July 31st - Sept. 3rd, 2015

Hi Everyone,

Hope you all had a wonderful summer! Here's what we've been up to lately....


We were really blessed to spend time at the beach with family. It was a full house this year! Micah and I didn't get much sleep as we stayed up late with the young crowd and then got up early with the youngest crowd, but we did come back relaxed and refreshed.

Big yawn!

It felt like Liza slept the entire week we were there at the beach. I think the of all the background noise of the beach and everyone talking in the house, just lulled her to sleep. 

Liza likes to fold her hands lately. :)

Owen is getting so big these days!

The whole Fox Family! 

Micah's sister, Hannah, is getting married to Isaiah (Kate's brother-in-law!) in two weeks! Seth is excited to be a ring-bearer!

Blake having trouble with the bright sun. :0

In other news.... the week after getting back from the beach we spent our spare time the following week getting geared up for school starting again. Here's a picture of the revised schoolroom. (the panorama picture makes the room looks much bigger than it really is). We curtained the room off while we were making the changes and then had an "unveiling" on the first day of school. Anything to make it feel new and exciting! :)

 First day of school strawberry pancakes!

On our first day of school Seth also celebrated his 100th, day of school ever. :) 

 Our class this year. :) Blake is trying to have a sad face. He didn't want to admit that he was truly super excited!

Art table

 We treated the boys to ice cream on the first day to school to make it more fun. :) You can see that they were not excited at all.  ;)

A lap full! 

The boys ask all the time to hold Liza. It's funny how she can tell very quickly who is holding her. ;)

 Liza turned 3 months old!

 Sweet baby! I just can't get enough of her!!!

 More praying hands

Praying again. :)


A Few Funnies...

Blake calls Liza's vibrating bouncey seat: "vibernation".

Owen told us about how God played with him the other day and went in the water with him. :) 


Sorry this is so short, but our former definition of "busy" just jumped to a whole new meaning of the word since starting school. :) Jonathan is doing well on his deployment. He hit the half-way mark the other day and we are hoping to get to see him and maybe Scott around Christmas time this year. We are all doing well and getting adjusted to a new schedule again. Liza is growing bigger every day and loves to smile and "talk" to people. We are looking forward to Hannah's wedding in a few weeks! I'm sure there will be plenty of pictures from that. 

Hope you all are doing well!

Love,

Kari, Micah, Blake, Seth, Owen, and Liza

June 12th - July 30th, 2015

Hi Everyone!

Hope you all are having a great summer! I can't believe August starts THIS Saturday! 

It's been a while since our last update and things have been in baby-mode full blast since then. :) Here' s a little of what's been going on in our world....

First some pictures of our SWEET BABY! Who is now 2 months old!!

 Ballgames...not so excited. 

 I am having so much fun dressing up my little baby doll.  :)

 That about sums it up. (don't tell the boys) :)

 Visit from the Great Grandparents!

 The line up. Can't believe there are four of them now. We are definitely outnumbered!

 Look what I get to wake up to every morning :)

Seth brought Liza a book to look at. 



Celebrations lately....

Getting ready for Father's Day. I was reminded again that paint and two-year-olds don't mix. Next time, we'll be doing it over his nap. :)

 Special Father's Day breakfast...

Complete with a butter carving by Blake  :) 

We celebrated two birthdays this month! Blake turned 6 and Seth turned 5! 

 Sweet boy! Wow, I'm so proud of him. Self-taught reader, avid learner and enthusiastic helper. He is currently finishing a 300 page (regular-sized font) book about the adventures of Danielle Boone written in 1914. Whew, I can hardly keep up! He finished his first grade curriculum last week and we are looking forward to a focus on U.S. History in his studies this fall. 

Got a "real" Bible for his birthday. Written for teens, but more on his level than the kid's books. 

 Seth is 5 years old already. The first year with them as a newborn and 12months was pretty intense, but they are the best of friends and do everything together. I still get asked if they are twins when we go out. Seth is doing really well lately. He is BIG into drawing and is started to add titles to his drawings that even though they require a bit of deciphering, he is starting to use letters appropriately. I'm really proud of him too! 

 We had a birthday party for both boys with their friends. I was surprised when we counted everyone and had 18 kids here. They had a great time despite an infestation of chigger bites the next day.  :/  Daddy was in charge of games and the kids had fun with that. 

Everyone was ready for a nap at the end of the party!  :)

Miscellaneous...

 I had to include this picture of Cousin Bryce and Aunt Kate that she sent me the other day. Bryce is the CUTEST 6 month old EVER! Don't you just want to pinch his cheeks?!?


In other news....

 In other news...we are SUPER excited that Owen is now (mostly) potty trained!! YAY! We have a few struggles here and there, but he's doing surprisingly well. 

Softball season is over, but our team made won the division championship! I had to take this picture of Micah with two of his brothers. They look just a little alike, don't you think? Every time we came to watch a game I had to look twice to make sure it was the right guy before calling out "You can do it, Honey!" :) 

We had to say goodbye to a fond chapter in our lives of having "Pappy" live close by. We were very sad to say farewell to Dad as he relocated to Kansas. He will be fairly close to Kate, so I guess we will have to share for a while. 

Owen had to say goodbye to his Pappy and Owen's beloved motorcycle. During morning prayer time, Owen regularly prays for Pappy and his motorcycle. :) So sweet.  We miss you Dad, but we are excited to see how God uses you in this new chapter in your life. 

God is good and updating this blog reminds me to keep my focus on Him. There are plenty of tough days too, with the all-consuming demand a of lots of a littles. But He is faithful and so far, I haven't totally lost my mind. ;) There is definitely a portion that is not currently working due to lack of sleep as evidenced by probably several typos that I'm not even going to go back and look for right now. :) But, all that to say, God is good and is being my constant support and source of grace. I am savoring every free moment with Liza and enjoying these summer months with the boys too!

Hope you all are doing well! 

Love, 

Micah, Kari, Blake, Seth, Owen, and Liza

May 14th - June 11th, 2015

It's a GIRL!!!

Introducing Liza Gail Fox! She arrived weighing in at 7lbs 9 oz and 19" long. We are truly blessed to have the Lord answer our prayers for a healthy baby and we're totally smitten with our sweet little girl.

The boys were super excited to meet their little sister. Owen especially. :) We kept her gender a surprise until the boys arrive in the hospital room. We let them look at her and tell us if they thought she was a boy or a girl. Blake said girl (that's what he had been wanting) and Seth said boy (what he had been wanting) and Owen "gurl". Seth was okay with her being a girl when we finally told them. 

Jonathan happen to be passing through the area and helped watch the boys.

 First meeting with Gan Gan Fox

Meeting Nana

Owen has fun hold Liza. He was very disappointed when we told him he was not allowed to put his fingers in her eyes, but other than that, he loves touching her face. 

Meeting Pappy. Another smitten grandparent. :)

Making faces with Pappy  :P

Chunky! I love her big eyes.

Savoring every moment!

Funnies...

Seth soon after meeting Liza..."Does she have bones?"

Seth the day we brought Liza home from the hospital..."Should we teach Liza to walk today?"

Seth, "God is holding the whole world in His hands." Blake, "Yeah, He even has the whole university in His hands!"

Enjoying Liza and adjusting to life with four kiddos has pretty much occupied our time the last two weeks. Things are going well and we survived Micah's first day back at work without any major catastrophes. I'm in awe of God's miraculous works of creating new life so perfectly. He is good!

Hope you all are doing well!

Love, 

Micah, Kari, Blake, Seth, Owen, and Liza!