Los Lonely Boys

The Lesnet boys are running the show around here for the next 2 weeks as momma is doing some traveling for work.
Here is a picture of Kai with one of his best gifts ever! A family from our small group at church gave these Lego's and table to Kai as their children are too big for these little kid blocks. Thank you Westbergs!!
Then everyone deserted him and fled. - Mark 14:50

The Void Between Black Friday and Cyber Monday

Happy Holidays!! It's official, we are past Thanksgiving, survived Black Friday, tomorrow is Cyber Monday, and the countdown to Christmas and the end of the year is on!

This past week we only had to go to work for 3 days! Although we are very thankful for our jobs it is very nice to have a 4 day weekend and not come back to work feeling like you missed a lot. We even got home while it was still light out one evening and raked some leaves.

We had a great Thanksgiving with our families up in Northwest Ohio. We left Thanksgiving morning to spend time with Chad's family. We have a big dinner each year at the First Presbyterian Church in Montpelier with all of the Briner cousins. Our turnout was smaller than usual with only 45 or so but it was still a great time. After dinner, we went back to Grandpa and Grandma Lesnet's for a while.

Here is Kai playing with the bomber airplane that he got Grandpa for his birthday while Grandma looks on.
I did not pack very well so I had to brave the Black Friday crowds at Wal-Mart of Bowling Green early Friday morning. It was completely dead, I saw a couple of folks buying TV's and there was a crowd around the DVD displays but other than that it was pretty quiet. I believe that this is my first Black Friday morning experience and although it wasn't that crowded, I would have rather packed better and stayed in.

On Friday we did another Thanksgiving meal with Stephanie's folks, Auntie Jessica, and Grandpa Eridon's twin brother's family. We forgot to take pictures as Kai napped through much of the hanging out time after dinner.

On Saturday, we dressed Kai in this awesome dress shirt with sweater vest. It is hard to get a picture of Kai without his fingers in his mouth...its also hard to get a picture of Kai with Grandpa Eridon without proud Grandpa Eridon smiling from ear to ear!
Two handsome Lesnet men getting ready for their 3rd turkey dinner in 3 days.
On Saturday we had yet another awesome turkey dinner with Grandma Eridon's sister's family. We always have a great time hanging out with them and Kai loves playing with his cousins. We didn't do a very good job getting pictures of this gathering either but we did score a family shot before leaving.
We left Ohio with full bellies but we also left with various ailments. Kai picked up the croup, Stephanie a head cold, and I have sinusitis. We had to call in sick to church this morning since Stephanie and I were scheduled to work in the children's ministry this Sunday. We spent the morning at the urgent care instead.

After some afternoon naps, we got up feeling a little better and did some decorating for Christmas. Kai was a big help putting ornaments on the tree this year and is soooo excited about having a tree in the house.
This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. - Matthew 1:18

CONTEST!!

The Indiana Lesnets are big winners and now you all have a chance to be big winners too!

Stephanie won a contest that was sponsored by one of our friend's blogs and we have been tasked to "pay it forward" and have a contest with prizes for ourselves. In the spirit of the Thanksgiving season, we would like everyone to comment on our blog with something (or somethings) that you are most thankful for. Prizes will be awesome and will be based on the things we are most thankful for!

Below is a picture of the plunder that Stephanie won from our friends contest...the prizes for our contest will be awesomer than these but these are pretty nice.
Kai has now been twice bitten at school. This week Kai was minding his own business eating his lunch when one of his "friends" decided that they wanted Kai's milk. Kai used his words and politely told his "friend" "no" that they could not have his milk. His "friend" did not like that answer so they bit him on the arm! The last time Kai was bit, we were able to get him to snitch on the perpetrator, but this time he would just giggle and list each of his friends and say that they bit him. That jerk...er, I mean "friend" left a pretty good mark, I wonder if we could use the dental records to solve this case?

This weekend, we got on a jet plane and headed up to the Twin Cities for a little family get away.

Kai was very excited about the trip and spent his entire morning at school telling everyone that he was going to fly in an airplane. Stephanie and I worked half days on Thursday and picked him up right before his nap time to go down to the airport. He had a great time at the airport looking at airplanes and all of the other trucks and equipment that airlines use at the terminal. He also really enjoyed the flight!
We arrived in Minneapolis at about 4:30 Minnesota time, had dinner at Boston Market (they've closed down most of them here in Central Indiana), and got to our hotel at around 6 or so. The hotel had a pack-and-play for Kai to sleep in but he hated it and refused to sleep in it...yeah, it was a rough night.

We were up super early on Friday morning so we decided to crash the hotel swimming pool. The pool didn't officially open until 7:00 but it was 7:00 somewhere and we had a wide awake kid so we ignored the rules and went for a very early morning swim. We had a nice time in the pool but Stephanie and I would have preferred sleeping a little longer.

