More random goings on

Basically I'm playing catch up if you haven't noticed. Here are some pics that I like that I've never posted. 

Tatum in August

Levi last week at the Run for the Water, our favorite Austin road race put on by my former ACU teammate Gilbert Tuhabonye. He's a former Olympian and genocide survivor (check out his book This Voice in My Heart) who now coaches running groups and builds wells in his native country in Burundi through his charity. There is a kids 1K that the kids ran with much excitement this year. 

Some of our huddle girls sprucing up our huddle room for their big SENIOR year! It's hard to believe this is our 4th year with this group of kids. We love them so much and have enjoyed seeing them grow up these last few years. This year they will share their Senior Stories (or life story/testimony) with the group and I'm really enjoying it so far.  

The boys began karate in September. Here they are receiving their belts. 

Ty is teaching the boys some more karate. They are hilarious to watch (especially Levi b/c he isn't super coordinated at age 3). Their jumping jacks could use some work and their push ups look more like butt-ups. Their lessons are always good for several chuckles from the parent's section each week. 

Pre hair cut

Post hair cut

Where is Colt?

Oh, there he is! The kids have been loving this game and we will play for what seems like hours. 

Rain, rain... Gotta love a little boy and a big umbrella!

Our small group participated in an apartment make-over event for some deserving individuals who are trying to get a new start in life. It was truly an amazing day to see how excited and thankful our recipient was when he walked into his new apartment. He actually jumped on his new bed in excitement b/c prior he had been sleeping on a couch. And he kept touching his tv and computer b/c he'd never had anything that nice before. It was a very humbling experience. This picture actually isn't from the apartment we did, but I thought it was cool b/c they used all recycled materials to make this cool wall art.

Tatum is a monkey. She LOVES to swing from anything she can, even the foot of the recliner when it's extended. Weird. 

Ok, like I said, this post was completely random. No rhyme or reason whatsoever. Just a few things I want to remember down the road. Peace! 

ACU 10 year reunion (boy are we old)

We made the trek to Abilene last weekend for our 10 year college reunion. We had a great time catching up with friends from high school and college. ACU had tons of family events planned, so our kids had fun too. 

Here's Levi at the petting zoo. 

Colt is happy to feed the goats. 

Well, hello there! 

Tatum was content just to push her stroller around. 

The night ended with fireworks! 

Saturday morning Ty and I woke up early for our club breakfasts. I was in Ko Jo Kai and Ty in Galaxy. It was fun to catch up with some friends at this breakfast, despite the early morning start time. 

Crystal and me at breakfast. It'd be funny to compare this to one of our high school pictures :) 

Saturday morning parade. This was the kid's favorite part. Levi loved having people throw candy at him. Tatum was enthralled with the Sing Song makeup that the girl pledges wore (big red circles on their cheeks and long black eyelashes painted on their faces). 

Aunt Ashley took Colt to sit with her and her sorority sisters. He had a blast!

Daddy and Tatum

Big boys on campus

Daddy and Colt

The Birthday Girls

Saturday afternoon we had a family b-day party for Tatum and Ashley. Tatum received this baby doll that she has yet (2 weeks later) to put down. 

Ashley is so old the correct number of candles will no longer fit on her cupcake :) 

I guess in review, it's funny we didn't take many pictures of us with friends, since it was a reunion and all. The one's I did post I had to steal off of facebook. Anyway, it was a fun weekend with friends and family. We are so thankful for the friendships we have that have lasted over the past 10 years + despite not being in each other's lives on a daily basis. It's fun to be able to pick up right where we left off. 

Happy Birthday to Tatum!

Our little girl isn't quite so little anymore!

Yep, she's getting "SO Big!"

Tatum loves to do jump off pretty much anything. She wants to do ANYthing her brothers do, even if she's way too small/uncoordinated to attempt it. 

Tatum is definitely in a "I do it!" stage where she wants to be Miss Independent. She wants to put on her own pull-ups, clothes, get her own water out of the fridge dispenser, spoon out of the drawer, put on her own seatbelt, and the list could go on. While it frustrates us to no end when we are in a hurry, we know that in the (hopefully) shortrun, her independence will teach her some new skills that will bring us to an easier place eventually.

Miss Brown Eyes has really started to love baby dolls lately. She'll push them in her stroller and feed them and give them kisses. She also LOVES books, coloring, stickers, swinging and knocking over towers after her brothers build them. She loves dogs from a distance, but they intimidate her close up. 

She has a spunky personality that we love and is very polite. She says excuse me and thank you without being prompted and is fairly easy to discipline. We just have to ask her if she wants the corresponding consequence to her actions and she will say "no" and stop the behavior. This is completely different than her brothers! She mostly says one or two words at a time (not many sentences), and expects you to draw the conclusion from those two words, but is pretty good at communicating via this method. 

Tatum Grace, you bring so much joy to this family! We can't imagine life without your hugs and kisses, without your stubborn independence and without your fun personality. You brighten the lives of all those you encounter during the course of the day. We pray that God will continue to use you to shine light in the darkness and that your self-directedness will eventually keep you from following the crowd and instead lead them in the way everlasting.  We love you to pieces! 

Love, Mom

Happy Halloween!

from our Tinkerbell, Optimus Prime and Spiderman

Levi has wanted to be Spiderman since after last Halloween, so he has been wearing his costume non-stop this whole week. He is so excited to finally have his Spiderman costume. 

Tatum and Daddy. She refused to wear the Tinkerbell wings, which probably made carrying her much easer on Ty. 

This is the kids favorite house every year. They have an inflatable house to walk through, followed by a "Wheel of Fortune." This year the boys landed on "Brain Food" aka Smarties. And Tatum landed on "Cold Hard Cash" which we think was frozen coins, but they gave her some candy instead since she kept saying "andy."

We had fun trick or treating this year. Got to meet a few new neighbors and catch up with others. We didn't have many kids come to our house this year which disappointed the boys. They love handing out candy to the "customers." Levi kept yelling out the door to kids across the street to come to our house because we have plenty of candy. 

This year, we are trying a new approach to all the candy. We let each kid choose 5 pieces of candy to keep, 3 of which they got to eat after trick or treating. They will get 2 pieces the next day. Then we will take the rest to a local dentist who will pay the kids for their uneaten candy. 

And the baby wanted to say hello too :)