Dec. 9th - Jan. 2nd, 2014

Happy New Year!

Hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year. We are so blessed to be able to share the holidays with our family. God is so good to give us loving and caring parents, siblings, grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, etc.. We were reminded over the holidays how "rich" we are to be a part of not only our flesh and blood relatives, but also the family of Christ. 

 A bit of cleaning before the company arrives. Owen has officially "taken off" walking! He is crazy fast around the house and I've noticed today that he is spending very little time staying in one place playing with toys. He is literally constantly walking around the house with some toy or object tightly grasped in one or both hands. He is a bundle of energy!!

 What a joy it was to add a stocking to our mantel this year! 

 Micah's grandma, Sharon, at one of several Christmas parties we went to. She is an amazing cook and always surprises us with the desserts she whips out. 

 Kate, Noah and Roger arrived safely on Dec. 22nd and we had a fun-filled ten days together. Like last year, our house was full to overflowing with family. We had a great time together. Stayed up way too late, ate way too much dessert, watched way too many movies, and were reminded way too vividly of the fact that we are not as young as we used to be. :) The sleep deprivation was totally worth it. 

Jonathan also got his leave approved to join us for the whole time. Will and Dad were also there for Christmas, so we had just about everyone. We missed Joy and James though. :(

 Blake and Seth were in heaven with all the people willing to play with them. 

 The boys got to meet Cousin Roger for the first time. He is just precious. I realized that our boys are not blessed with the "calm gene" like Roger is. Roger was so sweet, he would just sit on Kate's lap while she sang to him and did hand motions together. When I try this with Owen, he likes it for about 2 seconds and then it's a wrestling match to get him to sit still on my lap while we sing a song together. :)

 All their new Christmas outfits. Thanks Grandma Ensmenger! 

 Roger and Uncle Will

 One of a few very serious games of Monopoly. 

Below is what happens when you try to take pictures of two very busy baby boys. :) 

 Finally clothed and in their right mind. ;)

After a full Christmas season we are spending today writing thank yous, wading through new toys, getting back into our routine and remembering the good time we had. January is an exciting month for us as we take some time to reflect on the previous year and set new goals for the coming year. Micah and I usually take a day or two and do some planning for the coming year. Every company or business needs goals to work towards and our family unit needs them too. 

Hope you all are doing well and looking forward to this next year!

Love, 

Kari, Micah, Blake, Seth and Owen

Nov. 22nd - Dec. 8th, 2013

Hi Everyone!

Hope you all had a good Thanksgiving. We had a good time with the family!

 Not the Easter Bunny...The Christmas Bunny :)

 Blake and Seth helped me get ready for Thanksgiving. 

 Too tired before the party even starts 

 Third-born boys spending some bonding time 

 More bonding time...

 Jonathan was able to leave base for Thanksgiving. Somehow after reading a book to the boys about the first Thanksgiving, they got the impression that pilgrims and indians were to be joining us for the meal. Jonathan played along for us and arrived with this face painted with mud and shirtless. It had been several months since the boys had seen Jonathan anyway, so their little eyes got pretty big with he appeared at the door that day. It only took them a second to recognize him though, then they were fine. :)

 As you can see, I was hopelessly out-numbered! 

It feels like Thanksgiving came and went in a flash this year. Without skipping a beat we are on to Christmas! 

 Picking out our tree 

It was really cold out!

 Very excited! You know Seth is excited about something when he agrees to sing some Christmas songs with the rest of us. :)

Little "Owey" has taken his first step! Yup, he's only 9 months old. I guess he feels he must keep up with his brothers. He very close to full-blown walking now. At the moment he is only able to take one step before plopping down. 

I was excited to put up (well, that Micah put up) Christmas lights outside for the first time. Our house looks something akin to a gingerbread house at night, but the boys love to go out when it gets dark and turn on the lights together. 

A few funnies....

