Annette's Birthday 2016

I turned 37 on Columbus Day.  It was a great birthday.  Chandra was here to help me celebrate so we took a day trip to Palmyra.  Since we don't know when Chandra will be back I wanted to make sure she could visit the amazing church sites in Palmyra so we went for my birthday.  We had a good time even if the kids did get a little bored by the end.

Group picture at the Hill Cumorah Visitor's Center

I told Joseph not to get me anything too expensive this year since we have spent a lot of money adding on to our house this year and I was glad he listened.  He did get me a cookbook I wanted and a Nativity set from Guatemala.  The kids each picked out something small too.

Everyone is always so excited for birthdays even if it isn't their birthday!

Guatemalan Nativity
I told Joseph it would be fun to have a nativity from the countries he visits.
So far I have my Guatemalan and German Nativities.

For dinner we had a favorite meal--spinach burgers--and a French Silk pie for dessert.  The pie was amazing and worth the calories to eat it.  It was chocolaty and smooth and just divine!  I also converted Chandra to spinach burgers.  She and Christian really liked them.  They sound a little weird and most people are a little suspicious of them, but they are really good.

 

As you can see, Lincoln loved the pie so much.  He now asks for "pie" a lot even if the
chocolate treat being served isn't actual pie.  He and Annika both like chocolate. 

Visit to the Apple Orchard 2016

We made our annual trip to the apple orchard this year.  We were a little later than in years past, but it was a perfect evening to go.  Our Saturday mornings are usually busy with soccer games so we had limited time to make our trip.  We went on a Friday and picked the kids up from school.  It ended up being the perfect day to go.  My favorite apple--the jonagold--was open for picking.  It is a cross between a jonathan apple and a gold delicious apple.  It is crisp, sweet and crunchy.  It is a perfect apple.  It didn't take long to pick apples. We just filled one 1/2 bushel bag, but it sure was fun.  My sister, Chandra with her family--Joe and Christian joined us.  We picked apples, looked at pumpkins and visited the animals.  We weren't there too long, but we took some fun pictures and made memories.

Rebecah working hard.

Apples!!

Christian LOVED his apple orchard experience!

Peeking!  

I love this picture of Lincoln.  I think he worked on the same apple the entire time we were there.

Group Photo minus Joseph.  It was hard to get all of the kids looking at once. 

The Coleman Family:  Christian, Chandra, and Joe

Sisters!!!  I love my sisters!

It was so hard trying to get all 4 of them looking at the camera at the same time!

We had a great time.  Eager for next year!

Operation Walk-Guatemala 2016

Joseph went and participated in Operation Walk-Guatemala again this year.  He went last year and was gone 9 days.  This year he only went for 7 days.  He came home 2 days early "just in case" I went in to labor and we needed him home sooner.  We missed him a lot while he was gone, but he had good experiences and we were so busy we didn't miss him quite as much since we had school and an evening activity every night.
He was able to see a few people that he met last year and that was fun for him.  He bought everyone a little keepsake from his trip and that was a highlight for everyone.  Joseph is sad that the Op Walk Team isn't planning another trip to Guatemala next year, they are going to Ghana instead.

First day of School 2016

School started last Wednesday.  It always starts after Labor Day in Syracuse since the State Fair ends on Labor Day.  The kids had mixed feelings about the start of school.  Rebecah was really excited and Kimball was more hesitant.  He had settled into a nice routine by the end of the summer and didn't really want to have to start homework again.  I think the kids will have a good year.

Here are their first day pictures:

 

I love these cuties.  I thought it was so cute that Annika and Lincoln wanted in on the pictures. 

The Great New York State Fair 2016

We made our annual visit to the State Fair on August 31st.  The weather was perfect.  It was overcast most of the day so we didn't get too hot.  Rain threatened and then it poured.  The rain fell while we were in a building eating lunch so it was perfect timing.  By the time everyone was finished eating the rain had stopped.  I love visiting the State Fair.  I'm not sure why I get so excited about it, but I do.  I love seeing the animals and visiting the various buildings.  My favorite part and Joseph's favorite part is the food.  I know that is a funny thing to be so excited about, but it's true.  I'm really surprised the food is Joseph's favorite part because he usually doesn't care to eat out and isn't too picky about the quality either.  This year since I'm pregnant I packed a lunch from home since I was trying to be good and watch my caloric intake.  I did buy a small ice cream and shared with everyone.  I savored every bite of ice cream!

This mama pig had 10 babies 2 weeks before the fair started and I just had to take a picture of them.  The piglets were so cute.  