There is a free zoo in The Cities! It is called The Como Zoo and it is incredible! It's not very big, but you can get extremely close to the animals. I mean, have you ever stood less than a foot from a tiger?
This baby giraffe tried to get Kai to pet him by putting his head under the horizontal cables that made up his cage. Kai wasn't so sure though and dad was too slow with the camera to get the picture. Great memory for mom and dad though.

Here's Stephanie with the sign for the zoo. We tried to get a family photo but Kai wanted to run in the big grass field instead of taking a family picture.After a fantastic day at the zoo, we all met up with Aunt Kimberly who lives up in there in a suburb called Little Canada. Aunt Kimberly's birthday is today (Nov 21) so we took her to Outback for dinner.Then we went back to her apartment so that her and Kai could have a little hang time. They played with stickers, which is one of Kai's favorite things to do.
Also at Aunt Kimberly's apartment, we were able to get our only family photo while we were in Minnesota.
Friday night was a very long night as Kai was still not interested in sleeping in his pack-and-play (I should also mention that the pack-and-play did have a faint urine odor). We were up super early again but this time Kai was not interested in going swimming so we watched some cartoons and hung out until the hotels breakfast bar opened.

On Saturday (today) morning, we got around and swung by the Mall of America to check stuff out before our flight this afternoon. We had a great time watching all of the rides and attractions at the Nickelodeon area and playing with blocks at Lego Land.


The long nights had caught up with Kai and Stephanie as they slept on the flight home. Aren't they cute?

In closing, please be sure to comment this post telling us something that you are thankful for so that you can be entered in to the contest and maybe win some sweet swag from the Indiana Lesnets. We hope that this is an easy exercise for you because your life is awesome and you have so many things to list that you would run out of room and would have to cut your list short. For those of you who may need some ideas, I have decided to suggest a few to help you get your mind pointed in the right direction:

1. I'm thankful that most of the photos on the Indiana Lesnet Blog are of Kai because he is really handsome
2. I'm thankful that Chad writes his blog at a 5th grade reading level so that I can read it.
3. I'm thankful for people who don't text or talk on their cell phones while driving.
4. I'm thankful for God's Love and all of His gifts.
5. I'm thankful for donuts...mmmmm donuts!

Odd of winning some sweet stuff is 1:10, so enter early and enter often!

I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. - Philippians 3:14

Still Warm in November

We were blessed to end yet another busy work week with an amazing weekend!

Kai had breakfast for dinner one evening. Pancakes for dinner...yummy!!
The really really ridiculously good weather was back again this weekend. Also here this weekend was Grandpa and Grandma Eridon.

Grandpa and Grandma got to our place at a little after 4 on Friday afternoon. Stephanie and Kai were already home that day because Kai spiked a fever at school and she had to go and pick him up. Kai fought off whatever was causing that fever real fast and was his normal hyper self all weekend long.

Grandpa Eridon and I went to the Michigan State versus Purdue football game bright and early on Saturday morning. We took Trevor and Matt along with us and had another successful tailgate. We had some Irish Banger Sausage with scrambled egg and cheese breakfast sandwiches with brewskies for breakfast and continued to enjoy some great food, drink, and cornhole until kickoff. We also enjoyed the first 3 quarters of the football game until the good guys squandered an 11 point 4th quarter lead to lose by 3.

Here are the boys right before we left for West Lafayette.
While the old dudes were gone; Grandma and Stephanie took Kai down to the Indianapolis Zoo. They had a very good time enjoying the amazing weather and the very cool animals.While they were at the zoo, they ran in to the Miller triplets and Casey Burnett along with their dads. Here is a super awesome picture of Kai with the triplets during the dolphin show.
The rest of the weekend was filled with hang time.

Kai read some stories to Grandpa and Grandma:He got a piano lesson from his Grandma.
Kai helped Grandpa build a huge tower out of legos.

Weekends are always amazing but weekends with stellar weather and grandparents are even better. We finished our weekend by hosting our small group from church. We have an amazing group and we so enjoy their company. I turned down Patriots versus Colts tickets to stay here and hang out...that should tell you something.

When you build a new house, make a parapet around your roof so that you may not bring the guilt of bloodshed on your house if someone falls from the roof. - Deuteronomy 22:8

Sunny and 70...in November?

Isn't it funny how most beautiful days seem to be on a week day when many folks are holed up in offices looking out the window and dreaming about being outside instead of trapped inside? Well, God threw us a nice curve ball this time and saved some of the best November weather you'll ever see here in Central Indiana for the weekend! Our normal highs this time of year are in the low 50's but the last few days have seen sunny skies and highs near 70! Us Indiana Lesnets aren't the types to stay inside on days like that so we were outside as much as possible and had a great time!!

