striiiike!

we took the kids bowling for the first time a couple of weeks ago and, to my surprise, they both did really well! the bumpers were up, of course, but still, their scores were pretty impressive. i forgot to get a print out of their score cards, so you'll have to take my word for it. lucas was timid about it in the beginning. he didn't want anyone to watch him. what he didn't know is that most people are focused on their own game and no one else's. emma took to it right away and would stand with her hands on her hips waiting to see how many pins she managed to knock down. elise was scared at first, but was running around laughing and goofing around in no time. at the end of our two games, lucas and emma asked to stay and bowl some more. we would have agreed, except that we were all starving so we had to call it a night. we had a ton of fun, though! i love bowling!

lucas isn't so sure about this sport.

emma's pretty excited about it!

elise is scared of all the noise, poor thing.

the kids are warming up. emma is copying EVERYthing that lucas is doing these days, hence the identical pose.

here he goes...

...look at that form!

emma's form isn't too shabby either!

allan knocking 'em down.

nate, waiting to see his spare.

my turn.

ugh! didn't catch that spare!

vicky's form is the best! :) nate kept telling her that they're going to have to patch up the hole she was going to put in the floor.

elise was all smiles in no time!

lucas' and emma's tiny bowling shoes, commemorating their first bowling experience. we are for sure going to do this again soon!

a getaway celebration

allan and i were married nine years ago on november 17, 2001 in seattle. the day was GORGEOUSLY sunny. to celebrate our 9th anniversary, we headed back to the place we both love so much...seattle! but, this year, it wasn't so sunny and bright. it was gloomy and rainy, and even snowed the day we left! nevertheless, we had a great time just the two of us. allan surprised me by taking me to dinner friday night at a restaurant that had live piano music. i've started playing the piano again so allan thought i'd enjoy it. it was really cool and very sweet of allan to think of it. we even made a request for "walking in memphis." the next day, we tooled around town and also visited the exact spot where allan proposed to me - the kirkland waterfront. it was COLD. i did the exact same thing that i did the day allan proposed...i asked to get back into our car and out of the frigid weather! i suck, i know. but allan was totally on board with me this time. on sunday, we met up with our old friends, matt and edna, after attending service at their church. we had brunch at their house and caught up on each others' lives without skipping a beat. it was great and their family of SEVEN is just beautiful. i am bummed that we didn't get a picture with them. the neat thing about matt and edna is that matt married us and edna sang at our wedding! nine years ago! it was a great weekend of celebration and i'm already looking forward to seeing how we are going to get to our big tenth anniversary. i love you, allan!

a picture before we head off on our weekend getaway!

arriving into seattle, a view of the traffic.

the beautiful space needle!

the spot where allan proposed and i said yes!

i sat here nine years ago as miss yolanda lee!

brrrr....let's get out of here.

here's to nine lovely, challenging, tear- and fun-filled, encouraging, absolutely wonderful years!

mcdonald's, it's what's for dinner

we don't eat mcdonald's that often, but every now and then it's pretty darn awesome. we had fun with it and had a picnic in the living room. the kids loved it!

a whole box of candles...almost

happy 34th birthday, allan! thanks for always being there for us.

we love you!

random pics

starting to plunge back in...once again. enjoy!

a castle that lucas built.

elise the giant next to lucas' castle.

i bought these clear plates and bowls from target for $0.44 each and love them! now, i don't have to ask the kids to see how much food they have left in their bowls during mealtimes. i just look over and say, "finish your zucchini." and, i get to see their cute faces through them!

lucas and emma enjoying some milk and biscotti. how refined.

sisters being silly.

i knitted these ponchos for the girls. they're still a little big for them,

but they'll grow into them in no time.

princess emma posing for the paparazzi

with lucas and elise trying to get in on the action.

to wrap up october 2010, here we are after a fun night of trick-or-treating and dinner with vicky and nate.

journal entry by lucas

this week, part of lucas' language arts assignment involved journaling. he had to, without any help from me, write a journal entry describing his thoughts or feelings about something that happened to him recently, that he's looking forward to, or that he observed, etc. the assignment was only to write a journal entry. he didn't need to worry about spelling, punctuation, grammar, or penmanship (like i said, no help from me was allowed). it was a "creative expression" assignment only, and this is what he wrote...



can you decipher it? i thought it was the cutest thing ever when i read it and realized what he had written, especially his spelling of the words. kids are so darn cute!

i LOVE my sweet boy lucas and i love doing school with him at home. it started out a little rocky, but i am thoroughly enjoying homeschooling and really look forward to it everyday. it is so exciting to see lucas learn and retain the things that i teach him. the really neat part is that i am able to reinforce the things that he is learning throughout the day or week as we are doing our normal/natural things together because i know exactly what he is learning; i am the one who is teaching it to him. i wasn't sure how homeschooling was going to go this year, but i have been blessed by it and we are only in our seventh week!

i wanna awana

a few years ago, when lucas was about two years old, we went to check out my little niece and nephew at their AWANA program. lucas was still too young to be part of the program, but i told myself that i would enroll him when he hit the minimum age requirement, which is 3. well, with being pregnant with emma and elise back-to-back, it seems, i never got around to it. so, finally, we enrolled both lucas and emma into a local AWANA program this year and they are LOVING it!!! i'm loving it as well. AWANA stands for "approved workman are not ashamed" and is taken from 2 Timothy 2:15 in the Bible. i love that lucas and emma are learning and memorizing scripture; impressing God's words into their hearts and their souls. i love that they are learning to know, love, and serve Christ. i praise God for His infinite wisdom, goodness, and grace, and i can't wait for elise to be old enough to join her brother and sister in learning God's word through this awesome program. check out the darling duo in their cubbies and sparks vests...they look so proud!

1 . . . 2 . . . 3 . . . cheese!

getting into the fall spirit

i am usually very eager to pull out my box of fall decorations and don the house with all kinds of red, yellow, and brown-colored goodies. but this year, i seem to be having a really hard time getting into the fall spirit. nothing is up and we don't have even one pumpkin on our front porch. we usually have about 6 or 7. to remedy this, i took the kids to the country mercantile pumpkin patch that's here locally and we had a blast, as usual! a friend of mine from another church sent out an invitation to join her MOPS group who were going. for only $3, the kids got to go on a hayride, pick a pumpkin, go through a hay maze and climb a giant haystack, see some animals at a petting zoo, and even got juice and a cookie. what a deal!!! i think i will do it again next year.

posing for me

us on the hayride

jess and levi on the hayride

holding hands, how cute!

brother and sisters, awww!

near the top of the haystack

kings of the mountain!

victorious!

me, elise, and rudy the reindeer

levi, keeping an eye on rudy

a very cute piglet

time for a break of juice and a cookie

the loot!