Updating--Part 2

Birthdays!

Landon turned 1 on January 28th. We had a family party for him and the theme was blocks. Jenise made the cake and we all had a great time. Landon enjoyed his cake as well as it was pretty much the first time he had sugar!






Kietlyn turned 4 on February 13th and we had a princess party (of course)! This year she wanted to be Sleeping Beauty so Nana made her the dress and we had a fun time with all our family.






Caleb turned 6 on April 19th and we celebrated with a family and friends party at a place called Outdoor Adventures. It's here in Des Moines and it's a showroom for playgrounds so the kids had the run of the store for 2 hours and they had tons of fun.

Long Awaited Update--Part 1

Ok, so we've been back from Disney now for a few months and need to finish updating. We've had a lot happen since then so I'll have a few parts here.

Disney was great. The kids loved it so much. We had so much fun as a family and it was a perfect vacation. We went to Hollywood studios first since we only had about 6 hours or so till my conference started. It was also the park with the least amount of stuff to do for the kids. Our favorite ride was the toy story ride, Toy Story Mania. Caleb and I rode it twice. The wait was longest but only about 30 minutes. It was by far the coolest "ride." We also met some of the characters as well.






We also went to The Magic Kingdom and we took our time and went twice. We saw tons of characters and rode all the rides. Kids loved Dumbo and It's a Small World. Caleb rode the Goofy roller coaster all by himself and all but me and Landon rode the teacups. The teacups were a hit. It's amazing how some of the simple things can be so cool to the kids.






The third park we went to was Animal Kingdom. It was pretty cool we all loved the safari ride. We went to that first knowing it would fill up pretty quick. We saw all the animals and then were able to just walk through everything else. We also liked the Bugs Life 4D show.





All in all it was a great trip. We were able to use my cousins condo down there and that was nice to get back there and spread out instead of being cooped up in a hotel room. So this is my shout-out to them--Thanks!

Vacation Day 1 and 2

Disney World or Bust! Well we left 2 days earlier than planned due to a winter storm warning that spanned from Iowa all the way to south of Atlanta. We would have had to drive through all that snow and ice but we left on Saturday and drove through sunny days till we arrived at Bill and Sue's in McDonough Sunday afternoon.

We got unpacked and then loaded up and went to Matt and Sara's new house. They've been there for 5 weeks and we were treated to pizza, wings, and salad from Sara's restaurant (Vendetta's) and it was good. It will be lunch today also. If your in the area then make sure you stop in for a good meal. We hung out there for a while, watched some football and the kids got to play with Micah and Macie. Caleb loves Micah. They played train all night long and Caleb can't wait to play with him again today. On the way back to Bill and Sue's, Kietlyn said she loved the girl (Macie). So they have a playmate while here.

Everything shut down here today. School's are cancelled so Bill and Sue have the day off and I've never seen someone more excited for a day off than Sue. I knew kids liked having snow days but didn't realize that teachers love them even more. Plan to hang out with Aunt Lucy for supper tonight and then head the rest of the way tomorrow if they can get the roads cleared and de-iced. It's a lot different than Iowa and the reaction--it's actually quite amusing.

Enjoying the time though. What a vacation should be like.

Sorry no pics--we'll get some tonight.

What's New with us?

Long time, no see. We figured it was about time we update how things are going with the family for all of you on the world wide web.

Josh got his basketball officials license so he can now ref for basketball games here in Iowa. He's hoping to be able to get into some middle schools and have some potential influence there. No, he won't wear his glasses. :-)

Jenise is enjoying homeschooling Caleb and he's a quick learner. She also got the chance to speak to about 40 girls at a student retreat we had this fall. She's back to leading a small group of Jr. High girls now that Landon is in the nursery. She loves being able to help out more in ministry and being a mom to the three munchkins.

Caleb is finishing up with his first year of Upward Soccer. He loves it and is actually pretty good at it. He encourages his teammates, he's scored about 5 goals this year and hustles the whole game. He's gotten to make some new friends on the team as well. He's also enjoying homeschooling. His favorite part is reading and learning his letters. He's also in Sparkies at church and is doing very well. He loves to come out and let us know how many jewels he got that week. He loves being in Kindergarten and being in kids church. We are praying that he will come to know the Lord soon.






Kietlyn is the little princess of the house. She loves everything about dress-up, tea parties, and princesses. I think she'll be doing ballet or dance in the near future. She's also started working on school stuff while Caleb does his and really enjoys it too. She loves to be goofy and make people laugh, she gets that from her dad. Kietlyn is also in Cubbies and she loves learning her verses and it has made her feel like a big kid.






Landon is growing fast and is nine months this week. He had something called torticollis (spelling is probably not right) which is basically where his left neck muscles were very tight which meant that he wouldn't look that way. It's like he had a stiff neck for the first 5 months of his life. He's started going to a physical therapist to help with his muscles and has done very well. He also got a bit of a flat spot on his head because of it but that is "popping out" with time. He's now learned he can crawl and get around the house so we've got to keep our eyes on him a little more often. He also loves to talk more and is such a great baby. Caleb and Kietlyn love to play with him and love on him.






