Final pictures of 2013!

Another year of God's faithfulness, all our children healthy and tucked in bed, lounging here feeling tired and content, posting all the pictures I've been meaning to, and Gavin sitting beside me - this is the way to celebrate New Year's Eve. :) Thank you again to each and every one of you who have enriched our lives and year, whether we've met or not!

The three boys in their tiger hats

David and Seth

Will

Marcie with Will looking on (she's trying to pull Aunt Pam's hat off)

Gracie

Marcie actually pulled her own hat on! Will is impressed. ;)

Marcie "nesting" with her Christmas baby doll from Isaac

Will looks very scholarly in Barbara's glasses!

More pictures of various kid antics

David is very proud of his table-climbing

Seth peeking up at Daddy

skills!

David wearing Isaac's shoes. He walked in them remarkably well!

Isaac came up with this funny box game. The kids love playing peek-a-boo with him!
Tonight he took his book and his flashlight into the box with him and read in the middle of all the chaos of the living room at bedtime. The kids just kept looking in at him

Guess who started walking yesterday??

If you guess Gracie or Seth, you're right! They BOTH decided they could walk yesterday! Gracie got up from getting her little shoes on and seemed to decide that they were walking shoes! So off she went, just out of the blue, no warning whatsoever. Jennifer came to my bedroom door, where I was hanging out with Isaac, and said, "Has Gracie been walking?" 

"No . . ."

"Well, she is now! She's been walking all over the living room!" 

Sure enough, when I got out to the living room Gracie just kept going, and every time she would lose her balance she'd squat for a bit and then get up and keep going. I was so proud and happy and SURPRISED (we thought it would be a while yet before she took off, she's been so resistant to working on it). However, I was also a little bit disappointed that she had overtaken Seth, who I was sure would be the next real walker as he's taken a few steps here and there and absolutely CAN walk if he wants to. (He can hold onto a dish towel we've draped over our arm and walk completely on his own, but that's because we've tricked him into thinking he's holding onto something.)

Anyway, Jennifer had the brilliant idea to entice Seth to walk by pulling his little toy lawnmower just out of reach ahead of him. He proceeded to walk 10 steps completely unaided! Hooray!!! A very exciting morning in our house! Needless to say, I was too busy watching to take pictures. :)

Here are a few of our fun recent pictures, though:

Grace, Seth, Will, Marcie, David in their panda bear and tiger hats from "Aunt" Shauna

Adorable!

New swings from "Aunt" Julie! Will, Grace, and Marcie enjoying a beautiful day in Texas today.

Will was having a rough day until the swaying and swinging calmed him, and Gracie just laughed and laughed. 

Swinging in sync

I like how David's shirt reads in this picture "It's easy being this cool"

This is so funny. Marcie has to sit on or in everything, but she fell in a bit deeper than she intended.
David doesn't seem too perturbed, does he? 

Okay, so maybe he tried to rescue her a little bit.

outside play yesterday

Our babysitter and friend Naomi strikes again with her fabulous pictures taken on her professional camera! (She came to our house straight from a photo shoot.)

Marcie

Marcie with Will and Gracie

Our darling intrepid explorer "mighty mouse" Gracie

Seth

Seth adores his siblings! With Marcie

David still fits under the trampoline! Don't worry, no one was on it. :)

A few more random, special, funny pictures

Marcie and David managed to climb onto the table where the Christmas tree was

. . . and pulled off the plastic ornaments

. . . and were very pleased with themselves!

Another cute one of Marcie and Seth (I promise we put pj's on him afterward!)

Daddy with his sleepy kiddos: David, Seth, Grace

We have been honored by visits from some VERY SPECIAL friends:

Mary, the treasure of LeTourneau Aviation, much loved by every alum who has known her (no doubt loved by everyone who has ever met her!), and her sweet sister Val. Mary is one of the first people we told when we found out we were expecting and when we found out it was QUINTS!

Our good family friend Valarie, all the way from Brisbane/Ukarumpa! We went through our Pacific Orientation Course with her (basically a crash course in life in PNG and its unique culture).

And as always, our most special visitors are the grandparents, aunts and uncles. This is Grandpadad (my dad) reading to Seth and Will. It's hard for me to find pictures of my mom that she would also like for everyone to see on the blog. :) Plus, she's usually working in the background!

Blogging binge! Christmas early morning

Be forewarned: I really missed having the time to sit down and blog over Christmas, so now you're going to be inundated with baby pictures. At least if I can get the time today to sit down and do it! Here goes (All these pictures were taken earlier Christmas morning, before the chaos started.):

Isaac had a bit of a "rumpus" with the kiddos. They love rolling around on the floor with him!

Marcie discovered she could climb on one of our dining room chairs and was very proud of herself!

David "helped" me make Mom Jones's famous Christmas morning bread (a tea ring). By helping, I mean he emptied the drawer you can see is partially pulled out. He did a very good job of it, and in the process I was able to identify some junk we no longer use/need/want and get rid of it! The bread was a hit, by the way. My family managed to help us polish off two whole rings!

Meanwhile, Sarah watched the girls so I could make the bread. Can you believe someone volunteered from 7:30 to 10:00 on Christmas morning?? We are very blessed!

And a couple with Gracie

Gracie was asleep when we took most of the Christmas gift-opening photos, so she got left out. :(

Marcie, Seth (who didn't have his pajamas on yet), and Gracie

David enjoying two cups, because two drinks are always better than one when lounging

Gracie pushing David on the new ride-alone toy

Merry Christmas (belated!)

Our Christmas was very merry and the babies were very good. They just toddled/crawled around and through all the grown-ups and enjoyed their presents and all the wrapping paper and boxes. 

Now all have colds and Will had a fever today, but a praise is that Seth's oxygenation has remained at 98%! 

Another big praise is for all the help we received even over the holidays. There's still plenty of space (I think we have two people signed up for two time slots only this weekend), so you can get your baby fix in yet if you want. ;)

David and me

Kenneth and mini-Kenneth, or rather, Seth

Gavin with David on his lap and Seth on the floor

Seth playing peek-a-boo with the paper while David pushes a boat upside down (Marcie behind him)

Our three little elves: David, Seth, Will

Marcie opening Aunt Katie and Uncle Calvin's gift to the kids (the boat, later turned upside down and used as a car)

Will is actually the one who tore into the present first of his own free will! He knew something was under that paper.