The Claunch Family

Josiah and Victoria's Birthday Party - Swim!

2011-10-30T11:36:00.000-07:00

Josiah had a joint birthday party with our good friends' little girl, Victoria. They went swimming (which never gets old for kids) and had lunch and cake at our house. I hope you enjoy the pictures!

THE BIRTHDAY BOY AND BIRTHDAY GIRL

KYLE DID A LOT OF THIS WITH OUR BOYS...

THE RAMP AT THE POOL IS THE FAVORITE ATTRACTION FOR ALL THE KIDS, SO FUNNY!

SOME OF OUR FRIENDS...

WINNIE AND HER BOYS, HUDSON AND HENRY. WE ALWAYS LAUGH WHEN WE GO SOMEWHERE TOGETHER. IT'S 2 MOMMIES AND 5 VERY ENERGETIC BOYS!

VICTORIA - BIRTHDAY GIRL - 5 YEARS

JOSIAH - BIRTHDAY BOY - 6 YEARS

MICAH

SAMMY

MICAH BEING SWEET FOR MOMMY - HE ALWAYS IS

KYLE HAVING FUN WITH SAMMY...SAMMY DIDN'T WANT DADDY TO LEAVE HIS SIDE

YOU'RE NOT SEEING DOUBLE :) VICTORIA LOOKS JUST LIKE HER MAMA

VICTORIA'S STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE CAKE

JO AND HIS NATIVE AMERICAN CAKE

LIGHTING THE FIRE, THERE'S ISAAC ON THE LEFT, THE FOSTER'S OLDEST BOY

I REALLY DON'T REMEMBER WHAT WAS SO AMUSING IN THIS PICTURE,

BUT I LOVE THE EXPRESSIONS

HAPPY FALL!

2011-10-27T14:22:00.000-07:00

Just a few pictures of our kiddos in the fall. Some are from Devine's Cornmaze. Micah and Sammy had a blast, but Jo was sick and couldn't go. Kyle, the Super Dad that he is, took them all the next week with a neighbor friend and I stayed home working. They had fun, but we forgot the camera! So there's a pic of Jo blowing out some 6 year old birthday candles!

HAPPY FALL!

Where's Sammy?

He liked this pumpkin!

Micah liked his "little pumpkin"

On the hayride...

He's how old!!! 6!

So this is a funny one, Kyle did a great job carving pumpkins with the boys. I took this on the timer with the boys. I was entering a contest to win a really cool Kelly Moore Bag (best camera bags on earth:)

So I didn't win, but I LOVE this picture:)

Gatlingurg, TN trip - Part 1

2011-06-30T06:07:00.000-07:00

We felt very blessed to be able to get away on our first

"Claunch Family Vacation" Our parents and church family made

this trip possible and we are so grateful to them! Here's the first part of

the family fun we had...

On the way to Gatlingburg!

We had to take a pit stop at Build-A-Bear...

The boys had never been and we surprized them! They were so excited when we walked up

to the store and told them they would get to make a stuffed animal.

Micah picked a horse that barks (above is the "barking" mechanism that he picked to put

inside his horse)...love that kid!

Jo and Sam picked a dog that barks.

Getting the loveables stuffed.

Giving them a bath.

Jo picking out clothes for his dog.

Yes, they actually have underwear for the things!

He went for the camo shorts.

All of us outside of Build-A-Bear with their new friends.

Coming next...outdoor fun!

Favorite picture of January 2011

2011-02-02T05:55:00.001-08:00

I shot this picture of Sammy last month when we had a good snow. I expected him to turn from the snow falling on his face, but instead, he made this adorable expression.

2011-01-25T07:34:00.000-08:00

I entered this picture into a photo contest called " i heart faces ".

It's called Flower Wonder and the theme was "innocent wonder".

I took this of Jo at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens and the kids

really were in wonder over the gardens, they were beautiful!

