Sarah turns 4

Happy Birthday Sweet Sarah!!!

Sarah wanted a Nutcracker birthday party, so we got some nuts and a nutcracker, I love the expression on her face after cracking a nut!

Huggin Caleb! (the funny glow on her face is from the "finger lights" that Grandma Reinhard sent - all the kids wore them all day!)

With her new dolly - both dressed in their jammies and ready for bed.

Sarah, these past few months have been a little hard for you. You have gone from being the "baby" of the family to being sandwiched in the middle of things. Finding your new place in the family has been hard on you. You still bring a lot of joy to us - you have a fun personality, you are so chatty, and you have a great sense of humor! You adore Joshua! You love to play with him and read him books, he loves it when you read him books. You also adore Elizabeth and love to play with her all the time. You are doing great in preschool and Caleb is your best friend - ever!

My prayer for you this year is that you will grow to see your importance in Jesus, His love for you, and that you will grow in confidence of who God has made you to be. We are so thankful for the joy you bring to our family and we love you so much!

Catching up...

It is not often these days that all three kids take a nap at the same time. Seems like I just relax and it is time for them to get up or Joshua decides his nap time is done. Anyway, today was one of those days - the good kinds! All three of them are sleeping, the house is nice and quiet, I feel relaxed (a far cry from how the rest of the week has been!).
SO, what to do with this free time to myself? There is always so much to do this time of year, presents to make and wrap, baking to do, shopping, cleaning, cooking, planning... the list goes on and on. But, what is it that I really want to do?
I love taking time to blog because it enables me to stop and reflect on what we have been up to these days, what moments did I take time to capture on film so that I could remember them always? I hope you enjoy looking through these moments and getting a glimpse of our life the past few weeks and I hope that you too can take time to reflect on the moments you have had lately that you want to remember always.

Dreams of sugar plum fairies and such!

One of my favorite things this year so far was going to the Nutcracker ballet with my girls. I have seen this ballet many times but never enjoyed it as much as this year, seeing it through the eyes of my children, especially Elizabeth's, who is in ballet and loves it and dreams of being a beautiful ballerina. We got all dressed up in our Christmas dresses, had dinner with aunt Lori, and then spent the evening in dream land! Elizabeth was stary eyed the entire time. Sarah enjoyed it but it got a bit long and late for her. My sister Tammie and her girls were in it this year so it was even more fun to watch knowing they were doing what they love to do. I love the way Elizabeth was looking at Tammie!

Sarah was so tired by the end of the show. I turned around at one point and found her lying on the ground.

Christmas Decorating

I love decorating for Christmas! It is such a beautiful time of year and brings such a big batch of memories with it. Last year Nate was not able to put up Christmas lights because it had snowed so much and in order to hang them he has to get up on the roof. This year we have hardly had any snow at all so he took the girls up on the roof with him to help. They thought that was great!

Many years we have gone up to the mountains to get our tree but this year we decided not to try it with Joshua being so little and hating the carseat. So, we went to the grocery story and got a tree, it is beautiful (and boy was it easy!).
The girls loved decorating it. I loved hearing them oo and ahh over different ornaments!


Elizabeth took this picture. I love seeing pictures taken from her perspective!

Fun in Indiana

We had a wonderful time with family over Thanksgiving. Spending time in Indiana is always very relaxing and fun for us. We have often said we wish we could take out a few states inbetween us so that we were not so far away!

Grandma with the little cousins!What is a family get together without some crafts and games and a little hard work?! (and of course lots of yummy food, but I don't have any pictures of that!) Kyle seems to be the baby whisperer - he has always loved holding each new babySaying good-bye at the airport

3 Months

How can it be that our little man is already 3 months old?!

I know I am biased but I think he is awfully cute!

We love you Joshua Daniel

Home for the Holidays

We've all heard the saying, 'make a house a home', but what is a home? Home is a place you are from, it is a destination you are trying to find. Home, in a broad sense, is a place where you feel comfortable, a place where there are people you love and that love you. A home is not necessarily a place...

This past week we went home and came home - huh?!! We had the joy of spending Thanksgiving with Nate' s family, home in Indiana. Then we hopped back on a plane and came home, to our house, our home. We are so blessed to have many places we can call home, people we love and that love us. We are beginning a beautiful season, the Christmas season. I love this time of year and all that comes with it. I love the time spent with family. I love decorating my home. I love the baking and eating! I love the gift giving and receiving. I love the traditions and the sparkle of my children's eyes as they experience these traditions for the first time. I love making memories.
My prayer for this holiday season is that I will not forget where my eternal home is and that while I love this home, it does not even compare to the home Jesus is preparing for me. He truly is the reason for every season and I pray that He will not get lost in the hustle of all the wonderful things happening this time of year.
Blessings to each of you and may you find your home in Jesus this year.

A lot of new posts...

