I'm almost finished reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to Maia for the first time. Last night as we were reading, I came to the part when Aslan comes back to life.

"Aslan's alive Maia!"

Maia-with a loud shriek of delight, "Aslan's ALIVE?! YAAAYY!!"

Halloween '09

So I wasn't sure how Halloween was going to turn out for us this year seeing that the H1N1 virus has decided to set up camp in our home. Maia had symptoms of it 2 weekends ago, but it was mild and short-lived. . .then last weekend I had symptoms that improved after a few days and then started to worsen mid-week, then on Wednesday Caden became pretty sick fairly quickly and he tested + for the H1N1 virus but thanks to Tamiflu his symptoms were improved the next day, not gone but DEFINATLY improved, and that night Matt came down with it and has pretty much been in bed or on the couch since then. I wasn't sure if I'd be up to taking Maia out tonight, so my super-sweet friend Katie offered to be on call to take Maia trick-or treating if I wasn't up to it. Thankfully I felt well enough to venture out with the kids and we had a great time. Our new neighborhood is just an awesome place to trick-or-treat with many neighbors sitting around fire-pits in their front yard as they hand out candy and others giving out hotdogs, chips, and hot cider. The second picture is Maia showing Daddy her loot from the night. It cracks me up that this girl will organize and reorganize her candy MANY times over the next several days. . .did I do that as a kid????

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Laumeier Sculpture Park

Recently I took the kids to Laumeier Sculpture Park an a gorgeous Fall Day. We weren't sure if there would be a place for Maia to bike but we threw her bike in just in case and we were glad we did. There is a long paved path just perfect for young bikers. The kids had a great time just running around and trying to figure out what these sometimes huge sculptures were. Maia and I loved coming up with names for the sculptures like, The Crazy Spaghettis. . .and. . .The Never Ending Caterpillar. (I can't figure out how to insert captions under pictures, except for the last picture, but I think its pretty easy to figure out what names go with which sculptures!) This is definatly a place we will be going back to quite frequently.

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Caden was so enamored by all the big "balls" that went on as far as his eyes could see into the woods. He just stood there and stared at them for the longest time.

Fun with the Cousins

So one last post about our trip back to Pennsylvania in September. It was great to spend time with my brother Ron, his wife Pam and their 2 boys Mitch and Jake. The kids had so much fun playing with the Fisher Price Garage that WE played with as kids. Unfortunately one day our picnic was rained out so we had to move it into the garage, but never fear, Pam was there with another great idea. . .A drive in movie for the kids while the adults enjoyed sitting around the table. All the kids got on or in something with wheels and pulled up to the portable DVD player and watched a movie! And meal time was always an adventure with so many kids so close in age. Thanks for spending time with us Ron and Pam, we love you!

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The City of Brotherly Love

It's taking a while to get blog posts up highlighting our trip home. . .life is so full but good. Our home renovations are coming along, with the bulk of the planned work done. . .now it's just finding the time to unpack the kitchen and find a home for everything. It seems that my days are just filled with daily life things and so I've kind of set a goal to unpack 5 items a day. . .not 5 boxes, but 5 items. . .now that seems manageable (most days!). Anyway, here is another highlight from my time home. My sister and brother-in-law made several trips out to my parents to spend time with us while we were home, but the kids, my Mom and I also went to Philadelphia for a day to visit them. Most folks dread driving the Schuylkill Expressway into Philadelphia (and if I had to do it everyday, I might too), but for me it just brings back fond memories of my college days in Philadelphia. While there we hiked in Wissahickon Park and finished off the hike with of course. . .Philly Cheesesteaks. Yum! It was also so fun just to relax in their home and enjoy Lynn's awesome chicken pie for dinner. Thanks for having us Lynn, Nate and Abigail!

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Fun at Gran and Poppi's

While Matt stayed in St. Louis to work and oversee some of our home renovations, the kids and I headed East and spent some time with each of our parents. The following pictures are some of my favorites from our time with Matt's parents. Maia, Caden and I had a great time hanging out with their Seilback cousins, Jonathon, Victoria, and Ethan and of course Gran and Poppi. Another highlight were the turtles that Maia and Gran found on a walk in the woods. When I asked Maia their names, she said without missing a beat that their names were Audrey and Samsy. . .as if they really had told her these were their names. Unfortunately Audrey decided to make a run for it while we were inside eating dinner. . .we all said we would have loved to see how she manuevered herself out of the box and off the porch. After many, many tears from Maia and repeated explanations that Audrey wanted to be back in the woods, Maia decided to put Samsy back in the woods too, "because she could break if she stayed in the box." Of course no trip to Gran and Poppi's could be complete without a trip to Annie's Playground. . .an awesome playground built in memory of a young girl from that area who was killed in a car accident. I'm always touched when we go to that playground by all the life and laughter. . .how meaningful for this family who has experienced such tremendous loss.