Homeschool and fun

2010-08-12T12:25:00.000-07:00

We've been having a lot of fun this summer and have not really kept our blog up to date. I haven't even gotten our summer pictures off of our camera memory cards and played with them or organized them yet. You can say we sped through the summer! Soon after the last post which showed the school room all set up, we had a little flood in the basement due to a busted drainage pipe. That was repaired and all of the books we own (which is probably in the 1000's because of Kyle's school and theology books and homeschool books) were relocated upstairs. Thanks to many friends from church, we finally have our basement back in working order! The break from the little amount of schooling we did in April and May ended up being a blessing. I had a lot of time to think and pray about the way the first 2 months of homeschooling went. It was a great time for reflection. God helped me realize that I needed to change some of my expectations and attitudes and confirmed some things I was wondering about. I'll start with my heart change...

God showed my that I really need to enjoy these young years. I was planning on preparing Jo this spring and summer to start Kindergarten this fall. I was torn because he's just a couple of weeks past the public school age cut off. He's eager to learn and I'm eager to teach, so I thought this was the right thing. However, it was clear after 2 months of starting that I was pushing too hard and he has some fine motor skills that just need some time to develope to be ready for kindergarten. When I say I was pushing too hard, I mean that I was thinking he should understand things that he wasn't grasping and getting frustrated with our results. When we took the 2 month break and came back, he had some time to grow and he's improved so much with his coloring, memory, and desire to learn. I am doing a modified K-4 year with him and K-3 with Micah. God is so good to show us where we need to be and we are having a lot of fun. We do a lot of coloring, play-dough, music, and outside play.

Reading and Writing

As for the R's, we are preparing for Kindergarten. We are enjoying Sonlight books. Some are from the Preschool age 3/4 core package (we just have a couple of these that I bought used online) and I just ordered the P4/5 core used for a great price that I found on a forum I visit often, The Well Trained Mind forums. Sonlight has great books to read out loud to your kids and it encompases history, science, language arts, and Bible. It is an enjoyable introduction to many things. It includes many good treasury books that have so many quality classic picture books.

We are learning the 26 basic phonograms of the English language to prepare for a language arts curriculum that I linked in the last post called Spell to Write and Read (SWR). It's an Orton-Gillingham approach to reading, writing, and spelling. I'm hoping to go to a training seminar to better know how to teach the program, as it's very teacher intensive. But, it is a wonderful program that will give them a great understanding of our language. For this year, we are learning the phonograms and Jo is starting to read some Bob Books, http://www.bobbooks.com/ which gives him a start on reading. This isn't really recommended in the SWR program, but it gives him some practice at reading some of the phonograms he's learned. I've also done a few lessons from a book called Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy lessons. However, I will have to modify some things from the lessons in order not to confuse Jo since some of the concepts are different from the approach of SWR. Although, 100 Easy Lessons has given us a great foundation for how to blend the letters by saying them slowly. Here is a link of the video I put on line of him reading his first Bob book to his little brother, Micah. It was a sweet memory.

Math

For math, they are learning their numbers with flashcards and by tracing the number with their finger. They already have a good habit of counting the right way and we are counting objects as we do a number a week. We are going to start Right Start Level A after they learn to recognize numbers 0-10. We started Right Start Level A in the spring, but Jo wasn't quite ready. I think he'll be ready in about 2 months, though.

Little brothers and miscellaneous

You might be wondering how in the world is this done with a 4, 3, and 1 year old? Well, it is interesting and God gives a lot of grace. I do "circle time" in the morning with Jo and Micah. We pray together and go over our phonogram of the week (so far we've done m, s, a, and e) and the number of the week (we've done 1-4, I forgot 0, eek, I know I should have done that one first, I'll have to explain that one later). Usually Micah interupts some, but he loves being included on this part of school. Jo and Micah have gained a lot from the consistency of circle time and they love going downstairs to do school. During this time, Sammy is usually either napping or playing with toys in the school room. Sometimes, he's sitting in my lap. After circle time, I let the boys color, play with play dough, cut stuff, or play with toys.
In the afternoon, I do a reading lesson with Jo while Micah is playing and Sammy is napping. Jo does a little science some afternoons by observing the tadpoles Kyle caught and brought home. We're studying the lifecycle of a frog and drawing pictures in a science journal. Hopefully we don't kill them before they become frogs! Next, we will watch a caterpillar grow into a butterfly with our Butterfly Garden that our friends Kris and Andrea got Micah for his birthday. Fun stuff. For K-3 through Kindergarten or 1st, we will do geography. Right now, we are just learning the continents and oceans along with a song from Geography songs . They each have their own color coded map that I copied and colored and laminated (so it doesn't get destroyed:) We point to the continents and oceans as we sing the song. We'll probably go over this for a couple of months to really learn it.

