Gym Masters Homeshow

Aile has been taking gymnastics this year with the Gym Kids, and as part of the class, all the kids get to perform a little routine during the Gym Masters homeshow.  Aile has been very excited about this, looking forward to it for weeks!  And today was the day!  Sean got much better video than I did pictures, but here are a few to give an idea of what it was like.  By the way, the whole Gym Masters show was really great!  

Yeah Aile!  You did a great job and we're proud of you for giving it your all!  :)

We're heading out...

For those who have been tuned in to our recent saga, here's the house!  More info to come! Thanks for praying with us!

Smiles for Sabbath

Really there is no special occasion for this post, other than it was a happy Sabbath morning and we were all getting ready for church, and my kids were all willing to at least look at the camera! (Okay, so that's usually just Brenner's deal--he's the big joker who like to grin at you and then when  you go to snap a picture he quickly looks away!)

Anyway, Caelum was looking spiffy with his little red curls, so we had to get one from the back too!  

Yeah!  I caught him!  :)

Those jammies can be very hard to find...

So the other evening I told Brenner to go look in the dryer for the jammies he wanted to wear. He took me quite literally--and took a very close look in there!  :)

Of course, the idea was catching and Aile had to take a turn too!

Singin' in the Rain

For the past several days (after having beautiful spring weather!), it has been dreary and very wet.  The kids have been itching to get back outside.  So the other day while I took Aile to a gymnastics practice, Daddy took the boys outside to play in the rain!  

Caelum loved this drain spout!  He kept trying to catch the water! (Of course, the water was flowing all around beneath him getting him soaked!

Brenner just liked searching for treasure in the puddles...

After Caelum figured out he couldn't really catch the water from the drain, he moved on to bigger things...

Gotta wear shades?

On the way home from Aunt Mary Jane's house after a big day of celebrating Caelum's birthday, Brenner was all partied out.  But he just couldn't sit back and relax for the night-time drive--he had to shade himself from those bright moonbeams!  :)  

Celebrating Caelum...a little bit more!

So many people love this little boy, we just couldn't resist celebrating a little bit more!  He is such a blessing to us every single day!  We praise the Lord for him!  

Here is Caelum's birthday song and prayer from his Sabbath School class.  

And here is Caelum's own little birthday cake from Aunt Mary Jane.  As you will see in the following pictures, he enjoyed it quite a bit!  It only took him one birthday to decide cake is a yummy thing!  :)

The rest of us had cupcakes and a whole banana split bar with all the toppings!  It was so yummy!




After we were too full to eat one more bite, we  had a good time watching Caelum tear into a couple gifts and goofing off.

Caelum's Birthday! The Big 1!

It's hard to believe that I have become one of those people who says "I can't believe how fast time flies!"  Wow!  My littlest baby boy is one year old today.  What a great year we have had with him!  We feel so immensely blessed that the Lord blessed our family with this sweet boy!

As soon as the kids woke up this morning, we immediately had to sing "Happy Birthday" to Caelum, which he laughed at the whole time, thinking we were hilariously funny.  :)  

Aile then pronounced that she wanted to read Caelum a birthday story, which Brenner simply could not miss out on.  So here they are piled into the glider rocker, listening to Aileana read "What Do You Love?"

And now...for the biggie of the day...Caelum (well, really Caelum's family) got a HUGE gift today! We have been searching and praying and waiting and trusting in the Lord's timing about our vehicle situation.  The Land Rover was tired and cramped, and we finally were able to sell it last week.  Since then, we've been hoping to find the perfect minivan for our family needs within our very meager budget--as it turns out that was no small task!  :)  But the Lord provided wondrously, and today we were able to get a new (to us!) Dodge Caravan!  We have all been excited, especially the kids!  And Caelum likes the new van too--but probably he likes even more the fact that he got to turn his car seat around and face forward when we transferred his seat to the new van!  Yeah!  The big boy who has been kicking the back of the seat for months can finally have some leg room!  :)

Yeah!  We love our new van!  :)  We feel so blessed!
After getting the van all smogged and tagged and titled and insured, we decided to meet up with Sean's dad and step-mom, Duane and Debbie, and Sean's brother Sidney, for dinner, where Caelum enjoyed his first french fries and his first chocolate cupcake!  As you will see through the progression of these pictures, he enjoyed the cupcake quite a bit!  :)






For those of you who know our family well, you might note the contrast between Caelum's first chocolate experience and Brenner's!  :)  Ha! (Caelum apparently has no problem getting messy!)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAELUM!  WE LOVE YOU SOOOOO MUCH!  :)