Family Night

This past Friday evening we attended "family night" at Katie's school. They had a great BBQ for everyone, some games for the kids and then a home football game. Katie's choir sang the national anthem and did a nice job! It was definitely different than the Christian High games we were used to, but it was a nice evening.

Family Night

A Fun Night

This weekend was quite busy. We had several activities happening on Saturday. Scott took the kids to their soccer games. I attended the Beth Moore simulcast at church and then in the evening we attended a picnic/concert in the park. There were many people there from our church and community. We were celebrating the CD release of one of the worship directors at our church (who is also a friend!). Anyway, it was a beautiful, cool evening with lots of kids running around, great music and lots of people to talk to. Here are some highlights.

This is Troy and some friends from his class. They were basically running around the whole evening.

This shows part of the group getting ready for the concert.

Kids running around area.

This shot is of Scott walking up to the stage to receive his raffle prize! It was quite funny and we got some cool stuff!

Billy Stops By

Since moving to Southern California, it has been fun to be able to catch up with some friends that we haven't seen for awhile. Our friend, Billy, works in So. Cal part of the week and has been able to stop by a couple of times. On his last visit he brought his cool Harley. So, of course, the kids wanted to check it out. Kamryn looks a little too comfortable, don't you think?

Happy Birthday, Jim!

We enjoyed a visit from our friends, The Elsenbroeks, this weekend. We even got to celebrate Jim's birthday with him. We only had a couple of projects that we needed their help with. Dawn decorated my plant shelves in the kitchen and Jim painted a door for us. It was fun to show them around. Thanks for coming guys. We're thankful for your friendship!

Jim's birthday dinner. (The girls made him a hat.)

We had carmel birthday malts for dessert. Scott and Dawn were doing a bit of experimenting with the recipe here.

Progress

We have been blessed with a beautiful home. Unfortunately it is requiring quite a bit of work. We knew this coming in and decided to take on a challenge. With the generous help of many people, our new house is slowly feeling like home. Here are some of the stages of the main downstairs living space. The process was pretty much 1. major cleaning 2. painting 3. decorating. It feels so good to get fresh pain up and then be able to hang pictures and put stuff away. There's a lot to do yet, but we're getting there!

Kitchen at closing of the house.

In the middle of my painting project. I used the same red paint we've had in our last two houses.

Looking better.

Our family room on moving day.

The front yard just after closing. There was major overgrowth and a lack of watering.

The front as it looks now. The grass is coming back. We pulled out a bunch of dead plants. Now we just have to paint the trim.

Some progress in the family room.

Paint and some decor in the family room.

First Soccer Games of the Season

We were delighted to learn that even after registering late, our kids would be able to join AYSO soccer teams here in Redlands. We spent our first Saturday on the soccer fields surrounded by the beautiful mountains and had a great time. Kamryn got warmed up again after taking last year off. She tried her hand at goalie (not my choice for her!) and did pretty well. She got to play forward second half and scored the tying goal. She has a great team and coach. We also got to experience our first boys soccer game with Troy playing on an under 8 team. Boys soccer is so much faster and more intense, it seems. Troy played his little heart out. (He's had to watch his sisters play so long and has just been dying to get on the field himself.) He did great in the goal and then also scored while playing forward. He goes full-force and was a lot of fun to watch. His comment at the end was, "Wow, I can't get my heart to stop pounding so fast." He's on a nice team of boys with a nice group of parents too. We're looking forward to a great season!