Snowy days and swimming lessons

Our week has been full of swimming lessons and a lot of snow . . . which the kids haven't minded in the slightest, since several years ago we began a tradition of eating cinnamon rolls for breakfast when we woke up to fresh snow (we've decided that we may be in for a lot of cinnamon rolls in Castle Rock . . . and if we ever move to Alaska or Canada, we'll have to change our tradition!) After returning home from swimming lessons this morning, we got back in our footie pajamas (well, the kids did!) and decided hot chocolate and popcorn were in order! Emily recently took over hot chocolate making duty, so she was very excited! Anna and Samuel discovered Emily's body crayons--and quickly began painting Samuel's toenails and face!

Beds and Brothers and Sisters and Such!

A couple of weeks ago, the kids woke up one morning and emphatically declared that they were ready to swap rooms (they've debated about this for many, many months). We now have a boys room (that couldn't possibly have any more firetrucks in it) and a girls room, with an awful lot of stuffed animals! So far, everyone seems quite happy with the new arrangement!

A blast from the past! . . .

This season has us thankful for many things, including our 15th wedding anniversary -- which happens to fall on Thanksgiving Day this year. It's amazing how quickly 15 years can go by . . . and how many changes those "blink of an eye" years bring!

Daniel turns 6!

Daniel is very excited to finally be a 6 year old! He has also recently perfected his back flip on our trampoline . . . proving himself as the first in the family to be able to actually land on his feet (but watch out, mom or dad might just be next . . . or maybe not!!) We even found a way to weave his love of the trampoline into his birthday celebration (hence the pictures, below, of his goofy cake). We have been enjoying autumn and even attended our first "pumpkin chucking" event--talk about fun for those in our family who love contraptions!

Celebrate!

A few weeks ago we reached a milestone in our house . . . we came to the END of 3,346 days (that's 9 years, one month and 27 days--approximately!) of non-stop diapers or pull-ups. Anna & Samuel are both completely potty trained and moving on to new uses of our money! WAHOO!

Levi recently celebrated his half-birthday (the same way he did last year)--with a night at Monkey Bizness with just mom and dad. He is quite the little monkey . . . and an awfully fun kid to hang out with! The night went far too quickly, we're thinking that we need to expand on our "half-birthday tradition" (and start spending an entire day with our "child of honor", rather than just a few hours).















We also were able to go to Wyoming (along with Kevin's brother, KC) to celebrate Grandma Helen's 95th birthday . . . wow! The photo (below) with the rocks behind it is from our favorite spot in Wyoming, "Devil's Kitchen" . . . great, hidden away spot where we love to go hiking and play around on the rocks.














Today was yet another day of celebration. Kevin picked up his book from the printers! We now have several boxes of Undone gracing our garage! If you weren't aware, he's spent the better part of the past several weeks writing (finishing) a book on the presence of God -- which has been a growing passion of his and the topic of nearly every sermon he's preached for the past 7 years! (www.periecopublishing.com)

Daniel is counting down the days until he turns 6 years old and looking forward to his "Inside, Outside, Upside-down" party next week!

interior decorating at its finest!

September already . . .

September is here and (ready or not!) school has begun. Labor Day weekend, Kevin (and Levi) finally tackled the lawn, even the back! (which has been avoided most of the summer). Levi greatly enjoyed his first lesson in lawn mowing . . . and he slept really well that night! We also indulged in some locally grown corn on the cob--Anna's favorite! We celebrated the beginning of the school year a tiny bit early, because Lisa's grandfather passed away last week (and she flew out of town to attend the funeral with her mom and sister). The photo above is from our last visit with him (2006), when Anna was just a few weeks old. Kevin was amazing and got the school year off to a great start, even though Lisa missed almost the entire first week.

Baptisms and Funnel Clouds . . .

Fortunately the two events did not occur together! We baptized Levi and Daniel this Sunday (at the same river where Emily was baptized last summer). Driving home, we got to see our first "up close tornado" (not so up close that we needed to run for cover, but closer than any of us had ever been to a funnel cloud before). After taking many pictures, we continued driving home and enjoyed a very impressive hail storm mixed with some great lightning! Shortly thereafter the boys discovered how to turn a trampoline covered in hail into a virtual popcorn popping machine

There isn't much "baby" left in our baby . . .

