A few extras.

A couple pictures I forgot to include in a previous post from Shelley and Addy's visit:

Fun in the Nursery

About 2 weeks ago, Adam and I had the privilege of doing nursery duty at our church. We had the 3/4 yr. old class (although Addy and Ethan were also in with us).

Since I had my camera with me I decided to take a few pictures (an idea I've gotten from you, Emily Gould!)

Our little visitor ;-)

Adam getting his hair cut

Doing Puzzles

Aria

Amos

(sporting his monk haircut from the Reformation party)

Ali

Snack Time

We have been so blessed by our church and are thankful that we get to do nursery so that we can know the kids in our church better. We pray that the Lord might use us as a Gospel witness not only to our own children, but also to other children in our church. We also pray that the Lord would use other members in our church to spur our own children on toward responding to the Gospel. What a gift it is to be at a church where there are a number of godly role models that the Lord uses in our life as a couple and will also, Lord-willing, use in the lives of our kids. What a blessing and encouragement.

Ethan and His Big Boy Bed

It's hard to believe that Ethan is now old enough for a toddler bed!

Just about 3/4 weeks ago, we made the BIG switch

from his crib into his "big boy bed"

We were nervous about how it might go, but it has gone much more smoothly than we thought, which we are very thankful for! The first night we introduced him to it, he climbed right up and wanted his stories to be read to him in bed...

With the help and support of his dear friend Elmo, Ethan has done amazingly well with the switch. We are very proud of him and love how cute he looks in his bed. :-)

(thanks mom and dad Harry for the adorable boy bedding...)

.... We had a few friends over last night and one of the first things Ethan wanted to do was go upstairs and show our guests his room and his big boy bed... It was pretty cute

Our little guy is growing up so fast!!

Aunt Shell and Addy's Visit

Just this last week we had a wonderful visit with my sister Shelley and her little girl Addison. They came up to Louisville while Stephen, my brother-in-law, was out of town. Shelley and Addy, it was so fun having you here. What an encouragement and blessing you are in our lives! We love you!

Here are some pictures from our time together....

Each time we get together, Ethan and Addy continue to interact with each other more and more! It is so fun to watch them interacting. A number of these pictures truly capture how they respond to each other: Ethan is mister "aggressive/let's play, wrestle" and Addy is mrs. "sweet, quiet, please leave me alone" :-)

Although there were times of tension between the cousins, there were also very sweet times as well (kisses, hugs, laughs, smiles), which were pretty precious to observe. We pray that Ethan and Addy grow to become good friends and that the Lord might see fit to save them and use their relationship to spur each other on toward maturity in Christ.

Shelly and Addy, thanks for coming to visit us! It was a joy and blessing to have you. We look forward to the next time we get to see you. :-)

Fun on the Farm.

Something that our family enjoys doing in the fall is going to a pumpkin farm.

We went a couple weeks ago to Huber's Farm with two very sweet families, the Crusts and the Lugbills, and my sister, Shelley, and her little girl Addison.

Here are some pictures from our fun time.

Halloween Activities

Here are pictures of what we did to celebrate what we prefer to call Reformation Day.

We went to our church's Reformation Day Celebration on the night of October 31st. We had a great time with our church family and Ethan and Addison both enjoyed the result of the evening, CANDY!

"Paps," as Ethan now calls my dad, dressed up as the Pope and Shelley, Adam, and I dressed up as monks (we were supposed to dress up in something related to the Reformation)

A couple weeks before Oct. 31st we went to the zoo to take part in their Halloween festivities. Ethan dressed up as the cutest pumpkin I've ever seen, Paps dressed up as a tiger (which initially really scared Ethan), Adam dressed up as a clown, I dressed up as a butterfly, and Emma was the cutest little white bear.

Ethan enjoyed it, but was a little scared. He stayed snuggled up in his daddy's arms the whole time. It was pretty cute!

Since Another Month Has Passed ...

Time for another post. Playing catch up again, collage style.

In this post you'll find recent pictures of Ethan and Emma.

One of Ethan's favorite things right now is a plastic Elmo toy that his Aunt Missy gave him! He affectionately calls him "melmow" and carries him around everywhere and pretends that he is his baby.

Emma is growing up so fast! It's hard to believe that she is already 5 months old and is rolling over both directions and is enjoying the excer-saucer and "johnny-jump-up"

She has been such an incredible joy to us and such a blessing and gift from the Lord!

In these last pictures you will see Ethan spending time with his friend Kaurah Crust. We attended her birthday a couple weeks ago and had a wonderful time!

We are so glad that the Lord has brought the Crust family to Louisville. It has been such a blessing spending some time with them.