our new family addition...

well, we've added another girl to our family...
our au pair, lusinda, arrived in our home 2 weeks ago today. she has been a huge blessing to our family and the girls love having a new "big sister" around. lusinda is from south africa and is with us until at least june, hopefully longer :).

jess took these pictures when they had a girl's day at the park...

riding bikes

i sent clay out to target to pick up a few things, and what does he come home with?? 5 bikes. he set out to teach the girls how to finally ride bikes, something we have attempted but hadn't really followed through on. so this morning, he got them up early, took them to the street and within an hour they were up and down with no problem at all. we even rode down to the park and down some trails.

nyc marathon

so we were trying to visit a new church last weekend...we were cut off by 4,000 runners. they were running right past the church we were going to and we couldn't get across the street, so we stayed to cheer them on and then we grabbed breakfast. there's nothing like watching other people run to work up an appetite...

we love fall!!

this is prospect park... all the bright colors and crunching leaves have made trecking through the city so much more enjoyable over the last few weeks :)

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a few more soccer pics

i know it doesn't look like it, but she really loves being goalie!

jess is getting more and more aggressive in her playing.

you'll notice the beautiful trees in the background. we have been treated to a feast for the eyes over the last few weeks. i am planning to go to prospect park tomorrow after church to snap a few pictures so that all of you can enjoy our scenery before winter sets in.

halloween

pad mei, a mermaid, and a bumble bee


our neighbor's threw a pumpkin carving party for the block, otherwise i would have stuck with my inserting mr. potato head pieces into pumpkins. special thanks to cheryl for hunting down three great pumpkins. they are very hard to come by in brooklyn.


traditionally, all the kiddos in our neighborhood head down to rutland road on halloween. these people go all out to make it a safe, fun, crazy night for all to enjoy. the little boy and girl posing in pictures with us are eliza and oliver, our sweet neighbors.

the girls were allowed to go to school in costume, but they had to be bible characters...we were told this with 1 1/2 days notice, so instead of going to one of two targets in all of brooklyn, we improvised with what we could find around the house...jess was queen esther, maddy is eve (she's wearing my "my bad-eve" shirt with flowers pinned to it), and hailey is noah's ark, not noah, but the actual ark. how creative are they?

theses are seriously the only 3 pictures i took on our quick trip to albuquerque for columbus day, so next time i am snapping away. it was good to see everyone, but if i took more pictures i could bring some of you home with us!


hailey was taking forever in the shower, so i peaked in to see what the hold up is. she was making soapy sculptures out of her hair and i just had to catch the moment.


pool with our uncle wil



air hockey with uncle stephen

good grief...

i am looking at the date of our last post and it's been over a month! my sincerest apologies (especially to grandparents). we have been very, very busy with lots of fun. i'll do my best to include all the highlights...
jess-doing great in school, busy writing plays, doing great at soccer (hanging in there with all the boys), growing up more and more every day, reading 5 books at a time
hailey-creating artwork like there is no tomorrow, giggling like mad, loving soccer (especially goalie), doing great in school, making lots of friends, getting very tall
maddy-was promoted to 2nd grade at the beginning of the month (she wasn't surprised because "this is where i was supposed to be in the first place"), loving dance and getting those combination steps down quickly, knows the entire subway system for all 5 burrows and is very proud of it (honestly...i ask her for directions all the time)
clay-traveling like mad, making record breaking deals all over the place, kickin' butt at ultimate frisbee, getting better and better looking every day
ang-start my teaching job on monday, love my class (spent 2 days observing and getting to know them this week), falling more and more in love with our new home town, been very busy writing, reading and keeping up with the kids.

more news...we got an au pair from south africa this week. her name is lusinda. she is amazing with the girls (who of course adore her). she loves to read, laugh, shop for shoes, and watch girly movies. she has been a life saver and has made me feel completely at ease with returning to work.