"Oh Christmas Tree . . ."

Building a Fire with Daddy

The kids love when Daddy builds a fire in our fireplace, and Joshua likes to lean in and blow on the fire - just like Daddy!

Our Snow Man??

I was so excited for our first snow - of course the kids were pretty happy about it, too! Last year we didn't get any real snow until, I think, early February. So we took the first chance we had to build a snowman.

Fun Time!

That's Madilyn's beautiful blue eye - the rest are of Joshua.

Go Colts!!!

Joe's parents took he and I to our first Colts game on 12/2 against Jacksonville (Colt's won, in case you were wondering!) It was a lot of fun, and we were both thankful that they took us.

Grace Bible Church ~ Our New Building

Here are some pictures - about a month old now - of the building with the dry wall up. They have the painting done now and most of the doors, but I don't have pictures of that yet! The chairs come tonight, and the carpet is scheduled to be in after the holidays.

The Deacon's Pew

When Joe was in high school or college, he and his dad found this beautiful old deacon's pew - painted sky blue. They stripped and stained it, and we've had it in our living room for the last 9 1/2 years - I love it. Well, Joshua is our first child to actually like to climb on furniture and then take flying leaps and tumbles off of it, so we've had to rethink our furniture arrangement - especially since he IS #4, so I can't have my eyes on him 24/7. So now, this beautiful pew spends most of it's time on it's back - but the kids have found good use for it!

The Journal

Joey does a journal entry each week as part of his school curriculum. This is the journal "idea" and then what Joey wrote.

Fall w/ the Hulls (III)

Fall w/ the Hulls (II)

Their daughter, Krista, is very good with the kids - they love Miss Krista!

Fall w/ the Hulls

Back at the beginning of November, our family friends, Mike and Babs Hull, invited the kids over to jump in the leaves. They have a huge back yard and are very good about inviting us over for these kinds of things - like sledding. And, as you can see, the kids love being there.

Pumpkin Patch

One of our family traditions that we started when Joey was about 1 1/2 yrs. old is going to a pumpkin patch every year to get pumpkins. We let the kids each pick out a pumpkin, they design the face, mommy draws the face on the pumpkin, and daddy does most of the actual carving. For the last three years we have gone to Waterman's Farm and have really enjoyed it - here are our pictures from the day.

Indiana Boys

Our visit with Jordans

The next weekend, my brother Tim, his wife Dana, and their son Ryan came for a visit. So fun to see so much family in one week! We had a great time but wished they didn't have to leave so soon. Ryan is just 2 months older than Joshua, so I look forward to them being able to "grow" and play together whenever we can.

Our visit with Marinellis

Joe's sister and her family were here from New Hampshire for a visit last week. We enjoyed getting to spend some time with our family and the kids really enjoyed seeing their cousins, Gioia and Audrey.

Family Portraits

We got our family portrait taken last week and JCPenney. It was also Joshua's birthday, so we had his 1 year picture taken too. For those of you family and friends who we normally send pictures to, we will be getting the prints next week, so hopefully we'll get some out to you soon after that.