Who said it is hard to get 5 kids to smile??

We recently went to the pumpkin patch with the kids. We deciphered some of Samuel's crying the other day and felt like he was telling us that he really needed some adventure and was ready for the day at a pumpkin patch. What we forgot was that whenever we try and help him grow in his curiosity and learning he usually ends up doing this..



















Here are the other 5 truly amazed at how wonderful their parents (and grandma) are for taking them to have sooooooo much fun. Can't you just feel the excitement in their looks?


Well I guess one of them is smiling. That is close to 5 right. Oh yeah and we have one of those new kind of cameras (I think they are called "digital") where you can take several million pictures and just delete the bad ones ... so here is the one I didn't delete! Thank you technology!



As I was making dinner tonight (well I made the side dishes, Alicia made the main course shreaded BBQ chicken sandwiches, yum... but I digress) I had to get this great shot of Rebekah and her brother (or as Nathaniel calls him, "newbabyboy," which is said as one word with no breaths in between words with an emphasis placed in the oi part of boy)








Oh wait that isn't really why I took that picture for those of you who didn't see why I took the picture here is another picture from a different perspective.










Yeah that's right Rebekah has finally learned how to climb onto the kitchen chairs then onto the kitchen table (I only say finally because Naomi had this mastered at the very old age of 10 months). Yea! Who doesn't love the fear that at any moment your child might slip and fall off the kitchen table and you can't do anything about it because it isn't very practical to screw the chairs to the ground close enough to the table to where she can't climb onto the chair then onto the table, especially not my chair, because well... put it this way, I just need a little bit more room between my chair and the table then Josiah does.

Here is a picture of Naomi about the same age as Rebekah is right now. The really don't look as much alike as I had thought they were.

Life with 8

Well, today is the 16th and on the 19th Samuel will be one month old. Where does time go? I think the first few weeks/months of a baby's life seem to go so quickly because you are so tired all the time. You are never really fully awake enough to enjoy them. At least that is my theory. (Samuel's first bath, or documented baby torture, you decide)

We have 2 weeks left in the soccer season, it's been a good experience both years, but with the weather getting cooler and the sun going down earlier, we are glad that there are only 2 more games and 1 more evening practice.

Josiah and Joshua have already been in school for one quarter and are doing very well, parent/teacher conferences are in a few weeks. It's been nice to have them in school, but I've realized it's not quite the break on Mondays I was hoping it would be.

Naomi is writing her name on everything (including the walls, the television and anything that remotely resembles a piece of paper). She will be 4 in a month, but I often forget this and think she is older because she is doing things at 3 that Josiah was not doing.

Nathaniel's vocabulary has exploded. He went from single words to full paragraphs and is constantly a narrator for what is going on around the house. At his two year check-up the Dr. wanted us to take him to a speech therapist because he was lacking in his vocabulary, well we never did due to insurance issues and finances, but I think he has more than caught up. Next step potty training!

Rebekah is very busy and is driving her big brothers and sister crazy. She has learned the buttons to turn off the computer, T.V., VCR, DVD and goes around the house "interrupting" their activities. She thinks it's great fun, they don't see the humor in it.

Samuel is a good baby and only cries when he is hungry, that's just usually every 3 to 4 hours which doesn't bother me during the day (unless I'm trying to take care of one of the other kids) but at night my strength to get up and feed him is very off and on. Some nights it's no big deal and other nights I lay there thinking, "Do I really have to get up with him?"

Joel and I? Well . . .we are just trying to trust that God knows what He is doing with us. It's been a humbling yet reoccurring lesson since the addition of children to our family. Our society is not really set up very well for one income families (in my opinion). We are surviving, and God is faithful, but we are being stretched. We are continuing to seek HIS direction for our future.