I'm hoping to post a few pictures soon after I download them onto the computer and organize them.

Starting Homeschool

2010-04-20T14:11:00.000-07:00

Our family is starting out on the new adventure called homeschooling. We started last month due to Josiah's peaked interest in learning and doing something productive during the day besides playing with toys, or watching T.V. (he'd do this all day if I let him, but I love him too much:) Because of my background of working with children and (thankfully) my education degree I have been very excited about this day from before Josiah was even born. That, coupled with the love for the three kids we now have, I am overjoyed to be able to be my childrens' Mom as well as teacher. I am so thankful to God for allowing us to homeschool our kids and I don't take it for granted. Since the summer of 2004 when Kyle and I attended the conference for the Association of Classical Christian Schools, we knew we wanted to use a "Classical Christian" approach with our children. Classical, meaning it follows the Trivium of Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric, and Christian being Christ- centered in all we do. The reason we are doing this is so we can better honor the Lord in our training up of our children in the way of the Lord.

Below, I want to post some pictures from our school room. This room is in the, very nicely finished basement (thank you Bethlehem Baptist--it's a parsonage). The "Claunch Academy" sign as well as the desk top were a birthday gift from Kyle to me. He's so sweet! My Mom and Dad also gave us some wonderful items for the room. We are so thankful for this special room.

The boys enjoying the room, okay, so they are posing for this picture:)

Some links relating to our homeschooling
A great link that explains the Trivium
Spell to Write and Read - the reading and spelling, and writing program we are using.
SWR for young ones
Cursive First used along with SWR
A Classical Christian homeschool blog who has helped me immensely.

Snake Handling

2009-10-12T20:17:00.000-07:00

I caught this "little" fellow while I was going to dump food scraps in the woods behind our house. He was in the back yard. True to form, Micah touches the beast right away. Josiah hesitated greatly: "I wish that was a toy snake." But he finally touched it.

I tried to let the snake go, but he turned and headed right for the house. So, I had to catch him again and throw him further into the yard. When my foot came down on his head (to pin him down), I felt my heart soar a little: "The God of peace will soon crush Satan underneath your feet" (Romans 16:19) because the Seed of the Woman has already crushed him for us. You lose, Serpent!

Pumpkin Patch

2009-10-10T09:12:00.000-07:00

This week was a fun one. We got to take the kids to Boyd's Orchard. They have a pumpkin patch, apple orchard, animals, and some really fun playgrounds for the kids. It was the perfect fall weather and the kids had a wonderful time. Some of our friends from church went and I thought you might enjoy seeing some of the pictures from the trip.

It's hard to get 6 little ones to pose for a picture:)

The kids showing off their apples.

Micah didn't quite get what Kyle was telling them "Hold your apple and raise your hand"

Jo and Ash by the apple orchard

Jo talking to Graeme in his baby voice.

Sweet Isaac, Andrea and Kris' little boy

Kids running in the apple orchard.

Micah's perfect form... see the apple at the bottom? That's the one he threw.

I told the kids to hug for a picture, and hug they did.

Victoria (left) is doing her own thing.

We didn't forget sweet Sammy, he liked taking a picture with the pumpkin.

Tennessee fun

2009-10-10T08:27:00.000-07:00

We had a fun weekend visiting Ashley's parents in Tennessee. We sometimes meet and see each other for one night so we can have some time together, since we live 12 hours a part. It was a beautiful weekend and we had fun celebrating Josiah's birthday. We also went to a state park that is beautiful, Henry Horton State Park. The boys, including Papa had fun skipping rocks in the pretty river. Here are some pictures...

Papa, Nonni, and the boys

Papa and the boys at the river. There's just too many interesting things for the boys to look at the camera.

Micah has a killer arm...a baseball player perhaps?

Mom enjoying Sammy while the boys play at the park

Okay, this is my parents Yorkiepoo. He's so cute! His name is Harley (Harlan-my dad's name and Ashley) He's my only sibling and we never fight!:)

The birthday boy! Can't believe he'll be four on Oct 17th!

