This picture was taken while Adam & the kids were hiking…I was on a Women’s Retreat! (Not sure why Jonah's eyebrows look white??)

What a beautiful day we have been blessed with today! Crisp, cool fall air with just enough sunshine to bring a smile to your face….as opposed to the scorching, face frying heat we endured this summer! I think there were some days this summer that I truly thought that the heat would never end, that somehow we were going to be in a permanent state of summer until the end of time. But once again, the Lord has reminded me that “this too shall pass”…and how much sweeter is a day like this, knowing where we’ve come from.



I have been an absent blogger. I am not going to apologize or explain why. I am moving on with all my guilt and lack of documenting my family’s adventures and daily encounters. Although, a brand new computer (thank you to Tootsie and Reebert!) has definitely helped spur on a new excitement with technology. My old computer took about 4 hours to download a picture….no kidding. It was drudgery trying to blog on it, so now I’m in blog heaven!



I want to just use this as a starting point and hopefully begin blogging more regularly. We have had a few “new beginnings” recently (hence the blog title), that I will hopefully get to expound on soon, but to name a few: Started homeschooling this year (loving it!!!), Helped organize and start up the new FCA Homeschool Co-op (absolutely love it!!!), Jonah started piano lessons, Caleb started to read, Hannah started saying she’s the “princess of the world” (which is a whole other blog post ). She is also starting her new beginning as a 3 year old on her birthday tomorrow! I am so thankful for new beginnings and days that remind me why I love being alive and able to serve our King.



Oh, and by the way….we had another new beginning in our family. Collin & Amy (Adam’s brother and wife) had their first baby 2 days ago. I would put a picture of the new little one, but I don’t have one yet….and I don’t even have a name yet, because they are still in deliberation. So….that is yet to come. We are so thankful for this new little blessing and I am so jealous that my husband got to meet her in Los Angeles yesterday. I’m sure my time will come :)



So, I’m off to make a “Tangled” cake for Hannah’s party tomorrow. I was supposed to start it a couple of hours ago, but procrastination took over and blogging sounded more fun at the time!



It's Potty-training time

Well, since we're stuck in the house for 4 days with this Arctic Blast...it's a great time to potty-train. It wasn't really my idea - Hannah just decided and started doing it herself a couple of days ago. She's so proud to wear her little panties and we've only had a few accidents in the last couple of days and we had our first #2 victory today! I'm sure you all want to know all of these details! These are her cute little Hannah panties (that are actually a diaper cover) but they have transitioned to panties. She's so proud and I am so happy to have a little relief in the diaper area!

Welcoming Baby Maddie

It's a little late...but better late than never. My niece, Madison, was born in November. This is my brother (Mike) and sister-in-law's (Crystal) baby. She is just a precious bundle of joy! The picture above is Maddie with Myka (her older sister).
All of the kids loved getting to meet and hold Maddie for the first time. Jonah is more experienced with this sort of thing and he kept wanting to come back for more.

Caleb loved getting to hold Maddie too. He had shorter bursts of interest, but you can see the pure bliss on his face getting to hold her.

Now Hannah was in love! I think she thought baby Maddie was her little baby doll. Baby "mannie" was all she talked about for a couple of weeks. Every baby doll was named Maddie. She even laid in my lap and acted like Maddie.

Fun Times!

Slowly, but surely, I'm playing catch-up on some of the fun pictures of the last 5 months. We're actually snowed in right now - with a wind chill of 5 below zero so I have some time to download. Caleb put on Hannah's dress-up clothes and Tangle hair and he was pretending to be a fairy. That kid just keeps me rolling :)
We had 2 sets of costumes to wear this fall. This is the set we wore to Lightfest. Tinkerbell, Darth Vader and Indiana Jones. Jonah has his serious Darth Vader look.

This was another set of costumes we wore to a Harvest Party at my friend Brooke's house. Dallas Cowboy, Lion and Darth Vader again!

Nerd Day at school...I know, I know...I didn't have to go to far to dress up like a nerd. We had a blast that day. I even had a fanny pack and my National Honor Society sweater on (actual sweater I received in high school). Don't you love Jonah's bow-tie?? Hannah wore her hair all day long at school-pretty impressive! I think Caleb just thought he was going to go swimming at school. Fun Day.

For our Harvest Party at school, Jonah dressed up like the much-needed FCA Maintenance Man, complete with plunger and big belly.

One Day at a Time

Okay, I'm back again...I think. The boys were scrolling through my blog today, having the best time looking at pictures. I was inspired to start blogging again. I love to blog, it just takes time. My main excuse lately has been the fact that I'm so far behind on my blogging. I'm kind of an all or nothing kind of girl. Either I want to be fully caught up or not at all...I think that's also called OCD! :) Well, I'm letting go and starting back, and going with the flow. If I get caught up on all of the other pictures one day, then great. But in the meantime, I dont' want to miss out on everything else. So, here goes...

The kids all got feety pajamas for Christmas. Jonah had even been begging me for some feety pajamas! Here they are all comfy cozy in their pj's!

