Whoa! It's been a while

I guess I better catch you up on what's been going on around here for the past month!
We went to the pumpkin patch with our friends, which is an annual event for us.
It's such a picturesque location that it seems more years than not our Christmas card ends up being one of our family at the pumpkin patch.
This year, I'm thinking this one isn't going to make it onto our card :) It was a horribly rainy day. We still had a good time, despite the fake smiles in the picture :)


As some of you know we've been planning a family mission trip to the Dominican Republic for the past several months. Here is a picture of the boys the day after they received their shots (all 3 of them!) for the trip. They were so brave! We even had to go to 2 doctors in order to get all of the shots!


After months of preparation... it turns out God had different plans for our family. Hurricane Noel hit the Dominican Republic, specifically in the area we were headed. We knew that this meant our mission would be different (Matt was going to pour concrete floors with a team of other man and myself, the boys and another woman were going to be measuring kids' feet and dress sizes for Christmas gifts.)
Here are a few pictures from the villages we would be working in.


This photo is of the school in Algodon.(one of the 4 villages or "Bateys" as they're called)


This photo is of one of the villagers homes that was destroyed.


People evacuating from Algodon.

We were advised not to bring our children into this disaster area. The COTN (Children of the Nations) report stated that the water was contaminated with human and animal waste, dead livestock, and bacteria. Water levels were still increasing and they're expecting rain for the next two weeks. After praying about it and waivering several times trying to figure out a way that we could safely take our children, we decided against going. Matt will be taking this trip with a team of other adults, however the boys and I will not be joining him on this trip. We were all disappointed to not go on this long awaited trip, but we know we'll get a chance to go another day.

Matt leaves on the 10th and returns on the 18th. If you could keep him in your thoughts and prayers that would be awesome! There is an increased risk of Malaria and also so many opportunites to get sick. On Matt's previous trip down to the Dominican Republic (2 years ago) the conditions were 100% better than they are now and most of the team got sick. I definitely pray for protection over the team!

As for the kids and I... we are going to spend a week in Arizona visiting my mom. After all of our preparations and packing and even getting the okay from Camden's teacher, we decided we weren't going to sit around and mope! So we are leaving tomorrow and won't be back until the 18th! We're looking forward to a quiet, relaxing time with hopefully LOTS of sunshine! :)

Other Happenings...
Matt's sister who has been living with us for the past 8 months moved out on Monday and headed toward Arizona! (funny that we'll see her when we are down there too!)
Her job for the past 8 years in Seattle has been working for Dale Chihuly (if you don't know who he is, he's a world renowned glass blowing artist.) So during her last week of work she took Hudson to work with her and Camden and I followed not too far behind. We all ended up at the "boathouse" in Seattle where the glass is blown and yes, BOTH of my boys got to blow glass!! It was so gracious of the people working to allow them to do this! It was a treat for all of us!!




and Kemper, I can't forget to mention Kemper! He is GROWING!!
He has become quite a good little puppy. He knows how to sit and he's pretty well potty trained. He still has plenty, P-L-E-N-T-Y to learn, but he's figuring things out. I was told by a friend of mine who recently raised a puppy that they enter some sort of adolescent phase around 4 months old. I see what she meant! He loves to get into just about everything these days! Socks, toys(he now sneaks up to the boys' rooms to snatch toys!), just about anything he can find! he even licks the walls!?!?! All of that and I just said he'd become 'quite a good little puppy'??? I know what it is... it's those sweet puppy dog eyes that say "what? I didn't mean to do that! Aren't I cute?" it makes you forget all the wrong things they do! He really is a joy to have around!
We'll be back in touch after our trips. Hopefully we'll have lots of positive things to tell when we return! Adios :)