We are plenty busy with all the things that God has blessed us with and life has never been more full.

America's Next Top Model

Kietlyn is quite the three year old little girl. She loves dresses, nail polish and playing dress up. Her newest "extreme girliness" has come out when we try to take any pictures of her. When that camera comes out she strikes a pose! No matter where we are or what we are doing, if she sees a camera, she strikes a pose. So look out America's Next Top Model Kietlyn is getting prepared. And we've got the pictures to prove it!

Look Out Beckham!

Caleb has started soccer through Upward this year. Last year he played with some other homeschoolers but wasn't much of a chance to learn the basics. He pretty much spent six weeks just kicking a ball around. With Upward he has a coach and they have practice each week and a game each week. They also use huddle times to incorporate scripture and life lessons about sports. He's pretty good, but we could be a little biased. It is so fun seeing your child not only learn a new skill, but also enjoy and succeed at it. Caleb was a little nervous about his new soccer program, he didn't want to "mess up". We had a great opportunity to help him understand that the important thing is to keep trying and to have fun. Here are some pictures from his first practice.

Landon's a laugher

Just a video I shot last night when Landon was in a laughing mood. Enjoy, I know I do!

Hidden Acres is the Place For Me!

Well this past week I (Josh) got the chance to speak to the Junior Campers at Hidden Acres. We were there from Sunday through Friday and had a great time. The theme was living ALL OUT for Jesus and so I had some fun speaking to all the kids and counselors.

We got to do many of the activities as well and the staff and campers were awesome. We all got to climb the 35 foot climbing tower and I made it to the top of the hard side and Caleb made it to the top of the easy side. Jenise almost made it up and Kietlyn got about 12 feet off the ground. The handholds were pretty far apart for her.

They also got to ride horses. Jenise loves horses so it was nice to see her get to do something she loves. They even let her just roam around wherever she wanted on the horse.

Caleb followed me around most of the time and I got to see what I looked like when I used to follow my dad around when he ran camps back in the day. Here's some pics of our time there and a video of Caleb climbing the wall and riding horses too.

Good Memories

This past week has been full of opportunities to remember...

Papa (my dad's dad) went to heaven on Monday, May 10th. He was a great Papa and was so full of joy and always made us laugh no matter what. He always had a joke or some crazy thing to tell us. It was nice to make the trip back to PA to be with family we hadn't seen in 7 years. We got to remember and celebrate Papa's life. The service was truly a celebration of life and I was blessed to be a part of it. Papa will be missed but I know he doesn't miss us right now.



Since we were back in PA we decided to hit some spots that I grew up going to. Sunday was Dutch Wonderland. We went with my brother Jon and his family as well as my cousin Greg and his wife and two kids. Had a blast. It was so much fun to see my kids faces light up when they went on rides that I used to ride. Yes, my eyes lit up when I saw the dive show (hasn't changed except it's told in story format now) and the old antique cars that Caleb and Kiet got to drive us around in. The kids loved the roller coaster and the log flume. It was great because there were no lines. It was great to remember the first amusement park I went to and it was neat to make some new memories also.





On Monday we went to a cemetary to visit Heather's grave. She was my sister born on May 19th. I was three when she was born and died. She was born premature. I have always felt a closeness to her, maybe because our birthdays are only 2 days apart, not sure why but we had to visit. Kietlyn's middle name is Heather so we bought some flowers and went out to the site. We got to explain to Caleb and Kietlyn what happened and why Kietlyn's middle name is Heather. It was a great opportunity to remember and help Kiet understand the meaning of her name.




We also went to Hershey. Caleb loves chocolate. I have never seen a kid who likes chocolate so much. Grandpa Gary started to get him the 1 lb. Hershey bar for holidays and Caleb always hugs it and says it's one of the best presents he ever got. So we couldn't pass up the chance to go to Hershey and see how they make the chocolate. Caleb loved it. He couldn't stop telling me about the process while we were on the ride. And then of course he got a free sample of chocolate and downed that in a matter of seconds.




We had a great time being family and know we can't wait another 7 years to visit. Thanks for the great memories, Pennsylvania.

Family Picture Day

Well, we finally got around to taking family pictures. There's a lady in our church who does a tremendous job of taking pictures and so we lined up a day to do them. WE got all the outfits picked out and ready to go and headed over to her house. She had everything set up and Kietlyn wanted to go first but she didn't really do much smiling. It took a while to warm up but eventually we ended up getting some great shots. The nice thing about Leah was that she was in no hurry and took almost 300 pictures. She didn't care how many times we changed and wasn't worried about time. We were there for about 3 hours. She let the kids take breaks when they needed them and it was a great experience. So here's our shout out to Leah Fry of Sentimental Soul photography. May we never use anyone else. And the prices are very reasonable. $25 sitting fee and then buy pics on top of that. We took the option of just buying the whole CD and the copyrights so we could just do what we wanted with the pics for $125. There were so many great shots we couldn't have picked a handful. I'll post some here but you can see the whole collection at www.sentimentalsoul.com Here are some of our favorites!