Thanksgiving

Growing up, Thanksgiving was a time where we got together with our extended families, I have such great holiday memories from these large get togethers.  As a teenager we moved away from our wonderful California family and holidays have never been the same since.  This year I was brought back to my childhood memories.  We had the priviledge of spending Thanksgiving with extended family that came to visit.  Some of this family we haven't spent Thankgiving with since I was a teenager.  Yesterday was by far the best Thanksgiving ever.  I'm so Thankful for all my family, I love them dearly even though we don't live close.  I'm even more thankful for the fact that I still have all 4 grandparents whom I love and admire.

I will leave you with some words from the song we sang lastnight that brought tears to many of our eyes.  So much to be thankful for, God has blessed us in ways unimaginable!

"Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father, there is no shadow of turning with Thee; Thou changest not, Thy compassion, they fail not; as Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be. Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness! Morning by morning new mercies I see; all I have needed Thy hand hath provided - Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

SO Much to be Thankful For!!!

Puzzling

There has been some serious puzzle action happening at our house lately.  Both Kristin and Luke love puzzles, I guess they make for a nice winter project.

 The kids got this puzzle in the mail and had tons of fun putting it together

 Kyler wants to help too, of course his version of help includes chewing the puzzle pieces =)

The kids helped Luke start his puzzle, or should I say the part Luke didn't want to do, flipping all the pieces over

 Kristin has been slowly working on this puzzle for the last couple days, its 250 pieces for ages 7+, this won't stop her, she refuses to let anyone help =)

Unexpected Plans

Last week was a bit of blur, and for good reason.  We made a very tough decision last week but knew that it was definitely in Kyler's best interest.  Luke's grandma passed away and as much as we all wanted to be there with the family, we knew Kyler would not do well on such a long car ride nor would he handle those busy days with lots of people.  So, Luke went to Iowa and it was just the kids and I at home for 4 days.  Between getting Luke ready to go and then being here by myself, we were busy.  We had fun just hanging out here at home, and I was blessed by some great family and friends who provided us food and some much needed adult interaction.  Here are some of the hi-lights of our stay-cation (I apologize for the low quality pictures, Luke took our camera with him, so these were taken via the ipad).

We enjoyed some quality movie time, pretty sure my kids don't know how to sit properly on chairs.

Kristin & Kade had fun playing beauty shop.

We also had fun making our annual thanksgiving tree.  Some of the things Kristin was thankful for are flowers, parrots, flamingos, sand, and sky.  Kade was thankful for the sun, music, chairs, and hole punchers.

We will miss our wonderful grandma.  This was from our last visit with her this summer.  This woman had an amazing gift for hand stitching quilts and she liked listening to the police scanner radio.  She also had 11 children, so when you factor in all their spouses, her grand children and great grandchildren, her immediate family consisted of 75 people.

Pictures of Kenya

Pictures of Rwanda

1st Meeting Kyler

This Weeks Happenings

Nothing really new has happened here this week.  We have just been hanging out here at home, which I must say is one of the best decisions we have ever made.  It's been nice just hanging out with the 5 of us.  We have seen so much more of Kyler's personality this week, and it has been so much fun watching him get to know his brother and sister.  Kyler has turned into a little entertainer and likes to make his siblings laugh, and it's so cute watching them all laugh together that you can't help but laugh either.

On a completely random side note, Luke ran to the store this week and this is what he came back with:

10 Months Old

Kyler is 10 months old today.  He's finally recovering from the jet lag a bit and has been super happy this morning.  So happy in fact that he has felt comfortable enough to be more than 1 foot away from Luke or myself so he could explore the house.  Kyler crawls all over the place.  He can pull himself up to stand against just about anything.  He has discovered that he can walk behind certain toys on wheels.  He can stand by himself for short periods of time.  He currently hates getting a bath.  He has the most beautiful smile and he loves to cuddle with mommy & daddy.  Here are a few pictures:

Getting the attention of 2 kids to take a picture is hard, but 3 kids is even harder.  So here's what I got. =)

Orphan Sunday

Today is Orphan Sunday, the thought of so many children without families is an emotional burden for me.  Just take a quick second and click here to watch a video.  There are so many more children here in the U.S. and the across the world who you can make a difference for in so many ways.

Home Sweet Home

We made it home safely Thursday night.  The flights home went well, Kyler was amazing.  He slept a lot and when he was awake he was very happy and playful, couldn't ask for a better flight experience.  Okay, I could have done without the 2 hour delay (which we sat on the plane for), making our plane ride 10 hours instead of 8 and making us almost miss our connecting flight in D.C.

The last few days have been draining only because we have some serious jet lag.  Kyler has had the toughest time with this time change, he has been up all night the last few nights and so desperately wants to sleep all day which we aren't allowing him to do.

We have also had a bit of a temperature adjustment.  We left nice 60/70 degree weather and came home to 20 degrees the 1st day.

Here are a few pictures from the last couple days.  This week I'll go through the pictures from our trip and post some more on here.

Kyler loves food, although he may change his mind about this when I start feeding him some green veggies today =)

biggest snowman we have ever made thanks to the help of daddy

marshmellow baby =)

Sweet Relief

We are officially done with our paperwork here in Kenya!!!  This morning we went to the U.S. Embassy and put together a large stack of papers for them, then came back this afternoon to pick up our visa.  It was of course a lot of waiting, but I must say we are really used to it by now, so...even though this took all day it didn't feel like it.  The wait was so worth it.  Every little detail of this process, no matter how long it took, or how hard it seemed was so worth it.  We can't imagine life without this little guy.  Can't wait to get him home.

I don't really have many other exciting stories for you at the moment.  It's been a busy and long week already and we are exhausted, so I guess I have few words.  Tomorrow we get to go on a Safari, then we will fly out.  So, goodbye from Kenya, pretty sure you won't hear from me again until we are traveling or home.