Just a cute pic of Hannah and Daddy :)

Hannah has become a LOT more mischievous since the last time I blogged. This is not washable marker by the way. She had streaks on her face for a few days. The funny thing was that she was sitting right beside me, andI had just looked over at her about 30 seconds before that and she was just happily coloring on the paper! In that amount of time she had colored her face, all of her clothes and the floor in front of her. When I looked over at her, she said "Mommy look pretty makeup!"

We had a really great snow a couple of weeks ago! On our snow day the kids (dad included in that statement) made a snow fort. The snow was really too powdery to make much of anything, so Adam built a structure underneath to support the snow and they packed it on. You could go inside and everything! I think Adam spent a while after they went to bed to finish it...what a kid at heart.

Crawling into the snow fort.

Hannah loving the snow!

Caleb taking a ride on his "snow mobile"

As soon as the kids walked out the door they immediately all layed on the ground to make a snow angel!

We were shopping with my mom on her birthday, and Hannah put on these sunglasses. Immediately when she got the sunglasses on she started breakin' down in a dance. I love this kid.

Havin' fun! The boys were at basketball practice, we're havin' a little shoppin' fun for my mom's birthday.

Jonah and Caleb are playing Upward basketball for the first time this year. Adam is the coach of both teams. It has been a great experience for both of them. It's amazing to watch how quickly kids improve from game to game. Jonah is so enthusiastic and has such a positive attitude out there on the court. He's been making baskets in the games, and he plays defense with all of his heart.

Caleb is loving basketball too. He is interesting to watch...to say the least. From growling when he's on defense, to swinging around the basketball goal just for the fun of it and crying when he doesn't make a basket - he keeps me on pins and needles of what's going to happen next. I think I hold my breath the whole game, and finally release when that buzzer goes off. I really have to get a video, because I know one day I will love watching it. I was at a restaurant the other day and a grandmother of one of his teammates came up to our table and said, "I just have to tell you that I love watching your little redhead play basketball, he keeps us entertained!" The scorekeeper was even telling someone that he can't concentrate because he can't stop watching the little redhead. So, just so you know...whether I wanted it or not I have a famous redhead!

Moments to Remember

Caleb is at a fun age right now...here are some fun conversations we had yesterday:

Caleb walked into the bathroom last night and randomly started this conversation:
Caleb: (with a very cute and slightly manipulative grin)Mom, you're so pretty and nice
Mom: Awwww...thanks Caleb. You made my heart melt.
Caleb: (with a disturbed look) Why is your heart melting?
Mom: Oh...that just means that you made my heart very happy...You are very handsome and nice too.
Caleb: Oh Mom...you made my heart freeze!



In the bathtub...
Caleb: Mom, I have bones in my body! Wanna feel 'em?
Mom: I know Caleb, we all have bones in our body.
Caleb: How do I get 'em out?
Mom: You don't want to get 'em out, then you'd just be a pile of skin on the floor (kind of gross I know)
Caleb: Cool, then people could pick me up and wear me as a costume!

Happy 4th Caleb!!!

Caleb's 4th Birthday Cake---gotta be Toy Story!!!
Gus got so excited he almost blew out the candles for Caleb!

Blow sweet Caleb!!!

Caleb, Ethan and Camron--buddies from school came to celebrate Caleb's birthday

Caleb was so excited about his Toy Story Legos from Jonah. Jonah picked these out just for him. He kept the secret from him for 2 weeks, and almost gave them to him the night before, because he couldn't stand it!

Caleb finally got his "soft Woody". Every night before bed he would say " I wanna tell you sumpin...I want a soft Woody with a pull string and a hat that you can take off and brush Woody's hair and when you pull his pull string he says "I gotta snake in my boot"! He's said this every night for about 2 months, so we were glad to finally fulfill this request!

Eating "Pizza Planet" Pizza with his buddies and big brother

Hannah enjoying her pizza

All the boys hangin' out with Zurg. It's hard to see him in the middle. He came to try and stop the birthday party!!

Enjoying watching "Don't Wake Zurg"
They played a game called "Don't Wake Zurg" where the kids tried to steal the Alien back from Zurg, without waking him. Caleb barely made it away from Zurg...Phew!

Watch out Camron...Don't Wake Zurg!

Here's a better view of Zurg...a bucket painted black made a good sound effect for Zurg. Anytime Adam can spray paint something---He's on it!

Having a blast---my big four year old.

Everyone had a great time at the party!!

Caleb--happy birthday sweet boy. I'm so proud of the little man you've become. You amaze me with your very precise articulation of words, you are so careful to get it right the first time. I love your passion, even though sometimes that fiery red-head passion can get the best of you. You have a smile that can just melt anyone's heart. And when you wake up in the morning you always have such a sweet voice "Mornin' Mom". It's my favorite sound first thing in the morning. I love how you just randomly tell me that you love me with such a tender authenticity.
I love when you are into something, you are into it with your whole heart. You have a natural magnetism, even spiders and bugs are drawn to you. I can honestly say, there's none like you. I love you Caleb.