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!

2 months old

Wow, it has already been two months since Landon was born!! For those who haven't seen him lately, he has filled out a lot. He had his two month check up this last Monday. He is now a whopping 11 pounds 5 ounces. He can hold his head up and can sit up with the help of the boppy. We are also thankful that he sleeps a good solid 7 hours at night. Landon also found his smile and is starting to babble at us.







In other news, we are gearing up for a great Easter weekend. We have an outreach on Saturday for kids called Easterfest. Sunday, we have a guy in our church who is a very talented balloonist. He has a presentation called "From the Garden to Golgatha", that he will do for the kids. Everything is made out of balloons including the tree of life and the three crosses. How cool!! We pray that everyone has a reflective Easter and a reason to rejoice that our Saviour Lives!!!