That was a friend's comment a couple of days ago. Sadly, it's quite true. Anna is becoming quite the little girl. So, I just felt like posting a few pix of our littlest cutie pie!

Unpacked in Castle Rock

We moved to a wonderful house in Castle Rock at the beginning of July and have been digging out of boxes ever since. We are finally beginning to feel settled and are attempting to enjoy the last few weeks of summer before we begin school again in early September. The little kids, especially, have greatly enjoyed all of the sand in our new backyard (part of the yard is a sand volleyball court). We've also been enjoying family bike rides on the trails near our house and the free concerts in the park across the street. We've managed two camping trips (the pictures of the boys in really muddy water, below, are from a camping trip at a local lake and the family hiking photo is from the other). Kevin has been training in a new job field (helping companies recover over-paid sales tax) and is still not certain what his job will look like, but we're hopeful that he will be able to work from home a significant part of the time. We'll try to keep you posted as things progress!

All packed up . . . with nowhere to go!

Our house is 95% packed up and we are still waiting to hear if our offer was accepted to lease (and eventually purchase) a house in Castle Rock. We are supposed to be out of our house in 5 days, so we're really hoping that they give us an answer soon . . . things are feeling more than a little upside down!

Recent fun, with just one!

One of our recent highlights was a chance to finally take Daniel out for his special night with mom and dad for his half birthday (which was at the end of April!) . . . our mini-golf fanatic chose to challenge us to 18 holes of goofy fun. Each of us managed to get a hole-in-one once during the game. It was lots of fun to spend time with Daniel all by himself, such an awesome kiddo!

Cute Photo!

Home from Canada

We are back home from Canada (actually we got home 3 weeks ago, but I'm just getting around to this!). We had a good trip and got to see a lot in Canada as well as en route. 16 days, 4100 miles, 10 different states, 2 trips across the border & God only knows how many orders of french fries(!) later . . . we are glad to be home!

The kids were awesome travelers and kept themselves entertained quite well in the car (and when they didn’t, they were subjected to re-runs of “The Human Body in Action” movies! – since we were finishing our study of the human body on the road). Daniel was exceptionally patient and tolerant with the two littlest kids on either side of him in the back seat (Anna spent half of the trip leaning over, resting her head on him!). We also listened to some books on tape and some worship music on Kevin’s new iPod. I’ve posted a million photos (at least it felt that way uploading them!)

Some of the trip highlights were:
~seeing Taylor in Omaha, playing in the pool and enjoying dinner together
~touring a chocolate factory near Chicago and seeing a 2500lb Statue of Liberty made entirely out of chocolate!
~playing at a playground right on the beach on the shore of Lake Michigan, and getting really wet and sandy (when it was only about 55 degrees out!)
~figuring out that pretzel sticks, peanut butter and apples make a pretty good dinner when you’re really hungry and in the middle of nowhere!
~watching the sun appear on the horizon while driving a car full of sleeping kids down the highway
~crossing the border into Canada!
~the park by the water near Toronto–with a “teeter-totter” big enough for five!
~our time in Canada, the conference and the gals who watched our kids for part of the time
~Niagara Falls (even if it was a fairly chilly day)
~buying milk in a bag (that’s how they sell it in Canada!)
~finding a really good used book store in Toronto (after Emily ran out of library books!)
~the Mall of America (who knew you could make so many things out of Legos?!)
~discovering we had a very unsafe tire at a gas station (one that “just so happened” to sell/replace tires)–all of which was much preferred to discovering this on the highway going 70 mph!
~finding a very cool McDonald’s play place right across the street from the service station where our tire was being replaced (they even had a free air hockey table!)
~visiting with our friend, “Auntie Hannah”, in South Dakota
~waking up in South Dakota to a stampede of cattle “moo-ving” down the street in front of our motel!
~seeing Mt. Rushmore (in the rain)
~arriving home to find fresh fruit in our kitchen after eating WAY too many french fries!

We have enjoyed being back home. The past 3 weeks have been a flurry of activity and a joyful mix of endings (soccer season, AWANA’s, school!) and beginnings (baseball season, summer break, having a trampoline in our yard!, and packing) We spent Memorial Day weekend celebrating Anna’s birthday and looking at rental houses. We are planning to move sometime in the next month. Kevin still does not know what ministry/job he will be doing next. His time with the Providence Network is winding down and we are trusting that it will become clear to us fairly soon!