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Two-Wheelin' It

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This is just one of those achievements worthy of a blog post. . .Maia has ditched the training wheels and is now riding a two-wheeler!!!! It all started when I was home in PA at my parents for a few weeks (we were having some home renovations done so the kids and I fled the dirt and chaos) and Maia learned the art of balancing on a scooter. After several days of scootering all over the driveway, she asked to go on one of the big bikes and within 10 minutes she had it! Since returning to St. Louis the kids and I have gone to Forest Park and Maia has biked on the trails while I've jogged with Caden in the jogging stroller. This is one of those experiences that has really made me feel like my little girl is growing up. . .no longer is it just me pushing her around the park, but she is old enough, and strong enough, and has enough endurance to take herself around the park. I know it won't be long before we are going on some serious runs together!

Just Another Day At The Park

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Jim and Joan

Jim and Joan have become dear friends of ours. While Matt was working for a window cleaning company during seminary, he met Jim while washing his windows. Matt and Jim have been getting together regularly for the past couple years and Jim has been a great encouragement to Matt on many fronts. More recently we have gotten to know Jim's good friend Joan. They are both a delight to spend time with and our conversations with them are always so interesting and diverse and seasoned with a good bit of laughter. Recently Joan invited us over to have coffee and donuts in her garden. She is an amazing and talented gardener and it was just a beautiful morning of great conversation, fun times for the kids, and a delight to soak in the beauty of her gardens. Joan taught Maia and Caden how to drink out of coffee cups with lids which they took great pleasure in!

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Ahhhh, the Gardens

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We love the St. Lois Botantical Gardens, we just don't get there that often, but hope that changes now that we are living a little closer. We went this past week with some friends and had a great time. It's hard to get a good clear picture of Caden these days as he is always on the move and Maia had a great time rock climbing, playing in the fountains, and running all over the children's garden.

Loving our Neighborhood!

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These days, you can often. . .very often. . .find Maia, Caden and I walking around our neighborhood and town. We LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, being able to walk to coffee shops, the post-office, grocery stores, playgrounds, church and friends' homes. We love that we live far enough from the train tracks that the we don't notice the trains at night and they don't rattle our windows, but close enough that on our walks we often find ourselves sitting along the road waving to the conductors and watching for the caboose to come along. We love walking along and looking at and talking about all the different flowers people have growing in their gardens and stopping to study the bumblebees. We love that the people on our street have been so friendly and welcoming and we look forward to hearing some of their life stories.

Men At Work

Since Matt has been using his drill so much around our new home as we get somewhat settled, he thought it was time to introduce Caden to some power tools. You can see by the second picture that Caden is quite enjoying the demonstration.

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Speaking of our new home. . .we moved into this 107 year old home in Maplewood, Missouri on June 27th. It is a great home with lots of potential, it just needs some cosmetic work done to make it feel more like home. We hope to have the kitchen remodeled in September and Matt is going to try to refinish some of the wood floors during that time as well (I'll be visiting family in PA and MD during that time so it will be a good time for all the noisy and dusty work to take place). This home has a great fenced in back yard and I look forward to doing lots of gardening next spring, for now I'm trying to read up on perenial gardens and come up with somewhat of a plan of what I want to plant and where. Anyway, we are so grateful for the provision of this home and pray it will be a home of warmth, love, and retreat for many.

A New Way to Stay Cool

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To say it has been hot in St. Louis is an understatement. It has just been too hot to play outside for more than about 30 minutes, even for this outside loving family. Plus our house is not real conducive to extended play times as it is filled with boxes for our move this Saturday. So earlier this week, we decided to take our snacks and head to Home Depot to drive the car carts around while staying cool. I did have to get some oven cleaner, so I wasn't completely using the store for entertainment purposes but I hope the employees didn't mind the extra 45 minutes or so that the kids drove around.

Transportation Date

Matt and I try to take turns planning a date for us once a month. So his last "transportation themed" date is going to be hard to beat. The surprises started as soon as I stepped into our van and realized he had completely cleaned it. . .inside and out, including all those hard to get grooves where nasty food remenants like to hang out. Now I love having a clean car, especially on the inside, but cleaning it is way on the bottom of my priority list so clean is not a word that I usually associate with our van. Then we head to one of my favorite restaurants. . .India Palace. . .a great Indian restaurant on the top floor of a hotel by the airport. So while enjoying great Indian food (one of my favorites!) and conversation we watch the planes take off and land from the airport. . .and for those of you who don't know this. . .I could watch airplanes all day long and never get bored. Then, when it is time to head home, Matt suggests I wait in the hotel lobby while he gets the car. After a few minutes I hear all kinds of racket from the parking lot and up drives Matt in our van, with tin cans tied to the back and messages written in shoe polish all over the windows and a van filled with balloons! Little did I know that our friend Corey had followed us to the restaurant and helped to pull off this part of the surprise. From there we headed home and the transportation theme continued as we watched Apollo 13. . .a favorite for both of us. Matt, I hope the next date I plan is at least half as fun as this was! Thanks for all your thoughtfulness! I love you!

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More random pictures from this past year