Once again, I am behind on posting pictures!  Here are just various things from around here – most of which are from the month of October.

Cuddling with Stephen one Saturday morning.

Often in the morning they get to do special things with me while Hannah is napping.  He they are learning to play dominoes.

One morning we went to a local bowling alley for the first time.

Every now & then we set up the big, electric Thomas the Train set in the living room.  Hannah loved watching the trains go around.

Here they wanted me to put Hannah in the box where the train set is stored.  She was supposed to be like baby Moses in a basket.  She did not like it very much!

One evening I walked into the living room to find the boys playing with their Little People castle dressed like this.  Where do they get such crazy ideas?!!

Well, around here, we are continuing to wait for baby sister to be born.  In the meantime, I thought I would go ahead and post various pictures of the boys from the last few months.  They are just random shots, showing what we get to enjoy every day!

Here are the boys enjoying their relatively new bunkbeds, having pulled down most of the books off their bookshelves.

Joel cuddling with his “ba-ba.”

Dressed in their Thomas the Train costumes.

Micah listening to music on Papa’s IPOD.

Joel climbed up on the table after supper to finish off the grapes.  He loves fruit and vegetables!

Watching a video with headphones so that Stephen can study.

Joel and Micah like to help Momma by unpacking the groceries.  Here Joel is “making a train.”

Joel eating the rest of the berry sauce (for crepes) after supper.

Most people don’t have to think very long before they realize that Micah looks like my (Vicki’s) side of the family.  My parents have a set of pictures on their wall of each of them at 4 years of age.  I had my dad scan his picture, so we could compare him and Micah at the same age.  There are definately some similarities!

It’s hard for us to believe, but our little boy turned 4 this past Saturday!  He loves Thomas the Train, and so I decided to attempt a Thomas cake.  For the most part I was very pleased with it, except that the writing gel I used for the words ran together, and the blue frosting was very runny after having to use almost a whole bottle of food coloring to get the color dark enough.  I had made the cake and done the white frosting on Thursday evening.  On Friday morning, Micah turned the cake over inside the cake carrier because he was trying to see whether or not I had done the Thomas yet.  So, much of the white frosting, that I had so carefully smoothed the night before, was now filled with cake crumbs.  But in spite of the mishaps, we were all quite pleased with the end result.

Opening a Bible story puzzle book from Memaw.

Joel was so sweet, helping Micah open the gifts.

He was happy to finally have the Diesel 10 train.

Opening more tracks and bridges for the little trains.

Playing together with the new tracks and bridges.

Very pleased with his Thomas cake.

Blowing out the candles.

Winter is finally over here and we have enjoyed some beautiful, sunny weather the last two weeks.  Here are a few pictures from our garden and a trip to the Spielplatz (playground).

The daffodils around the back porch.

Micah & Joel helping water the spinach Stephen planted.

Our yard & plum tree, and the neighbor’s tulips.

Bouncing on the rubber trampoline, sliding, and spinning!

Micah’s first attempt at climbing trees.

Since it looks like we aren’t going to move quite yet, we decided to go ahead and get the boys bunkbeds now.  Micah has been sleeping in a small children’s bed, and Joel has still been sleeping in the crib.  Needless to say, they were just a little excited.

Putting on the parts that make the matching beds into bunkbeds.

The finished product!

Micah tries out the top bunk.

Joel gets a moment in Micah’s bed.

All ready for bed.

Here are a few more pictures to finish out the time spent with Stephen’s parents.

The boys got to ride the lawn mowers with Opa, both at church and at home.

The boys decide the mower is too loud!

The boys enjoyed riding two little tricycles together.

Having fun making pizza with Oma.

Just being cute.

Cuddling with Opa and the blankie.

Visiting with the cousins (Stephen’s older sister, Stephanie) the day after Thanksgiving.

Looking at Christmas lights at Lake Lanier islands.

In mid-September we were able to take the boys to the county fair with Oma and Opa King and Auntie Alicia.  We didn’t want to spend tons of money on rides and such, but the boys did enjoy the petting zoo, 4-H animals, tractors, and two rides that we let them do.

Having fun with Oma and Auntie Alicia.

Stephen took them on a twirling monkey ride and on a little dump truck that lifted them up and down.

While we were in the US, Stephen’s parents took us to a fun place for kids called Monkey Joe’s.  It is a big play place full of air inflated slides, tunnels, etc.  At first the boys were a little afraid just because of the size of everything.  But after Micah had gone down once, it was hard to get him to stop.  If pictures are worth a thousand words, then it is obvious the boys thoroughly enjoyed themselves!  Thank you Oma and Opa.

Some of the slides were so big that even the adults could go with their kids.

While we were in the States, on furlough, the boys got to wear some clothes that would be considered pretty fancy for here in Germany.  Stephen’s mom had bought the little outfit Joel is wearing, and my mom had found Micah’s little suit on an excellent sale.  So, most Sundays, as we traveled around from church to church, we enjoyed dressing up our two little cuties.  Now, I have to admit we may be a little biased, but it would be hard to find two cuter, sweeter boys than ours.  We did enjoy having them with us through all our travels, though it definately added a new dimension to traveling that we had not experienced while on deputation.  It helped us to know better how to pray for our friends on deputation with small kids.  These pictures were taken the first time they wore the outfits, while at the King’s house in Georgia.