Megan is 6!

Megan turned 6 October 29th.  In the past year, she was able to pass her first level of swimming lessons, learn to ride without training wheels (just days before her birthday), enjoy playing soccer, start kindergarten, welcome her first brother into our family, start her first year of Sparks (and Nana is her leader, and Grandpa is the one she gets to say her verses to...so special!) and much more.  She absolutely loves school and loves her teacher.  She has had a wonderful first year at school for which we are very thankful for.  One of her favorite things to do is playing school with her sisters as often as they will.  She is learning to read although it is sometimes more work than fun right now.  She is very quick at memorizing so that is helpful in Awana.  Another one of her favorites is doing different crafts.  She loves drawing, using scissors, gluing, etc.  We are enjoying watching her grow in her ability to draw and such. She still loves playing with her stuffed animals and often has a favorite one of the week or month.  And to this day she still has her favorite blanket. She has had it since she was a baby.  I don't think we will ever be able to get rid of it:)

Megan is my sweetheart.  She just loves people and has a big heart.  We definitely have our struggles, but we are so thankful for our oldest girl.  She is such a blessing!


Here are some pictures from her birthday.

She got chocolate donuts for breakfast...a favorite!   

Tim had to leave before she got up on her birthday so he was so sweet to remember her birthday and leave a note.  Megan LOVED reading his note.

Her birthday was on Wednesday which is late start day for us.  So it gave her time to play school with her sisters!  I have to add to that since it was late start she got birthday cuddles in my bed which we both loved!

These two are best friends and love playing together.  Megan is the teacher here and Emily is ready for school with her backpack.

Emily and Anna helped me make brownies for her to take to school.  I ate lunch with her at lunch and gave her the brownies then to share with her class for her birthday treat.

Our of school and enjoying a snack

Our big fun activity for the afternoon was making a big leaf pile. The girls were hard at work.

Sweet sisters

So cute! She enjoyed wearing this hat a lot for a couple of weeks.

The girls were all dressed in purple.

Nana came over for a little bit on Megan's birthday.

That night, we have the Awana fall fair which was a fun way to end Megan's  birthday. She got to play lots of fun games and get lots of candy.

The day after her birthday, we had a birthday party with a couple of family friends from church. It was a nice night so they were able to run around outside while the adults enjoyed some quiet conversation.

Blowing out her candles

Opening presents

Her friends that joined her to help her celebrate her birthday. WE have had the same 2 families over the last 2 or 3 birthdays of hers.  A fun little tradition!

Happy Birthday to Megan. This is a little sign that her teacher Mrs. Santo gave her that she was quite proud of.

Megan, we love you very much. We pray that God will continue to plant the Gospel in your heart and do a work in you.  We pray that He will give you a heart that loves Him and others.  We love you.

Fall soccer

Megan and Emily were able participate in the 2014 Fall Soccer League. They were in different leagues this year as Megan moved up to the Kindergarten league!

Emily was able to have the same coach as both girls had last season. She loved her coach and loved everything about soccer. Emily was so fun to watch as she is super aggressive and competitive (wonder where she gets that from!), is very slow and steady in her dribbling, and give us lots of thumbs up during the game with her big smile.  She ran hard when she was in there and was very tired after the game.  She was not the fastest on out there for sure, but when she got to the ball, she would slowly kick the ball towards her goal and very carefully line it up to kick it in the goal when the opportunity came.  We would laugh as we watched her out there.  She was able to score quite a bit this year (I believe she scored like 6 goals one game.  She gave us many thumbs up that games!)

Emily running after the ball.

Emily is very tired here.  She ran so hard during the times she was playing. We could tell when she got to her exhausted stage.

Megan was able to have her coach from 1 season ago.  She was glad to have him again as her coach.

 My favorite memory from her year was after her first practice, Coach Kris came up to me afterwards and said it was so nice to see Megan come out of her shell.   I knew what he had meant.  The last time Megan had played for him (which as a year ago) was just just 3 months after her meningitis/encephalitis. She couldn't physically finish a practice as she got so tired, she would just shut down the last 10-15 min.  I don't remember everything back to that time, but I am sure some of her personality had come back as well since that time.  It was neat to see Coach Kris see the difference in her as I don't notice as much of a change from a year ago as I see her everyday, but as I reflected on his comment that day, it brought thanksgiving to my heart that God had helped my little girl regain so much that she had lost.

She also had a good season.  She is the opposite of Emily in she is more relaxed/have fun during the game.  She doesn't always get in there to get the ball. But she does have fun when she plays and I have to remind myself at this age, that is what is important. She was able to score a couple of goals too!