Can I open them now, please!

Papa enjoying him some Sammy.

Nonni, Sammy, and Ash

Kids say the funniest things!

2009-10-10T08:21:00.000-07:00

Micah sang to Kyle the other day:
"Row, row, row your boat gently down the drain..."
...Is that what you say when you're having a bad day?:)

Kyle and Josiah were reviewing Bible verses Jo has learned, particularly, "love the Lord you God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength..."
Jo said, "I love Him with my whole heart, do I have to love him with my legs too?"

Sometimes we find ourselves saying the funniest things because of our funny kids.
I heard Kyle declaring from the bathroom the other day:
"Micah, we do NOT put our head in the toilet!"

... these are fun(ny) years indeed.

The Young Preacher

2009-10-08T12:23:00.000-07:00

Below is Josiah's first sermon. His rhetorical skills are superb. He deals well with the distraction of the young child who keeps invading the pulpit. He needs to work on staying on subject. But all in all, great sermon!

Here's the Transcript: "Turn your Bibles on... to the book of Ephesians. I am the pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, and I want you to sit down and listen to me. I want to talk to you about little kids walking on the ceiling and nobody holding you on there... I am the pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, and I would like for you to come sit down. I would like for you to just sit down... and um... sit back. Can you do that for me please? ... They put nails on him, and they nailed him on the cross, and they threw him into the water... Really did they throw him in the water, daddy? They put him in the tomb, and one day he raised from the dead, and Mary was bringing something to him, and angels said, "Jesus isn't there anymore. He came back." ... Well, I'm pretty tired, so one day we're gonna go home. And one day we're gonna play a game of raising from the dead."

Here's his second attempt at preaching a few minutes later. He's definitely more focused this time.

Transcript: "God made the earth... He made some people... One day when there was a flood, all the dinosaurs died, and they got killed by the flood. and the flood got turned into the ocean, and God turned the flood into the ocean so people can enjoy the ocean. and people can see crabs and find some sea shells and have tons of fun and wade into the deep water... And I would like for you all to sit down." (perhaps he received a standing ovation).

I put Josiah up to this, but the only scripted line was "turn in your bibles to the book of Ephesians," which being interpreted meant: "Turn on your Bibles." Everything else was his own original words, completely unprompted.

Enjoy!

Claunch boys in the morning

2009-09-13T05:46:00.000-07:00

The boys were eating breakfast on Sunday morning at the kitchen table and they were so cute and sleepy. The last 20 seconds is the best footage of Sammy. It's kind of funny because during the whole video, Micah's complaining about Jo taking his bacon and I was oblivious because I was so focused on getting a good video. Jo's destroying Micah's bacon and getting away with it.

Ice Storm 2009

2009-02-16T19:03:00.000-08:00

January 2009 saw the largest ice storm in the history of the state of Kentucky. On that note, it was the largest natural disaster in state history as well. The weight of the ice on the trees was more than most of them could endure. The collapsing branches and trees resulted in massive power outages throughout the state. In the immediate wake of the storm, more than 700,000 homes were without power in Kentucky alone.

It all started on Tuesday morning, January 27th. I woke up and started making my coffee. As I looked out the window, I thought I could see the glimmer of ice in the grass and trees as the street light as the street light shined in our yard. As the sun gradually came up, I was amazed at the sight. The tree limbs were entirely imprisoned in ice. The sunrise was quite beautiful. If ice could be on fire, it would look something like the sight I saw that morning. The freezing rain was still falling, and I noticed that many of the trees in our yard were starting to droop. I wondered then if we might start having a problem with breaking trees. And by 9:00am, power was out at the Claunch's. As the day wore on, the freezing rain continued. By midday, the sound of breaking trees became commonplace. It sounded like cannons firing about every 15 seconds. About midday, the power came back on at my house. Our friends, Kris and Andrea (and their newborn baby, Isaac) came over to stay with us because their power was out, and they had no source of heat other than electric. Thankfully, our house has gas logs which go a long way to heat the house. We got a weather report early Tuesday evening, only to learn that another heavy band of freezing rain was going to be on us all through the night and into Wednesday morning. Sometime during the night on Tuesday, the power went out again, and it stayed off this time for over six days. By Wednesday morning, the freezing rain had turned to snow, and we got about 3 1/2 inches of snow in two hours. With this, the perfect winter wonderland was complete.

