Josh the Lion

Josh loves to dress-up... sometimes 4-5 times a day.  Since Jason has been reading the Chronicles of Narnia to the kids, Josh has wanted a lion costume.  Jason's parents got him one for Christmas.  Have you ever seen a lion play the drums?

Two days after Christmas

I couldn't resist publishing this picture.  We all had a good laugh at Ryan's expense.  We exchanged gifts with Ryan and his parents on Saturday before we left to travel home.  This is Ryan's tree.

Christmas Day 2009

Today we drove to Zelienople, PA to spend time with Jason's grandparents and family.  We left in the morning after we opened our presents.  There was not a lot of traffic, so we made it in 5 hours.  We had a nice time seeing Jason's side of the family.  Autumn especially liked playing with her two cousins, Rachel and Lizzie.  We spent the next day and a half at Ryan's house.  While Jason went for a 10 mile run we took the kids on a hike.  On Saturday morning, we surprised Jason's parents at the airport in Pittsburgh.  We had a nice breakfast with them and then had to drive home.  

Christmas Eve 2009

We began our celebration the with my parents and my brother coming over Christmas Eve.  We had a nice time together.  However,we did not have our famous goose that we had last year.  After exchanging gifts my brother spent some time showing the kids new magic tricks.  Their favorite trick is the one were they each end up with a dollar bill!  Each time they see him, they try to learn more tricks.  It is especially fun watching Josh be in awe of these tricks and then Jake trying to figure them all out.  After dinner we went to our Christmas Eve service. The Lord has truly blessed us with wonderful families.  We are so thankful for them.

Our Newest Family Members

Jason and I still don't know what we were thinking, but we got 2 kittens for the kids for Christmas.  It's been a few years since we have had a cat, so the kids did not really remember what it was like. It took us awhile to agree on names for them.  The striped cat is named, Guiness(like the beer), and the grey one is named, Milkshake.  However, Jack's word for "milk" is "boof" so he calls the striped one, Boof, and the grey one, Boof Boof.  The kids love playing with them and they are doing a great job taking care of them.

Josh turns 5

I just realized that I forgot to post pictures from his birthday so this is a little out of order.   I can't believe he is 5!  Josh is such a pleasant, little guy.  He always has a smile on his face.   Josh loves to wear 4-5 dress-ups a day.  He is always putting on something new. We call him "Mr. Agreeable".  Whenever we play a game, he will try to lose on purpose so I can win.  He is such a joy to be around and I thank the Lord daily for giving us 5 years with him!  

Florida 2008

We recently returned from a family trip (minus Jack) to Florida.  Jack spent the week with my parents enjoying life as an only child.  Four years ago we won our bid on a 1 week vacation at our school auction.  We finally decided to use it this year.  We spent several days at Sea World and Aquatica and one day at Disney.  The kids said that the water park and Sea World were their favorite.  Josh loved his first trip on an airplane... escpecially the turbulent ride back to Baltimore.  I, on the other hand, was gripping my armrests.  We also had a neat opportunity to watch the space shuttle launch from a little town called, Titusville.  We sat in a small park and ate dinner from KFC as we waited.  Apparently, we were as close as you could get without buying tickets to view the launch.  It was pretty amazing!  We had a wonderful time together.  It was hard leaving the 80 degree weather and return to the 40's.