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Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Quick Recap of October-December {{I'm Baaaack!}}

I was not planning on taking a break from the blog. Life has been so busy since the birth of Caleb. Like, why didn't people warn me about what adding a 4th kid looks like?! I guess that's not fair...Jim Gaffigan did say that having a 4th baby is like "you're drowning and then somebody hands you a baby."

Anyway...we've been busy, busy, busy. Caleb turned 1, We had Thanksgiving, flag football, Bible studies, Church, parties, school, work, Mila Jo Designs. We've been busy. I once heard somebody say that being "BUSY is Being Under Satans Yoke"....hmmmmm..... Anyway, life has been full and my blog is most definitely not a priority. But I miss it, so I'm back; for now at least.

Looks like I stopped posting after our trip to Disneyland, so I'll start there!
Ready.....set....photo time!


The end of summer brings flag football. Josiah proved to be an awesome QB. Throwing the winning touchdown pass to win the "Super Bowl", and Micah proved to be aggressive and competitive (no surprise there!).


My sister and her husband adopted all three of their foster kids in September!! That took our family from 4 grandkids to 8 within 2 years. Amazing!


James' Grandpa Dean or "Great Pa" was diagnosed with cancer and we have been soaking up all the time we can get with him. He's amazing! We do dinner at least twice a month and he never misses a kids game or family event. He is truly cherished!


Then fall came and we enjoyed in all of the fall festivities.







We spent some great quality time with these boys. They are a few of James' students who just lost their brother to cancer. He was only 17. They are seriously amazing boys! Please pray for their family if you get a chance!


Caleb turned into a climber. He's my first climber and it scares the life out of me! I find him on top of everything!!



Halloween is always fun! Ella was two different princess; she started the day as Ariel and ended as Elsa. The boys were a ninja, Batman and Robin. We were also able to go trick or treating with Tito, Hugo and Andy.




James was Tony Stark; hence the light under his shirt.


This year I imposed a new system of getting rid of the huge piles of candy. I paid $.10 a piece if they were willing to sell it to me. Each kids got about $5 and spent it at the dollar store. Worked great to avoid the sugar/cavities and they still felt like they got something.


The most significant thing that happened was when we baptized Josiah. He's 7 and one of the most theologically thinking people I have met. His love for Jesus is deep and devout. It was such an amazing moment for us as his parents!


We decorated for Christmas and this was the best shot I could get from them. Poor Caleb!


Thanksgiving fell on Caleb's first birthday this year. No party planning necessary! Gobble gobble little turkey! 


He started to stand on his own!


He even had his own pumpkin pie.


My nephew (who is also adopted!) is only 7 days younger than Caleb, so we were able to celebrate together. Love!



We went ice skating, I held the kids like this for about an hour. It was exhausting! Josiah was actually pretty good! He even has picked up the new obsession of roller blading.



Christmas was great. Nice and easy. This was one of the first years we've only had 1 Christmas. We normally have to meet at both of our parent's houses to celebrate, but I was grateful for a lower key holiday season!





Ella was spoiled by her aunt and uncle when they gave her her very own Lululemon outfit. I can't handle her cuteness!


We played in the snow, a lot.




Caleb became a huge fan of daddy. I would call him a "daddy's boy" for sure. We also discovered that our poor boy is allergic to milk. Ugh! It only took us about 6 weeks to figure it out and he is finally a happy baby again! Also, goat's milk is $16 a gallon. Yay!


We had a totally rad New Year. Thanks to our sweet Gibbs for hosting a tubular 80's themed party. How sweet is James' outfit?! He even paired it with original Air Jordan's. Nice. 


And there ya have it. The fastest recap of 3 months ever! I kinda like this style of blogging. It's like memory lane in 500 words or less!