Turning 6

So we now have a 6 year old in our house!   Neal being six means that he is more then half way done with kindergarten, reading, and always full of energy.   We had a fun little party for him on his actual birthday this year with of few of his closest friends.  

We all had a great time celebrating and it was a lot of fun to get to meet some of his friends from school who he talks about all the time.   The morning was filled with laughter, pizza, cake and presents.

It was quite cold outside for his birthday, in the low 30's.  But with friends, jackets and lightsabers the kids didn't mind the cold.

Also, when you are having so much fun I guess everyone is to busy to eat, so we had just a bit of pizza left over...

Some of Neal's favorite things at the age of 6:

1. Star Wars
2. Riding his bike
3. Reading chapter books with mom or dad
4. Friday night movie night ("The Music Man" is his favorite)
5. Breakfast Burritos
6. Making people laugh

Happy Birthday to our sweet, funny, energetic, imaginative and creative boy! 

Home for the Holidays

Is it really 2016 already, and the middle of February at that?   I think it's about time I updated this blog with some of the many things we have been doing over the past several months.   I guess I'll just start back at the beginning of the holidays -- (get ready for lots of pictures)  

With our growing family and the unexpected blessing of the twins we had to change our plans for our ministry furlough, which in turn changed our plans for the holidays.  Instead of going back home to AK and WA over the summer (since the twins arrived this simmer) we decided to take a shortened furlough during ones of Neal's longer school breaks and visit our supporters and churches over the holidays.  This change of plans really was special for us because it meant that we would get to spend the holidays (Thanksgiving and Christmas) back home with family. 

We not only were looking forward to seeing family and updating our supporting churches and friends about the ministry with TWR but we were also excited to finally have a long stretch of time together as a family.   Right before our furlough Tyler's travel schedule with TWR had been very busy and had traveled to over 15 different countries in the span of a few months.    So needless to say we were ready for some time together as a family, and being back home in AK was just an extra special blessing in the mix.  

We had a great time being back "home" and it felt so familiar and comfortable to us.  Our home church had a house on the church property for us to live in while we were in AK for almost 5 weeks.  This house was probably one of the biggest blessings for our family while away for so long since it allowed us to have somewhat of a normal routine to our lives and not have to be living out of suitcases.  

Lot so help feeding the babies 

A small tree for our temporary home

Loving the snow

Our evening were filled with many dinners and ministry nights with supporters and churches and our afternoon were filled with visits with friends and family.  

Ministry night sharing about TWR 

What an encouragement it was to see and reconnect with some of tour closest friends, the Lord has used the friends we still have in AK in our lives in many ways and it was refreshing and encouraging to get to sit and have coffee together again.

As close to real wildlife as we got, except for a few moose we saw in person

Fun with good friends in the snow

We also had a wonderful time with Tyler's whole family who all came back to AK for the holidays.  It was great to have his parents house filled once again with everyone, and lots and lots of kids (way more kids then last time we were all together).   Our time with family was filled with coffee, quilting, computer games, movies, lots of stories, flying and of course food, LOTS of food.

The whole Gates Family

All the Gates Grandkids 

Flying with Uncle JR 

More fun in the snow

A few days before Christmas we boarded the plane and headed down to Seattle to be with my (Laura's) family for about 10 days.  

Movie time while flying

We had a great Christmas celebrating with family and were so glad that we were able to spend some precious time with my older sister and her family before they headed back overseas for their next term in ministry.   We had lots of fun playing games, eating food, watching the kids do a Christmas play and even getting to go to Zoolights.

Gwen and her Poppa 

Grandma and Donny boy 

The cast of the Christmas play

Enjoying Zoolights

New Years day

We were gone for a total of 6 weeks and though we were away from home it felt almost like being home again.    It has been a little hard to get back into the routine of life and ministry again, but we are relying on the the Lord and remembering the encouragement and support that we received while back "home" with our support team.  Living so far away is not always easy, and I still feel at times like we are still adjusting to the transition of the twins but the time we had back home was wonderful and I am so glad that we were able to all be together for several weeks.

Birthday Girl Celebration

Last week we celebrated a birthday in our house.  Our sweet little girl, Gwendolyn, turned 2!!

We had a fun Curious George birthday with lots of fun decorations, most of which were colored and cut out by Neal.  He loved getting to choose the decorations for the party.   

We were able to have Aunt Wendy and Lauren out from Texas so it made for an extra special celebration, especially since Tyler was on a trip with TWR.  I'll just let the assortment of pictures tell the story of her birthday.   I will say that balloons and jewelry were some of her favorite birthday surprises.

