I let the kids take turns steering the van around a giant, empty parking lot making it what they proclaimed to be "the best day of our lives". (Harrison)
I let the kids take turns steering the van around a giant, empty parking lot making it what they proclaimed to be "the best day of our lives". (Julia)
I let the kids take turns steering the van around a giant, empty parking lot making it what they proclaimed to be "the best day of our lives". (Evan)
I let the kids take turns steering the van around a giant, empty parking lot making it what they proclaimed to be "the best day of our lives". (Eli)
I took the 3 older kids to a painting class. They each worked really hard to paint with the instructor. Evan picked to paint a horse.
Julia and Harrison picked to paint flowers at their painting class. You can see them trying to copy what the instructor painted at the front of the room.
These are the painting instructor's final masterpieces.
These are the kids' final painting Masterpieces. Didn't they do awesome for being so little! I was super impressed!
We have a much beloved Missions director who is so busy caring for everyone around the world that she has no time for her own place. Evan came with me as we helped my church extreme makeover her home while she was working at an orphanage in Africa. It was such an awesome thing to be a part of.
We have a much beloved Missions director who is so busy caring for everyone around the world that she has no time for her own place. Evan came with me as we helped my church extreme makeover her home while she was working at an orphanage in Africa. It was such an awesome thing to be a part of. Here Evan is helping with trim work.
Our neighbor boy, Chad, comes over for his first sleepover. We all love Chad!
Swimsuit? Check. Sword? Check. Legos? Check. CD player? Check. Time for a nap.
I love this picture of Julia learning to ride her bike with those ferry wings on.
Look at Evan's form during his new flip/dive maneuver into our pool this summer.
THAT'S Harrison's dive, both terrifying and hilarious. Harrison learned to swim in the deep end this summer!
The Swan House is our first homeschool field trip of the year. It is an amazingly beautiful and historic southern mansion here in the Atlanta area.
Evan makes me a soccer mom this year. He was so excited to be at his first practice with his much beloved Coach Lew and all of his new friends.
All uniformed up! He's so precious! (Don't tell him I said that.)
We "raised" caterpillars into butterflies to start the school year off this year. OH, this was a huge hit for my pet deprived kids.
This is the day we let our butterflies go into the yard. They didn't seem to be in a big hurry to fly off.
They walked all over they kids hands for a while before they flew off.
Bye Bye butterflies!!
This amazed the kids. . .totally dazzled them.
Ok. That's weird. Here I am wearing the same dress but in Minnesota with my beautiful niece, Lauren, and my handsome nephews Aaron and Quin. I flew up there for a few days to see my amazing family and go to my 15 year high school reunion.
Look at Natalie!! Isn't she dazzling! She has worked so hard to look so good. I am incredibly proud of her. I had the BEST time being home with her.
Jeremy and I doing Jeremy and I stuff.
Grandma and Grandpa Ringsmuth take the kids to GA Aquarium for the dolphin show while I was gone to MN. The kids are STILL talking about that day.
This is the petting tank at the GA Aquarium. I think I remember sting rays and hammer head sharks.
This is Harrison's language arts work from back in September. This one in particular cracked me up. Think completely phonetically here. Still good for a 5 year old.
We review this sheet Evan and I made together a LOT. OH, A LOT!! It really does seem to work to center them when they are dealing with an out-of-control bad attitude. Don't tell them that it helps me too.
The kids love the international student functions my parents host at their home as much as the international students do. My blond haired blue and green eyed kids are photographed like the paparazzi is after them.
We can't visit Grandpa without getting a ride on his scooter.
Uncle James is incredibly popular around here.
I don't remember why I took this photo, but I LOVE it. I send it off in their Operation Christmas Child boxes this year with letters from the kids to the recipient of their gifts.
I couldn't have enjoyed this little beach vacation we took in September to Tybee Island, GA any more than I did. My only regret was that we didn't stay for longer.
School was in session while we were there so we had plenty of room to spread out and play on this amazingly beautiful beach.
This is one of my favorite family photos ever.
Well hellooooo there.
It looks like we posed, but we didn't know Grandma was photographing. I think this photo is fun.
Butt mom!!!
We built a LOT of things in the sand.
