Here's a few pictures and videos to catch up on the last several days of our life.


Brother and sister reading some books together.


Emily took a big step a week or so ago in conquering her fear of water slides. We pulled out their old slide and converted it to a little water slide into the pool. She was very proud of herself.

Still holding on to the last days of summer. September evening + $20 inflatable pool + 3 and 5 year old = one swell time.








Do you ever want to go out and shoot some hoops but choose not to because you just don't want to expend the little energy you have left in your body? Well, have no fear...our daughter has created a fool-proof system that allows the joy and wonder of basketball and the comfort and pleasure of being a couch potato all wrapped up into one. Just check out this brilliant new system that she has created!

School has been going well. Last week Emily woke up with a fever on Friday morning and ended up having a virus that turned into a mild pneumonia and knocked her out until the following Wednesday. We found out that 7/10 of her classmates were also out sick on one of those days as well. She is doing much better now. This picture is from Friday night at her first Christian Acadmey Homecoming Football game. She (thanks to a very spirited Mommy) got all decked out in her school colors, home-made necklace that said 'warriors' on it, football tatoo and lots of other spirit gear. She is checking the game out and enjoying a hot dog in the bleachers. She was thrilled to see the two other girls in kindergarten (Amelia and Reagan) at the game as well. She also got to go have her picture made with Reagan Bates (who won Homecoming Queen) so she was pretty excited!

The weather is finally starting to cool off a little bit (like in the 80's now and actually barely sneaking into the hight 70's) so we ran off to the park on Saturday afternoon. Joshua and Emily had a blast sliding down the slide with Mommy.

Emily had a lot of fun swinging too!

Brother and Sister showing some love to one another.

Daddy got the wild hair to attempt to make home-made pizza (including making the pizza dough from scratch) on Saturday night. So we got back to the house around 6:30 or so and I was thinking mix the flour and other stuff together and slap some sauce and toppings and we'll be eating pizza in like 15-20 minutes. Then I read further down in the directions (which apparently reading the directions is important I guess) and I missed the part where you make the dough and then you let it sit and expand for 1-1/2 hours...oops! So needless to say we ending up eating a little bit later than I had intended but the final product turned out surprisingly well.

Last night Emily received her Sparks vest (they are both in Awanas at our church now) and so they are both officially sporting their blue and red vests in this picture.

I thought I would take a moment to catch up on the last couple of weeks of our life. The school routine has been a big adjustment and the kids are finally starting to get the routine down pretty good. These pictures are from the lower school chapel that I am helping coordinate this year. The first hour is pre-k-2nd (so I get to see Emily) and the second hour is 3rd-5th grade. It's been fun getting to know the kids and have fun with them and teach them truths from God's Word. The following pictures are me at chapel, Emily and her new buddy Amelia, and Emily posing in her chapel uniform.

Joshua started pre-school this week and his assesment of the experience was 'I didn't cry one time.' He seems to be really liking his teachers so far and in fact when Whitney picked him up yesterday he was crying and throwing a minor fit because he did not want to leave (so we want him to like it in all but maybe not quite that much).

Fridays are my day off and now with Emily in school it is our special day to hang out with Joshua. So we decided to walk around the Portifino shopping center to get out and about. It turns out that Old Navy was a slam dunk with Joshua. They have a huge kids area now where he colored and hung out, then we bought a 25 cent bouncy ball from a vending machine and played with that, then (as seen in picture) he made a new plastic friend at the front of the store, and lastly (as seen in second picture), he discovered three mirrors in the dressing room area and had the time of his life (drawing quite alot of laughter and smiles from the lady working back there). He was truly amazed at all of the 'Joshuas' staring back at him and had his own dance party in a room full of other 'Joshuas' who perfectly imitated every dance move he so skillfully would throw down on the Old Navy dance floor.

Lastly, we have been trying to stock up on more 'boys dressup clothes' and trying to avoid things like 'Joshua, the Mur-man' or 'Joshua, the princess', etc. So when we were at lifeway and discovered that they had a 'Joshua, the warrior' costume with armor and light up sword that makes sounds we could not resist. So we had the little man try it on and he gave me some good whacks with the sword which made me proud. (that's his battle face by the way).