christmas 2011

I was much too negligent with picture taking this year. There are no group shots and no family photos. But we still had a wonderful Christmas. Thank you, Jesus, for becoming the Son of Man for us. We do not deserve your grace or your daily mercies on us!

barley academy

random shots

Here are some recent pictures that just make me smile. Hopefully, on those tough days that await me in the future, just looking at some of these will refill my mind with good. "What ever is good.... think on these things..."

seth's first soccer season

And, his biggest fans!!

It was so much fun to go to Seth's soccer games. He LOVED it and now he's excited to try out some baseball next!! Thanks, Nana and Papa; that was a great birthday gift.

fun at the zoo

Watching this grizzly play with the kids was super cool. It's amazing how brave they are when there's some glass between them and the bear.

joy's wedding

thanks, daddy

Just a plain, old-fashioned, family-fun surprise from Daddy.

seth turned 5

As usual, Seth was blessed to be able to celebrate his birthday surrounded by extended family. We had such fun. It was so suffocatingly hot, we decided to forgo a day at the zoo and use this day to stay around the house enjoying each other's company. Nathan bought a slip-n-slide and everyone had a great time playing that morning, because the slip-n-slide only lasted until lunch time. Later we did 2 rounds of presents and cake. Nathan's wacky schedule made it so that Mikaila and Seth's "parties" had to be separate, but no one was displeased with 2 rounds of cake!! So, another year is over and I can't believe he's 5 and already in the full swing of school. He's like a little man.

independence day

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AMERICA!!

seth's first stitches

Yes, June held many firsts for Seth. While at V.B.S. at our church Seth "stumbled" into a table and sustained a pretty bad injury. (Well, at least it was the worst our family has seen to date. Thank you, Lord.)

Because it happened at night, we had to make a trip to the E.R. We arrived around 6:30 and did not return home until nearly 1:00. (That's why he's sleeping in the center shot.) While there, the E.R. doctor decided to derma-bond it and send us on our way.... after a popsicle. That was Wednesday. By Sunday, the derma-bond had unsealed and we went to see Dr. Susan on Sunday afternoon. She decided to do stitches.... and now I KNOW why the very kind, soft-spoken E.R. doctor decided to derma-bond that sucker. WOW!! That was traumatic for everyone in the office and down the street.


And, apparently, no matter how loud you're going to scream, they give you a cool tattoo before you get started!

just because i love them

Realizing that blog-journaling our families life makes it seem like all is sun-shiny all the time, I'll just say it's not! However, as a mommy, I need to focus on these moments to get me through the not-so-shiny moments:

hiding in the cabinet

I saw this:

Kyle at 17 mos.

and thought of this:

Seth at 2 1/2.

seth's first v.b.s.

...at Bellevue that is.

CAMP OUTRAGEOUS!!

This was a hUgE stepping stone for Mommy! I really waffled on this one. This meant I had to drop him off at a building and drive away... for hours!! Well, I took the plunge, because the plunge was made a little easier by him being able to be in Aunt Tami's class! Praise the Lord, my boy was well behaved all week and he LOVED IT!!

stomp

Kyle has had a thing with stomping. If he wants something or get angry, he'll stomp his little foot. Sometimes he even does it when he's happy. I think it's too cute.

Of course Bubby and Sissy had to get in on it when Kyle got a reaction from Mommy and Daddy.

crime stoppers

One day, towards the end of January, this was the scene in our cove.

But have no fear...
Seth was armed and ready.

this is how we roll

For Christmas Nana and Papa gave Seth a new camouflaged booster seat. So now, this is how we roll.

After Christmas we kept telling him that he had to wait until Kyle turned one. So on Tuesday we celebrated Kyle's first birthday, and on Wednesday, before we left for church, he was sure to have me install his new ride.

Kyle thought that he was pretty hot stuff too. This was his first time forward facing in the car. Phshew! Yet another transition goes smoothly!

leaps and bounds

My baby keeps growing up.

This year I decided to start doing some school with Seth. I figured it would be a good opportunity to warm up to it. We wouldn't have to be super structured and I could get used to one more thing in the schedule slowly.

HE LOVES IT!!

Everyday he asks and asks, "When are we going to do school?" Then after we "do school," he wants to do more school. So far, he's been starting to read and learning to add, subtract, count money, skip count and tell time. So amazing!

This year he has also started Master Clubs at church. It's similar to Awana; the children memorize scriptures and complete activities to earn patches.

He has really enjoyed being in Mrs. Gord's Little Lambs class and looks forward to it each week. He was so excited when he finally got his vest "...like Riley and Ryan have in their closet at home." He had to wait patiently (and disappointedly) for the right size to come, but when he finally got it the child was the happiest I'd ever seen him. He's already earned his "God Made It All" patch.

Now I just need to sew it on for him!

smushmellows

Somethings I just hope I never forget.
This summer,
smores
were a big hit around our house.

How's that for some sequencing??

We ended up getting eaten alive by mosquitoes, so we had to make our smores indoors.

the dragon hunter

This is by far one of my favorite summer memories and it all started here:

Mimi took us to see the movie "How to Tame Your Dragon" and all the kids loved it. Seth sat by Mimi during the movie, and at some point, she whispered something to the effect of, "We need to get a pet dragon." And that set off a huge spiral that ended with Mimi showcasing her incredible creativity.

She sent Seth on a Dragon Hunt and he went from dragon egg to dragon egg collecting clues. It was quite exciting for one and all until the clues took us outside.... in the dark. That's when Seth started to get "nervous." Alas, our brave warrior found the dragon egg and brought it in to help it hatch.

Seth and Leah were both VeRy scared about what might happen... Enjoy the videos!

It took some coaxing, but Mimi convinced him to give over the egg.

So, we all watched and waited... and waited... and waited...
Then we realized that there was a second wrapper.

AH! There we go!

We were all quite nervous...

If you look VerY closely, you can see the fierce DRaGoN.
Thanks Aunt Mimi!

i just love this one!

And this one!!

Seth and Greyson had just come in from playing on the trampoline and for whatever reason Seth sat down and picked up the paper!