The Sisters

Not much news here... we had a fun President's Day yesterday - Rachel made a cherry cobbler ALL BY HERSELF! It was delish, I think even honest Abe would have enjoyed it. We read the story about 'bulletproof' George Washington - David loved it.. afterwards he was playing and asked 'now was he the President of America or Russia??' Sometimes I don't think David know where he actually lives :) World geography from his perspective.. Egypt is the place he rode the camel with Nana, America is the place where they have marshmellows, and Russia is the place where you get to ride on trains. (the metro)

Wanted to post a pic of Rachel & JoJo - Rachel is SO sweet with her.. every day she does 'exercises' with her, sings these beautiful made up songs, and kisses her all over while giving her a rubdown with lotion.. I love how Rachel has the big brown eyes & Johanna's are so blue.

Our daily walks

Every afternoon at 2:00pm sharp it's outdoor play in the snow & take a walk time! Although the logistics involved in getting 4 kiddos in snowsuits is no small task... the fun we've been having make it well worth it. Caleb always has to be the one to push Johanna on the sled... very, very protective older brother.

What a week...

Last week was hectic and sad in many ways. It started last Monday (the 6th) with a young lady Vera coming to the Youth Center asking for help. Vera is a single Mom with a little boy Daniel (11 months). Chris & James had visited her over the holidays and taken some food and presents. Over the weekend Vera had been the only witness to a crime commited by a policeman here in our city. She was taken to the police station and told she had to sign a paper testifying that another man had commited the crime (not the policeman). She refused and went home to her apartment. Late that night two police officers came to her apartment door and demanded to come in (they had their weapons drawn). She finally let them in and they then took baby Daniel out of his crib, wrapped him in a blanket and said she would never see him again until she signed the document. Vera was hysterical with she showed up at our apartment the next morning.. so thus began a long two days for James. They searched at the area orphanages, detention centers, and hospitals thinking they may have taken him there.. finally on the third day they found him in a special hospital on the other side of the city. James knew someone who worked as a nurse there and Vera was allowed to bring Daniel some food, but not allowed to see him. After daily visits to the hospital (and the police station) Daniel was finally re-united with his Mother a week later. In the course of visiting one of the hospitals, Andrei found a room with 8 small cribs with babies in them. He asked the nurse and found that they had all been abandoned and there was no room at the baby orphanage so they were keeping them there at the hospital. He then learned from the nurse they were fed only twice a day and given no interaction (holding, rocking etc). PLEASE pray as James and Andrei are trying to get permission to bring formula & supplies for these 8 babies, and possibly get permission to go a few times a week to hold & play with them. It would be a great chance to minister for the older youth.

The other sad event of the week involved our friend Dima. Dima is from Tajikistan (down by Afghanistan), is Muslim, married with two small girls. We've known him for two years and he's come a few times to the Bible studies. He is here in Russia illegally which makes it almost impossible for him to get a job. Last week he was on a train selling music CD's to try to earn some money. (he walks through the train trying to sell to the passengers) He had walked to the back of the train to smoke a cigarette and then next thing he knew two men were attacking him from behind. The next thing he remembered was hours later waking up in the snow beside the train track with him arm bleeding. The men had thrown him off the train after cutting him with a knife. Dima suffered a concussion and lost a great deal of blood. He finally walked to the nearest city and was taken to a hospital. The hospital refused to keep him more than a day because he was an illegal (people from Tajikistan are usually hated and very poorly treated by most Russians). So James and Andrei ended up driving to the city of Kaluga to pick him up last Saturday morning. They had just pulled away from the hospital when the transmission went out on our minivan! When James finally returned late that night I asked him how things went.. to which he replied 'Have you ever driven for six hours in first gear with a half concious man moaning in pain behind you??' And I thought my day had been rough :). Anyway, Rachel put it all in perspective for us the next night when she prayed 'And thank you that the van broke so that Daddy could spend the whole day at home.' Unfortunately it's been almost two weeks now and still the transmission is not fixed.. but to write all the adventures James had trying to find a transmission would fill another complete page so I'll spare you details... he has met some very interesting people, had lots of chances to witness - this morning when he arrived at the garage a police car pulled up beside him and there right behind the building a homeless man had frozen to death during the night. James said he was very young, about his age. So so sad.. I've been thinking this week about how many people are led to think oh Russia, Africa etc. are just poor countries that need financial help - NO! it's not a poverty problems it's a sin problem and it's across the world. Satan wants to completely destroy lives, steal our joy, hope, and the glory our lives should give to God. Pray we'll have wisdom and strength to let our light shine for God's glory. There are some days it's easy to feel overwhelmed and 'what do I do to actually help'??