     Blake and Seth are anxiously awaiting the time with our large Pin Oak tree behind our house finishing losing all it's leaves because that means they can get their golf set out again and not worry about it getting lost in the mounds of leaves. The other morning there was an especially heavy sprinkling of leaves all over the deck and Blake goes outside and exclaims, "Good job wind! You got a lot of leaves off!!"

     "Why is it Santa Claus, like sharp things?" Blake on the reason behind Santa "Claw's" odd last name. :) 

     Seth-"I don't want to get married" Me-"You don't? Why not?" Seth-"Because I don't think that white thing will fit me"Me- "The white thing?" Seth-"Yeah, the white thing you wear when you get married" Me-"You mean the white dress that the girls wears?" Seth-"Yes". ....sigh, where these things come from, I will never know. Unfortunately, explaining to Seth that he would not have to wear "a white thing" and that he would have a nice tuxedo when he gets married did not change his mind about the matter. :) 


We are looking forward to having Kate, Noah and Roger join us for Christmas this year. They will be staying with us for about a week and a half. We are all really excited! This is always a very busy and fun month for our family and I'm looking forward to what's the Lord has in store. 

Hope you all are doing well!

Love, 

Kari, Micah, Blake, Seth and Owen

Nov. 1st - 21st, 2013

Hi Everyone,

Hope you all are looking forward to Thanksgiving next week as much as we are! Spending time with loved-ones over the holidays is the best part. Though we would love to spend the holidays with both sides of our family every year, we have had to come to grips with the fact that we can't be two places at the same time. :( So, we decided a few years ago to start alternating between spending either Thanksgiving Day or Christmas Day with one side of the family and then the other the following year. So far, it's working out pretty well. We are certainly blessed to have family close by to spend time with!

We had a good trip to Nashville a few weeks ago. Not gonna lie here, it did prove to be a little challenging to have three kiddos in a very nice hotel for two days. :) But, thank goodness, the hotel had an awesome outdoor kiddie pool that was heated. So that helped the boys get a lot of energy out. 

 Mr. Sunshine in the back seat. :)

 Hair slicked, name tag, all ready for the convention...

Look who we got to meet while there!

 It's hard to capture in pictures how HUGE as well as how GORGEOUS this place was! The property covered more than 60 acres. It houses over 2,300 rooms and if all the panes were taken out of the glass ceiling and laid flat, it would cover 7 football fields! Not joke, we did get lost at least once. :)

 One of many exploration trips while Micah was busy. 

 Just one of many amazing garden areas at the hotel. 

 We spent an extra night in Nashville so we'd have time to do a little sight-seeing. One place we visited was the Parthenon, a to-scale replica of the real one in Rome. Very impressive. Especially, knowing that it was constructed in the 1897!

 Happy Traveler

 Blake posing as...himself.  :)

 And Seth. :)

 Love this picture!

 Quick walk through Downtown Nashville before heading home. We kept hoping we'd see someone famous...we did, even got a picture with him.  ;)

 Back home...had a 74 degree day last week! Seth was much relieved to not have to wear his jacket that day. The baine of his existence!

 Owen's first hair cut at 8 and 1/2 months old. Just a trim really. :)

 Little Drummer Boy. Look at those arms go! He loves to play with anything that makes loud noises. 

We made a leaf maze yesterday to pass the time. 


A few funnies...

       When attempting to teach Seth that he needs to "Treat others the way he wants to be treated", his response was, "But, I don't want to be treated".   :)

      "That's why cars have to turn on their night lights" one of many astute observations from our dear Blake about what vehicles do at night when it gets dark. 


Well, hope you all have a good Thanksgiving. We are looking forward to seeing again Jonathan (he's coming down from Fort Meade, Maryland) and Will too (coming from Virginia). There is certainly a multitude of blessings we are thankful for this year. The biggest one being that we know Who holds the keys to our future and thus have no reason to despair.

Love to you all,

Kari, Micah, Blake, Seth and Owen