Making Treats

I love getting our kids involved with giving! That is the point of the season although it's so easy to get missed with the incredible amount of commercialism that goes on! This year, both kids were curious how they could help make treats for their classmates. Although it's small, they are seeing people outside of themselves which I love! Here are a couple of pics of the kids helping with treats and our sweet little friend Kyndall joining in the fun as well.

Parents Night Out

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to serve at our church with the kids. It's really a fun time and there is never a shortage of precious and crazy moments. Here are a couple of pics from our parents' night out.

Setting up Christmas Deco

This year seems quieter for some reason and let me say Thank you Lord!!! I am really just enjoying the stillness and sweet small moments even with my four pack. Here are some pics of us setting up Christmas in 80 degrees mind you. The kids are getting to an age they are understanding more and more. I was so thrilled to pull out our decorations with them and have them get so excited over a stuffed animal! More importantly, I love that Vivian is now reading our Jesse Tree stories. It's so fun to hear their curious questions about Jesus' family members and how messy life is even in the Bible. I love that God allows us to be messy and uses our messes for His glory. Enjoy some pics.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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We truly hope in this special holiday season you share in our gratefulness to God for all the blessings He has poured out. There is so much we are thankful for and one of the items we listed in our Thanksgiving book is this trip to Chicago and all the nice memories with our daddy's family.

Super Mario 4th Birthday

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It's official we have two big kids now! Isaac is now 4 years old. Both kids are past diapers, cribs and toddler beds, no more high chairs, no more 5 point harness. It's crazy! I LOVE IT! This is one of my favorite stages with the kids being a little more independent. It's fun hearing what they think on things and seeing their amazing gifts and struggles. This year, Isaac picked his theme for his birthday of Super Mario. I think it turned out really cute. We also had our first out of home party for him. The kids seemed to have a ball at the Putt-putt. Fun times! Happy Birthday sweet boy.

Last Fall Days

I just loved this picture! This is one of those moments you wait for as a mom with little one's. The moment they can help, and actually choose to from their own hearts. They both were kicked outside by momma and instead of fussing asked for the rake and got to town on our backyard. We introduced an item a friend of mine told me about. I'd like to share this as I think it's helped all around in having the kids initiating helping each other and mom and dad. It's called the Random Acts of Kindness Jar. Every time either kiddo does something kind for each other or parents, without being asked, they get to stick a coin in the jar and in the end we get to bless someone with the money in the jar. Here's to teaching service more and more to our kids!

An Early Birthday Gift

This year, we decided maybe out of necessity more than desire, we would upgrade Isaac to a big boy bed. If any of you know anything about Isaac, you know he likes to wake up very early!! We thought this might help in this process of getting him a better night rest. First you see the shot of the crib converted to toddler bed. Then you see the shot of his crib converted from toddler to full size bed. He knew we were moving him to a space room, so check out his rocket sheets and star pillow his favorite part. We also finally got matching curtains and donated our leather chair that he had peeled back. I actually think his room somehow looks bigger...imagine that!

Walk-A-Thon

This year Vivian raised funds to walk for one hour in our school's walk-a-thon. I was really proud of her as she pursued and gave her pitch. Many of you supported us, and we thank you! We had a great time walking that day even though it was VERY cold for us and many of our friends. Fortunately, we had bought coats for our upcoming trip to Chicago so we were set for that day. Here are a couple of shots of mommy walking with Vivian and her new class friends. Also, getting to spray paint their principal was their big school prize. Isn't he a sport?

Halloween Collage

See our Halloween slideshow to get filled in on what we've been up to this fall and see how we celebrated Halloween.

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Fall Weekends

In the fall, like many women, I sometimes become a hunting widow. This year Nick was pretty tame but still we had a couple of weekends of mom time and daddy get his nature fix. It may sound like a complaint, but I know it's good for me and the kids and for daddy too. I think we all need that time to escape and get back into nature. I'm just glad he has this outlet. Here's some shots to show what keep us busy and daddy busy.

Some sweet shots of my Men

If you've spent any time with my little man you'll see how all boy he is! Here are a couple of shots that capture that. I just love him! We have so much fun playing together, as well as all the men in his life (his grandpa screen time, his papa cowboys and bandits, his dad matching)

Treasures of Fall

So I know this is late, but that's life these days with these two little one's, work, and just all that goes on with our family. It's hard for me not to be late! I just had to post this pic of Isaac at museum school. He is loving it! If you haven't heard of the program, let me recommend it to you. Both my kids so much enjoyed it and it's great exposure to science and animals specifically (a big passion in our home). Also, Isaac and I have been trying to get in a "regular" schedule of some sorts frequenting the Y a little earlier these days and look what treasure God has been blessing us with. This little friend roams the garden at our Y and is so friendly we can almost pet him!

Happy Bat night!

I hate giving away surprises but I just can't take it! Vivian selected our kids Halloween costumes this year. Thanks to my sweet mom-in-law who gets us the special grandma treats I call them, we get this expensive catalog that I like to thumb through every once in a while. This time the kids looked with me at the Halloween edition. It's loaded with elaborate costumes that I cannot afford but still fun to get ideas. We usually do a whole family theme as we kind of enjoy this sort of thing and my extended family gets way into Halloween. I was thinking this year would be fun to let the kids decide but how would we ever theme it? Cue Vivian, "Mom, I want to be that!" She points at a Batgirl costume! VIVIAN wants to be a superhero?!? No problem! Cue the pictures...

Now I daily have a batman costume appearing including at bed times. I come home from work and find Isaac in full costume with mask over his long sleeve pj's passed out in bed. I pull up his mask and hair is plastered to his dripping forehead. Gotta love it! Probably the best $20 I ever spent!

Fall Soccer

Let me just spend a moment saying, mom's of older kids bravo! I don't know how you do this!! I really wanted to give Vivian a chance to connect again with some friends that unfortunately did not make it into her classroom roster. These two sweet girls are the main reason we decided to sign up to play fall soccer, but it's killing me! There is just so much going on in the fall that having something on the calendar every Saturday is tough. Still, there are some sweet times ahead with friends and I think Vivian really is challenged and enjoys soccer. We'll see how that proceeds. For now, we'll just enjoy it not being super competitive and only having one in sports! Just wait another year until Isaac gets going!