Okay sorry for the reflective epistle.. sometimes writing is theraputic :) On the home front the kiddos are doing well. Rachel started learning to read russian a few weeks ago and now has no desire to read anything in English (sigh) I spent two year trying to teach her English and in six weeks she can read Russian! It's much much easier and actually FOLLOWS THE RULES! unlike crazy English.. but it will take her 6 years to learn all the grammar rules (I haven't told her this yet). After a few cold days that we couldn't go outside I concluded that whoever came up with the recipe for home-made playdooh should have received the Nobel Peace Prize. Caleb can play with that for hours and we went through the alphabet, numbers, numerous animals and the leaning tower of Piza. Johanna started laughing out loud - too adorable! Now the kids dance around her making silly faces trying to make her laugh. Rachel's favorite new thing is 'giving concerts' - we light some candles, turn out all the lights, and she dances around the room to the Nutcracker. Until next time....

BRRRRRRRRRR!!

You talk about COLD weather!! Last week it was the coldest it's been in the Moscow area in 26 years! The coldest the official thermometer at the bank registered was -34 C. They were predicting it would get down to -40 one night.. I thought that would be neat since C and F level out at -40 :). On the coldest night Johanna was nursing around 2:00 am and I kept thinking.. 'it's really cold in here', but was too tired to get up.. James got up around 5:00 and realized the radiators were cold - NOT good! The gas heater had stopped working sometime in the night and besides a cold house all the water pipes were frozen! We got all the kids up bundled in our bed with a little space heater and made a fun *family memory* reading and cuddling all morning while poor James ran around trying to figure out why the heater had stopped working. He finally discovered that the vent to the outside had a piece of ice frozen inside and the heater has a safety feature that if anything obstructs the outside vent it immediately shuts down. So we were very thankful when it started working again - it's amazing how quickly a house can cool down when it's -30 out! I'll never forget David's expression when he was cuddling in bed with me.. he had a far away look on his face and I asked him what he was thinking about.. he answered 'I'm praying to Jesus' :) he's too cute. I told James there's nothing like a little crisis to make for some good family bonding times! :)

In other news.. Chris & Jeremy returned and had more home visits and Bible studies. There has been a young man Vlad who started coming to the English lessons - he told James he was an atheist, but wanted to learn English. After a few weeks of coming to the English lessons, he came to the Wed night Bible study and stayed late asking all kinds of questions. James gave him a Bible and he's been reading through the book of John. Anyway, some Jehovah Witnesses showed up at the Youth Center apartment and wanted to visit. Andrei (James' assistant) invited them in and they asked 'what exactly do you do here?' They told Andrei they had been visiting a young man named Vlad who told them he was an atheist, but IF he ever would decide to believe there was a God he would be interested in the God they talk about at Marshalla-Zhukova apartment 24 (our address). So the JW's decided to check out who lived at that address. For some reason this was amusing to me.. to think about an atheist *witnessing* to the JW's :) Anyway, pray for Vlad. And yes I will try to post some pictures soon before the Grandparents disinherit us :) :):)

Merry Christmas!!

There is SOOOO much to tell you about.. and so little time :( Okay Thursday the 28th was the big program at the orphanage. It's not a true orphanage, but more a foster home type situation for children that have just been taken from their homes (i.e parent in prison) and are on their way to an orphanage. Anyway, there were 28 children presently living there and James had received their names and their requests for what kind of present they would like to receive. The youth had made beautiful cards for each child to go along with the gift. The program went very, very well. James said the youth enjoyed *performing* as much as the children enjoyed the program. Rachel, David & Caleb all got to go along and James said they loved sitting among the children & enjoying the program also.

Friday 29th, 30th & 31st - James, Andrei, Chris Brudi & Jeremy Nunez visited homes all day every day. When we received the names and addresses from the city administration we didn't realize that many of the families had a parent in prison. The homes visits were just incredible. James couldn't believe how open the people were to talking.. I have lots of stories I'll save for later. Actually I want to post some pictures that Chris has with him.. so more later.

New Year's Eve is the BIGGEST holiday of the year here in Russia. James woke Rachel & David up just before midnight to take them to the city square to watch the fireworks. They came back an hour later and David's eyes were as big as saucers... he is still talking about the *big explosions* and of course his narrative is always with very loud sound effects.. too cute!