Pizza picnic on the beach.
Stephen looks angry and we all look so proud.
Eli laughed the WHOLE time we buried him in the sand.
The end-of-the-day sand castle smash.
I love any photo of our entire family together. I know some day it will take an act of God to get one, so I enjoy them to-the-max while I still can.
We spent an evening in Savannah going to Paula Deen's restaurant when we found this beautiful fountain in one of the many squares. The kids loved that it changed colors. We stood there for a while and watched.
We climbed the Tybee Island lighthouse in our swimsuits. The boys were a bit nervous about the heights, but they did great.
The view was spectacular from the light house. Hard to beat it.
The lighthouse and the grounds were stunning, but the kids had their eyes down on this kitty for the majority of the time we were there.
Oooooh kitty.
Back to the beach, digging and building.
More burying. We built a sea turtle with a human head.
Look at that crazy sea turtle.
Harrison looked particularly hilarious to me. So did Stephen's funky burn line on his back where I sortof, rather, messed up the spray on sunscreen.
After a day at the beach we took the kids to do go-carts. Here is Julia and Evan racing.
And here is Harrison. That is not Julia behind him.
Eli was too little to go on his own, so daddy took him on a different course. His steering wheel is a dummy. GENIUS!
Beach vacations and mini golf go hand-in-hand, am I right folks?
The kids got to participate in a very short lived children's choir at church in September. Here's to hoping there are more opportunities down the road.
We are touring an apple farm in North GA with one of our homeschool groups.
These goats were part of the apple farm tour. You can see the kids loved this. Evan is all about anything to do with animals and always has been.
This was a highlight of Julia's life with this adorable kitten at the apple farm.
Eli was having fun despite the way the posed smile makes him look.
Evan is in his element here. Harrison is dazzled, but less confident.
He is MUCH more brave with these chicks than the last ones we visited at our friends, the Stewarts, house several months back.
Here is the post apple farm picnic we went to up at Amicalola falls.
We hiked down to the bottom of these falls. They are beautiful. I wish my lens was wide enough to see to the top.
What a great group of kids. I love them all. They have all known each other since they were babies and now they are all being homeschooled together.
I took this photo at a traffic light of us saying "I love you" in sign language to daddy who is following behind in our Nissan.
After a weeklong unit study on 9/11, I took my kids to see the 3,000 flags Kennesaw Mountain had set up to represent the 3000 people who died that day. After my heartfelt sermon on the profound loss of life the nation saw unfold in front of them on the news that day, 7 year old Evan says, “Mom, I’m a lucky man.” I was so touched I said, “ooooooh, Evan! That’s so neat, why do you say that?” Evan:“Well, because I was born in a month with 31 days instead of just 30”. . .Me: “Ooooooh, dear me. . . Let’s go”.
This photo of the kids watching one of Evan's soccer games with their daddy is a precious one to me.
The kids decorated one of their famous birthday cakes for Aunt Jessie this year.
They each get a section to decorate as they please. Yes, a few of those characters are supposed to be dead, several are fighting, and the princesses are dancing at a ball, but all scenes require 6 pounds of sprinkles.
Stephen and I played coed softball together this year. I had loads of fun with it. I'll let Stephen speak for himself about what he thought.
Evan is playing goalie at another one of his soccer games. He really enjoyed playing.
Harrison works very hard to earn as much money as he can lately, and then busts it out frequently to count it all. He's been known to great visitors at the door with, "Hey, do you want to watch me count my money?!"
It was green night at AWANA, and we went all out. I am actually not a volunteer for AWANA. I go to choir like this.
The chicks we went to visit at the Stewart's house several months ago are now laying eggs. We really enjoy eating the fruits of their labor.
This grizzly, unsettling, hilarious art project came home with one of my kids from church one Sunday morning. No one seemed to have an explanation.
Evan began making his own eggs a few months back and is now always asking if he can make eggs at any meal time. He does a good job with them. It's still crazy to me that he is old enough to cook over a gas stove for himself.
I just wanted a photo of Evan's biggest fan (me, of course) watching intently at one of his soccer games.
Julia took this photo of Evan's beloved coach, Lew. He was an awesome guy and so great with the kids! He made it a great season.