Ashley, Josiah, and Micah went south to stay with Nonni and Papa during the power outage (Andrea and baby Isaac left too). But Kris and I remained to work and help out. In the end, I was very thankful for the heat in our home and for the safety of my family, Kris's family, and the congregation at Bethlehem.

I hope you enjoy the pictures. As you look at them, stand in awe of the ONE whose womb brings forth the ice, who hardens the water like stone, who imprisons the deep (Job 38:29-30)!

**Click on any picture to see it in full size**

Round 1: The Ice...

The ice actually got thicker than this picture shows!

This is a blade of grass I broke out of the yard early in the storm. The whole yard was like this!

Like a Yard Chandelier!

The playground in the back yard had the best icicles!

Round 2: The Snow...

View from the back window of my house.

Micah's Poor Swing!

Can I swing on that?

Who's that peeking through the trees?

Round 3: The Fun!

The boys loved sledding, especially Micah!

Josiah is going to push Daddy down the hill.

Micah wanted the fun to never end!

The sledding hill was fun and fast, but the walk back up was tough!

Round 4: The Carnage...

This shows the trees hanging ominously close to the power lines in my yard.

The branch on my house broke right outside the boys window. They were scared to death that night!

Looks so sad, doesn't it?

The beloved old chestnut tree in the back yard

The bowl swing... we believe it can be repaired before Spring!

We're having a boy!

2009-02-13T06:49:00.000-08:00

Yep, we are going to have 3 crazy, energetic, dirty, precious little boys. We found out two weeks ago that it may be a boy, and it was confirmed Tuesday that it is definately a boy. We are thinking about the name Samuel, but we don't have middle name picked out yet. Possibly Samuel James. We will have a prophet, priest, and king name. Micah, Samuel, and Josiah. He he! We used to joke about doing this with our kids names, but we never imagined having 3 boys, especially so close together! It was really funny how we found out. I had a doctor appointment with my regular OB doctor and he does a routine ultrasound everytime I go. I asked him not to tell me if he could tell the sex of the baby because Kyle was not with me this time because he was watching the boys. I then asked him if he could tell me if he could tell if it was a boy or girl, but not tell me. He laughed so hard and said with his Arab accent, "Oh, you cheating." He told me right away that he could tell. Well, if you know anything about me, I'm awful at surprises. Kyle has to work really hard at surprising me. So I call Kyle and ask him if he wants me to find out. We decided we wanted to wait until the next appointment when he's with me. Twenty minutes later, I called him and ask him if he wants to know because it's driving me crazy. He said he did want to know so I called and they told me , "BOY!" I smiled the whole way home and when I told Kyle and the kids at home, they were very happy. Kyle did say, "Wow". Our home is already very loud and crazy sometimes, so we're picturing that multiplied. It will be lots of fun. Kyle will have to do a lot of wrestling with the 3 boys. I am still getting good reports about the blood issue and the antibody levels are staying at 1:4, which is really good. Praise the Lord! The ultrasounds are from the 17th week of pregnancy. Our specialist OB does 3D ultrasounds (at the top) and Samuel looks like he's going to be a thinker, like his daddy, with his hand on his chin. We laughed so hard!

Good Dr. Report!

2009-01-25T15:33:00.000-08:00

14 weeks

We had a good Dr. report on the Big E pregnancy issue. My antibody level dropped from 1:8 to 1:4. This is great for now because 1:16 is a danger and we got further from that number. We are praising the Lord! The boys are so excited about having a baby brother or sister. Micah thinks everyone in the family is having a baby. He points to each of our tummies and says, "mommy's baby, daddy's baby, bubby's baby" He points to his tummy and says "baby". Josiah is very excited about having a new baby in the house. He just wants to hold him/her. He changes his mind daily between rather he wants a boy or girl. So cute!

