One more day!!

At our house we love to celebrate Advent, the coming of our Savior! One way that we celebrate is by gathering around our Advent Calendar (thank you Aunt Suzy :) every evening after supper and reading through the story of Christ's birth. Every night Ben reads a little further and we get to add one more figure to our Advent Scene.

The kids are THRILLED that there is only ONE day left!! Tomorrow we celebrate the coming of our Savior and the kids get to put baby Jesus in His manger.

We are so thankful that Jesus came, died and an rose again so that we could stand justified before God! And we are also excited that He is coming again, and when He does there will be no more death, pain or fighting sin. So thankful for the coming of our King! Happy Advent!

It's been a while!

It has been a long while since I have posted anything new, and this is my reason...

Jenna Grace arrived on October 20! She is sweet as can be, and her brother and sisters adore her. Here are a few pics from her arrival.

We have lots of great conversations already, and I look forward to many many more :)
Ben is very excited to now have three little princesses. He is such a good Daddy!
Kara takes her responsibility as the biggest sister very seriously. She loves to help me by holding Jenna for me when I have something I need to do.
Luke is the proud protector of his new little sister. He loves to kiss her on her head, and it mealts my heart every time! She sure brings out his sweet side.

Ellie and Jenna will be good friends I think. Ellie enjoys finally being bigger than someone and is excited to be a big sister. Her favorite thing to do is sing to Baby Jenna and Jenna loves it!

We love being a family of 6!!

Fabulous Day!

This past Saturday was a beautiful day. It was nearly 80 degrees, sunny and just plain perfect! Our day started with Kara and I going to get her hair cut. She had been looking forward to this for weeks, so it was a very exciting morning! A friend from high school cut Kara's hair, and Kara thinks it is great fun to go to Miss Randi's salon :)

After the haircut we picked up the rest of the family and headed on a beautiful drive to Crane's Apple Orchard for some apple picking and apple cider doughnuts...yum!!






We got home and ate lunch outside in the beautiful weather and played for a while.



Then we ended the day with a campfire and roasted hot dogs. It was the perfect fall day and good to spend the whole day together as a family.



We're realizing that in Tanazania we will not have this beautiful season called fall. This is a bit sad. It is both Ben and my favorite time of year! So, we're making the most of this one, and it has been so fun. Happy beautiful fall to you all!

A day at the zoo

Monday is Ben's day off, and it was a beautiful day, so we decided to pack up the kids and head to the zoo! Luke wanted to pet every animal...especially the lions. Can you blame him? Those big kitties look so cuddly! The lions were actually from Tanzania, which made them even cooler. The bear was the second fave and he was actually awake and gave us a great show! We had a blast admiring all of God's beautiful and sometimes entertaining creation.

The kids especially love the little cabin that is just their size!

This is probably one of our last family shots as a family of five! Our little girl will be joining us soon for any further adventures :)

And then there is the train! I think we spend more time here than we do at any of the animal exhibits, but the kids love it.

Ben and I like the train too. We sat and talked while the kids played.

And kissed too :)

We watched the bear play for a long time!

And then played the African drums for a while.

It was a marvelous day!

My favorite day :)

Today Ben and I celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary. I love our marriage. I love my husband. I am blessed beyond understanding! He loves me, leads me and cherishes me. I am so thankful! I have so many fun memories from anniversaries in the past, and tomorrow my husband is taking me on a surprise date...more fun memories! Ben says he wants to be married for 99 more years, which would put us at approximately 131 years of age :) Today Ben gave me a 7 page hand written letter. I cried. Thank you my hub for taking the time to invest and grow in your relationship with me but more importatntly to grow in your relationship with Christ and leading me and our children toward Him. You are my bestest friend!!

36 weeks along!!!!!!

Actually, I'm 36 weeks and 5 days along. Every day counts at this point! This means less than 4 weeks to go in this pregnancy!! I am SO very ready to be done. I know, the real work begins on the day we meet this little one, but I'm ready to move from the "joys" :) of pregnancy to looking into her eyes, and yes, even feeding her in the middle of the night. We must admit that we are excited to be able to have one baby to care for instead of two at one time. We LOVE our twins, and I wouldn't trade a moment of their lives, but that sure was a lot of work, and often I feel like I never got to enjoy the infant stage due to pure exhaustion! I'm so glad we have so many pictures of them as infants as we so often were in such a fog just trying to get everyone fed, changed and sleeping. I'm so thankful that God blessed me with an amazing husband who endured every sleepless night with me! He is my fave :)

Kara, Luke and Ellie are so excited to meet their little sister, and I know she will be well loved and protected! The kids have had some practice with new babies at church, and they all understand that, and I quote, "we get to have one of THOSE at our house." :)

Autumn fun!

One of our favorite fall traditions is apple picking. Monday we went picking for the first time this season and had a blast! The kids are all old enough to enjoy it now, so it made for a fun family outing. We've already enjoyed our first homemade apple pie of the season too...much more of that to come!

Dreaming about spheres

In the morning when Kara wakes up she loves to tell me about her dreams, and I love to hear about them! The latest...

Kara: Mom, last night I just kept dreaming and dreaming about Kindergarten.

Me: That sounds fun. What kind of things did you dream about?

Kara: Oh, you know, spheres and cubes and stuff...

Me: giggling

Kara: ...and all about writing whatever letters I want to, whenever I want to, and getting my ears pierced! Oh, and my numbers too. I like to dream about numbers and the pictures that I color too!

Oh how I love my little ones. I am amazed at what they learn and how they communicate. I desire for them to always share their dreams and what they are thinking with me. I pray that she will still tell me about her dreams when she is 15 years old and 30 years old! Sometimes it is easy to get discouraged and just plain feel drained in the midst of these pre-school and toddler years, but time truly is flying by, and it's these little conversations that make me just adore being a mom. My kids are little people. Yes, to some this is obvious, but often I forget that when the day is filled with whining. They have souls and I am blessed to have the privilege of parenting these little souls. I look forward to our conversation tomorrow morning...I'm smiling just thinking about it!

Happy Birthday Aunt Mary!!

We love you Aunt Mary!!



Luke's solo :)

Sparkles...

Before (no ear sparkles)

and After (pink sparkles on the lobes)

If you look closely you can see beautiful pink sparkles on Kara and Kailyn's ears...what fun for two little girls! Kara's friend Kailyn turns 5 today! To celebrate we went and visited this weekend and one of the highlights was getting Kara and Kailyn's ears pierced. Kara loves her new pink sparkles and is taking very good care of her ears.

We love our friends and with the transitions that are coming up in our lives we are cherishing the time that we have to spend with them.

A few other highlights:

A stroll downtown

A visit to the library

The group picture, which is always fun :)

All made for a wonderful, friend-filled weekend!

Happy 5th Birthday Kailyn!!