January 21st - March 5th, 2016

Hi Friends and Family!

Here's what we've been up to lately...

Liza hit the 9-month old mark and has gone from starting to crawl to pulling herself up and cruising along the furniture quite handily. It won't be long until she's running right along with the boys. :)

Seth's reading skills have taken off! Here he is holding his first completed chapter book.

First swing experience!

Art class

Uncle Jonathan got to visit us briefly on his way back from pre-deployment training in South Carolina. We went to a children's museum in town and here Seth is preparing a special meal for him at the restaurant. :) 

Jonathan will be deploying any day now for six months. His previous deployments  have been four months so this will be a longer one for him. We will miss him! Let me know if you'd like to get his deployment address to mail him letters. 

Celebrating Uncle Jonathan's birthday. The boys crowned him King for the Day!

Owen "helping" to keep Liza quiet in church on Sunday morning. :) 

Blake said the other day while climbing, "Mom, I think God has given the gift of climbing!"  

Liza and Nana. I am SUPER blessed to have a wonderful Mother-in-law! She takes the kids for one day every week so I can run errands, rest, or get things done around the house. Not sure what I'd do without her help!

Liza has been doing much better at playing and being content now that she is more mobile. Owen is slooowly learning how to play gently with Liza. It's an hourly struggle unfortunately. Pats vs. hits. Hugs vs. strangle-holds.  :)

A super sweet note Seth wrote for me during quiet time one afternoon. Just about made me cry. The end says "I love you so much the whole family likes you. By Seth"   :,)

It has begun!

More books completed! Seth is really blossoming in his art skills lately too. It's neat to see him using different dimensions and mediums to create his masterpieces. I'll try to include some examples of his art in my next post. 

Prayer time after breakfast. The boys usually pray for Uncle Will, Uncle Luke, Uncle Jonathan, Uncle Scott, Pappy and Daddy every morning. :)

Look who turned three!

For Owen's birthday we made the boys a sandbox for the backyard

I'm so thankful to have a husband who has construction and handyman skills. It makes it easy to get my endless list of projects done and he can pass along his knowledge to the boys. 

Getting the sand. When the man running the tractor heard that it was Owen's birthday, he reached in his pocket and pulling out a handful of change, gave it to Owen. :)

We took the kids and Auntie Susanna to the mall to ride the...well, I'm not sure what you'd call them? Basically, stuffed animals with wheels that you can ride. Random, but really fun! 

The boys also trying the Superman jump. I love Blake's expressions for the first few seconds of the ride. A mixture of elation and terror. Thankfully, the elation won over and he loved it! 

Owen loved getting the cards from family members. Thanks everyone!

The boys have loved the sandbox so far!

Still Owen's daily attire. :) Owen likes to pretend a lot lately. He especially likes it when I "pretend" to be the mother. So when he wants to play pretend, he'll come up to me and say, "Are you the Muh-ver?"

Funnies...

• We are learning about the Oregon Trail in history right now (totally fascinating btw!) and I asked the boys at the lunch table a few days ago what they thought the pioneers would be eating for lunch. Blake said "Buffalo meat!" Seth said, "Indian meat!"      Oh dear...

• Owen got distressed when the TV was on mute and the movie was  starting, he yelled out, "The TV can't talk!"  :)

• The boys started taking one class each per week with a local homeschool co-op. Blake is taking a piano class and Seth is taking a storybook and literature class. We are encouraging the boys to meet and talk to one new classmate per week. The first week we asked Blake how it went and he said, "I didn't know anyone there besides me." :)

Hope you all are doing well. We are staying busy with school and church responsibilities. God is really good and we have been blessed beyond what we deserve. We only hope that we can give back to Him the praise and service due His Name.

Love to you all!

Kari, Micah, Blake, Seth, Owen and Liza

Nov. 17th - Jan. 20th, 2016

Hi Friends and Family!

The past two months have been filled with activity and now things are beginning to slow down again and get back to somewhat of a routine. I always enjoy January as we usually take time during this month to look ahead and make plans as well as look back and see all that God has brought us through and blessed us with. We are blessed beyond what we deserve and are learning more and more to be thankful and satisfied with what we do have.

Here are few pictures of highlights from the past two months...

Another "miraculous" find this year of the perfect Christmas tree right in Nana's backyard. ;)

Micah and I got free seats to see Steven Curtis Chapman here in Burlington last month. It's really inspiring to watch God continue to use him over the years to reach so many people for Christ.