January 1st - 6th - James & his crew continued the home visits every day. The 3rd they had a big bonfire/ *shashleek* (hot dog roast) out in the woods. It was a beautiful day, but very cold. They had a really special time of singing, sharing.

January 2nd James and Chris were visiting in a large dormitory building where homeless people are given a small room (no kitchen or bathroom). As they were leaving the building James said he heard a large *pop* that sounded exactly like when a light bulb explodes. He looked up and Chris, who was right beside him, was staggering like he was about to fall over. Someone had thrown a vodka bottle from one of the balconies up above and hit Chris right on top of the head. Chris blacked out and had a very bad headache and ringing in his ears for the next two days. Chris said the bottle just *happened* to hit his head right on the little ball that was on top of his hat.. if it hadn't hit right there he could have suffered even more serious of an injury. We were so thankful for God's protection! Chris & Jeremy left the 5th to go to Moldova and will be back in Nara-Faminsk the 18th - 23rd.

Saturday 7th we collapsed :) and had a wonderful Christmas celebration with just our family. I need to run, but just had to post a quick update and thank everyone for praying. There are so many stories I want to share about passing out candy canes and home visits... I will post more later, I just need to run to feed a hungry baby... I need to post a picture of Johanna - she is growing faster than okra in July :) and is getting gigantic chipmunk cheeks. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year!!

SPRASNICOM!!

Today Rachel & David had the celebration (sprasnicom in Russian) at the art school. They go Tuesday and Thursday from 10:00 - 11:30. They do some kind of artwork or craft, play for 10 minutes in the playroom and then do some counting or alaphabet. Rachel and David love it, and we've been very thankful for the wonderful, kind teachers they have and a great chance to learn Russian.

It was so sad for me personally to see that *Christmas* is not really celebrated or the word even spoken. The first sentence of the program was 'We're here to celebrate the most wonderful celebration of the year... New Year's!!' Until 1990 no Christmas celebrations or even mention of the holiday were allowed in Russia. Anyway, all the children got up to say their little poems they had memorized.. all about Father New Year and Father Frost (their much skinnier version of Santa Claus). Rachel's teacher had asked her to sing a tradional American Christmas song during the program. Rachel was the very last child called up to recite.. she stood straight and tall and belted out ...'Come on ring those bells, everybody say, Jesus we remember this your birthday.' It was so beautiful I almost started to cry; I only wish everyone in the room could have understood what the song was saying in Russian. We had such a good talk and prayer time with the kids afterwards about why programs in America celebrate the birth of Christ, but that programs here have make up fairy tales and empty stories in order to have something to celebrate. Please pray next week on January 6th as we are having a special 'Happy Birthday Jesus' celebration at our house. We have invited all the kids friends (about 15 of them) and some of the youth are coming over to act out the Christmas story and do games with them. We're planning to have a big birthday cake and share the good news of Christ's birth with these children.

Also wanted to mention to please pray for James & Andrei on Thursday at 4:00 they are doing a big program at an orphanage. The director had given them the names of all the children and the youth made BEAUTIFUL cards for every child in the orphanage. We got each child a very nice wrapped gift and a sack of chocolate candy. Also the youth have prepared songs and a skit. It's been wonderful to see how excited the youth are about the ministry opportunities these next two weeks. I was so impressed with the cards they made and the hard work they put into the skits. Our friend Chris Brudi arrives Thursday evening - he's bringing 5,000 candy canes with him and on Saturday we're going to hand them out at the train station with a special tract that explains the gospel using the candy cane. Please keep praying for us and the country of Russia!

61 years ago today....

Today is a very spcial day for the city of Nara-Faminsk.. for eight months the city was occupied by the Nazi's - but on December 26, 1944 the German army was pushed back and the city regained it's freedom. There was a small celebration in the town square and the military had a parade. Unfortunately it was -8 and with three feet of snow not many people attended. It was neat when we were building the house James was digging in the yard and found the bayonet tip from a German rifle. When we were talking to the kids this morning about WW II, Rachel said 'boy, I wish I could have seen Grandad fighting in the war.':) We are so thankful and proud of you Grandad!!

Newsletter & lots of news!!

Okay, things are too hectic and with the computer not being at the house I have resigned myself that I will not be keeping up this blog on a regular basis... for now..

The most exciting news is that we were able to purchase the house we asked you to pray about!! We are very excited. Below is a copy of our winter newsletter.