Our week leading up to this fantastic weekend was definitely action packed and I would be remiss to skip telling everyone all about it. On Tuesday, we all had to get up super early because Kai's buddy Master P was being dropped off super early so that we could take him to school. His parents were on their way to the hospital to have a baby boy...or at least they thought that they were going to have a boy. So now Kai's partner in crime, Master P, is now the proud big brother of a little sister whom we will affectionately refer to from here on out as Special K. The Indiana Lesnets feel very blessed that we were able to help our good friends on such a memorable day!

Now, on to our action packed weekend...

One of our Saturday traditions is hanging our Purdue flag on our front porch on game day. Kai loves doing this and gets very excited when we come in to his room on Saturday and tell him that its game day. We dressed him in his Purdue football jersey, raised the flag, headed off to Chick-Fil-A for breakfast (kiddos eat for free on Saturday mornings there), then off to the zoo!

Here is Mom and Kai with the elephants. See the elephant in the back ground cheesing for the camera...those silly elephants!

Kai and daddy growling like lions by the lion cage.
Here is Kai face to face with Nereus the walrus at the zoo. Nereus has an amazing story as he was orphaned in the wild and raised at the Indianapolis Zoo. He is known for interacting with the kids who come to see him.

We got home from the zoo in time for the kickoff of the Purdue versus Michigan football game. It was a very exciting game with the Boilers pulling out a win at The Big House for the first time since the 60's.On Saturday night, Stephanie and I went out with some friends for dinner then ran some errands while Kai stayed home with a sitter. I think that counts as a date...

Today (Sunday) was even more beautiful than Saturday. It started off great with a fantastic sermon at church. Genesis puts their sermons on the web, you can check out the sermons by clicking here. After church we went home for a some naps but I shunned the nap and headed to the links for a few holes of golf.


While I was out golfing, Stephanie and Kai went down to see Master P and Special K. Special K has her days and nights a little out of whack as most newborn babies do, so Stephanie took the boys down to the park and then back to our house for a little while so the new parents could have a few moments of peace.

The boys liked playing with the pumpkins that are still on our front porch.
The boys were happy when I got home from the course because they wanted to get in a little practice with my clubs out in the yard. Stephanie was glad to see me because the boys were starting to get a little grumpy and she needed a wing man!

Seldom set foot in your neighbor's house— too much of you, and he will hate you. - Proverbs 25:17

I Do It!

Today is November first. We don't have a lot of new news to share with this post but we do have some good Halloween pictures.

Back on October 20th, Kai's school had its annual Fall Festival where they decorated the school for Halloween and all the kids dressed up in their Halloween costumes. They did a very good job decorating and setting up games. Kai rocked his tiger costume and tore up the ring toss game!


After the Fall Festival, Kai and I played with Kiki out in the yard. She sure is a patient pup!!
On the weekend of October 24th, I was to go to Las Cruces to spend the weekend and play golf with my friend John. Unfortunately on the day that I was to fly down there a tanker truck exploded at one of the busiest intersections in town which forced hundreds of people to miss their flights at the airport. Since I was flying stand by I was unable to get out on the flight that I had planned on taking and did not make the trip. My golf clubs however did make the trip and were able to spend a few days in sunny El Paso, Texas.

Kai's vocabulary is growing so quickly. He continues to add words daily and has started putting together some short sentences like "I do it", "I love you daddy", "daddy sit", "Kiki what?", and many others that I need to keep better track of.

Yesterday was Halloween and Kai sported his Tiger outfit and went Trick or Treating with his buddy Master P.
Here is a Lesnet family photo. Do you notice that dad dressed up as a Tiger too? If you did then good for you because no one in our neighborhood seemed to pick up on it.
As they were emptying their sacks, there in each man's sack was his pouch of silver (or candy)! When they and their father saw the money pouches, they were frightened. Genesis 42:35

Indianapolis Zoo Boo

Today was a good day.

We started off the day at church where our pastor talked to us about being more service oriented. I guess that is the kind of sermon you would expect from him since he just returned from Haiti. Serving those in need is really a family theme for us as Stephanie and I met while working together serving children in need on Indy's near East side. We are very excited to see how God uses our church to help those with needs in Central Indiana (which is everybody).

After church, we had some fantastic homemade breakfast burritos. Here is a link to the recipe n The Pioneer Woman's website so that you can make them yourself...yummy!!! Kai took a nap after brunch for a couple of hours then we were off to the Indianapolis Zoo for Zoo Boo.

We are zoo members and this is one of the included perks of being a member (although you don't have to be a member to go to ZooBoo). We had a great time and we will be going back next year and the year after that and the year after that and...well, you get the idea.

