Jack

Jack turns 3 today.

Jack is the light of our household.  He is the happiest child I have ever seen.  EVER.  It is hard to be around him and not break into a huge grin... but why would you want to..... not grin that is.

Jack likes to climb into "boxes" and yell "JACK IN THE BOX".   Then he laughs and laughs. 

Here is is on his 2nd birthday.  Football is still his favorite.

Did I say  he was the happiest child ever?  I mean seriously.  The poor kid fell 20 feet onto concrete, had 7 spine fractures and 3 other major injuries and THIS is how he looked 24 into his hospital stay last summer. 

God has big  plans for this kid.  And I think he knows it... which is why he is smiling all the time.

Here is his cake this year.  For more on that see HERE.

Happy Birthday Jack!

 

12 Years and counting

Our wedding day. 12 years ago.

Tomorrow is our 12th anniversary but since the kids are off at Grandma and Grandpa's all day & night we are celebrating today. 

That picture feels like a lifetime ago.  It was sort of.  It has been quite a ride so far. 

We've have 3 beautiful kids.

5 addresses, 4 employers, 1 layoff. 

Millions of laughs & definitely our share of disagreements and tears (remember the previously mentioned 3 kids and layoff?).

We fit together.  We compliment each other.  Together we are better.  Forever.

.

Calvin

Calvin.

My sweet Calvin turns 5 tomorrow.  January 30th.

FIVE.

Our middle child.    

(this is Halloween 2007 Calvin is 9m w/ cousin Marley and Oscar almost 3yo)

He is our cuddly one. He got that from Darren. Can't ever get enough hugs. Which is fine by us.

Calvin got my palette. He notices when I change 1 ingredient in a recipe.  Or when I change brands of something I buy. 

And he is our passionate one.  He shows emotions with intensity.  Love, anger… whatever it is… he is intense about it.  He can light up a room with his laugh.  Melt your heart with his giant brown eyes.  Or make you run for cover if he gets mad (we're working on that one). 

(This is last year on his b-day)

Happy Birthday little man.  You may be stuck in the middle between your brothers but to anyone who knows you are you are the best.

Winter Storm Watch

I love how Portland goes into lock down at the site of first snow.  Our current house is located in the SW hills of Portland on a VERY steep hill.  We actually tried to get out but couldn't.  Darren, a Canadian, says he felt like a failure.  "No Canadian should get snowed in with only a few inches on the ground".  Next time we'll be more prepared.    Anyway... the boys had a blast.  These pics were taken after the first 1/2 inch fell.  We actually ended up getting  few inches......  fun times!!

Merry Christmas from the Lewis's

Looking back at my last several Christmas letters I almost always start with something like “it’s been a big year”.  I’m realizing that they are all going to be big years.  Life is filled with terror, adventure, change, overwhelming love, laughter and growth.  Every year.

This year has been no different.  Maybe when my Christmas letters start getting boring is when I'll finally consent to getting a dog.   (maybe)

If you are a regular blog follower most of this will be a recap.  If you followed the web address at the bottom of your Christmas card and are here for the first time… WELCOME!!

Over all our little family is doing great. 

Here are some highlights of our year.

We moved.  We felt strongly led to sell our little 1922 Bungalow that we painstakingly remodeled from the top down over the last 7 years.  And sell it did.  We got a good price which was a miracle given the market.  We tried to buy another house in SW Portland.  Two actually.  Both fell through, one days before we needed to vacate our old house.  We were actually packed up and had the movers scheduled when we found out the seller refused to meet the appraised price.  That left no option other than a rental.  Thankfully, we found a great house quickly that was available for immediate move in.  We are pretty sure that whole thing was orchestrated by God and therefore, we look forward to seeing where He moves us next.

Darren started a MBA program at George Fox University.  It is a 26 month program and so far he’s got straight A’s!  Go Darren.  As you can imagine adding a master’s program on top of his full time job and husband / father duties keeps him busy.  We are fortunate to have him all to ourselves Sundays.  And we look forward to seeing what doors open for him in the future.  He is still with HDR Inc.  He no longer does architectural design in a traditional sense.  He’s evolved as more of an “architect” in a theoretical sense in that he assists in evaluating and implementing the specific architectural design software used by the staff architects in his firm. 
He loves this nontraditional architect role. 

