Pumpkin Time

On Sunday, Caleb, Joshua and I spent some time in the afternoon carving pumpkins. They both still needed help this year, although Caleb again tried to do most of his on his own. I roasted the pumpkin seeds later on and they seem to enjoy eating them.
On Monday, Joshua and I made "Chocolate Spiders". Joshua cleaned up the chocolate from the wooden spoon after we were all done. Joshua said after he had sampled them after supper, "They're actually better than I thought the would be." They are good!
Joshua needed to bring Halloween baking for his party at school tomorrow. So we spent this afternoon baking cookies. I had picked up a pumpkin cookie cutter and a leaf cookie cutter at the dollar store and used the recipe we usually use for our Christmas cookie cut-outs...should be yummy!
Natalee on or around October 23rd.
And here's a good picture of THE TWO TEETH.

Christmas Pic 2007

Here is a preview of our Christmas 2007 family picture. Wow, a family of SIX! Thanks to our good friend Jocelyn Blake for taking time out of her evening to help us out with this. These are some fun ones from this evening.

Caleb wanted a picture of just him and Natalee. Every once in a while, he argues with us that he's going to marry Natalee when he grows up. Is this a common thing among young children, brothers wanting to marry their sisters? His reason: she's just so cute!
Jocelyn gave us this idea to "pile" the kids one on top of the other. It was fun! Mike had to hold Natalee on top.
The sun has set, it's getting dark, and we tried one more picture of just the kids.

Here we are, the young gorgeous couple who made all those beautiful children! haha! Thanks again, Jocelyn, for insisting on taking this picture of just the two of us. We had fun.

Growing Children

Life has been busy. I can't believe that Thanksgiving has past and we're already almost through October. The boys are excitedly counting down the days until Halloween. I'm starting to plan Christmas baking and getting ready to do some sewing - Natalee's Christmas stocking as well as a Christmas tree skirt. We've also started our Christmas shopping! Here's a few pictures from the last couple of weeks.
Natalee now has two teeth.
Natalee getting ready for a bath.
Andrew...what can I say? Tigger meets Mickey the Mouse Firefighter. I don't know what he'll be for Halloween. I don't think he cares too much!
Natalee after a bath. Trying to get rid of her nasty diaper rash by spending more time naked on the floor. She quite enjoys it!
Here are the Halloween costumes for 2007 - Joshua the football player and Caleb the Musketeer. I'm so glad Caleb can wear the boots again (from last years' pirate costume). They are really cool and I got such a great deal on them.

Thanksgiving

I guess it's pretty obvious what I'm thankful for this Thanksgiving. In case you don't already know, left to right in this picture are Joshua, Natalee, Andrew, and Caleb.

Maybe instead I could imagine what each child is thankful for this year. Caleb has already told me that he is thankful for his family. He is also thankful for school and his friends, riding bike, learning to whistle, Casting Crowns music, his John Deere tractors, his new Bible, and "everything." I'm thankful that he is so fiercely loving towards his siblings.

Joshua is thankful for all the energy he has, that Jesus made the world, his brothers and sister, for having fun in Kindergarten, that he can be crazy and silly and laugh really hard, and that he can draw and colour. I'm thankful that he's a unique, fun boy, even when he's getting into trouble.

Andrew is probably thankful for his thumb that he sucks so much, parents that carry him, learning to talk, a baby sister who's smaller than him, big brother's who sometimes help him and play with him, food, his puppy, and his bed. I'm thankful that Andrew is surviving the toddler years without any major incidences.

Natalee is thankful for her family. She's thankful for her house and warm beds (yes, she has two beds), her baby food, her fingers that she can suck, her three big brothers who are very protective and loving, clean diapers, diaper cream, soft clean blankies to cuddle up with, and warm fuzzy pajamas. I'm thankful that she showers us with her beautiful, straight-from-the-heart smiles and reminds me of how simple love is. And that's enough thankfulness to brighten my day on this rainy, gray, cold Thanksgiving Monday!

Fancy Drinks

Andrew has shown quite an interest in using markers lately. Fortunately, these ARE window markers that he is using to scribble with on the window. All three boys had a good time making a big mess on the window.
Caleb and Joshua had picture day at school on Wednesday. They both wanted to wear "button shirts". They were more than happy to smile nicely for me before they headed out the door that morning.
Very sad news from our home. We will no longer be seeing too many of these big, happy, gummy smiles from little Natalee. Why? She cut her first tooth!! So now her happy smiles (which are fewer these days) will soon no longer have just pretty pink gums, but also her little white teeth. I can't believe her teeth are already here!
Caleb went out with Mike on Saturday to Grapes for supper. While he was there, he saw a "fancy drink". So he's been requesting fancy drinks since then. He specified that there was to be an apple slide on the side with iced tea. Easy enough! Unbeknownst to him, I managed to get to MCC this morning and purchased two small wine glasses and "rimmed" them with just plain sugar. Added the iced tea, the apple slice garnish, a little green straw, and VOILA, a Fancy Drink! Yeah, I was the hero today!