Our Little Family

Our Little Family

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Five Months with My Girl

Karissa Hope is five months old today!  Hooray!
Karissa loves her family.  
She giggles and giggles with her brothers, no matter what they do.
She enjoys sucking her fingers.  
She loves to eat; she gets up four or five times a night to see her mommy. 
We are so blessed to have this little girl in our lives!!

Saturday, December 7, 2013

Happy Fifth Birthday, JOEL!

 On Joel's birthday, our angel, Joy, brought Joel his gifts and cake!  
I praise God for my amazing little worker and super trooper!
 On Day five, Joy encouraged us to share the love of Christ with others and tell others of the good news.
 Then she tried to make us pancakes, but she ran into trouble and needed help!
 Here's Joel's real birthday cake.  He picked this one out on the Internet.  It was so easy to make!
 Here's pictures from his superhero party.  We had a super hero training camp with games, obstacle course, scavenger hunt, dart throwing, and lots of fun!!!

 We even caught a bad guy who had stolen our cake! 

Monday, December 2, 2013

Advent Has Begun and JOY Is Here!

Advent is a new thing for me.  I never really understood it until this year.  I love the idea of taking a moment every day to prepare your heart for the birth of Christ.  Every year, the hustle and bustle take over the real reason for all the lights, gifts, decorations, and holiday festivities.  I want to fight that in our home, and make Christ the center of this Holy Day. 

Here's our Advent candles.  We light a candle each night at dinner and read Scripture.  The kids enjoying watching the flame burn and blowing out the candle after they listen to the Bible lesson.

 The other big thing we are doing this year is having an angel come visit us to help us prepare for Christmas.  I know many people who do Elf on the Shelf.  That's such a cute idea.  But I wanted something that would help us focus on the spiritual aspects, too.  So I came up with a messenger angel.  Her name is Joy, and she comes every morning with a note, gift, or special assignment for the kids.
Day 1: We found Joy under the tree with a letter to the kids.  She also came with Advent Calendar candies and lights and ornaments for the tree.  She was tangled up in the lights and needed our help to finish the job!

Day 2: Joy talked to us about how Jesus washes away our sins.  She brought bubble bath and bath toys.

Day 3: She talked to the boys about the Fruit of the Spirit.  She had a coloring sheet and fruit prepared for our breakfast.





The boys really love Joy.   Clark writes her letters during the day.  And they talk about her like she is one of the family.  I just hope they listen to her words as she guides them to enjoy the real reason for the season.

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Happy 4th Month, Baby Sister!

Karissa Hope is now four months old.  Wow! Time is flying by. 
She is weighing in at 16 pounds which is only in the 90th percentile.
But she took the cake with her height.  She's a little over 26 inches long.  That puts her off the charts. She's wearing 6-9 month clothing for the past month.  She is a big girl!

She is so so sweet.  And we all love her so much.  The boys take such good care of her, and they run to her aid every time she cries.  Yes she might end up a little spoiled.  :-)  She stays busy laughing at her brothers who keep her busy with their tickles and silly antics.

 She loves to snuggle.  She loves to go outside and see the world.  She loves her toys.

We are all so glad this little angel is in our lives!

Monday, November 11, 2013

Happy Birthday, Michael!

 This past week was Michael's birthday.  His first present was the removal of his cast!! 
 When it was removed, we were able to see where his ankle was cut. 
He is happy with the freedom!!!
 He also got to order a new Iphone for work.  FUN!!!  
So now he doesn't have to fight with his kids for his phone!


 The kids made him a chocolate cake and put Harry Potter Legos on it.  
Friends came over for lunch and cake and ice cream.


 We went garage saling on Saturday for birthday fun and found some great deals!!!  
Even Karissa found some cute pink toys!
Michael is an incredible family man.  He loves us all with a deep, patient, Godly love.  He has taught me so much in our lives together.  I see so many of his amazing qualities in my boys.   I am so blessed to have him as my leader, husband, and best friend.

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Joel's Best Day of His Life

 Whenever the first leaf fell, the boys started asking when we could play in the leaves.  They had to wait a few weeks.  And it finally came!  We played in leaves!  And Joel kept declaring that this was the best day of his life.  I think he had some fun!  And so did I!



My little turkey...today he decided to turn off the computer by stabbing the computer monitor with a screwdriver 40 times cracking the screen in the process.  That is just one of his many destruction projects today.  He keeps me busy.



