One particular library trip resulted in a serious treasure - a HUGE Star Wars pop up book! Score!
Our Schedule Fall and Winter
M - Classical Conversations 9am-12pm
T- Crossfit 945-1045
W - off in the am, 4:30-530 Y bootcamp
Th - Library or off
F - Crossfit 945-1045am
S - Daddy take boys out in the am (Mall, Graeters, home depot) Mommy grocery and laundry.
Sun - Church in am, Awana in pm 6;00-7:45pm
The Fall was kinda hectic with Joel travelling a lot. This was the routine we fell into. It worked.
Judah receives his Awana award for completing a year of Cubbies. This year, his teacher, Lydia in the orange said, "it was fun to see Joel is more like a 'normal' boy when Judah is around. You know, instead of being a perfect angel like he was last year." Oh boy.
Joel just loved his "CC" class on Mondays and we have already re-enrolled him for next year. This particular class was so fun...full of boys! Lots of energy but very inquisitive and impressive with their memory work!
Joel's "End of the year Celebration" or "Recital" for Classical Conversations. He did well and looked cute. what more can you ask?
Bethany is Speaking? AIA Christmas Coffee & "Rise up" Women's retreat
I was asked by a dear friend of ours, Julie Rode, to speak at the AIA women's Christmas Coffee. It was challenging to prepare and deliver, but ultimately I am so glad I was forced to depend on the Lord. I do believe He used me to clearly explain his Word.. Which is funny because most of the time I don't understand it! This particular talk was 25 mins explaining scripture and included a gospel and invitation. The student athletes were very polite and attentive and I heard later that there were many first time decisions for Christ! Wow.
The 'Rise up' Women's retreat was a weekend retreat held by a church who partners with us in our ministry, Ebenezer Baptist Church. This talk was a 40 minute talk explaining scripture to largely a believing audience. All Women. It was a VERY easy crowd, they were super ready to listen and laugh at my jokes. In this talk I used a lot of the same material from the Christmas talk, but chose to relate Jesus' example of humility in Phil 2 with our calling to humility as women. The ladies were very complimentary and it was a great environment! I was also able to speak to the young Awana girls at my own church, Northwest Bible. It was an energetic group, and a fun time. I'm thankful for what God has taught me through these challenging experiences!
Christmas
Christmas was a lot of fun, as always, visiting with family. This particular Christmas the boys were on the fence about either going full fledged into 'Super Heros' or 'Star Wars' Mommy got them lots of Super Heros and literally about 1 week later, J&J both decided they were going to be obsessed with Star Wars. The Star Wars obsession continues to this day and I don't see it easing up any time soon.
Mommy did (thankfully) purchase two lightsabers to go into the boys stockings. They wasted no time entering into a fierce battle.
Away from home for about 2 full weeks for Christmas produces lots of "stuff." This pic was taken the moment we returned home.
Joel's BDay
Joel turned 5 on January 17th. We went 'ice skating' at Easton Town center where they had an ice-less rink set up. it was actually kinda perfect for little kids. kinda frustrating for adults, but fun nonetheless. Then we went out for Pizza. Joel truly has been a different child since turning 5. He is disciplined WAAAY less, he is actually very pleasant and obedient. He has such an interest in spiritual things and prays OFTEN. He is constantly reminding me what it is to have 'childlike faith.' I feel so grateful that after 4 years of 'difficult times' I can finally enjoy Joel's personality. Not to say years 0-4 aren't enjoyable, because they are :) It is just a nice stage now. I"ll leave it at that. :)
"ice skating"
My attempt at a Star Wars cake
Wuerfful
Every February we attend the Wuerfful Trophy banquet and spend the weekend with some of our now dear friends. This February, we were able to take the whole family and an awesome sitter and famly friend, Linnea Huck. Linnea was so incredibly helpful that Joel starting doing calculations in his head to see if it was mathematically possible for us to have about 12 kids and a live-in Nanny. (answer - no its not possible! haha). But seriously, she was amazing, and the whole trip was much more enjoyable for us with Linnea there to help. The boys had a blast with Linnea and enjoyed lots of trips to the beach. The most pleasantly surprising aspect of the trip was perhaps how well the boys did on the 12 hour drive. With ample videos and snacks, of course.
The CrossFit Open
Every once in a while, in this life, you get to find out that you are actually really good at something that you didn't know. Its an empowering experience. This is what the CrossFit open was for me. I knew I could do CrossFit, but it was just a blast to find out my true capabilities. The CrossFit open was a 5 week 'competition' where thousands of athletes from around the world all competed in the same workouts (different weights for men vs. women) Workouts were completed at your home gym with a judge watching and counting reps. Every athlete (whether beast-like, fit, fat, or frail) was given the same workout. As an example - higher level athletes would have much higher scores (reps) than lower level athletes given the same amount of time. Scores were tallied and the 'leaderboard' was watched obsessively by thousands. I ended up placing in the top 11% of women in my region, which way exceeded my expectations.
Joel and the boys "cheered me on" for the last workout .. 14.5. Which was, interestingly, was my highest placement of all 5 workouts! Coincidence? I think not!
