Potty Training... Round 2!

For almost 3 weeks now, we've been trying to potty train our cute, little Micah-man.  He's about the same age that Sammy was when we began to potty train him, so we figured we might as well give it a try and hope for the best!  He's been doing really well and is getting really good at telling us when its "pee-pee time!"  :)  He's super proud of himself every time he goes, and loves to flush the big potty all by himself.  

Here's Micah trying out some big boy undies!  

Unfortunately, when he wore them, he got confused and thought it was a diaper and had an accident...  :)  

 So, we've resorted to wearing nothing down below while we're at home, and that has worked out great!  

 We're so proud of you Micah!  Great job, little buddy!  

We'll keep you posted on his progress!

Fall Fun, Julian & Halloween Pics!

Sorry for the delay in posting these - but better late than never!  

Here are some Fall Photos to catch you up on what we've been up to... plus Halloween pics!  

Every year we make a trip to Bates Nut Farm to pick out some pumpkins.  :)  Plus, the kids had fun in the jumpy house, petting and feeding the animals and riding in the big wheelbarrows.  :)  

 hehe!

At home, Andrew and Samuel had fun carving our pumpkin...  Samuel drew the face and helped scoop out all of the pulp and seeds.

This is Samuel's scary pumpkin face  :) 

All finished and lit up!  

At school, there was a Halloween dress-up day & parade.  Here is Sam and two of his buddies, Noah & Milo.  

My handsome pirate!  

On Halloween, Samuel dressed up like an awesome Pirate, and Micah dressed up like Jake from Jake & the Neverland Pirates.  :)  (Love that I was able to make Micah's costume with some felt & stuff on hand... ended up spending less than $3 for his whole costume!)  Pretty good, huh?  

We went to a friend's neighborhood for some trick-or-treating.  It was fun to see Micah joining in on the trick-or-treating fun this year!  

All the kiddos, ready to go!  

In October, we spent the weekend with the Whites out in Julian.  We had so much fun spending time as a family, and the kids had a blast playing with the cousins.  We went apple picking, and Grandad took the kids panning at the Julian Mining Company.  Samuel was SUPER stoked with the crystals that he found!  :)   

 What a special moment to have the whole family gathered around the table to share a meal together.  :)  

Our whole group gathered together  :)  Julian 2013 - we had so much fun!  Can't wait until next year when our baby girl gets to join in on the fun!  

Moving On...

Its been almost 4 weeks now that we've been gone from this house.  The beautiful place we've called home for over 5 years!  When I add it up, 5 years sounds so quick, doesn't it?  But so much has happened behind this door, that it seems much more like 20 years.   We are so thankful that God had given us that place to call home!  The place where we became a family of three... and then four.  And we are SO thankful for all of the family and friends who were there to help us pack up and make the move.  

God is so faithful.  He always is!  Not more than one week of living in a short-term rental went by before we came across what will soon be our next home!  I've been specifically praying for months - since springtime really, that we would be moved into our next home before Christmas.  And what an answer to prayer - He has opened the doors to a new house for us - and we get to move in before Christmas.  :)  (Which also means before baby!)  :)  

This afternoon we took a walk through our neighborhood and stopped by our old house.  And you'll never believe it, but the two huge pine trees that hovered over our home and gave us wonderful shade - were GONE!  The new owner had them removed, and boy does it look so different!!!  The owner greeted us and let us peak into the backyard, which to our surprise we found to be completely bare!!!  All of the bougainvilleas, the jasmine, the morning glories, the flowers, ferns, most of the rose bushes, and of course, the pine tree were all uprooted and gone!  (Imagine an empty lot, with a bit of grass...)  It was surprising to see it so bare, but, I know that when we think back to the fun times we made in our sweet old back yard, we'll still remember it how it used to be.

However, as far as the front yard goes, I don't blame them for taking that big tree out!  We definitely aren't missing all of the dropping needles and the raking!!!  (These pictures show you how many needles dropped in just 2 days during the summer!)  

Back on moving day, we were so blessed with all of the help from our family and friends.  

Its crazy to look at your house when its all empty and echoey!  Andrew and I did a last walk through and took turns recalling sweet memories in each room.  We took a photo of the two of us...  

and then Andrew took a sweet one of me in the nursery.  Funny to think that we moved into this house when I was pregnant with our first child, and now we've moved out when I'm pregnant with our third!  

July, 2008...

September, 2013...

Thank you God for this place we've called home.  

We can't wait to tell you about the next place God has for us!  

WOFOFF 2013

Back in September, we spent a fun long weekend with our dear college friends camping up in Pismo Beach.  We do this every year, and it has become a wonderful tradition that we, and our kids, really look forward to!  It was our first year camping with this group since the WOFOFF of 2006 - Sequoias.  (Although, technically, WOFOFF 2007 involved camping at Yosemite... but we didn't make it that year).

Now that there are so many kids who come along, we thought camping would be perfect - and it was!  Plus, this Pismo Beach campite was amazing... we loved the grass, the trees, and the fact that it was a short walk to the beach!

Okay everyone, get ready to scroll, scroll, scroll through a whole lotta great pictures from that weekend!

Sam couldn't get enough of all the baby girls there... good thing he's getting a baby sister!  

And Micah just LOVED being in the dirt all weekend.  

Riding bikes & scooters occupied most of the kids days...

It wouldn't be a trip to SLO without a visit to the campus... and the bookstore.  :)  

 Did we mention that riding bikes "all day" meant on campus too?

 We all have so many fond memories of college, but I'm not sure how much I miss this part...

The afternoons were spent at the beach... digging, playing, running around and splashing in the cold central coast water.  

One afternoon we visited Avila Valley Barn and took a hay ride to pick apples.  We also checked out the farm animals and took our boys for a pony ride!  

This boy loves himself some ice cream!!!  

The guys had fun jumping in the sand dunes...

The boys had fun going on adventure hikes behind our campsites...

Plus there were some arts and crafts for the kids.  

Each night there was a big campfire and where we roasted s'mores and made churros!  

Oh WOFOFF, we miss you already!  

 Can't wait until next year!