Julia goes to all baby showers with me these days. This one we worked on hosting together for our friend Mary Catherine. The girls made headbands for baby Lexigrace and modeled them for the camera.
Evan's 8th birthday cake. He toned it down so much this year. He's really grown up a lot this fall.
The boys made pizza's at his birthday party. The boys who came Kurk and Clay Willson, Joseph McDonell, and Joseph Banister are Evan's good buddies. He is also good friends with Grayson Carmichael who was out of town that weekend.
The boys are enjoying their enormous, personalized pizzas, Evan's favorite mac and cheese recipe, and enough pop to keep them up until at least 2:00am.
They put together their own finger skateboards from a kit during the party.
But mostly, they played the kinect and beat the crap out of each other for hours and hours and hours and had the best time doing so. Take note of Stephen's noise canceling headphones on in the background.
When you hear, "MOM! GRAB THE CAMERA!!" you just never know what you're gonna see. This time it was hunk smash feet. . . er. . . hands.
We are on our way to AWANA in our Halloween costumes (and me in my heinous Halloween sweater) with 3 riled up kids and a completely unconscious one.
Harrison road his bike around the neighborhood like this for an hour or more.
He is always talking, even when there is no one to listen.
"Mom, take a photo of me doing this!" (Harrison)
This skateboard was Evan's birthday present from Grandma and Grandpa Ringsmuth.
I was not a fan of this idea.
I couldn't get her to not pose for this picture.
Evan's end-of-the-season soccer trophy. We were all so proud of him for completing the season with a great attitude from beginning to end.
Aren't these girls adorable! They are all so sweet! Mandy is holding Julia and then in front of Julia are Aiyanna and Anya.
Annual pumpkin carving extravaganza. This year I could only find these piddly pumpkins because I wanted too long.
Ready to head out for a night of trick-or-treating in our neighborhood.
We went with several neighbors. This is our third, annual trick-or-treating adventure.
I thought the small pumpkins looked cute.
Yup, Eli is really falling asleep here at our church playground.
This night he decided he was going to sleep in this little box-house thing the kids made and he really did.
Nearly every school morning I ask the kids to hold up their left or right hand and then the opposite. Eli is always the first with his hand in the air and is the only one who gets it right each and every time. He always has a super proud look on his face when he does it.
I just had to throw this picture in of my latest addition to my holiday sweater collection. This Thanksgiving one Stephen surprised me with. It's definitely one-of-a-kind.
They are "helping" to decorate for Christmas.
No one knew when he fell asleep. We just found him hear like this. It appeared he was running along, tripped on that blanket, and fell asleep where he landed.
Stephen and Evan have been working hard on finishing off this room in our basement. I can't believe how long Evan hangs out down there with him. My dad came over to help them this day as well.
We took our annual family trip to this Christmas tree farm the Saturday after Thanksgiving. The kids love playing on the train set there. They painted them at some point this past year because usually they are a natural wood color.
This is the only photo I got of us looking for a tree to cut down, which is kindof unfortunate for my dad ;>)
Can you believe Evan in this picture?! The little boy in him is quickly fleeing. He looks and acts more like a teenager all the time.
This is the first year Eli was brave enough to talk to Santa. We play with the Santa idea, but the kids know he isn't real. . .That is, everyone but Eli. He is very imaginative and believes Santa is real and that is that. We just let Eli be Eli about it.
Harrison knows Santa is not real, but he loved telling this dude his Christmas list anyway.
They look forward to this Swiss Miss hot chocolate every year at the Christmas tree farm. I have some at home that we make, but they love the tradition of this.
We go for this tractor-trailer ride at the Christmas Tree Farm each year as well.
Julia made this for me while banished to her room. "Mom, sorry for being naughty.". . . There is hope for this world.
Lord have mercy/I wouldn't have it any other way.
Evan had his first basketball practice the other night. He is as excited about basketball as he was about soccer. He is very much into team sports this year. Oddly enough, that guy in the red shirt was his baseball coach 2 years ago with a different organization.
Here is the gym where Julia does her gymnastics. I need to get a picture on my nice camera rather than my phone. Julia is the one who is being adjusted by her maroon shirt wearing teacher.