Dear praying friends & family,

'When the fullness of time was come, God brought forth His son....." I've always liked this verse when I consider that God promised a Savior and Redeemer back in Genesis 3:15 when Adam & Eve sinned. I'm sure many people waiting for the Savior to be born thought that God had forgotten them. But nothing and no one could thwart His plan for redemption. He had it all planned out and when the time was ready Christ was born. We've had an exciting month as we've seen God fulfill the desires we've had for years.. all in the fullness of HIS timing.

An AMAZING God! When we moved here three years ago we had a little dream that one day we would have a Nara-Faminsk Youth Center that would be open to youth in need 24 hours a day 7 days a week. We started out in an apartment; but that had it's limitations as the police were always visiting us and telling us that no more than 12 people could meet in the apartment at the same time. In the space of two weeks we saw the incredible hand of God move... it started with a knock on our door and a lady telling us she wanted to sell her home across the street. It was quite literally *perfect* for a youth center. One large open room, a large entryway, a bedroom, kitchen & bathroom plus a large yard that could be used for volleyball - see enclosed picture. Two weeks later we had a buyer for our apartment and extra money from a dear group of friends in Texas. We gave a downpayment on the house and the paperwork is presently being done to own a new Youth Center. We stand back in amazement as we see the fulfillment of the hopes and desires we had three years ago when we moved to Nara-Faminsk. God continues to lead, provide, and draw people to the knowledge of salvation. I wish so much we could let you 'peek in' on the Bible studies and see these young people who know nothing about God or the Bible ~ To see the darkness and hopelessness of their lives and to be able to explain to them the greatest love story every written.

Christmas Plans Please be in prayer as this time of year is extremely busy and a wonderful opportunity to share Christ. Starting Monday the 26th through Russian Christmas celebrated January 7th we will be handing out food baskets and gifts to 65 needy families and children. We received the names and addresses from the city administration. In addition we will be visiting a children's hospital, the military base to give gifts to some children who are invalids, and an orphanages to hand out gifts, candy and fruit. Please pray that every conversation we have with these children and families will be a God-given chance to share the gift of salvation with them.

We will also be showing the film 'Luther' in a school auditorium the evenings of January 4th and 5th. We had permission to rent the largest auditorium in the city (seats 1000) but last week we were told of a new law that went into affect this week that forbids religious non-profit organization from renting a public facility and having any type of programs. It was a huge disappointment at first, but we are praying that showing the film in a smaller setting will allow us a chance to talk with people afterwards. Please remember us in prayer during these very busy weeks. Much work and preparation have gone into these plans and we are praying for God's blessing on each endeavor.

A New Pair of Socks Last night after the Bible study James came home with a new pair of warm hand knit socks. Sergei, a young man that was saved during the summer camp, had brought them to James from his Mother. Sergei's mother has been an alcoholic for the last 8 years; she has rarely gone outside her apartment or held a paying job. James had talked with her and told her he would pray that God would deliver her from alcoholism. Sergei came to the Bible study and told James his mother has not touched alcohol for over a month. He said she could not believe the change in her son's life and wants the same *miracle* for her own. When James had gone to visit her and took off his shoes, he had a big hole in his sock.... so she had made him a new pair of socks :) Praising God for new socks and a new life in Christ!

Family News Rachel celebrated her 7th birthday last week... I am feeling VERY, very old!! We had a wonderful birthday party with seven of her friends. We are so thankful for Rachel and her tender, loving heart. She teaches her parents so much of the ways of God. I'll never forget this summer walking to the store with her right after a big national holiday. We walked by three drunk men who had passed out near the side-walk. They were covered with vomit and smelled terrible. I walked by thinking 'I wish they would find another street to pass out in.... I feel so bad my children have to see stuff like this..' When we reached the store I looked down and Rachel had big tears in her eyes. When I asked her what was wrong, she replied, 'Oh Mommy, we have to pray for those men, without Jesus they'll never be able to say no to alcohol.' My heart was so convicted I couldn't even answer her... I walked by a self absorbed 'Pharisee', but Rachel walked by and had Jesus' heart for these men. When you have little ones around you understand so clearly 'Unless you become like a little child you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.' It's amazing how much you can learn from your children!