Gwen has been such a joy to have in our family.  She is so sweet and kind to all her brothers.  We can already see her motherly nature as she tries to care for everyone.  She smiles and laughs all the time and can always be found following after Neal, copying everything that her big brother does.   She doesn't say much yet but can still find ways to communicate what she wants and needs.  She loves to play superhero with her brother, jump on the trampoline, brush her teeth and wear any and every pair of shoes she can find in the house, no matter who's shoes.  I can't wait to see what the next year holds for her and how she will grow and change.  

Happy Birthday sweet Gwendolyn!!

Life these days...

The last few months have seemed to both fly by and move slowly all at the same time.  These days I have found myself staying much closer to the house then months before, having twins has had a big part in that.  It now takes me about 30 minutes to get everyone ready and out to the car, so running lots of errands and going places doesn't happen to often.

I do feel accomplished in the fact that I have managed to find a way to go grocery shopping with a toddler, two infants in carseats and a 5 year old.  It's not the easiest shopping trip but we have found a way to get it done.  We also have what we call our "bus" that we take everywhere.  It fits both infant carseats and now has a glider attached for Gwen to ride on.  Without this stroller/"bus" I don't think i would be going many places at all, it has been the best piece of equipment we have had for the twins thus far.

This last month Neal has been tracked out of school (which means he's on break), since we have year round school here he gets breaks throughout the year instead of the whole summer off.  The month of September is his longest break and we have enjoyed having him around the house, Gwen has enjoyed having him around the most since he provides hours of entertainment for her.  We have managed to fill our days with lots of crafts, park play dates and other activities.  My favorite new routine in our home is the introduction of the chore chart.  

Why it took me so long to start this I have no idea because it has been wonderful!  Neal loves knowing what is expected of him and it is great to be able to have something set in stone that we can all refer to throughout the week in regards to helping out around the house.  Plus my house is in more order way more often with the extra help. Thanks to some fun gifts from Aunt Rachel, even Gwen has enjoyed some new chores around the house.

Who knew the duster was more fun to play with then toys and ends up being helpful to me too....my walls, tables and molding have never been so clean!

It's been three months now since we transitioned from a family of 4 to a family of 6 and we are doing well.  Babies grow and change so quickly and we are loving watching the boys change and grow each day.  Three months already since the boys joined our family, look how they have already changed...

This is how the monthly photo shoots really look

They are starting to show off their personalities a bit now and we love seeing their unique personalities start to form.  Donovan is always smiling and Paul tries to "talk" quit a bit.

The big highlight of this last month however was the chance to get away with my hubby - Kid free!! We got to go out for a night to celebrate our 10th anniversary.  Thanks to a sweet family from our church who watched all four children for us we were able to go out and see Seinfeld perform at the performing arts center, and Tyler made it extra special by taking me out in style with a fancy car he rented for the evening.  

Hard to believe that we have been married for 10 years already, but what a great 10 years it has been and a blessed 10 years filled with job changes, moves, kids and lots of great memories.

Let School begin...

First School Picture - Kindergarten 2015-2016

We have now entrained into a new stage of family life, School.   Neal started Kindergarten this year and to say that he likes it would be an understatement, he LOVES it!  

We are in a district with year round school and so Neal started his school year the beginning of July.  He is getting ready to end his first quarter the end of this week and will have his first big break.  He loves being around his friends all day and comes home with lots of stories, mostly about what him and his friends played on the playground and how much fun lunch is with everyone in the cafeteria.

It sure has made the house different during the day having our oldest gone at school.  The house is really quiet but in a way it makes for a nice way to get things done with one of four children not underfoot.

Gwen doesn't seem to mind that Neal is gone all day, however she does squeal with joy when it is time to pick up her big brother from the bus stop.   She runs to find her shoes and backpack, both in the morning and afternoon, to head to the bus stop with me.   The littlest boys in the house are also doing great with big brother gone.  We have managed to get them on a good schedule so that they are happy and sleeping during the bus drop off and pick-up times.  

It is so fun to see how fast Neal is learning things.  He has already leaned quite a few of his sight words and will "read" what he knows when he sees these words appear in a book.  He has even been found "reading" to his brothers and playing school with his toys.

He comes home with so many different drawings and stories at the end of the week.  What I love is trying to decipher what he has written about since his sentences consist of mostly only the fist and last letter of a word.  I have had fun trying to "read" his stories that go along with his drawings.  

"I see a shark.  The shark is fast"

I like to play with my friends"

Manytimes I will hear Neal tell me how much he loves school and how he doesn't want to stay home Saturday and Sunday but go to school every single day.   What a joy to know that he loves this new routine.  Now the trick will be to find ways to entertain all four kiddos while Neal is out of school for the next month or perhaps they will entertain themselves...