Big E Pregnancy

2009-01-08T08:52:00.000-08:00

12 Weeks

Hi friends and family. I know it's been a while. I have just gotten over the 1st trimester nausea. I've had it for about 6 weeks and feeling much better. I want to let you know that everything is going well with the pregnancy. But, we would like to ask for your prayers for one aspect of it. I found out at around 7 weeks pregnant that I have something called the Big E antibody in my blood which makes my pregnancy considered "at-risk". I'll try to explain what this is, and why we are dealing with it. It did not effect the pregnancy with Josiah or Micah, but that's typical with the antibody. Basically, Kyle and I have different blood types. You have antigens on your blood, like Rh, e, c, etc. I have little e and Kyle has big E. Micah got Kyle's blood, Big E, and during my pregnancy or delivery with Micah our blood mixed. My body saw the Big E antigen as foreign and produced the Big E antibody on my blood to fight it. So... If this baby has my blood, the baby is not at risk, that's what we're praying for. But, if this baby has Kyle's blood, my body will fight the baby's blood and give the baby water instead of blood. I know it sounds awful, but my specialist can give the baby great prenatal care if this is the case. I'm getting blood tests every month that tests how much of the antibody is in my blood. They measure it in a ratio and they call it a titer level. My titer levels are at 1:8 right now. If the levels get to 1:16- 1:32 he starts monitoring me even closer and can do a blood transfusion on the baby in the womb. We are really trusting the Lord with all of this and know that His plan is what's best for us and the baby. We are praying also that He'd delight to protect the baby's health and he/she would be healthy. We appreciate your prayers and thoughts.

We got a great ultrasound yesterday. I thought I was 11 weeks, but the baby measured 11 weeks 6 days, yea!

We will be a family of 5!

2008-12-08T06:00:00.000-08:00

We are very excited to tell you that we are having our third child! We found out right before thanksgiving that we were expecting. I took a test early in the morning and when I told Kyle, he had to sit down and he said, "Wow". He had the most shocked face. Then he was really excited and had a huge smile on his face. We are really excited about this new adventure. It's crazy that we'll have 3 kids 3 and under for a few months when the baby is born. The due date is July 24, 2009. We should find out if it's a boy or girl around February or March. We'll keep you updated! Thanks for your prayers!

Josiah's 3rd Birthday

2008-10-25T03:28:00.001-07:00

Josiah is now 3 years old and he had a great birthday! His birthday was October 17th and he had a party at a place called Jungle Jump. The kids from church came and jumped on big inflatables and had cake and ice cream. The kids were so fun to watch and we got some really neat pictures. He had a jungle themed cake. He loved this
since he's been watching Lion King lately, his personal favorite at the moment. Nonni and Pappa came for the weekend with their dog, Harley. Josiah thinks that Harley is actually his dog, Nonni and Papa just take care of it. They gave him an easel with paints and some other really cool gifts. He's turning into a real artist. He can now draw a complete circle with the ends connected. He calls it a rock when he does this. KK came last month to visit and we had a great time with her. She and Pappy gave Josiah his own camera, to be a photographer with mommy, and a Bible that he brings to church. We really look forward to seeing Pappy in December for Christmas. Thanks everyone for making Josiah's birthday special!

The whole party gang. Isaiah, MaKenzie, Victoria, Micah, Caleb, Gracie, Grahm(in the back), and Josiah.

The Claunch family

Yummy! Birthday cake.

Our family in the bouncer.

Papa, Nonni, Josiah, and Micah

Nonni and Micah

Josiah blowing out his candles, with a little help from his buddy, Gracie. He spit ALL over the cake.

Jo was so excited about his jungle cake.

Ashley and Josiah going down the slide. This one's funny because we're laughing so hard and I'm accidentally smashing his face.

Kyle being a monkey.

Micah and Ashley jumping together. You can't see his face that well, but he is cracking up laughing.

Tim being funny with the little kids.

MaKenzie and Gracie slidding.

Josiah having a blast! Wee!

Kyle and Micah having fun.

KK and thee boys at the park during her visit.

KK and Micah laughing.

KK took this one

Josiah opening his Bible from KK and Pappy

Jo and his KK birthday cake

Some Summer Photos

2008-09-29T21:10:00.000-07:00

Above, are a few summer photos from the month of June. I will add photos to this slideshow and let you know what we did this summer. We had a lot of fun!