Our deepest thanks and gratitude to each of you who stand with us in prayer and giving. 'For where your treasure is there will your heart be also.' So many of you have your heart here in Russia with us and we are so grateful for you. May the Prince of Peace give you peace in your souls as you reflect on all He has done. 'For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people.' Luke 2:30

Rejoicing in Him,
James, Susan, Rachel, David, Caleb and Johanna Joy

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Wow! we had such an incredible day... first of all it's not easy finding turkey for sale here - we found some at a fancy supermarket near the American Embassy and a nice Honeysuckle turkey was going for $9.00 a pound (hmm we certainly have taught them the meaning of capitalism :).. anyway, we finally found a small package of *turkey fillets* for sale but I wasn't sure how to cook them?? So James decided to fire up our little grill and grill them outside. The kids all thought this was a total blast.. the best part of the day - playing outside and FIRE! We came in and sang songs and talked about all our blessings.. and then ate way more than one human being should eat in a given day. God has blessed us so so much.. four healthy children and His presence in our lives. Sending our love and Thanksgiving Day sugar to all our loved ones!! We're so thankful for YOU!!

Sweetest little Pilgrim around...

The kids loved making pilgrim hats... and Johanna enjoyed her very first Thanksgiving!

prayer request

Wanted to ask you to pray for James as he has a really important decision to make in the next few days. Last week our neighbor rang our doorbell and told us she was selling her house and if we knew anyone who was interested to please let her know. James went over to look at the house and said it would be *perfect* for a youth center. So he decided to stop at a realtor and just see how much we could sell the youth center apartment for.. the very next day the realtor brought over a buyer who wanted to buy our apartment on the spot! Wow! We told the buyer we needed to think things over... the house would have a larger room to meet in, plus a large bedroom (for Andrei to live in) a kitchen, bathroom and large entryway. It has city septic and water, gas heat and a phone. All this for only $2000 more than we would sell the apartment for.. So we really need God's wisdom. We feel like He is leading, it would be very nice not to have the police bothering us and the neighbors complaining about all the youth hanging out in the entryway. Any thoughts/advice anyone has would be appreciated! Ohh, and it's a great location - five minute walk from our apartment.

catching up...

Well it's been ages since I had time to write.. to explain, we moved into the house which has no phone so in order to get on the internet I have to go over to the youth center apartment and use the computer there. Anyway, Johanna is growing like a weed! Weighs 10 lbs and has a great double chin going for her. She's wonderful and smiley AS LONG AS she is being held... the perfect lap baby is there ever was one. Fortunately Rachel and David love to hold her so I usually have a free lap. Rachel loves to walk around singing to her - today I heard in her beautiful voice 'I love you Johanna, I will always take care of you when you are old, don't worry we will never give you away. mia loobimiya..' This was all sung to the tune of Edelweis from the sound of music.

We are really hoping it will snow soon - snow is much more interesting to play in.. Rachel & David continue to go every Tues & Thurs. to the art school (only 1 1/2 hours). They love it and our fridge is covered with paintings. They had a special fall program last week. Just got a phone call that a certain sweet baby is awake and in need of food - how is that possible when she just ate?? Oh well... till next time

Let it snow!!

Well it's been a bit crazy the past week.. they were working on the electricity in our city so all of last week the electricity was down somewhere which affected our internet... a whole week with no internet!!! i thought I would go crazy! :)

Last Monday we got a wonderful snowstorm.. the kiddos were ecstatic and crazy with joy. They spent all morning running around with shovels, building snowmen and snowtrees and catching snowflakes in their mouth. I had intended to go outside and take more pictures, but somehow got distracted... anyway, will include a picture of Caleb soon - something about a two foot 2 year old in a snowsuit that is just too cute for words!

We are alive!

Yes we're alive and well... just not phone & internet connected at the house. (how did Hudson Taylor every survive?? :) We got moved into the house and hardly know what to do at night laying in a quiet bedroom without our neighbor's pounding techno-pop until 3:00 am :) The kids absolutely love the attic - one big room with a rough wooden floor - they run, jump rope and Caleb rides on his little plastic motorcycle all day long.

Johanna is the sweetest most content baby ever in the history of babies!! I told James the other day if she was any *better* I'd start to wonder if she had a sin nature :) j/k really... She just sleeps and eats and loves to cuddle on your chest in a little ball. She hasn't received much lovings from her siblings lately as everyone has been sick. Rachel got a terrible cough/croup... and then Monday a stomach virus?? (food poisoning?) struck David & Caleb... it always amazes me how you can have three very large plastic containers surrounding your four year old and yet he somehow misses them and throws up all over the blankets - four times!... anyway, it was almost funny as we went through every blanket we had and ended up sleeping under flannel sheets that night.

Quote of the day - Rachel praying at lunch 'Please help Johanna to grow up strong and healthy, and please help winter to come very, very soon!' We did see a few snowflakes yesterday which prompted squeals of joy from Rachel... she can't wait to go sledding. No other news.. will try to post pic tomorrow.