Oscar (newly 7) started 1^st grade this year!  He is doing fantastic.  He also joined the chess club and takes Martial Arts lessons.  That keeps him busy.  He loves reading and I am thrilled to watch the world open up to him because he can read so well.  He played tee ball for the first time this summer and we found out he has quite an arm and talent for baseball.  We can’t wait to see him play next summer.  In the last month we found out that he is very sensitive to wheat, rye, spelt and gluten.  So we’ve been attempting to go Gluten Free. 

See my other blog: www.joyfully-domestic.blogspot.com for more about that journey.

Calvin (almost 5) started a Pre-Kindergarten program this year.  It is such a joy to watch him spread his wings all on his own.  Make his own friends, learn and take pride in doing well.  Calvin also takes Martial Arts lessons.  And he got to take a soccer sports camp (his favorite sport) all by himself this summer!

Jack (almost 3) gave us quite a scare this year.  He fell out of our 2^nd story window 20 feet onto the concrete driveway.  He spent 5 days at OHSU.  He suffered 9 injuries, 7 of which were compression fractures in his spine.  When they discharged us they said he “might START walking in a week or two”.  They sent us home with a tiny wheelchair and a tiny walker.  3 days after we arrived home he was walking all on his own.   Jack’s survival and recovery is nothing short of a miracle.  Our community supported us in prayer.  Our family was brought closer together.  If you want more details click here and here (links to blogs I posted after his fall). 

Jack is fully recovered and whole. He is our real life superman. 

As for Me.  I just try to keep up and hold down the fort as a SAHM who is home less and less.  I am blessed with an amazing family and some great friends.   I get to volunteer in the boys classrooms.  I co-lead a Bible study at my church.  I do my best to create a home the kids and husband love.  I post family type stuff on our Lewis Family Blog.  And as I mentioned, recently I'm doing a lot of learning about a GF life.  I write about that and other "domestic type stuff" on my Joyfully Domestic Blog.

Now go &  have a very merry Christmas!

Love, Darren, Jennifer, Oscar, Calvin & Jack

Calvin Cuteness

Glad he's learning something at sunday school.  The song actually goes "I've got the mighty Messiah that manifests miracles down in the debths of my heart".

So cute.

Oscar is 7!!!

Oscar turned 7 years old saturday.  I can't believe I have a 7 year old.  7 is a great age.  He has moments when I catch glimmers of the man he will be one day and moments where he is still just a little boy. 

So we let him plan the entire day.  Here is what his perfect birthday day looked like:

Chocolate pancakes for breakfast.

It was decided that we all had to wear hats.  And make and eat cinnamon rolls.

Then we went bowling:

This was our first time at Big Al's.  Wow. 

Then off to Red Robin for lunch.

And home to open presents:

He got his first Skateboard.  Quite a moment for a boy.

Lasagna for dinner.

And finally a 4 layer chocolate-vanilla-chocolate-vanilla cake with NO frosting.

It was a good day.  Love you little man. You changed our lives.  Thanks for that!



Saturday

Saturdays used to be family days.  And they will be again... in 23 months when Darren finishes his MBA.  Sundays are our family days now.  Which leaves saturday my special mommy / son(s) day.  The only day I get all 3 to myself with no school.  I've been trying to make saturdays special.

Today, we started the day off w/ blueberry pancakes and dancing.....

Then we headed to Home Depot for a project.  Today's project was making frames.  They got to use hammers, glue, nails, screws, etc.  They were in heaven!

Then off to starbucks for a treat!

Once at home we decided to paint the frames they made.

Didn't they turn out great!  So proud of my little builders.

And of course, no weekend is complete with out baking something.  Today we made the season's first pumpkin maple pie!

Oscar and I played his new favorite game Battleship while the younger boys napped.

And now we are dancing some more.  I love these little guys.  You can't tell from this pic but they got some moves.