Chicago is our favorite city to visit---one of the reasons is the great food! D&J, thanks for this incredible trip.
The Children's Museum is fabulous!
On our way to the Navy Pier.
Hanging out at the hotel---I think we're waiting for our pizza to be delivered.
Drake, can you believe we stayed at The Drake?
Thanks, D&J, for taking our whole family along with you to celebrate Thanksgiving in South Bend/Chicago this year. It was a great trip. It was so great being with Aunt Dot for Thanksgiving. She is such a sweetie! She is also very strong---she amazes us and inspires us with her vigor, perseverance, strength, independence and spunk. We love you, Aunt Dot!
We have always had fun dressing up for Halloween. This year we had a slumber party girl, a puppy named "Bootsie" and Superman. We went to a party at our care group leader's place.
The guys are hanging out, watching a game and eating popcorn....the shirt says it all....COOL!
Our little ballerina is having so much fun taking ballet lessons. She works really hard and takes it very seriously, as you can see from her expressions in these photos.
When in Mexico....make tortillas! Okay, so these aren't as round as my Mom's, but they were deliciosas. The girls did a great job making the "masa" and rolling out the tortillas.
Our Saturday mornings were consumed with flag football games this fall. Actually, we were cheering for our little cheerleader. Although she had fun, she says that next time she'd rather play flag football!
This was one of our fun assignments early on this year. The girls baked a cake and iced it to look like Earth: a very delicious way to learn the continents and oceans.
Do any of you remember the good ol' days when school started on the day after Labor Day? I do, and my kids will too because we went back to that old way. We started school on Sept. 4, and had such a fantastic day. This photo was taken at recess.
The girls are working on their Spanish lesson in this photo. Muy bien.
The girls had to apply for passports because we will be traveling to many different countries this year. In this photo, even brother took part in the activity---he is the mailman who will take the applications to the post office. 
We made homemade ice cream to commemorate the special occasion, and everyone helped out. 
We invited our close friends to have some ice cream with us that evening. It was a great celebration. Both families are doing the same Christian curriculum this year: "My Father's World-Exploring Countries and Cultures". It is so awesome! We'll have more photos later of all of the various countries we visit throughout this school year.
These two are such great pals. Mr. O. is our sweet neighbor who simply adores our children, especially "the little boy". We are so blessed by his friendship and sweet, quiet nature.
We went with our close friends to the museum to see a very cool exhibit. Little Brother is not in the photo because he was afraid of the robots you see in the background.
The girls played Upward Soccer this summer and really had a great time. They improved their soccer skills, made new friends, got LOTS of exercise, memorized Bible verses, showed good sportsmanship and just had some good ol' fun.
We had such a fun time when our "other son" came to visit for a few days. Here are all of my kids dressing up and having fun pretending to be pioneers.
Our mission trip concluded with dinner and entertainment at the Flying J Ranch. Here we are with "the Sheriff".
We went to Mescalero Baptist Mission outside of Ruidoso, NM. You can see the church steeple in the background. We helped to build the deck on the parsonage right behind us, and last year we helped put up the playground set you see to the left of us.
Daddy and son helping to put up the huge tent which housed our VBS the whole week.
It's amazing how quickly this gigantic tent can go up with the help of many hands.
Our girls with the pastor and his wife---very dedicated, sweet Christians.
This is the front of the church. The construction team added on SS space and an office.
Two members of our mission team with some of the beautiful Mescalero children.
Me with two other members of the mission team---I enjoyed getting to know these sweet gals.
J&D treated us to a Gospel Brunch at the House of Blues to celebrate my birthday. It was great! 
Okay, it's official---I am old! For my birthday I wanted a glider for my porch. We all enjoy "gliding" in the afternoons or evenings when it's not too hot. It's especially fun when the neighbors join us for ice cream or just neighborly chit chat.
