Huntington Library and Gardens

We spent this past Sabbath afternoon at the gorgeous Huntington Library and Gardens. It still takes our breath away how beautiful and unique each garden is. Brianna loved sitting in the grass while Brianna "played" with the koi fish at the Japanese garden pond

Japanese garden

the jungle garden

koi pond

Playdate at the park

We are going almost daily to our neighborhood park. We are loving the warm fall afternoons and neat new friends Brianna makes every time we go to the park. Kiara loves to giggle while Brianna pushes her swing. Precious moments, that's for sure!

Fun times at Ampee & Amee's house

Early this month we were blessed to have the whole Ordelheide family visit us here in Visalia. It was GREAT to see them & catch up on our latest adventures. Amee prepared a yummy Sabbath lunch and we all hung out there for the afternoon. Thank you Chad & Christina for joining us too! Love you guys!

That week Brianna got a chance to spend some time with Amee and they had so much fun dressing up, working on the garden, feeding the fish in the fish pond and playing games. We hear Bri is quite the little helper. Amee loves having her around.

Here is our princess again with Amee's dress (this dress is over 60 years old and looks GREAT!)

Amee & Bri carved a pumpkin and roasted the seeds too.

The girls are lucky to have such a fun-loving, active and adventurous Amee!

Walk-A-Thon Fundraiser for Stepping Stones Christian Preschool

This week Brianna helped her best friend Lea with a fundraiser walk-a-thon for her school. The girls had a blast walking and running the little loop several times along with several other kids ...

kids with a cause

a treat after the "arduous" workout. Mommy's treat was Brianna's long nap in the afternoon! The kids sure broke a sweat and were very tired after lunch!

Kiara did a sit-a-thon and collected adoring fans while big sis run the loops

The fundraiser was a success and school teachers and organizers were very please with the outcome!

Halloween at the Library

The girls dressed up with hats for Halloween at the Library this week. They had a great time reading, singing & dancing with friends.

Playing with Elizabeth's pumpkin basket

Kiara LOVES going to the Library. She's already started participating at her age level and we look forward to progressing at the pace of her skill level as time goes on.

Little Angel Mia is a Baby Kiara magnet!

Project back yard

We finally found the right man for the job! Richard from Church is helping to turn Jeremy's back yard dreams into reality. Jeremy is so excited to work with him and bounce ideas off each other. For now he will do some fence repair and cement work to get the work started. He set up shop this week and it's looking good (so to speak) ... here's the work done so far

Out and about

Some family shots of us out & about. Kiara is almost 7 months and cuter than ever (so we think, anyway). We love having her in our family. She fills our life with joy.

Sweet Bri is Daddy's girl. She's three and a half and going through such a growth spurt on all fronts. Her speech develoment, overall maturity, social and physical skills are reaching new levels almost daily. She is very curious about the world and wants to know all about how things come to be. Her favorite question now is "Why?"
Her fave family moment? Cuddle time!

We had a fun run to the Pumpkin Patch and tried in vain to get both girls to smile for the camera at the same time. We had a good time riding the tractor and learning about where pumpkins and sunflowers come from. Brianna loved the hay maze and tractor ride. Good times!
Brianna and Amee also had a great time at the Pumpkin Patch. Brianna loves her Amee and is thrilled to spend afternoons and evenings together.

Sabbath day with the Bouit's

What a special Sabbath we just had! For once, we finally emerged from being sick for about three weeks and went to Church in the morning. Vivian, Aidan, Tristan and Emily Buit joined us for lunch (Dad Troy was on-call) and we had a fabulous time together stretching almost into the evening. We finished the day off with supper at their house. We all had such a great time together!!!

Emily and Tristan are great kids and played so well with Brianna

Our smiley face recovered from bronchitis, an upper respiratory infection and breaking her first tooth all in the same week and a half! We are very happy to see her well again.

The little lights of our world

We want to thank everyone who was praying us through. We know many people lifted us in prayer through the whole time we were all sick. We know prayer works and want to thank you all for your love & kindness

The girls at 6 months

Kiara Charlisee at 6 months, definitely chunkier than Brianna at the same time. And she's still relying almost completely on Mommy's milk! It's safe to say she has a healthy appetite and she's working on her crawling skills daily. She'll be moving around very soon!

Brianna Cherisse at 6 months also. She was already eating veggies and fruits for a little while and started crawling by the end of her 6th month. Both girls were just great babies ... though Kiara is growing up way too fast for our taste!

HAPPY SABBATH, EVERYONE!

Family Pictures

Waimanalo Beach was quite windy but just as perfect. The whole fam posing for the obligatory picture ...

At church a few hours before (Brianna wasn't too happy as she was too hot and in dire need of a nap!)

Happy near the water