Friday, November 1, 2013

Happy Friday


 There is nothing like seeing a sweet baby's smile and hear her laughter.  I am one blessed woman to get to experience that four times.




Here are my Wild Kratts practicing their pose!
What if......?

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Fall Fun

I am kind of sad that October is gone.  It's my favorite month by far, but we had a blast.  Besides two surgeries, it was great.  We had two garage sale Saturdays.  The boys got up early and sold their goodies.  They are great salesmen.  We got rid of a lot of stuff and made some Christmas money.
 Karissa fell asleep in her daddy's arms after a long day.

 
 We had fun with school too.  
Here's Clark reading Sleepy Beauty to Karissa.  He thought that she would enjoy it!

We went trick-or-treating with friends. 
Karissa was a lady bug. Clark and Joel are the Wild Kratts. Levi is a penguin.


 Here's Levi after having free reign of the candy and Cheetos on Halloween night.
He was a little wild!

Well good-bye October and hello November. 


Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Fall Pictures: Take One!

Oh how I wish I was a real photographer, but alas we do our best with what we have.
Here is our attempt at some fall family pictures this afternoon in our back yard. 
I think some of them turned out pretty good. 
I love Karissa's look--  ANGRY! Seeing this picture, I realized I really do have my hands full!
 
 

 

I love this one of Clark! He has such a sweet spirit.



Three amigos! Lord, let them always love one another and live in unity!


Friday, October 25, 2013

Sleeping Beauty

Karissa slept in this morning till 10:30!  I went to check on her at some point, and I found her all cuddled up in Grandma's knitted blanket which we call a "nee nee".  Her left hand had a tight grip on her blanket.  Thanks, Grandma, for all the "nee nees" that keep my kids warms, cozy, and comforted through the night.  Your love surrounds them each time they sleep!

Friday, October 18, 2013

Pumpkins and a 3 Month Old

 I LOVE OCTOBER.  Pumpkins, long sleeves, leaves, beautiful colors everywhere are some of our favorite things of the season!! 

Here's our pumpkins for this year.  All these pumpkins actually grew in our yard during the summer!  We had exactly six that survived, so we made a character for each person of our family.  Michael is the pirate.  I'm a cat.  Clark is a sword master (his own creation).  Joel is ninja.  Levi is a bat.  Karissa Hope is an owl.
 Karissa Hope is three months old today!  And she is still doing great.
 She sure does love her brothers!

 Here's all four and the best shot I could get today. :-)
This is for you, Grandma....a close up of those sweet baby cheeks.  Hang on and you can kiss them all you want next month.

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Two Surgies in Six Days--Done!

 My poor babies have horrible baby teeth.  When Clark was three, our dentist told me that he was lacking a layer of enamel on his teeth.  Joel also has that trait.  Despite flossing every night and other almost religious dental care, Joel needed to have all of his molars capped.  The dentist recommended this to prevent future decay, and she recommended doing it at TC Thompson children's hospital.

After flipping out a little bit, and much prayer, we decided that for Joel's sake, that was the best option for him.  So on October 8, little Joel "went under".

I have to say it was a smooth and wonderful experience for child and parents alike!

We started out in a private room with a curtain.  The nurse came in to give him his goofy juice.  It was so funny to watch him make the letter X with his body and smile big ole smiles.  He tried to exercise, but he kept falling over to the side.  He was happy. 

Then they took him back and gave him some laughing gas.  After that they put in the iv, and he was out for the surgery.  Everything went good with the procedure.  He did bump his breathing tube, so his nose bled for a while after, but he only thought it was a runny nose.
A silly goofy smile after the goofy juice
He was proud of his sticker and cool shiny medical bracelet


Joel wanted to remove his IV himself.  He found the blood and needle very interesting.  He wanted to see the hole and hold his own compress to stop the bleeding.  He's one tough guy!


Here are his Superman teeth--germs can't get these babies!




 The next day his throat and nose were sore from the breathing tube, and his teeth hurt if he ate hard foods.  So he mostly ate yogurt.  He played great and was in a good mood.  He doesn't remember anything scary or painful.  Hooray!!



I didn't want to leave out Michael.  Here's a picture of his cast from his surgery on Thursday.  

Here's Karissa's MAJOR blow out while Michael was in surgery.  I thought it was impressive.  She and I both needed a bath after. :-)