A seven year old girl

How Mercy got to seven:

 

We love you, Mercy!

Advent

We're in kind of a quiet lull at home and it's nice. No more four nights a week plus Saturdays of soccer. We eat dinner together. Bob and I loll around in front of a Netflix series that we can't not watch every night.

We've yet to decorate for Christmas but we will soon.

 

 The frog we caught as a tadpole last spring lives on despite our laziness in keeping him fed.

Mercy has a tooth that we just can't coax out. Well, two teeth. Those two front and center fangs are covering the grown up teeth that have come in behind them. Mercy looks funny.

So do Josiah and James...

Michael has been taking daily and nightly trips into the garage to "play drums". He invites us in to hear his songs. Sometimes he sells tickets to his concerts if he has a special song he wants to play for us.

This is his "drum set". (This is not a plea for a real set. I repeat...)

Michael does everything he does with heart.

Don't miss James enjoying Michael's singing/drumming show in this one:

And it's Advent.

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving this year in Chelan with my parents, my sister and her fiance and my brother.

Significance abounds in the fact that we were all together, celebrating, eating and watching Bravestar together.

 Bright, crisp fall weather gave us some wiggle time outside. What's not pictured here is the Inaugural Soccer Game on Dad's Grass. Grandad, Bob, Uncle Josh and our boys tore it up after the long ride east on Wednesday.

 Then there were the preparations. Many hands made light work in our attempt to do the jobs Mom normally does at Thanksgiving. We all tried to pitch in while she is recovering from hip surgery. I think all of us would say that it was an education in how much work actually goes into a big family Thanksgiving meal.

 And it was the Year of the Paper Table Turkey:

We lined up to wash our hands

And sat down together to eat! (There you are, Dad!)

 The rest of our weekend was filled with many little moments of togetherness...

And we are thankful for them all. 

Fall is still my favorite

 Way up high in the apple tree

Two little apples looking down at me

 

I shook that tree just as hard as I could

And down came the apples and MMmmm the were good

Fall is my favorite

Soccer.
Also a favorite.
That's what's going on this fall for most of us. With one boy at soccer two nights out of the week, another boy and a coaching dad out for a different two nights of the week, we've been busy. This Saturday is our first Saturday with two games to cheer. (I know many families have more than two kids in a single sport at once- it was just much easier last year when both Daniel and Michael were on the same team.)

 

Daniel and Coach Bob had their first game last week in which they slaughtered their opponents. The Panthers, Michael's team, had the weekend off last Saturday.

Happy watchers...

Popcorn and apples...

Reuben...

Go Dragons!

ChelanTime 2012

School has started up around here and we're enjoying our new routine: school some, go outside some, repeat. The weather has been summery still yet somehow pleasant now that the humidity has gone down a little in our neck o' the lack of woods. 

So while I'm still kind of in a summer frame of mind, I thought I'd finish up some sunny weather posts with this one from our time in Chelan. 

We love the extended family hang out time with cousins and second cousins. These chairs see a lot of use during the week we are there.

And we try to eat as much ice cream on the grass as possible. With sprinkles.

 And we share.

I learned this year that Holey Board has been renamed Clank. I like the little group of watchers in this picture.

I love that Bob builds sandcastles like this every time we go to the beach. Maybe the kids think he is building sandcastles for them. I don't think he is.

Kellys!!
Wow, we're a big group. I'm still getting use to the fact that we kind of overwhelm, wherever we go.

Girls at Kellys, post ice cream.

Enjoying the AC.

Really enjoying the AC.

 

 Reuben in his pool get-up.  

Chelan, we'll be back!