We ran in to Kai's buddy Master P right at the entrance. Master P is on the left and he is dressed up as a old time golfer and Kai is the tiger on the right.

We got a few more pictures around the zoo with the boys together. Here they are checking out a giant rabbit.
Here they are with some old dude.

A family photo of the Indiana Lesnets at Zoo Boo.

Kai wanted his picture taken with a real tiger. Its hard to tell them apart, but Kai is the one that I'm holding and the real tiger is in the cage.

With hooks they pulled him into a cage and brought him to the king of Babylon. They put him in prison, so his roar was heard no longer on the mountains of Israel. Ezekiel 19:9

A long week, but a great weekend!

There are a few things that parents should never be without. Of course, there are many and more than my list here, but here are some items that come to mind:

1. A washer and dryer
2. Hot water
3. An emergency babysitter
4. A muzzle for unruly children

Well, this week we had times when we were without any of these things (we still haven't secured a good call at any time babysitter...one of several disadvantages of living in a different state than both sets of grandparents and all aunts).

On Monday, our washing machine and dryer were moved from our laundry room to our garage as the contractors started the work on fixing up the water damage caused by some faulty installation of our new set that we bought on July 4th weekend. Our contractor(s) did a great job and finished up everything in just a few days.

On the day that our contractor(s) were finishing up, we were blessed because we had a hard time finding the wall paint for the contractor to use for paint touch ups. Not being able to find things is always frustrating and is rarely a blessing but sometimes God uses these types of delays to save our bacon. Stephanie and I had both been down to the basement searching for the paint a few times and weren't able to find it. I gave up and decided to take Kai to school and continue on in to the office. After I left, Stephanie went back down to look one more time and saw that our water heater was leaking (she also found the paint). The water was really spewing out but she was able to contain the water with towels before it damaged any of our awesomely finished basement. That day we were also blessed by our awesome plumber friend who came out and replaced our (under warranty) water heater before we got home from work.

That same day, Kai got bit at school. We didn't witness the incident, but the story goes something like this; he was on the climber at school and a little girl wanted to get on there. Our speed demon, Kai didn't move fast enough for her so she leaned over and bit him. His teachers have taken the oath of silence and therefore won't tell us who bit him, but we asked him about it that night and he said "Audrey" "bit" "No, No", so we think it was Audrey. He was injured in the incident as she drew some blood but he's a quick healer and the tooth mark is almost gone.

A little comic relief to the biting story is that when Kai says "bit", it sounds a lot like "b*tch". He continues to tell us about "Audry bit" and it just cracks his dad up.

On Thursday, I picked Kai up from school and he had a lot of waxy discharge around his right ear. Of course, us rookie parents freaked out and assumed that his tube had come out and that we were going to have to get those redone. We tried to make an appointment to see his pediatrician on Friday but they are just packed with flu patients so we took a deep breath, relaxed, and called Kai's otolaryngologist. They said that the discharge was normal, that he had an ear infection and that the tubes were doing their job by letting that junk drain out. They called us in a prescription for some ear drops and he's doing great!

On Friday, Grandpa Lesnet came down to visit us for the weekend. Kai was elated to see him and gave him a hug right away (our boy is not a hugger)! Grandpa brought down some gifts from him and grandma including a new raincoat. Kai does not like wearing coats but he loves this one! Last weekend Kai would not wear his coat (it was cold), so Stephanie had a great "mom" moment. After the third time of Kai unzipping his coat and leaving it on the driveway, she put it on him backwards, and zipped it up. Kai did not like the hood in his face or the zipper on his back. She turned it around and he kept it on the rest of the afternoon.

Kai loves his new fireman coat and wore it all weekend.

Grandma and Grandpa Lesnet also gave him a great new toolbox and I'm not sure who had more fun playing with the tools - Grandpa or Kai.On Saturday, Chad took grandpa and several other friends (Trevor, James, and Eugene) to Purdue for some Big Ten football. We had a great tailgate complete with pancakes, beer, sausage, beer, burgers, beer, Hawaiian brats, beer, and beer (really not that much beer). We also enjoyed the game as Purdue whipped Ohio State!

Stephanie and Kai had a great Saturday hanging out without Grandpa Lesnet and I. They went to the Farmers Market and for a walk with friends. Kai wore his new Superman shirt and really wanted to get some pictures in it. Kai takes great pictures all the time but good photos are so much easier when he asks you to take pictures of him.

Cheese!!

Kai was so glad to see me when we got back from the game that he tackled me and wouldn't let me up.

Here's what Kai looks like from my perspective when he's sitting on my chest.
Though they hide themselves on the top of Carmel, there I will hunt them down and seize them. Though they hide from me at the bottom of the sea, there I will command the serpent to bite them. - Amos 9:3