Catch'n up!

Since it's been awhile, I'm going to call this a catch-up blog. I'm gonna start with Ally's birthday party.

For Ally's birthday, we threw her a Murder Mystery party. We downloaded it off the internet and it came with a bunch of characters to choose from. All of us girls were excited to dress up as Hollywood stars!

Drew's Hollywood character was T-Redd and Ally was an actress named Jada Broken.

Glynne and Kyle were a married couple whose names were Mario and Lola Talent.

Dad ended up being the murderer. I'm still sad I didn't get him in a picture, he looked pretty awesome...

Jenna also passed the 9 month mark. She is growing up so fast! She pulls herself to a standing position and hates to lie down when you try to dress her. Mom is convinced she's saying "Momma" although no one else seems to have heard it, and she LOVES to be carried around.

Everyone at our house calls her sweet Jenna, princess, angel, Jenna P (Paige), and Jenna bear. She is loved!

Since it has been super nice outside lately I took the boys down to the runway to fly a kite. 

I left Jack to man it while I went to grab some sunglasses and when I came back he was chasing it down the runway. We let Isaac hold it after that.

It has started to get chilly today, and as much as I love sweaters and boots I can't wait until next spring!

Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be man of courage; be strong.

1 Corinthians 16:13

School Has Begun!

Before we started school this year, we took one last field trip to Branson with our grandparents.

I realized, too late, that I forgot to take pictures the entire trip, other than these I got during the drives there and back, so I'll just summarize it real quick. The day after we arrived, we all went to the fish hatchery together. My favorite part was when we got to feed baby trout the size of my thumb. There were so many of them that when they swarmed the food you could barely pick out an individual fish. After that, we went to see the musical Jonah. It was AMAZING! But what was even cooler was when we got to take a backstage tour and see all the props for musicals they've put on in the past as well as the ones for Jonah. We did a couple other things in our spare time like, shop, play mini-golf, and eat lots of food. 

This was at a burger place on the way to Branson.

Ally and I rode home with Glynne and Kyle and had a bunch of fun laughing at Kyle dancing (and singing) in the front seat.

Then we got home. And got hit in the face with reality.

Yep. School.

Mom and Dad went through a bit of stress to make it possible for Landon to play football. Landon's doing virtual school and taking P.E. so he can be eligible to be on the team. He's already managed to pull his shoulder out of the socket three times! During the same practice. Yeah, ouch. Dad said he needs to exercise his shoulder, so it won't happen that easily again.

I bet Mom can't believe she still has to put this little one through school. And Jenna still has a couple years until she starts preschool!

This is how our house will look until next summer...bye bye table.

And window.

And mudroom bench.

And... walls. Yeah, It's really not that bad.

Now I feel like I need to write something dramatic to end this blog. Something about how even though there will be many... many trials through this next school year, God is always with us, guiding our thoughts and revelations back to him. And even though learning is very important in today's society it is most important to be using those new abilities to bring glory to God. Knowing that no matter what our grades are, if our progress and goals are for Him, we will succeed.

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

2 Timothy 2:15

Kate's Eleven!

I took Kate out on a photo shoot the day before her birthday. She is almost all grown up. It's crazy.

For the party the next day, Ally and I set up a makeshift photo booth. The boys had about as much fun with it as the girls did.

Then Ally and I pampered them with a facial (that I concocted about three minutes before the girls got there) and freshly painted nails. 

I made the face mask with freshly brewed coffee grounds, a little sugar, baking soda, and vegetable oil. It was messy but a lot of fun!

          A little later, family started arriving, we ate dinner, Kate opened her gifts, and then Mom                                                  made us play four or five or her "fun" party games.   

Ally and I also decorated the bonus room for the girls to sleep in. It was pretty amazing. I think she had a great birthday. We love you, Kate!

The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your love, O Lord endures forever- do not abandon the works of your hands.

Psalm 138:8