The Final Catch Up

So, this post should catch you all up on what is happening in our lives. Curtis is doing good in school. He is growing and maturing so much. Kevin and I are just amazed at how much he has changed since starting school. Lauren is now potty trained and she did it all on her own! She wants to go to school so bad and knows that she can't go if she is not potty trained. It is so nice to have only one child in diapers :) Claire is now 17 months old and is saying words like no tomorrow. It's like deja vu with Curtis all over again! Curtis and Claire are buddies, it is so awesome to see. Claire will just come up to him and hug him and give him kisses and Curtis in turn will protect her. Lauren just picks on both of them, but she can also be so gentle and kind. Claire has the best personality. She is so silly and sure of herself, I mean she will make faces or do something silly just to get us to laugh. She loves her books, just like the other two. I am so thankful that my children love to read books. Kevin is still not working :( He had a couple of leads, but they didn't go anywhere. We are now just waiting on the Lord. A few weeks ago, Kevin was approached by his brothers with a job prospect...two Christian gentlemen are trying to start a company selling musical instruments and accessories. These two gentlemen are already selling guitars and some other stuff from their garage, but want to expand. Kevin's younger brother is already working on the website and if sales escalate to where the company can expand, then Kevin and his two brothers will be co-owners in this company, with Kevin being in charge of warehouse inventory and guitar set up. We would need to move to North Carolina. I know, when Kevin first told me, I was like "What!?! We just moved out here." Now I am very open to it if that is where the Lord is calling us to go. We have found a church that we like and a Christian school out there. We are excited to see the Lord move and work in this. Kevin and I were talking the other day that the Lord has been closing doors for us out here. We had been looking at houses and everyone we liked was either being closed on or the realtors wouldn't call us back. Then when we went to get a home loan, we were told that we can't get one because I don't have the two year work history. She did tell us that once Kevin gets a job, then we can get the loan started. That sounds good, but Kevin is having a hard time finding a job. So we wait to see what the Lord has in store for us. Finally, we had our pictures taken by Ali Feldman a couple weeks ago. We planned on wearing white turtlenecks, so that we wouldn't take away from the beautiful fall colors. Well, it was so hot!! It was around 85 degrees and we were in our turtlenecks outside and Claire was super grouchy. Ali was so patient with us and did get some great pictures. I can only put a couple on here because we are having difficulty viewing the pictures from our computer.

Aren't the colors beautiful? Uh, not sure what Lauren is doing and don't really want to know :)

Our beautiful family

Curtis playing in the leaves

So I had to throw this one in so you could see that Claire wasn't a happy camper.

Catching Up: Part 4

Alrighty, so today I'm going to talk about this cool celebration that our city has called the Fire Muster. They have this celebration every September with a fire truck parade on Saturday and the community parade on Sunday. We went on Saturday and let me tell you, the fire truck parade was so cool! I felt like a kid getting all giddy with excitement waiting for the parade to start. I think I was more excited than the kids at one point :) What an awesome parade!! I've never seen so many fire trucks in one place in my whole life. I took about 100 pictures, just of the fire trucks. After the parade, we went to the civic center to look at the trucks up close and see the demonstrations. The kids got to play on some of the trucks and try on the fire fighting gear. They even got to pick out their own fire hat to take home. Here are some pictures of that awesome day!

Here they come!!

This is a truck that goes into buildings that are unstable.

The mobile command unit

The hook and ladder truck

Old fashioned fire engine

Old fashioned ladder truck. This was Kevin's favorite.

The auto extraction demonstration

This is one of my favorites of the kids.

The kids shooting water from the fire hose.

Catching Up: Part 3

Labor Day weekend we took the kids to the Minnesota State Fair and of course the day we went, the attendance record was broken. Thankfully we got there early and we left early because we could barely walk around it was so crowded. The kids loved every minute of it and that's all that matters. Next year though, I think we are going to do the county fairs instead. So here are some pictures.

The kids at the Lil Farm Hands exhibit. This exhibit was so cool. The kids got a pail and an apron and had to go to these stations around the exhibit. They got a baggie of corn to feed the chickens, when they fed the chickens they got to put an egg in their pail. Then they went to ride around in a pedal tractor, then plant a vegetable and harvest a vegetable to put in their pail. Then they fed a sheep and got some wool to put in their pail. Next, they fed a cow and milked the cow and got a carton of milk to put in their pail. Then, they picked an apple to put in their pail and went to market to sell their wares. They received a play doller to buy one item in the store and they both chose an apple :)

Curtis planting some potatoes at the Lil Farm Hands exhibit.

Lauren riding a John Deere tractor at the Lil Farm Hands exhibit.

The kids raking cranberries.

Catching Up: Part 2

As you all know Curtis started kindergarten this year. This post is going to be about his Jump Start class and his first day of school. We put Curtis in a kindergarten jump start class to help him get ready for kindergarten. It was a three week class and he loved every minute of it! He was so sad when the class was over because he wouldn't get to see his friends again. That was very hard. Then he started school and now he is fine. I took the day off so that I could be with him on his special day. I held off the tears until he got onto the bus and then the floodgates opened. My baby is growing up, too fast I'm afraid. So, onto the pictures!

Curtis' jump start class showing the parents what they have learned.

Curtis looking at Grace. She liked him and would follow him around. Puppy love!!

Curtis and his friend Abdallahi. They were inseprable.

In front of his class.

Curtis on his way to school. I was very nervous about him riding the bus to school, but he begged and pleaded to ride the bus.

All lined up and ready to go to class. They are waving bye to the parents before heading inside.

Last week, was teacher confrences and his teacher told us that he is above average in the letters that he knows. He knows 23 of the 26 letters and she was very impressed that he knows the sounds that letters make. He does know how to spell a few words, so he is well on his way.

Catching Up: Part 1

Alright, since I have a lot to talk about, I'm going to write a little at a time. Today, I'm going to talk about our Chuck E. Cheese day. Since, Curtis and Lauren's birthday's are two weeks apart and I was super busy at work in August, so we decided to celebrate both birthday's at Chuck E. Cheese with their cousins. The kids had so much fun!

Claire had fun riding in the cars. She didn't want to leave.

Curtis and his cousin Levi.

The girls on the carousel.

Having fun!!