First week of school for us

Here's our kindergartner! He took his "pet" Harley to school with him the first day.
Kolby started Kindergarten on Sept. 13! Angie is his faithful, loving teacher and he LOVES her! She teaches him Tues-Thurs from 9 a.m. to noon. Then Fri & Sat I teach :)
Even though they don't really get to "go" anywhere we they filled their backpacks and we took pics of course! Gabby does go to Ellie's on Tues mornings to have preschool for an hour with Ellie and Veronica. Then Ellie comes to our house on Thurs mornings and I facilitate.
Gabby LOVES saying she is a preschooler. She loves to learn and have "friends". We find her in her room talking to all her "friends" who aren't really there....Every morning at breakfast the kids are so excited to do the date and weather.

So we are finally in full swing around here and the first week flew by with lots going on (plus visitors from KY). Here is a glimpse of our weekly schedule:

Monday: Day off
Tuesday: Kolby school till noon. Gabby preschool from 9 to 10. Arabic at Manel's from 3:30 to 5:30 (me and all 3 kids).
Wednesday: Kolby school till noon. Gabby & Mommy preschool time. AWANA 4:15- 5:45 (Jon & I are leading the Jr. Highers this year...it will be the first Jr. High group! I am SO EXCITED I am beside myself really. Last night we kicked into youth ministry mode as we were planning...it felt so good to do something I KIND OF KNOW and enjoy!)
Thursday: Kolby school till noon. Gabby & Ellie here for preschool. Arabic at Manel's from 3:30 to 5:30.
Friday: Kolby & Gabby & I do math as much as we can. 4:00 Jen's house for an arabic lesson with a believer.
Saturday: We try to do science! Church at 4 and the rest of the night is spent in fellowship with our fam here.
Sunday: "Sheraton" time for me! Jon goes to "church". The rest of the day we spend playing and getting ready for the week.

Well, those are just the "big" things that must happen during our days :).

Kyler's one year photos

thanks to Angie :)

Happy 1st Birthday, Kyler

The Birthday boy opening his gifts yesterday after lunch...
With 2 older siblings it was hard for him to get at his presents however....thanks for the guitar, Grandma...and for the airplane, Nana....
and for the car, Grandpa! Kyler can eat apples like this now! Its so nice! If he's fussing all I have to do is peel that kid an apple and he's happy for 30 minutes. He's trying to get his sixth tooth in.
We got him this little music "station" at Toys R Us in France. He loves it! As does Kolby and Gabby. Looks like my camera is still set on American time...it really is Sept 11! oops.
Getting ready to celebrate with gluten, dairy and egg free banana cake with our friends at Veronica's house...thanks Nana, for supplying the party supplies! Kyler was ALL smiles for his big day!

Kyler's birthday week

September started out hot here...Kyler found joy in the hose while Jon was watering the grass one night. It was funny b/c Gabby and Kolby just watched him, scared to get to close b/c they didn't know what he would do! He was crazy, spraying himself in the face and anyone who would dare to walk close by.
On Friday we headed to Marsielle, France for a visa trip. Oh darn :) I know I know I'm spoiled. I forget how cool our life is sometimes. We get a little distracted by the stress of it all. But when we sit back and try to de-stress we again realize what a huge opportunity we have to see the world right now. The first day was bad b/c we tried to go to Toys R Us and IKEA. We did make some purchases which of course I am super excited about...but again, it was stressful. The rest of the time in France we just took walks and did some hiking. A much better way to slow down and enjoy seeing new sights. Here our the kids at the beginning of a little hike we took.
Kolby snagged the camera on this walk and took about a "milk-ee-an" photos (K's word for "a lot").
Jon's a crazy man and has spent several visa trips running up this CRAZY hill to see this Catholic church...he told me it was just "a little walk"! Yea right! A little walk straight up for a long time!! But of course he was right, the view at the top was worth it and the building itself was pretty cool. Gabby somehow twisted her ankle the day before so it made it a little tricky...
So on the way down the hill while I took pics here is my hero to the rescue...almost one year old strapped to the back, pushing the 3 year old and then carrying her (along with the heavy backpack) down yet another flight of stairs! Oh it was pretty funny!! I will have to put all these photos on kodakgallery.com b/c they are pretty sweet.