The Cousins came to Visit

Our kids had a few days off from school at the end of October, so Aunt Karen and Uncle Jason and their family came to visit! In between the rain, we went to the Train Museum and Old Sacramento, and Fairy Tale Town. We also had fun hanging out at home playing with Madison and Ashley (even had an early birthday celebration for Ashley) and holding Gabriel, the newest cousin. Thanks for the fun memories!

Pumpkin Farm Time

Since we had a beautiful October half day of school, we went to the Pumpkin Farm with Brooke's best friend and family . . .

You can see the difference between how a boy goes down the slide at Coyote Mountain and how the girls go down the slide . . .

But they all like to be sneaky . . . this was in the closet of the old train caboose . . .

And sometimes go on explorations traipsing through the Pumpkin Patch!

Jog A Thon 2008

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THOSE THAT DONATED TO RAISE MONEY FOR THEIR SCHOOL . . . we are blessed by you! Praise God for the dry COOL weather! Brooke and Gavin both did awesome . . . it was Gavin's first Jog A Thon and he did just as many laps as his big sister, 15! (They ran at separate times) Gavin's outfit was the highlight of the kindergarten joggers! It's even more funny because blue and gold are the school's colors. Kayle's Jog A Thon at the high school was the same day as Gavin's first field trip so that's why there are no photos of him.

Gavin's First Field Trip

Gavin was so excited about his first field trip from the day he came home with the paper . . . Mom, if you sign this, I can go on a field trip with my class, so can you, will you sign this . . . Yes, GAvin . . . YIPEE! He said his favorite part was riding the horse, although he enjoyed it all including playing ball with the dog.

Fall Photos

Your children's photos . . . PRICELESS . . . Danielle did an amazing job with our kids' photos. These are my favorites! I'll try to post more later. Kayle does have his serious face on this one, so I'll have to post one with him smiling!

Archy the Hamster: July 2006 - Sept. 2008

Archy the hamster lived a full life of about two years - he became part of the family for Brooke's 7th birthday. Dwarf hamsters typically live two years. He enjoyed playing with Brooke and Gavin, who will miss him, but are doing okay with the fact that his life is complete. The best story was the time we let him out to play in the upstairs bathroom, with the doors closed so he wouldn't escape, and he crawled into a hole that led to behind the cabinets - we thought we might never see him again. So we prayed and put his food bowl by the opening and within a few minutes, he was out again!

Gymanstics Superstars

What a night! We went to see the Gymanstics Superstars Tour 2008 last Wednesday and were totally blessed to get front row seats. Ortega sponsored the tour and had a little known deal where you buy a certain amount of their products and receive 2 free (up to $50) tickets! Needless to say, we got even better seats than we should have. It was absolutely incredible. All night long I was amazed at the gymnasts' (Nastia Luikin, the Hamm brothers, Jonathan Horton) strength and abilities. But mostly, I couldn't stop thinking about how blessed and how we so didn't deserve these tickets, but received them nonetheless . . .

Air Force Ball!

Lt. Col. Baker and I (look at that handsome and distinguished man!) celebrated the 61st Anniversary of the Air Force Friday night. Memories of high school returned as it felt like we were going to the PROM with everyone in their evening gowns! We even got the red carpet treatment when we arrived, complete with paparazzi - we kept wondering where our fan club was though!
The speaker was Francis Gary Powers Jr. whose father was a POW in the cold war. As the child of a Air Force/CIA father, he had quite a tremendous viewpoint.
There was dinner and a band as usual - they had a ton of energy. We conserved ours however and spent the rest of the evening socializing in the hallway - let's just say it was quieter out there.

Soccer - the Junior Year

Kayle is thoroughly enjoying playing soccer again this year! As a junior, he is on varsity and gets a lot of playing time which he is very happy about. As you can imagine, he is very aggressive on the field and has a great attitude - win or lose - it's all about having fun playing the game. He received a yellow card (warning) during one the first games and the coach pulled him out just in case in his excitement he got a red card (which means he couldn't play during the tournament the next two days. The temperature was in the low 100s during that tournament. Thankfully, the weather has been cooling off this past week which will be a great reprieve!

"Faith played a solid game defensively, crediting the efforts of . . . fullbacks . . . Kayle Baker" (Coach quoted in the local paper - Sept. 26th game)

"Kayle Baker . . . added an assist" (local newspaper - Sept. 23rd game)

"scored for the Lions in the first half off assists from Kayle Baker" (local newspaper - October 21st game)

"Kayle Baker recorded an assist" (local newspaper - October 24th game)

4th of July 2008

3 Celebrations for the Birthday Girl

The first celebration for Brooke's 9th Birthday was Thursday after school. Brooke's 9th Birthday Bash was celebrated on Thursday after school with a few close friends. In keeping with the Birthday Bash theme, we went to Baskin Robbins (oh so yummy on a HOT August day) and Build a Bear (well, the local equivalent of that). The five girls and one boy had a great time eating ice cream and making their bears!
On Friday, the day before Brooke's actual birthday we celebrated at school with donuts and a birthday blessing from two of her friends. That night, after Kayle's soccer game in Sacramento, we got to check out John's Incredible Pizza -and that it was! Kayle was the hero of the night - winning over a thousand tickets and Brooke added one huge bear to her collection!

First Day of School 2008

The long awaited moment has arrived . . . SCHOOL HAS BEGUN and all three kids are officially in school . . . a bittersweet day. Of course the Junior (Kayle) is way too cool for photo taking so we'll have to get one of him in action - maybe at soccer, karate, or working. But as for Brooke and Gavin - here's a few shots from the first day of 3rd grade and the first day of Kindergarten:











"I learned the rest of the story of Adam and Eve today - they had two boys, 'McCain' and 'Cabel' . . . " quote from Gavin the other day.