It has been a crazy few weeks. Life has really been going well but there have been a few bumps in the road as we continue to adjust to life with three kids. I am just so thankful for Nate and all of his help, love, and patience. He comes home each evening like my knight in shining armor! All that said, I have been wanting to post quite a few pictures but just haven't found the time to do it. Tonight the house is quiet, every one is sleeping, and I am getting a few moments to do whatever I want. Yes, it is late, I probably should be sleeping but I just can't help but spend a little bit of time looking at my cuties in pictures and yes, perhaps bragging on them a bit.

Speaking of my cuties...

Well, now that I have updated the ol' blog. I really should head to bed. Hope you enjoy browsing through some fun family moments with us!

(By the way, Joshua has slept through the night 4 nights in a row now! Ah, sweet sleep, it is so good to have you again!)

Just so cute!

Not much else needs to be said...

Homeschooling is so fun!

We have really loved homeschooling this year. There of course have been a few hard days but overall we are so thankful that God placed this on our hearts and that we are able to do it. Every week seems to run a bit differently for us but we are managing to get work done about 3 or 4 days a week besides the other activities she is involved in. On Tuesday Elizabeth is going to Options, a one day a week school for homeschooled kids. She LOVES it and has made some friends there that we hear about a lot. She is learning Spanish, and has a music and P.E. class as well. On Friday's she spends part of the day with Grandma Smeltzer, learning how to sew and then in the afternoon she has a ballet class. I am so proud of her and all that she is learning and the beautiful girl she is becoming. I have seen her grow in her confidence with people and in her academics. Not only to I love being her mommy, but I am truly loving being her favorite teacher as well!

One Monday morning after a very busy weekend in which I did not get any planning done, we

decided to make playdough and then use cookie cutters to make words. It ended up to be so fun and very educational as well! She helped with the measuring, timing of the cooking process, and of course making words. I loved seeing her work to make sentences with the words she made, and then changing them around to make new sentences.

On another morning, she was playing with playdough again and one of her peices ended up looking like the continent of Africa she thought. So, she ran to get our continents placemat and decided to make all the other conitnents as well. I love seeing those spontaneous learning opportunities!

Oh yes, she did learn to read last week! She was so ready and all it took was one lesson in how to blend letter sounds together to make words. As a teacher I always loved seeing those lightbulb moments when the kids would just "get it"! Elizabeth just got it and it is so fun seeing her reading!

The first snow!

There is something so special about the first snow each year. It came late this year and didn't last long, but Nate and the girls still had some fun in it! Joshua and I stepped outside to take a picture but that was just about all he wanted to do with it.

Wild, and not so wild animals!!

The girls decided they wanted to be wild animals for our fall party this year! We had a lion, a cheetah, and a doggie (not really a very wild animal, but hey he sure was cute!)

For Sarah's Preschool party she dressed up as a ballerina bunny. Durning her little parade she hopped the whole way, it was so cute!

Fun in the Leaves

Well, all of our leaves are long gone but the memories of our fun in them is not! All of our leaves fell at one time this year so we had a great big pile to enjoy one Saturday. Later in the week the cousins got to come over and enjoy some leaf fun too!

Joshua missed out on the fun because he was napping, but the rest of us enjoyed our time thoroughly!

Pumkin Patch

A fall tradition of ours (and many others, we couldn't believe how busy it was that day!) is to hike around a local pumkin farm in search of just the right pumkin! With 6 kids trying to choose just the right one, it did take a while but we sure enjoyed our time together! We love living so close to some of our cousins. Happy Pumpkin picking!

Look who's 2 months old!!

I can't believe it has already been two months! Joshua is just a joy to our whole family. He loves to smile and loves his sisters. They give him a lot of attention and he is pretty easy going about it all. He is starting to grow into his skin a bit and loves laying in his bed watching his mobile! He has slept through the night a few times and is getting into somewhat of a routine.

Joshua, we are so thankful for your life and what you add to our family. We love you!!

Fabulous Fall!

I just really love fall and always seem to take a bunch of pictures this time of year. As I was trying to decide which ones to put on the blog, there were too many cute ones, so of course that means I have to make a video right!? Enjoy our little cutie pies!

JBU Homecoming

It had been 10 years since we had walked the grounds at John Brown University. It is where my life truly started, where I became more of the woman God had made me to be. It is where Nate and I met and fell in love. It is where lifelong friendships were made. And although much has changed about it and we have changed much as well, the memories have not. It was a great weekend to remember and be ever thankful for this journey God has taken us on. Walking down the 100 Stairs

(we actually did not walk all the way down them this time, the girls were too tired out!)

Nate told me that it was half-way down these steps, on a bench, that he fasted and prayed, asking the Lord's permission to marry me!

I cannot deny that I had tears in my eyes as he told me that.The bench outside Mayfield where Nate would wait for me to get ready for our "not really a date" dates...this was before we were officially dating but spent a lot of time together!Doing what we loved to do back in the day - spending time at Lake Weddington -

"Looks like a Weddington day!"Girlfriends, couldn't do life without them!! (Heidi, we missed you!) The kids - they all got a long great!

A great weekend with great friends!