Oct. 14th, 2017 - Jan. 23rd, 2018

Hi Everyone,

It's funny how Christmas feels so long in coming, then when it's here it feels all-consuming, and yet by mid-January, a mere two weeks later, it feels like ancient history! :) I really love this time of year; making plans, setting goals, decluttering, etc.. January always feels like a fresh start to me. 

Here's a little of what we've been up to the past few months. I noticed my blog updates keep getting spaced farther and farther apart, lol. Hard to believe we started this blog back in 2012 with monthly updates! You guys must have been getting sick of them. hehe! Well, here we are two kids later... we'll just go ahead and admit it's turning into a quarterly update. :)

Backyard fire and marshmallows one day while Micah was out of town. When you've run out of everything to do inside and you have several boys who are driving you crazy, just go outside and light something on fire. Shazam! Hours of enjoyment. 

Not allowed on the blanket, so just going to get as close as possible... 

A lovely visit from Pappy last fall! And our only visit to the donut shop last year! Dad knows how to make them happy.

Isn't this the sweetest picture ever!?!

Pilot Mountain over Micah's birthday in October!

Went down the hall and saw this. =O  Liza- "Dis is my yittle swimming pool." Oh Lord, give me strength! lol

Liza- "Mommy, can I be in your belly and be your baby?"  Um, yes.

Trip to the NC Zoo! We figured out that "world's largest zoo" must actually mean the zoo that's spread over the largest area geographically...we walked a LOT!

Liza said she wanted to ride the giraffe and elephants. :)

Pretty sure the same bear was in the very same spot pacing the very same steps last time we were here years ago. Sad! Poor things. Maybe they are actually animatronics?

First haircut! Just a tiny trim really.

The Burlington Christmas Parade. Never realized there there so many dance studios in our county, unbelievable! I realized I really only like parades because of the horses. We only saw four that day. :( A slight contrast to my days in the Kansas where parades meant everyone gets their horse and rides through town. More likely a ratio of 50 horses per float. Oh well. We decided we'd be good for another couple years before going to the parade again. :)

Blake and Seth are practicing both musical and sibling harmony while playing a duet. :) We have definitely entered a new stage in our family. Joking, teasing, making fun, pestering, challenging each other seems to be making the new normal. I'm SO glad I grew up with three brother, but still. I walked past the piano the other day while someone was practicing (I won't say who) and they were punctuating the last beat of each line of music with a well timed BURP! sigh...

Experimenting with sugar-free goodness!

Liza approves!

Liza looks so grown up in this picture!

This is what she does any time she finds a sticker. 

Yes, I realize I have more pictures of Liza on here than the other boys. That's just because she's our favorite child.

Celebrated Big Nana's birthday!

Another Christmas miracle happened this year when we went to look for a tree in our back woods. Amazingly, Owen spotted just the right type of tree, just the right size. How could that have happened? The Tree Fairy, obviously.

Christmas morning!

Christmas at Grandad and Nana's!

Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without a little backyard football at Nana's house (according to Uncle Jesse) no matter how cold it is outside!

Trampoline! Hey, when you have three boys anything that helps the boys exert energy, that's outside, AND has netted walls and soft floor? Um, yes!

Crazy hair!

Liza in her "tippy toes" as she calls them.

Praying before partaking in play-time dinner. :)

So, we spent the week between Christmas and New Year at home cycling through a stomach bug. We pretty much stayed home and did a whole bunch of nothing for seven days while we quarantined ourselves. It was actually kind of nice. Usually when we are all home we end up doing projects around the house, so this was a nice stay-cation. Minus the stomach virus part of course. Everyone ended up in Tar Heel blue one morning, so naturally we had to take a picture. 

Owen is so funny. He begs to do school every day and then about 15 minutes in, he says "Can I go play now?" :) He is slowly learning his letter sounds though, so that's exciting. 

After our morning reading and memory work time together, Owen and Liza go play together while I go over schoolwork with Blake and Seth. They've been doing so much better lately about playing nicely together. There is still at least one ultrasonic scream each day when some injustice has been done, but overall it's finally getting better. :)

Crazy hair!

Not sure what tragedy happened here.

Micah is currently in Moldova for the second time teaching alongside Mark. They are bringing the message of fathers being the spiritual leaders in their homes to many different churches and pastors. The Lord has really been using them to speak to the people there and it sounds like it's been very much appreciated.

Other updates...

Uncle Scott Shoemaker received a promotion to E5 last fall. He is doing a good job at his post in Japan and we get to talk over the computer once in a while. Funny story...we sent him a Christmas box and when I brought it to the post office the lady wanted me to give her a list of what was in the box. So I said "Cookies and gum". Well, when the box reached Scott in Japan the label on box read "Contents: cookies and gun"!! Not sure exactly how the box made it through his military base and to him without anyone calling him in for questioning, but he got his box safe and sound nonetheless. 

Funnies...

Liza was getting exasperated at her hair while she ate breakfast one day and said, "Mom, my face is in my hair!"   :)

On an especially cloudy day, Liza wandered in to the kitchen from her bed one morning and said, "Mom, we didn't turn on the sun!" 

Now here's a riddle for you. You are the mom pushing your kids to the car in the parking lot and your 4 yr old son says the following and you have to decipher what it was he actually meant: He says, "Mom, can I put my germs on the road?"  Any ideas?    I was totally lost for several seconds when it suddenly came to me, "You mean, can you spit in the parking lot?"   Owen- "Yes." :)

Liza was delighted that Micah was going to take her outside to the trampoline one day and she exclaims, "I'm going to go play with my big whole daddy!"

Overheard Owen and Liza playing make-believe in their room the other day... Owen- "I'm going to be Superman and fly over the bed" Liza replies, "I'm going to be cute."      Where does she come up with these things?!

