We are living someplace between complete normality and camping right now. I am sitting on our coach, Ryan's in his bed fast asleep and Max has a game on the TV. However, we have no dining room table to speak of (though we take turns eating at Ryan's high chair), most of our clothes are gone, all of our other furniture is in pods out back and our walls are blank. We close on our new house Friday and then get possession a week later.

So to that end, hear this cry for last minute moving help. Things are a lot slower with the little guy so what we'd normally get done in hours is taking days! (Max and I are pros at moving. We once moved him in 3 hours our of necessity and this is my 20+ move.) Here's where we could use some help. If interested in pitching in, can you email me back with what works for you?

- This Friday: Max has the day off to finish up moving us to my sisters. Anyone free? He'd also take an hour of someone's time any night this week.

- This Saturday: 8-Noon. We have to be out of 109 Mayfield by noon, so if anyone can help us move our couch, bed, rugs, and Ryan's crib to my sister's house a block away, we'd be grateful. We're also in need of help doing the final cleaning.

- Saturday, Nov. 7: 1pm - 6pm. We need help moving from my sister's on Mayfield to our new home in Rockford. Though we are using pods, we have furniture, baby gear, and other effects. We'll be serving dinner and have a keg. Plus you can come see our new place!

Now on to what all you out-of-towners care about: Ryan. He's great. He tries walking more and more everyday. Last week he wound his way through our maze of furniture to surprise me in the kitchen. An impressive feat! He's very into full hugs this week and reaches from person to person to be passed around. His newest talents include high-fives and pretending to talk on the phone. He now has some old cell phones that he holds to his ear when we tell him he has a call. Hilarious. You'll see in the photos below, but he is flying high in his swing....considering this week will be his last swing be his last swing we're giving him as much fly time as possible. (No doorways big enough in the new house.)

Anyhow, thanks in advance to all you that help us move. Hope you're each having a great week.

PS. I just got the BEST news: Christmas came early this year! My parents got us U2 tickets for this June. They're playing Spartan stadium. Could it get any better than that? Ok, maybe if I got to have dinner with Bono...I got to have dinner while Bono spoke once to the Econ club, but definitely not the same.


This gives you a good idea of Ryan's passion for swinging!



He looks like a little football player with his muscles showing.


Laughing with "Ta Da Da." That's what we say when Max walks through the door at the end of the day.


Getting some air!


Ryan loves reading and turning the page. His attention span is getting longer and longer.

Checking himself out in the door kick plate. He loves to open and shut doors right now.

10.25

A great week for us with lots to celebrate:
- You got our last post. Ryan has joined the world of the uprights. Everyday he's getting braver and braver. When we try a "session" of walking he tends to laugh when he falls down.

- Ryan has begun to give kisses, reach to be picked up or move from person to person to be held, pass things back and forth when asked to give and take, and loves to say "brrrr" (like a motorboat). He's also slept through the night for the last week and a half. I think he's fluent in Japaneses, as this is what his chatter sounds like. Oh, and Uncle Eric thinks it's amazing that he can palm the beach ball like Lebron James.

- Max's team officially has a winning record for the year! They beat Christian on Friday night, a game no one thought they could win. The last game of the regular season is Lowell. They have been state champs for consecutive years and were in the top 100 in the nation last year, but if we can beat them, we'll be number #2 in the conference and be in the playoffs. Regardless, even with a loss, there is a slight chance we can still make it in and we'll be #3 in the conference.

- Last weekend I met Elizabeth "Ella" Constant Alguire for the first time and am officially in love with this little girl. There's nothing better than holding a 2 week old baby and spending the afternoon with one of your best friends. Congrats to Staci and Craig, Big Sister Allison and Big Brother Conner.

Other than that we're packing and preparing to move into my sister's house next weekend. We have 4 pods that we are slowly loading. Though we'll be out of 109 Mayfield next weekend, we have the following week to clean. If Max and team make play offs, we'll have the first game the night before we move. We still do not know when we're closing on our new home, but hope to be moving in sometime the first 2 weeks of November. Big stuff!

That's all for now. Hope each of you have a great Sunday.

Love,
Court, Max + Ryan

Our family portrait outside of 109 Mayfield.

Ryan and I headed to an orchard yesterday to pick freegan fruit (in other words, we had free access to all the apples we wanted through our friends Carrie, Dan and Henry). Here's Ryan's first experience with a whole apple. He loved it.

I carried Ryan in the front pack and he had a great time as we picked the fruit off the trees.

In 16 years I am positive we'll see this scene repeat itself: Ryan with the keys to our car, dressed up for a night on the town.

In preparation for walking, Ryan has been using Max as his personal jungle gym.

Zoned out after his bath.

