back online!!!

where do i start? the past few months have been quite a whirlwind and how do I sum it up? gabe has been potty trained for several months now...once he decided it was time the whole training process was pretty uneventful and quick. the big decision now is if he wears his spiderman or firetruck underpants. He has also started preschool and absolutely loves it and has some great friends in his class (we hear a lot about luke and jackson, i asked gabe if there are any girls in his class and he told me "no, not really").
makena has found a new gear physically and verbally. she hardly walks anymore, she is always running somewhere and always also has her "puhurse & fone" with her. She is also talking up a storm, not always intelligble, but is becoming quite a chatterbox.
joe continues to love his job and both of us feel so blessed to be a part of this community. Some main focus points this fall have been launching a churchwide small group ministry, coaching a team that has started a new sunday night gathering (named, "communitas" more on that later), and participating in discussions about what does it mean to be a missional church. He has also found some time for golf, red sox playoff games, and regular raquetball games.
Most of my days are filled with seemingly mundane and routine activities (laundry, diaper changing, playdates, dinner prep, errands, school drop-off/pick-up, applying band-aids, snack dispenser, ...) but i love it and am so grateful to be able to spend this kind and amount of time with my kids when they are at such young ages and changing so quickly.