Year in Pictures 2009 -1

All 3 boys at the fountains on the Riverfront downtown Detroit. They love to play at special places around the city like Belle-Isle, Hart Plaza, the People Mover, and much more.














Ty receiving his trophy from his Tball coach last summer. Jamison and Ty had the same coach, but Jamison played "coach-pitch" for the first time. They loved practices and games.



Mark and the boys trying to rally the Detroit Tigers to victory at Comerica Park. Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful on that night and for the entire final 3 weeks of the season.



























The first day of school, Sept. 09. Ty eagerly getting ready for Kindergarten and Jamison impatiently waiting to get to 2nd grade. They love their teachers and classmates at Ambleside Community School.















Even more happily married after 12 years! Kristen continues to care for our boys and our home while running road races (25K in May). She also leads the Children's ministry at church and a small group of mom's in our home weekly. Mark continues to work with teens at Central Detroit Christian CDC and is closing in on his Master's degree from Calvin Seminary (May 2010).

FINAL FOUR FRIDAY

A worthy day to pull the kids out of school.

Semen

So our oldest son is reading the bible today and asks Kristen "Mom, what is semen?" He was reading Genesis 38:9.
Here come the birds and the bees courtesy of a first grader who loves to read the bible. So I guess reading the bible is a catalyst for having good family conversations.

Quentin's Birth Mother

So I guess my vacation time is my time to edit video footage. I spent a few minutes yesterday editing a short video clip for Quentin's Birth Mother. We send her photos and updates via email about once every two months. I asked in our last update if she would like to see some video footage and she said she thought she would like it. So I put this short video together for her. She is such a blessing to us in her encouragement and prayers. We are so grateful for the gift that she has given us in Q and the relationship that we have been able to form with her through email exchanges. We look forward to seeing how God will use this relationship to grow Quentin into the man he was created to be.

Busy Weeks

The past few weeks we have been running. End of the semester for my seminary class, Thanksgiving outreach for work, Birthdays. Since I last wrote, we now have a 7 year old and a 3 year old in addition to our 5 year old. We had fun parties including a carnival and a horse party. I'll try to post more pictures once we get them uploaded onto the computer.
Now we are off to Grand Rapids for Thanksgiving. It will be good to rest for a minute.

Dress Up

We didn't really do anything for Halloween with our family - I'm not big on it except as a time to get to know our neighbors better and no one really trick-or-treats down our street. But the boys still wanted to dress up so we had a pirate, superchick, and firefighter roaming from door to door through our house giving and getting candy that they had already received at their birthday party two weeks ago. We're not going for any parent of the year awards here.

Soccer

The older boys played their last soccer game of the season yesterday. They had the privilege of playing in front of their aunts and uncles and grandparents on a beautiful fall morning. Ty had some great passes and Jamison had some nice goals. They look to be far advanced from their parents youth soccer days. We're just happy they enjoy the game and get to learn some teamwork in the process.

Question from Jamison

"Why do people need to paint big words on the side of empty buildings?"

Jungle Party

We had a beautiful day for Ty's outdoor Jungle Party today. We had a variety of jungle foods (including peanut butter and banana sandwiches), jungle games, and a snake cake. Kristen really did a fantastic job of preparing a fun day and Ty was so excited.

How time flies. I remember the Thursday afternoon that he was born like it was last week. We are thankful to God for the gift of Ty.

Terrible Tigers

The Tigers have been bad this summer, but our boys still loved going to the ballpark. Thanks to some good friends, we got to go to 3 games in September alone! These were the best seats courtesy of the Vermeulens. Quentin was most intrigued by the Tiger Mascot, Ty is enamored by the ferris wheel, and Jamison likes to see the Tigers hit home runs (which didn't happen nearly enough).