Jenn's dresses for the girls!

Thanks, Jenner, for the fun dresses for the girls!!

having fun....

They had started off with Matthias pushing Leighton, but by the time I got my camera they had switched and were tired of pushing each other.

Matthias' thighs didn't let him get out of the stroller by himself. :)

It's hard to believe that Tom and I are leaving for Japan in 8 days! Our friends fly in on Saturday...we'll get almost 48 hours with them until we fly out on Monday morning! We'll post an official update later this week with our thoughts and prayer requests. Thanks for checking in!

clean kids...

We took pictures after baths and on our way out the door earlier this week.....

When we got home from storytime and lunch, Matthias found his blanket and Leighton found her stuffed dog and they were very happy about it....ready for naps!

Twin bathtime!

Matthias and Leighton love taking baths. Recently they've been into splashing and laughing at each other which is so fun to watch. Today Matthias would go to the soap, (pretend to) get some on his hand, and rub Leighton's back with it...thinking that he was helping bathe his sister. I love this age...they are 18 months old in a week! Hard to believe how quickly they've grown.

Amazing Grace sung by AJ

Here is my sweet 4 year old singing 'Amazing Grace'. Everyone who knows and loves her knows that she has the most adorable scratchy little voice. She also doesn't say her "s's" in blend words (like sweet...she'll say fweet) and she says the "y" sound for "l" (like lost, she'll say "yost"). I know that she'll have to grow out of that eventually, but I love it!

Fun in puddles!

We had one of our big rainshowers this afternoon for about 20 minutes....we were playing in the carport until it stopped which is when the kids found a wonderful puddle at the foot of the driveway. They played and played....stomping in rainpuddles is the best. We also have this drain/gutter type of spot right off of the driveway that pools a lot of water that sits forever when it rains a lot. Josiah ends up finding tadpoles there that he catches in buckets, feeds spinach to, and watches transform into little tiny frogs. It was a fun puddle day.

Leighton and her "tinkys"

I think that I've posted before that Leighton's special "lovey" is a stuffed dog. My friend, Jenn, gave one to each of the twins and Matthias was uninterested (kept throwing it out of his crib) so we just gave them both to Leighton. Well, a couple months ago I saw that her "tinkys" were on sale at toys r us...I would've just bought one, but b/c of the sale ended up with 2...which puts our total at 4 dogs in the house. She and I were lying in bed the other day and she saw the 2 extra dogs in my closet, so we went ahead and got them out for her to enjoy all 4 of them for a couple minutes. She didn't know how to hold them all! :) As a side note, when Leighton had a stomach bug last month having 4 dogs really came in useful. We rotated through them...I think they each had a turn being thrown up on.

Matthias' haircut!

My little man went from having scraggly baby hair to having trimmed little boy hair! I took him to get his hair cut (after having trimmed it myself at least 4 times in his life) and he looks so different! Of course, I forgot to bring the camera to the hair place...but here's the before and after. He didn't enjoy the haircut, but he didn't scream (i held him on my lap).

Crazy spiders.

We have a ton of spiders spinning webs from the edge of our rooftop down to our bushes. For someone who really really does not like spiders it isn't all that fun, however....there are some days that I do not like mosquitoes and gnats more. So, these friendly spiders have been catching the biting bugs that we don't like. There are 3 huge garden spiders out front. Kylie has named them, Spitine, Mistine, Brotine, and Sistine. Anyways, the 2nd picture is of the female spider mating with another spider...the male supposedly dies and is eaten by the female when they're done. Crazy. (and it is really as huge as it looks)

The first day of school 2008!

Josiah started 2nd grade today! He has Mrs. Rich (who was Kylie's teacher last year)...we're excited to be with a familiar teacher that we enjoyed so much last year. His classmate and neighbor from across the street is in his class again and she has been a good friend to all the kids, so that is a neat blessing.

Sweet siblings
Kylie's 3rd grade teacher is Mrs. Coleman...we're very excited and have heard great things about her. She has at least 4 or so girls from her class last year in class with her this year and was glad for that. Kylie read the 1st Harry Potter book in 2 days a few weeks ago (we thought that was kind of crazy).

I cannot believe another school year has begun! The kids are definitely growing up so fast. I also cannot believe that we're going to have our first florida "weather experience" this week. School is canceled for tomorrow and we're stocked up on water and batteries and non-perishable foods. Hopefully Fay won't be more than a big rainstorm here, but everyone who's been here can vouch that you never can tell. (Charley came through in 2004 and did a good bit of damage)

We have 3 weeks until our trip to Japan! That's really hard to believe, too. I'm definitely getting excited, but it will be hard to be away from all the kids for those 8 days. Pray with me if you can for safety for all 7 of us while we're apart!

The end of summer!

After weeks of asking and asking I finally got around to sewing some clothes for the kids teeny beanie stuffeda animals. It was not enjoyable, but the joy that the kids had over having the end result was worth it! (do-rags and skirts for the girls, capes and ninja outfits for the boys)

The girls were sitting in the living room playing ball with matthias the other day....
and josiah and leighton were coloring!
her future is sooo bright!

Anna and the twins...

Last summer...

and this weekend!
We love you Anners!

Our time with Anna!

After picking Anna up from the airport on Wednesday we headed out to Manatee Beach in Bradenton to play for a couple of hours. Leighton was a daredevil...wanting to run towards the water and enjoying sitting in the sand. Matthias was a leech...clinging to me or Anna, crying because the waves were too loud and the water too scary. It's continually amazing to me to see how opposite these twins are!
Leighton working on a puzzle...while cuddling one of her sweet puppies that she loves so much (thanks jenner!)
We had a great time with Anna this weekend. It was a little surreal to have her here, since she lived with us for 3 months last summer it felt so normal to have her around for these couple of days. The kids got some good playing time in with her and she and I had fun eating yummy salads for lunch and ice cream at night. It was hard to say goodbye to her this morning....it's always a little hard to say good bye to someone when you don't know when the next time you are going to see that person is. Anna leaves for Cameroon exactly a month from today! I am very excited to see how God is going to work in and through my dear friend in this next season or her life.

Leighton and Matthias driving down the driveway!

The other day it was raining outside and I heard the sound of rolling wheels and laughter. Matthias had gotten on his little car and pushed off, zooming down the driveway headed for the ditch! Needless to say, he had a blast and every time we go outside he heads straight for his car to roll it (feet up) down the driveway. Leighton enjoys it too, but she's a bit more cautious than her crazy brother. What fun!

lizard and twins...

We caught this little guy in our living room the other day. i put a cup over him and slid a piece of paper under him to carry him outside. i told the kids i wanted to take a picture of it and josey proceeded to pick the cup up so that i could get a picture. needless to say, we spent another good while trying to chase it down again to capture it. (it's sitting by josey's finger in the picture)
the twins have been fighting over sunglasses lately. we finally found a pair for both of them....i thought leighton looked like a crazy preacher-baby praising the Lord!
my little man is so proud of his shades.
Went to a friend's house for a water playdate and wasn't really planning on the babies playing, but there was a baby pool set up for them, so i borrowed some swim diapers that were too big. (tom commented that it could almost have been a one piece for leighton)
i'm glad that my parents didn't have blogs to post embarrasing baby pictures of me when i was little. :)

Our friend, Anna, who lived with us last summer is flying in tomorrow to visit with us until monday. We are thrilled that she is coming. She'll be leaving for Cameroon in September to do missions work with Wycliffe Bible Translators. It's the beginning of an exciting new season for her and we're glad that we're going to be able to see her one last time before she leaves the country!