A Spectacular September...

Our kids love the sand and love being together

 This little ninja turtle was wiped out

 Tally's Under 5 soccer team name is The Magical Unicorn Frogs

 Martinet Ragin Cajun Family Reunion in Huntington Beach- So Fun!

 The kids always love abusing their uncle Jasun

 I call this bench the Whale Tail but the kids call it the Moustache bench :)

 Aricin and his cousin Samuel- best buddies and eatting the grapes with Crawfish Claws

 Soccer Fun- it's great and crazy having 2 kids in AYSO- I don't know what we're going to do When Oli's old enough for it

 Exploring Campus Point and UCSB

 Me and my little bro at Pure Order Brewery

 Aricin's experiment... He dropped his H2o bottle from our upstairs down onto the tile thinking his Nalgene wouldn't break- Surprise it shattered. Thank you REI for replacing it :) I'm sure this is just the first of many more of Aricin's experiments

 We said good bye to Jeremiah. We've loved this dog as our baby for the last 10 years but our new place has a strict NO DOG policy... so Jeremiah moved to my parents house in Visalia. It was sad for all of us but I think Jeremiah is happy to have a bigger yard to run in.

 Aaron and Aricin at the Skate park

 I love that they want to hold each other's hands- that for now they genuinely love each other. 

 I love Lemons and the Goleat Lemon Festival was fun for everything Lemon

 Oliver's 3rd birthday party and Pinata

 Aricin i think will always be a crazy climber

And my dad who dressed up in a Crocodile Costume for the Reunion. So fun!

September was crazy. We moved into our new place and are all unpacked. It's a cozy cottage filled with 800 square feet of us and our stuff. It's small but sufficient and we are happy here. Aaron spent a week in Orlando and I went down to Orange County for the Martinet Family reunion- so good to see all my cousins, aunts, uncles and eat so much good cajun food and crawfish! 

The kids have been busy with Soccer- practices during the week and games on the weekend. Tally scored all 4 of her teams goals in her last game- when she wants to play she's a beast and is fearless. Aricin prefers to play defense and is equally awesome at defending. Aricin has started Cub scouts and made a catapult at his last meeting- next week they are going to make boats out of duct tape and card board then race them before doing some kayaking- he loves this time with his dad. The kids have also started Awanas which has been really fun for them and a great date night for us :) Home schooling is going well. They love their Charter that they go to on Tuesdays and Thursdays and have started a home school science program on fridays at the Zoo. I've started a mom's bible study at church on thursdays as well as MOPS every other Friday. We are co-leading a home group with our good friends Zoe and Jason that just started- we're eager to get to know the people in our group on a deeper level. And for the first time in 7 years i'm starting to exercise regularly! We got a membership to the YMCA which is super close to us know and I've been trying to take advantage of the free child care- I've missed exercise and am excited to try to get back into shape :) Can you tell, we're a little bit busy? I'm jumping into a book club with some friends, i've been working sunday school at church, and am the Team Mom for Aricin's soccer team. I told Aaron- i need a vacation! Good news, a vacation is around the corner. Aaron's been asked to speak at a Conference in La Corntuna Spain in November- they are flying him out and we have enough frequent flyer miles for me to tag along also. So, in about 6 weeks we are going to take a Holiday in Spain. La Cortuna is an ancient port town on the North West Coast and I can't wait to explore it! 

People tell me it's fall, but unlike colorado it doesn't feel like fall. I enjoy the weather of Santa Barbara- I never have to check the weather here because it's almost always around 75- we did get extremes of 60 up to 85. but usually it's around 75 which is great, only now's like my favorite season other than summer. I've been baking pumpkin bread and hoping- secretly hoping for some cold weather to make the fall feel like it's really here. 

Adventures in August...

