Birthdays are Big Time!

It is the end of October and we have survived the birthday frenzy.  Cate turned 15 on October 21 and Josh turned 16 on October 22.  Here are some fun pics from those couple days.
Grandma Joan had her 86th birthday a couple days before these guys so we did some celebrating with her.

Some fun presents arrived from Aunt Dawn.  That's always a treat.  

Thanks Aunt Dawn for going shopping for us.  We love your suprises!

Cate started her day off with getting her ears pierced.  It is something she has thought about for awhile and wasn't quite brave enough last year but this year she decided to do it.  We headed to the mall and did the birthday treat at Claire's.  Cate was very brave and actually didn't even feel it.  She was thrilled.

 We had some prep work to do in the kitchen to get ready for the party.  Josh and Cate are always good help.  The volleyball girls started arriving right on schedule and we had a fun afternoon of carving pumpkins, playing yard games and celebrating Miss Cate!

                                         

Here she is!  Gorgeous and 15! 

Miss Cate Ramona Clark.  

 We had a family lunch at their favorite Chinese restaurant, Yen Ching's.  

We are thankful for the family that supports our love for Josh and Cate.  

Next up is Josh's 16th party.  He invited his Cross Country gang over to celebrate with him during the evening.  He had 15 boys attend and it was a great group.

  Josh and Cate love family.  They love seeing cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents plus of course the older brothers and sisters and their littles.  Family is the best thing ever for Josh and Cate.

We are Cubs' fans in our family.  It has united us for generations.  We believe in the Cubs through thick and thin.  Our family loves them whether they win or lose but of course it is fun to win.  Our love for the Cubs makes me think of Jesus' love for us.  He loves us whether we are obedient or not but of course it is more pleasant if we are obedient to Him.  If we fail Jesus he still loves us and wants us to come back to Him. We want the Cubs to win the World Series but if not we will still root for them.  Win or lose with the Cubbies, we will always still have our Jesus.

Zephaniah 3:17.     The Lord your God is in your midst,
                                 a mighty one who will save;
                             he will rejoice over you with gladness;
                                  he will quiet you by his love;
                             he will exult over you with loud singing.

Thanks for reading the blog and praying for us.  We appreciate your prayers.
Choosing joy,
Chris & crew

The Babies are Here! The Babies are Here!

We have had a whirlwind of baby action in our family.  Susi and Luke were due in July.  Autumn and Nick were due in August.  They were due about 10 days apart.  Sometimes life works out differently than planned.  Autumn ended up with an emergency c-section 2 weeks ahead of section so she got the July baby.  Susi was about a week overdue so she got the August baby.  Both babies are gorgeous, healthy, and so loved by us!  Welcome Sawyer David and Johanna Lake!  Uncle Josh and Aunt Cate have a blast with all the littles!

We have started "back to school."  Josh is a freshman this year at Homestead High School.  It is a large school but with the bigness comes a great ESL or ENL(English Second Language or English New Language) program. The kids have had the same ESL teacher for their middle school years and now they continue with her at the high school.  She is fabulous and is determined to see these guys survive high school.  We love her!
Cate is in her last year at Woodside Middle School as an 8th grader.  Woodside has been a wonderful school with great teachers for Josh and Cate.  Moving onto the high school is kind of scary with 2200 students enrolled. Josh is running Cross Country and that gives him a good group of guys to hang out with.  Josh also continues to play baseball.   Cate plays on the volleyball team so she has her good group of friends too.  We are blessed that both kids have teams to keep them active and involved,

A couple of milestones have happened.  Josh got his braces off after 2 years.

Cate decided on a whim to get her hair cut.

Both kids look great and are ready to move forward.  

 We have had a lot of family time lately and we love it.  We love our families!  Families are Forever we say!  The Lord has done spectacular things for us...we're overjoyed.  Psalm 126:3


Thanks for reading the blog and praying for us.  We appreciate you.  Keep the faith!  Keep your eyes on the goal!

Choosing joy,
Chris & crew