the past 6 months

Well, if anyone is still checking our blog, here's what we've been up to the past six months...

a lot of GROWING!

Tristan will be 10 this summer and is still my right hand man. He is a tender hearted,

compassionate boy who loves his family. His favorite thing to do is to be home, wearing comfy

clothes, eating Chinese and watching a movie with his family. I hope this lasts a long time!

Tristan is doing well with his piano lesson, art class, and soccer (John is the coach this year!).
Tristan is a great big brother and is adored by Aidan and Ella.

Ella is our sweet six year old, who is almost done with kindergarten! She is extremely

competetive and gives her brothers a run for their money! Ella loves gymnastics and singing

in the church choir. She is also the social butterfly at school, going to every birthday party

and playdate that she's invited to! Ella and John love to dance and listen to music- and her

current favorite tune (with all lyrics memorized) is U2's "Sexy Boots." Thank you, John.

Aidan is a big 2 year old now! He is the funny guy in the house and

loves a good joke! He talks a lot and we can pretty much understand what he's

trying to communicate most of the time. He LOVES any type of ball and has a wicked

throw and can kick the ball pretty well, too! He keeps us on our toes. And yes, the

"nunni" (a.k.a pacifier) is still a dear friend!

the family picture

option #1

option #2

It's that time of year again when we try to get a (nice!) family picture. It never seems to go according to plan, but still we try! Last weekend we had a beautiful 70 degree fall day so we went to a park to have a go at it. Friends of our came too with their kids and we tried a few shots with each family. Boy, it sure is hard to get everybody to cooperate and look like the loving family that we are ;) Well, these are the "finalists." We had some shadows to contend with, but overall, everyone is smiling and looking happy to be there! Thank you, Jen.

halloween

Halloween 2009

We had a mercenary, a bee, and an elephant!

Aidan "got it" this year and was delighted to get more candy and Ella and Tristan had races to see who could be the first to ring the doorbell! We cut it a bit short this year because it was so cold outside and the kids (and the 2 of us) don't need all the candy anyways!

fall

Fall is definitely here- we've moved on from warm short sleeved days to the crisp days of autumn. I've even had to turn the heat on a few times to take the chill out of our house in the morning. This past weekend we took the kids to Graue Mill for a walk around the lake. I think everyone in the area had the same idea! The colors were beautiful- we're not quite at full color yet, but close. We might have to take another trip back next weekend.

september 2009

sunset

exploring without boundaries

free

boundless energy

miracle

funny

beautiful

my right hand man

fresh

mine.

ella's photo shoot

Ella modeled for Dancewear Revolution this past Spring.

The catalog just came out and here's her page! You can

see the entire catalog at www.revolutiondance.com and click

on "debut performance" to get to Ella's page.

learning

Aidan is finally on the move! He started walking in August

and is now up to a good trot! He's also talking a lot

more. It's so fun to hear the new words he says and the

ways he tries to communicate what he wants!

Ella lost her two front teeth in August!

The kids are back to school- Ella is VERY excited

to be in kindergarten and Tristan is loving 3rd grade!

Tristan is 9 years old!

He celebrated his birthday at Camp Paradise.