Could this be an ad for Johnson & Johnson's or what?

Dressed up for a Sunday afternoon stroll.

Ryan and Cali have figured out the negotiations that a true friendship requires. Cali allows Ryan to climb all over her. Ryan repays the favor in food. Ryan loved his first taste of noodles....he is my kid all the way.

Ella and I got to know one another on Saturday of last week.

With so many people we love far away, Ryan's quickly come to understand the importance and magic of the phone. Here he's calling Uncle Billy and begging him to come for Christmas. (Yup Bill, we're turning up the pressure.)

He Walks

This just in. Boy wonder has officially walked. In truth, we could have sent out this email on the 12th. But being a new mom, I was not sure if it was an intentional walk or a "I stumbled into your arms because I forgot to hang on as I walked around the ottoman after three steps." Today was different.

Ryan was in his room and very excited to be hanging onto the rocker's footstool. Then he looked up at me, got a HUGE grin on his face, let go and took four steps to me and fell into my lap. He was so excited. Very proud of himself.

Honestly, I thought most kids did the "hold your fingers and practice walking" thing before actually doing it on their own. In true Kerry fashion, he just jumped in, got it done and now walks. (Sorry Kirstyn that he did not accomplish this one month earlier to actually walk in your wedding!)

Also, for those of you wondering, we did get the house. It as touch and go this week. Apprasial came in low Monday night and we had to renegotiate. Got the news yesterday evening that they agreed to the lower price (our original offer anyhow). We may still be on track to close on the 30th and be in the following week.

Love to each of you!
Court, Max & Little Trecker

Nearly 10 Months

Hey Gang,
Lot's to report since our last morbid post. Here are the highlights:

- We closed last Friday on 109 Mayfield (the day before the buyer's wedding!) Our last day in this home is October 31st.

- We bought a home in Rockford! Tuesday night at 11:30pm the owner's of our new home accepted our offer. And on Wednesday at 3pm we had our inspection. (This followed an offer we put in on a different home on Sunday evening and 12 houses we toured on Saturday.) Everything checked out beautifully. We will have possession 7 days after close and are hoping to close October 30th, but that's very aggressive given the flood of mortgages being underwritten for first time home buyers due to the incentives ending in Nov. We'll see. regardless, we'll need to shack up down the street at Kir's house. We're so thankful to have that as a landing pad.

- Max's team has a shot at playoffs this year, even with our best player (receiver and plays defense) out with a broken leg. He's my favorite and our heart is broken for him missing out on his senior year! I am convinced that they will make it to play offs, especially given the fact that the first game is the night before we have to be out of our house and that's just how life works. Again...things could be way worse.

- Ryan is full on waking around the ottoman and moving between it and the footstool. He has this moment of touching nothing that is the definition of faith in action. You can see this look of uncertainty on his face as he reaches and hopes the footstool is on the other side. Then it melts to complete elation that he did it on his own. It's magical.

- He now catches and throws on command. I am really not kidding. Video will prove it next week.

- He's now in his new big boy car seat. He's rolling deeee-lux in his Britax. The thing is a tank!

Check out the pics below for the rest of the highlights. Can't wait to share more about the house as we get closer to the move.

Love to each of you,
Court, Max & Ryan



Ryan with his buddy Levi playing the piano...with potatoes. Some days I wonder how Deb does it watching two little boys...apparently you need to get REALLY creative. It works!

Ryan's really into books in the last week. He exams each image and tries to flip the pages on his own. His favorite is a picture book we made of this summer's adventure full of family pictures.

Ryan's buddy Cyan was in from Colorado this week and we got to have dinner with him. Cyan was made by our friends Amy and Lucky. (Amy's sister's with Mindy). The boys are two months apart, Ryan being the youngest believe it or not. So what that Ry's head is in the 97%. There are lots of brains in it!

So during our night of fun with Amy, Mindy and Geurink clan, we looked over to see that Ryan was giving Colin horsey rides and actually pulling himself across the room with Colin on his back! This was pay backs to Colin who was purposely dropping bread on the ground for Ryan to gum on...much like Ryan does for Cali these days. Colin's one and a half and here's our kid pulling him and out weighing him by 3 pounds. Hilarious.

Here are the three boys and momma's (Mindy / Colin, Amy / Cyan, Us). This is similar to a photo we took in the winter. We plan on replicating until the boys are 12 and too embarrassed to sit on our laps.

Mary (Mindy's first grader) was breaking it down for Max and the camera.


When Ryan's not opening/closing the wipe container he's eating it. These days he is chewing on everything.
Yesterday after his bath his hair did this on it's own. Promise. No Angelina Jolie / Maddox action. I promise this is not permanent.

Our new house!

The great room.

The lower level family room.