California: Part 1

It was so good to be back in California for a bit this November, to catch up with friends, and spend some time relaxing as a family.  We left Halloween night and drove straight through to Glendora, arriving around lunchtime on Saturday.  The kids did amazingly well and though it was exhausting we were thankful to be able to get the drive over with so quickly.  We stayed with our good friends the Wallaces, giving us and the kids a chance to catch up, and we were also able to attend our old church, our small group, and spend some time with my best friend Melinda and her family while we were there.  For me especially, it provided some much needed time to connect with people who know us well and who I've really missed this past year.

Once again I'm going to give all the photo credits to Andrea because in all the craziness of our two and a half days in Glendora I'm afraid that I didn't take any pictures of my own.

Good Morning Munchkins

Cooper, Sadie, Georgia, Wyatt, and Titus

Breakfast

On Sunday after church we may have taken over Rubios with our little clan.  So fun to see how big everyone has gotten.

Wyatt, Georgia, Sadie, and Lucie

Best friends love to match!

Bedtime Stories

The 3 big kids all shared a room and thought that was so much fun!

On Monday we went to the park.  Love all these little blessings!

Mason, Sawyer, Ava, Georgia, Titus, Sadie, Hayley, Mia, Wyatt, and Cooper

And we're starting to loose them...

Poor Hayley.  She's so sweet and this was a lot of commotion!

Bathtime

Sadie wasn't so sure about Titus' involvement in bath time.

Wyatt could care less and Cooper well he just takes it all in.

Sadie still loved playing with Titus and I'm pretty sure he couldn't get enough of her either.  They were very sweet together.

A little more play time!!!

Love this picture Andrea got of Sadie, except she looks so grown up!!!

Small Group

Crazy Kids

The personalities this picture shows and way that this captures the insanity of so many toddlers is absolutely amazing.

Top: Ava, Mia, Lucie, Sadie, Samson, and Georgia

Bottom:  Cooper, Mason, Wyatt, Sawyer, and Titus

There was a day way back when that none of us could really imagine having kids or being a parent, and then the next 5 years happened, and now we can't imagine our lives or each other any other way.

Halloween 2014

For Halloween this year we carved a Hello Kitty pumpkin, a Despicable Me Minion pumpkin, and we went to the Trunk-or-Treat event at the church where Sadie is attending AWANAS.  The dress up theme was FROZEN, of course, and all in all we had a great time while keeping things pretty low key as we actually left immediately following Trunk-or-Treating for our trip to California.

Olaf was really not sure he wanted to wear his costume, but he did eventually cheer up.

 Queen Elsa

Kristoff

Happy 5th Birthday!

Happy Birthday To Our Little Chimp! 

Sometimes I still can't believe that we are parents.  The weight of the responsibility occasionally crashes down and I think what in the world are we doing, and then I look at Sadie especially and remember the day we took her home.  I remember being so excited to take her home that we stayed in the hospital less then 24 hours.  Then I remember getting her home and being so completely overwhelmed with all the little details that I actually called the hospital and asked if I could come back at some point in the middle of that first night.  How embarrassing is that???  So, now when I'm overwhelmed I often look at her and remember that first day and realize that a day at a time she's taught us to be parents and 1 day at a time God has given us wisdom and patience and grace to do the jobs we've been given to do in raising them.  

Sadie has grown up a lot this year.  She is such a big helper, her memory is constantly amazing us, and the way that her brothers look up to her is so sweet.  She can also be extremely silly, hence the nickname her Daddy's given her of The Little Chimp, and while we are sometimes sad that she is not so little any more, we love the girl she's already growing up to be and are really treasuring our time at home with her this year before she heads off to kindergarten next year.

Uncle Robert surprised Sadie with balloons, doughnuts, and a Starbucks hot chocolate on the morning of her birthday!  Also noticed the dress first thing in the morning.  She got to go shopping with Grammy the day day before for her birthday and was so excited to wear what she had picked out.  Love our little girly girl!

Next we headed over to Grammy's house to make her Elsa birthday cake.

Grammy and Sadie

We drove out to Corvallis so that Daddy could have lunch with the birthday girl.

In the evening we celebrated with family!

Wyatt picked out his own gift for Sadie.

She loved it!

Mommy made this awesome pinata which unfortunately was indestructible.  Opps :)

Happy Birthday Sadie!!!