Thanksgiving Feasts!

Wow. It's been an insane month....I'm beginning to think that chaos and insanity is our new "normal". :) I am going to try (for the grandparents) to post more regularly b/c (as I am experiencing) these 5 kids are growing up so incredibly fast! So....here are a few pictures from our past week (and I hope to be more consistent). We are leaving (this morning) for Crossville, TN to spend Thanksgiving week with the Quillen's (dear friends from seminary)...our family of seven is descending upon their family of eight....and we will eagerly await the arrival of the Hathaway's (family of six) later in the week. 15 children and 6 adults under one roof....I am soo excited! Anyways, I will plan on posting pictures of our eventful Thanksgiving week when we get back! Thanks for checking in.....

Notice the gap in her bottom teeth?? She lost her first tooth a couple weeks ago....I can't believe it!

Boating at Lake DeGray last month!

We had a great time with church friends....almost a month ago now! Sorry to my blog-followers for being so horrible about keeping up with posting new pictures (that means you, R.M.) :) I can barely keep up with life, let alone blogging. Anyways, my parents are in town for the week and we've really enjoyed the beautiful weather and having visitors. I hope to post more....sooner rather than later!

Random Sept....

We received an early joint birthday present from Tom's mom...Thanks, Rose Marie...we've enjoyed using it several times since we bought it!
At Sherwood Fest last weekend the army recruiter had a rock wall that people could climb, so Josey and I took the first turn and Tom and Kylie went after us. It was fun!

Last Sunday afternoon the 2 big kids and I drove the 25 minutes to Pinnacle Mountain and hiked for a couple hours. We had a great time bouldering....made it 45 minutes in, ate a snack, and turned around. We're looking forward to going back sometime and actually making it to the top!

AJ's class was a part of a choir concert this past week. She was very proud of standing up front with her classmates and singing all the songs that they have been learning.

Sadly, most of our pictures were blurry or dark.

Hard to believe AJ is in Kindergarten. She's been enjoying her teacher and her class...she gets home from school and wants to "play school" with Kylie. :)

Kylie turns 10!

Ok, so I am way far behind on blogging. It's funny, ever since we moved to arkansas it seems like it's been nonstop....it's been a bit hard for me to keep up with everything that needs to get done! Anyways, we celebrated Kylie's birthday 2 weeks ago. Unbelievable that she is 10 years old. She decided on a Japanese steakhouse for a special dinner and no party this year since we're still getting to know people in town.

She also decided on a cookie-cake instead of a cake....we had some church friends over to help us eat it and sing. :)

Kylie's class

I am so grateful for my sweet ten year old! Her loving spirit, helpfulness and nurturing nature is such a blessing to our family. Her love of her siblings, of reading, of singing and music is a joy to watch. I am excited to see how she grows in this next year of her life....what a joy to be Kylie Grace's mom!

Our visit with the Hathaways!

Our friends from seminary came down for the installation service this weekend. It was such a blessing to have them show their love for us by being here this weekend....and it was fun for the kids to spend time together, too!

I finally got to meet sweet Mary Hathaway! She was such a joy to hold and cuddle.
Feeding time...kids first, adults second. :)

About 1/2 of their time together was spent playing board games. Star Wars monopoly...Star Wars clone wars monopoly...Snoopy monopoly....clue....indiana jones life....and more monopoly!

Kylie and Mary

The nine kiddos at bedtime.

Leighton sharing the stroller with Mary

Playing at the park before saying goodbye....

On the bridge overlooking the Arkansas river.

We really enjoyed our very first visitors in our home...Thank you, Hathaway family for choosing to spend your long weekend with us!! We got back from saying goodbye to our friends and Kylie's first comment sitting down to lunch was.... "it's so empty in here!". :)

Playing at the Riverfront park

After we said goodbye to our friends we spent some time playing in the fountains at the Riverfront park.

Leighton got sprayed in the face and decided she didn't want to play anymore.....
AJ enjoyed the water....

So did Josiah....

and Kylie....

but Matthias had the most fun!

After the long weekend of company and a couple hours at the park this is what I found during naptime....

Reverend Thomas Mirabella!

It's official! On sunday night we had Tom's installation service at church...it was a neat time of celebration with new church friends, new little rock friends, and old seminary friends. We are excited about this next season of our lives here in arkansas and can't wait to see what God's going to do!

(from L to R: John-seminary friend, Ed-seminary friend and pastor in our presbytery, Ron-elder at TFC, Tom, Darrell-elder at TFC, Ed-elder at TFC, Kevin-pastor in our presbytery, and Steve-retired pastor of TFC)