time for an update...

so beal let us in on a little contest...if they end up as the finalists i think there is voting involved, so we'll let you know. the only catch was that the photos couldn't be older than three months. jon's been so busy this summer that it was a little difficult finding some good ones. this one of isaac isn't even the one we submitted (i couldn't find it on jon's hard drive) but it's totally isaac. i thought it'd be good to add a little update about the little ones as well. it's been posts and posts and posts since i've written anything about them. and i'd never want them to feel left out :)


isaac's started his second year of preschool this fall. i LOVE his teacher, mrs. flack. at our back to school night, before she began her spiel, she thanked us for trusting her with our little people. i was impressed and relieved at the same time. he came home from school the other day with his first homework ever. blending m,a,p, and t. homeboy was reading words by the end of the night! i can't believe our little dude is such a little man already.



this is the pic we submitted for ila...love her almost asian eyes and pouty lips. she's started her first year of preschool at the same one isaac is attending. each day when she comes home she says, "my teacher is mrs. anduson (anderson)". one thing they did to help the 3 year old classes in learning thier colors was to have the kiddos wear the color they'd be learning about in class that day. ila LOVES pink. and when you're learning colors like brown and green, i was hard pressed to find clothes that worked. but we did it, even if we had to get a little creative.



ruby lou. this is also the same pic we submitted for ruby. not having her potty trained by the time i'd wanted has really turned into the greatest blessing. beal loves montessori like i love food and she started a pro-bono montessori preschool in her home. it was just for ruby at first, but now the class has 5 girls total, who camille teaches every MWF completely gratis. ruby's thrived there and i know it's just what she needed. her natural sweetness comes through more and more every day.


lulu bug. jon took this on lulu's birthday and now that we're expecting our fifth, i realized how quickly she has changed in the past 15 months. lulu's brought so much joy into our lives. you can tell she's the youngest by how she's already learned to defend what she thinks is hers. she's such a happy baby...but i guess i won't be able to call her a baby for much longer. she was just the little person we needed in our home when she came.

writing all of this about our kiddos just made the new addition to our home next year much more real. a friend asked me a few weeks ago how i was doing and how everything was going with all the kids. i told her that it's the been the most refining, difficult, and rewarding experience i've had so far in my life. i've learned to love being a mother and i've learned how special these little people are. so thank you to my children. thank you for teaching me of our Maker's love, for helping me see who i really am, and for making me become the person God wants me to be.