Hope you all are doing well. We are staying busy with school, acting classes for Blake and Seth, helping out at church, etc. etc.. Thankful to look forward to all that God has in store for us to do this year and praying that our hearts would remain obedient to follow though with all He puts in our hearts to do. 

Love to you all, 

Kari

July 4th - Oct. 13th, 2017

Hello All! 

It's hard to believe I have not done a blog update since July! Not sure where the summer went, but it's long gone and here we are smack-dab in fall already. :)

Here's a little of what we've been up to...

I found Liza had put her PJs in my drawer the other day. So cute!

Micah took an 8-day trip to the country of Moldova in July! It went really well and it was a big blessing for him to be there especially as part of a father/son team. Many of the young people of Moldova end up leaving the country in search of better jobs, so it meant a lot for the people there to see a father and son serving together and both following the Lord. 

Blake and Seth's baseball team ended the season with a bang in July. They got to run onto the field alongside the players of a minor league baseball game here in town! They stood there during the national anthem and then came back. They were walking on air after that! 

At the airport waiting for Daddy's return from Moldova!

So adorable!

Liza made sure he had lots of rest and food as soon as he returned. She's feeding Micah her plastic food and she brought him all her dolls. :)

Our lovely garden was yet again an (almost) complete loss due to the very healthy population of deer around here. :-P However, the tomato plants did survive. Apparently, the  deer don't like the actual plants, but will eat the tomatoes off the plants. Next year...  :) Liza is standing in our "tomato tunnel" here. 

Blake and Seth began taking theatre classes this fall with Alamance Fine Arts Academy here in town. Micah and I have been helping the studio get off the ground by assisting with marketing and social media campaigns over the summer. It's been so fun to have a part in helping it get going!

We are sad to say that we had to bid goodbye to our sweet Blue Belle this summer. She developed some sort of arthritis and was rather miserable, so we said goodbye and had a proper burial in the backyard. :(

We had a visit from Uncle Jonathan in September! The boys are always super excited when Bro comes because fire and strange science experiments are almost always involved. 

Micah sporting a shirt of chainmail made by hand by Jonathan! 

Owen lost his first tooth the other day. He's only 4 1/2, so a little early for losing teeth. I guess he just wants to catch up with the boys. 

Speaking of catching up with the boys, Owen begged me to start school this semester, so he has starting doing Kindergarten with me a few days a week. 

Really big stuff! 

Sweet-Ums! Liza is 2 and a half now, is Mrs. Independent, and is talking up a storm. She is a full-steam-ahead kind of kid and is definitely our loudest child! She screams when she's excited, screams when she's mad, and screams when she's happy. Our little skreecher!

Nightly routine. We have really enjoyed the Jesus Storybook Bible over the years and recently finished our fourth trip through the stories. The way it's written is inspiring and I love that each story points to the awesome miracle of Christ's redemptive work on the cross.

Micah finished his term as president of our local Rotary Club this July. He enjoyed the opportunity to serve, but is also relieved to have a little more breathing room in his weekly schedule.

The kids and I got to join Micah at a convention in Myrtle Beach this September. The kids always get psyched about getting to sleep in a hotel room. It's amazing how much fun they have playing hide-and-seek in such a small room. 

Visiting Broadway at the Beach!

See the red dot on the plant? It's Owen's hermit crab with a Spiderman shell. Each of the boys bought one while at the beach this summer and they've been living in our plant pot ever since. They are exceptional climbers and for the most part have stayed in the pot. There was one early morning when Micah walked into the kitchen to found Spiderman making his way across the vast expanse of our kitchen floor in an attempt to escape. :P

Me and Lizy at Iseley Farms

Owen has graduated to a Big Boy Bed and boy is he proud of himself. He's almost as proud about his bed as Liza is thrilled to have a roommate! 

We got to visit a local Revolutionary War reenactment site this week and got to see many different exhibits showing how people lived and worked in the 1770's. So fascinating. Those people spent 99% of their waking hours just doing what it took to survive. No social media distractions or extra curricular activities needed back then to help keep them busy!

Owen swabbing the canon! 

Funnies...

Well, I've been saving up a few Funnies the last few months for your enjoyment, so here they are:

Liza -"Will you diaper change me?" You know you should already be potty trained when your child is able to articulate a complete sentence like that. 

"What time is it, Owen?" He looks at the hour hand and the minute hand both pointing to 12 and says "It's nothing o'clock". 

Seth, during a movie "Liza, do you want to sit on my lap?" Liza - "No, I want to sit on my OWN lap!" She pronounces it "yap"   :)

Owen, "Hey Mom, I like the part when the really big octopus gets that boat on the movie called 20 Leaves Under the Sea."

We joke with Liza once in a while, "Liza, do you need a little spanking?" the other day she smiled really big and marches off saying, "No, I will spank myself!"

On the drive home....Owen- "Mom, look! There's a boy deer out the window! It's a buff!"   =)

Other News...

We are back into the swing of school now.  The boys love their acting/theatre classes and are having fun getting to practice their monologues on us during the week. It's getting Seth outside of his comfort zone and giving both of them increased confidence in public speaking. 

The church leaders in Moldova that Micah and Mark met with in July want them to come back again and speak to a larger group of church leaders about fathers being loving leaders of their homes. So it looks like Micah will get to return there this coming January for another week long trip!

We spoke with Scott the other day and he has returned safely to Okinawa, Japan after his four month deployment at sea. He says he loves the Asian culture and is enjoying his current job. I think he has another year left in his current enlistment, but is praying about whether to reenlist for a few more years. We are very proud of him!

Hope you all are doing well! 

Kari & All