So... a couple months ago we had a fun photo shoot at the Zoo with a Brooks Institute Student, 

Gemma  Hynds who took some fun pics of our family. It was extra special since it was the week of our 10 year anniversary and to take pics with the kids where we got married was awesome

 We participated in a fun Where's Waldo search this summer that a toy store put on- on the last day the kids loved the free face painting

 A and T did Mutton Bustin at the SB Rodeo

If you haven't seen it... here's the link to see the kids ride...

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10100124213622387&set=vb.68604454&type=2&theater

They both did awesome and little Talia got 3rd place!

 Zoo camp

Ninja Birthday party training school 

 Gymnastics Camp

 Beach Fun

 Last time we went to Disneyland we used some credit card points and got a hotel- they upgraded us to a Pirates themed room and the kids LOVED it!

 One of my favorite things is the Pineapple float near the Jungle Cruise

 Pixie Hollow

 This little man is growing too fast

Mini Golf 

 Train rides at the SB Train museum

 Kites

 The Zoo with cousins

 Michael our other pet

Us on the Pulley car- which we thought was ok to just jump on and go... until we got yelled at by the conductor... apparently your supposed to have a conductor on it with you... Oops :) Kind of makes sense seeing as once we got going fast, we didn't know how to stop- ended up being a really fun adventure!

 SB Polo Fields, might look fancy but really the whole thing was free. The kids keep asking if we can go back again. They loved stomping the divots and the free apple cider- I'd highly recommend it!

 Cheers!

 First day of school for our 1st grader, Transitional Kindergartner, and pre-pre schooler

 August has been good. As you can see we've had lots of fun and lots of adventures. It has also had some down times. August started with a all encompassing hunt for housing- and I'm happy to report we've found a new place. Aaron's grandma past away last month and his Aunt will be moving into her house as we move into the place his aunt was renting. It's a SMALL duplex. I mean really SMALL, like 800 square feet small. We can't keep the dog- so he will be moving to Visalia with my parents which is really hard for all of us :( we have a small patio and a small detached 1 car garage. The price is great and in that i'm reminded that it's a huge blessing- and it's in Santa Barbara. Aside from that I think it's going to be really challenging but, it's what God has provided so if anything it will be a good reminder that "stuff" isn't important- as we are going to have to get rid of a lot of stuff to fit into this tiny space. I am still home schooling. The 2 bigger kiddos go to a charter school (trivium) on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 to 2:30 where they will get history, science, and art and I will home school Monday, Wednesdays, and Friday afternoons. Friday mornings they will go to a science class at the Zoo from 9-12 (Thank you Aaron Marshall!). The fall is here. The kids start soccer this week, Aaron is coaching Tally's Under 5 girls team and a friend from church is coaching Aricin's team. Aricin will likely be starting cub scouts next week and Awanas starts in another 2 weeks. I'm going to be doing MOPS again as well as a women's bible study during the week at church. We are going to be leading a home group Thursday nights with our good friends (Zoe and Jason). Aaron's cranking on his PhD and hoping to finish before next June. I'm keeping busy with teaching sunday school at church, My Childcare Coordinator job with Cultural Care Au Pair, Real Estate and Keller Williams, and Home Schooling. Oh Yeah, and moving our entire everything in the next 10 days- needless to say we all feel completely overwhelmed with Life. All good things and all things we've chosen (with the exception of the move)- so we can't complain. I think in the midst of our hectic schedules we're trying to find balance. Find time to pray, to serve, to be deliberate and present with those around us and to not go through the motions; making life procedural -but rather we want to soak it all in (every experience). The moments where we laugh, the moments where we are cleaning up someones poop, pee, or snot, and the hugs when we are feeling completely sad and overwhelmed and needing God more than ever- because right now we've got a whole of all of that. We are renting a small space- and that's ok because we love Santa Barbara and feel like this is where we want to be and where we are supposed to be. God is good and we are thankful for that as we stand in anticipation excited to see how he will use us and challenge us in this next season. And... Come visit- our new space may be small but we always have room for guests!