Aug. 25th- Oct. 13th, 2014

Hi Everyone!

I promised to let you all know how things go since starting school. As evidenced by the fact that it's been over six weeks since my last update...starting school has definitely kept us busy! My afternoon quiet time to get things done has turned into school time with Blake, so it feels as though an average day has little to no extra time to do things (like update our blog). :)

Since my last update we have...started school, been quarantined with chickenpox, helped with a conference at church, been to a week-long beach reunion, and held down the fort while Micah attended a Men's Retreat for the weekend. Things should be slowing down somewhat in the next few weeks.

All the pictures I  have are from our beach trip with the Shoemaker side of the family. I tried to keep the number of pictures under control, but there were so many fun ones! Anyway, we had a great time. Hope you enjoy some pictures.

 Jonathan had the vision to try a new recipe of bourbon apple pie. So yummy!

 The four little guys had so much fun together. Roger is such a little angel baby. He's so sweet and laid back! Owen's having a hard time in this picture.

 Lots of eating went on at this trip. As Dad says, "Them Shoemakers sure can eat!"

 A flash back into the past of many hours spent together in Bible time growing up. It was neat to huddle up together again as family. When we do manage to all be together in recent years it seems there are more spouses and babies to add to the group. It's awesome! :)

 Uncle James bought some Nerf guns for the boys that turned out to be a huge hit for everyone. 

 Went on a few late night crab hunting expeditions. Jonathan caught the biggest crab. The little guys had fun looking at them the next morning.

 My guys. :)

 Owen "playing" the Wii with Jonathan. He got pretty good at the whole arm swing thing.

 Will joined Scott on a few excursions to the sea to help Scott prep for boot camp.

 The sista's. Oh, and Will...

 Scott saying goodbye to his last few days of freedom before shipping out to the Great Lakes a couple days after the trip ended.

 Owen making sure Roger has the proper dose of aloe. :)

 Owen taught Roger the art of a proper tantrum while at the beach. Actually, I think they are playing "dead" after being nailed with a Nerf gun.

 Steak dinner one night in celebration of Jonathan returning from Afghanistan. Thanks again Moms and Pops!

 Jonathan gave out the gifts he brought everyone from overseas.

 Everyone take a good look at this hair. It's the last you'll see of it for many years. :)

 Owen is 100% full throttle. He just ran and ran all over the beach!

 We had some time for a photo shoot of all of us, since we never know when it's the last time or a long time until we are all together again.

 Enormous sand castle built by the Bros.

The boys and their uncles. Crazy bunch!


In Other News....

We get to celebrate Micah's big 3-0 birthday next week! He is aging well and still just getting into his prime. :)

Scott left for bootcamp in Illinois. Let me know if you would like his address. He can't receive any packages, but letters or cards would be appreciated.

School is going okay. Still getting in a good rhythm with it. Blake is eating it up and doing great. Some of what we are doing is a good deal below his reading level, but he's enjoying having all the little assignments to do. He is actually sitting next to me reading over my shoulder as I type. :) He's doing great! Seth's school is on more of an as-we-want-to basis. But, he is learning his letters and going well with the curriculum.

In a few weeks we will get to go camping together as a family YAY! I've been wanting to go camping for several years and it will be our first time as a family. Hopefully, it goes well so that everyone will want to keep it up. :)

Owen is starting to talk more and say a few sentences, although I'm not sure anyone outside the family could understand what he's saying. He is still quite dramatic and expressive. His hobbies are: sitting on the mower in the garage, talking about mowing when Daddy gets home, talking about Daddy mowing when Daddy is gone, and keeping his brothers from sitting on "his" mower. He also likes to hold his hands up and say "Wu eeezit?" which means "Where is it?". 

We got a very mild case of chickenpox a few weeks ago. Our first quarantine adventure. But, thankfully, it wasn't serious at all and each of the boys only had a few spots. 

Funnies....

Seth told Blake he wanted to tell him a scary story. It went something like this... "and then they heard a noise and right behind them was a really scary X-RAY!" Blake- "What's an x-ray?" Seth - "You know! When there are bones that can walk." Apparently, what Seth meant to say was a skeleton, but x-ray works too. :)

In school we were talking about sets of two and how our faces have two ears, two cheeks, two eyebrows, and Blake chimes in "Yeah, and two eye closers!". Somewhat similar to eyelids I think. :)


Well, we hope you all are doing well! Until next time!


