Mom and Dad's Chicago Trip Pt. 1

Nicole and I are in Chicago for the Gospel Coalition Conference this week. Here's our first post of pictures of Chicago (mainly intended to give the kids an idea of where we're at).

These are all from our hotel room.


At night...


During the day...

What we've been up to

Sorry for the ultra-long delay in postings! Life has been absolutely insane for us lately! However, God has been incredibly gracious to us and continues to give sustaining grace to us. We have been immensely blessed by all He is doing in and through us.
Here is a whirl-wind version of our life:

Filling out our March Madness brackets

Even Kaylee had one this year!

My uncle got married a few weeks ago and Tim did the wedding. My super cute little boy

We enjoyed some time with my family - Cait and Maddie

Kaylee and her cousin Ezekiel

We also had a fun visit from some dear friends from seminary, the Culbertsons (8 kids between the two families)

The girls celebrated their 100th day of school. Grace had to use 100 of something, here is her barn

Cait had to use 1,000 of something. She made a rubberband snowman bungie jumping :)

We are also experiencing some fierce independence, this is the cute version of it!

And.......

Kaylee is now potty trained!! Carson helped entertain her during potty times :)

He was "reading" the bible to her and showing her the pictures (or lack thereof)!

Here is our big girl. She still has to be reminded to go every hour but she thinks she is pretty big stuff wearing underwear!

I am truly enjoying all that God is putting before us. I am also thoroughly enjoying my kids right now. They are all changing and growing so much. God has blessed us beyond belief!

Fall Fun

The weather here has been absolutely beautiful lately! We are enjoying being outside and enjoying time with friends. We got to go to a super fun birthday party at Underwood farms at the beginning of the month. It was a fun treat as we have gone as a family but don't do the extra stuff, this time we got to do it all. The kids had a blast!

With some friends on a real wagon ride, horse and all

A tractor ride in cow trains

Riding the ponies

One day the girls wanted to be outside but needed to do their reading. So, we laid a towel on the grass and I let Carson skip rest time and this is what I found:

It always brings joy to my heart to see them enjoying things together

Our Thankful Tree

This year I wanted to do something more with thanksgiving. A few years ago we had done a thankful chart, but with all the varying ages in our house I wanted something more hands on. I saw the idea in a pottery barn kids catalogue (they were selling a felt one) and decided we could make one out of butcher paper. I bought a bunch of fun fall paper and we spent a family night cutting out leaves. A few times a week we take some time to write things we are thankful for on leaves and put them on our tree. The kids love it and I love the reminders too! Kaylee is really cute with it as she can tell you which leaves are hers. she "writes" on them too!
We are excited about this next week off school and all of Tim's family coming to celebrate thanksgiving with us!

October 2010

October proved to be another busy month for us! It started off with our sweet Kaylee turning 2!

We enjoyed some soccer in the mud. Here is our goofy Grace trying to stay warm with her brothers sweatshirt

Kaylee has become quite independent these days. Everything is "me do." She can get herself dressed, put her shoes and socks on, put the plastic away from the dishwasher. She is getting too old too quick!

Carson being silly at a soccer game wearing the girls headband

Trying out her new umbrella in the rain

We also celebrated Caitlin turning 7. She had three girls from school over for a playdate for her birthday. Here is Carson trying to keep his boyishness present amongst all the girls!

Cait and her friends

Kaylee is now in a big girl bed! She has only fallen off once and is doing a great job staying in bed until we come get her in the morning (this did take some work though)

Dressing up for the Halloween movie night at school
(Spiderman, bridesmaid, '50's girl, and Minnie Mouse)

Halloween (Grace is Fancy Nancy, and Cait a bridesmaid)

Minnie

We borrowed Kaylee's costume from a friend and she loved it. The week after Halloween she kept asking to wear it, ears and all, and would ask me to put her nose on too. Too Cute!

Firsts of Fall

Well fall is here and with it come many new firsts and a packed schedule.
First, we had our first soccer games:

Cait's team is the Lime-inators, and she scored a goal her first game

Grace has improved drastically this year! She also scored a goal for her team, the Lavender Ponies, that Tim is coaching. We are playing AYSO this year and they do things differently. Grace only has 5 players on her team and only 3 play at a time with no goalie. Cait has 7 players on her team with 5 playing at a time with no goalie.

And our little wannabe soccer player, a.k.a. their biggest fan

First day of school!!!

Cait is in 2nd Grade this year

Grace started Kindergarten - she loves every minute of it!

First glasses - Cait has been a trooper with needing glasses and has had a great attitude so far. She did have one boy in her class tease her yesterday so we got to have a good conversation about forgiveness and not worrying about what others think.

First "real" bike for Carson (he wasn't too thrilled with having his picture taken)

And last, first style. Kaylee's look for the games today!

Our community groups (small groups) also started up, and this week Carson will be starting a phonological preschool for speech therapy once a week. I am enjoying having some more time with Carson and Kaylee while the girls are in school, but we do miss having them around all the time.

July Fun

Well, July lived up to the craziness of the past few months! Life continues to be busy for us. But it also continues to be a blessing! Part of the craziness was the visits we had from friends and family. So far this summer we have been unable to get up north. However, God has been very gracious and enabled many to come visit us! Enjoy the following pictures of some of those visits!

At the Santa Clarita Aquatics Center with my Family

Visiting the San Fernando Mission

4th of July

Enjoying Lake Balboa Park

Dressing up with the Myers girls

Kaylee and Autumn (Kaylee loved Autumn and called her baby, it was really cute!)

Fun at the Beach
Grace and Becca

Love this one of Cait and Charity

Trying for a group shot, not very successful

Rollerskating!!

The zoo with Uncle Rob and Aunt Adri