Sunday Photo: 44

We are back in the Pacific Northwest visiting family and friends for Thanksgiving.  14 hour car drives have nothing on us.

Tonight our best friends came down to Oly to visit.  This picture cracks me up.  It has captured so much different personalities.  

Eli is asleep.  He crashed.

Noah is pouting.

Gage, Luca and Lucy...well they are all just doing what we asked them too...

But Avery and Linkin?  The two of them crack me up.  Avery is going to marry Linkin someday.  And he is just not wanting to sit by her.  She cannot understand why.  In a sad little pitiful voice the last words she said to me tonight at bedtime were, "Mom, if he is going to marry me he needs to sit by me!"

Young love.

Oh, the heart break.

Sunday Photo: 43

Avery came bounding out of her church class wearing these today.

What a hoot.

"Scripture Specs: help me see my way to heaven."

~~

Last week I skipped my Sunday photo.   I decided instead of a negative post I would say nothing at all.  Sometimes it's just like that.   2013 has been a challenging year.  I've blogged about some things.  We lost Wade's mom.  The stress of Lucy's surgery.  I haven't blogged about a few other things.  Who wants to bare everything all the time?  Maybe someday.  

For example, after a lot of prayer and fasting we decided to move this summer.  We have felt good about moving.  The kids are happy.  They like their school, we like their school, we love our community.  But there are some things that have been hard on Wade and myself.

I saw this Mormon Message this week and shared it on my facebook.

It really touched me.  This is how I see it.  I feel like we came to two roads.  We went down the one we thought was right and it was obviously the wrong one.  We knew that almost immediately.  But the right one?  We are on that now.  I know that.  But, MAN, it's a long road.  Why couldn't the right road be a short one?  We are still waiting to see where it takes us.  Faith can be a challenging thing.

I love the last part.  

"God loves us"

"He expects us to - not retreat, not panic, not jump ship and to keep trusting him."

"In the end we will hear him say, I told you it would be okay.  I told you it would be alright."

~~

Whatever you are challenged with  - trust this message.  

God loves us.  

He expects us to trust him.  

And in the end it will be alright.

12 Months of Lucy

12 Months of our Little Lucy.

Maybe someday when I have time (hahaha!) I will have to collect all 12 months of each kid and make a huge collage of all of them!

{Lucy May Turns One!}

Today little Lucy May turns one!

(photo by Erica)

Time sure has flown by this past year - we all can't believe little Lucy is already one!  What a big girl!

Little Lucy is taking this baby stuff seriously - she doesn't want do walk, she prefers her little monkey-scoot-crawl.  She is getting a lot faster at pulling up and standing by stuff. We all carry her all the time, so it's no wonder she doesn't want to walk!  She can get places so much faster by getting us to carry her or her little scoot.

At one year Lucy has 4 little teeth.  And she is the worst teether!  Ugh.  She loves to bite just about anything with her four little teeth too!  

She likes to eat anything she can feed herself and she loves bottles and sippy cups of milk or juice...as long as someone holds them for her!  Silly girl.

Lucy has a couple words - she loves to say "uh-oh"  it's really the best thing ever!  She also can nod her head, "no" and likes to say dada, mama, wo-wa (noah) and is working on pa-pa (grandpa).

~~

This weekend we had 2 family birthday celebrations for her and Noah.  She had a great time being the center of attention.

Sunday we had a party with the Christiansens.  Aunt Pam brought her a present and it was wrapped in glitter wrapping paper.  Forget the present.  All Lucy wanted was the wrapping paper!  She kept putting it on her head - baby hair and glitter?  Let's just say it is Tuesday and she is still covered in glitter!

Wade decorated a big cake for her to eat (we mean destroy) on Sunday.

She really enjoyed playing in it but as soon as she got a taste of the cake - she pulled this face!  

What a goof ball.  

She didn't like it at all.  

And if you look close, you can see blue glitter all over her head in the pictures!

Monday night we invited my sisters family over and had another cupcake party.  Lucy liked her chocolate cupcake a lot better than her pink cake.  

Don't be fooled by the straight face.  

She was pretty excited about the candle!

What a year it's been.  We are so in love with little Lucy.  

We are so glad you are in our family, your little heart is healed and you are healthy!

Happy Birthday little Lucy May!

{Noah Lowe!}

Today we celebrate 7 years with this fun kid!

(photos by Erica)

Noah Lowe is a great kid.  We celebrated his birthday this year by having a small friend party yesterday.  Noah insisted in having a friend party.  He didn't have one last year, so we agreed.  Then he only wanted to invite five kids - only one showed up for the party, but he had a great time playing monster games and eating cake.  He said the day was perfect.

Today we are doing a combined party for Noah and Lucy.  

More cake, ice cream and root beer.  

What more could he want?

(Noah's birthday link)

At seven years old, some of Noah's favorites, in his words are:

color: orange

food: friend chicken legs

drink: chocolate milk or root beer

game: video games - Lego Star Wars

toy: video games or legos

restaurant: Ihop

song: wild songs - like the fox song

movie: Star Wars

book: The very hungry caterpillar

what do you want to be when you grow up: a scientist

treat: chocolate bars

Noah loves life.  He is very opinionated and will tell you exactly how he feels.  He loves school, but is softspoken there and very well behaved.  He loves recess and running around with his friends.  Noah is not a procrastinator.  He is always so fast when he has a task to get done.  Every day after school he comes in, gets his homework out and does it first thing.  Most days before a snack or even going to the bathroom!  He wants it done and out of the way.  He is such a great brother and is very kind to baby Lucy.  He is always first to do jobs without me asking.  On laundry days I know Noah will put his pile away without me even telling him it's laundry day.  He is such an acrobat.  He can do a headstand anywhere - just ask him!  He isn't a fan of loud noises or large groups of people.  He is a ham and has the best funny jokes.  He loves to make me laugh.

Happy Day Mr. Noah!

We love you!

{Halloween 2013}

We had a busy and fun time this year for Halloween.  The trunk or treat at church was the day before and we had fun watching the big kids at their parade at school.  We spent Halloween night at Aunt Judy's house celebrating with a spookie dinner and a little trick or treating.

This year we had:

A hobbit:

A skeleton:

A fairy princess:

A pirate:

And a pretty little ladybug:

And the group picture - well it turned out typical for our family.

Don't they look like they are up to something?

BAM!

 Happy Halloween!