Dress Up Wars

category: wizards

It started out with just three of them; they amused themselves Saturday with a great idea of Elisha's.....Dress Up Wars. Eventually, Elisha herself jumped in. The idea was to put dress up categories in a hat, draw one out, dress up the best they could and then have Mom judge the best costume. You gotta love it when they get creative and have fun for hours without the use of any technological devices. Here are the categories and winners.

winner: Elias

winner: rockers

winner: Isaiah

category: Medieval

winner: Princess Elisha

winner: Isaiah

taker of blurry photographs: Mom

and an honorable mention: Elisha from the Revolutionary War

category: Star Wars

winner: Micah as Princess Leia as she looked in "The Empire Strikes Back"

category: western (3 cowboys and 1 indian)

winner: tie between Elias and Isaiah

category: rangers (inspired, I believe, by the Ranger's Apprentice books)

winner: Elisha

The category: business people

the winner: Elias. The tie and briefcase sealed the deal

Category: NERDS

Clearly, we have been watching a bit too much of Blimey Cow.

16? How did we get here?

With Micah
And Elias - they were big buds

Elisha and Isaiah, his other partners in crime

ye olde fire guy

rope swing action.

I have no idea why all of these photos say "Elias's" in the corner....reason 74,249 why not to give the kids the camera.

with the Curles on Black Friday this year in San Diego....at 3:30 in the morning.

Crown of the Continent Guitar Workshop this past summer
Below - at the church talent show last year

Yep, the boy is 16. Today. Wow. I loved every minute (well, okay that is a gross exaggeration, but I did really LOVE it) of my kids' baby and little-personhood. I would agree to live it all over again without a second's hesitation. But there is something really wonderful about having your kids get older and watching them develop into the people that God designed them to be. With that said, we all think Josiah is the bomb. One of our little family birthday rituals is (along with your choice of dinner and breakfast on your special day) that everyone in the family tells something that they appreciate or are thankful for about the birthday kid. Tonight, it was really fun hearing the kids are go on and on about what they loved about Jo. Most of them had more than one thing to share that they were bubbling over with. You gotta love that. Some points shared by us all are that Josiah is a thinker who considers what he is doing (even the rotten things, and even if he isn't real quick about changing them, he is thinking about them and trying to go the direction of what is right). He is okay with who he is (meaning that he is just who he is and he is okay if other people aren't okay with that. He knows what he believes about a lot of things and will stand up for those things). Josiah is talented, funny, fun, faithful, and loves his family. He is also really great to be around and we all love to listen to him play guitar....and piano. I am thankful for Josiah and for the man that he is growing into and I am going to bawl like a baby when he moves out one day - but we aren't going to think about that now. Son, we are proud of you and love you to the moon and back, over and over and over and over again.

cheater cheater

So, I am a cheater....and a very lame blogger. This is not new news to any of you reading this. It is always my intention to, at the very least, blog on each of the kids' birthdays. But, somehow, it is only the ones that have birthdays in Feb. and March that get a post. It is not that I love them any more or love the others any less, but that my world is a blur from September through December when two birthdays take place. I have a little better grip on life in Feb. and March. Not sure what my problem is with the July birthday, but pretty sure it relates to the second part of that first sentence above. So, that said, here's the cheater part. I am going to try to do those birthday posts in the next week and post them as if I WEREN'T a lame blogger and have them appear on the actual birthday dates on this blog. Hence the cheater part. So, Dad, this is for you - in the next couple weeks, you can start looking at previous months, and posts may miraculously appear where there previously were none. Or maybe you just missed them while you were wearing out your computer going to the blog to find NOTHING NEW EVERY DAY. Or maybe I am a cheater....but I never cheated on tests...just at blogging. In case you were wondering.

Nine - and Ready to Rule the World

Nine very short years ago our lives were changed forever. Our little Micah, who is now NOT little and nine and way too big and able to rule a few small countries if we'd let her (but we won't - it'd be a dictatorship), was born. She is such a fun, happy, crazy, sweet, darling, snarky, sarcastic, sensitive, kind, wonderful little person. I had a great time taking photos of her baby pictures in the albums so that I could upload them here. Here are some favorites - they make me want to cry. Actually, I did cry. And then I gave her a big, fat hug.

Welcome to the world, darling baby!

Here she is, just minutes old, still wrapped in the blanket she was received in. She was very alert and looking all around her. Micah was 9 pounds, 13 ounces (amazing considering how skinny she is now) and 23 1/2 inches long. Her labor was a very short, wild ride - and I whined the whole way. Brad, my Mom, Michelle Freund (my most wonderful fabulous midwife in the world), Kelly Gonzales, and Pam Wilson were there for the triumphal entry. Jennifer McDaniel missed the show by about 5 minutes. She came with Curan who was three weeks old and we played "pass the babies" and compared how much longer and heavier Micah was than Curan and how much bigger her feet were.

