Ms. Kimberly is AJ's gymnastics teacher and is leaving the YMCA....here is a pic of their last class (a lot of kids were missing that day)

The babies looked really cute on sunday, but weren't in the mood to pose for a picture.

AJ just told me that she wanted to have red hair. I asked her why and she proceeded to explain that red is close to pink and pink and close to red and pink is her favorite. :) I love how the kids are growing up and thinking in different ways....here are a couple letters that were written over the past month or so. the first is a birthday card to me from Josiah:

Dear Mommy, I am sorry that I do not have a present for you. But remember the litte drumer boy had none for are Lord but he did something for him. Love, Josiah.

(i love the "are Lord" part)

Kylie's note to santa claus:

Dear Santa Claus(E), you know that I'm awake, but you really know that I don't believe in you. Anyways, I've decided that it's time to make a Christmas list of what I want for Christmas.

1. a fourth grader's homeschool workbook

2. some really good books

3. a little bit of candy

4. at least some money

5. "Calvin and Hobbes" comic books

Sorry if I'm greedy, but these are the stuff I really want.

P.S. sorry this is two months before you're year!

Kylie

Only my daughter would ask for a homeschool workbook. :)

Trick-or-treating....

October 31st is a friday this year...which is when the Hardee wildcats have their football game....soooo, Hardee County moved trick-or-treating to tonight! I had never heard of such a thing until last year when they moved it b/c it was a school night (i think that was the reason). So, our maid (kylie), Indiana Jones (josiah), pirate (aj, for the 2nd year in a row), and Larry (matthias) and Bob (leighton) went around the block with the crowds trick-or-treating. It was fun to watch the babies realize that they got candy in their bags...they were putting lollipops in their mouths with the wrappers on and such. Another thing that was hard to get used to is that if you are handing out candy you set up a chair outside in your driveway and do it from there. No one rings doorbells!

Here are 2 pictures to give a tiny glimpse into the craziness of the night. The first picture is of the line of kids on our driveway waiting for their candy. The second picture is of my neighbor across the street and it's hard to see, but the general idea of tons of people is what I wanted to convey. There are not a lot of neighborhoods in Wauchula, so the ones there are get a ton of people who drive in to trick-or-treat in a neighborhood. Needless to say our almost 20 dollars worth of candy was gone pretty quickly.

Saturday morning fun!

We went over to Miss Mary's house yesterday to spend some time with her and to show her some Japan pictures. She has been one of many sweet encouragers to us in our church.

Leighton is our biggest explorer yet and found a pack of gum yesterday. she had taken a bite out of every piece that she was able to get unwrapped, but ended up spitting the pieces out. She also has a huge bruise on her cheek from when we were at the playground a couple days ago she fell and bumped her face on the bleachers. The night before she was playing at church and got a cut on her leg from a nail. what a handful she is!!

The next few pictures are of our Saturday morning cinnamon roll making. I woke up more refreshed than I've been in a long time...it all starts with last night around 6:30 I asked Tom if he'd put the babies to bed while I lay down for 30 minutes....he said sure and I got in bed. I ended up waking up around 10pm wondering what time it was....saw that it was late, rolled over and slept until 6:30 this morning! I don't know when the last time was that I got that much sleep, but needless to say I was awake early and in between mopping the floor and reading a little bit I started some dough with the bread machine for cinnamon rolls. Let me say that making cinnamon rolls from scratch is a lot of work and with all the time that it needed to rise in between instructions they weren't done until around 11:00.

my 5 big helpers.

They turned out delicious as you can tell from the cute mouthfuls. :)

Our past week or so....

My birthday was last week.....my sweet husband called some friends to take me out for lunch last weekend....well....I ended up taking Matthias to the ER during the time in which they were going to take me out (last saturday lunchtime)...long story short, he had come off the sofa 'wrong' and every time he put his weight onto his left ankle it would buckle and he would crumple to the ground. Poor guy was so pitiful....we did the Wauchula x-ray thing and basically he was fine and after we got home and he napped he was up and running by the evening. (note to self: wait longer next time) Anyways, that ER trip messed up the lunchplans, but they ended up coming to my house this past thursday to whisk me away to Sebring for dinner at Olive Garden...it was a really nice GNO (girl's night out) with 3 of my favorite people in town! (i've posted pictures of their kids, but not them...so here they are: Lisa, Jennifer and Jenn) (thanks girls!)

