10 MONTH OLD CLAIRE

They love each other!

 10-16-15: Claire’s 2^nd tooth popped out

Gets up on hands and knees

10-22-15: army crawling

10-25-15: rocking on hands and knees

11-2-15: clapping

11-10-15: waves

She has definitely learned how to get into things!

Special helper, Josiah

CARVING PUMPKINS

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TYLER!

Tyler turned 11 October 10th.  

He celebrated with a lunch at Whataburger with Oma and Oma

Then he asked for Jeff to grill for dinner.

 And a cookie-cake for dessert.

BEDS and THE VAN

BEDS, BEDS, and MORE BEDS

When Jeff first mentioned he was going to Jeff build bunk beds for the boys’ room in PY, I thought he was joking.  But with the help of his dad and the boys, and twice daily trips to the hardware store, the 3 corner loft beds and two single beds underneath turned out great. It took him 5 full 9-6pm days and lots of terere to finish.  After completion and meticulous labeling, he disassembled them and will ship them to PY in our container.  Hopefully he’ll be able to easily get them back together and hopefully they will fit in the room.

OUR MONSTER VAN!

Our van has been in the shop since mid-April getting worked on to be road worthy for Paraguay.  That’s 6 months!  It was organically to be finished by July, our first date to head back.  Then it was to be done by end of August at the latest.  And then mid-September for sure.  And then absolutely positively by October 1st.  Jeff has had to cancel a U-Haul order and cancel his shipping date appointment because the car wasn’t ready when promised. 

Now here’s the kicker and why we needed this vehicle shipped months ago – come January 1^st our van will turn 11 years old and by law we cannot import a car over 10 years old into Paraguay.  

October 9^th at 2:00 Jeff drove the van home.  We immediately loaded it and the following morning Jeff drove it to Houston to be loaded. 

Ideally it would be nice to have been able to drive the van many miles before shipping to make sure everything is working properly but we don’t have time for that.  Jeff did have a stressful drive to Houston as the check engine light came on.  Not wanting to ship it like that, he found a mechanic’s shop and got the problem diagnosed.  Thankfully it was minor and can ship as is. 

The shipping company says it will arrive in 4-6 weeks but no guarantees.  Our last vehicle took 6 months to arrive thanks to a strike and a drought.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICAH!

September 29, 2015

Micah’s been very adamant these past weeks that he didn’t want to turn nine.  His only explanation was that he had a very good yea being eight.  One can’t hardly argue with that logic. 

However,  September 29^th came and along with it, Micah’s birthday.  He was forced to turn nine. 

His birthday menu request was crepes for breakfast, shrimp empanadas for lunch (my kids have expensive taste!), and McDonalds for dinner.  He asked for a fishing themed birthday cake. 

SOCCER SEASON

My boys are so excited to start playing soccer! 

4 kids

4 different teams

Practices 2-3 times a week

3 different fields

One car

It was so fun watching our boys play a sport that they love and are good at (if I don't say so myself).  Some Saturdays we were at the field 7 hours watching 4-6 games. 

It was Joshua's first time to play on a team.  Turns out he's pretty good and pretty fast.  He played forward.

Tyler's a great player and had a blast on his team.  It was a big bonus that he was on a team with a friend from last year.

This was Micah's first time to play on a team.  He had an awesome coach.  Micah was a great all around player.  He played defender most of the time and had some great blocks. He scored when he played forward including  a hat trick in his first game of the season.

Ryan LOVES soccer.  He made some great friends this season from his team. His great ball skills plus his leadership skills were evident on the field. 

Ryan is a forward but got put in goalie a few times.  He though he made a great goalie, he preferred to be where the action was - on the field.

 Ryan took classes this summer to become a certified referee.  In between his games he refereed (and got paid to do it).

Three cheers for the fans!  These kids loved cheering for their brothers!