain out on monday for the first time in months. despite the amazingly warm weather we did go visit the pumpkin patch last week. we were excited because it was an actual farm. malachi picked the pumpkins, he kissed the lama in the petting zoo and raced through the corn maze like a mad man. abram just took it all in from dad's back. we tried to take a tractor ride around the farm and after a short little ride the tractor broke down. but it was good enough for the boys. we were literally the only people there except for 2 others the whole time. we learned that going on opening day is a great choice because the woman running the cash register shared that on busy days there are about 2,000 kids there at one time, yes 2,000. hence the comment to the other workers about never wanting kids, we ignored the fact that she said this as we walked in with our kids... anyway it was a beautiful day and fun too experience this tradition a year after abram was born. last year most of the pumpkins were bigger than he was. so happy fall, kind of.