Fall Harvest and Happy Holidays to come

Hi there everyone. It's been a while I know, but as you will see by the size of this blog what we have been up to. I thought I would start off the blog with little missy. As you can see at the top she likes to sit up in bed and play- so the toy is now removed from the bed and instead she has found interest in talking to her blankets and stuffed animals.

She also loves her excersaucer. She jumps, runs in place and rocks the thing back and forth like she is on an amusement ride. She yells at the top of her lungs - at what we are not sure - and is completely content for at least 30 minutes.

The swing is not her favorite, but she enjoys it as well. I think she thinks this is also a ride or some thing and it sings music to her. What can get better than that. She will rock herself to any music you play - it is quite funny and she will stop dead in her tracks when she hears the theme song to the Backyardigans (Kai's favorite cartoon).

This would be one of the nicer - pouty face moments Kolbie had in September. She got her ears pierced - she loves "bling bling" and will try to get them off you at any time. Luckily she has no idea that she has a little some thing on herself with a little shine. If you are wondering - yes she screamed like she was getting shots, but it was over quick and then she took a little nap to forget the whole experience. This was her at auntie Stacey's house after the drama.

This was her right after the pout - so as you can see, she also can be a drama queen and work some sympathy getting you all to believe the worst.

Here are the 3 together. Kolbie loves to pull hair and clothes as you can see her grabbing at Kai.

Kai was busy himself this fall. Not to mention the huge scab he had for about 1 week after bashing his face into aunt Stacey's couch, he chose to wake up in his sleep and flip over in his bed and hit his face on a shelf. We couldn't find a scratch on him or mark except for his face swelling up like the michelin man. He then had to go to the doctor and they put him on an antibiotic just to make sure that if there was an infection it would be taken care of. Of course right after the appointment - before taking any medication his face shrunk back to normal.

His new favorite thing is mazes. He loves me to print them off the internet and let him do them over and over. This one maze is in his pre-school class and he sat and worked on it for 30 minutes while the other kids fought over the doll house. I was so proud and shocked he didn't want to join into the argument with the others.

This was us at Uncle Ray's and Auntie Stacey's just chillin'. Kolbie is out like a light and I think Sahaan was at youth group so we went over to just visit.

This is one of Sadiyah's fall sports. She did volleyball up until 2 weeks ago and now she is in basketball. She did very well at volleyball, we just have to work on her calling the ball. She isn't one to yell you know :) . Now she is in basketball and the coach says she is a great shooter. She still needs to work on running and dribbling, but I think it will come. Practices seem to help immensely between games.

This is next picture is from our church harvest party. Kolbie is a little lady bug and Quincy was a little lion. He is a crawler now and was obssessed with the stairs going up onto the stage, so Amy (his mom had to sit there almost the whole night with him). Kolbie is a scooter - army crawler - or whatever else you can think of. She now goes pretty quick and is trying really hard to figure out how her knees can work for her as well as her arms.

This is us at sunriver in September. The kids and I went on bike rides and Kai got a real kick out of being attached to the back of my bike and not having training wheels. He is really good on his little bike at home, but rely's alot on his little training wheels. Soon we will upgrade his bike and try him with out them - but again that is later.

We went to the playground a few times and went swinging and climbing. Kolbie loved to swing and Kai loved pretending he was climbing to the tallest tower being a knight.

ok so officially the pictures are out of order. This one is from the pumpkin patch and they were crawling through the hay maze. They stopped long enough to pose and for Kai to realize he had to urgently go PEE. So off Sahaan ran with him to a bathroom (which I think ended up being the shade next to the truck - ring any bells Marty. (Peeing on the jeep when you were little)

We went on a hay ride out to the muddiest field I have ever been in (like 6 inches deep at least) to pick out our beloved pumpkins. Kai ended up not picking a dirty one - he went back to the front of the farm where they prepicked small pumpkins and cleaned them. We also went to the pumpkin patch with his friends at school and mom came along for the experience as well. We loved having her up and Kai was super excited.

Here on top of the hay maze was Sahaan and Kolbie, staying dry from the rain that had just started. Kolbie really didn't care, but I think Sahaan did.
Here is another harvest party picture. Here is the little ladybug who couldn't fly. She squirmed like a worm to move ever so slowly where she needed to be.

Here is our gladiator. He was there to protect us and to be the strongest of them all. He had alot of one liners that night - it was hilarious. His best was - "I have so much candy I will be sick for a whole year" (with a huge grin on his face). The mask didn't last long and he couldn't sit well, but he was a trooper and didn't not in any circumstance want any armour removed.

This October Ray, Stacey and the boys had to mourn the loss of there grandma Grace. (great grandma to the boys) To get there mind off of the passing, we all went to the zoo for a day of fun. It was an awesome day, it was 70 degrees and warm and sunny. Kolbie was intrigued with everything, even if she didn't know what she was looking at.

Kai and Robert were stuck together like glue at every moment. This is how we went from site to site and almost every picture of Robert - there was Kai.

Here our the little bald eagles. They are sitting in a life size eagles nest that was built by humans. They loved being little birds - well only for like 10 sec. (long enough to get a picture).

Martay and the other boys loved climbing on these statues of animals right next to the elephant exhibit. They played for a while, and we finally had to stop the playing in order to move on.

So as you can see we have been quite the busy little bees, staying completely consumed with kids events and trips. I now do NOT watch Quincy, so I have also been trying to spend more time with the kids one on one and taking them to fun places like the children's museum, play dates with church friends at indoor parks and then spending time with Kai on learning his numbers, letters and writing. He likes doing the work, but only for like 15-30 minutes and then he is done. So he is getting it, but just not as fast as I would like. Kolbie is learning to crawl, eat everything I did not get vacumed up off the floor and Sadiyah is just waiting for this upcoming holiday because there is no school. The fith grade seems so much more intense than the fourth and believe it or not - next year she will be in junior high. She is about a head shorter than me, and wheres a half size smaller in shoes than me. EEEKKK!!!

Sahaan is doing good. There was some financial hardship at the church this fall and his hours and pay got cut back to part time, but he has had 3 interviews now with the same company for a full time mentoring job for urban boys. Please pray that God will open the doors for this job as it would provide financial security and peace. He will be going back to school in May for his certificate of Urban youth ministry from Fuller Seminary in California and then to seminary for a youth ministry degree. We were told by the covenant that they would love for him to pursue a further degree - as they have big plans for him in the future. He could go to school for free, but we would have to move to Chicago. Alot would have to take place in order for that to happen - one huge thing would be for Sadiyah's mom, stepdad and sister to go there too and God would have to take everything away from me here in order for me to go there. I like visiting there, but living there would be a huge call in my life from God.

We are staying strong and trusting in the Lords for every thing to work out and will continue to pursue ministry and our degrees to further the kingdom. Oh yah I am going back to school too in January. That is a whole nother story so that will have to come at a later blog.

I hope to talk to you all soon and even see some of you. So until then, stay healthy, safe and secure in HIM.

All my love

Stephanie