super heroes and a chicken

all that candy made us a little crazy! neighborhood toddlers!
1 batman costume and 2 boys who wanted to be batman. thankfully a friend let us borrow another batman costume and saved the day. then we had our good old chicken costume; all the boys have worn this costume and ezekiel debuted a new version: super chicken.
we hung out with our neighborhood friends and enjoyed the neighborhood harvest fair hosted by a group of neighborhood congregations. of course we came home with more candy than we needed. its funny as i was putting all the candy in one bowl - that smell of plastic wrappers, chocolate, and sugar reminded me of all the halloweens where i sorted through my candy as a kid. all the sugar in my house makes me cringe as a mom but i do understand the delight that goes through a child's eyes as they survey the loot.

mom's night & batman's harvest parade

mom's night at preschool was pj night - what a fun date with malachi. we listened to a story, played games and had a bedtime cookie.






malachi's preschool harvest parade was today - such cute kids!! this also means the sugar fest has started - i dread all the candy coming into the house...

R & R

just us for 6 days! what an amazing treat to be together to rest, have uninterrupted conversation, fun adventures, rest, good food, sun and reflection. we celebrated 10 years of marriage and 10 years of Bellflower. love my husband and love Bellflower.








this is just funny - wedding and sunbathers don't mix well

end of summer...

summer is done. but who would have guessed it this week when it reached 111 degrees in bellflower in septemeber - crazy. i realized after our trip to mi and chicago that the last year has been very full. but i look back and think - we did it. some bruises along the way but we made it and learned and grew as a family. we had a great summer even though we only went to the beach 1 time. i had high hopes... i also had high hopes of visiting many people while we were in mi, and we didn't. i thought for sure our house addition would be close to finished by now, but it isn't. i even thought we might be starting a charter school this fall but we are still working on that one too. a dear friend told me the other day, "give yourself a break rachel." so i am (or trying to remember that she said this and i should embrace it) i loved my summer with the boys! if we missed you this summer, please know we love you... here are a lot of pictures to record the end of summer.


ezekiel loves dogs - my sister's dog toby got lots of attention...




yes sue is about to eat ryan's head!



chicago lego store - the boys heaven

ryan and his dad baptized our neice brinsley - what a honey

ezekiel is 1

baby zeke is 1. today he looked at me like he was all grown up. as he crawls up in the window and attempts to climb over the chair i realize he isn't a little baby anymore. what a year he has lived through with our family. sometimes i look back on the year behind us and asks myself did all that happen? we had a baby, started organizing to start a charter school, started a house project, started preschool, started a new homeless prevention program, moved into a new and remodeled community center, started remodeling a new affordable house, started to volunteer for Communities First Board... we started a lot this past year and Ezekiel was a trooper through it all. I guess thats why he went on 6 plane trips and a long road trip all by the age of 1. he is by far our most traveled infant and he just goes with the flow. thankful for his sweet and laid back personality this past year. although now that he moves around i realize he is a little explorer and climber. he loves playing with his big brothers and generally gets into everything they are playing with. breaking things they build or helping them play would be the debate each day. i often hear ezekiel don't do that... he also like to play on his own, zooming cars around, yes he already uses sound effects. throwing balls and crawling as fast as he can to get them. putting things in boxes and taking them out. building the best way he can with his chubby hands. looking at books. crawling with his head down and throwing himself on the floor in delight. he finally learned to sleep through the night by his first birthday much to our delight. we are blessed by this little man and we are thankful for the smiles and laughter he adds to our family. we pray he grows in God's strength and God's grace, like his name means. we hope for more growth, discovery, learning, love and joy in this next year.

this is a Psalm i read just after he was born last year:

God, brilliant Lord,
yours is a household name.
Nursing infants gurgle choruses about you;
toddlers shout the songs
That drown out enemy talk,
and silence atheist babble.
I look up at your macro-skies, dark and enormous
your handmade sky jewelry,
Moon and stars mounted in their settings.
Then I look at my micro-self and wonder,
Why do you bother with us?
Why take a second look our way?
Yet we've so narrowly missed being gods,
bright with Eden's dawn light.
You put us in charge of your handcrafted world,
repeated to us you Genesis-charge,
Made us lords of sheep and cattle,
even animals out in the wild,
Birds flying and fish swimming,
whales singing in the ocean deeps.

God, brilliant Lord,
your name echoes around the world.