Here she is, brand new with big brother who was very proud. This was her first morning.

brand new with her big sister. The beginning of a best friendship

She wasn't so sure about Elias....so we invited her to join the club - which is still in existence

Micah was super smiley right from the beginning. She smiled way earlier than we thought humanly possible and she's been smiling ever since. Here she is being a Daddy's girl...still is

Micah was always (was?) super busy. From the time she was tiny, her legs never stopped moving. She held them straight up in the air and kicked them around. She would put her legs up under the bar on this bouncy seat (see how she has them in the picture?) and push and she would send that bar hurtling across the room

I love this one...so cute and bright-eyed!

The gymnast nursing baby....remember what I said about those legs? This was typical.

These were her first steps by herself - she walked at 10 1/2 months

Dancing with her buddy, Elias.

We start 'em out reading young....she fell asleep many a days "reading" with books all over her bed

Just say it - she's yummy.

This was a photo taken for our kids' musical at church in San Diego.

don't you just want to pinch those cutiie-patootie dimply cheeks? I do....I did.

These were her very favorite jammies.

Always a big goofball

Elisha made a cake for her little sister this year. Isn't it great? AND, I didn't have to do it - which was even greater.

And here she is - in all her nine year old glory....and her new birthday hat.

Oh Happy Birthday, Micah. We love you so much.

Great Vision Forum Christmas Sale - Black Friday Revisited

Isaiah the Teenager

It wasn't long ago - about half a year, I think - that we had all sorts of little people running around....when number 5 was born the oldest wasn't quite yet 7. So I am not sure exactly how I got to the place where as of today, we have three teenagers in the house. We realized that there will be a 17 day period (18 if it is a leap year) when we will have 5 teenagers in the house. We ought to take a really crazy road trip during those seventeen days. Teenagers get a bad wrap....I love my teenagers. That's a good thing becuase there is a new one in the family - Isaiah turned 13!!! Wow. Here he is with some of his birthday gifts. He is really into Army gear right now. Isaiah's birthday always falls on our trip back from San Diego. He has been such a sport about it, but this year he asked if maybe we could NOT be in the car on his actual day. So, we stayed a day later in San Diego. Isaiah is a very cheerful and easy-going kid. He is so quick to forgive others and admit when he has done something wrong - not that it necesarily changes, but at least he admits it!! He is a very motivated kid - when he was little, he would come to my bed at around 6am with his math book in hand, wake me up, and ask if I could do his math with him right then....um, I just figure that in my sleep, I must have had a look on my face that said "I wish I was teaching math right now instead of sleeping". Which is strange, because I am pretty sure that when I had 5 very small children, I really wanted to do a lot more sleeping than I did.

Isaiah is still driven. We love who he is and watching him grow. I can hardly believe that he is 13 years old....where does the time go. One thing that I love about Isaiah is that when he is done with his chores, if someone else isn't done - and that person might miss out on something fun because of their lack of dilligence - Isaiah jumps in to help them get their things finished. Not sure how great that is for the slacker, but I love the compassion that Isaiah has towards them. Here are some of my favorite photos of Isaiah when he was little. I had to take photos of them from his album and then upload them, so some of them look a little weird.

Brand spanking new, with Daddy. Oh, he was so yummy, and a sweet, easy baby.

About 3 months.... and ready to rock and roll.

With his new baby, Elias - just a few hours old.

We were re-doing the front yard in San Diego and it was a disaster....dirt, mud, dust, topsoil everywhere. Isaiah was in the middle of it. He took his little chair out there and sat amidst the loveliness of it all. He was about 18 months old. He found this little crack/hole in the sidewalk where water pooled and he stuck his nose in it and stood up with the above pirate's mustache and goatee. We all laughed so hard. OH, I miss his little 18 month-old self.

Love this photo.. Happy little guy!!

this is my favorite Isaiah photo, I think...it is just SOOOO him.

Cute little guy!

He is always covered with sand at the beach

football stars - they were constantly playing football or baseball at our house

Elisha's first day of school, but Isaiah was so excited to be doing school

he had to get in on the action

Isaiah got baseball clothes and gear for his birthday this year. He wasn't old enough to play teeball (so he must have been 4), but he was so ready. He wanted me to take photos of him pretending he was playing baseball. Here he is "running the bases"

Getting so big even here

And here he is as a new teenager - 13 big years old. We love you, Isaiah and we are glad that you aren't going to be a waitress when you grow up (private joke!).