Colin's Graduation!

I made Colin take this picture with the cake. I'm not a very good photographer, and since I know he felt stupid, I only took one photo, lopping off the top of his head. Wal-Mart didn't even put an exclamation mark after "Congratulations Colin", making me very happy that I have completed my cake decorating class and will hopefully be decorating more exhuberant cakes in our future! Because the man deserved an exclamation mark after all he's accomplished.

There's something about a man who can balance putting his family first AND excelling in his career with graduating from college that makes my heart sing. It just takes a moment of watching this man with his son to know that he never put being a father on the backburner.



Here's a few snapshots of Colin with the family at his graduation party:

Congratulations my love! We are very proud of you.

Meet Elinor

Meet Elinor Faye Gensch, my beautiful niece! She was born on the 23rd of December and we are so happy to meet her!

Her proud parents! What a wonderful mom and dad they make!

I knew I'd love her, but I wasn't prepared for how much.

She was lookin' good in her Uncle Colin's arms!

Auntie and Uncle



Of course, Micah had some major fun too. Not only did he get to meet his cousin, but he got to play wild and crazy games with Uncle Brian!

And it turns out Uncle Dan is just as much fun as Uncle B!

Cuteness.

Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of Micah and Elinor together on my camera, but someone did! I'll get one soon, because Elinor has come for a visit. (Now you know why I haven't been posting!)

While we were in KC visiting Daniel, Meg and Elli, we got to spend time with my Aunt Carla, Uncle Rob and their five kids. It was SO much fun! I didn't take any pictures, but that's because I was too busy sitting next to my Aunt Carla and soaking up her wonderful wisdom. I just love that family so much! They are one of the most loving, curteous and kind families (not just to others but to each other) that I have ever met. My aunt and I talked until 1 a.m. about marriage and family, and I left feeling encouraged and renewed all over again to build a grace centered home alongside Colin (who thankfully is naturally a very gracious man!). Their family is such a precious family, and Colin and I are so thankful for their example as we begin our own family. I felt like I had been on an overnight marriage retreat! It was great and just what I needed!

Studs

I was looking through old pictures and found this one. What a group of handsome men! Such studmuffins are the men in my family, I had to show them off. :)

What to do on a Long Weekend?

We decided to have a little post-Thanksgiving fun and make snowflakes to decorate the house for winter. I made a salt dough and then Micah "helped" me roll it out and cut out snowflakes. After we baked them, he also helped me paint them (with his new, washable Crayola watercolor paints). It's so much fun watching him learn new things! I love being able to include him in my little projects.

Rolling...

Pounding (complete with sighs and grunts to let mommy know how hard he's working!)

Before they went in the oven...

And the final product...not exactly what we were going for, but close enough!



We also made a gingerbread house with daddy on Saturday night. I am trying to put it in a place where Micah can't snitch the little candies! He figured out pretty quickly that our craft was edible and I have had to keep a close eye on him ever since!

Fun in the Fall

I'm a little late in posting these pictures, but oh well. Better late than never!

This year we went to East Heights Methodist Church to pick out our pumpkins. We love this church, because we got married in this church, and those are some good memories.

Micah loves pumpkins. Apparently his daddy loved pumpkins when he was a little boy too. However, now he doesn't like me to photograph him picking out his pumpkin because he thinks it's silly. I photograph him anyway, and so he plays evil tricks on me. If you can't tell, he's crossing his eyes in this picture.

Then, when it's his turn to take a picture of me and my pumpkin, he takes it when I don't expect it. Forget counting to three! Most of the time I'm not even looking at the camera.



However, in the end, I think Colin has just as fun a time as the rest of us, because deep down inside still lives a little boy obsessed with pumpkins! Not to mention he gets to spend time with his son.



Fall is absolutely my favorite time of year, and I do love pumpkins. But most of all I love making memories with my two favorite people!