From Aaron

He had my camera the other day.  I love the shots he captured.

Bad Boys

These pictures were taken last week, before the arctic set it.  Grr...  Little Josiah loves to be outside with everyone.  He always comes in filthy, but that's ok.  At least he's getting some fresh air!

This little dude was trying to be cool like a football player.  Unfortunately, he took permanent marker to his face.  Not typical for him.  But you can tell by the look on his face that he thought he was funny.  Took a bit of scrubbing but it came off.  :)

Shy Girl

Recently Greta took position at the piano with her Three Little Pigs book.  She began to play and sing her heart out.  I guess she was singing the words to the book??  Anyway, it was so untypical of her.  She is not one to do things that draw attention to herself.  I thought it was so dear and I snapped her picture.  As soon as she heard the camera click she hung her head in embarrassment.  I was so sad to ruin her little moment!

Josiah is One!

I can hardly believe that my baby boy is one!!  All week I have been very sentimental about his birthday.  I am again amazed at how quickly they go from a newborn to a wiggly, curious, opinionated 1 year old.

We love this little dude to pieces.  He is never lacking for attention or love, he gets it from all of his siblings.  So happy to have you, Josiah Stephen!!

Concentrating very hard for "So BIG!!"

Josiah was very curious about the kitty that showed its face

Though these 2 pictures are very similar, I love them both b/c they are such true expression of his!

Fuzz head.  Major.

My lovely assistant.

Good-bye

This picture was taken as Ashley and Shawn were heading out to the airport.  It was so great to have everyone here, we miss you!!

If you know Steve's family, you can see this his brother Seth is missing from the photos of our time together.  He really wanted to come, but was not able because of serious back issues.  He is actually having his surgery tomorrow.  Love you, Seth, we are praying for you!!

Gymnastics

This picture is about a month old now...but it's too cute to pass up.

Greta was invited to bring-a-friend day at the gym where Morgan takes.  She was so excited and had so much fun!!
We had Claudia and Morgan wait until they were older to start taking lessons and so the path will be for little Greta (though she would love to have started long before now!!).  I'm curious which direction she will lean.  She loves learning both gymnastics and ballet from her older sisters.  Time will tell.  Who knows, maybe she'll be a soccer star or something else!!

Pumpkin Carving

One of our Hurricane Sandy activities was carving pumpkins.  Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures of the finished products!!

Competitive?

I have a certain child that is very mild mannered, laid back, and content.  In the midst of all that she can be crazy competitive.  Judging from these photos, can you guess which one it is?
We set up a fake race, apparently she was the only one who was actually competing.

Love this expression

2 Little Dudes

Family

Both of these pictures are phone pics so that quality is not that great.  But I love them for what they are...

This past Sunday was so beautiful.  I called my dad (who was home alone) to see if he wanted to go hiking with the older girls.  It ended up him and I and all the kids!  We had a fun time, one last horrah before the cold.  This picture is funny for a number of reasons.  Greta did not want to be in it, hence the sad face.  Also, it took my dad and I both some time to figure out what Josiah was doing in this picture. Looks like he's about to fall out!!

After the hike we went to Willow Valley to visit my mom for our "last supper".  Willow Valley is a local restaurant/hotel/bakery that was started with my dad's family.  My mom has worked since before I was born and I worked there for many years before I was married.  I have many great memories of W.V.  Sad to say, they closed their doors this weekend.  It will be missed!

Thumb-sucking duck

One last picture from trick-or-treat.  Little Josiah with his Maw.

Hat

I got this adorable hat for Josiah this summer.  It's lined with fur and has ear flaps.  He normally rips if off but lately has been keeping it on.  So cute!!!
This was taken on Wed. as we were headed out to the poles.  Yes, I took all my kids with me.  It was a fun lesson for them.  Morgan can hardly wait to vote.  She has it figured out that she only has to wait through one more election and then she can cast her vote!

Miss Independent

Recently G told me she wanted a pb sandwich.  Next thing I knew she was doing this:

Out of the Mouths...

