It's swimming lesson time

For the first time in my life I'm an official swim lesson mom, and I have to admit it's pretty fun! Both of our kids are in lessons and they are really enjoying them! By the end of last week I was kind of tired and I realized getting up and getting somewhere each morning kind of takes it out of you. But, I've caught my second wind and I'm excited for this new week and I know my kids are looking forward to it too! Here are a few pictures of our time at the pool with our friends.

Evie and Jacob sitting poolside eating snacks after their 'lesson'

Leyton...what a big boy!

Learning to jump in!

Evie...eating snacks...again.

Bunk Beds and Randomness

Of course it's been awhile since I've blogged...so I hope I'm not loosing ya!

We recently got the kids bunk beds from a friend who was selling their old ones and they are WONDERFUL! Our kids have transitioned seamlessly from a toddler bed and crib to top and bottom bunk. They are awesome kids! We got each kid a light for their bed so they can read in their bunk if they want, which they just love.

Then, below are just a few random pictures of stuff we've been up to the past month.

My newest niece, Eleanor, born in May. What a little beauty!

Major garage sale with Tyffany and Jessie! Yet another attempt to rid our house of unwanted, unused and unneeded extra stuff. We are still getting rid of our amazing collection of 'stuff' from our house in Omaha...the curse of a basement is still haunting us. However, I would LOVE to have a basement again! :-)

Evie at my parents house in May, fearless of the sheep and happy to help feed hay.

Leyton feeding grain to some lambs...what a farmer!

Leavenworth

Here are a couple pictures from our trip to Leavenworth for our annual elder retreat.  It was an amazing time of spiritual encouragement and refreshment.  Good stuff.  God is so gracious and giving, Jared and I really were needing some encouragement and this was perfect!   Another bonus was that the Christmas lights were still up on all the businesses and they are so beautiful, so that was an added treat!   

Auction Purse

Well, I just finished a sewing project for an upcoming fundraising auction for the Pichura family adoption fund.  This is for a family from our church that is adopting two brothers from Ethiopia in the near future.  I was asked to make a crafty item and I decided upon a purse with some Amy Butler fabric.  Hope it at least gets bid on...sheesh.  Feeling a little pressure on this one.  Don't know if I picked good fabric or not, I guess we'll see!  

Here is a shirt I made for my niece for her Christmas gift (just finished it b/c I'm sending our gifts back with my mom who is visiting soon).  I really liked this heart shape, I think I like it better than a shirt I made earlier.  Slowly but surly I'm getting better at stitching around objects, it's sort of difficult!   

 

Fall in the Pac-Northwest

It's officially fall/autumn in our neck of the woods, and we are loving it!  We are also officially friends with the orchardist behind our property and got to 'glean' the trees behind our fence (golden delicious...ymmm).  It's been great!  Lots of applesauce and apple crisp at our house.  We also got to mooch two boxes of pears from a orchard that wasn't getting harvested this year.  It's been a fun fall so far!  

Here are some pictures of our harvesting and a fall family outing for our church at a pumpkin patch last Sunday.  

Leyton and Jared gleaning...going back to the days of Ruth

Apples from our neighbors orchard!

Evie at the pumpkin patch in her fancy fall outfit from Grandma.

Sun Valley Church Family Outing @ the Pumpkin Patch

Evie's pumpkin of choice

Our sweet kids having a blast!

Camping in the Cascade Mts.

A couple weeks ago we went camping with our friends, the Carlson's. They have kids the same age as our kids, so the kids did great together! They knew about this great spot, about 45 mins from Yakima, gotta love living in the great northwest! We froze our tails off though...it got down to freezing at night and we didn't have good sleeping bags for all of us. Clearly, we need to invest in more outdoor equipment now that we have kids to camp with! Goodness sakes.

Huge Blessings

In the past four weeks our family has received several HUGE gifts that we count as direct blessing from the Lord. Several families from our congregation heard of some things we were in need of and have given generously to our family. It's been overwhelming to receive such gracious gifts and in some cases we haven't known who to thank. But, the Lord knows who has given these things to us and I'm so thankful for their generosity and kind hearts! It's been a great lesson for me, sometimes I hold onto things too tightly and I desire to be more generous with what God blesses me with. So, THANK YOU to the families and individuals who thought of us and blessed us!

Friends & Family in Town

After 10 years, we finally got to hang out with our dear friends from college who were in our wedding (best man and bridesmaid). We all went to college together and unfortunately we live in different countries and getting to see each other is difficult, but we had a blast hanging out with them! THANK YOU for coming out of your way to see us!!!

Also, my mom and dad were in town last weekend and it was great to get to spend time with them also, of course. Leyton was VERY excited to see them and their dog, Mazy.