Won In Him...a little older

Here they are! Hard to believe it has been 17 years since this group first started. Wow that makes me sound old. Thank goodness it makes BJ sound a teensy-bit older than me. :) Won In Him was the group Warner Pacific College sent out to sing at churches and camps during the summer. It was how I met my sweet husband. They sang at my church camp in California the summer after I graduated from highschool. Fun times...although Beege and I have totally changed our views about dating...but that could be another post. We have lots of great memories with these guys and their spouses. It has been fun to experience all of our weddings together and watch each family grow. This evening was especially great since Matt and Nikki were here from Montana and usually miss out on these reunions.

If Matt and Nikki's children could have been there, we would have had eleven boys and one girl. :)

As you can see, the boys had a great time together.

October 3rd Justin David turned 6!

My sweet little Justin is not so little anymore. Within the past couple of months I have really noticed his "growing up." It comes out in the way he talks, colors, builds, works, and now eats. :) Even his little arms are starting to get muscles. Our biggest age gap is between Jesse and Justin....almost 3 years. Being the third in line, he was let off the hook a lot! I still remember assigning him the laundry sorting job and realizing Jared and Jesse had already been doing it for a whole year or more by the same age. Oops. This made for a little harder time in teaching him diligence, but he is on his way to being a hard working young man.

Justin requested french toast, bacon, and scrambled eggs for his birthday dinner.
We are trying to start a new tradition of blessing posters. So far it has been hit and miss, but we aren't giving up. :) Daddy and the brothers blessed Justin with Diligence, Self-control, Faith, and Discretion.
The last two birthdays Justin has wanted to be an Indian, so I thought it was funny that this year he got new cowboy boots and a small ax.

Can you tell they are brothers?

Johnny ended up blowing out the candles. We re lit them. :)

Justin wanted to say a few words about his birthday......

"My birthday was fun. I had a good time. And I enjoyed it. And I had a good time opening all the presents. It is fun being 6."

You bring so much joy to our family. We love you, Justin David.

Someone his own size!

A few weeks ago the "other" Kuykendalls came over for a little fellowship and pizza....something that doesn't happen often enough. Since Judson and Lauren are only 3 months apart we are deciding that they will be buddies. :) I know Jud thought it was great fun to jump with someone his own size. (Big brothers tend to make big bounces!)

We are all loving these guys....

Special visitors

(Amy, Sue, Aunt Lorena, me)

On September 20th, My Aunt Lorena of all people came to visit! This was a big deal for Amy and I because we really only saw Aunt Lorena on our visits to Colorado growing up. She lives in Ohio and had not flown since the '80's. (Amtrak was her preferred method of travel.) I was thrilled to hear that her cousin Sue talked her into a trip out West to visit my mom. Although our visit was brief, it was so nice to see her and let her see a bit into our world. I love my Aunt. She has always shown me so much love and I have always looked to her as a godly role model. Now that she has conquered this fear of flying we are hoping to see her more often. (hint, hint) :)

Justin's lessons

This boy is so enthusiastic about his music! We started Justin on mini lessons for piano and violin this year. I've gotta say, I am surprised at how much he wants to practice. Hearing Justin sing "Hey diddle diddle, d's in the middle, d's in the middle of the two black keys" in his little high voice while playing the piano is adorable. My other favorite is "Justin is a good boy" on the violin. :)

This is Justin's favorite exercise, the monkey climb.

Lets just hope this enthusiasm continues for years to come. Especially when practice time increases. :)

Don't worry

Judson did not stick his finger in an electrical outlet, daddy was just having a little fun. :)

Our time at the Freemans

My whole family was so excited for Liviya's birth...especially since we had been waiting and waiting for her arrival. I think we had three full weeks of saying "any day now." :) I was thankful we could drive up to Centralia the day after her birth. We probably wore my poor sister out, but I think she would agree our mini family reunion was worth it.
(At least now that she has had a little more sleep she can say that. :)
Here is the whole crew + Amy + BJ's hand!

Sweet little Liviya Pearl

I am late in posting this, but I couldn't leave out this important announcement. I am an auntie again!!! My sister finally had her baby girl on September 14th. Liviya Pearl is just beautiful...and totally looks like she belongs. :)