First Haircut!

A few weeks ago, Addison had her very first haircut, at four years and two months old (approximately).  Being a girl certainly allowed us to stretch it out before getting a haircut!  We are hoping that her curls stay, and so far so good - they actually are a bit more defined now as the pool water was starting to make the ends of her hair frizzy.  She was quite excited to get her hair cut as well!  Having a grandma who cuts hair has saved us unimaginable amounts of money and time as she can come over on the weekend!

We are very fortunate, our friend Kelli has started her son Erik attending Champion and was talking about the fact that she started Elin in gymnastics.  Well, one conversation led to another and Kelli graciously agreed to just let Addison tag along after dropping Erik off in the morning (as Jennifer is there dropping off the boys) and take both girls to gymnastics.  Addison loves Elin, so this is a double win!  She is very excited about the gymnastics class and has been enjoying - crying when Wednesday comes and she doesn't get to go EVERY day (gymnastics class is on Tuesday mornings....)

Our very own Miss Jennifer is the one who plans all of the field trips for Champion Preparatory and they had a fun one recently to the main campus of Florida Hospital, where Amy now works.  They got a tour, and then even got to go and see a real helicopter and ambulance!

In the children's hospital lobby - every child's dream!

With one ambulance ride as a baby, we pray Mr. Kaleb never has another one, except for a tour, in his life!

A few weeks ago Amy took Addison shopping to the 2nd hand consignment sale - Addison is so good at just tagging along shopping whereas the boys at this age would have rather died (and been very loud about it!!!).  However, the line was exceptionally long to check out and we were in a hurry....and all of a sudden Addison had to desperately go pee.  This was particularly frustrating as she had just gone about 30 minutes prior, so really there should have been no need, and to get out of line would have been a disaster as we'd have to start all over again.  She was doing a good job of waiting until all of a sudden her dramatic self kicked in and she was really doing the potty dance (okay, so maybe this makes me a bad mom, but I couldn't resist taking a picture of how dramatic this potty dance was)....and finally a nice lady behind me finally offered to hold our spot so I could take her.  THANK YOU!  We ran our legs off to get there just in the nick of time.  Whew!!

Phrase of the week:  On one of Amy's date nights with the boys (individually), she asked them their favorite things:

Zachary:
Color:  Blue
Sport:  Soccer
Food:  Pizza
Ice Cream:  Reese's peanut butter cup or vanilla
TV Show:  American Ninja Warrior
Summer Memory:  Utah vacation trip
School Subject:  Math
Toy:  Soccer ball
Books:  Hardy Boys

Kaleb:
Color:  Aqua
Food:  Rainbow Sherbet
TV Show:  Wipeout
Sport:  Gymnastics
Friends:  Johnny, Evan, Kieran, John Mark
School Subject:  Reading
Summer Memory:  Going to Longboat Key paddle boarding and Aquatica
Toy:  Spy gear

Lifting Up Prayers to Heaven

Recently, we have had news about a family friend whose child has been diagnosed with a rare type of leukemia.  We have known the family for 20 years, and while they don't live in Orlando we have stayed in touch with them over the years, even having them stay with us when they have come to vacation in Orlando, so the news hit us hard.  Their little boy is 4 - Samuel - and is the same age as Addison (one month younger), so this is particularly close to home.  There are many folks here in Orlando, as they used to live here, so we decided to lift them up in prayer last weekend by having a special gathering here at our house (thanks to Maria for the idea!)



We wanted to do a banner or some sort of craft that we could have the kids participate in a craft with us, and Jennifer came up with doing an acrostic and it turned out fantastic.  The families then chose a word to describe Sammy and a special Bible verse.  On the back of each canvas is a personal message from each family.  We hope that it bring them some comfort knowing that they have friends who are lifting them up daily in prayer, and who love them.  Every day when we have family prayer at meals, Addison now asks to pray and she always adds "And help Sammy feel better, we love him."  From our lips to God's ears....

The last caption - "For this child we have prayed" with the hands of the families imprinted that have prayed for him

Preparing the canvases

Painting the hands...

We had a Facetime call with them, while the parents were changing places in the hospital (one parent is always there, so they switch back and forth), so we were able to talk to them both and little Sammy.

Each family telling them their letter, the word, and their Bible verse.

Then Vasti read a poem about peace in the storm, with the TV Showing our facetime call with Karis being the videographer

We have also just found out that Amy's older cousin has very advanced melanoma cancer with it already spread to multiple other organs, so we are adding Bob to our prayers as well.  It has been a tough couple of months with health issues...

We weren't sure that we'd even be able to hold our prayer gathering, as Hurricane Matthew decided to come for a visit to Florida.  Going to bed Thursday night with dire warnings that this was going to be extremely life-threatening for those on the coast and remembering back to the days without power and trees falling down in 2004, it was a little worrisome.  With the new house, we have a well so we knew that if we lost power it was going to be no water as well, so we filled up every tub, all water jugs, put Tupperware containers of water to freeze in the freezer in case our food needed to stay cold, batteries galore, cars filled up with gas, some cash on hand and every single back-up battery for cell phones charged, and non-perishable food purchased...we had prepared as much as we could.  Thankfully, our prayers were answered and Matthew went a little East of where they originally expected and we were spared.

Not a loaf of bread to be found at publix on Wednesday....

