A beautiful day in September

A warm sunny day in September we headed to go hiking at the park! The kids love to hike and we just don't do it enough. Isabel and Nolan love to play in the water, find bugs, and explore. Brad and I love being outside and Silas does not mind traveling on our backs! This is one of our favorite family outings. Thank you God for the beautiful outdoors!

My first Joe Joe

Silas was so excited to be eating a Joe Joe all by himself. Otherwise known as an Oreo, but at our house we buy the Oreo type cookie at Trader Joe's. They are much better tasting and of course better ingredients! If you live at our house, no hydrogenated oils or high fructose corn syrup! He is growing up, 17 months old! Walking and running into EVERYTHING! I am surprised he has not had a concussion, many bumps and bruises! He is adorable, but ornery too. He has figured out that it is cute to blow kisses, so much that when we say, "No Silas!", he starts blowing us kisses. The other day, he started blowing me kisses when he was doing something he knew he shouldn't before I even said NO! He may not talk, but he is a smart little cookie! (:

Isabel being baptized

We are told by the world that we should be most proud of our kids when they get good grades, get into the gifted and talented program at school, graduate with honors, go to a good college, pick a good career, get married, and have children. BUT, I can not think of anything that makes Brad and I more proud than to know that our daughter has chosen to follow Christ and help to further His kingdom. Is there anything else in this life that matters? (: All to say, the children's Pastor at our church, along with Brad, baptized Isabel tonight and she was so excited! We are so excited to know that she wants to follow Christ! She knows that it doesn't mean life will be any easier or that bad things won't happen, but that through it all God will be with her and help her through all things. It amazes me that at 8 years old, she gets it! We are so thankful that God chose us to parent amazing, dramatic, talented girl! I pray we can continue to parent her the way that God wants us to and that we can guide her well.

My time with Isabel

Night around our house at night is crazy and we only have one kid who has homework. Also, the only extra curricular activity is piano lessons. I don't know how families do it...kids in several sports, helping each kid with homework, and spending quality family time together. How does it work for each family?

Anyway, tonight I got to spend time with Isabel doing homework. I usually dread it, but tonight it was nice. I really enjoyed her and the time I got to spend with her. It was so cute. She had to write a story about pirates and a treasure. She reminds me of myself. I remember writing stories just like her. I am a horrible speller and it seems as if she has learned from me. Wish I could teach her how to spell, but i can not spell some of her spelling words! I wanted to post her little story so we can remember it forever! I will remember tonight with her forever! I love you Isabel...Here is your Treasure Story:

Once upon a time there were three mighty fine pirates. They were Emily, Logan, and myself. We had a treasure, but we couldn't find a place to bury it. Therefore, we're going to the houseland. A housland is an island that is one big neighborhood. Next we have to get permission to bury our treasure there, but we had to go past Mean Island first. We were thankful we had cannons to protect us. As we passed Mean Island they shot us. I said, "Shoot back!" We shot once and hurried past the island. Other than that things were fine. Later.......Emily and Logan said, "We are here." Captain Isabel said, "OK, lower the anchor." Then, we heard a voice. It said, "Who are you?" We turned around and saw a girl. She told us her name was Ally. She wanted to help us. We asked her if she knew of a place that we could bury our treasure. She said yes. She also said we could bury our treasure in her backyard. We went to her house We dug and dug in her backyard. We burried the treasure there, then we set off. We got home safely. We had happy dreams! THE END! Isabel Wolfe age 8

These are the days.....I love spending time with our kids! Isabel age 8, Nolan age 5, Silas 17 months

Lennon is 7...yes, 7 years old!

The family all got together at the park to celebrate Lennon's birthday! I am pretty sure his favorite gift was his new Nintendo from his mom and dad! What a cool mom and dad!

Enjoying a smoothie.......

Silas loves drinking from a straw and sat patiently on the stool while I made Nolan a smoothie. Then it occurred to me, I bet Silas would love a smoothie too! What do you think?

1st day of school

Hard to believe how time flies! I always heard, the older you get, time goes faster! It is so true. I still feel like I am 20, but my kids say different! I may always look at myself as a 20 something year old! It is so hard for me to believe that Isabel is in 3rd grade and has grown up so much! I still feel like she should be that little 2 or 3 year old with tons of questions and she thought she could take on the world! Oh wait, she still has tons of questions and thinks she can take on the world! She is amazing! She may be dramatic and hate when things don't go her way, but she will be one strong woman someday! God has blessed her with many amazing talents. I still listen to her sing and I am amazed (she has been singing so beautifully since she was 18 months old...truly amazes me!). Now, she is in 3rd grade, getting ready to learn cursive and multiplication! I worried about her dislike for reading just 2 short years ago and now she reads books I would have never thought she would read! She loves mystery and figuring out the unknown!

My baby boy is now in Kindergarten. He cracks me up! I would say that he is pretty indifferent about Kindergarten. He likes it, but also is enjoying his mornings at home with Silas and me. I think he could take it or leave. Like Isabel, I think he would miss his friends if he did not go at all. His teacher is Miss Gray and she teaches morning K at an Elementary school across town and then she travels to our school for the afternoon. A funny story about his first few days, we kept asking him about his new friends and who he was playing with....so, he told us he had a new friend and so matter a fact, that his friend has Down Syndrome. I thought this was weird because on the meet the teacher day with the kids, I don't remember any of the children having down syndrome, but he was SURE he had DS. I asked him how he knew and he would squint his eyes and say because he looks like this. So, after several days of asking him about it and saying, "Are you SURE he has Down Syndrome?", he said, "Why don't you ask Miss Gray", so the next day I asked. Miss Gray had a good laugh and said, "No, we do not have any students with Down Syndrome." Long story short, Nolan's new friend has a "lazy eye" and not Down Syndrome! He was so sure, but the fun thing to me is that even know he knew there was something different about his new friend, he did not care and enjoys playing with him every day!