Let the decorating begin! The ornament Owen is looking at was a little egg-shaped snowman made by my Mom. :)

Liza's first Christmas!

The Christmas bears made another appearance this year and for about a week they did everything with the boys. :)

One shot from Liza's 6 month portraits (homemade as you can tell by the wrinkles in the sheets I used a backdrop) 

The tree fort continues to be a big hit outside. Many a caped super hero has sought refuge there in recent months. 

Some of my preparation for an "Ugly Sweater Party"...  hehe 

A little help with the laundry...

We went to a Christmas celebration in Downtown Burlington this December and enjoyed some 60 degree December weather. The boys got to sit in a firetruck!

Liza is really growing lately! She will be 8 months old at the end of January, can you believe that?!? She is more and more fun to play with and has recently found her voice and has been serenading us with impressively high-pitch squeals of delight. :)

Well, mostly of delight... :)

Each baby  has received their own stocking as their first Christmas present.

There's so many of us! Crazy! 

Christmas Sunday  :) I'm discovering that the chances of getting at picture where everyone is looking and smiling at the camera decreases dramatically with each new addition to the family, so I'm happy to just have everyone at least visible. :)

We have a tradition of sleeping in the living room on Christmas Eve. Unfortunately, the air mattress decided it was on vacation too and was just a tad on the deflated side come Christmas morning. :)

Everyone got guns for Christmas! 

Love this clarification added by our first born. 

Just a LITTLE excited on Christmas morning!

After opening presents at our house, we headed over to Nana and Gan Gan's for more Christmas celebrations.

As you can see, the Tooth Fairy has been VERY busy around here lately! You can probably guess what the boys put on our wish lists for Christmas...all I want for Christmas is my...  :)

The day after Christmas we got up at the crack of dawn, loaded the kiddos in the van, and started out for a 18 hour drive to Kansas! We had planned to take two days to do it, but we got about half way and everyone was doing so well, we decided to make a go of it and drive the rest of the way. So glad we did! 

We visited Aunt Hannah (Micah's sister) newly wed to Uncle Isaiah (Kate's brother-in-law!). It was so nice to see them again and the boys loved getting to spend a little time with Aunt Hannah. 

H & I look like naturals to me!  I think they could use one of their own. :)

Liza and Grandfather Shoemaker. Pappy says they have a special bond and I think so too. 

Me and "My Boy" Scott. Sporting a bit of military-approved facial hair. Well, the 'stache at least. :)

Finally got to meet my little chunky monkey, Clark! Oh my goodness, I feel immediately in love with this guy. :)

The boys with Scott and Roger

Spent a few hours with the Fox folks, Hannah and Isaiah and Susanna in Kansas City at the mall. 

Owen's got a lap-ful of cousin! This is Bryce, Kate's youngest. 

Liza and Aunt Joy!

 A trip to an indoor sporting goods store. This place was amazing, with much more that just shopping! We got to see their huge fish tanks, play on a playground and ride a ferris wheel that was three stories tall inside the store!

 Lots of game time together  :)

All the cousins! We took turns getting up early with all the babies so the adults could sleep in a little after late nights. 

Liza and Aunt Kate

Bryce (1 yr,) Clark (8mo) & Liza (7mo)   

 I LOVE this picture where Liza is nonchalantly holding Clark's ear and looking so innocently at the camera. Hehe

Aren't they precious?!? I love them all so much!

Now, here's a gem of a picture! Pappy with the Grands. :) A blessed man indeed! Liza is sorely out-numbered I'm afraid. 

We had SUCH a good time at Kate and Noah's! It was really hard to say goodbye when it was time to leave. We keep saying that maybe someday we will all live closer to each other...someday. :)

On the way home we decided to take two days. The boys had been looking forward to swimming at hotel for weeks, so we had to get that in too. 

Back home again!

Well, I started this post about five days ago now and I think I'll finally wrap it up. :) Hopefully, it won't be so long until the next one!

Here's a few parting funnies to leave you with...

Blake- "It's so warm out today, it feels like the third day of Spring!"  As opposed to the 5th?  :)

We were transporting a baby bassinet in the van to give to a friend and it was crowding Blake a bit in the way, so he says "This bayonet is crushing me!"  We've been reading a lot of Revelutionary War stories, can you tell?

Blake- "The best kind of chicken I like is ham"   :)

Love to you all!

Micah, Kari, Blake, Seth, Owen & Liza