Trip to Portland

Last month we took a family vacation to Portland, OR on the weekend when Andy had class. The kids were able to go back to Western Seminary's campus and see where we use to live and visit some old friends on campus. The picture below was taken about 20 minutes before Joey fell into the pond on campus. Luckily it wasn't very deep and his head was above the water and Andy snatched him up pretty quickly. We were all given a bit of an adrenaline rush though!

Hope and Josiah were REALLY excited to go to the zoo (even though it was rainy and cold)...so we bundled up and explored for a couple of hours. It was actually a perfect day and we had SO much fun. It wasn't crowded at all (go figure) and the animals were out and active.

While we were in Portland we got to visit and stay with our friends, Ray and Marietta Roy. When Ray started a fire in the fireplace Hope sheepishly asked, "Are we going to roast marshmallows?" Ray and Marietta were so incredibly sweet and immediately went through the cupboards and found the ingredients needed and the kids roasted marshmallows in the fire place and made s'mores!

The Roy's with the kids

We also had the great chance to visit with our dear friends the Thomas' down in Corvallis, Oregon. (Thank you again for hosting us even though you had only been in your house 2 weeks, and for being so brave to have 6 kids running around your house!) We had so much fun catching up and the kids all had fun playing together. In the picture below is Colton, Austin, Eliana, Hope and Livia (Joey didn't want to be in the picture).

Thankful

We have so much to be thankful for! I may be a week late making a Thanksgiving post on the blog, but as a family we are trying to have a mindset of Thanksgiving all year long.

Here is a picture of our sunrise this morning:

This sunrise reminded us of God's faithfulness. God is faithful in giving us a sunrise every morning. This sunrise also reminds us of our church body, Sunrise Baptist Church, which is made up of people who are faithful to doing God's work. We have been so blessed by the people in our church, in their encouragements, their love, their gifts, and their dedication to teaching our children. We are so thankful for our church and where God has us now.

Psalm 36:5 puts words to the picture above: "Your love, O LORD, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies."

I think they look like sisters...

The Girls...

Hope at 12 months old

Livia at 10 months old

Climbing Trees

Last week Joey climbed his first tree! Such a great accomplishment for any little boy. I was inside feeding Livia when I looked out the window and saw Joey sizing up the tree. When he ran away from the tree at frist I thought, "Phew, he's not going to try and climb it"...then I noticed he was baaacccckkk with his little tricycle. He put the bike at the base of the tree, stood on top of it and climbed up into the tree. I quickly ran outside with the camera, to be close by in case he fell, but more importantly to get pictures of my boy's first tree climb! He was so proud of himself!

Livia

Here is Livia showing off what she can say and do...

Livia is 9 months

Livia turned 9 months old last week! Wow, how time is flying. She continues to be such a good baby and always joyful. When I go and get her out of her crib she smiles big and says, "Iiiii." I'm pretty sure she's saying, "Hi". She says "dada" and "mama" and is waving goodbye. She is also scooting on her bum all over the place, she's not interested at all in crawling. The other night she got into the kitchen, opened a drawer and pulled out some plastic bags. She is definitely on the move and ready to explore, such a fun stage!

Silly Subtraction

I was in the bathroom with Josiah this morning and this is the conversation we had:

JOEY: I will go down the drain and then you will only have two kids.
ME: I would miss you.
JOEY: Then if Livia goes down the drain you will only have one kid.
ME: Uh huh.
JOEY: If Hope goes down the drain then there would be no kids.

I guess we can assume he has learned how to subtract.