Why This Site Is Called The Parsonage Family

For those of you who have never been able to come to Cincinnati to visit us, here are some pictures of our family at the parsonage where we live, which is the house owned by the church Tim pastors. We are incredibly blessed to live here....

The church sits at the front of 12 wooded acres of property, and our house sits right behind the church. That leaves us with quite a bit of privacy during the week and on the weekends when we aren't in service. We LOVE our yard!!!!

 This is my absolute favorite spot for pictures in our yard: we're standing infront of our house, facing the church, with the property in the background. The way the sun sets in the evening makes the perfect light for pictures. I must have taken 1000 pictures at this spot during our five years living here!

This is the church, at least the sanctuary part of the building.

This is our backyard, which is fenced, praise the Lord! The yard was not fenced when we moved here, but the Trustees graciously had it done for us because we had a 2-year old and a 7-month old.

This is the back of the church, at least as much as I could get in one shot (the trees blocked my view). This is taken from our front yard. This is what I see during the day. The set-up of the property is a real blessing, because Clough Pike - which sits right infront of the church building - is a pretty busy road. The church shelters us from the traffic, and buffers the noise. So although we live in a busy area and we're quite close to a shopping mall, we have little noise and feel like we're way out in the woods! And besides... it's always handy to have Tim this close when I have a pickle jar that needs opened during the day (ha-ha).

Here are more pictures of our yard.

This is the view from Tim's office of our house. He loves being able to come home and shoot a few baskets between meetings or watch the kids play outside while he's working.

Ya'll come see us sometime!

Milford Christian Academy

On Tuesday evening, the kids and I went to "Read With Your Child Night" at their school, Milford Christian Academy. It's kind of like an open house, where parents can come see the kids' work, visit with the teachers, and spend some time reading together.

Here are the boys with Ruffio, the school mascot.

Here they are with Mrs. Ragel, whom we dearly love.

She is the elementary administrator.
This is Christopher's 3rd grade teacher, Mrs. Horsley. She LOVES science!

This is John's 1st grade teacher, Miss Richardson.

Miss Richardson has tons of books, and she loves for the children to read.

Here is Christopher at his desk.

Leaves

I hope that wherever you live, you are getting to enjoy the wonders of fall like we are. Autumn is by far my favorite season! I'm trying to find a place where we can live where it would be autumn all year round, but I haven't found that place yet.

Here are some pictures of the kids "helping" us do some leaf-raking....

John

Rounding-up my update on the kids, here is "Little John Rabbit," which is what we called John when was a baby. I'm not sure why, except that Christopher called him that when we brought John home from the hospital. John is now 6 years old. John is - dare I say - our "easiest child." Now, Christopher and Anna, if you read this when you are older, that doesn't mean that John was our favorite, by any means! But John is the single-handedly easiest child to please in the world. John is happy with absolutely anything. If you give him $20 to spend at Toys-R-Us, he will pick-out something for $1.75 and give you your change. And he has an unbelievably strong sense of conviction, so that he often confesses to us what he has done wrong even before we know he has done anything!

Here are some of my favorite pictures of John since his birthday in July.

Neither Tim nor I have ever known a child who is so fascinated at such a young age with spiritual things. John talks non-stop about Heaven, the Bible, and Jesus. From the time he trusted Christ as his Savior and was Baptized in 2009 at the age of 5, John has absolutely hungered for knowledge of God. He asks questions about end-times, the New Heaven and the New Earth, about Bible stories he learns in school and at church, about God's rules for us, about Jesus's life on Earth, and about missionaries. Ever since his school had a Missions Week back in September, John tells us constantly that he wants to be a missionary. We're starting to believe him! We'll see what God has in store for Little John Rabbit....

John LOVES to be outdoors, and he is a great hiker. Granted, if you hike with John, you won't see many animals, because he talks and talks the whole time, scaring the animals away, asking questions about this or that. But he loves nature, and he's totally inquisitive about animals and weather and such.

John also LOVES to eat! John eats and eats and eats. It is difficult to find anything that John won't eat, and we never have to ask John to finish his plate at dinner: infact, he often finishes everyone else's! And no matter how bad my dinner turns out, and even if no one else wants to eat it, John gives me a big smile and says, "Mommy, your dinner is so good. Thank you for making it."

When I was carrying John, my pregnancy was different than with the other two. I was ALWAYS hungry!!! I remember getting up at 3 AM and raiding the refrigerator, because it seemed like an impossibility to go from bedtime until morning without eating. So I'm not sure if John made me a good eater, or if I made him one, but perhaps that's why he was born at a hefty 9 lbs, 12 oz. I remember in the delivery room how the nurses started singing "Big John" as soon as he was born.

John's very best friend in the whole world is Big Brother Christopher.

They're inseparable.

John is a big 1st grader now at Milford Christian Academy in Ms. Richardson's class.

Coney Island: Fall-O-Ween

Last weekend, we headed for Coney Island Amusement Park and their Fall-O-Ween event. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Coney, it's kind of a smaller, more classic amusement park, with lots of "kiddie" rides. We like it because all 3 of our children can ride all the rides along with us, and it's much cheaper than some of the larger theme parks: Christopher and John can get in for $7, and Anna is free!

Speaking of classics.... Is that picture above not an absolutely classic picture of Tim??? Is he a good dad, or what?

Anna Jean's 1st bumper car ride!

Christopher's very first time being able to "drive" by himself!

Christopher's favorite ride at the park, though, has no bells or whistles or electronics. It's "Giant Slide," which is exactly what it says: a 3-story slicky slide. Christopher rides it over and over and over when we go to Coney Island. He wants one for our backyard, and is putting it on his Christmas list. I told Christopher he'd have to ask Nana for that (ha-ha).

The kids were supposed to come in costume to receive special treats. But because we didn't want to mess-up our REAL costumes that they'll wear in a few weeks, we improvised using a Superman cape, a Bibleman cape, and a Bengals cheerleader outfit that were lying around.

Are you ready for this??? I am 36 years old and I had NEVER ridden a ferris wheel until that day! So here are pictures of my very first ferris wheel ride! Christopher and John had ridden them, so they sat with me and kept me safe. That thing was SO STINKIN' HIGH!!!

That was also Anna's first ferris wheel ride. She rode with Daddy. She loved it! Tim said that whenever they went up, she would say the Spanish word for "up." When they went down, she would say the Spanish word for "down." Thanks, Dora the Explorer.

John and I rode the Tilt-A-Whirl, which was a first for both of us. We were so very dizzy when we stepped-off that thing!