Penton Family RV Trip
Our ministry, Stand for Truth, now owns an RV. This particular trip, the whole family traveled with Joel to a few of his speaking engagements in Missouri. We prepared a detailed schedule ahead of time and bought all necessary items. The first two days the boys struggled to sit in between meals and naps. They tried to run around the RV, press all buttons, and pull out all drawers. Eventually either they got so tired, they were able to sit on the couch and color or play with electronics during awake, non-eating time. As you can imagine, it was super useful to be parked right next to a park, and we utilized that position about 5 times throughout the trip. We even went back to the same parks on the way home that we hit on the way there! We stayed 1.5 days at Great Wolf Lodge in Kansas City. I don't think I've ever seen the boys so exhausted, but they stayed positive with no complaining. I think they were just shocked that we kept going back to the waterpark! By the time we left, the 2 little boys were able to go down the baby slide and swim in the baby pool without being scared, and Joel 3 went down an ADULT SIZED water slide, which shocked Mommy. (In fact, I think there was a bet placed between Mommy and Daddy about this very issue and Mommy lost.) Meal times and sleeping time was fairly easy and even enjoyable in the RV. Each boy had his own space with a hanging blanket as a visual barrier. We used a loud sound machine when the generator wasn't on. When the RV was moving, J&J were awesome. Luther was rather difficult, though. He actually did better in the mini-van on the way down to Florida. We attributed it to the fact that I was 'allowed' to roam around the 'house-like' structure and he didn't understand why he couldn't also do that. But we still aren't sure why he was so cranky. After a few days we figured out that it was actually pretty easy to get driving done after the boys went to bed (7pm) and during naps (1-3pm) Boys needed to be strapped in while the RV was moving, but if they were laying down and asleep, I was ok if they were in their beds. We utilized lots of DVD's and the Ipad and IXL. A LOT.
There's always time for a Lightsaber fight! Plastic spoons make the best Lightsabers!
Great Wolf Lodge in Kansas City, the boys just LOVED it and swimming progress was made!
at Great Wolfe Lodge in KC, Missouri. The boys hang out with the iPad "reading" them a book, while Mommy and Daddy rest. Everyone is exhausted!
California
The Groskopf Grandparents got lucky and spent 4 long days with our 3 little boys as we enjoyed our time relaxing in California:) Joel had a few speaking engagements out there and we spent an extra day to enjoy ourselves. Highlights included - dinner with Ian and Crystal Penton, Dinner with David and Anansa Patterson at a Brazilian Steakhouse in LA (driving there was not a highlight), riding bikes along Venice beach, "The Grove," and In-N-Out Burger (Specifically their 'protein style' yes, there's a name for no bun/lettuce wrapped cheeseburgers out there. :)
Our lunch. My mouth is watering just looking at this again.
"The Grove" The highlight of this place was eating cupcakes at "Sprinkles Cupcakes" Mine was gluten free and sugar free because, well, its California and everyone eats like that there!
Taken on a pier very close to Santa Monica pier.
You can't leave California without a little Slackrope. It's like tightrope walking but more like 2-3 inches of width. Its incredibly difficult, I was very sore the next day, and this pic was taken very quickly in the mere 5 seconds of balance that I accomplished.
Sunset on Venice Beach. After this, we literally ran back to our car because 1. it was cold. and 2. we feared for our safety.
Because of the beautiful weather and agriculture the grounds in California are (no joke) littered with Strawberries and flower petals. I am not kidding. No, you won't find trash on the street, but you might find a lonely, juicy, luscious strawberry! (This actually happened and Joel had to physically restrain me from eating it) I wish I had a picture of that actual strawberry, but this one had to do. (it was taken the next day after stopping at a strawberry stand on the side of the road.
Luther's Birthday and Easter
We had a great weekend celebrating Easter and Luther's birthday which is April 19. He has turned into a very talkative and emotional little guy! He is a blast to be around, very funny, cute, and amazingly smart, but he can be EXTREMELY exhausting. "What's that sound?" "I NEED dat." "Don't DO DAT JU-DA" and my favorite.. "I WUFF YOU!" While leaning waay forward to hug you even if you are far away.
Luther gets excited pretty easily!
The 'Ease' of things now...
I thought I should comment on how much easier it is to parent these boys now. Since Judah has been around 3.5 years old, he stopped pooping in his diaper, and is now able to get himself up, take his PJ's off, put his clothes on and even put his shoes and socks on! Joel 3 can of course do the same thing (no pull up involved) and even matches his clothes! Joel can also get Luther out of bed, and Judah buckles himself into his carseat. Pretty soon, Joel 3 will buckle Luther into his carseat and I wont have to do anything!!! Well.. at least for a while. :)
Also - Luther is potty trained!! He took to it pretty easily. We did the same "naked below the waist" method and this time we only had about 1.5 days due to other activities. I was most shocked by how chill he is sitting on the 'big potty' The Big Potty scared my other two boys so much that it was like another whole phase of potty training to get them to go on it. We usually use a small baby bjorn potty for the first phase of potty training. Luther sits on the big potty like its no big deal and goes immediately. Sweet.
We finally splurged this Spring and bought all the equiptment needed to go biking as a family: Two adult sized bikes, a two kid trailer, and a larger bike for Joel (not pictured). Its fun, but Joel is still pretty slow. We are hoping he gets faster soon. The little boys LOVE the trailer though.
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Less chaos at home means Judah can finally go on special 'trips' with Daddy. This one was a trip to the movies to watch 'Frozen.' Judah did not move a muscle the entire time and ate this entire box of popcorn all by himself. You would have thought he died and went to heaven.
AND FINALLY.....
We are so pleased to announce that we will be expecting Penton baby #4, Lord willing, around Christmas!!! Thank the good Lord for this amazing little blessing. Although, Luther doesn't look too happy about it...
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