First day of school

Here are some pics of the kids first day of school.

Parker's first day of school

Parker started 3rd grade this year.

Luke's first day of school

Luke is in 1st grade this year.

Lily

Lily was so excited to start pre-school.

October

Well it has been a while since I last posted. Dylan is growing so fast. Will turned 3, and a week later Lily turned 5. Here are some pictures of the family.

The Palace of Versailles

Another side of Versailles

Marie Antoinette wanted to live a rural life, so the Louis XVI built a small village at the back of the property. My guess is that French villages of the time weren't this clean or peaceful.

Our Sweet Dylan

Dylan is now one week old and he is amazing.  The other kids still fight over who gets to hold him, and Will has a new cry, the I want Dylan cry.  He is sleeping well and eating well, which makes Kiersten very happy.  We all love him tons.    

Willbots

Princess Lily

Luke Pics

Parker Pics

Portraits for 5

Well, we decided to try to get pictures of Dylan today. Of course then we realized that we should probably do the same for the other 4 kids as well since it had been over two years by our best guess since we had set foot in a portrait studio.  So in a moment of temporary insanity we booked an appointment, bathed and dressed up the whole bunch, and ran off to Sears for a sitting. Two and a half hours later, with only a few bribes, we emerged with some really cute pictures. That turned out to be the easy part of our first trip out with all 5 kids.  Wal-Mart was an experience that Kiersten has vowed never to repeat. I had to carry a screaming Luke out to the car with Parker pushing a crying Will in the cart as Kiersten went through the checkout with a newborn in her arms and Lily whining for Daddy. The funniest part was that Luke tried to cover my eyes so that I couldn't see where I was going, which only ended up getting him in more trouble. Now that we have recovered from our excursion, we realized that some of you might like to see the results of our big day out.

Dylan

Welcome Baby Dylan

On Friday July 25th at 5:51 in the morning, Kiersten gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. He weighed 7 lbs 9 oz and was 21 inches long. After careful consideration we named him Dylan Clark Beauchene.

Thursday evening Kiersten began feeling lots of pressure around the baby and so we headed to the hospital as soon as I got home from work.  A few hours later the doctor admitted us to the hospital and we were able to get our favorite room, the same room where Luke, Lily and Will were all born.  At 4:45 the next morning, they broke her water and 4 minutes later the baby came out on the first push.

It is still hard to believe that we have 5 children. We are grateful for the help of our family and friends to keep up with everything while we welcome Dylan to our family.  Kiersten and the baby are home now, resting and recuperating.

As it turns out, we are extremely blessed to have little Dylan home safe and healthy, as we found out that there were two true knots in his umbilical cord.  That may sound familiar to some of you because Luke also had two true knots in his umbilical cord. We asked one of the nurses in the nursery if this was common and she told us that she only knew of 5 cases of any number of true or tight cord knots in 8 years of working at the hospital.

The other kids love Dylan and are anxious for chances to hold him and just to be near him.  Even Will wants to hold him whenever he can. They just need to learn to always be gentle and to be quiet around the baby.

We'll post soon with more pictures and updates on how mom and baby are doing.

Milan

To share some of the great sights I saw while in Europe, I am going to include some pictures in our blog. This one was taken from the roof of the Duomo in the heart of Milan, Italy. I have tried to avoid sights that require money, however this one was too good to pass up. It cost 5 Euro to climb the seemingly endless spiral staircase from street level to the roof, but the view and the experience are definitely worth it. The Galleria Vittorio Emmanuele is the main building in view, with the arched entrance and the glass roof. It is considered the worlds oldest shopping mall.
What was amazing to me about the Duomo, which is the second largest cathedral is Europe, is all of the statues at the top of spires. Considering that each had to be carved by hand I have a hard time imagining how many hours of work went into the building of this church. It shows the emphasis that people placed on glorifying God by building the churches.
Milan was my favorite city from this latest trip. Not too huge but clean and very affluent, with a few very cool sights to visit. If you go there just remember to register early for a time to see Davinci's Last Supper, as there is generally a two-week backlog.

Travels in Europe

A few months ago I was presented with an interesting opportunity. My employer was looking for a sales engineer to work on a new project to develop sales in Europe. I was selected in part because I speak French. So since then I have spent 20 days in various parts of Europe and now I can blog about my experiences.
Of course Paris is where I have spent the most time, 10 days in all. I walked most of the time while there and covered several miles each day. My French came back very quickly and I had little trouble communicating with everyone, from late-night chats with hotel desk attendants to business presentations.
I hope that I can share a few things here that will be of interest here in our blog. My favorite cities, sights and food are few of the things I hope to blog about now and as I continue to spend time across the pond.

Just getting started on the blog thing. I am sure it will take a while. Keep checking.
K