"Happy Birthday Micah" and "Please pray for Pappy"

2008-07-08T11:38:00.000-07:00

Micah's birthday was May 15th and I still need to show everyone pictures. He had a great birthday. We saw Nonni and Papa on a weekend trip and celebrated at a park and KK came to visit the week of Micah's birthday.
Kyle's dad, Pappy, really wanted to come, but has had to deal with some cancer treatment, he ws just recovering from surgery. If you can please be prayinfg for him, that would be great. They removed prostate cancer and he is about to start radiation treatment for a small section found in his bladder, but his doctor is very positive and is saying this should take care of it. Please pray for his strength as he continues serving the Lord at St. Andrew Baptist Church in Panama City. www.sabc.org

Some of Micah's one year portraits done my his mommy.

Micah loved his cake!

KK and Micah

The Claunch clan. Yes, Micah had a dirt cake. Worms, dirt, and grass is what you see. We're breaking him of eating real dirt. But he sure did dig into this cake.

Papa and Micah at Henry Horton State Park. I think Micah wants to play with that candle.

He's a rascal, can you tell?

Papa, Nonni, and the boys

Mommy and Micah (with cake on his face again)

Ashley and Photography

2008-04-27T21:26:00.001-07:00

Right now, I am loving staying home with Josiah and Micah. We read together, go outside, do housework, cuddle, and learn together. The Lord has opened up the doors for me to also do some photography on the side. I started a small photography business called, "Remember This Images" See http://www.rememberthisimages.com/ . I do on location photography when Kyle or a special lady from church named Nancy can watch the boys. Kyle and I practice with the lighting together and he helps me learn a lot of the technical side of photography like, how to work the equipment and how to use my editing software. I love the artistic side of posing and creating great lighting. It's a lot of fun. I take tons of pictures of the boys, as you can see. This is a great opportunity for me to be able to have an outlet to be creative and do something different in the middle of a lot of tedious, yet very important tasks I have of mothering two young boys. They are such a joy to me and when I am done with a photography job or working on an order, I come back to them wanting to never be away from them again.

Kyle and Seminary

2008-04-27T21:03:00.000-07:00

(Left) Kyle, being goofy while being a model for me when my new lighting equipment came in. He endured a lot of flashes. (Right) Kyle being normal.

Currently, Kyle is wrapping up the semester. This means studying, papers, and a lot of coffee! He loves all of his classes and is learning so much that benifits his preaching ministry. He's finishing a Greek composition class. Now he can read AND write in Greek. I helps him understand the language more thouroughly, which helps him when he's studying to preach. Right now he is preaching through the book of John. He is learning how to balance family, church, and school so well. He gives a lot for his family and spends a lot of time rolling around with the boys and taking Josiah down the road to "the river" (Kentucky is so beautiful). They throw rocks in the river and they cane pole fished the other day. Kyle also makes time for me and we enjoy Friday night "date night". We usually hang out with friends, Kris and Andrea, or watch a movie after the kids are in bed.

We have high-speed!

2008-04-27T19:36:00.000-07:00

MICAH, THE DIRT EATER

Look, Mom, dirt...

Micah ate dirt...........ewww

"But, I want to eat more!"

I know we started this blog over two months ago and have added only one post. But I am happy to tell you that we just got high speed internet and we are so excited to keep you up to date on what's going on in our crazy, but fun lives. We are really enjoying this spring weather, and I have a hard time keeping up with housework because the boys and I always want to play outside. We go to the park often and we run around in the yard a lot. Josiah loves jumping off the large stump in the yard and Micah's favorite past time is eating dirt. He shoves every bit he finds in his mouth! He's walking now, taking a few steps at a time. Josiah can sing the "ABC" song with one or two prompts from us and can quote Matthew 22:37-38 all by himself. Hearing him quote Scripture like that was one of the most rewarding moments we've had as parents.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2008-02-12T12:34:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends and Family!
We want to give all of you a Valentine's gift that shows you how much we love you, especially our moms and dads. We know it's hard to be far away from you all for both of us. God has placed us here in Kentucky at this time for His purpose. We want to keep in touch and allow you to regularly see these two boys. We love you all soooo much!