Our Oldest is 11!

We can't believe he is 11! He is growing up entirely too fast and it is not okay. 

This summer Abram did a week of rock climbing camp at a nearby climbing center and he loved it! After the week was done, he announced that was where he wanted to have his birthday party (since this was his party year). He has been planning this party since July. He invited his 10 friends and they had a blast. 

You know me, I love a good theme party... the older he gets its a bit harder to convince him of my ideas, but he did get awfully excited about his rock climbing cake that he made with his dad. We all think it turned out so great! I love his big smile!

He never ceases to amaze me!

He is fearless!

He is so blessed with these boys in his life!

Pizza first, and then...

Cake!

Abram's actual birthday was on a CC community day, so for his presentation he shared his birthday binder. I love that he wanted to share this with his friends. 

After we left CC, we picked up Chris at the airport (he was returning home from his mission trip to Rwanda). It took a bit longer than we expected, and we didn't return home until 8pm. Never once did Abram complain or get upset about having to wait so long to celebrate his birthday. When we finally got home, we ate some pizza for dinner, enjoyed his cake (which he picked out the recipe for) and then opened his presents. Abram asked for three things this year: for his Gram to be here on his actual birthday, a knife, and a black and gold basketball. He was thrilled to get all three! 

His absolute favorite candle that he loves to have every year!

His gram and new basketball!

And finally, the knife he has waited so long for... Chris brought it home for him from Rwanda!

Look at his eyes!

That smile.. it melts my heart every time!

The boys love reading their poster every birthday morning... they love all the big numbers and comparing the numbers to last year's poster. 

Every year we celebrate Abram, I'm just so overwhelmed that we get a front row seat to watch this amazing boy group up. He's just the neatest kid- he is funny, compassionate and smart. He loves to be with people and try new things. We can't wait to see what God does in his life. 
 

Our Early Fall Events

 After a fast, but wonderful summer, August came and we hit the ground running. We have had an exciting fall so far... I thought I would do an Early Fall post so our Fall Blog wasn't 100+ pictures! 

The boys have been begging to go fishing- the only problem is that Chris and I don't know how to fish.  We have a friend from TrailLife and church who's son also wanted to fish, so one Saturday morning Chris and Andy took them out on the lake to try their hand at fishing. From these smiles you can tell they had a great time despite the fact that they came home empty handed. 

This was the second year with our garden and we tried out some new things... cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, miniature sweet papers, string beans, cucumbers, cantaloupe and pumpkins. Here's some pictures of our latest harvest. 

The start of 2 cantaloupes! Just fascinating. 

Peppers and tomatoes for days!

We started a new tradition this year, thanks to my sweet from Tiffany (they were in our travel group when we went to China to adopt our children). We let the boys have a Nocturnal Night and they were SO excited. I took them to the store that afternoon and they each picked out a snack. You should have heard their thought process in the store about what each brother school pick. It was the best. 

After we got home from the store they discussed their night's schedule. Their plan was to alternate between movies, video games and snacks until about 4 in the morning. Chris and I went upstairs and they had the whole downstairs to themselves. They were in heaven!

Taking a snack break. I like how they never thought to bring the snacks to the living room, even though we eat in there all the time! They were just standing around the island chatting when I took this picture.

They lasted until about 1 o'clock. Abram fell asleep first and then when we asked Luke and Jack if they were ready for bed, they quickly agreed. They had the best time and can't wait to do it again next summer!

We also started our third year of homeschooling in August. Abram is starting 5th grade and Luke and Jack are in the 2nd grade... unbelievable. It is such a huge blessing to be able to homeschool them and to spend our days together.  I love watching them grow and learn.  I also started something new this August- I took over as our Classical Conversation Community's director. It has been a lot of work and a lot of learning, but it has also been wonderful. 

A few days after we started school, Abram had his ninth surgery (his third bone graft surgery).  He had a surgery to repair his gum line.  They took bone marrow from his hip bone and put it into his gums.  Even though we only had to spend one night at the hospital, it is the recovery thats hard. He has had to have limited physical activity and only soft foods for 6.5 weeks. He hasn't complained once. I know he is tired and hungry, but you would never know it. He had his first two bone graft surgeries in Jacksonville, but they failed.  Our prayer is that this one takes (his body has to accept the cells from his bone marrow, just like a transplant). He will have his fourth surgery in the spring. 

Cards from his sweet friends

Another fun thing the boys did this fall was their creation shirts. For our first week of CC, they learned the six days of creation and what God made on each day.  They had a great time planning and painting their shirts. They loved wearing them to CC and sharing with their classes during their presentations. 

We took our first Morris family staycation on Labor Day weekend.  We surprised the boys with a night in a hotel room and enjoying DC. We took a leisurely walk around the National Mall and took our time at all the monuments. We relaxed in our hotel room and slept in.  We had a wonderful time! If you ask the boys, the highlight of their trip was our Uber ride. We got to ride in a Tesla from our hotel to the monuments and the boys were in heaven! 

Fall also brings getting back into our routines... we started winter swim on Sunday nights, TrailLife on Monday nights and soccer and violin on Wednesdays.  Its busy at times, but also good. Also, Chris has a new position as TrailLife Ranger. 

We took our first field trip of the season with some of our homeschool friends... we went to Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. We learned and saw so much!

Our homeschool friends from church... such a blessing

Before our tour of the house

The boys thought it was so cool to see the image on the back of the nickel.

Listening to Thomas Jefferson talk to us about the Declaration of Independence.

And this month, Chris completed his third half-ironman.  He's pretty amazing. This race was in Atlantic City. Even though we weren't able to join him, we followed his progress on my phone and cheered him on from home. We are so very proud of him! 

Looking snazzy in their uniforms.

Chris and I are huge Hamilton, so when we found out that it was coming to the Kennedy Center in D.C., we knew we had to go. It an incredible show. We loved singing along and seeing all of our favorite scenes. 

And finally, our September wrapped up with a visit to the White House. Pretty unbelievable. One of our dear friends was able to get tickets for the whole family. We wore our fancy clothes and showed our identification about three times, but it was quite the experience. We saw the dining room, library, red and blue room, china room and piano.  We loved seeing all the pictures and presidential keepsakes. Definitely something we will remember for awhile. 

Well, that wraps up our August and September... next up we are celebrating Abram's birthday and Halloween. Before we know it Christmas will be here.