Friday, November 29, 2013

Family photo shoot

For so long I couldn't stand the idea of new family pictures without MaKayla in them. But after a few years I realized I had to get new pictures done and move on. So when a budding semi-professional friend offered to do our pictures for super cheap I jumped on that idea.

 Steve and I had fun getting our pictures taken too!
 The Boys




                and





                         The Girls.

 Okay so tell me we are not the only weird strange crazy different family. My kids started doing this weird thing one night when we were praying for dinner. I think it started because one of the little ones already had messy hands from starting to eat to early. So one of the big kids said, earlobes and grabbed the earlobes of the siblings beside them. Next thing I know this is becoming a regular joke between them. It's really kinda cute to have funny moments like this in our large family.
                                                It's hard to believe that this guy was only 4                                    when I first met him. It's even harder to believe he
                                   will be graduating this year! But I can say how
                                   proud we are of him. He has already been accepted
                                   to the Culinary Institute of America in New York.
                                   James is a great student and has such an ambition
                                   for cooking! It is a joy to watch him grow and soon
                                   become an adult.
 Savanna is much more of the free spirit kinda girl. If the mood strikes her to get creative she will in a heart beat. She's been this way for as long as I have known her. Even as a little 3 year old when I met her, she was full of energy. She has really found a place she loves at our local joint vocational school and will be right on James' heels, graduating next year. Her goals currently are to join the navy after high school and see the world.







                                          Russell, my first born, has always been a laid
                              back kid. This summer he disappeared after church and                               when we found him it was to discover that he had
                              accepted Jesus into his heart. Oh how wonderful that
                              makes me feel to know my son knows Jesus as his                                     savior. Ever since then he has felt that he should                                         become a missionary or maybe even a pastor. This
                              little guy (who really isn't so little anymore) will be
                              starting high school next year. Where does the time go?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

Katerina is Steve and my first child together. Now that she's 8 I think she wants to be a "big kid" more than ever. She is another kid that is full of energy and lots of creativeness. She is my oldest homeschooler and she is constantly keeping me coming back to the Lord for how best to help her learn. She is a natural leader to the younger two kids and such a helper to me.
                                  Natalia is my sweet little 5 year old. Although technically not old enough for public school kindergarten, she was racing through workbooks faster then I could believe and learning to read very easily, so this summer her dad and I decided she would do kindergarten in our homeschool. It has been such a joy to watch her learn. She picks up everything so fast! She's already doing 1st grade math! She is my little snuggle "kitten" (as she puts it) and whenever I sit down she hops into my lap.


 Hayden was my hardest pregnancy, delivery, and my most challenging baby and toddler. At 3 weeks old we discovered he had acid reflux. And although medicine and a diet change for me did help, he still had nights of screaming that seemed to last forever. Now that he is almost 2 I thought we would move on to words, but instead he gets by using baby sign language and grunts mostly. He has graced us with some words but refuses to use them regularly. Yet he is so smart he can grab each family members shoes without them asking! And his little smile is so contagious! It is exciting to watch his fascination with the world around him. And like a lot of boys he loves cars, trains, and construction vehicles!



So this is us, the whole family, including the dog, Winston. 

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