Sunday, October 23, 2016

{Catching Up, Life in Pictures}

I sat down to go through pictures on my camera and thought I would share some that are from little things in daily life.
The other day, these two were intently peering outside, can you find what they were looking at?
It was a rabbit, he is very brave, loves to come up on our back step because he knows the dog will bark inside but can't get him! It was still fun to see him up close as we have recently read a series about rabbits!
 While picking tomatoes we found this... it is a chrysalis of a Black Swallowtail butterfly,
 others in his family are continuing to enjoy my parsley!
 These dainty little lilies are still blooming in my garden, the nights are getting cool enough, I was surprised to see how many blooms there were!
 The kids helped me plant about 100 bulbs in the flower beds this week.
We found some "friends" while we were working...
 This one crawled out of the mulch and made Eli scream!
 Nate picked him up and moved him to safety away from where we were digging.
 With Halloween around the corner, we have been working on costumes.
Here is part one of Eli's. Any guess on what he is going to be?
 Nate, Wesley and I made a trip to Denver for Doctor appointments.
We stayed at the Ronald McDonald House again, I can not tell you what a blessing this place has been to us this year! Please consider donating your extra change at McDonalds to help fund these homes!
The view from our room.
 We have discovered GoNoodle.com at our house...
Can you tell someone loves it!
 Abigayl did her part upside down!
 With cooler days and the sun setting earlier, blocks and other games are coming out in the evenings...
 We celebrated Nate's birthday this week with this cake.
 We are enjoying Science in school this fall, right now studying Chemistry and the movement of molecules.
 Of course, sometimes we have cheesy faces too...
 Shawn was traveling for a work conference and sent me this early morning picture,
  yes, I was a little jealous! It's beautiful! A lot different than what was outside my window that morning.
What have you been up to lately?

Saturday, October 22, 2016

{Double Digits...}

I can't believe he is TEN!
I was looking back at pictures of when he came into our lives...
It was through a phone call and an email that we opened to see you picture looking back at us.
 His road home was long and winding.
Misplaced paperwork on the other side of the world, an earthquake, months of waiting,
 189 waiting on his LOA, then a missed birthday, a hospitalization for him on the other side of the world, followed by a cold winter.

Finally on a cold January day, we finally met Nate, he was scared and overwhelmed...
 we were in love!
Friday we celebrated Nate!
Right now he is loving stories of castles and knights, learning about honor and faith.
Lenna made him this castle/keep cake.
 We sang Happy Birthday...
 and I tried to get a good picture!
 Nate got all 10 candles out!
and we enjoyed the amazing cake!
Happy Birthday Nate.
We love you!

Thursday, October 13, 2016

{The Apple Pie Tree}

With cooler temperatures have come Fall books in our basket!
A favorite here is The Apple Pie Tree.
We have been learning about different apples and how they grow.
 Clara has been wanting to make an apple pie so yesterday was the day...
we got out the apple peeler and went to work.
I realized it has been a long time since I used this and both kids thought it was so cool! They had some much fun peeling the apples.
  
They thought it was cool how they are cut when you are done!
This is what they were really excited about though... Apple peel strings!
 They had a blast eating them and being silly!
Like eating Chinese noodles...
 Adding all the good stuff to the apples...
 Clara had fun making lattice on the top with the pie crust.
All ready to go in the oven...
 Anxiously waiting...
 and checking... waiting for something as yummy as apple pie is hard!
 Finally done! Daddy even got to run home at lunch and eat it with us!
A few other books in our basket right now...

Wednesday, October 05, 2016

{Things we are loving...}

Sunsets, cooler evenings...
 Fuzzy sock weather, reading books on the front porch...
 Teaching from Rest, wow! This book has challenged me in MANY ways...
Fudgey faces...
KidsDiscover- A 6 week missions program for families to follow along.
This project is focused on Bible Translation around the world as a partnership between Sonlight & The Seed Company. We are loving the videos and extra activities.
Bible translation is very dear to our hearts as our friends work to translate scriptures into the heart language of the people they live and work among in the Solomon Islands.
This week we learned about Bible Storying in India (we are  week behind), then also made Roasted Chickpeas to try as a snack.
and we tried our hand at drawing a mandala...
This mama is LOVING Pumpkin Spice coffee and thoughts of fall...
If you haven't read The Green Ember series by S.D. Smith, I encourage you to! We loved he first two and the 3rd one is not disappointing!
Lastly on my list of "Things we are loving..."
Chinese class! Our vocabulary is expanding, our new teacher is great and we loving spending class time with the other kids taking the class with us a couple of mornings a week. It shortens the miles between friends with an internet classroom!
What are you loving right now?
I'd love to hear from you!