'nastics!

Ella has been going to gymnastics for the last few weeks. I know she's young and it's a little unnecessary, but it's been really fun for her and I figure I should take advantage of the "free time" we have now that Dylan is in school. She is starting to really get the hang of it and it's really funny to watch her interact with the other kids and learn new things. Today was her first day in her little leotard...isn't she cute? :)

Ella's room!

The girliness is complete. Here's Ella's big girl room for anyone who is interested. I was able to keep her original paint color and curtains as well as her bookcase and animal pictures (above the bed) - the bed and dresser and bedspread are new. Hopefully this will be a room that can grow with her as she gets bigger.

i [heart] shopping

My favorite shopping buddies: Pam, Michelle, Yesenia and my mom - pre-shopping photo from our annual Birch Run trip (and my pregnant belly for anyone who hasn't seen me in the past 6 months).

the gene pool

People often look at Ella and then look at me and then ask some version of, "How on earth did you end up with a child how looks like that?" Thought I would provide a little photo evidence...apparently the answer is "recessive genes." The first picture is my mom's baby picture and the second is Ella's.

And a little bit more cuteness just for good measure...the boy cousins (and Pa) and the girl cousins - Ella and Lucy.

David Crowder Band

We went and saw these characters below on Saturday night along with our friends Derk and Bethany and pal Curt. Crazy hair, but good stuff. Bonus points if you can pick us out of the photo on the bottom (to be honest, I can really only see Curt and Tall Sweaty Enthusiastic Guy who was sitting next to me...and I don't mean Matt.)


He is jealous for me,
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realise just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

And oh, how He loves us so,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all

He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.

We are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.
So Heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way…

He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.

[As performed by David Crowder Band, written by John Mark McMillan]

Happy Fall!

The leaves have started to fall and our kids had a blast playing in them today. Matt spends quite a bit of time in the fall keeping the yard cleaned up, but all that hard work is worth it - we love our house and our yard because of all the tress, especially in the fall.

Isn't fall magnificent this year? God really knows what He's doing, doesn't He? :)

37 weeks

Three weeks to go and not much to report except I think I am finally getting anxious to meet this baby girl! I have no real physical complaints - I'm about as comfortable as a nine months pregnant lady can be, but I am starting to dream about wearing "real" clothes and being able to drink a margarita :) We've been trying to get things taken care of around here - we're stocked up on TP, just took the kids to the dentist, had their year pictures taken, and I'm trying to clean/organize as much as possible since it might be months before I have the time/energy to take care of any of this stuff. We have two more busy weeks of doctor's appointments and birthday parties (whose idea was it to have all the babies in November anyway??) and then after all that is done, Baby Girl is welcome to show up :)

pumpkin party!

We had our (kind of) annual small group pumpkin party tonight. This first photo is from the party 3 years ago - six kiddos, including three tiny ones (Ella was still a month away from making her appearance into this world). The second photo is from tonight - we're up to 12 kiddos now and they are still as cute as ever. Dylan is the monkey in the first shot and Ella is the monkey in the second :)

good stuff

"First and literally the beatitudes are Jesus' surprisingly countercultural God-bless-you's to people in God-awful situations."

-Frederick Dale Bruner

We started a series on the Beatitudes a few weeks ago at church. Good stuff. Listen in here.


The moment we look down upon
somebody because they aren't as
disciplined, hard working, upright,
smart, responsible, moral,
God fearing, Bible believing, or
Jesus trusting as we are

because they've made idiotic, stupid, immoral
choices again and again and again—
at that moment we are in fact rich in spirit and
Jesus isn't announcing anything to us

before it's a theology or a system or a doctrine
or a church
or a movement or an institution or a worldview
or a way or a perspective
it's an announcement

[from "Blessed are the poor in Spirit", Rob Bell, 9/13/09]

cookies!

My parents love me. They brought me back this tin of cookies from Hawaii filled with yummy shortbread cookies shaped like pineapples. 12 flavors. 32 cookies. I'm in heaven.