Buffalo Bill Days!

The amigos got to be in the Buffalo Bill Days parade this morning with their gym. So fun to do cartwheels to applause and oohs and aahs for their cute little gymnast selves! And Grace got to do the parade twice! Once with the Salvation Army and once with 5280. Then we all got to eat turkey legs and tons of other super yummy fair junk! Love it!

Thankful Thursday...by Grace (she typed it! )

I am thankful for...
My mommy and daddy who love me.
A good home to live in.
Kind friends and family.



Grace

The Clean-Up...

The kids show off their hard work -- 8 bags of leaves and apples picked up!

(And eating well-deserved popsicles!)

HAIL!

We had a most ginormous hailstorm last night. At first we thought it was just some very extreme and crazy wind beating the tree limbs against the house. Then it sounded like bullets hitting the windows. Scared little Grace ran into our room and we grabbed the boys and headed for the basement. Eli and Noah slept through all of the cacophany and rushing to the basement. While they were sleeping on Eli's bed, Noah threw up all over himself and Eli's bed. (The poor kid has been pretty sick the last few days.) Both Eli and Noah slept through that whole ordeal (I don't know how -- Grace was close to throwing up just from being in the room!). Then Noah slept through the shower to rinse off the nastiness, the putting on a clean pair of pjs and the going back upstairs after the storm passed. And Eli never woke up through the whole event. Grace, on the other hand, was very much awake and had a hard time going back to sleep from imagining all of the horrible things that could have happened. Sometimes that vivid imagination is more curse than blessing.

We didn't have very much damage in comparison to others who lost all of the windows on one side of their house. We just have a lot of yard salad right now...which I am heading out now to clean up.

Gracie D the Singer

Gracie loves to sing! She sings in the shower, she sings in the car, she sings when she plays, she sings when she does chores (mostly because one must pretend one is Cinderella to make chores fun)...she sings all of the time. And now, after auditioning a few weeks ago, Grace gets to sing in the Colorado Children's Chorale! Congratulations, Gracie! (http://www.childrenschorale.org/)

photo is Grace before her audition

Eli's Baptism

Today sweet Eli was baptized. He has been wanting to be baptized for a few months now and went to our pastor, Mimi, to talk about what baptism means and what happens when you are baptized. She talked to Eli about how being baptized is becoming part of God's forever family just like being adopted was becoming part of our forever family. Eli was so excited! He memorized a Bible verse..."I am devoted to you. You are my God. Psalm 86:2" and was excited to share it with the congregation.
The baptism itself went awesome. He was a bit nervous and was fiddling with his fingers and forgot the first word of his verse. But he jumped right in with a little help and was very attentive to everything everyone was saying, to answering the questions he was asked and to listen to the congregation answering their questions. He smiled about the water running down his little face and soaking his collar on his shirt. And he smiled as Mimi prayed for him. And after his baptism he got to sing in a choir with the other kids from Vacation Bible School in his costume. What a very special day for a very special boy!
The most touching thing about the whole service for me (aside, of course, from watching our sweet son be baptized) was looking out into the congregation and seeing several people wiping tears away as they committed to helping raise Eli in the faith. I love being part of a small congregation, a small community, that really knows and treasures our children! (more about that later...I've been thinking a lot about the great things about being a part of a small church...blog to follow...)
Afterward Eli said "when they were watering my head it feeled like I was taking a shower. It was all wet and warm. It felt different in my heart. It felt like it was like a birthday!"
Happy "birthday", sweet boy!

Noah's First Missing Tooth

My First Wiggly Tooth by Noah
My dad was yanking on it and I cracked it and my dad pulled it and it was out. But not very big...small. It was my first bottom tooth. I'm going to show Grammy and Papa Joe. It is under my pillow.
By Noah the (self-proclaimed) awesome blogger

Thankful Thursday...by Eli

I'm thankful for our whole earth. I'm thankful for our whole city. I'm thankful for our whole family. Thank you for our special day. Thank you for my whole kids...my whole brother and sister. And thank you for a great God. Thank you for our special week. Thank you for a good special month. Thank you for letting us have our special stuff. Thank you for letting us keep the house and thank you for letting us buy the house.

Love,

Eli