Perfect caption of Megan-smiling as she is running. Sometimes during practice in the games they would play, she would just laugh as she ran.  Coach Kris made some comment to Megan that she may run faster if she wasn't always laughing:) 

Megan is #4

Megan with her Coach and trophey.

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Timothy- 1 Month

 I don't want Timothy to grow up too quickly, but it is nice in some ways that we are to the 1 month mark.  A couple of reasons: 1) He is going about 4-4 1/2 hours of sleep at night in between feedings. 2.) Nursing is going much better!!!  He is a very good baby, and we just love his cuddles. He s 19.14 inches (although he measure 19 1/2 inches at his birth. Measuring length is a little hard to get totally accurate) which is 25%.  He weighed 7 lb. 10 oz. (50%), and his head was in the 30%.

Here are a few pictures from his first month!

Great Grandpa Riffel got to hold Timothy for the 1st time.

Great Grandma Riffel got to hold Timothy for the first time.

Megan loves holding Timothy and does a great job.

Emily is the "motherly" of the three girls and just loves him so much.

Timothy lying in his bassinet. This has gone through 2 of Karis' kids and now 4 of mine!

Cuddles with Emily

Gotta watch Anna as she is rough, but she does love him.

Auntie KK loves getting cuddles from Timothy

HE is definitely a great catch!! Love baby boy clothes!

Tim relaxing as TImothy sleeps on him.

Megan is trying to entertain Timothy with her toy.

Timothy's first Sunday in church. Daddy kept him in the nursery during the evening service.

Timothy slept his first time in church away!

One of his sisters gave him a little stuffed bunny to play with.

Not a huge fan of his first bath...

But he got used to it....

But he hated getting out of the water.

cute overalls

Timothy in deep thought!

Grandpa and Grandma Armstrong came for a visit to see Timothy.  They were so sweet to come and help us as we adusted to our 4th one!

Grandma Armstrong loves giving babies baths so she got to give Timothy a couple of baths.

Timothy and Grandpa snoozing away.

The famous picture with Grandma and his chocolate for the baby.

Grandma Armstrong enjoying her cuddles.

Megan's Starts school

I know this is a little late, but I wanted to get a post on Megan's first day of school.  She started Kindergarten this school year.  It was her first time going to any school (I did preschool at home with her), and she was VERY excited.  I was sad that she would be gone all day, but happy as she was so excited about this big step in her life.  Here are a few pictures of her first day of school.

Megans choice of cereal for her first day was Frosted Flakes.  She was very excited about school although in this picture you can't tell as she just woke up.  

Tim and Megan-  A sweet picture of these two before Tim left for work.

How is she old enough for kindergarten already?

I just love this girl!

Nana and Megan- Nana came over in the morning so I could just walk over with Megan and leave the other two girls with her.  It was nice to just be able to concentrate on Megan this morning.  Oh, and Nana was also sad to see her going off to school.  

Emily wasn't awake when it was time for Megan to leave, so I decided to wake her up. I thought Emily would be pretty sad if she wasn't able to tell her bye.  These two are just best friends.  

Megan's desk

Megan with her teacher Mrs. Santo- Since Megan is our first to start school, we didn't know anything about the teachers other than what we heard from others.  We had heard that all the kindergarten teachers were good, but Mrs. Santo had received a lot of praise from others.  When we received the postcard in the mail that Mrs. Santo was her teacher, I was very thankful to the Lord for giving her as Megan's first teacher!

This is actually the 2nd day. Most mornings, we walk to school. The girls have done very well in the mornings eating breakfast, getting dressed, brushing teeth, and doing hair.  We do the same routine every morning and so far so good.  We didn't practice getting up early before school started, but we did work on a routine every morning so they knew what to expect when school started.

Megan and Emily walk while Anna (and Timothy now!) ride in the stroller.

What a blessing that Megan's best friend Katy was also in her class.  She actually got to sit by her at the beginning of the year.

Another picture of these sweet friends!

It is a couple of months into the school year now, and we are so pleased with how the year has started. Megan loves kindergarten and really loves her teacher.  She is ready to go to school each morning and usually comes home happily sharing with us about her day. I feel like going to school has given her a desire and excitement to learn.  She will write her letters on her own and even wanted to read a book to her class.  (When I worked with her on preschool, he did the work, but never seemed to enjoy writing her letters or sounding out words.  She would do it when I did it with  her, but that was it.)   She has made new friends and has adjusted so well.  We have also adjusted here at home with not having her here.  The girls were so lost without here the first few days.  My favorite part of day is going to pick her up from school. I miss her so much when she is gone.   I am so thankful out this year has gone so far.