More of Aidan's Artwork

Not sure exactly what the rectangular growth on the rabbit's back is, but c'mon, that's a pretty good rabbit for a 3 1/2 year old, eh? Seriously, this kid is pretty good. His fine motor skills are really taking off. He gets so detailed in his coloring lately, and can write letters almost as well as Caleb. It's fun to see his artistic bent, but it is going to be a challenge to his un-artistic parents to nurture it!

So proud of our biggest little man...

Caleb, we had your first real parent-teacher conference last week. Mommy was SO excited, even if it meant sitting in those little bitty chairs... Daddy and I got to hear your teacher go on and on about how well you are doing in school.

We are so proud of you Caleb. Proud of the way your mind works to figure things out. Proud of your creative imagination. Proud of how determined you are and how hard you work. Proud that you are so enthusiastic about learning. Proud that you are responsible. Proud that you are respectful and kind to others. We could go on and on, because you are an amazing kid.

Most of all though, we are so extremely proud of your heart. A heart that loves the Lord. A heart that desires to know more and more about Him. A heart that trusts Him. A heart that is excited to tell others about Him. A heart that is often insightful beyond its years. We pray that this heart of yours will only love Christ more and more deeply each day of your life, for we know He has such incredible plans for you.

We are so thankful that God chose YOU to be part of our family.

More Cute Halloween Pix

Halloween Festivities Part One

We had another incredibly fun year celebrating with the kids. We started on Thursday night, dressing up for some activities at Aidan's preschool, and then trick-or-treating at the High School. Friday was Caleb's Halloween Parade and party, which I got to help out with. Friday night we carved our pumpkin and ate some pumpkin bread. Aunt Robin and Uncle Will arrived about then also, to spend the weekend with us. Bonus! Saturday we headed to the church for Trunk-or-Treat, and then trick-or-treated up and down our idyllic street. So much fun. So much candy. All done and exhausted by about 7PM. Not bad at all.

Caleb's Halloween Parade and Party at School

God delighting the heart of a little boy...

When we went to Tanner's last week, we had been planning to pick apples. Aidan had been asking to do that for a very long time, and was more excited about that than almost anything else. However, we were not anticipating just how expensive everything was going to be that day! Especially since the twins, at 2, now have to pay admission costs for things as well. We made a quick decision to just do pumpkins, since not doing that would leave the greatest amount of upset little boys. Needless to say, Aidan was very disappointed. He even said later on in the week after he'd placed a found penny in his piggy bank, "now do I have enough money to go apple picking?"

Wouldn't you know though, God had a plan. On Monday we got a call from a neighbor who asked if we could use any apples, because her tree had produced way more than she could use. So, Daddy and one very excited little guy trekked across the street to pick some apples.
I love how He encourages even the youngest of hearts.

Tanner's

There is a very fun Pumpkin Patch/Farm about 45 minutes from here that we have been to every year. We decided this year to go on Columbus Day, since Caleb had the day off. Despite the very cold weather, we still had a very fun time, minus a few meltdowns as we kept them all up way past naptime and didn't eat lunch until pretty late.

Caleb's First School Field Trip

Last week, I had the privilege of going with Caleb's Kindergarten class to their field trip to "Dexter's Mini-Farm". To cut down the costs of their excursions this year, one of the teachers volunteered her farm, and many adults did a lot of prep work to make the day fantastic. The kids got to ride a horse, ride on a barrel train, gather eggs from a henhouse, feed goats, pet rabbits, taste and see many many fruits and vegetables, and pick a pumpkin. We had a nice lunch there, and never lacked for something to do. And, there were so many adult volunteers there, that I only had Caleb and one other girl in my group. We had such a great time!















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It's Daddy!

The boys and I were reading a book a few nights ago, and they couldn't get over this picture. "It's Daddy!", they all excited exclaimed. I'll admit, the similarities are a little uncanny. :)

"My dad is preaching."

"I love my guinea pig"

Lately, Caleb has loved writing "sentences" and trying his hand at inventive spelling.

Recently, Weston preached at 'big church', and Caleb got to come to service with me to experience it. I brought a notebook to help keep him busy, and this is the first thing he wrote. (He did ask me how to spell some words, but the thoughts were entirely his own.)

"My dad is preaching. God's word is bery powerful."

How incredibly sweet is that?

Jack and Annie

When Caleb turned 4, we decided that one of his new 'privileges' would be staying up a little bit later and having mommy and daddy read a chapter book aloud to him. It also gives us some dedicated time to work a little on sight words and phonics. We weren't sure just how well he would listen, but we shouldn't ever have underestimated our auditory learner. He LOVES listening to his chapter books, and we quickly discovered he especially loves the Magic Tree House series. We've checked out the audio versions from the library also and he just loves to have his 'rest time' listening to these. And comprehension? It's there. He's taken several quizzes on the "Book Adventure" website, and he has excelled He even remembers details of books he's went through months ago. This boy of ours with the big imagination loves Jack and Annie's time travelling adventures. He even comments to me, at least once a week, "Mom, I wish Jack and Annie were real." He loves to carry a notebook around like Jack and 'take notes', which has been great for his writing/spelling skills. Very fun.

I took him to his school book fair a few weeks ago, and even over all the glossy attractive Star Wars books, he went right for a Magic Tree House one. The school librarian greeted us as we checked out, and he showed her his selection and she knew right who he was. "You must be the boy in Mrs. Seibert's class. Mrs. Seibert had to come and ask me who Jack and Annie were because she couldn't place them, and you apparently talk about them often."