Now That I'm 4...

ely has really caught the birthday train! she's taking after me, and will soon have a birthday month! all day yesterday, if she wanted to do something, she said "well, i'm the birthday girl so i get to do it!" and now that it's not her birthday, she gets to do whatever she wants because she's 4. here's what i've heard just in the last 24 hours:


"now that i'm 4 i can...

jump higher (who knew?)
run faster
walk by myself (no, you can't!)
get stuff all by myself if i want it
swim pretty well without asking
do whatever i want. i really can because i'm four. (i think we'll need to have a little one on one talk about this one!)

i guess 4 is a great age!

4 Years

preston and i have been so blessed the last 4 years to have ely as our daughter. she has blessed us so many ways. she's smart, funny, sweet, compassionate, difficult and one of the best things in our lives. it's hard to believe that you could love someone as much as we love this little girl. i can't wait to see the godly woman she will grow into.

He's Driving Me CRAZY!!!!!

here is how i find josiah when i turn my back for a few seconds:

and then i find them like this and it just warm my heart! i almost, ALMOST, forget how crazy they drive me!

Halloween, 2009

this year for halloween, the kids were sick. both of them! it was a tough week. by saturday night they were on the mend, but not quite up to par. ely got sick first and then josiah caught it. they are both still coughing, but no longer sick.

we had big plans to go to the pumpkin patch and look at all the pumpkins and gets some pictures, but ely said she just wanted to stay home. i did get a pumpkin from the grocery store so she could carve one if she decided. they only had 3 pumpkins left and the smallest one i could get was 20lbs! we brought it home and carved in on halloween.

ely carving her pumpkin. it's serious business!

josiah slept through the carving so he got to paint his pumpkin later. he wasn't so sure about the paint, but he got into it after awhile!

josiah's first trick or treat house. he held the candy for the rest of the night.

all the trick or treaters

abe (spiderman), malachi (superman), ely (dorothy), tessa (green m&m), josiah (candy corn)

we went to the harvest fair at the church down the street. there were games and more candy of course.

Saturday Morning Breakfast

every saturday morning, at 6:30am, local churches and volunteers meet at a a church to provide showers and breakfast for the homeless living in bellflower and neighboring cities. as a church, our home group decided to sign up for one saturday a month. preston and i have felt convicted lately that we have not been serving god's people. we do a good job i think of helping out our friends when there's a need, but we haven't been stepping out of our comfort zone to meet people where they are. we also want ely and josiah to see and experience service to others. two weekends ago, we began this process and it was a success! ely was a huge help. she helped us crack and beat the 90 eggs, cook the bacon and fill juice cups.

it didn't end so well though. as we all know, service means sacrifice...and if you know us nespers, we are not morning people. we all got up early and were a little cranky by the end of the meal. ely also sacrificed her finger. she was helping daddy with the bacon and burned her finger. i know it hurt, but she cried for and hour and a half! i thought maybe we should get it checked out until i saw her playing basketball! she was fine, just a little hurt and mostly tired. i asked her to tell me about her morning and everything was fine until she remembered what happened and then the water and drama started all over again!

chrissy cooking the tortillas because she's mexican

(her joke, not mine! :))

shaun cooking the eggs

allison and josiah

cracking the eggs. she actually didn't get too many shells in the mix!

filling the juice cups

before the bacon incident...

i don't have any pictures from after because there was alot of crying going on to distract me. it was a great experience and we're looking forward to doing it again next month.