On Friday, our power blinked a couple of times but always came back on.  We did enjoy some family movies and time together playing games.  With the storm safely out of the way, and the road curfew lifted, we were able to venture out late o Friday and the Cs came up with a great idea of going to fly kites.  Super windy!

Phrase  of the week:  It isn't a phrase but a song - Addison has decided that her favorite song lately is "Oh be careful..." and asks Amy to sing it all the time!  It was one of Amy's childhood favorites as well!

Celebrating a Very Special Lady - 90 Years of Grace

Last weekend, we had the honor of celebrating a very special lady's 90th birthday - Aunt Louise.  She is Amy's Mom's older sister, and she is now the matriarch of our family.  She lives here in Orlando, we have had the fun of being around her a lot - she epitomizes grace and culture - a very classy lady indeed!  We are looking forward to celebrating 100 years - next up! :)

The lady of honor - complete with pictures of her from her early years!

Many of the siblings were able to come, with only 2 of the living sisters not being able to make it due to health issues.  It was a really wonderful visit, to be able to hear them reminisce and catch up.  We had everyone over to our house on Sabbath for the meals, so listening to the quiet hum of stories was very heart-warming!

Enjoying the visiting...

The whole family - except Millie and Lauren on their way from the airport:

Front:  Louise, Kaleb, Gene, Zachary

Back:  Rick, Kelsey, Kathy, Jim, Addison, Bobbi, Margie, Don, Judy, Amy, Karis and Melvin

Showing Kaleb had to take crazy funny pictures on the IPhone

No event can be complete without UpJinks!

Measuring to see who is tallest....Zachary has now taken the lead!

Kaleb still has a few inches to go....

The grilled cheese sandwich crusts may a wonderful pretend "smile"!  She is a creative one, even if she won't eat properly!

Uncle Jim stayed with us, and the kids loved the fact that he would read stories to them!

Her son Rick and daughter-in-law Millie put together the Sunday reception, and there will at least 100 people there - so awesome to see her friends come out to congratulate her!  There was a lovely program in which people got up and spoke about her life, and how special she was.  It was just so elegant and classy!

Uncle Melvin providing a humorous story of her life.

Uncle Melvin - one of a kind, Addison loves him like Amy does!

Amy's mom laughing at something that Amy cousins' Judy and Kathy said....love the happiness in this picture!

Louise and Margie in front, then Jim, Bobbi, Rick (son), Gene and Don in the back row

Aunt Louise and her immediate family - son Rick, Millie and grand-daughters Kelsey and Lauren

In typical fashion, there were more events that weekend than time seemed to allow for, so on Saturday night we fixed supper for the family and then dashed out quickly for the kids Adventurer program - Addison is now a part of the club and she was quite excited to be "so big, so big" so we didn't want to miss the chance for her to walk down the aisle and get her scarf at induction.  She was so proud of herself!

Kaleb was excited to have a sibling in his club again now that Zachary has graduated to Pathfinders!

She and Devin got to carry in the Little Lambs banner!

Hanging her angel

Grandma Linda is her teacher this year - she looks so happy getting her scarf!

Kaleb is an old hand at marching in for induction, but he also had a "first" this time of reading part of the Adventurer Law - he did a great job up there!

Love that smile!

Waiting to read his part

Back at home, Addison decided to be the family photographer and was taking pictures with her tripod - pretending that it was the camera itself!

Touchdown!

Football season has started - not just the NFL, not just fantasy league, but I-9 flag football....and during the very first game Kaleb got a touch-down!  We are so excited for him, and he has been catching the ball and pulling flags ferociously!  Zachary is playing on the same team with Kaleb this year as their age bracket worked out, and it makes it much easier to have one set of games and practices to go to - and Zachary is very much enjoying playing defense and got a "pick 6" the first game - Yahoo!!!

Player of the game award!

Amy and Kaleb went out on a date night, but first we went to the Boutique for a Week consignment where he very patiently waited for a LONG TIME while she went through the racks...he helped her cull through everything at the end, deciding what items we should get and which to throw back.  It was a fun evening Mr Kaleb!

Cirque du Soleil came to town, and we decided that it would be fun to take the family, including Grandma, to see "Ovo" which has all of the performers dressed up in bug costumes - the kids had fun guessing the bugs and being dazzled by the amazing acrobatics!  Addison was doing the motions of the Chinese yo-yo portion - so cute!

Totally amazing, this guy is balancing on a swinging, lose tight-rope!

The weekend of September 17 marked the 150th anniversary for the healthcare mission within the Adventist church.  They had two services at a local huge church, and it was really truly well done - amazing stories and beautiful songs.  It made us proud to be a part of the healthcare ministry!

The singing troupe up on stage

That night we went out to eat with Jeff and Niesha at Cheesecake Factory - where we joked that Amy and Karis are now so old that we can barely read the menu in the low lighting that this restaurant prefers!  Old foogies!  It was a delightful time, and Amy "nursed" the cheesecake all week with a few bites every day.  Yummy!!!

Jennifer took the kids on a field trip to a recreation of the "early Florida" years where they had to do everything by hand.  The kids had fun trying their hand at candle making and washing laundry!  

Phrase of the week:  Mommy, are "the brothers" coming?  Where are "the brothers"?  Addison has all kinds of questions regarding her siblings, and she never calls them by name, they are always "the brothers".  They are now a unit! :)