Brothers and Sisters

Well I had a quiet restful day.. Johanna's on quite the 'schedule' - sleep all day and awake last night til 3:00 am :0. The kids really enjoyed giving their baby 'Jo-Jo' some lovings today.





























Rachel was so sweet.. she looked up and said 'Wow, now we're a big family!'

Rachel finally gets a sister!

Here's a few more pictures..

Safe arrival of Johanna Joy!!

She's here!! Friday night around 10 pm precious Johanna arrived safe and healthy. She weighed 8lb 3 oz, 21 inches long. The birth story is a very *long* story.. But the short version is that Dr. James got the unique privilege of delivering her! He did a fantastic job, and the Russian midwife arrived about 15 minutes later to finish up the job. Although circumstances that happened during the birth are certainly not what we would have planned for beforehand.. we could not help but praise God afterwards that every detail of the birth was wonderful and we know planned by her Creator.

We chose the name Johanna because we loved the meaning 'God is Gracious' - that seemed to be the theme for us this year through sometimes difficult circumstances.. God was always present and always gracious to us. Our special verse for Johanna came from Numbers 6:24-26 'The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace.' We are praying this for the life of precious Johanna Joy. We also like the name in Russian.. pronouced 'Yo-anna' or you can even call her Yanna or Yanitchka.

The kids were SO excited to hear that their baby sister had finally arrived. Rachel carassed her hair, kissed her toes & hands and proclaimed her 'the sweetest, cutest baby she'd ever seen.' David took a long look at her and asked 'are you sure it's not a boy?? It looks like a boy?' Caleb got so excited he ran around and promptly poked his finger in Johanna's eye... but then he did manage to slow down enough to give her some sweet kisses on the top of her head.

Thank you to those who were praying for us!! It means SO much to know that people were praying for us during the birth. Here's a few pictures.. but more will come tomorrow I promise. (actually the pics didn't turn out too great.. sorry we were just a bit busy today though :)

Rejoicing,
James, Susan, Rachel, David, Caleb & Johanna Joy

School pictures

First of all I have to apologize for the horrendous spelling mistakes in the blog!! I need to slow down and use spell check.. Anyway, I really do know how to spell, sorta...

I dressed up the kiddos last week and took them out for their yearly 'school pictures'. It was lots of fun.

Catching up...

Wow.. lots has happened in the past week, sorry for not keeping updated. The Bibles studies always seem to increase in numbers as young people who have spent the summer at their 'dachas' come back to the city and start school. We've had some new faces which is exciting. We're also praying fervently that we can somehow find a place to rent.. our neighbors are very kind, but having 25 youth smoking outside our apartment is not appreciated. Pray for wisdom for us to know how to deal with so many different situations that arise!

Sunday was D-DAY!!! My due date came and went with a few contractions... but nothing to get excited about. James & I were laughing last night about the extreme difference in expecting your first child and #4 - when I was expecting Rachel and had those first contractions I got out the video camera, called at least a dozen people and freshened up my make-up.... last week when I had a few contractions I immediately cleaned the bathroom, the kitchen floor and threw a casserole together (this was at midnight:) Hmmmmmm

The weather has been absolutely GORGEOUS! I can't remember such a beautiful fall in the last 8 years. Very dry, sunny and beautiful colors. I've been trying to spend as much time as possible with the kids outside walking and collecting leaves. Rachel and I were looking out the window as I was thinking 'oh, I wish this weather could last another 2 months!!'.. just then Rachel sighed and said 'I can't wait for snow to come!' Oh my, I am trying hard to not think about getting four kids into snowsuits....

We are slowly moving into the house.. James tries to take a load or two every day in his free time. It sure makes it nice to only be 5 minutes away! I'll make sure and post some more pictures when we actually get moved in.

Quote of the day: yesterday as Rachel was putting away the laundry 'Mommy, when you die can I have all your clothes??' I have to start writing down stuff, David says hilarious stuff every day... last night eating supper we had a fascinating conversation about the baby 'coming out'.

Well nap time is almost over so need to run... thanks to all that care enough about us to read this & pray for us!!! Lots of love and sugar being sent over the internet.

Playing on the playground

Wanted to post these pics I took last week at the playground in front of our apartment. Rachel could spend all day flipping herself over the high bar...

Here's precious David

I love this picture of Caleb... reminds me of the poem 'Little faces looking up, holding wonder like a cup.'