Micah, Kari, Blake, Seth, and Owen

July 13th - Aug. 24th, 2014

Hello Everyone, 

It's been five weeks since my last update - time flies when you're having fun. We've had a busy and good summer this year. Here are some highlights of the past five weeks....

Seth turned 4! We are really proud of how he is doing in his life. He loves to be outside and is really into hitting baseballs. He is also really into the "Memory Game" right now. Mostly because he is better at it than Blake, so it's his favorite. :)

The present Seth was most excited about was a bow and arrow from Daddy. 

 So far, the rabbits in the backyard have evaded all arrows, but we'll see how long that lasts. 

Beach Trip

 The time came for the long awaited Fox family beach trip. We had a great time together at Holden Beach for a week. The first few days it rained so we spent a lot of time inside playing games, reading and coloring. The whole gang even got to hear a dramatic reading of "On The Banks of Plum Creek" by Micah. 

 The whole crew!

 There were some tide pools this year that were perfect for Owen and the boys. Owen was crazy about the water, he loved it and cried every time we had to get out. 

Good Ol' Uncle Judah will do anything for the kids. :)

A bit of mini-golf with these pros. 

We had a great time at the beach and, as always, it was over way too fast. I asked Blake the other day what he liked to think about and he said, "I mostly like to think about the beach". :) 

 We had some visitors waiting for us when we got home from the beach. Kate and Roger flew in for a friend's wedding and stayed for a few days. 

 Cousin Roger and Owen. 

Uncle Will with Seth, Roger, Owen and Blake. Roger is the sweetest little angel baby you've ever met. I'm serious! He is so calm and obedient that he makes my boys look like wild indians. It was fun to spend time with them and watch the boys play together. 

Kate was kind enough to help me decorate our bare walls in the living room. It was so nice to get that project going! Our before picture. 

After. Ya'll need to come visit us, okay?

Micah celebrated five years at Northstar! God has been good to us and we've been blessed to be a part of the team there. Micah is definitely a favorite among his co-workers and often comes home with stories of pranks he has played on them. :)

Days at home....

 Met another neighbor last week...  

 Blake and Seth LOVE Legos right now! They are able to assemble pieces using instruction books marked for ages much older than they are. They would probably play with Legos all day if they had the choice. 

Owen likes to think he can ride the bikes like the big boys and seems to get a thrill out of scaring me to death when he climbs up the seat alone. He's so proud of himself though, that's it's hard to be upset. 

In other news...

Our boxes of school curriculum came in the mail the other day and I've been spending some time preparing for our FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL! Pretty exciting and terrifying all at the same time. I have to keep reminding myself that it's just kindergarten and first grade, how hard can it be? Thankfully, God is more concerned about our hearts than He is about the facts that we know, so that helps keep things in perspective and (should) help me from getting to too stressed out. ;-) We start school tomorrow morning and I'm looking forward to the boys opening their bags with "presents" of school supplies. Our regular days at home about about to change! I'll let you know how it goes. :)

Since my last update, Jonathan has returned from Afghanistan and is safely back in the States. We are really proud of him and it sounds like the people he worked with were impressed with him too as he was nominated to be one of a group of possible candidates to go on a short-notice deployment to Africa. We are hoping to get a visit from him sometime soon.

Funnies...

Every once in a while I'll say things to the boys like, "Isn't is cool that God made____?", just to get them thinking about God. So the other day Blake was helping me fold laundry and said contemplatively as he folded, "Mom, isn't it neat that God made underwear flat so you don't have to fold them?"  :0) Yes, it is. 

Blake was helping Micah with a work project for someone in the church and Blake was doing some painting. After a few minutes of painting Blake got rather distressed and said, "Dad! The paint keeps running out!" Micah instructed him that the paint runs out of the brush because it's going on the wood and you have to dip it back in the paint bucket to get more.  :)

Well, hope you all are doing well and having a good summer!

Love, 

Kari, Micah, Blake, Seth and Owen