Tonight I returned from a shopping trip with Claudia and Morgan.  Greta wanted to know what we bought while we were out.  I showed her a pack of fun, brightly colored socks that the girls picked out for the sock drive at church for Water Street Rescue Mission.  As I said the words "sock drive" to Greta, I knew she would not know what they meant.  I followed it with, "They are for people who do not have very much money."

She looks at me with innocent eyes and says, "I do not have very much money."

More ordination

So grateful to Jamie Sentz who took these pics for us!!  They started off with a slideshow of pictures that I put together.  This is one of my favorites, Steve with all his brothers.

I was asked to speak.  I was so nervous that morning, I was not sure how I would do.  I mean, when was the last time I spoke to 500ish people.  Um...never!  Right before I was to go up I looked over at my friend Becky.  She gave me a wink and it totally calmed me down.  I realized that I was talking to my friends.  What did I have to be nervous about?

Funny, when I saw these pics the first thing I noticed was how wrinkly my skirt was!  I ironed it that morning but apparently it didn't matter.

All church photo.  Love this!

In case you are interested, here are the words I shared that Sunday morning:

Good morning.   What a privilege it is to be here this morning.  Thank you so much for joining us in celebrating this special day.  Pete asked me to share a few words about my husband, specifically how I am grateful for him.  There are many things that I am grateful for about Steve.  His faithfulness to our family, his hard work ethic, his generosity, and his effortless sense of humor would be just a few things.   But what I thought I would share specifically in detail this morning is the area in which I believe our lives have been most impacted by him.

 

One of the things that first attracted me to Steve was his passion for truth.  He was a man who wanted to know God and have his life be defined by the truth of who God is.  He was a young man willing to be radical for Jesus.  I’ve got some juicy details of Steve back in his radical days, but I didn’t want to embarrass him too much this morning, so maybe I’ll save those for another time.   Anyway, Steve’s passion and commitment to truth spill over into many areas of our life.

Steve is constantly reading something for the purpose of being informed, understanding a difficult subject, or learning more about a specific topic.   And believe it or not, he actually enjoys all that reading!  He cares about leading and guiding others, making sure that what he is sharing or teaching is accurate.  The same would be true in our personal life.  Steve does not share thoughts or feelings with me flippantly.  He is measured and careful with his words.  I know that if he shares something with me he means it and I need to take it seriously.

When Steve is disciplining our children he is not given to simply just correcting or yelling.  He is consistently teaching them, guiding them, taking them somewhere with their hearts.  When I asked my older 2 girls what they were grateful for about their daddy this exact thing was what they both said.  They feel that their dad is always pointing them to God.  And on a completely unrelated note, the younger 2 were thankful for daddy buying them presents and playing basketball with them.

Our marriage is much richer and fuller because of Steve’s commitment to truth.  He’s not simply willing to smooth over conflict.  He wants to get to the real issue of our hearts.  Though at times I’ll admit it can be a bit maddening, I know we are relating in marriage on a deeper level of love and respect because of him.

Steve is very passionate about seeing the truths of the gospel lived out in our lives.  Steve’s faith is not based on good works, legalism, or happy answers that simply sound good.  My husband knows he is a sinner and he worships a God who has saved him, is good, and is the process of changing our hearts.  So many times in our daily living, Steve has helped me and pointed my heart back to God.  He’s committed to leading me to a place of truth: trusting God and having faith that He is working for my good amidst all things. 

Steve, I am so proud of you and so happy to be by your side.  I am so grateful that our journey has brought us here.  Thank you for loving me, loving our family, and faithfully pointing us all to God.  We are so fortunate to have you in our lives.

Crossway Church, I would like to thank you for all that you have been to us these past 10 years.  You have strengthened us, prayed for us, and been our friends.  I also would like to thank the pastoral team: Pete, Bill, Doug, and Kurt.  You have been my husband’s closest friends and he is a different man because of you.  I am so grateful for your faithful friendship to him.