Kitchen Renovations

For all the out of town family, here are a few photos of the newly renovated kitchen. I love my new kitchen! We were able to knock down a wall between the kitchen and breakfast room, and make one large farm style kitchen.

Raking Leaves

This afternoon I took the children outside for some fresh air and to make a small dent in our overwhelming amount of leaves. The children love to be outside and they are enjoying the new game of playing in the leaves. Speaking of leaves - we have a plethora of leaves and a large group from our care group came over and helped us rake last saturday. We are so grateful for our care group and were so thankful for the help we received. What was so funny was that after everyone left, we had a downpour and there were just as many leaves on the ground after the rain as there were before everyone came to help!

October Photos

I don't know why I didn't post these photos last month, but here are a few photos from Halloween night with the Cooper family. We were planning on going to a local fall festival, but with the threat of rain, we changed our plans. We picked a "costume" out of our dress up box and visited a few of our neighbors. Karis had a blast and really enjoyed seeing her neighbors friends - not to mention the 12 or so pieces of candy she collected in her sand pail.

I love the photo of Joshua trying to bite his sister's wings!

Fall Snack/Picnic

Karis has been asking to go on a picnic and pretending to picnic for several days. So, on a recent warm day, we had a "picnic" in our backyard. Karis packed the picnic in her Dora lunchbox (bananas, graham crackers and raisins) and the children ate on their new childsize picnic table that I got for $2 at a garage sale.

Karis was thrilled and hasn't asked to picnic since. I guess she was satisfied.

I love that girl. She is a joy and delight!

Joshua's Buddy Andy

Here is a recent photo of Joshua and his buddy Andy.

Andy is 6 days younger than Joshua (born the same day as Philip) and the son of our good friends Dave and Krista Sagraves. They are expecting their second child in a little more than a month. So far, their second baby looks to be perfectly healthy - an answer to prayer. Andy is doing well, and we are all excited to see what the Lord has for him in the future. (Check out his story at www. sagraves.blogspot.com)
Last weekend, Dave and Krista spontaneously joined us for dinner and then helped us clean out our garage. We're very blessed to have such wonderful friends.

Breakfast Boy

Our little boy loves breakfast. He wakes up ready to eat and sits for a long period of time eating - or should I say storing up! He doesn't eat much the rest of the day, but he packs it away at the break of day. On the morning of these photos, Joshua ate a banana, a cereal bar, yogurt, and cheerios. What is funny is that I turned around to make breakfast for Karis and heard him laughing loudly. Joshua usually chuckles, but rarely laughs loudly. I turned to him to see what he was laughing at only to discover he was dropping handfuls of cheerios (with milk of course) onto Charlie's back as he (the fat beagle) was gobbling them up as fast as they were being dumped.

Fall Activity

Last weekend, Karis and I invited Rylee Ridner and Madie over for a girl's fall activity. We made gingerbread cookies and applesauce. The girls loved mixing the cookie dough. It was a fun and chaotic morning with 6 children 3 yrs old and under!

Joshua and Philip enjoy fruit of the girl's fun!

Fun Family Night

Sorry about the layout of these photos... I couldn't figure why it was doing this.

We had a fun family night tonight. Craig suprised the family with a night out begining at Chick-Fil-A and ending at the Family Bowl. Karis loves bowling, which I think is quite humorous. She picks up her 7lb ball, carries it to the line, leans over and rolls it down the alley. The she jumps up and down and cheers on her ball - "Go ball go! Knock em down!" (Her cheerleader Dad must have taught her that one!!) Then, three minutes later when her ball reaches the pins, a few topple over only to hear more cheers from our excited one.

Joshua had fun too, but couldn't understand why he couldn't pick up the balls. They were too heavy for his little muscles, but he loved being chased as he would try to run to the alley.

I am so grateful for such a wonderful husband who plans fun family activities like these. Karis will remember times like tonight.