Josiah woke up on thursday morning and Tom took one look at him and realized that his tooth was gone! He had pulled one out the day after my sister-in-law's wedding in VA and the other one was looking snaggle-toothy, but he was having a hard time wiggling it b/c it was hurting. Anyways, we searched his bed, but couldn't find it so decided that he probably swallowed it. In reality, he hadn't....I found it on the ground after cleaning up later that day. My little boy is getting big!!
And...Kylie got a TopCat award for the first 9 weeks at school! The teachers get to pick 3 students every 9 weeks who have been good "citizens" in their class and Kylie was one. She is really wired well for school and has been thriving with her teacher this year. We are very proud of her!!
Fun after bath pics....(matthias)
(Leighton)

The kids really enjoy our across the street neighbor (who happens to be one of Josiah's classmates)....their favorite thing to do outside, besides riding bikes, is to find and catch lizards and treefrogs. They keep them in the bug house for a day and let them go after a while. (we actually found a frog under the sofa a couple weeks ago....i'm still getting used to the craziness of lizards and frogs in the house...not to mention all the other creepy crawlies)
Here's my middle sweet girl with her dress from "aunt jenner" on. And sweet matthias who loves to pose for pictures. :)
Leighton has been sick all week long. Poor thing has been coughing and congested and very fussy. Anyways, here's a pic of one of her cuddle til I fall asleep moments this evening. I took her to the dr. on friday and she basically said that it's viral and we just need to wait it out. Hopefully this week will be better.

Today was Tom's birthday......it was a pretty uneventful day....we got some of his favorite things (Kylie wanted to get him ramen for his birthday, how funny is that? Josiah picked out the new Indiana Jones movie which conveniently he will enjoy, too.....and AJ wanted to get him Diet Dr. Pepper). Anyways, I'm grateful for my husband today. Thankful that he was born......and excited about this next year of life for both of us and our family....soo glad that we'll be together wherever we go...whether it's japan or anywhere else!!

They've grown up a lot!

In seminary, Megan, Kylie and Josey were inseparable....they played together great and enjoyed each other a lot. Now that they're older, Kylie and Megan tend towards girlier things than Josiah is into...but it's always fun to remember they're sweet friendship when we all lived on campus. They have definitely grown up a lot! We love you Busbice family!!! Thanks for sharing your vacation time with us.

Ever since we got back from Japan it's been unpacking, packing again...trying to keep up with piano, beartooth club, gymnastics, homework, laundry, school newspaper, on and on the list goes. I am hoping that the next few weeks and months are a bit calmer, but I'm beginning to realize that I think my life is just going to be crazy and chaotic most of the time....and that's okay...in fact it's wonderful! (just a bit tiring, sometimes) :)

Since we've been back.....

So, before we left VA we pulled out my old wedding dress and let Kylie try it on. It was a little big. :)

Our good friends from seminary were at Disney this past week so we went up one day and spent a few hours swimming and visiting with them....it was so good to see them (but always too short)

We caught this "twin moment" when we were strolling the babies....
The homecoming parade was 2:00 on friday afternoon...it was super sunny and very sweaty...the kids got an early release day and we sat and watched the floats go by (the twins and I ended up inside a restaurant watching) with some friends.
AJ and her friend, Ella
Big brother reading to baby brother. Matthias has really been into books lately, it's been fun.

More Virginia visit pics....

Christina and Julie (plus Tyler) my good college friends....
and our little 3/4 year old girls (Anna, AJ, and Amy) so cute!!
Josiah, the man, with gel in his hair.
sweet AJ the flower girl
Elegant Kylie the jr. bridesmaid
The girls with grandpa and aunt joanie
the practice
posing

The beautiful bride, my sister-in-law
the groom and the little girls. (my new brother-in-law)

a few wedding pics...

The wedding was beautiful! The kids did wonderfully and we all had a great time! We're definitely exhausted and get to head back to "reality" tomorrow...I'll post more when I get home, but in the meantime....here are some pictures. Congratulations Joanie and Zach!