Here Kimball and Rebecah are in the 4-H building.  There were various activities for kids and some animals to see.  They both enjoyed this virtual shooting activity.

We attended an Indian dance performance.  It was neat to see the costumes and dancing.

There is a great story behind this picture.  Apparently there wasn't a box to stand on and Kimball wasn't tall enough to see out the cutout so Joseph finally just told him to jump since people were starting to stare at them.  Joseph counted to three and Kimball jumped and this is the picture that resulted.  I thought it turned out pretty well.

The sand sculpture for the year.  I'm always impressed with how well it turns out.

Wishful thinking...

Here is our other "cutout" picture.  This time Rebecah wasn't tall enough--even with a box.  I didn't know about the other picture and the jumping at the time so she stood on her toes and did the best she could.

It was a great day and in the evening Joseph took the kids bowling.  His work was sponsoring a bowling night to encourage people to join the bowling league.

I'm really not sure how the kids had energy for the State Fair and bowling; by the end of the day I was exhausted!!

Kimball's 9th Birthday

Kimball turned 9 on the 23rd.  It's hard to believe we have a 9 year old in our house.  I think Kimball had a good birthday.  I made him the breakfast of his choice--white chocolate cranberry scones.  He had a chore free day and what kid doesn't look forward to that?

We opened presents in the afternoon when Joseph got home from work.  It has been hard on the kids to wait until evening to open presents so when Joseph is home we do it earlier.  Kimball was excited about all of his presents, which is always a relief.

For dinner Kimball wanted krautburgers--a first for him.  Krautburgers are meat, cabbage and cheese surrounded by bread.  They are really yummy, but time consuming to make so my family is lucky if I make them once a year.  Kimball enjoyed them though.  For dessert Kimball requested a key lime cheesecake.  I have a cheesecake magazine so he was in luck because I found a recipe in the magazine.  I thought the cheesecake had a good key lime flavor, but I would have chosen a different flavor personally.

We are glad Kimball is in our family.  He keeps us on our toes with his keen mind and memory.  He is excited to start 4th grade in 2 weeks.

Here are two pictures of Annika and Lincoln.  They had fun playing in the globe box.

St. Louis Trip 2016

We took our annual trip to St. Louis to visit my family.  It was really hot and humid so Joseph and the big kids went on some outings, but the babies and I stayed home.  It didn't help that Annika ran a fever one morning and then the babies suffered from terrible diaper rash the rest of our trip.

On Monday, Joseph and the big kids went to Elephant Rocks State Park and explored.  Joseph said he would have enjoyed it much more if he hadn't been trying to take pictures so he could explore easier.  The kids had a lot of fun there.

Monday afternoon they changed venues and cooled off at Johnson's Shut-ins State park.  Apparently it is a large rocky area with little waterfalls and small rivers running over the rocks where people climb and cool off.  The kids had a fun time here and it is on their list of things to visit again when we are next in St. Louis.  (Their list expands every year we visit.  Pretty soon we'll have to stay a month to fit everything in.)

Tuesday was another full day of outdoor fun.  Joseph took the kids to a water park which was really just a glorified swimming pool with a few different slides.  My kids really aren't in to real water parks yet.  

They came home and ate a quick dinner and then headed off to a Cardinals baseball game.  The Cardinals were playing the Reds.  It was really hot and Rebecah was quite bored so they only made it to the 4th inning.  Rebecah has decided that she won't go to another baseball game.  Let's face it, baseball can be a little slow especially if you aren't really into the game.

Wednesday was a day for Joseph and me.  We attended the temple with my mom and Heather.  It was a wonderful time. 

Playing "Life" as a family.

Kimball and Joseph put together this 3-D puzzle of the Neuschwanstein Castle.
 It made Joseph and me miss it all over again.  

Thursday we were going to visit the zoo, but we all decided it was too hot so we went to Suson Park instead.  The kids played on the playground for 30 minutes and then they were hot and ready to visit the farm animals before heading back to my mom's house.  

We didn't get any pictures, unfortunately, of my mom, Heather, or Chandra, but we had a great time with them.  We were glad Chandra could come over 3 days to spend time with us.  She and Christian were a huge hit with my kids.  Annika is still talking about "Channie" on a regular basis.  

Here are a few pictures that I got from Heather of my kids with Christian.  Christian is so sweet.  He is about 10 1/2 months younger than Lincoln and Annika, but outweighs them by a few pounds. They got along great.

One last shot of Lincoln that Joseph took during church.  Lincoln was sad that I
was holding Annika instead of him so Joseph had to take him out to the hall.