My baby love ...

October 26:  Thursday again. One of my favorite days of the week! I meet Kelly, Brendan and Aidan every Thursday late afternoon over at Goldfish where Brendan has his swim lesson. I get to play with baby Aidan while Brendan is swimming. I must say ... this baby is ... the sweetest little boy!

 !!! Aidan has the happiest little heart. Look at those eyes of his! They are so FULL of joy.

 Can I kiss these chunky cheeks of yours forever, little man?

 Oh my word! I love this child.

 Aidan! You look good enough to eat, sweetheart. Seriously! I must just gobble you up.

 Such a beautiful little boy. And such a shorty! He measures only 10% on the height scale and ... 90% on the weight! No wonder he is such an irresistible little baby--he has rolls and rolls of fat and dimples everywhere. 

Aidan absolutely loves my camera. Good thing, buddy! Good thing. :)

An interesting trip to the Presidential Museum

October 22:  Last Sunday afternoon our LOGOS class was invited to a free and very up-close and personal tour of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum. A young member of our class, Trevor--his father is the curator at the museum.

We met downtown at 2PM. The location is a beautiful setting right on the Grand River in the heart of downtown Grand Rapids.

 I didn't take a lot of pictures actually. But below is an actual slab of the Berlin Wall! Wow. I remember being a child and hearing about "the wall" and how terrified I was to think about the people in Germany and how they had suffered behind that wall. It was pretty amazing to actually see a chunk of it.

 Below is a replica of The Oval Office. It made you feel like you were right there!

 Trevor's dad told marvelous stories of the Ford family. I learned a bunch of stuff I had never known before. For instance, that Gerald R. Ford was actually born with the last name "King" and that his step-father didn't actually adopt him until it was time for him to go to college! He had just been called "Junior Ford" throughout his life. I had forgotten how athletic he had been in high school AND college--U of M (I'm a Sparty-fan myself).

 Oh! And below is that ACTUAL stairway that led to the escape helicopter from the US embassy in Saigon at the end of the war ...

 This is a replica of the Cabinet room. You were even allowed to take a chair and pretend you were an important person ...

 I'm glad we got the opportunity to do this together as a class. I am provoked to return here and take a very slow and detailed look at all of the beautiful exhibits. The whole museum is very artistically put together. Very impressive.

Just hanging out ...

October 21:  This has been a delicious autumn. The warmth and sunshine have been wonderful. I DO love the fall days, and if winter wasn't just lurking behind it, I think it would be my favorite season. Three of the kiddos came over today to spend a little time with me. Christopher chose to stay home instead of coming. We missed him!

 Kaity was very enthused to get her work gloves on and rake up a pile of leaves. She had one goal in mind and worked very hard to achieve it.

 Well, I guess she worked as hard as she could ... she was pretty satisfied with this little pile of leaves. I did add a bunch to her pile, but she just wanted to run and jump in them which was A-OK with her grandma.

 Kaity stopped to watch the mail truck come and go ...

 I love you Kaity dear! You truly enjoy a good playtime in the leaves. I'm so glad.

I love Kaity's still baby-soft hair. It looks so beautiful in the sunshine, doesn't it? 

She requested that I bury her "right up to her face" so I went ahead and followed directions. 

 Look at her joy!

 We brought some leaves in with us and ironed them between wax paper to make some sun catchers for my windows--perhaps they can be seen in some of the pictures below.

Kaity and Matt made beautiful sounds on my piano for a little while and did a whole bunch of art work. 

 This is one of my favorite kinds of afternoons with the kiddos. Just hanging out. Just living and relaxing and enjoying each other. Emma was here too, but she (being that she is 15) desired a little "alone" time, so she spent some time in my room being quiet.

 I love these pictures of these two at the piano.

Thank you, Lord. Thank you that You are good and kind. Thank you for the strength You give for each new day. Thank you for these beautiful children. Thank you for being with us today, Immanuel.