First Day of School!!!

Well, summer is over, and it’s time for school!

Levi and Kate had their first day of school today. Here they are all ready to go!

Levi is starting 1st grade, and Kate is starting Kindergarten!

Kindergarten and 1st grade are taught by Mrs. Van DenTop. She decorated her room with a fun theme of race-cars this year.

I had to take a few pictures of the special-ed room too. It was decorated in such a cute theme! Kate will be spending some time in there as well, and I’m sure she’s going to thoroughly enjoy it!

I just loved this phrase that Leah had on the wall next to these teddy-bears. So adorable. :)

There was even a little pretend campfire in front of the tent.

Levi and Kate found their desks an got everything situated.

Here’s Kara D.J. and Kate all ready to start school. I am thrilled that Levi and Kate have cousins in their classroom.

I have to say that we are going to miss summer, but it will be good to get back into the routine that school brings. We are so thankful for our little Christian school here in town. We pray that God will bless our children and guide them as they learn and are instructed in the light of His word. 

Miss Moriah Turns Four!

We celebrated Moriah’s birthday last Saturday, while we were at Newton Hills. A lot of the family was there to help celebrate with us!

It took Moriah a while to decide how she would like her cake decorated this year. But, thanks to google and pinterest, she was able to decide after scrolling through picture after picture of many cool cake ideas. In the end she chose a unicorn cake. This cake isn’t exactly like the picture she saw, but I think she was still happy with it. Daddy sure liked the mane, because it was made up of some of his favorite candy…Laffy Taffys! :)

Everyone singing “Happy Birthday” to Moriah.

Blowing out those candles took a few tries! She got the job done though!

She opened up some very sweet presents. She loved them all!

Charlotte figured out we were having a birthday party at our cabin and snuck over to join the fun! :) I think her Mom was a little surprised when she found out where she had snuck off too…we were glad she joined us though!

We had a lot of fun fellowshipping with relatives and fellow saints, playing games, riding bikes, and running around in the playground, while we were camping.

Joel was going to take a group of people over to the look-out tower and this little guy snuck into the front of the pickup. I think he thought he was pretty ‘big stuff’, sitting there in the driver’s seat! :)

I can just hear Amy in this picture. :) If you’ve ever played kubb (pronounced “coob”) then you’ll know the pressure she was under when she had to knock down the final pin…the “King pin”.  (In case you’re wondering, she did knock it down after I took this picture.)

Grandpa and Grandma “Top” enjoyed observing the game.

This isn’t a very great picture, but I just wanted to add that I’ve heard others say this, and I’d have to agree, Grandma is a very pretty and very sweet lady.

Hey Miss Kate!

Moriah taking a rest and enjoying some fruit snacks by Auntie Bethany.

We all were home on Saturday, which was Moriah’s actual birthday. So we celebrated some more and had our own little party at home, with a few more gifts and decorations. :)

Happy birthday, Moriah Jo!

We love you so much, honey-girl! Now, can you please stop growing?!?!  ;) 

“Jesse-bear”

 

This sweet little guy is 3 months old already!

I feel like 3 months is a hard age to snap pictures of an infant. They can’t really hold their head up (well, at least our kids can’t at this age, because they DISPISE tummy time!”). They also are usually just starting to show off some smiles, so catching smiles can be kind of difficult!

But, even with those challenges, I still love how they’re starting to get a little pudge to their arms and legs…they really are so precious at this age!

We constantly use the line from Where the Wild Things Are by: Maurice Sendak

“We could eat you up we love you so!”  But the boy said, “NO!”

Just like Jesse’s overalls say…he’s pretty handsome!

We could catch his big smiles, if Daddy held him up and talked to him!

Oh Jesse, we love you so!

Jesse Michael

*I am so behind with updating this blog. But, hopefully in the next month or so, I’ll have a few updates on here! This spring/summer has been busy, that’s for sure! :)

Jesse came into our lives very quickly…and when I say that, I am not joking! When Joel and I got to the hospital, Jesse came less than a half an hour later! We immediately were smitten with this beautiful strawberry-blonde baby boy.

Six and a half pounds of love…

Our other kiddos came to meet this new little guy later that afternoon. They sure loved him too!

We were so excited when we first laid eyes on him and saw his beautiful strawberry blonde hair!

Baby favors that we handed out to visitors.

And then there were seven…

I only stayed in the hospital for one night and then was anxious to get home. I new it would be busy with 5 little munchkins around, but I was ready to sleep in my own bed and just be in my own environment. We were taken care of very well in the hospital, but it’s still not the same as being in the comfort of your own home. Dr. Post was fine with that, and discharged me the afternoon following delivery.

When I got home, Levi had a sweet surprise posted on the garage door to welcome us back home.

It was also sweet to walk in the house to this picture…knowing that my kids were taken care of by such loving hands, really was such a blessing. (Thanks so much to Dad, Mom, Sherry, Anna, and others who helped out with the children during this time! We appreciated that so much!)

After supper, Tyler plopped down next to Jesse’s car seat and started “reading” books to him. So cute!

Moriah sure loves Jesse and is so excited that he’s finally here! She was the most anxious of all of our kids to meet him, and would ask on a daily basis, “Is the baby coming yet?”

Three sweet boys…

Taking pictures of this little guy was a lot of work, especially with all the siblings he has trying to “help”! But, I was thrilled to find a few that were pretty sweet after I sat down to edit them.

We sure are enjoying this precious baby! It’s so incredible, seeing this sweet little miracle grow. It’s hard to believe he’ll be three months old at the end of this month!  Most of the time, he’s very content and overall a really good sleeper. We’re thankful for this healthy little boy, and are positive that God knows exactly what are needs are. To be totally honest, I was very nervous to have another little one added to our bunch. And while it’s true that it has become busier with an added mouth to feed, laundry to do, time that I need to entertain these children split up even more, etc.…I still believe that God knew exactly what we could handle! I can’t say that it hasn’t been a big adjustment and that we don’t have days that are “hairy”, but overall, we are happy and content and can hardly imagine what life was like before Jesse came!

I should also say that I am very thankful to family and friends who have helped us in various ways during these last few months. We are greatly humbled by you and can’t express our gratitude enough! I have been brought to tears by your generosity and kindness. It’s somewhat overwhelming to know how much we are loved and cared for, not only by you, but also even more so, by our Heavenly Father. To Him be all praise and glory.

Here’s a little video for you to watch from when Jesse was 3 weeks old. (Just try not to get annoyed with my voice on here… :)

Jesse - 3 weeks