Happy First Birthday, Karis Joy!

Karis Joy made her entrance just after Christmas last year and she has truly brought us a year full of grace and joy.  

This girl wakes up smiling.  She fake laughs when she hears other people laughing.  And she was saying "hi" to anyone who would respond back at 9 months old.   

The kids are just as into her now as they were that first day and they love her to pieces.

She says "Ee-ah" whenever she wants to get Leah's attention.  She and her big sister have a special bond and it is so fun to see Leah be so nurturing (and obsessed with Karis' cuteness).  

She calls John "DA!" and has been known to return his rough hugs with a whack to the face.  She loves him, but can hold her own.  =)

  

She has not attempted to speak Noelle's name yet (too hard), but when Karis looks at her, she is anticipating a good laugh.  Noelle will throw her body around to get a giggle out of Karis on a daily basis.

Sometimes when I ask her to say "mama" she says "dada" instead and starts looking around for him. She will just say "hi" to him as he is walking across the room.  I think she is smitten.  

And words can't describe how much I love having her in my life.  I am so grateful to God for the gift of Karis Joy.

We are so happy that she is in our family!

We dedicated her in April and both sides of the family were there.  

What a spiritual heritage Karis has!

My parents, brother, and sis-in-law came up for her birthday and we celebrated with a simple dinner out (wearing Grandy's new outfit.)

 Here's to a great first year...and many more.  

We love you, Karis Joy!

John's 7th Birthday!

We broke from tradition and had a Lego themed birthday party for John this year.  He's really been getting into building all kinds of things so we thought it would be fun.

We rented a tub of Legos from a family with 3 boys and John and his friends got to work!

Even Karis wanted in on a piece of it...

Then we had a tower building contest with wooden blocks...

And we paused for some cake.  John wanted to decorate it with a Lego creation:

And I wanted to try my hand at Lego shaped cake:

And Grandy and Papa Len came for all the festivities.  (Thanks to them for the use of their church's awesome play room and yard area.)

Unsurprisingly, the boys couldn't handle too much more inside time, so they headed out for a game of soccer.  Hence our shirtless wonder:

Thanks to all his great friends for the wonderful gifts, many of which added to his otherwise paltry Lego collection.

We love this kid:  part baller, part space cadet, part softie, part goofball, part thoughtful one, and total blessing!

May you continue to grow in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and men!  (Luke 2:52)

We love you, John!

In the middle of August we celebrated Leah's 9th(!) birthday.  

After a few ideas, we went with Leah's latest favorite thing:  Soul Surfer.  

She really admires Bethany Hamilton and has seen the movie and read the book based on her testimony of overcoming a shark attack to become a professional surfer.  She's also been learning to surf, so this was the perfect theme.  

We had all her friends dress up as surfer girls:

And after they got to know each other a bit, they cuddled up on our wonderful host's couch (a sweet, hospitable family who has a wonderful space and a big, cozy L shaped couch perfect for movie-watching) to view the show.  (Forgot to take a picture of that.)

We decided to have a gourmet popcorn bar with toppings such as chocolate chips, chocolate covered blueberries, dried cranberries, cinnamon/sugar almonds, and sweet coconut chips.  And Grandy provided some great beachy decorations.  

I saved myself some time and ordered gluten-free chocolate cupcakes from our local Crush Cakes cupcakery.  The girls decorated them with "Hawaiian" flowers from the yard.

We also did a fun craft of creating an ocean in a bottle to round out the evening.

 

 As I continue to observe Leah grow and mature, I am just in awe of what a gift she is to our family.  

We love her so much and look forward to knowing her more as the years go by.

Happy Birthday, Sweet Leah!

Noelle Turns Four!

On April 27th, our funny and fiesty Noelle turned 4 years old!

We had an "Orange you glad Noelle is turning 4?" party at a local school playground and encouraged all her sweet little friends to dress in orange to celebrate.

There were orange snacks,

Carrot cupcakes with orange zest cream cheese frosting and clementine wedges on top

(that kind of remind me of Mister Bill)

And even Poppa Len got into the Orange Spirit...

Grannie Stannie, Papa Billy, Uncle Jeff and Aunt Ebony drove up for the occasion

and Luke was the Master of Activities, including setting up the high jump and soccer goals.

And a shout out to Grandy for providing big orange balls, orange cupcake wrappers, and an orange outfit for Karis!

Our family is SO BLESSED... 

to have our sweet and spunky Noelle!

"Mom, my size might be little, but I'm big."

-Noelle, age 3

Happy Birthday, Big Girl!

WE LOVE YOU!!!

Karis' 3 month update

Hey, folks!  Karis here.  Thought I'd fill you in on life while Mom is napping.  

(She always seems tired.  I don't get it.  It's not like she's growing an inch a week like yours truly.  She's a light weight, but I love her.)

So these are the Big Little People that live here.  They really seem to like me.

Leah likes to hold me a lot.

I'm mostly okay with it.

John and Noelle are a little rough around the edges, but I still feel the love. 

(So does Monkey Chi Chi, especially when Noelle is nursing him.)

They like to pick out my outfits.

And they always make sure that I have friends around.

Some people wonder what four kids like us must do together.  

Well, we're big cuddlers.

And we love to sit with mom and read together.

(Unfortunately, I can rarely make it through a whole book without falling asleep...)

They are silly kids!  And I have to admit that they're growing on me....

Oh and this is my dad!

Sometimes we just kick it together.

But mostly we have this in common...

And this is my mama!  

She is SO into me.

We do a lot of "cheek to cheek" bonding...

And when I give her a little of this...

Or a little of this...

Or even some of this...

She seriously can't resist me!

While I'm here I should probably share a couple of updates...

Our cousin/friends Joseph and Elena came to visit!

They had a slumber party in the kids' room.

Oh!  And Leah got some hardware recently - 

braces and metals for performing well on her state testing at school!

I should probably wrap this up.  I can see that you are getting very sleepy.

And...I'm out.